There's Chapter 12, hitting the shelves! It's somewhat shorter than the last few chapters, simply because that's what the plot demanded. But I still think it's a decent length. And yeah, it's coming out quite early, but I'll just put out these chapters as they are done. That's why today is a double update.

Thank you all for understanding, and here is the chapter. Enjoy!

LUCAS' POV

The marina consisted of several H-shaped docks, all of which had a number of boats tied to them. There were motorboats, dinghies, kayaks, and more.

The smoke was still spreading further and further, which should have been a red flag. Did smoke normally behave this way, or was something else going on here? Either way, we had to escape somehow.

"What is your plan, Lucas?" Janelle all but screamed at me. "Because if you don't think about it, you could get both of us killed!"

"I have a plan, trust me" I panted.

Janelle narrowed her eyes. "That is the face of someone who doesn't have a plan. But by all means, Lucas - let's just get a boat out of here willy-nilly."

As I glared at her in return, I came to the conclusion that the best way out was to select a motorboat that was relatively easy to operate. Of course, the keyword here is "relatively", for I had never driven one of these before.

Although…I did end up in one of these inflatable dinghies when I woke up in this world two weeks ago.

I pointed at one such dinghy. "We're taking that boat" I asserted.

Janelle appeared almost livid. "Are you crazy? That doesn't look very worthy of the high seas. And where are we even going?"

"We could go back to Chilly Waters," I suggested. "It would be your first time in the village, and I think you'd like it."

"Whatever" she muttered. "King Lucas has to have his way, but since we're in a time-sensitive situation, I'll let him get what he wants."

I snorted. "Are you trying to make fun of me?"

"No!" Janelle insisted. "Just get in the boat, will you?"

I leaped onto the dinghy. The sudden impact of my body weight against the boat almost caused it to capsize; I must have used a lot of power to jump.

Janelle climbed in after me. Once I'd sat down on the little plank in front of the engine, the other Litleo gave me a rather exasperated look.

"So…do you know how to drive this thing?"

I decided to tell the truth. I owed her that much.

"No. But now's a good time to learn. And if we hit something, it's like whacking it with a balloon. The stakes are much lower here."

After some difficulty, I was able to tie the wire around one of my forelegs, which I had to use as a wrist. Everything's harder with four paws. And then I used my other front paw to pull the cord, which started the engine.

Even once I'd gotten the thing moving on its own power, there was still a steep learning curve involved. The fact that the dinghy was inflatable rather than metal was cold comfort, because if it capsized, we were just as screwed as we'd be if the boat were more fragile.

Steering the boat wasn't too hard to figure out. It was done using a stick protruding from the engine. I had to turn it in the opposite direction from where I wanted to go, which was important at first. Even if the boat wouldn't cause much damage to other vessels, I still didn't want to hit them if I could help it.

"Okay…I'll turn the stick to the right, and that'll get us out of the marina. And then we can go however fast we want, away from the smoke." I was wheezing with almost every word as the smoke advanced; its stench was overpowering.

"So how do we get to Chilly Waters? And how far is it?" Janelle asked as we approached the end of the no–wake zone.

"I don't fucking know" I admitted.

She narrowed her eyes until they were nothing but slits. "You told me we could get there, though."

"I'll figure it out eventually" I told her. "I always do."

In the back of my mind, of course, I had my doubts. If I hadn't even been able to find my way back home on the night of our first "date", how was I supposed to navigate the high seas to Chilly Waters, let alone at night?

Janelle grumbled a bit, but she didn't object to my plan. Perhaps I took this as a sign, in which case I may have been sorely mistaken.

The boat smashed against each wave, lifting a few inches off the surface each time. I'd realized that I could control the inflatable vessel's speed by twisting the stick either way (not to be confused with turning said stick.) It's one of those things that seems more complicated than it actually is when you're doing it.

After about half an hour of this, as the sky grew closer and closer to pitch black, I spotted something on the horizon that looked awfully familiar.

Is this the same thing I saw all those days ago? Is that Chilly Waters over there?

"There's land over there" I said, unable to point to it for fear of losing control of the vessel. "I say we go for it!"

"But that's miles away!" Janelle exclaimed.

"Well, that's where Chilly Waters is! It took us like three hours to get from there to Fula City!"

The other Litleo looked as though she'd just stuck her paws in a light socket. Her fur stood on end as she shrieked, "Three hours? Does this boat even have enough fuel?"

"How should I know?"

"Well, you were the one who suggested taking a barely-seaworthy dinghy all the way across the bay. You'd better have thought this through!"

"There was a lot of traffic on the way! And there isn't exactly a lot of traffic here!"

Janelle grunted, but did not object. In relative silence, we kept cruising through the Fulan Sea, punctuated by the occasional massive wave. (The sea was rougher than I'd expected at night.)

Eventually, when we got further from the smoke, the air grew cooler. In fact, it was so chilly I found myself shivering despite my abundant fur coat. Despite the considerable distance we'd covered, the horizon didn't look much closer.

A few seconds later, the worst possible thing happened.

The engine sputtered a bit, then shut off completely. And we were left at the mercy of the waves.

"Look what you did!" Janelle exclaimed. "You didn't have a plan, and now we're going to need the Coast Guard to come or something!"

I felt the need to defend myself here. "Well, I couldn't have known how much fuel we had, could I? At least we got away from the fire."

Janelle grimaced. "A watery grave isn't much better than a fiery one, but sure. Is there another way out of it, Lucas?"

"Yeah" I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering. "There should be oars here. We can each take one and row to shore."

"Sounds like as good a plan as any" she muttered. Of course, there wasn't really a good solution here, just a least-bad one.

I had, of course, attempted this when I'd first arrived on Nexus, but it hadn't worked out for me. Not well enough. Eventually, I'd been forced to swim, and that had been under far more "optimal" conditions than this.

Hopefully it went differently now, though as they say, "The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again while expecting different results."

Each of us grabbed an oar and tried to paddle forward, to the elusive land in the distance. At least, that's what we tried to do.

What really happened is that the boat kept spinning in circles, like a broken carnival ride. I gritted my fangs as this motion continued endlessly.

"We need forward momentum," I said. "Better communication."

Janelle gave me an angry smile (and no, that's not an oxymoron.) "You think?"

"Yes. We have to figure out a system for who's going to paddle when. I'll do it for five seconds, then you do it for five seconds. Deal?"

"Uh, sure" Janelle replied, though she didn't sound thrilled about it. Truth be told, neither was I.

We gave this strategy a go, and we made some forward progress. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was something.

And then Janelle noticed something else.

"Is the boat sinking?"

"What? How?"

"Don't ask me, it's your boat!"

As it turned out, the vessel indeed felt a lot heavier and more difficult to maneuver. It was as though the boat were tethered to a massive weight at the bottom of the ocean, and that weight was slowly pulling us under.

"We'd better do something!" I exclaimed, potentially in vain. "Quick, Janelle, paddle harder!"

So as not to make Janelle think I was a hypocrite, I did the same with my oar. Before long, my "arm" felt like it wanted to break free of my body. But I couldn't give up, or else I'd be letting both of us down.

Still, it was clear we were losing the battle. Everything I will describe below happened very quickly, so much so that it almost doesn't feel real to this day. But it did indeed occur.

I began to feel dizzy; but that wouldn't make sense if I were still above water, would it?

I'd never experienced near-drowning before, but I had to imagine it would be terrifying. Well, imagine being unable to breathe while you're not even submerged in the ocean. It was enough to drive one to absolute fear.

Then there was the sensation of falling, falling so far that I would surely lose my life upon impact, and thinking that this is where my life would end. Not in hospice with my family all around me, doped up on super-powerful pain medication. Nope, fate had spoken, and it had determined that I would go out with a bang.

And in a way, I was okay with that. Better to go down swinging than let the third strike fly over home plate.

Ferguson: So you're claiming that there was a sinkhole in the middle of the Fulan Sea?

Defendant: As best as I can determine, that's exactly what it was. We spun around for a minute or two before falling into the depths and losing consciousness.

Ferguson: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, Mr. Teller. I don't think I need to remind you that.

Defendant: Well, what evidence would convince you that I'm telling the truth? You can't claim to care about the truth if there's nothing that would make you believe otherwise.

Ferguson: Just give me a witness. Someone who saw you fall through the sinkhole, or end up on the other side of it. As far as I'm aware, no such evidence has been forthcoming.

I didn't expect to wake up again after passing out in the sinkhole. I'd believed for sure that Janelle and I were going to drown, and our bodies might never be found.

As it turned out, however, the dizziness had been due to the changing air pressure, not the lack of oxygen beneath the surface of the sea. Without that knowledge in the beginning, you'd better believe that I was utterly shocked when I saw sunlight again.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying face down in a shallow, dirty stream. I was dressed in clothes that felt very worn, as though they hadn't been folded or washed in a week or two. Yet the sun was beating down hard, and even the chilly stream didn't do much to cool me off.

I managed to sit up. The first thing I became aware of was an intense headache, the kind that makes you feel woozy when you exert yourself. It made it hard to look, not least because any form of light (or any stimuli) only increased the pain.

The next discovery? Sitting down didn't inherently make me feel worse. My eyes didn't water when I crushed my tail, because I didn't have a tail.

Wait a minute…no tail. It's gone! And if I'm wearing clothes, that can probably only mean one thing.

I'm human again! After two weeks as a Litleo, I've regained my old body! And that's fantastic!

And yet, as much as I wanted to be ecstatic about this, my happiness was tempered significantly, both by the pounding headache and by the realization that I'd traded my previous set of problems for a whole new set of problems.

"Ugh…where are we?"

That wasn't my voice. It came from a female, as evidenced by the specific tone used. And it was a tone I knew.

"Janelle?"

I turned to face her, and then I saw Janelle Wilson, lying on her side in the ditch, wearing the exact same clothes she'd had on the night we'd first met. (I, too, had the same clothing on. No wonder it was so wrinkly.)

"Lucas? What are you doing here?" she enquired, her brown eyes lighting up with shock.

"I don't know. We just fell through the ocean and ended up here somehow. How can that be?"

"Probably the same way we ended up in the Pokemon world in the first place" Janelle responded. "Or at least, something along the same lines."

"Could we be back on Earth?" I wondered aloud, saying what Janelle was probably thinking.

She scratched her chin, evidently trying to find some reason to believe that I wasn't telling the truth. But in the end, she nodded.

"This looks exactly like Forrest County," she said eventually. "I see kudzu vines, all those Southern trees, plenty of Confederate flags all over the place…I guess you don't see that stuff in Fula City."

I took a few seconds to laugh at that line, but only a few. You see, I wasn't exactly elated to be home, even if it should have been something to celebrate.

Being home meant living with my parents again, who would have a lot of questions for me after I'd been missing for who knew how long. The media, too, would have a field day. Nothing about returning to my old life would be easy.

"Hey, Lucas", Janelle whispered a minute later.

"Yes?" I replied, dreading whatever she had to say. It would more than likely end up as a tirade against me for some reason I couldn't figure out.

"Come closer."

"Uh…okay" I said, but I did as I was told. Janelle then leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

My cheeks felt like they'd been in front of a furnace. My stomach grew sour as I tried to process what had just happened.

"That's for getting us home safely," Janelle told me. "It could have been a lot worse, you know."

I didn't speak. I could barely even think. It was my first kiss, other than pecks on the cheek from my mother. This was the first romantic form of the gesture I'd experienced, and I didn't know how to feel about it.

"You're…welcome" I mumbled. "But I have to head out now."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"I just need to get some things in order. You know, like making sure my car's still around here somewhere."

The vehicle I'd driven to this ditch was no longer present. Other than the tire tracks on the road, no sign existed that any motor vehicle had even been there in the recent past.

"I need to find my car too" Janelle responded. "It's probably somewhere in town. Or maybe it was stolen - that can happen around here."

I grimaced. "Hopefully that didn't happen."

But in the back of my mind, I think I was willing to admit that this was the most likely possibility. Forrest County had one of the highest rates of carjacking in the country, but nobody thinks it'll happen to them…until it does.

Still, I couldn't lose hope. I had to look somewhere.

"Well", Janelle said weakly after a while, "I'll leave you to it, Lucas. We'll talk later, okay?"

I nodded. "I'll see you later, Janelle."

As I walked away from the ditch and into my old life, it occurred to me that this was the first time that Janelle had seemed pleased to be in my presence. Hopefully it wasn't the last.

My post-kiss high wore off within minutes. It just goes to show; the higher you go, the further there is to fall.

The clothing I found myself in dried off quickly in the hot Southern sun, which was almost directly overhead. It was, however, wholly unsuitable for a long walk, and before long, the wetness from the ditch had been replaced with a different moisture entirely.

Namely, sweat.

I'd never fully appreciated just how spread-out the county seat was. The town hadn't been designed with walkability in mind; sidewalks were a rarity in Forrest County, something you only begin to understand once you rely on them to get around.

Luckily, despite the time of day, there weren't too many people out and about. This was especially fortunate because in my current state, I have no doubt that I looked like a vagrant, something that's frowned upon in the South.

Once I reached the newspaper stand, I was able to open the flap without giving the thing a single coin. Another lucky break, since I had no coins on me. And the first thing I did was to glance at the date atop the headline.

I didn't know whether to be thankful or not about this, but "only" a week had passed since my departure from Earth. For better or worse, time had only passed half as quickly here as it had in the world of Pokemon.

"Hey, young man, don't you need a shower?" a gruff male voice barked as I walked away from the newspaper stand.

"Why?" I asked, turning to face the man. He wore a red hat and an American flag T-shirt.

"Because quite frankly, you look filthy," the man replied. "Almost as filthy as a -" he added, saying a word that I dare not print here.

"Well, I fell in a puddle," I told him, which was at least partly true. "And I will shower when I get home, I promise you that."

"Hey, you don't owe it to me, you owe it to yourself. See you around, buddy."

That's the odd thing about Southern hospitality: It doesn't always extend to everyone. Why, exactly, it's called "hospitality" is beyond me, because my hometown was anything but friendly.

Anyway, I took mostly back streets on the way into the town center. My legs quickly grew fatigued, and without sunglasses or sunscreen, I was practically wilting in the summer heat. What I wanted most was a bottle of cold water.

The main problem was that I didn't know where to start, looking for my car. It could literally be anywhere in the whole county. Indeed, there's probably no need for the "in the whole county" qualifier there.

Could I call the police? Perhaps, but I'd have to borrow a stranger's phone in order to do so. I had nothing on me, and that included no coins for a payphone. Besides, there was every possibility that I was wanted for kidnapping Janelle, or something equally absurd.

A lot can happen in a week, after all.

Still, I figured it was worth a shot if I found someone who'd be willing to help. And so I just walked around asking random people, which was a rather painful process; I was denied seven or eight times before a young woman, probably about twenty-five or so, finally said yes.

"Thank you so much," I told her. "I just need to call the police."

The woman frowned. "If you're going to call the police, why would you not just seize my phone by force? I mean, it's not like I wanted you to do that, but that sounds like the obvious thing to do."

"Well, I'm afraid I can't tell you why I need to call them," I replied, my heart threatening to break right through my ribcage. "Conversations must remain private, after all."

"Okay then" she said, handing me her iPhone. It wasn't protected by a passcode, so I simply dialed 911. That was the only number I knew for law enforcement.

Before I hit the call button, I walked into a nearby alleyway so that the young lady wouldn't be able to hear me.

"Nine-one-one, what is the nature of your emergency?" the dispatcher asked.

"I need to know where my car is," I said frantically. "I lost it a week ago, it just vanished."

I heard the dispatcher grunt. The voice was so robotic that I couldn't tell if it belonged to a male or female. And then they said, "I don't know why you didn't call us at the time it actually happened. If it's a true emergency, minutes matter."

At that, I didn't know how to respond. It's not like I could just say, Yes, I understand, but I've been in another world for the last week and couldn't call you. That would only lead to more problems for me.

"Well, I didn't. I didn't suspect foul play at all" I told the dispatcher.

"Okay then" they replied. "Have you checked the local car dealership, the one you got your car from? They might have taken it back if they saw a reason to revoke your license."

"There has to be some explanation!" I shot back. "I'm a responsible driver. I have a clean record. No DUIs, no speeding tickets, nothing."

"I'm sure there is one," the dispatcher replied in a rather monotone voice. "But I'm afraid I cannot provide one at the moment. Just go to the local dealership and enquire about it."

After I hung up, I handed the young woman back her phone. Her lips were pursed, but I'm not sure if this is because she heard me or because she simply thought the conversation was likely lewd in nature. Either way, she wasn't my problem anymore.

And then I turned my attention to the two miles I still had to walk to the car dealership. It was going to be quite the trek, I was sure about that.

By the time I reached the dealership, one of the cleanest, newest buildings in Forrest County, my tongue was hanging out of my mouth and I was panting like a dog. I walked through the door and was instantly met with a gasp from Mr. Saturn, the barrel-chested man who owned the dealership.

"Lucas Teller!" he exclaimed.

My eyes grew to the size of dessert plates. "How did you recognize me?"

Mr. Saturn waved it off like it was nothing. "I remember all my clients. It's only been a year since you got your license, and it's only been nine months since you bought a car from here. Also, you look like you need a shower."

I snorted. "You're the second person to tell me that in the last hour."

"Well, it's true" Mr. Saturn replied. "You'll have to pay for any water damage on the tile; you do realize that, right?"

"Yes, I do," I said.

"What happened, by the way? Did you lose a wrestling match with a locomotive?"

"I can't say."

"Fair enough. So what brings you here?"

I forced a chuckle. "Well, you've actually already touched on it. My car is missing; it's been gone for a week. If you have any idea where it is, that would be very much appreciated."

Mr. Saturn's genial expression suddenly turned sour. He shook his head from side to side, and for a moment, I truly believed that I'd gotten nowhere. That this long, hot walk had all been for nothing.

Then he gave me a sad smile. "I'm afraid your driver's license is no longer active, Lucas."

I gasped. "Really? You can just do that?"

"It wasn't me; it was the Forrest County DMV that suspended it in absentia. They don't take kindly to people who go missing while driving. As of three days ago, you're no longer allowed to operate a motor vehicle."

Mr. Saturn's words felt like a punch to the gut. It's not like driving was a huge part of my life or anything like that, but to know that I couldn't do it anymore was…well, let's just say it didn't make me happy.

"So what do I do now?" I asked.

Mr. Saturn narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. "That's up to you, Lucas. I'll say this much, though: You can't just go missing for a week and expect there to be no repercussions. People notice when you're gone for that long."

"It wasn't by choice." That was about as much as I felt comfortable telling the man, but it clearly only raised eyebrows on his end. And I mean that literally.

"Well, if you were kidnapped, shouldn't law enforcement have been informed about that? That's a pretty big deal, Lucas."

"I wasn't kidnapped," I replied. "Well, not exactly. Now how do I get my license back? I need to drive home to let my parents know I'm okay."

Mr. Saturn frowned. "I'm afraid that's not possible," he replied, scratching his chin. "Getting your license back is easier said than done, especially since the driving infraction was so recent."

"But I didn't break any rules" I insisted.

"Well, suspending your license wasn't my decision, Lucas. It was the decision of the Forrest County authorities. They just don't trust you to use your driving privileges responsibly anymore."

I knew better than to yell at Mr. Saturn. He was the type of person who could be either your best friend or your worst enemy; there was no in between. If he felt uncomfortable around me, he could always contact the police and make it look like I was in the wrong. Needless to say, that's the last thing I wanted.

"Fine," I muttered. "Then what do I do? Call an Uber to get back home? I don't have a phone."

"I could call an Uber for you" Mr. Saturn replied. "In fact, I'm more than willing to; I'm just glad you're alive and safe."

The man pulled out his phone and feverishly pressed a series of keys. When he seemed to have finished his transaction, Mr. Saturn glanced up at me.

"He'll be here in five minutes. And if you ever need anything from me that's not car-related, just give me a call."

"Okay…" I said weakly.

"Is everything all right, Lucas?"

"Yeah, it's fine," I replied, trying not to sound too defensive. "I just…you just don't know what you have until it's gone. I'd give anything to have my license back."

"Settle it in court, then" Mr. Saturn suggested with a shrug. "I'm sure that if you told them the whole truth, they'd at least hear you out. There's a chance you could regain it."

"Whatever" I sighed.

After that, neither of us spoke until a red car pulled up outside the dealership. According to Mr. Saturn, this was the correct Uber, and I saw no reason not to trust him on that.

There isn't much to say about the ride back. I was a huge bundle of nerves, simply because I had ample reason to dread my return to the house. My parents would come down on me like the Great Wall of China if I didn't tell them everything, and I couldn't tell them everything. No matter how I approached the situation, I just couldn't win.

Once we arrived at my parents' house, one I had not seen for either one week or two (your mileage may vary), I saw exactly what I'd been afraid of. There were several of them in front of my house, lights flashing in several colors.

News vans.