Theme Song: 'Glass Moon' - Video Girl Ai

There was a noise.

From somewhere underneath something that resembled a blanket, Sarah twitched. The strange shuffling noise was suddenly punctuated by a hollow thud.

"Ow!"

"Ash?" Sarah whipped the blanket to one side and stuck out her sleep-tousled head. "Ash! What the hell are you doing in here? Ugh! It isn't even properly light yet!" Sarah groaned, and flopped back down on her pillow.

"Sorry!" the chastened boy stressed, in an exaggerated whisper. "I just wanted to see if the noise was coming from in here." Sarah simply pulled the covers over her head again and exhaled deeply.

"Bugger off."

"Annoyance duly noted," Ash sighed, before turning, just escaping banging his shins on the dressing table once again and reached for the doorknob. His hand was stalled by Sarah's sudden movement.

"What noise?" she asked, the rising intonation betraying her fear.

"Oh no, don't worry about it," Ash soothed the girl immediately. "It's just a beeping. Like an alarm. Just go back to sleep, Sas. Bus is at nine."

~*~

"Are we there yet?"

"No, Ash," Brock patiently answered, attempting to slickly fan out his selection of cards with a deft wrist motion and sending them flying into Trish's face.

"Aren't we there YEEEEET? I swear I'm gonna throw up…"

"No you're not, Riny," Trish patiently answered, scooping to retrieve the playing cards from the ribbed floor of the coach, "motion sickness is all psychological."

"Yeah, you won't be saying that when you have to clean her puke outta my clothes," snarled Gary, clearly not impressed with the fact that he was sitting in front of the pale and swaying girl. Chastened by a look from the older woman, Gary turned his attentions back to his girlfriend, disgruntlingly ignoring him to have a conversation with Rachel.

"Mia," he used the hand that wasn't on her opposite shoulder to poke her. "Mia? Mia… Miamiamiamiamiamiamiamiamiamiiiiiaaaa-"

"WHAAAAT?" Mia whirled around, a stressmark pumping on her forehead.

"Er… er… nothin'…"

"Rummy," Trish proclaimed, slapping seven corresponding cards to the small, grey table.

"Beauty and brains," Brock sighed, tossing his hand over his shoulder where they smacked the dozing James in the face.

"Are we there yet, Misty?" Ash whined, pressing his face to the window of the ancient vehicle and giving a bored sigh as the tropical scenery creeped past.

"Does this look like Trovitopolis to you?" Misty snapped, wriggling her shoulders against the threadbare upholstery in an attempt to get comfortable. Pulling his face back from the window, Ash turned to his long-time traveling companion.

"Well sor-ee, I didn't see you were in a mood," he huffed, turning the correct way in his seat once again and sliding down low on it to take up a defensive stance. From where she sat on the seat next to Misty, Michelle watched the two of them, the path of her gaze concealed by the hair dislodged by her bowed head. Ash was pouting and staring out of the window blankly, his solemn face reflected in the glass every time a blast of sunlight made it through the dense foliage.

Glass… Michelle stared, transfixed on the transparent solid. She mused, idly, as was her way, that it was strange how something she would normally have paid little to no heed to could be the cause of her death.

If dreams were to be believed…

The terrified wail echoed all around her, as the tent seemed to simply melt away, and Michelle fell into an eternity of sharp glass.

Michelle shook herself out of it with a forced shudder. That was two nights ago. It was nothing. It was paranoia.

"This is it," moaned Erin, bent double in her seat, "this is how I'm going to die! Oh how cruel! How fiendish! How-"

"Will you SHUT UP ALREADY?" Kaz bellowed, kneeling on her seat, reaching over and smacking the shorter girl on the back of the head. Erin made a peculiar sound and changed to an even more peculiar colour. Gary gulped and pressed himself back against his seat.

"Rummy."

"Oh, my beauteous Patricia!"

"Are we theeeere yeeeeeet?"

"Shut UP Ash!"

"Oooohh… you're gonna regret *gulp* doin' that Kaz… *hic*"

"Shut up ERIN!"

~*~

"You know, it's funny," Michelle said as she surveyed the aesthetically perfect Trovitopolian seascape, her eyes soft as she raised a hand to push a rogue piece of her short hair behind her ear, "but every single beach in these islands…"


"Look exactly the same," agreed Jesse, before turning her back on the orange-tinged ocean.


"So let me get this straight," Misty sighed, "we get all the way down here, and no one has thought of what we're going to do when we DO arrive?"


"I thought our policy nowadays was to tackle problems as they arise!" countered Ash, scowling at the redhead. Misty ducked her head, and the others sweatdropped nervously as they watched her ball her shaking fist.


"Whatever…" she murmured, her head still bowed. "How could I expect you to REMEMBER something as simple as hotel arrangements when you can't even remember… you can't even remember…" Ash lost his scowl, and advanced towards the trembling girl with his arm outstretched, a worried expression on his face.

"Misty?"

"Oh just forget it!" she yelled, turning on her heel and stomping off towards the waves, kicking up clouds of sand as she walked. When she arrived at the water she swung her backpack off her back, tossed a Pokéball into the surf and disappeared around the corner of the cove riding on her Starmie.

The group on the beach stood in silence.

"Er, maybe someone should go after her…"

"No," Brock sighed, "she just needs to calm down. Ash, what have you done this time? Ash?" The boy stood transfixed, staring down at where Misty's lone teardrop had made a dark smudge on the silvery sand. Suddenly, all colour drained from his face.

"Oh GOD NO!" he wailed, sending his backpack crashing to the sand and falling to his knees along side it as he ripped his catches open and began throwing the contents all over the beach.

"Er, Ash?" Tracey stepped up, neatly sidestepping a flying pair of navy boxers, which Mia snagged expertly out of the air a moment later, "you haven't done what I thought you have, have you…?" There was a triumphant noise as Ash's arm emerged from the back with his Pokédex. Hurriedly he flipped it open and pressed a few buttons.

"June 30th," the mechanical voice of 'Dexter' resounded on cue. "Misty's sixteenth birthday."

There was a split second before Ash started to wail in anguish. Brock tutted.

"Honestly. That's five outta five. Quite impressive Ash."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU REMIND ME????" Ash demanded, leaping from the sand and grabbing Brock by his jacket.

"I did. Two weeks ago. And we put an alarm on Dexter."

"Ahh. So that's what that noise was this morning," Sarah nodded sagely, before twitching in fear as Ash shot a venomous look around the group.

"You were all against me! It's a conspiracy!"

"So what did you get her Brock? I got her a CD," Tracey asked, ignoring the hyperactive younger teenager.

"Oh this really expensive mail-order polish for her Starmie and Staryu."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I saw a commercial for it when we were in Pallet and-"

~*~

"Well, this is the cheapest bed and breakfast that doesn't look like it will result is us getting fleas," Trish frowned, looking up at the large whitewashed. wooden house that backed onto the beach. Gary groaned.

"I am officially broke you lot," he glowered, "The boat, the hotel, the food, the clothes, the coach-" He stopped and winced when Mia stood on his foot.

"Stop whining. It's all for the cause."

"Well it looks nice enough, hey Ash?" Rachel attempted to bring Ash out of his blue-line funk but was met only with silence.

The group was startled as a ruckus began in the beach house. A young woman with pale blue hair came tearing around the side of the veranda before leaping barefoot over the barrier onto the beach. It was then that her prey became apparent - an Eevee with a mouth full of dim sum.

"AHA! You're MINE!" the woman crowed victoriously, throwing herself at the purloineous Pocket Monster and ending up skidding on her face in the sand to the feet of Todd. Gasping for breath she raised herself up on her arms, gazing across the bay to where the Pokémon was rapidly disappearing in the direction of town.

"I'll get you one day!" she shrieked, shaking her fist and falling to her face again. "Well, that's my dinner gone," she muttered to herself, pulling herself to her feet and turning back in the direction of the house while trying to wipe the sand off her clothing.

It was only then that she seemed to realise she had company and froze.

"Don't tell me…" she sighed, without turning around, "customers, right?"

"Er… we were considering…" Trish began, clearly thrown by the woman's madcap behaviour. The woman whirled around, clasping Trish's hands in her own, her cerise eyes wide and pleading behind her sand-caked glasses.

"Oh, please don't make your decision based on this! I'm honestly not insane! It's not like I'll gut you all in your beds or anything, ha ha ha!" she haplessly babbled. "It's just that fuc-, sorry, dam-, sorry, blinking Eevee… every time I order out, it must have some kinda sensory device…" The woman stopped as she realised her desperate blathering was hardly proving her sanity. She hung her head. "Fifty percent off all fees."

"Deal!" cried a delighted Gary, pushing in front of Trish.

~*~

"Just the one night please, Miss Celestine," Tracey confirmed as Celestine made some calculations. "Party of fifteen."

"Well, rooms are available in doubles, threes and fours-"

"Is there a room near a closet?" Karlie interrupted, making Tracey sweatdrop and tactfully lead her away from the reception desk. Celestine blinked.

"Where do I sign?" asked Todd, grumpily, wondering who had volunteered him to pay. As he scrawled his loopy signature on the paper, Celestine looked around the lobby at the odd collection of people.

"Will the fifteenth person be joining you later then?" she asked as she handed Todd his receipt. He looked at her in confusion.

"Wha… oh for crying out loud!"

~*~

Ash looked at his watch nervously as Noctowl swooped around to do its final surveillance of the area. 10.53. This was bad. This was very bad.

Ash jumped as his Pokémon let out a triumphant screech as it spotted the redheaded figure it had been seeking. Instantly he threw the ball for the Lapras he had borrowed from Gary, and the elegant Water Pokémon let out an obliging call as he clambered onto its back. Immediately the passenger Pokémon sped off to the area where Noctowl was hovering, Ash becoming near-soaked with the backwash.

As he tumbled onto the moonlit beach, he was met with an icy glare from Misty, who had seen him approach. She was sitting on a rock with her arms and legs crossed, and as he walked up to her, she closed her eyes and stubbornly turned her head away.

"Oh, finally REMEMBERED that I was gone, hmmm?"

"C'mon Misty, I'm sorry," Ash began quietly, his tone sincere. "I know I always do it, and I know I'm an idiot, but I really did try this year. But come on, you know what I'm like! I can barely remember my own!" he laughed, but his mirth trailed off when Misty did not reciprocate. "Aw Misty…" he tried again, awkwardly dropping to his knees in the sand in front of her, "I'll take you into town tomorrow before we get the ferry and I'll buy you anything you want! Misty? Aw come on… at least look at me!"

Misty startled him by obliging, although she still remained in her defensive stance. Ash sighed.

"Look, it's been really hectic these past few months too…"

"Oh yeah!" Misty laughed dryly, "the other girls…" Ash looked at her sadly and seriously.

"Don't be jealous." Misty was momentarily struck dumb.

"I guess, it mattered especially this year cos… cos… I wanted to know that… we were still the same…" Ash hugged her awkwardly, feeling nervous as she tensed against him.

"The same…" he echoed, in an odd tone.

They stayed like that for a while longer, Ash not knowing if it would be rude to pull away before she did. Misty had uncrossed her arms, but did not put them around him in return, he noticed. Finally she spoke again.

"Alright, I forgive you, but you are buying me some damn expensive present, Ketchum!" Ash beamed as she drew back from him and he could see that she was smiling weakly.

Ash got to his feet and recalled Noctowl. He turned, with every intention to be a gentleman and offer Misty his hand as she climbed into Lapras, but sweatdropped to see she was already on. He walked up and put his foot on a protruding knob on Lapras's shell and without thinking, accepted the hand Misty offered to pull himself up.

~*~

Author wordlessly balled up her fist, slightly screwing up the paper that was underneath it.

"How did they mess that one up!?" wailed Velve, her crimson and chocolate locks flying as she spun around to face the figure at the desk. Author eyed her seriously, before reaching up and moving the mask from her jaw.

"Come out here Jacqui…" she ordered. Velve gasped.

"What do you want her for?"

"I think it's time that our story became a little more… interactive…"

~*~

"Riseth and shineth!" Michelle called as she energetically drew apart the curtains of the neat and plain rental room. From her bed in the corner of the room, Erin flinched as the light touched her. Rachel yawned and sat up, pulling up her eye-mask.

"Michelle?"

"We're in Trovitopolis, the biggest city in the islands!" Michelle squealed, "and the ferry doesn't leave till six! Let's go SHOPPING!"

~*~

"Okay officers," Officer Jenny of Trovitopolis frowned as she slipped her gun into its holster on her belt. "You have your orders. Now be careful."