The Chosen Ten – … And so It begins

An hour later, Misty and her halfway hostages found Ash' rucksack and a card lying on it. 'Do you think he's going to see a therapist?'
'He's stepping into her office right now,' Jesse said, absolutely sure of herself.
'This isn't funny,' Misty growled, gritting her teeth.
Jesse folded her arms and glared at her. 'I'm not joking.'

Misty sighed but didn't retort. Instead, she turned to the others and said that they were going to get him. Brock nodded and fell into step beside her. The Rockets, knowing they didn't have a choice, followed them at a distance.
Misty walked with the confidence of a general and it was somewhat unnerving to Jesse, like Ash' behaviour was. Jesse made sure her hate for him was no secret, but she did know he was determined. She had never seen him break down or run from a battle – especially not when it involved his Pikachu.

The four humans walked in silence, James carrying Pikachu's cage in which the pokémon still lay sleeping. Meowth was contemplating the situation but he couldn't find any reason for everyone to be quiet. Meowth didn't like silence.
He knew though, that breaking the silence would be inviting two stressed out redheads to freak out and get violent. Meowth preferred being attached to all of his limbs to talking.

Ash sat across the psychologist nervously. Sabrina Quartz was regal and distant rather than comforting and friendly and was firing question after question at him. She was going so fast that Ash hardly had the time to answer her question before she asked the next.

He was beginning to regret this decision already. He should have just waited for his friends to pick him up in that alley. Not only was she wasting his time and vice versa, but he was also wasting the small amount of money his mother could send him.

Ash was incredibly relieved when half an hour later Sabrina's secretary came in to tell the therapist that she had an appointment to go to. 'You'll get the bill,' Sabrina promised before she left.
Ash wasn't sure how exactly that was going to happen, since he had never been asked for his name or account number, but he was glad he didn't have to answer any further questions.

'That's strange, it's not locked,' Misty observed.
She shrugged and entered, followed by Jesse. The older redhead was walking through the halls as if she knew exactly where she was going and stepped into an elevator. James and Meowth followed her without hesitation, Misty and Brock looked at each other and followed them.

'Ash?' Misty saw her friend and ran to embrace him. Brock followed her in a quick group hug.
Both Jesse and James were looking at it in disgust. 'We have to be here for a reason. The door wasn't locked and there was no one in the foyer or the hallways. I saw some stairways leading higher up in the building,' Jesse said quickly.

'Stairways?' Misty echoed. She hadn't seen any stairways, staircases or stairs.
'Just follow her,' James said.

Jesse was climbing air. However, James reasoned that that meant that there was, in fact, something and he stepped on the bottom step. He could see it now too, all marble. 'There's a stairway here,' he said.
The others carefully put a foot where the bottom step should be. They felt solid marble beneath their feet and followed Jesse and James.

'There's a door. But we have to be on the thirteenth floor or something,' Jesse said, looking down at the streets below.
'It only had four to begin with,' Brock said.
'See for yourself,' Jesse dared, shoving Brock to the tall window.

Jesse had made her way to the door and was trying to find a handle or a doorknob. When she couldn't find any, she tried to kick it in. The ancient door however,  wouldn't budge.
Misty noticed Jesse's trouble and tried the door as well. She couldn't even move it a quarter of an inch. Ash, Brock and James realized that if the strongest ones in their company couldn't get the door to open, they definitely wouldn't stand a chance.
Meowth tried it, but he ended up with a broken claw. 'Open sesame.'
Nothing happened. James started feeling the walls for a switch. If the structure was as old as it appeared to be from up here, there was probably a secret passage somewhere.

Ash brushed past the Rockets, pushing James out of the way and being shoved against the door by Jesse. By accident, he looked into the small dent in the door. 'Retinal recognized. Earth, welcome,' a metallic voice said.
The door swung open, revealing a chamber filled with books. James gasped, and so did Misty, though she didn't know why.

James grabbed a book off a random shelf, but he couldn't read it. Misty took it from him. 'Hmm. "Book of Four",' she said and opened it.
There were four faces on each page; always with the same expressions. At the seventh page, the faces of Jesse, James, Cassidy and Butch looked back at them. Misty took two books from the same shelf James had found this one and opened them as well. 'This one claims it's the "Book of Two", whatever that means. It features…' Misty paused to get to page seven, "Ash and me on page seven".

Misty set that book down as well and took the third one. 'This is the "Book of Five" somehow. Let's see… page seven. Gary, that other Pallet trainer he hangs out with so much, Cassandra Birche, someone I don't recognize, a blank space and Brock'.

James took the books from her and looked at the different faces. He could read them now that Misty had. But they were written in a language he had never seen, had never heard of. To his knowledge, it shouldn't even exist. James trailed the picture of Cassidy to the picture of Butch, and along the top of the pages. He flipped the pages to where the line stopped. 'Ice and Fire,' he muttered.
'We should go pay a visit to the temple,' James said decisively.