Nurse Amy smiled and walked over to Nick. "This would go a whole lot faster if you just stopped trying to get out. I
know you want to leave, but you still have to recover. Besides, what else could you have to do?"

"Well, I did plan on becoming Pokemon League Champion sometime soon. To do that I have many more badges,
and I'm afraid I can't do that from this hospital."

"So you want to be the Pokemon League Champion huh?" Nurse Amy inquired.

"No, I just said all that to amuse you," Nick said sarcasticly. Nurse Amy gave his an evil eye and Nick laughed
nervously and said, "I mean, Yes, ma'am, I do want to become the Pokemon League Champ. I know I'd be the best
there ever was with my elite pokemon team!" He bragged confidently.

"Good for you, kiddo," Nurse Amy replied, purposely trying to get to Nick with the word "kiddo". She handed
Nick his backpack. "I believe this is yours."

"Thanks, I might be able to find something in here to keep me occupied."

"You're welcome. Now maybe I can get some other work done without looking over my shoulder at you every 5
seconds," Nurse Amy said and smiled.

Nick pulled out a lap top and turned it on. "Hey! It still works!" Nick cheered.

"Can I trust that you will not try to escape?" Nurse Amy asked hopefully.

Nick sighed. "Okay, I will. You have my word that I will stay put for a while."

"Just 'a while'?"

"Don't push your luck with me Ms. Amy."

Nurse Amy threw her hands in the air, frustated. "You are so thick-headed, you don't know what is more important,
your life or that stupid Pokemon League Championship!"

"You don't understand! Proving you're the best at something that millions of people are doing is the best feeling
you can have. Defeating the best, becoming the best, and remaining the best are all important to me and I'd do
anything to get it! Maybe if you had a few pokemon of your own to train you'd realize that it is winning that is all
that matters."

Nurse Amy sighed and said in her calmest voice, "There will always be someone better than you in pokemon
battling. You may be the best at one time, but someone will always beat you in the end."

"No way I can loose! My pokemon are so strong-"

"Just don't get too overconfident."

"I'll try not to." Nick replied with a smirk.

Nurse Amy walked to the door and stopped. "You know," She said with a half-smile, "I never said I wasn't a
pokemon trainer." She held up two pokeballs. "Maybe we can have a match sometime." Nurse Amy flashed a
smile that seemed to say 'I win this one' and left.

"Yeah," Nick mumbled, "Maybe we will battle," and he started typing on his lap top.

*** Back with David ***

Nurse Joy calmly walked back into the room where her charizard was holding David down with the slightest or
effort. It's tail laid on him and help him down effectively, seeing as how it the smallest part of the tail was the size of
David's neck.

"Charizard, watch the flame on your tail! It's going to bunr him if you're not careful!" Nurse Joy warned, almost
scolding.

Charizard obeyed Nurse Joy and moved the flame of his tail away from David. Then, Nurse Joy walked over to
David. "Hello, thief. How are you?"

"I hate you," David mumbled sadly.

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking," she paused, "Okay, I know you don't wanna go to jail, but as they say, 'If you
can't do the time, don't do the crime', and you, my friend, did the crime."

"Will you just shut up!? I don't care about jail, or you, or even the stinging pain in my head; I just want Stephanie to
be safe."

"You really care about her, don't you?" Nurse Joy asked quietly.

David nodded. Nurse Joy's heart melted at his sincerity and she broke down into tears and moaned in a high-ptched
voice, "That's soooo sweet!"

"So you'll let me go?" David asked hopefully.

"Not on your life, but I hope she's alright and she visits you in jail," Nurse Joy wiped away tears and looked at
David. "So you want something to eat and drink?"

David sighed heavily and mumbled, "Fine."

*** Back to Ash and his Friends ***

Ash, Misty, and Kate, coming from three separate ways, met up with each other at an intersection in the Team
Rocket hideout.

"Did you find anything?" Ash asked the girls.

Kate shook her head, "I found nothing. No Brock, no pokeballs. It's like a maze in here. Every hall looks
identical."

"I Know," Misty agreed, "I almost got caught by the guards, and I still didn't find anything. What about you Ash?"


Ash looked at his feet and shook his head, "I didn't see anything either. I looked in ever door and found nothing."

Kate sighed. "It's hopeless!" she whined, "We're never going to find them! We should turn around and leave
before-"

"We're not leaving!" Ash interupted angrily, "We won't leave without both our pokemon and Brock!"

"Well you don't have to yell about it," Kate mumbled, hurt.

"I'm sorry," Ash said and hugged Kate. She smiled and stuck her tounge out at Misty, who had an angry and bitter
expression on her face.

"Pika Pika!" Pikachu cried happily from behind. Cubone and Pikachu held many sets of pokeballs as they ran up to
the group. [ Author's note: I decided not to translate what the pokemon say anymore because you usually can tell
and it takes the fun out of guessing :) ]

Ash smiled happily as Pikachu and Cubone gave back the stolen pokemon. "Alright, Pikachu, you found our
pokemon!" Ash yelled excitedly.

"Bone!" Cubone said as crossed his arms in front of him.

"Oh sorry, Cubone. Thank you, too."

Cubone looked content with that and gave the others their pokemon.

"Thank you, Cubone," Misty said and petted him. Cubone melted with Misty's touch. Misty picked up Cubone and
put him on her shoulder.

Ash looked at Pikachu and Cubone and asked hopefully, "Hey, did you guys see Brock anywhere?"

"Pika pi pikachu," Pikachu answered, shaking her head.

Ash gave a disappointed look and sighed, "Well, thanks for finding the pokemon."

Suddenly a new voice yelled, "I think I heard the voices in this direction!"

"Oh no! Team Rocket! Their coming, run!" Kate cried.

"We don't need to! We have our pokemon. We can fight!"

"You just want to show off in front of your girlfriend," Misty teased.

Ash blushed bright red. "Not true!" he mumble. It was all he could think of at the moment. Then three Team
Rocket members came running down the hall. "There they are!" one yelled. The three Rockets sent out their
pokemon which were a haunter, an electrabuzz, and a riachu.

Ash grinned and balled his fist up. "Okay, Pikachu, it's time to-" he started.

"No!" Kate interupted, "Pikachu's in my care and she will not be involved in any battles while I'm around!" she
said with a sudden spark of "Joy". [Author's note: Yeah, I'll probably do a lot of bad Joy jokes throughout the
fanfiction.]

"Sorry, Kate, it was force of habit," Ash looked at the other's pokemon. He didn't have much time to decide. An
electrabuzz and a riachu meant squirtle and pidgeotto were out. Charizard wasn't always reliable and now was not
the time to test his luck. "Time for a battle, Bulbasaur!" Ash tossed his pokeball out and Bulbasaur appeared.

"A three on one battle," a Rocket said with a smirk, "Great odds."

Misty looked worried. "Ash, I don't know if you can win this one," she mumbled.

"Then why don't you help him?" Kate asked.

"All my pokemon are water. Those are electric pokemon. I don't have a chance, so why would I do that to my
pokemon? Don't you have any pokemon?"

"Yes, but only healing pokemon. I couldn't help much either."

"Don't worry, girls. I've got everything under control," Ash said confinently, then he went back to bussiness,
"Bulbasaur, razor leaf attack!"

"Haunter, hypnotize him!" the first Rocket ordered.

"Electrabuzz, thunder!" the second Rocket commanded.

"Riachu, body slam!" the third Rocket instructed.

Bulbasaur's razor leaf attack did a fair amount of damage to Haunter and Electrabuzz but missed Riachu
completely.

Like clockwork, the three Rocket's pokemon deal their damage to Bulbasaur and he was out. Ash felt miserable.
How could Bulbasaur lose like that? He was one of his toughest pokemon. It looked as though his charizard was
going to see some action today after all. Then, it hit Ash like a mallet (he would know from past experience with
Misty around him.) He looked over at Cubone. "Hey, Cubone, want to help me out here?" Ash asked.

Everyone looked at Cubone. The Rockets laughed at the thought of that little guy beating the three of them.
Katelynn wasn't sure about this, but she has seen what he did to Ash's pikachu. Misty was doubtful also. Beating
pikachu that way may have just been his temper flaming after Pikachu broke his precious bone and this was three
on one.

Cubone yawned and shook his head to say "No, I don't want to."

The second Rocket smiled. "Looks like the cubone isn't as dumb as he looks. I guess he realizes he's outnumbered
and outmatched," he said, grinning evilly.

Cubone rolled his eyes and sat down. Ash shrugged, "Can't make his do what he doesn't want to. Charizard, your
turn to battle!" Ash said and threw out Charizard.

Hypnosis ... thunder ... body slam. Charizard didn't even have a chance to get Ash's command. Ash called back his
charizard. "I ... I lost," he muttered. Ash looked as though he had lost the Pokemon League Championship. He
might as well have. If he can't beat a simple battle, how was he going to be able to win the Pokemon League
Chapionship? He had to do something drastic. Something smart. [Author's Note: Smart? Is he serious?]

"Looks like you're out of luck, pal," the third Rocket said.

"Not yet," Ash said. He walked over to Cubone and whispered something to him. Cubone jumped to his feet and
ran in front of all the Rocket's pokemon. "Now I'm ready," Ash said with a wide smile that said "You're
outnumbered now." [Author's Note: I retract my statement above."

The second Rocket sighed, "You one of those guys that never give up, aren't you?"

"You better believe it!" Ash said, "Cubone, use ... bone club!"

Cubone looked at Ash as though he were crazy. Bone club may be a good move on a single pokemon, but there
were three pokemon here. Well, it looked as though he had to make do his own moves and not listen to Ash.

Haunter's hypnosis attack seemed to either miss or have no effect at all. Electrabuzz didn't use thunder because his
trainer knew cubones were not affected by electricity. He ordered his electrabuzz to do his thunder punch attack
instead. That way he would at least make contact with the cubone. This was easily evaded by Cubone and
Electrabuzz got hit with Cubone's bone and sent into the wall. Riachu's body slam wasn't avoided. However, that
was bad for Riachu because when Cubone looked up to see Riachu he arranged his mask so that Riachu would land
on a sharp spot with all his weight. Riachu's expression changed very quickly from confident to hurt. He was also
sent into the wall effortlessly with a whack of Cbone's bone.

The first Rocket had an angry expression on his face. "You may have been able to beat the others, but physical
attacks don't affect it. Haunter, lick attack!"

Haunter stared at Cubone and shook his head. No way was he gonna lick *that*! Haunter tried his hypnosis attack
again. It failed once again.

Cubone closed his eyes. It was now or never. An aura covered Cubone and glowed brighter and brighter until the
room was filled with light. Everyone had to close their eyes temporarily from the blinding light. When the light
faded, Haunter was in a heap with the other pokemon.

"W-What the h-heck is that th-thing?!" the first Rocket yelled.

"I don't know," Ash replied, "but I'm glad he's here."

"That's just crazy!" the second Rocket yelled. "We're out of here!" he said, panicked. They called back their
pokemon, then ran away yelling threats like "We'll be back!" and "You haven't see the last of us!"

The gang cheered, and Misty picked up Cubone and hugged him tightly (as his expression changed to "I love
Misty" mode.) [Author's Note: I guess this is what Ash promised Cubone.]

"Great job, Cubone!" Ash complimented, "You're something else. I've neve seen a pokemon as strong as your
before."

"Pika ka pika chu..." Pikachu grumbled, a hint of jealousy in her eyes.

"I agree," Katelynn said, nodding, "I think you could have taken them out in a snap if you were in perfect health.

Pikachu smiled and rested in Katelynn's arms. She understood her better than anyone else. Maybe, just maybe,
she was trustworthy.

So the gang walked off again in search of Brock. He was around there somewhere. Wasn't he?

*** Back with Brock and Leah ***

Brock and Leah had finally made it to the mountains. They had been traveling for some time. Brock had been
entertaining Leah with his stories of his adventures with Ash and Misty, but only changing them a little to make
himself look good.

"However, I, the calm and levelheaded one, tossed out my onix and defeated all four ... I mean five Team Rocket
members," Brock lied.

"How much money did you get for beating them and saving the city?" Leah asked, curiosly.

"Well, they wanted to offer me so much money that I couldn't even carry it all, but I said 'No, I don't need money.
It's all in a day's work for me.' Then, I just left with my friends," Brock said, embelished more. Truthfully, he was
never offered any money. People simply thanked Ash and that was all. He didn't mind though.

"Wow! You're like Superman or something. My mommy ... my mommy ... mommy ..." Leah couldn't finish. Her
eyes were watering up.

Brock hugged the little girl. "It will be alright. I promise you it will. In fact, we're here. The "monster", as you call
it, is hopefully in here. If it is, I'll make sure it doesn't make anymore trouble for anyone," Brock assured her.

"He's in that cave," Leah said, pointing to an opening in in the mountain about 85 to 90 feet above them.

"How do you know?"

"I can sense her. I just know she is. I feel it in my bones!"

"Well," Brock mumbled, "Can't argue with that. You stay here, Leah."

"No! I wanna go too!" Leah protested.

Brock sighed. "It's too dangerous. You might get hurt, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you did."

"But ..." Leah started.

"But nothing. You have to stay here. I'll bring your mom out unharmed if she's in there."

"Well, Okay."

Brock looked up at the mountain. A long climb awaited him. He wasn't even sure Leah's mother was in that cave.
There were probably fifty caves in the mountain. No use arguing with this one though. Brock began to climb the
mountain as Leah looked on, worried. [Author's Note: Since when did Brock carry around rock climbing
equipment?]

When Brock made it up to the caves where Leah had suggested her mother was, he realized it was much larger than he thought when he was on the ground. He cautionly entered the cave. 'Why me?' Brcok thought, 'Why do I have such a big heart?' He walked into the cave and it got darker and darker so he turned on, so he went into his backpack and got a flashlight. He turned it on and searched the cave. The walls glittered magnificently. He didn't forget why he was here though. He was on a mission.

As Brock turned a corner, he found himself face to face with the biggest reptile he's ever seen. He just barely caught himself before he yelled as loud as he possibly could in fear. Luckily, the giant dragon-type creature had it's eyes closed and was asleep. Brock took a moment to think about this situation. He realized he could use Onix it the dragon woke up. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This wasn't the time to just be standing around. If Leah's mother was in this mountain, she was definitely in this cave ... unless there were more monsters like this. Brcok tried to not think of that.

Brock began to walk around the monster in search of Leah's mother. He made it around the dragon and wanrdered deeper into the cave, looking back occasionally to see if the monster was awake.

Brock was nearing the end of the cave when he heard a noise behind him. He looked back quickly and saw the dragon waking up. At first, Brock was quiet and hoped the dragon would just go back to sleep. Unfortunately, the dragon took a few deep sniffs and turned his head directly facing Brock.

Brock froze in place. He was scared out of his wits. The dragon saw him! Brock threw out Onix and the giant rock pokemon appeared. The dragon lunged at Onix.

"Onix," Brock said, "Rock throw!"

Onix shot rocks out at the dragon creature, but it swatted them away like flies and tackled Onix. Onix went down hard.

"Onix, Bind."

Onix quickly obeyed, wrapping around the body and neck of this huge dragon tightly, trying to cut off it's air.

The dragon screeched and crawed at Onix until he loosened up a bit, and with a surge of strength, hurled the rock pokemon off of him into a wall and Onix was out.

"Onix!" Brcok yelled, alarmed. He called his pokemon back into his pokeball and looked up at the dragon. His last hope was Geodude. No, that wouldn't make sense! If Onix could barely get the giant monster, what hope did Geodude have? Suddenly, Brock realized that he had forgotten about the pokemon he had picked up in that house where he had been kidnapped. It really didn't matter if he used it or not. He knew he was dragon food because there was no pokemon that he could think of that could take this monster. Brock quickly reached into his pocket, pulled out a pokeball, and sent out the pokemon inside.

A poliwhirl appeared. A poliwhirl is a good pokemon in battle, but this was no normal battle.

"Poliwhirl, hypnosis," Brcok commanded.

Poliwhirl didn't seem to mind the new owner. He didn't even seem to notice. Poliwhirl simply obeyed Brock and it worked perfectly. The dragon went to sleep within seconds without the chance to fight.

Brock was stunned. "Good job!" Brock cheered happily, then became quiet so the dragon wouldn't wake up again. He didn't put Poliwhirl back in case it did. Before Brock could go much deeper into the cave, he heard another noise. Was the dragon was waking up already? Brock looked back andThe dragon was laying there asleep still, but something was happening to it. It seemed to be ... fading somehow. The whole inside of the mountain seemed to be changing. Poliwhirl looked around at what was happening and went back inside his pokeball. [Author's Note: That's a smart pokemon if you ask me.]

When all the changing stopped, the walls of the cave were cover with mirrors. Brock looked around, amazed. "What's happening?" He asked, not really talking to anyone.

"A test," a voice answered, "I wanted to see if you were truly the one that deserves eternal pleasure and happiness."

"A test?! What do you mean ... eternal pleasure and happiness?" Brock asked.

"That's right," the voice answered. Then, in a glimmer of white light and a sparkle of gold, a beautiful girl that looked Brock's age appeared in the mirror. She wore a red tubetop dress with a long slit in it. Her light brown hair flowed beautifully down her back and her smile was perfect in every way possible. Her nose was small and cute, but her eyes were the most interesting thing about her. They were perfect emeralds they set her face in perfect proportion. She walked toward Brock, swaying her hips very femininely.

Brock was staring into the mirror at her and it appeared as though she were right behind him. He turned around but she was not there. "Who are you? Where are you?" Brock asked, forgetting his anger.

"I'm Sarah, and I'm right here," she said.

Brock looked back at the mirror and she smiled. "Are ... Are you Leah's mom? No, you're too young."

Sara laughed. "Is that what Leah said? I can imagine her now. 'Oh, help! Help! My mommy is lost in the mountain.'"

"So this was just a set up to test me?" Brock asked, getting angry again.

"I'm sorry," Sara apologised, "I didn't think you'd be upset after I promised you an eternity of being with me."

"I didn't say I was upset at all!" Brock said quickly, "I just ... this is ... so sudden really."

Sara put her hand against the mirror. "What's holding you back? All you have to go is touch my hand and we will be together for eternity. What more could you want?"

"Well, I never got to say goodbye to my friends or family. If not for them, I'd give in to you without hesitation. If you just give me a few days, maybe a week, I'll be able to tell them goodbye in person and come back here and we can be together."

"This is a one time only offer, Brock. You must give me an answer now!"

"But ... Why was I chosen anyway?"

"Because you have a kind heart. You have proven yourself. Now, please, tell me your answer. Is it eternal happiness with me, or staying with your family and friends?"

"Well ..."



*** To Be Continued ***



"What will Brock say? Will he choose to be with this lovely girl for all eternity, or will he resist tempation and be with his friends and family? To help us with this answer, the author of this story will stop by to give us some insite," says narrator.

In the background, you see the author running from a group of girls with torches, signs, and asorted weapons.

"On second thought," the narrator says, "Maybe he's a little busy ... discussing ... the situation with Brock fans," the narrator stutters, "Maybe you'll just have to read the next chapter for yourself."

The author runs back from the way he can still be followed by girls, who now have spears that they are throwing at him that just barely miss.

"Well," the narrator said, sweating, "if he's still alive to write it ..."