Hey, new chapter only took a week. I may still have a schedule yet... But I'm not saying I do until I have more weeks in a row to go with it. And enjoy this one as much as you can.

"You idiots!" the man shrouded in darkness slammed his fist against his desk, causing his lackeys to recoil from the other side of the screen. "Even with their help, you couldn't steal one Pokémon?"

"Well, you see…" the woman with long red hair tried to explain.

"Dat twerpette was just too tough!" the small Pokémon cried, throwing himself on the mercies on the man on the screen.

"Just give us one more chance, Boss," the blue-haired man begged. "We'll get it this time!"

The man turned around in his chair. "You have one more chance," he sighed. "But this time, I want you to report to me directly."

"D-D-Directly?!" the trio swallowed.

"Of course," he turned his chair to face them again, "so that I may give you your reward…" He picked up his coffee mug and held it up to the camera, as if offering it. "…or your punishment," he shouted, tossing the cup at the camera. The shattering frightened the trio and caused them to jump backwards. "Am I clear?"

"Crystal," the blue haired man swallowed.

"Good," the man said. "Now, get on your way, and I'm sick of waiting. I want Pikachu, and this time, don't screw it up!." The monitor flicked off, and the trio let out a sigh of relief.

"Do we even know where Pikachu is?" the man asked, poking his head out of the basket of the balloon.

"It can't be dat hard ta find," the Pokémon climbed over his head, looking.

The woman pulled a pair of binoculars out and gazed over the wide ocean. A grin cracked on her face.

"Get ready, boys," she cackled. "I think our 'ship' has come in."

Ash awoke in his dark room to his own growling stomach. "Aw, man…" he whined. "That sandwich wasn't enough to feed me at all."

"Would you like some breakfast?" Anabel popped her head in the door, smiling.

Ash blinked for a moment, surprised. "I-uh, guess. Shouldn't you be treatin' me more like a prisoner and less like I'm a guest?"

"But you are a guest, Ash!" Anabel continued to smile. "We're bringing you to that Frontier Brain. He's a really great guy, I know you'll like him."

Ash raised his eyebrow. "Where did that praise come from?" he asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just having a really good day!" Anabel giggled. "Let me go get your breakfast. I'll be right back!" With that, she skipped down the hall, whistling to herself.

Ash waited for a moment, and then quietly creeped to the door. He tried the knob, and found it open. He cracked it open and peeked out the door. There's no one around, he thought. I could try to make an escape. But what about Charizard? I can't escape without him… Ash sighed. Then, he snapped his fingers, smiling. "I know! I'll just get Anabel to show me where Charizard's bein' kept. Then I'll be able to get out of here."

He sat back on his bed and noticed something pink next to him. He smiled as he picked the ribbon he and May won back up. He held it up to the light so he was able to see his reflection in it. His smile then turned into a frown. "I hope she's alright. I haven't seen her since I sent her after Pikachu… I hope she got him back from Team Rocket…"

"Breakfast is here!" Anabel practically sang as she opened the door. "I hope you like biscuits and gravy!"

"That'll be fine, thanks," Ash smiled before returning to his reflection on the halved medal.

Anabel sat next to him. "What's that?" she asked.

"Oh, this is half of a ribbon that May and I won in a Contest Battle back in Kanto," he said.

Anabel looked as though a knife had been stuck in her.

Ash blinked, then continued. "Anyway, I was just lookin' at it, hopin' that she and Pikachu were okay, since I haven't seen 'em since I was captured." He then folded his arms. "And I still don't know why you couldn't just ask everyone if they wanted to come."

"I guess that's because he wanted to meet you alone," Anabel patted him on the back. "It's okay."

Ash felt a chill run through him under Anabel's touch. He slid away from the girl a bit and then began eating the food he was given.

May and Pikachu slept in the boat Totodile floated lazily over the waves. The girl was uncomfortably sprawled out over the seats on the boat, with Pikachu asleep in her arms. The Big Jaw Pokémon paddled slowly through the water, not overly concerned about the pace.

Pikachu's ears twitched, and then he looked up. After popping his head up and looking around the ship, he shook May awake.

The groggy girl sat up, and looked to where the Pokémon was pointing. "Oh, not now!" she sighed. "I was trying to take a nap…" With that, she shouted to Totodile and told him to pick up the pace so they could pull away from what troubled them.

From the basket on what troubled them, Meowth handed put down his binoculars. "Dat is da Twerpette!" he exclaimed.

"I think she saw us," James noted from her actions. "We'd better speed this up.

"Wobbuffet!" Jessie's Pokémon agreed.

"Mime mime!" Mime Jr. mimicked Wobbuffet's pose.

Ash finished up his meal and dropped the plate in Anabel's lap. "Thanks for breakfast," he smiled, patting his full belly.

"No problem, Ash," Anabel smiled. "I'm glad you liked it."

Ash smiled and stood up. "I think it'd be a good time for a walk," he said. "Why don't we go see my Charizard? I'm sure that he'd like to see me."

Anabel frowned. "Um… your Charizard?" she asked. "I don't think that'd be a good idea. You might be able to get away on that."

"I won't, trust me!" the trainer lied. "I just wanna see how he's doin'."

"Well, I don't see the harm in it, then," Anabel smiled. She opened the door and beckoned Ash to follow her. "Why don't we go check on Charizard? I know where he is."

Ash smiled, his plan working so far. "Alright, lead the way."

Anabel lead the way down the hall back past the interrogation room Ash was held in the night before (or at least, the night before from what he could tell). A few more doors down, and she opened the door to a staircase. Ash groaned. "Isn't there an elevator?" he asked.

"Well, maybe," Anabel shrugged. "But we can do the stairs."

Anabel led the trainer down one staircase and then turned and went down another. She opened the door that was in front of them, then took Ash into the large room across the hall.

Ash pushed Anabel out of the way so he could get a better look at his friend. Charizard had fallen asleep through the thrashing, and slept apparently peacefully.

Ash gulped. I hadn't thought this far ahead, he thought. What could I do to free Charizard?

"Anabel!" the voice of Brandon filled the room. "Where are you?!"

Both Ash and Anabel jumped. "Uh oh…" Ash gulped. "Where's that comin' from?"

Anabel fumbled the communicator out of her pocket. "I-I'm here, Brandon," she gulped.

"Where did that voice come from, Anabel?" Ash asked, still looking around as if trying to protect his sleeping and restrained Pokémon.

"It was a loudspeaker," she said quickly. She then returned to listing to her communicator. "I brought him to visit his Charizard. Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. Got it. We'll be down in a few moments."

"What?" Ash gulped. "What do you mean, 'We'll be down in a few moments'?"

"We've just about reached the island," Anabel snapped the communicator closed. "I'm to bring you down to the bottom floor, and then we'll land on the Fortress. From the bottom floor, we'd be able to access the Frontier Brain's room, where he wishes to speak with you."

"Alright," Ash grunted. Darn it! I was about to try my escape, too. I guess I'll have to give it a shot, later.

"Faster!" May paddled her hand through the waters. "Faster!"

"Pika!" the Pokémon tried his best to help.

"To to die!" the Water-Type croaked. He was going as fast as he could.

But it wasn't fast enough.

"Slow down, Twerpette!" James shouted from the balloon that was chasing her. "You're only making it harder on yourself."

"No way" May shouted back. "You're not getting Pikachu!"

"If you think you've got a chance this time, little girl," Jessie sneered. "You're in trouble."

"And without your twerpish boyfriend, you may as well make it double!"

"An evil as old as the galaxy!" Jessie called from the ballon

"Sent here to fulfill our destiny!" James brandished a rose.

"With Meowth, and dat's me!" Meowth smiled at the girl they were slowly gaining on.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" the red-haired woman stood, projecting her voice.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!" James stood by her side, making sure May couldn't escape the sounds of their voices.

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"And Meowth are da names!"

"Anywhere there's peace in the Universe…" the maroon haired Rocket winked as she raised her hand into the air.

"…Team Rocket…" James said as he did the same.

"…will be dere…" Meowth hopped onto their shoulders.

"…to make everything worse!" the trio pointed to May's boat.

"Wobbuffet!" the Patient Pokémon added.

"Mime, Mime," Mime Jr. added, hopping onto James' shoulder.

"Can we do this later?" May pleaded. "I've got a boyfriend to rescue from certain doom."

"Well, we'll leave you to that," James called. "It'll cost you one Pikachu!"

"Over my dead body!" shouts May. "You'll never get Pikachu from me!"

"Oh yeah?" Jessie glared. "Is that a challenge?" She picked up a mechanical arm from inside the balloon and aimed it at the boat. She launched to extending arm, but missed the boat as Totodile steered to the side, causing the hand to dive into the ocean.

"Nyah nyah!" May stuck her tongue out at the Rockets as she pulled down on her cheek with a finger, exposing the red under her eye.

Jessie growled at the girl. "Meowth, James, do something! We need to catch Pikachu!"

"Alright then," James reached for a Pokéball. "Go, Cacnea!"

In a flash, his green, spherical Grass-type appeared. "Cacnea!" she announced.

"Shoot holes in that twerpish vessel with Pin Missile!" James commanded.

Cacnea aimed her arms down, and launched the needles from her arms at May's tiny ship.

"Pikachu, knock 'em back with Thunderbolt!" May fired back.

Pikachu leapt into the air and shot a bolt of electricity at Cacnea. The energy shot through the needles, knocking them into the ocean. The bolt struck Cacnea and knocked her back into James arms. The Pokémon cried and gave James a thorny hug.

"C'mon!" Jessie shouted. "One twerp can't be this tough!" She fired her arm again, and this time grappled Pikachu.

"Oh no you don't!" May grabbed onto the end of the arm, holding Pikachu still. "Not while I'm here, you don't!" Jessie struggled to retract the arm, but May kept it pulled out while she struggled with Pikachu. "I've almost got you," she grunted, moving one of the fingers out of the way.

"Guys, do something!" Jessie squealed. "She's gonna get away with it!"

Meowth pulled out his trusty bazooka from the basket. "Dis blast shell should knock dat twerp offa her feet," he grinned. He aimed at May's boat and pulled the trigger.

The rocket flew from the bazooka and crashed into May's boat with an explosion. The arm retracted, but once it cleared the huge splash made by the explosion, it was clear that the hand had been blown off.

"Look what you did, Meowth!" Jessie showed him the blown-off arm. "Now what are we supposed to use?"

"I think we have more problems than that," James gulped.

The Rocket Trio all watched intently as the haze created by Meowth's blast disappeared.

The back half of the boat was missing, but the front was still floating, although it was quickly sinking. The rope that was attached to Totodile was severed.

There was no sign of May, Totodile, or Pikachu.

"Um, guys…" James gulped, quickly becoming frightened. "I think we made a boo-boo."

Ash held his head in his hands as he followed behind Anabel and Brandon. They had left through a hatch on the bottom of the Battle Pyramid and directly entered the building that the pyramid had landed on.

"Where's Greta?" Ash asked, still annoyed that his escape attempt had been foiled by their arrival.

"She's on an assignment," Anabel answered.

"That's no fun," Ash huffed. "And how am I supposed to have a good battle against this Brain if I've only got one Pokémon?"

"You should probably talk to him about that," Brandon stated plainly, his arms still crossed.

Ash groaned again. "Don't you guys know anything?" he asked, getting impatient. "I want to get back to May and the others soon."

Anabel giggled as they stopped in front of a large door. "I know that we're here."

"We are?" Ash jumped. He stepped in out from between the Brains who guided him to the large, metal double doors. He pushed against them for a moment, and they glided open. The doors bumped lightly against the doorstops in the room, but their light weight and construction caused them to make a slamming sound. Ash stopped for a moment while the doors stopped ringing before he entered the room. "Are you that Frontier Brain I was brought to battle?" Ash shouted.

"Indeed I am," a man sitting on a large chair behind a desk turned to around in his chair to him.

Ash grunted at the brief answer and stepped forward. "I'm Ash Ketchum from-"

"I know who you are, Ash," the man answered, taking a sip from his mug. "I will apologize for being short with you. I just received some terrible news that I believe you will be interested in."

Ash raised his eyebrow. "What news?" he asked, now much calmer than before.

"Come here so I can see your face, Ash," the man beckoned from the dimly lit part of the room.

Ash nodded uneasily as he stepped further into the room an onto the elevated step where the desk the man was sitting at was. Anabel followed closely, but Brandon hung back. "I'm going to get back to my Pyramid," he said. "I'm going to go over some hieroglyphs I found recently."

The man nodded from the shade. "Very well. Good work, Brandon."

The Pyramid King nodded and left down the hall.

Ash stepped up in front of the desk and got a better look at the man. He wore a suit as black as raven feathers with a white vest underneath. His dark hair was slicked back, and his jaw was prominent. He looked at the trainer and smiled, but then sighed and returned to a frown.

Ash blinked for a moment. Have I seen this guy somewhere before? he thought. He then shook his head. I can't have seen this guy before. He lives all the way out here. But that familiar feeling remained.

"Are you feeling alright?" the man asked him.

Ash shrugged. "I guess… he said. "What's your name?"

"Call me 'Evergreen'," the man sat down his mug.

"Okay, Evergreen," Ash said. "Now what's this news?"

Evergreen pressed a button on his desk. A while projector screen rolled down from the ceiling. "As I'm sure you've heard, I've been interested in meeting you for a long time, Ash." Evergreen said. "I've been keeping track of your battles, and your progress."

"You sound almost as bad as Cyndi…" Ash chuckled.

"I know about your friend," Evergreen chuckled. "As I do about your relationship to the Cerulean Gym Leader, your companion who works at Oak's lab, and Coordinator who's daughter of a Gym Leader in Hoenn who is very important to you."

"What do you know about May?!" Ash suddenly became very defensive. Anabel held his arm back from pouncing on the man.

"I knew this would be the sort of reaction that news of this nature would entail, but I feel I must tell you before we begin our discussion," Evergreen moved his hand near a button on his desk. His desk was covered in buttons, and nearly all had a letter label (at least, from what Ash could tell). Evergreen pressed a button and the projector turned on, showing a video. "Perhaps it would be best if you saw it with your own eyes."

"May!" Ash shouted at the screen. There she was, in a boat, paddling quickly through the water. The Pokémon next to her was Pikachu, who was also paddling as fast as its small arms could. Breaking water at a much faster pace was Ash's Totodile, obscured by the waves he was making.

The camera zoomed out, and a familiar balloon chased May down. There was no sound, so the entire room was silent as Ash watched the scene play out. He rolled his eyes as Team Rocket began performing their motto, even going as far as to mock their voices during it. His jaw dropped as Jessie aimed her arm at May and went for the grapple. He silently cheered when Totodile maneuvered the boat out of the way, and smiled at May's taunt. When Cacnea appeared, Ash knew that Pikachu would take care of it, and it did with a massive Thunderbolt. Jessie fired the arm again, and this time grabbed Pikachu. Ash gasped as May struggled against the pull of the device. "C'mon, May!" Ash shouted. "Fight 'em off!"

Ash's cries were silenced as Meowth fired the rocket.

His eyes widened and his mouth ran dry as the splash and explosion filled the screen.

He fought back tears and gritted his teeth as the explosion cleared, and there was no sign of his beloved or his best friend in the wreakage.

With a rasp in his voice and fire in his eyes, Ash turned to Evergreen. "Is this some kinda sick joke?!" he shouted, more angry than sad. "What are you tryin' to pull?!"

"Unfortunately, this is not a joke of any kind, Ash," Evergreen remained calm and solemn. "Those members of Team Rocket… they have killed May and Pikachu. And since May was taking care of your other Pokémon as well as her's, they are also gone.

Ash froze at that knowledge. "No…" he whispered at first. "No, they can't be gone! Not May! Not Pikachu! Not Aipom or the others!" he grew more frantic. The tears began to flow as Ash fell to his knees and began pounding the floor with his fist. "They can't be dead…"

Anabel remained speechless, covering her mouth at both the movie and the scene Ash was making.

"I know this is hard for you, so I'm willing to wait for you to come to some terms with this," Evergreen said, rising. He walked around, his feet clicking against the ground in the silent room. He put his hand on Ash's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Take as much time as you need. I'm willing to put off our discussion until you're ready."

Ash choked back some tears and nodded.

"Anabel," Evergreen spoke to her, "please take Ash to the room he will be staying at during his stay with us."

Anabel nodded and took Ash by the hand. The boy rose, but he was still crying over his lost loved ones, and simply let Anabel lead him out the door and down the hall.

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