Disclaimer: I discovered I'm finding it fun to write these disclaimers, so here it is. If you don't like it I suggest you skip everything else that's in bold because it's all going to sound like this. Pokémon is a concept I have never owned. I have tried to own it but have never succeeded thanks to strange copyright laws which put me in court every time I try to advertise PokémonKeys. Which are monkeys you can keep in your pocket. Woo.

The lift held all five of them. It wasn't a very large lift, and they had little space to breathe, let alone talk. But talk they did.

"When you got to the lab, weren't there six Pokéballs?"

The boy who asked this question was tall and lean, lean, leaning against the wall of the lift. The other boy he'd directed his question at was small and looked rather claustrophobic. He was keeping away from the sides, as though afraid the walls might suddenly disappear.

"That's right… but there are five of us here…"

One of the girls looked up, watching the numbers as they went from 3 to 2.

"I wonder who it is…?" she mused.

Ash shifted uneasily in his corner; as far as he knew, whoever it wasn't going to die of suffocation in a tight, enclosed box. He closed his eyes.

As though it was a trigger, the entire lift suddenly shut down. There was a moment of juddering, a strange sound like metal clanking, and then a feeling of dead weight; of loss.

According to the number displayed, they were trapped somewhere between the 1st and the 2nd floors. And then even that shut down. Everyone was over everyone else on the floor; there was a mad instant where everyone was trying to get up, shaking the compartment violently. Ash thought he could hear the screeching of metal against the side of the shaft.

The tall one quickly walked over to the console and pressed the button for the emergency bell. Ordinarily, the bell would've rung, allowing others to realize there were actually people trapped inside. Ordinarily, that is. Instead, they heard a muffled sound, like a thwacking of something hard against something soft. It reminded Ash of how his Wobuffet alarm clock sounded when he smashed it.

Of course, in this case it meant someone had muffled the bell. There'd be no help from that end.

There was one more character that hadn't spoken, of course. The girl had red hair, red irises, even an entirely red outfit. Throwing her Pokéball (Which had been painted red on the underside, too) she released her Vulpix.

Well she's certainly impulsive…

"Vulpix! Use Ember on the ceiling of the elevator!"

What…? But…

"W–Wait! Caterpie, let's go!" the smaller boy released his Caterpie from its Pokéball as well.

The lift shook as the weight of its cargo increased. And as the Vulpix burnt its way through the ceiling of the lift, rendering the steel cables which held it together useless. Vulpix and girl stepped back as they realized what they'd done.

"Caterpie! String Shot!"

The Caterpie released seven threads of strong string; one to each corner of the elevator compartment, and two more towards the loose elevator cable. The last one, coincidentally, muzzled the Vulpix nicely.

Ash gaped. He'd never seen any Caterpie shoot with such precision before. Though technically, he'd never seen any trainer who'd dared to use a Caterpie, either.

Just in time, the string lashed the elevator securely to the cable. A slight swaying and that was it.

"Well," the girl said, "at least we've got the roof open… no?"

The other trainers gathered around her menacingly.

"Hey guys, if you're going to kill her, let's get out of this elevator first."

Ash stood up, and walked over to the other girl.

"In case you've forgotten, you've got a Pidgeotto."

The girl stared at him blankly, then with a look of dawning comprehension.

"Oh, right."

In a few seconds Pidgeotto was out of the lift shaft, looking to find a way out, remove the muffler around the bell, or bring back a Milkshake.

The girl shrugged. "It's not my fault I'm hungry…"

They waited, unsure just how long the string would hold. The red girl was trying to remove the silk muzzle off her Vulpix, occasionally shooting dirty glances at the small boy. The tall, leaning boy tossed his Pokéball up and down in the air, occasionally fumbling and releasing his Rattata. He could tell the Rattata wasn't especially appreciating it; and he wasn't, either. Magically appearing and disappearing weight might have worked to keep Pokémon easy to carry, but it didn't help when the slightest imbalance might send the lift crashing into the ground.

"Caterpie…"

He turned to the boy in the corner. His face was even paler than before; definitely a sign he had a being-trapped-in-a-lift phobia. It wasn't uncommon, not in small pale boys who looked like they were claustrophobic. The Caterpie was resting on his head, which was kind of cool in a kind of gross way.

"Hey, can I borrow your Caterpie for a bit?"

"Wh-why?"

Ash sighed. If he didn't get the food back in time, it'd grow cold. And also it'd probably be entirely devoured by the other children. He checked his watch. Fifteen minutes had passed. Not enough time for the food to grow too cold, but enough to be worried. Much of the staff weren't present yet, and without the emergency bell, they'd probably be more worried about the freezer systems than whether there was anyone stuck in their lifts.

Typical. People never think of the less obvious possibilities.

It could be another half hour before power could be restored, and in their current precarious state, they mightn't be able to wait that long. The boy relented, giving Ash control of his Caterpie. A better storyteller might be able to tell you what Ash used it for more interestingly. I am not that storyteller. Suffice to say, he used String Shot.

In a minute or two, a pulley system had been set up. He looked at Caterpie. It was strange that such a small creature had such a capacity for string.

You'd be great at parties.

The other boy had stopped dropping his Rattata on the floor now.

"What's that supposed to be?"

Caterpie jumped back atop its trainer's head. The trainer in question grabbed a rope of string which had been attached to the floor.

"Everyone, hold on." was all he said.

He catches on quick…

Grudgingly, they all obeyed. Soon they had all five trainers holding on to a single length of string. After he was sure they'd all got a good grip, Ash yanked on the end of the String; hard. He'd made sure Caterpie hadn't secured it too firmly.

There was a loud groaning noise as the lift began to shake. Startled, the Pidgeotto girl let go and the lift began descending rapidly. Just in time, she grabbed hold of the end. Their descent slowed to a trundle. It was just as well the string was sticky and soft; he could get serious rope burn from this.

In a minute, they'd reached the bottom of the elevator shaft. Caterpie, who'd been feeding extra string through to them, was thoroughly exhausted. The boy, grateful to be on a stable platform, recalled Caterpie.

"And now… we wait."

It really was quite boring, waiting. Ash spent much of his time randomly pressing the emergency bell button. It reminded him of home. The other children were in various states of sleeping, stoning, and Pokémon battling. He considered screaming for help, but he doubted he had the voice. Anyway the shaft walls were probably soundproof. Everything was something-proof nowadays. Construction companies did it so it looked good on their reports. Heck, even alcohol was proofed. He sat and watched their battle.

"Rattata, use tail whip!"

"Vulpix! Dodge and use ember!"

The usual screaming of a Pokémon battle. He wondered why they'd have to be so loud.

He got to his feet as the embers nearly landed on him. Quickly he went into Protect-the-Food mode as attacks began to get wilder and more violent.

"Rattata! Use quick attack!"

"Vulpix! Confuse Ray!"

Confusion was a lot like being drunk. Immediately Rattata's actions revolved around two things: Smashing things up by accident, and smashing things up on purpose. Ash ducked and rolled as a tackle went over his head. He stopped briefly to check the status of the soup. You really had to hand it to Immaterion Corporations. They knew how to make to-go lids.

But the food was still in jeopardy. At any second a stray attack might destroy the food he'd tried so hard to protect…

But then it was all over. The power came back on. The author sighed. What an anticlimax.

By the time they got out of the lift shaft, half an hour had already passed. Before the staff from the PokéMart had managed to get around to talking to them, Ash was out the door. Or rather, he hit the door. It was only a moment later he stumbled out.

Darn sliding doors

The boy with the Caterpie watched him go, and then sighed.

As usual, he'd forgotten his change.

A/N: One chapter a day, as always. Introduction of side-characters, part one, complete!

Sorry about the rush, but Lilio keeps trying to annoy Ravaya. It's hard enough to cook without the implements fighting amongst themselves…