Hey everyone. This is the first chapter of the second part, or "season" of the story. I hope it's as good as the first season. Enjoy!

Ezna, hi! Long time no see! Technically, Ein isn't funding all the projects, he's merging them into one project and then funding it. And if that can't be done, blame it on his being a scientist and not a good administrator/executive, he said himself he's not good at being the boss.

Ring of fire, I take it you're an Altoshipping fan? Sorry, I'm going to try as hard as I can to make sure that doesn't happen in this story. I've already given Ash a girlfriend; I don't want to ruin that…I don't have the heart. Grovyle should appear next chapter.

Talon, I knew I forgot something. Should have mentioned last chapter that the Ghost King will restore the stolen souls to Mr. Slate and Mr. Maple. I should go back and change that now, huh? And there is no Pokemon version of Sonic. I thought putting in Dr. Robotnik would be better than making a fancharacter scientist. And I like Robotnik. And Team Rocket will not save the day, (they're Cipher now for one thing) because there are enough of those 'JJ turn good' stories out there already and although they have shown glimmers of promise in the past, I doubt any side switching would last very long. They like being evil too much.

Sir Pudding thanks for your criticism. The way I've planned things is that each of the evils I mentioned will influence the story in one way or another, but not all at once and only one will become the true cataclysm. As for Team Aqua and Magma, that's how I perceive them: as evil Pokemon worshipping cultists. It makes them more interesting. And I suppose your reasoning for the Unown works, but it wouldn't take hours for them to say that. What have I done involving Mario? And I didn't make up Namba or Sebastian; they're actual TR scientists on the show. I just was pointing out that Namba looks an awful lot like Wily. I only inserted Robotnik because I wanted a good robotics scientist to build the Tyranitron, and I've had that idea in my head for a while. And there will be no Space Pirates, Black Hole army, or Psynergy, that I can promise.

Alex Warlorn: I never said the thing beneath Alto Mare was one of the golems. I have plans for those guys; this is something completely different. Did I say the King would destroy himself? I think I already said he tried that and it didn't work… The Wily wannabe is Namba, confirms this. I always thought Team Snagem caught the wild Raikou and other legendaries. Though I have wondered what they would be doing in Orre. Didn't you think Kyogre was a she once? Eh, doesn't matter. TA and TM have the orbs, but they don't know where Groudon and Kyogre are yet. That will change. Molly's back home, but she'll be called back if the Unown need her again. The factions I was referring to are the ones tearing up Metaba.

Disclaimer: All Pokemon and lyrics in this story belong to their company, I only own the robot and meditation concept.

…

Latias had, admittedly, been somewhat apprehensive about joining Ash's group. Aside from the obvious confusion over her feelings for the boy, she had worried that they wouldn't like her, or see her as a possible threat to their relationship with their trainer and the dynamics of the group. She had been relieved and a little surprised by how friendly they all were. They were used to getting new team members or being switched around now and then from all their time of travelling, and as such simply saw her as just another new friend to hang around. She and Bayleef had resumed their previous friendship, and Phanphy was already thinking of her as 'Aunt' Latias, which made her feel more like one of the group. Still, there were a few problems to surmount now that she was with the team.

First of all, Ash didn't transition easily to being a lone human traveler. He was too used to going around in a group of friends. He felt uncomfortable talking a lot, because now he had trouble understanding what everyone else around him said back. Latias managed to remedy this by remembering she could communicate telepathically with her friends and started speaking to Ash mind-to-mind, translating what the other Pokemon said to him. She also occasionally transformed into Bianca to give him the semblance of another human face to look at. He still called his other friends every chance he got at a Pokemon Center, but he was no longer painfully lonely.

Second, there was Team Cipher. They were confused as to why the 'Twerp' was walking around with all his Pokemon out, and wondered where the Big Twerp, Annoying Twerp, and Replacement Girl Twerp had gone, but totally forgot about it when they saw the ultra-rare Latias and tried to capture her. Needless to say, they were blasted off, but they came back every day with some crazy gadget or giant robot. But, the only things really dangerous about them were their Shadow Pokemon, and even then the only truly nasty one was Cacnea. The intense anger that filled the Shadow Pokemon's bodies and made them stronger also decreased their brainpower, making them easier to outwit, meaning they just had to exert a little more effort than before to beat them. Didn't mean they didn't stop coming though. Latias was unsure as to why Wobbuffet, a fellow Chosen, continued to help Cipher, but decided he probably didn't have much of a choice.

Third was the problem of navigation. Max had taken his Pokenav with him when he flew off to the hospital, and all Ash could afford was a few maps. He had gotten the group so lost that they had wandered in circles for days until Charizard took the map from him and got the idea to fly overhead and see if he couldn't do a better job of navigating from the sky. To the dragon's surprise, he could. So now, to keep from getting lost (and to get to the Hoenn League faster) Latias and Charizard spent a few hours each day flying the members of their party across the countryside until they got tired and had to continue on foot. Even then, Ash was denied the map, and Pikachu ended up becoming the land navigator. Unsurprisingly, he did a much better job. They expected to reach the port town of Lilycove within a couple of weeks, and from there go to Mossdeep City, where Ash could get his seventh badge.

Fourth, Latias was still uncertain about her feelings for Ash. They hadn't changed at all since they had left the Unown's dimension. She had gotten some time with him, a chance to know him better…and yet she could still swear she didn't feel like he was any different from a friend. Maybe her deep longing for him had been nothing but a crush after all. She was unsure how to feel about that. She didn't really want to believe it. And yet she still had dreams of marrying a yellow-eyed stranger at night…

Fifth, Latias was uncertain about how good she would be in a fight. She still only knew how to perform a few attacks well, and even then she could sometimes fail to pull them off if she was especially nervous and frightened, as she sometimes came to be when faced with the psychotic Cacnea. The other Pokemon protected her when she was in danger, but she didn't want to be shielded all her life, she wanted to help out. At least she was actually getting plenty of training done even without Mewtwo thanks to Ash's help and Team Cipher's constant attacks, perhaps that would bolster her skills a little. She had already noticed that she could complete certain techniques with increasing frequency.

Sixth, and most important, was the problem of food. Ash could not cook. This became quite evident when he not only managed to burn, but set on fire a pot of water. He also didn't have much money, because Brock had accidentally taken most of the cash with him when he had left. Ash was able to get some extra cash by fighting other trainers, but with so many mouths to feed it was eaten up fast. (Pun intended) He had tried to borrow some from his mom, but she gave him a long hard lecture about being responsible and taking care of himself. She probably wouldn't have been so stern if he hadn't asked for such a large sum, though…they could get free meals in Pokemon Centers, but the problem of meals on the road became more evident as time took its toll. It was made worse because thanks to the Unown's seemingly good intentions, none of them could conserve energy inside a Pokeball and thus needed to eat regularly. While berries were plentiful and easy to find, they weren't particularly filling. Finally, Charizard had gotten fed up and went out hunting. He came back a few hours later with an Altaria between its jaws, the clouds around its wings gone, its neck broken. Ash had been shocked and angry that Charizard had killed an innocent Pokemon, but the fire dragon had replied that desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was one of them. They all needed to eat, and hunting wild Pokemon for food was no different than what he had done for food back in Charicific Valley, he was just following his instincts. Ash still protested that it wasn't right: that all Pokemon were somebody's baby, until Charizard asked him what the heck he thought Pokemon and people food was made of anyway.

Ash had been shocked at this. He had never before considered that the food he ate was actually made from dead Pokemon. For a trainer like himself, who strived to love and care for his and all Pokemon, it was like he had just learned that everything he ate was in fact human flesh. Out of all the others, only Pikachu, who was closest to Ash, and Latias, who had gone through a similar stage at one point in her early childhood with Vincentio, understood his reaction. Humans and Pokemon had different values. For a Pokemon, eating another Pokemon was nothing to feel shocked or guilty about, it was necessity. As long as the thing you eat isn't a friend of yours, it's all right. But for humans, it was more complicated. Ash had always thought of all Pokemon as his friends. It was hard for him to reconcile this fact, that he had in fact always been eating potential friends, with his deepest morals and beliefs. Also, while he had always known Pokemon morals were different from those of humans, like a lot of people he had assumed that they were "higher" than those of petty humankind. It was a big shock to learn that this wasn't the case. It was kind of an eye-opener. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable now whenever he saw food he had once craved, like cheeseburgers or steak, now that he knew what they were actually made of. He felt guilty eating anything made of meat. Bayleef, who could absorb sunlight through photosynthesis and thus didn't have to eat meat quite so much as carnivores like Charizard or Corphish did, took pity on Ash and showed him numerous plants and herbs he could eat instead, so he could feel free of guilt. Phanphy, who was mostly a vegetable eater anyway, imitated Ash in this, thus they became vegetarians.

In any case, all of this was in the past, and the party of seven was now travelling across a desolate, desert wasteland. The sun rose high above them, mercilessly bombarding them with burning light and heat. Ash, in the lead, was stumbling about, panting and dehydrating, developing serious burns on his arms and neck. Bayleef, who could only take so much sunlight, was wilting, her leaf drooping as she slowly moved along with the group. Corphish, who should never be exposed to heat such as this, was starting to go delirious as his exoskeleton steamed, parts of him turning as red as the rest of his shell. Phanphy hung close to his father's side, trying to find what little shade he could in this desolate heat. Pikachu hung limply on Ash's shoulder, his nose damp with sweat. Latias was a little more accustomed to this heat due to her time in the desert, but she knew it wasn't safe to stay out in the sun so long, and they should find some shade. Unfortunately, the place they were in was like a vast shimmering plain of heat, and the nearest source of shade was a huge bluff still some miles off, unless of course it was another mirage like the ice cream stand they had passed. Too bad there wasn't a nice safe cleft with fruits and a flowing stream running through it to cool off in. She wiped some sweat from her forehead, wishing she and Charizard weren't too tired from their previous flight to carry the others across this graveyard. She had no idea her back could hurt so much from carrying people for prolonged periods of time. They would have seen the desert coming and moved to avoid it if that giant flock of migrating Pelipper hadn't flown in their path, forcing them to change course.

And Charizard was whistling happily, not noticing the heat at all. He glanced back at his teammates and frowned. "Aw, come on, you wimps, don't tell me you're all feeling the heat that much! This is nothing compared to the lava streams back in Charicific Valley, and I took BATHS in those!" he exaggerated. They all glared at him hatefully, enviously desiring his Fire-type resistance to the heat and wishing they could muster the strength to strangle him to death without getting incinerated. "Look, if you're all feeling this bad, we'll just take a break at that bluff up ahead, okay?"

"Assuming we get there," panted Pikachu. That's when he felt his mount shifting unstably beneath him. "Ash? Ash, is something wrong?"

"Unnnhh…" Ash collapsed on the ground, exhausted from the heat and lack of water.

Bayleef blinked. "That can't be good."

Latias shook her head in agreement. "Definitely not."

"Daddy! Daddy, get up!" cried Phanphy, tugging on Ash's wrist.

Pikachu lifted the brim of Ash's hat to see his friend's face. "He's out cold! The heat could kill him!"

Charizard paled. "Aw crap. Corphish, quick, water!"

Corphish giggled madly, his eyes rolling in his head. "Hee hee…water! Water everywhere!" he cried, hallucinating, moving his limbs as if he were swimming.

Charizard sweatdropped. "Stupid lobster, the sun's fried his brain. We gotta cool Ash off!" Not even waiting for an alternate suggestion, he took one look at the bluff and lifted Ash off the ground, then started running for the big rock. The others followed, enduring the dust cloud the giant beast left in his haste through the dirt and sand.

They all reached the bluff even hotter and more tired than before, except for Charizard, once more due to his annoying resistance to heat plus his more early arrival. Phanphy and Pikachu nearly fainted in relief when they entered the cool, welcoming shadow extending from the bluff. Charizard placed Ash down on a big flat rock as the others caught up. "There you go, Ash. You'll be okay now, won't you?"

"I don't know," said Latias, landing hard in the sand as she stopped hovering. She recalled everything Mewtwo had told her about surviving in the desert. "He looks pretty dehydrated. His lips are cracked and everything. He needs water."

They all looked at Corphish, who was running sideways into a rock repeatedly. "I don't think we're going to get any anytime soon," muttered Bayleef. "Do you think hitting him would snap him out of it?" Her question went unanswered.

"Charizard, you can stand the heat better than the rest of us. Do you think you can fly around and find an oasis or spring?" Pikachu asked Charizard.

The dragon flapped his wings, flinching slightly. "They're still pretty sore from all the distance we flew this morning…but for Ash, I'll do it." He climbed up onto a tall rock and started flapping his wings hard, ignoring the tired signals his cramped muscles were sending him. They all sighed as gusts of wind from his flaps blew over them. "I'll be back as soon as I find a place!" Charizard called, flying off into the burning sun.

They all sat down to wait in the cool shade for Charizard to return. Time passed, as the sun moved gradually across the sky and the shadow of the bluff lengthened. Charizard was still gone.

"Where is he?" asked Bayleef in concern. Ash was still lying on the rock. He hadn't budged one bit and was starting to breathe shallowly. "I don't think Ash can last much longer without water."

Latias glanced at Corphish, who had calmed down somewhat a little while ago when Bayleef got tired of his antics and threw a rock that connected with his head, though he did wonder where his ocean had gone. "Do you think you can help out?"

Corphish pointed a claw at Ash and opened it. A bit of vapor hissed out, but no water. "Sorry," he said unhappily. "The sun evaporated all my reserves. I'll need to refill them before I can use any Water attacks."

Phanphy looked panicked. "But daddy might not be able to take any by the time that happens! Where's Brother Charizard?"

Pikachu put a hand on Phanphy's back. "Hey, don't worry, Charizard will be fine. Maybe he just got attacked by some Skarmory, they're all over this place," he said, pointing to some who looked hungrily down at them from the top of the bluff.

That did little to reassure the elephant. "But if he gets lost, he might not get back in time! Daddy needs water!"

They all looked at Ash, and knew Phanphy was right. He probably wouldn't be able to survive much longer without liquid. "Um…" said Latias, getting their attention. "I might have an idea."

"What?" asked Bayleef, concern and suspense in her voice.

"Well…" she started, fidgeting with her claws. "One time when Mewtwo took me out in the desert to train, and I was getting really thirsty, he sat down and meditated for a few seconds. Then he got up, opened his eyes, and a waterspout erupted from the ground. He told me that meditating can do many things for a Psychic Pokemon other than clearing their minds, raising their attack power, or gaining new abilities. It can allow them to get in closer touch with nature, to sense water underground and bring it up to the surface, among other things."

Pikachu looked pensive. "And you're saying you can do that?" The others were darkly wondering why the hell she hadn't mentioned this before.

"Well…he showed me the technique. I wasn't actually able to make any water burst out of the ground, but…I think I could sense it. It's been a while since I've last tried, but…I was thinking maybe if I meditated I could find a water source and you guys could dig it up?"

Latias' doubtful tone didn't make them feel very confident. And yet… "We have to try," said Phanphy. "If Brother Charizard doesn't come back, it may be our only chance to save Daddy."

"The kid's right. Can you do it, Latias?" asked Corphish.

She nodded nervously. "I'll try. That much I can promise." She was more than a little scared, to be honest. Not just because she feared that she wouldn't be able to, but because the last time she had meditated (a few days ago) she thought she had heard the Ghost King calling her name. Still, if she did nothing, Ash could die. That was the most important thing now.

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the nearest rock, folding her arms across her chest. She leaned her head forward slightly and started humming softly as she thought of water. After a few moments, her consciousness slipped from her body and into the ground, where it started to quest for underground reservoirs of water.

The others looked at her for a moment. To the casual observer, she might be sleeping, but for the humming. "What do we do now?" asked Bayleef.

"Now we wait," said Pikachu. He glanced over at Ash and sighed. "And hope that Charizard or Latias find some water soon."

…

Meanwhile, Team Cipher was limping weakly across the desert, hot as always on the twerp's trail, pardon the bad pun. They had taken off their helmets and scarves because they were too warm, and were coming dangerously close to removing their clothing in an attempt to escape the heat.

"Jessie, I'm hot," whined James, too exhausted to form an exclamation mark.

"Be…quiet…" wheezed Jessie, feebly swinging a paper fan at him. It missed, but blew a tiny breeze at James, causing him to sigh in relief for the brief second of coolness. Jessie panted and waved the fan at herself. "Ohhh…Wobbuffet, fan us harder!"

"Yes Miss Jessie." Wobbuffet, who was now permanently out of his Pokeball like the rest of the Chosen, gritted his teeth and swung his big bamboo fan at Jessie harder, cooling off the Ciphers. "Why can't you do this, Meowth?" Wobbuffet asked.

Meowth, who was lying on James' head, sighed. "Because you lost the coin toss." He snickered, knowing that the coin he had used was in fact two-faced, the rascal. "Besides I'm management, I don't do physical labor."

Wobbuffet was starting to get a sunburn as sweat rolled down his slick blue body. "Right…whatever you say, Meowth." If only he could use attacks…

He frowned at himself for having such rebellious thoughts. Spending so much time out in the open wasn't good for him. Miss Jessie was getting more and more vexed at him than usual lately. Maybe it was in part because he was the only Pokemon on her belt who still could think clearly, while her cuddly beloved Seviper and Dustox had lost most of their rational thinking to the Shadow Pokemon process, causing them to sometimes snap at her for no reason. She often glared at Wobbuffet with looks interchanging between Why am I stuck with you? Or Why aren't you like them too?

Look on the bright side, he told himself. At least I'm not James.

Wobbuffet glanced at the blue-haired man, who didn't either notice or care that Cacnea, whom Jessie had made him let out to get some fresh desert air in an attempt to improve her attitude, was sharpening a large axe with James' name on it on a rock she had picked up. It was clear that Cacnea deeply resented James for sending her off to become a Shadow Pokemon, and due to the glitch that left her in the permanent super-angry Hyper Mode she still had enough of her brain left to hate him for it. She continued to beat him up every time she was let out, which led to James getting a near-constant paranoia around her. James would rather not let her out at all, but the only other Pokemon he had was Chimecho, who was too stupid to be helpful in a fight. He was enough of a loser as it was, he didn't need the fact that he could barely control his only capable fighting Pokemon to be widely known to his enemies (even though it was obvious enough to them anyway).

Meowth suddenly stood up on top of James' head and pointed into the shadow of a nearby bluff. "Hey, look over there!"

The team looked. They saw Ash lying on a rock, Latias leaning on a rock with her eyes closed, and Pikachu, Phanphy, Corphish, and Bayleef all lying about with their eyes fixated on Ash. "It's the twerp!" said Jessie, the possibility of another attempt to capture his rare Pokemon re-energizing her.

"And look Jessie, all his Pokemon look tired and his mean Charizard is nowhere in sight! With Pikachu, the twerp and the others exhausted from this heat and that rare Latias sleeping, they can't stop us from stealing them all!" said James.

"That Latias ain't sleeping, ya moron, she's meditating!" said Meowth. He had seen more than enough insecure movie stars, hobos and junkies doing it back when he lived in Hollywood.

"Meditating?" asked Jessie.

James pulled out a Team Cipher field guide and flipped to a section on meditation. "Yes, according to this, Psychic Pokemon can meditate to do all sorts of stuff, like increase their power, or learn new techniques, or find water or gold that's buried in the ground!"

Jessie gasped, getting a brilliant idea. "Wobbuffet, you're Psychic aren't you?"

"Um, yeah…" the blob said.

"Meditate and find us some water, followed by a heap of gold!" she commanded with stars in her eyes.

"But I don't know how!" Wobbuffet protested.

"He says he don't know how," said Meowth.

Jessie growled and whipped out her paper fan. "You meditate and find us some water right now or I'll smash your head in!!!!!"

"Y-yes Miss Jessie!" said Wobbuffet, terrified. He put down the fan, crossed his arms over his chest, and started humming as he tried to make his consciousness escape from the close proximity of his wrathful trainer.

James tapped Jessie on the shoulder. "Hang on, Jess…according to the handbook, only experienced Psychics can find things when meditating," he said, showing her a paragraph of the book.

"Oh," she said in disappointment. She sighed. "Okay Wobbuffet, you can stop now." Wobbuffet kept humming. "I said you could stop it!" Still humming. "I SAID STOP!" She kicked him. The blob fell over…and still kept humming.

James tapped Jessie on the shoulder again. "It's no good, Jess. According to the book, when Pokemon meditate they enter a deep trance in which they are totally unaffected by outside stimulus and can only wake up on their own volition."

Jessie looked impressed. "James, I didn't know you learned so many new words!"

"I didn't, I was just reading from the book," he said, pointing to a page. "What does stimulus or volition mean?" Meowth and Jessie facefaulted.

Meowth suddenly sprang up. "Hey, I've got an idea! If Pokemon are in a trance where they don't notice anything when they're meditating, then that means if we attack them now when they're tired that Latias can't fly away! And since Charizard's gone, he can't burn us to death with that super-hot flame of his! We can finally get Pikachu and Latias! I can see it now!" he said, with stars in his eyes as he started narrating another one of his absurd 'grateful boss' fantasies/hallucinations. "The boss'll be wandering in the desert, looking for a site for a new Team Cipher base, and he'll get hot and dehydrated. The sun will beat down on him, making him sweat and ruin that nice fancy business lab coat of his. 'Boy, it sure is hot out here!' he says. And then, all of a sudden, he sees Latias, meditating nearby! Water will burst out of the ground in front of him, saving him from death by thirst, and then he'll be all happy! And then he'll say, 'For sending me this fine water-seeking Latias Meowth and his friends will receive a reward!' And that means…"

"Promotions! Expense accounts! The keys to the executive washroom!" the trio chorused happily.

"Exactly! So what are we going to do?" asked Meowth.

"Catch that Pikachu! And Latias, too!" said Jessie, pulling out a Pokeball and fitting it into her arm-mounted Snag Device.

"Wait Jessie, that won't work!" said James.

"Why not?"

"Our Pokeballs are broken, remember? Whenever we throw them at Pikachu, Latias, or any of the twerp's Pokemon, they bounce off!" That was the only explanation they could come up with for the Pokemon's Unown-gifted immunity to Pokeballs. They had yet to find a reason for Wobbuffet's immunity though, and the blue blob doubted they'd believe or be happy with him if he told them how he and the 'twerp's' Pokemon had been chosen by a group of extradimensional beings to save the world and were given immunity to all Pokeballs for that purpose.

"Of course I remembered!" lied Jessie, smacking James on the head with her useless Pokeball. "So if we can't use our Pokeballs, how will we catch them? Nets? A pitfall?"

Meowth got a wicked gleam in his eye. "I have a better idea. Ring up good ol' Doctor R, I've had an eye on one of his latest robots for a while now…"

…

The quartet of hot and somewhat tired Pokemon watched Latias anxiously, waiting for some sign of awareness, which would signal the end of her trance. There was none. Hungry Skarmory were circling overhead. "Get lost! We're not going to die!" Pikachu snapped at them.

"It's only a matter of time!" one of the steel vultures calmly called back.

"How much longer is she going to take?" Phanphy asked nervously.

"I don't know. It can't be that much longer," said Bayleef without conviction.

None of them wanted to voice what they feared most, that there was no water anywhere nearby. They hadn't seen any sign of plant or Pokemon life all the time they had been on this plain other than circling Skarmory looking for the corpses of those foolish enough to cross the barren waste. That's when the ground shook slightly. "What was that?" asked Pikachu.

"It's the water! She's making it come to the surface!" said Corphish eagerly.

Then the ground shook again. And again, a little stronger. Bayleef frowned. "I don't know…doesn't sound like water."

That's when the ground nearby exploded as a huge figure erupted from beneath the surface, throwing up a huge dust cloud. At first Pikachu thought it was a giant Steelix, but the familiar (and by now very, very annoying) laughter echoing from the cloud dashed that hope right away. "Oh Mew, not them!" he cried angrily. "Not now!"

The dust cleared, revealing a humongous purple robot Loudred, with giant amplifiers for ears and speakers lining the mecha's gaping mouth. The machine's fake esophagus opened like a hatch and a long tongue extended, with Jessie, James, Meowth, Chimecho, and a meditating Wobbuffet on it.

"Prepare for trouble! Listen to the sound of victory!"

"And make it double! Expect no mercy!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Scyther-I mean CIPHER! CIPHER! (Darn, now the twerp's making me do it too!) encrypting important communiqué at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight fight fight!"

"Meowth, that's right!"

"Chimecho!"

"Hmmmm…" hummed Wobbuffet.

"What's wrong with Wobbuffet?" asked Corphish.

"It looks like he's meditating too," said Bayleef.

Jessie laughed. "Now twerp, prepare to face our-" She stopped, seeing Ash was still lying down on his rock. "Hey, how come that didn't wake him up?"

"He can't wake up because he's sick from dehydration! If he doesn't get some water soon, he could die, and he really doesn't need you jerks bothering us now!" said Pikachu angrily.

"What did he say?" asked James.

"He said the twerp's got dehydration sickness and he could die if he doesn't get water soon," reported Meowth.

"Why that's terrible!" said Jessie with mock caring. "We'll have to give the poor thing some water…after we steal Pikachu and Latias, that is!"

"Not if I can help it!" said Pikachu, powering up his electric sacs…and stopped as black dots swirled in his vision and he got very dizzy. "Ohhhh…" He stumbled back.

"Uncle Brother Pikachu, what's wrong?" cried Phanphy in concern.

"Heh, looks like the twerp's not the only one to get dehydrated," said Meowth, sipping from a cup of cool, refreshing soda from a subspace pocket. "Don't worry Pikachu, you'll get lots of water…in the Shadow Pokemon labs back at Team Cipher HQ! Okay you two, activate the Loudrematic's Ultra Symphonic Amplification System!"

Bayleef cocked her head. "L.U.S.A.S.?"

"Roger!" The humans grabbed Wobbuffet and ran back inside the robot. After a few seconds, a microphone rose from the surface of the tongue, stopping at the height of Meowth's mouth followed by a guitar scaled down to his size. The speakers and amplifiers whined, causing everyone to wince as they powered up. Meowth cleared his throat, pulled the microphone closer to him, and, to everyone's horror, began to sing.

"A NEW MOON SPECIAL TICKET WITH SILVER AND GOLD CRAYOOOONS…" the cat began.

His song was amplified by the numerous devices forming the Loudrematic, causing it to boom across the wasteland in every direction for miles and miles, and having a much more dire effect on the poor souls in front of them. They screamed and clutched their ears, trying to block out the horrible music. Meowth, like most cats, had an awful singing voice, but when combined with a speaker big enough, it was a weapon virtually without equal.

"IF I WRITE 'MEOWTH'S PARTY' RIDING IN AN AIR BALLOON I'LL GIVE THEM FREELY! IF THE GOLDEN SUNSET PLEASES ME, THAT'S THE SIGNAL FOR THE PARTY TO BEGIN!" Phanphy rammed his head into a rock repeatedly, trying to knock himself out.

"A CARPET OF GOLD COINS PACKS THE CEREMONY, THE NIGHT'S SKY PARTY BEGINS! WILL SOMEONE COME? WILL ANYONE COME? THOUGH THE CITY IS EXCITING IT WILL WAAAAIIIIT!" Bayleef screamed and tried to block out the noise by holding her vines over her eardrums, but to no avail, the awful sound continued reverberating inside her head.

"M-M-MEOWTH WAS GIVEN AN INVITATION! EVEN THE COFFEE CUP IS FLOATING! M-M-MEOWTH IS SO HAPPYYYYY! PLAYING HORSESHOES WITH SATURN!" Corphish stumbled a bit, his already somewhat addled wits driven out of whack by the music.

"M-M-MEOWTH FOUND SOMETHING! IT'S A CONSTELLATION OF ICE CREAM! IT'S SO DELICIOUS!" Pikachu screamed and, despite his dehydrated condition, released random thunderbolts, unable to control his powers any longer due to the sonic weapon. The electricity was absorbed by the Loudrematic and, if possible, the song became even louder.

"AURORA'S CURTAIN IS FLICKERING AND A BRIGHT PARTY IS BEGINNING, EASY SNAP! LIGHT FLASH! THERE IS A RADIANCE IN YOUR BROAD SMIIILLLEEE," Meowth hit a terrible jangling note on his guitar. "M-M-MEOWTH WAS GIVEN AN INVITATION! SUBTENANCY IN THE GUITAR, THE SKY LEAPS! M-M-MEOWTH IS SO HAPPY! With this climax, fireworks launched from the back of the robot and exploded in the air, knocking out of the sky any Skarmory who hadn't already smashed into the ground for the horrible singing. The four Pokemon were close to deaf from the attack and were now wandering around in a daze.

"Yes, we did it!" cried James happily.

"Now let's catch em' all!" said Jessie, starting to move the Loudrematic's arms down to pick up Pikachu and Latias.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure leaped off the top of the bluff and dove down onto the robot's tongue, knocking Meowth off with a Double Slap! "Gaaahhhh!" he wailed as he plunged towards the ground.

"No…it can't be!" James said in horror, staring at the figure on the tongue.

"It-it is…it's…"

"JIGGLYPUFF!" cried the pink puffball, pulling a pair of heavy-duty earmuffs off her kitty ears.

"Where did it get those earmuffs?" James wondered stupidly.

"That's not important, look, it's going to sing!" cried Jessie. And so she was. Jigglypuff had pulled down the Loudrematic's microphone and was about to blow her pipes. "Quick, shut off the Ultra Symphonic Amplification System!"

"Right!" James said, pushing a button, shutting off the robot's amplifiers and keeping it from broadcasting Jigglypuff's sleep song across the entire plain.

Unfortunately, Chimecho leaped at the control panel and happily pushed a completely different button. "Chimecho!" he said happily.

The melodious sound of Jigglypuff's voice became audible in the cockpit. "No, you…idiot…" Jessie said, yawning as the song started taking effect. "You…turned off…the cockpit's…sound proofing…zzzzzzz…"

"Bad…Chimecho…" said James, falling asleep.

"Chiiiiiiii…"Chimecho went out like a light.

Outside, Jigglypuff's soothing tunes filtered in through the dazed Pokemon's shattered eardrums, calming their addled minds and sending them drifting off gently to sleep. Only Latias and Ash were unaffected, due to meditation and dehydration. A few minutes later, Jigglypuff was the only one awake, and not happy about it. "They…fell asleep…AGAIN!" she screamed, going berserk. Hopping off the robot's tongue, she whipped out her marker and tried to stab the heroes to death. When that failed, she settled for scribbling all over their faces and writing rude words on them again and again. When that was settled, she angrily looked back up at what she had mistaken for some kind of stage and suddenly realized that it was in fact a giant robot. Jigglypuff got an idea. A terrible idea. An awful, wonderful, terrible idea.

…

"Huh?" The mental representation of Latias' self was flustered. "What am I doing here? I'm supposed to be looking for water!" She had somehow found herself back in the heart of her subconscious, close to the light which had transported her inside the Ghost King's mind the last time she had come here.

"You came because you wanted to," a familiar voice whispered. A strange and equally familiar sensation came over her as a pair of yellow eyes appeared in the light.

Latias immediately felt a rush of joy and longing…which she immediately suppressed with fear and loathing. "YOU!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"

The King looked a little hurt. "I just wanted to talk…" he said.

"I don't care! Get out of here! Stay out of my mind! Leave me alone!" she cried.

"…All right. If that's what you want. I guess I can't tell you that Ash is safe then," he said, starting to turn back into the light.

"Wait!" she said, startled. "What was that?"

The King looked back. "Your friend, Ash. He's safe from me now. My oath to kill him has been dissipated."

She blinked. "It…it has? How? I thought you couldn't break a promise. Mewtwo told me so."

"Yes," said the King, with a smug tone in his voice. "But that doesn't mean I can't find a way to wiggle out of it. I have found a way to leave Ash Ketchum alone. You can tell him this, if you wish."

This was too good to be true. Very much so. "How did you figure it out? How to get out of your promise, that is."

"Simple," he said. "You don't love him anymore."

She frowned, unhappy that he presumed so much. "And why do you say that?"

"Well," he asked, looking at her innocently. "Do you love him?"

She started to answer, than paused. Did she love Ash anymore? "…I'm not sure," she said.

The King shrugged. "And for now, that's good enough for me." He paused, then smiled. "Do you still hate me, Latias?"

"Of course I do," she said automatically. "You destroyed my home, my family, my life. How can I not hate you?" So why did a part of her want to say she didn't hate him?

The King did not look bothered or disappointed. "I'm sure you do. But perhaps, in time, that will change. I am working on something very special, my dear one. Something I think you will appreciate quite a bit, and perhaps make you think about changing your mind about me."

"That's impossible. I'll never love you," she said, hiding a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

The King chuckled. "Throughout history, those words have been said by many people to others who they hated…and many times, those words were proved false in the end. Perhaps that shall prove to be true for us as well."

She frowned. "You seem different than you were before. More…confident. Not so gloomy and miserable." A tiny part of her almost thought it attractive.

The King smiled. "Maybe I got tired of wallowing in misery. Or maybe I just got a taste of hope."

"It's false hope," she said quickly.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. But even if it is false, that raises the question of which is better: false hope, or no hope at all? Either way, false or real, for the moment I have hope, and that's good enough for now." He smirked and started to vanish into the light.

"Wait!" called Latias. "How did you get in here, anyway?"

"Haven't you figured it out? This light represents the power that binds us. The light which makes our two hearts beat as one. Just as you came to my mind, so I can come to yours, the link works both ways. Deny that you love me all you wish, the connection between us will always say otherwise."

"I don't want you in here again," she said, trying to ignore his comments.

"Don't worry, I won't come back," said the King. "I just wanted to talk to you again. To assure you that no harm will come to you or your friends from my demesnes. That is a promise…and you know how I am about promises." He smirked. "Until next time…" he faded into the light.

Feeling somewhat unnerved, Latias decided to get out of there as quickly as possible, snapping out of her trance and awakening to find five sleeping Pokemon, one meditating Pokemon, and three sleeping humans, all of whom had violent graffiti scribbled all over them. She blinked, noticing Team Cipher was lying nearby, fast asleep like all her friends. "What the heck happened while I was meditating?" she wondered.

She heard a flapping of wings and looked up to see Charizard coming for a landing, holding a canteen. "Hey guys, I'm back and-" He stopped, seeing how most of the group was asleep with marker written all over them. "Aw no, don't tell me Jigglypuff showed up…"

"Jigglypuff?" asked Latias in confusion.

"Yeah, you remember, one of the other Chosen was a Jigglypuff. She's kind of our second stalker…keeps trying to get people to listen to her singing, but they always fall asleep, and she really doesn't like that so she scribbles all over them. Looks like you got tagged too," explained the dragon.

Latias blinked and looked down at herself. To her horror, her body was covered in violent drawings, scribbles, and profanity. "But I didn't even know she was here! I was meditating the whole time!"

Charizard shrugged. "You think she can tell the difference? She's not very bright." Latias groaned and tried to rub the marker off. "Hey, you don't need to bother with that, I found a Pokemon Center a few miles away where they've got nice showers and baths…for anyone that actually can take a bath without dying that is," he said, glancing at his tail flame.

"If it's only a few miles away, why'd it take you so long to get back here?" she asked.

"The Nurse Joy there was very insistent. She demanded to give me a full check-up before I left. She's one of the best of the bunch, I think. She even gave me this sweet ointment which makes my wings feel great!" He paused. "Guess I'll be needing more of it, though. I'm gonna have to carry some of these guys back to the Center, my wings'll be stiff again after this."

"Can't we just wake them up and walk there?" asked Latias.

He shook his head. "No, Ash has been out here long enough without water, we can't afford to risk his life for another minute, we've got to get him to the center as quickly as possible. Besides, Jigglypuff's song is kinda magical, nobody who's heard of it can wake up from outside stimulus. They'll do it on their own eventually though." He walked over to Ash propped him up, and poured the water from the canteen down his throat. The dehydrated boy stirred for a moment, but it was clear he required far more water than this. "Do you think you can carry Bayleef?"

Latias looked at her sleeping friend, then at her scrawny claws. She shook her head. "No, I don't think I can, she's too heavy."

Charizard sighed. "Fine, I'll do it, you take Ash and Pikachu, and the kid, I'll take the rest." After securing their separate loads, they took off for the Center. Their flying muscles would be pretty sore in the morning. Hopefully Nurse Joy would have enough of that ointment for both of them.

…

One by one, the members of Team Cipher yawned and woke up to find Skarmory were pecking at them. "Hey, get offa me you stupid birds, we ain't dead!" Meowth yelled, swatting them away.

"Curses! Oh well, it's only a matter of time…" said one of the vultures at they flew away.

"Aw, that was a good rest…" said James, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked around and suddenly leaped to his feet, eyes bulging out of their sockets. "Where's the twerp?!" Ash and all the Pokemon were gone.

"Forget about them, where's the Loudrematic?!" screamed Jessie. For indeed, the giant robot had disappeared as well.

Meowth angrily kicked a rock. "That puffball must have taken it. Darn! There goes the last of our bank account. And she scribbled all over us too!"

"It did?" Jessie pulled out a mirror and saw, to her horror, that Jigglypuff had written all over her cough beautiful face. "AAAHHHH! THAT BITCH IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!" she screamed, dropping the mirror and breaking it, sentencing the Ciphers to seven more years of bad luck.

"Chiiiiii!" said Chimecho happily, not caring his body was covered in graffiti.

It was at that point that Wobbuffet awakened from his trance, not noticing that he had been scribbled on too. "Wow, that felt great! I should try meditating more often!"

"Hey Wobbuffet's up!" said Meowth.

They all crowded around him. "Well? Did you find any gold or water?" asked Jessie.

He sweatdropped. "Uh, no…but I did learn Destiny Bond!"

"He says he learned Destiny Bond," said Meowth.

James pulled out his handbook. "According to this, Destiny Bond is a technique that links two Pokemon together through pain. Whatever one experiences, so does the other. If one Pokemon gets knocked out, the same thing happens to the other one."

"That's wonderful!" said Jessie. "Great job Wobbuffet!" The blue blob basked in her praise, happy he had finally done something she admired for a change. "Now all we have to do is have you cast Destiny Bond on Pikachu or Latias and then have our Pokemon knock you out before they can attack us! It's brilliant!"

Wobbuffet sagged. Me and my big mouth.

And that's when the Skarmory came back en masse as retaliation for Meowth's horrible singing. The quintet (including Chimecho) screamed and ran off, chased by the angry vultures. "LOOKS LIKE TEAM CIPHER'S RUNNING OFF AGAAAAIIIN!"

…

The Balloon Pokemon rubbed her hand nubs together evilly as she sat in the cockpit of the Loudrematic. Beneath her was a quiet, peaceful village, blissfully unaware of the two-sided bliss that was about to be visited upon it. The pink puff cackled with glee. Who needed a marker/microphone when you had a walking boom box the size of the moon? Soon, all those who had scorned and mocked her singing by falling asleep would finally appreciate the voice of Jigglypuff!

…

Heh heh. Hope that clears up any questions about Jigglypuff and Latias' relationship with Ash. How was it?