Chapter 21

"Gee, it sort of feels like all these buildings are closing in on us," Ash commented as a worried look pulled the sides of his eyebrows down while his eyes looked up at the skyscrapers that surrounded them. While still technically in Celadon City, the huge metropolis was split up into subdivisions in order to break up the different parts of the city. They were currently in one of those parts in Celadon, but it was so overcrowded that it was tough to even see the cloudy sky above. But while Ash's eyes were skyward – while also avoiding the people on the sidewalks – Brock's were planted on the map folded in his hands. "Where are we, Brock?"

"Uh, HopHopHop Town?"

"HopHopHop?" Ash repeated, thrown off by the name of the so-called town. He bounced three times in conjunction with the name as he said it, but then his dark eyes glanced around as though looking at it in a new light. Having come from a town himself, this place certainly didn't feel like a town at all.

That was when a female voice broke him out of his thoughts, sticking out amongst the normal droning of the city. "Arnold!" He only had time to turn his head, however, before he was enveloped into the shirt of a stranger, her tight grip around his head holding him in place as he struggled to breathe. "Where have you been, Arnold? Mother's been so worried!" she said with her voice cracking slightly.

Managing to pull away from her grip slightly to get enough movement in his mouth to form words, he attempted to crane his neck up at her. "Excuse me... but my name is Ash!" he struggled. Hearing his words, the woman looked down at Ash, and her chocolate brown eyes studied him for a moment before they widened, and she instantly flinched backward while clasping her hands to her cheeks.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she apologized in horror, and then folded her hands together and looked down at the sidewalk. "But you look just like my Arnold..." Free from her grasp, Ash took in fresh air before frowning at the saddened look on her face. The pair of traveling Pokémon Trainers glanced between each other before the woman couldn't bear to stand any longer. Both boys steadied her on each of her arms and walked her to a small park off to the side where they sat her down on a small gathering of concrete pillars in the middle of a circle of benches. She gripped the bottom of her skirt – the color of a grape – and couldn't even look up at them.

"I'm so upset because my son Arnold just... disappeared," she began, and cupped her cheek in her hand, a subconscious action of worry. "He's been gone for three days. I can't find him anywhere."

"And you haven't heard from him?" Brock asked lightly.

"Not a word."

"Could he have gone off to be a Pokémon Trainer?" Ash questioned with a thoughtful frown.

"He did like Pokémon, of course! But he never mentioned anything about becoming a Trainer." The older woman let out a sad sigh and lowered her eyes to the decorative brick pattern at their feet. "My son isn't the only child who's disappeared recently."

"He's not?!" Brock exclaimed over Ash's gasp, and the woman shook her head and pointed her nose to the edge of the park just next to a staircase that led up to the sidewalk.

"See those posters? Those are pictures of all the children that have disappeared," she explained. Ash and Brock slowly ran their eyes along them. Each one featured a different child, and there had to be at least ten of them posted.

"This must be a pretty dangerous town..." Ash commented quietly, so as not to upset the mother. But their thoughts were soon interrupted when they heard a motorcycle pulling up, and both of them looked over to see the Officer Jenny of this town putting the bike in park. With the motor cut from the bike, they could hear her quietly talking to herself.

"They sure were nice children; all of them," she said, a sad look pulling her features downward. "Disappearing one by one like that... I just can't understand it." She swung her leg over the seat and got off the bike, taking with her some of the rolled posters that were sitting in the passenger cart connected to her vehicle. Both Brock and Ash stood up as she twisted her head back and forth, trying to find a spot to unroll the new posters. "Hmm, let's see, where should I put this one?"

"Excuse me!" Ash interrupted as he approached the blue-haired woman. "Are you the cousin or second cousin of the Jenny in Maiden's Peak?"

"Actually, I'm her cousin's cousin," she joked with a light smile, but Ash wasn't as amused.

"It figures."

"This one's the most beautiful one yet..." Brock swooned behind him, and before Ash could even turn around and look at his friend, he was thrown aside by the older boy so the woman's brown eyes were on him. "It must be terrible searching for all these lost children!" He snatched up her free hand in both of his, and the police officer's eyebrows raised slightly. "I would be very happy to help you in your search."

"What?"

"We can both work together hand in hand!" Jenny finally pulled back her hand with a huff, and though her eyebrows came together and she pointed a finger at him, she accepted his help.

"Just don't get in the way!" she warned. Though Ash paid no mind to this, and as he recovered from being thrown, his eyes lingered on the worried mother. She was still sitting where they had left her, and it seemed like she had no intention of joining them, or even aware that him and Brock had left her. She just looked sadly at the ground with her fingers folded around each other in worry.

"Gee, she reminds me of... my mom," the Pallet Town native muttered to himself, and as images of his own mom flashed through his head, he knew that if he went missing, his mom would be a worried mess just like this woman, if not more. Adjusting the cap on his head, the shadow that it provided almost hid the small smile that crept on his mouth. "She must be worried..." Nodding in affirmation, he clenched a fist and decided to help Brock and Jenny as well. "Well, in that case, Detective Ash Ketchum will solve this mystery!"

o 0 o

After assisting Jenny is hanging up the rest of the wanted posters, they followed her through the city. Traversing the sidewalks of HopHopHop Town was normally like navigating through a corn maze made of concrete instead of foliage, but being the local police officer, Jenny knew the area like the back of her glove, and she could lead the way without having to even think about it. Their destination was unknown to them, but Jenny seemed to have a good lead on where she was going next as they talked about the case.

"All of the missing children disappeared exactly three days ago," she explained to them.

"Three days ago?" Ash parroted with a cocked eyebrow.

"Besides that, do the missing children have anything else in common?" Brock followed up with a question of his own.

"That's a brilliant deduction!" Ash commented with a pointed finger in the air. "The missing children must have something in common!"

"They don't have a thing in common," Jenny replied sadly, and Ash curled his finger and rested it on his chin thoughtfully. "But I think other kids may know something about it." They stopped and Jenny looked forward, and suddenly their destination became clear: they were standing in front of the local Pokémon Center in town. A big red building with large satellite dishes on top, the Pokémon Center was apparent by the large 'P' over the door made up of solar panels, and was very busy for the time of day that it was.

"I see!" Brock realized. "So we'll ask the kids in the Pokémon Center if they know anything."

"That's it, Brock! Brilliant deduction!" the Pallet Town native agreed with his finger pointed high in the air.

Heading inside, the lobby was giant, and filled with Pokémon Trainers of all ages. There were even some little kids scattered about, either with their older siblings or parents. The group of three decided to tag-team their questioning – while Officer Jenny went off to talk to some of the smaller kids, Ash would ask Nurse Joy if she had seen any of the missing children. Brock followed Jenny like a lost puppy, so Ash scoped out the pink-haired nurse. It was easy to find her; she was supervising a group of nurses and doctors at computers in the large counter area in the middle of the lobby. With a Pokémon Center of this size, it was obvious to see that she needed help.

Approaching the counter, Nurse Joy folded her arms in front of her nurse's outfit and smiled as the dark-haired boy approached. "Ah, I bet you're related to the Joy from Maiden's Peak, aren't you?"

"Well, you'd win that bet," she answered joyfully.

"I wanted to know if you knew anything about the missing children," Ash asked, holding up a picture of a girl with brown hair that Officer Jenny had given him for questioning.

"Oh, those kids who disappeared all of a sudden," Nurse Joy muttered, her blue eyes falling down on the photograph. "I saw it on the news."

"Please, is there anything you can tell me about these children?"

"I'd like to help you, but right now, I'm afraid I've got my hands full with our own mystery," she responded with a saddened look. "All the Pokémon here at the center are behaving very strangely." A confused look crossed Ash's face, and at that time, Officer Jenny and Brock approached him, with the former looking frustrated and Brock being oblivious to it.

"Did you find anything out?" Jenny asked Ash, and the boy shook his head in response.

"No, but Nurse Joy said that the Pokémon here are acting weird."

"And you can't figure it out?" the police officer questioned Joy, but the Pokémon Nurse just shook her head.

"That's why I have some researchers here. They can't seem to figure it out either," she responded, gesturing to some of the men and women in white lab coats behind her, who were hard at work clicking away at computers in front of them.

"It might not be related, but we shouldn't leave any stone unturned," Brock spoke up, a red glow appearing on his face as he stared at Nurse Joy. Ash frowned, knowing Brock only wanted to spend more time with the Nurse Joy, but Jenny seemed to agree.

"Yes, that may be true," she replied. "Can you show us?" Joy nodded, and left her post at the counter and leaving a nurse in charge while gesturing them to follow her into the back. When they finally stopped, they were led into a room with hi-tech equipment that beeped and displayed information that Ash wouldn't have the first clue what they meant. There were also a handful of Pokémon in here on a table in the center of the room, each of them looking ill.

"Just look at Cubone," Nurse Joy spoke up, gesturing to the Pokémon at the end of the table. The Ground-type was laying on its stomach, and just barely gripping its bone. "And Oddish." The Grass and Poison Pokémon's leaves were shriveled and falling on either side of its head like a bad wig. Nurse Joy then retrieved a Pokémon with rust-colored scales from a tank towards the back and placed it on the table where it fell to the side, stiff as a board. "Even Magikarp is affected, and it's usually full of life."

"Looks like it's ready for the deli counter..." Ash commented with a perked eyebrow. Looking back at a dome towards the back of the room, she looked sadly at a Charmander underneath the glass.

"The flame on this Charmander could go out any minute." Ash let out a gasp, and immediately remembered when his Charmander was in the same exact shape back before he had captured it. Finally, Nurse Joy bent down behind the counter, and when she came back up, she was holding a yellow duck-like Pokémon that was holding its head in its webbed hands. "And this one's been in just terrible shape."

"Psy-yai-yai..." it moaned, looking blankly at the wall.

"What is it?" Ash questioned, retrieving his Pokédex and scanning the unknown Pokémon in the nurse's arms.

"Psyduck. A Water Pokémon. Uses mysterious power to perform various attacks."

"Mysterious powers?" Ash repeated, looking at the Pokémon in confusion. It was certainly hard to believe as he watched it moan and stare blankly.

"So what's causing all this?" Brock asked.

"I have no idea," Joy responded with a shake of her head.

"And how long have they been acting like this?" Officer Jenny queried, taking out a notepad from her satchel attached to her uniform.

"Since three days ago..."

"Three days ago?" Brock echoed, and all three perked up from the words and looks amongst themselves. "And that's exactly when all those children disappeared, isn't it?"

"I wonder if maybe there's some kind of connection between the children's disappearance and the Pokemon's lack of energy," Jenny replied thoughtfully, forgoing notes and instead crossing her arms and looking down at the tiled floor in thought.

"Hmm... one mystery leads to another," Ash murmured with his index finger touching his temple. "One more puzzle for the mind of Ash Ketchum, master detective." He crossed his arms and hummed as the gears in his brain turned, but Brock simply let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Something's very strange," Jenny said with her eyes closed, but then opened them when a strange whirring began to hum from something else in her satchel. She fished it out and looked at the screen, and though Ash couldn't tell exactly what it was, it almost looked like a radio or phone of some kind. "It's picking up something..."

"I bet I know what that is!" Brock spoke up, leaning his body against Officer Jenny's side with a coy grin. "A handsome guy detector!"

"Don't kid yourself!" she snapped, and pushed him away with a noise of disgust. "This is a sleep-wave detector."

"A sleep-wave detector?" the Pokémon Breeder repeated once he had steadied himself.

"Lately I've been picking up sleep-waves."

"What are they?" Ash inquired.

"Wavelengths that induce sleep," the police officer explained.

"But I'm sure there aren't any Pokémon that emit that wavelength in this center," Nurse Joy told her.

"They're from outside."

"I wonder if those sleep waves, and the Pokemon's conditions are-" Brock began, and Jenny seemed to be reading his mind.

"Yeah, they may be connected," she agreed with a nod, and looked back down at the detector's face. "I think we better find the source of these sleep-waves." The group nodded, and the three left the way they had came and headed out of the room towards the lobby of the center once again. But before they could leave, they were stopped by a young girl around Ash's age with brown hair that fell like a waterfall down just past her shoulders.

"Are you guys... investigating the missing children?" she asked hesitantly. The three exchanged looks before Officer Jenny spoke up and stepped forward, her heels clicking on the clean tile underneath as she did.

"We are. Do you have any information for us?" The girl hesitated, and her mouth scrunched together into a frown as she looked to the ground, but before she could speak up, Brock jumped in front of Jenny.

"Make sure you answer her questions as thoroughly as you can! She's a beautiful police officer just trying to do her job – which, might I add – she is doing a fantastic job on-"

"You're in the way!" Jenny snapped, pushing Brock off to the side.

"Please, we're trying to help as much as we can," Ash told her with a soft look. Once again, his mind drifted to the woman who mistook him for her son. "There are plenty of family members who are really missing these kids." He held out the picture that Jenny had given him to show to Nurse Joy, and the girl's blue eyes began to sparkle as she looked down at the photograph.

"I know," she said as a single tear fell from her eye. "The girl in the photograph is my little sister." Jenny and Brock both turned towards the girl, and she intertwined her fingers and looked at Officer Jenny. "My name is Dianne. Please, let me help you in your search! My parents and I are worried sick, and I want to do everything I can to bring Tanya back home. Only then will I be able to sleep again."

Jenny seemed hesitant at first, but once her gaze jumped from Ash and Brock to the pleading look of the girl, she gave a sigh of defeat and took another glance at the sleep-wave detector that was whirring in her grip. "Well, I guess you can't be any more in the way than this one," she said, gesturing her head to Brock. "Just be sure to help as much as you can." The girl wiped her eyes on her sleeve and a look of hope passed across her face.

"I will!"

o 0 o

The group followed the sleep-wave detector with Jenny in the lead. Holding it like a compass, she was the only one who could decipher the electronic device, so she led the way. Once again, Ash noted to himself how all the roads and sidewalks all looked the same with the giant buildings reaching up toward the cloud not helping his navigation either, but dared not say this out loud to prove his ignorance. But finally, they stopped in front of a particularly large skyscraper that would have just blended into the gray background otherwise had Jenny not pointed it out.

"They're coming from this building."

"Woah! It's so tall!" Ash exclaimed with a gasp. Beside him, Dianne was wearing a mask of confusion.

"How odd," she murmured. "This is the rich part of town."

"Aren't they all rich parts of town?" the Pokémon Trainer asked, and Dianna locked eyes with him and nodded.

"But this one in particular; they're loaded!"

"They seem to be coming from the roof," Jenny told them, craning her neck to look straight up.

"Let's go!" Brock instructed, and the four all broke into a run to head inside, where they quickly found the elevator in the lobby of the luxury apartment building and pressed the button to bring them onto the roof. The silence in the elevator seemed to weigh them down, and gravity increased its hold on them with each floor they passed. The only sound that rang in their ears was dinging of the lift with each floor they passed, and the sleep-wave detector in Jenny's hands that created more static as they got closer to their destination.

"As we go up, the signal gets stronger," she commented, all four of their eyes glued on the handheld machine. It was only a matter of time before the elevator stopped, and with one final ding, it opened up into a small marble lobby with only two sets of doors – one beside them leading to a stairwell, and another straight across from them with the words 'EXIT' above it. The walk across the small room seemed to take an eternity, and it was Jenny who reached out and wrapped her glove around the silver door knob, taking a second to prepare herself before twisting it and pushing it open.

"Wha... What's that?!" Ash asked rhetorically. The sight that he saw was not what he expected in the least.

It was like they had opened up a doorway to some sort of front gate, despite the fact that they had just come through an elevator. Gravel walkways, shrubbery and foliage cut down to perfection without a single leaf out of place, the bubbling of a water fountain, and a huge house on the other end of the rooftop almost made them question if they were on a rooftop at all.

"A mansion on top of this skyscraper?" Brock questioned, his mouth agape in shock.

"I told you this was the rich part of town... but even I've never seen this before..." Dianne muttered in equal shock despite it being her hometown.

Jenny pointed the head of the machine at the mansion across from them, and it began to whir and spin even more rapidly. "It's coming from inside there!" she reported.

"All right!" Ash declared, and without another thought, ran forward towards the mansion. Dianne, who wasn't quite used to Ash's split-second decisions, held out her hand as if to catch him by the collar but was too late.

"Wait, Ash!" she called, but her words didn't make it to his ears. Running fearlessly down the main entrance surrounded on either side by tall, decorative trees, he rushed up onto the front patio of the mansion and quickly dipped down beside the double doors. They were wooden, but the windows were frosted so someone couldn't peek inside. Instead, Ash took to putting his ear against the door. He could hear commotion coming from inside, but what exactly was going on he wasn't sure. There weren't any loud noises or noises that could particularly point to danger, so he waved at the others that it was safe to join him.

Not wanting to be seen, the three kept low to the ground as they rushed toward the door and ducked low near Ash. "What now?" Brock questioned.

"There's someone inside," the Pokémon Trainer responded quietly, and stood up. "I'm going in." Brock joined him, and together, they stood side-by-side before preparing themselves.

"Ready, set..." Charging forward, they rammed both of their shoulders into the doors. The force of their strikes caused the unlocked doors to swing open, and they both stumbled inside with Dianne and Officer Jenny in tow. But much like the outside of the mansion, the inside wasn't what they were expecting either, and as they gained their footing again, both Ash and Brock stopped and stared in surprise at the faces staring back at them. Instead of some type of creepy house, they seemed to have stumbled across... a party of some kind.

Everyone was dressed in sharp and smart clothing, both expensive-looking suits for the gentlemen and glittering dresses for the ladies. There were mostly older-looking folks here, and Ash thought back to the time that he was on the party on the St. Anne in Vermilion City; the rich party-goers there wore almost the same thing. Some held expensive-looking purses and canes tipped with diamonds, while some others had wine glasses weaved through their fingers. But the sudden intrusion was completely unexpected by them, and they all looked at the four intruders with wide eyes and mouths open. As Ash studied the room around him, his eyes fell upon two Pokémon that were sitting on a table in the middle of the room – one was a heavier-looking Pokémon with a long snout and a brown bottom like it had sat in mud, and the one beside it was all yellow and held a pendulum in its hand.

"What is this place?" Brock asked, his voice echoing in the large room.

"What's going on here?" Ash added in confusion.

"Are you new members?" an older gentleman who looked to be about in his fifties asked them once the initial surprise of their intrusion simmered down.

"Uh, members?!" Ash repeated, and he wasn't really sure how to respond as a nervous hand found its way behind his head.

Luckily, Officer Jenny butted in and stepped forward. "We've been monitoring some sleep waves coming from up here."

"Sleep waves?" This time it was the man's turn to repeat the last words he heard, but suddenly his black eyes sparkled in realization behind his half-spectacles sitting on the bridge of his nose. "Oh! I know." He turned his head with a smile and his eyesight fell upon the yellow Pokémon on the right side of the table. "This Hypno must have been emitting them."

"Hypno?" Ash questioned, taking another look at the Pokémon before scanning it with his Pokédex.

"Hypno, a Hypnosis Pokémon. It carries a pendulum-like device and performs hypnotic attacks."

"Oh..!" the dark-haired boy commented, but before he could put his hi-tech encyclopedia away, Dianne pointed to the Pokémon beside it.

"What Pokémon is next to it?" she asked, and he obliged by scanning it, not knowing the answer to that question as well.

"Drowzee. Said to be a descendant of the dream-eating tapir. It was the first Pokémon to use a combination attack like Hypnosis and Dream Eater."

"I think a Hypno's the evolved form of Drowzee, isn't it?" Brock queried.

"Yes, that's correct," the rich man nodded in confirmation, and smiled proudly. "And our Drowzee finally evolved into a Hypno three days ago!"

"Three days ago?!" As Brock said, this, all three of their eyes shot to Officer Jenny, who looked knowingly back at them.

"I knew it! That's just when those children vanished, and the Pokémon started to lose all their energy."

"We've been using the Pokémon instead of using sleeping medicine," a second man wearing a top hat said to them whilst sipping from a glass of wine.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Dianne asked curiously.

"The members of the Pokémon Lovers Club," the first man explained, opening his arms as if introducing the people standing behind him.

"The Pokémon Lovers Club?"

"Precisely! You see, all of our members absolutely adore Pokémon, and well, Hypno has become our favorite Pokémon." Their eyes all drifted to the yellow Pokémon sitting on the table, who was staring blankly back at them. "Everyone's hard work paid off when Drowzee finally evolved."

"Oh?" Ash muttered with a frown.

"Living our lives in the city can be very stressful, and all of the members suffer from insomnia," the older man explained further. "So we've come to rely on Hypno's powers to help us get to sleep at night."

As if to explain further, an older man with pure white hair sat down on a chair in front of Hypno, and as if that were its cue, the Hypnosis Pokémon started to swing its pendulum back and forth, and it chanted its name quietly and soothingly. Rings of rainbow-colored energy came out of Hypno's pendulum and soon, the old man's head slumped forward and he was asleep.

"Hypno's sleep waves must have affected all those Pokémon by zapping their energy!" Ash exclaimed.

"It's happened to all the Pokémon at the Pokémon Center," Dianne elaborated.

The man looked down at the pair and stumbled on his wording. "It must be a..."

"A side effect?" Brock asked with his arms crossed, and Ash's eyebrows rose slightly.

"Side effect?"

"Hypno's hypnotic powers are usually just used only on other Pokémon," Brock explained with a nod. "Since the wave-length was changed to affect humans, it's creating a side effect for the Pokémon."

"Yeah..." Ash agreed with a thoughtful nod. It certainly made sense. The gentleman from the Pokémon Lovers Club seemed concerned, however, and looked at Hypno.

"Somehow we've accidentally caused a terrible situation..."

"You know what... I'll be that new wavelength can even affect some kids who are sensitive to it, too!" Brock continued.

"Kids?" Ash parroted, and taking a cue from Ash's book, Dianne walked forward, and once the sleeping old man had been moved, she also fearlessly sat down in front of Hypno.

"Let's see!" she declared. With someone sitting in the chair in front of it, the Psychic Pokémon did what it was trained to do, and started to use Hypnosis on her like it had on the old man. Like the man sitting in the chair before her, her head and eyelids drooped as if they were too heavy to lift up, but unlike him, she did not fall asleep. Instead, she stood up from the chair, holding her arms out with her elbows tucked into her sides and palms up. "Bell! Bell!"

"Dianne? What's that matter!"

"Dianne's being controlled by the sleep wave!" Brock observed as the others closed in to get a closer look.

"We've gotta do something!" Ash said to his friend, but Dianne suddenly jumped to her feet, and with her eyes half-closed, pushed past him and accidentally knocked him to the ground in her rush to get by him. Chanting 'Bell' over and over, she rushed toward the door. "Hey, Dianne! Where're you going?!" But his words seemed to be unheard by her, and she headed out the doors that were still opened leading outside. "Dianne, come back!" Stumbling back onto his feet, Ash ran after the young girl without another look behind him.

"Wait up, Ash!" Brock shouted, and him and Officer Jenny followed suit. In addition – much to their surprise – the man with the glasses from the Pokémon Lovers Club puffed along with them.

"If Hypno is unintentionally wrecking havoc all over the town, I'd like to see it with my own eyes," he told them, reading their thoughts as they crossed the courtyard. Heading into the lobby with the elevator, they got through the door just in time to see the door to the stairwell shut, and could hear Dianne's voice chanting and echoing in the empty stairway.

The door to the elevator was already waiting when they pressed the button, so they all piled in and waited impatiently to go down, hoping they wouldn't miss the girl when she got to the bottom of the stairs. But luckily enough, once the lift had gotten to the bottom floor and opened up, they saw just in time the brunette pushing through the door, chanting "Bell, bell," and hopping around on both feet as though they were tied together by some invisible rope.

"Look, there she is!" Ash announced, pointing at her, and the group chased after her while onlookers weren't sure whether to stare at the girl or the group of mismatched people chasing her. They paid no mind to their surroundings and only focused on trying not to lose her. Winding through the streets of HopHopHop Town and staying close to Dianne, they followed her to a city park just on both the borders of both HopHopHop Town and Celadon City. They rushed past trees and bushes, trying their best to keep their stamina in check in order to keep up. Luckily, she had resorted to hopping around, so it wasn't too difficult to keep up with her. As Ash and Brock were traveling Trainers, they were used to moving so much. Jenny was a police officer with formal training, so she was okay as well, but the older gentleman was puffing along and trying his best to keep up in his suit.

"I can't believe there's a park this big in the middle of the city!" Ash commented. Finally, Dianna reached a small lake in the middle of the sea of trees, and kneeled down beside the edge of it, but the group of four all gasped at the sight that awaited them.

There were more than ten children here with her, and all of them were all acting just as strangely as Dianne was. Most, if not all of them, were either on their hands and knees or on their stomach completely. The boy closest to them was a prime example, and was standing on his hands and knees in the grass, shouting at nothing in particular, "Bulbasaur! Bulbasaur!" But in fact, not just the boy was making Pokémon cries – they all were.

"These are all the missing children!" Jenny exclaimed, her eyes wide in surprise as she watched a girl in pigtails run by waving her arms and chirping like a Butterfree. Meanwhile, a boy with greasy brown hair wiggled around a tree trunk, making Caterpie noises.

"What's happening? Why are they acting that way?" Ash questioned as a bead of sweat escaped under his spiky hair.

"Pokémon-itis," Brock observed quietly.

"Pokémon-itis?!"

"With that new wavelength, the children who were exposed to Hypno's think that they're Pokémon now!" the Pokémon Breeder explained.

"And it got Dianne, too?" Ash questioned.

"Yeah..." It all made sense; she wasn't saying bell because she was looking for a bell, she was saying it because she thought she was a Weepinbell.

"How on earth could a thing like this have happened?" the man from the Pokémon Lovers Club asked rhetorically, horrified as his beady eyes scanned the lakeside.

Their eyes fell upon a girl splashing in a puddle. It was the same girl from the photograph that Officer Jenny had given Ash – Dianne's little sister, and she was splashing around like a fish while chanting, "Magikarp! Magikarp! Magikarp!". The older girl was so worried for her younger sister, and with her being hypnotized, she ran right past her without even a second glance. The group watched the scene with their mouths open, unable to believe their eyes as they took this in.

Finally, Officer Jenny snapped back into reality, and clapped gloved hands to bring everyone else back as well. "Alright, wake up everyone, it's time to go home!" she called. The kids paid absolutely no attention to her, and Ash wasn't even sure if they knew they were there. Jenny stepped forward when they didn't react and approached her while a girl pretending to be a Pidgey flying through the sky danced by. "Come on, stop this! All of your mothers are worried sick!" She snatched the soaked girl up by the wrist, but the girl only looked at her with heavy-lidded eyes before ripping her arm away from the police officer's grip and then continued splashing in the puddle.

"Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp!"

"It's just no use!" Jenny said with a frown as she took a step back, her arm recoiling as if the girl had struck her.

"What can we do?" Ash questioned, and Brock crossed his arms in thought, but it was the man from the Pokémon Lovers Club who came up with an idea first.

"Say, I know! What if we use Drowzee to cure the children?" he suggested.

"Drowzee?"

"Drowzee emits dream wavelengths which, in this case, may counteract Hypno's wavelengths."

"Yeah, that just might work!" Brock agreed with a nod, and for the first time since coming to the lake, Ash smiled.

"Let's give it a try!"

o 0 o

It was a bit of a struggle to get Dianne back up to the Pokémon Lovers Club mansion. For some reason, everyone who was hypnotized by Hypno's sleep waves were drawn to the lakeside, so she was fighting hard to get away. However, the power of one girl was nothing in comparison to two teens and two adults, even if she did think she was a Weepinbell. But once they finally did, they sat her down on the chair, but instead of sitting in front of Hypno, the man from the Pokémon Lovers Club moved the chair so she sat in front of Drowzee instead.

The rich members of the Pokémon fan club looked on with questioning and concerning looks as they saw the girl hop in her seat with heavy-lidded eyes, mocking the cries of a Weepinbell. And Drowzee, seeing that its services were needed, stood up and its beady eyes fell upon Dianne. "Drowzee, emit your dream waves and focus them toward this girl," the gentleman from the Pokémon Lovers Club who accompanied them to the lake instructed the Hypnosis Pokémon.

Much like Hypno had before it, Drowzee started to chant in a soothing tone, but instead of waving a pendulum like its evolved form, it moved its hands up and down opposite of each other. Rainbow rings of psychic energy were emitted out at Dianne, who was still bouncing in the seat with her arms out and calling. The two voices fought only momentarily before suddenly, the young girl lowered her head and arms and she looked as though she were sleeping.

"Oh, Dianne..." Ash muttered, surprised by how quickly she had fallen asleep.

"She must be in a pretty deep trance..." Brock added.

Drowzee continued its chanting and moving its arms back and forth for a moment longer, and then finally, after a few moments, clapped its hands together and stopped chanting with a final call. "Drowzee!" As soon as its hands clapped, Dianne perked up, her eyes wide open with surprise.

"Huh?" she stated, attempting to blink back confusion. "Hey, where am I?"

"Dianne, you came down with Pokémon-itis!" Ash told her. And soon, they explained what had happened after she had been hypnotized by Hypno's sleep waves. With the news of her sister being found, her face instantly lit up, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"I'm... so happy."

"Now we've got to use Drowzee's sleep waves on all those kids in the park!" Officer Jenny said with a smile on her face.

"Okay!" Ash agreed, hoisting the heavy Psychic Pokémon onto his back with much strain. Though he was struggling to carry it, the yellow Pokémon didn't seem to mind being carried, and simply folded its arms on Ash's head. "Now we've got to get those kids back to normal!"

Leaving the leader of the Pokémon Lovers Club at the mansion, the four all rushed out with Ash and Drowzee in the lead, and headed toward the elevator. "I still can't believe I thought I was a Pokémon!" Dianne said in between breaths as they made their way across the rooftop courtyard.

"Yeah! You turned completely into a Weepinbell!" Ash told her with a smile. When they finally headed outside of the building and back onto the street for the second time that day, Dianne grabbed their attention.

"There are more worried family members than me," she told them. "I know exactly where that lake is, so I'm gonna go and get some of the others to meet me there." They agreed on the plan, and split up with her – as she headed towards town, they went towards the forest.

This time, it was much easier to know where they were going after already knowing their destination, and it wasn't long before they arrived at the lakeside. As before, all the children were running and crawling around, acting as if they were Pokémon. Setting the Hypnosis Pokémon on the ground before it, Ash gave the Psychic-type a grin. "Okay Drowzee, you're up." The yellow and brown Pokémon nodded in understanding, and as it had before with Dianne, started to chant and wave its arms steadily back and forth. Rainbow rings came out between its hands, and with more of a range of targets, they expanded until they disappeared at the lake, managing to envelop all the area.

It was as if a harsh invisible blizzard had rushed by, and every kid all froze in place before they collapsed where they stood with their eyes closed. "They're all dreaming!" Brock observed. They stared for a while longer while Drowzee continued to emit its dream waves, and finally, it clapped its hands together, and one by one, the hypnotized children began to wake up and pull themselves off of the ground.

"Hey, h-how did I get into the middle of the park?" one boy asked aloud.

"Me, too!" a boy with an orange-striped shirt beside him replied. "And I should be working on becoming a Pokémon Trainer!"

"I wanna be a fireman!" a small boy who couldn't have been older than five piped up.

"And I'm gonna be a doctor!" The children soon scattered without giving the older group a second glance, or even a first, and even though it was a thankless job, the three looked on with smiles on their faces.

"Arnold!" A familiar voice shrieked with happiness through the woods, and they turned around to see the mom who they had first encountered hurrying through the trees. There were tears forming in her eyes and a big smile on her face as she rushed up to a boy who indeed greatly resembled the Pallet Town Pokémon Trainer, with his spiky hair a navy blue other than black. The two collided with open arms, and the young Arnold nuzzled up into his mother's embrace.

"Mommy!"

And just a few steps behind her, was Dianne with two older figures who were sure to be her own mom and dad, and they were bounding toward the girl who had thought she were a Magikarp. Though she was completely soaked to the bone, the three didn't seem to care, and they almost knocked over the girl from how fast they had hugged her.

"Tanya!"

"We were so worried! We're so glad you're okay." The family of four all were a mass of arms wrapping around each other, but Dianne's face managed to turn around to the group and give them a smile of appreciation their way.

"That's great!" Ash said with a smile.

"Ash, we've gotta cure the Pokémon at the Pokémon Center, too," Brock reminded him.

"Right!" And, hoisting Drowzee back onto his back, the group made their way to the large red building where their investigation had first began. Explaining the situation to Nurse Joy, they were led into the back room, and Ash placed Drowzee on the observation table with the other Pokémon, and it once again performed its duty. With one final clap of its hands, the Pokémon in front of it instantly perked up. Cubone peeled itself off the table, while Oddish hopped up, its leaves sticking straight up in the air once again. Towards the back of the room, the chamber containing Charmander opened, and the Fire-type stood up and grinned with its tail flame burning brightly.

"Charmander!" Even the Magikarp flopped on the table, all full of spunk once again.

"The Pokémon are all back to normal!" Nurse Joy exclaimed happily, laughing as she cradled Cubone in one hand and bounced Oddish in the other.

"Well, that's just one more case solved by Ash Ketchum, Master Detective!" the Pallet Town boy grinned, but Brock was quick to interrupt him.

"Are you joking?" he frowned, and Ash let out an exasperated laugh before letting out a sigh. But his sigh was soon overtaken by another one that was released from Nurse Joy. Perking back up, he saw that she had the same worried look on her face that she had when they had first met her. But before he could say anything, Brock jumped between them with his hands folded behind his back. "What's the matter? A beautiful woman shouldn't have too much to be sad about!"

"All of the Pokémon are better," Nurse Joy began with a worried hand hovering near her chin. "But this one's still holding its head." Her indigo eyes were looking down at the Psyduck that she had shown them earlier.

"Leave it to me!" Brock said confidently while patting his fist to his chest. "Caring for Pokémon is the sole purpose of my life – the reason I exist!"

"Then maybe you can help it," Joy responded, and smiled before turning back to Psyduck. Brock's eyes fell upon the Water-type, and after realizing what he had set himself up for, deflated slightly.

"Oh..."

o 0 o

The mystery of the missing children had been solved, so the pair of Trainers had HopHopHop Town and its Pokémon Center at their back. But, instead of the usual duo, they had a tag-along in the form of the yellow Duck Pokémon trailing behind them.

"Psy... duck... psy..." the Pokémon moaned, still holding its head and staring at the ground, watching each step carefully as it followed the pair.

"Well, you were the one who said, 'leave it to me', Brock," Ash pointed out with his nose in the air.

"But Psyduck is a new Pokémon that you don't have yet," Brock argued, looking back at the Water-type with a cocked eyebrow. "Y-you better take it, Ash."

"No way," the dark-haired boy replied. "Besides, I've already got two Water Pokémon – I don't need another." Nevertheless, he pulled out his Pokédex and brought up Psyduck's information.

"Psyduck. Constantly suffers from a headache."

"You mean... it always has a headache..?" Brock muttered in disbelief, stopping in place as Psyduck stopped in time with the Pokémon Breeder, and Ash couldn't help but chuckle.

"Good thing caring for Pokémon is the sole purpose of your life – the reason you exist!" he sneered, and kneeled down to look as Psyduck before chuckling at Brock once again. "Good work, Brock! You got a Psyduck!"

"Ugh... now I've got a headache..."

-end-

Ash:

Party:

Wartortle (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Dig, Water Gun, BubbleBeam

Pidgeotto (Poké Ball)

Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack

Bulbasaur (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf

Charmander (Poké Ball)

Moves: Flamethrower, Leer, Rage, Skull Bash

Krabby (Poké Ball)

Moves: ViceGrip

Mankey (Poké Ball)

Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick

Badges:

Boulder Badge

Cascade Badge

Thunder Badge

Marsh Badge

Rainbow Badge

Brock:

Party:

Onix (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig

Geodude (Poké Ball)

Moves: Seismic Toss, Tackle

Zubat (Poké Ball)

Moves: Whirlwind, Supersonic

Psyduck (Poké Ball)

Moves: