CHAPTER 3: The Gyarados Predicament

His eyes were closed, but he'd never seen more clearly. Time, space, matter, meaning – mere fragments of a greater whole, an insight with truth and beauty beyond compare. In planes of knowledge where lesser beings would be utterly consumed he frolicked with ease, trembling in a euphoria built up over years of involuntary self-suppression. And why wouldn't he? The universe had called to him, screamed within him his entire life, and at long last he could finally respond.

Until now, such enlightenment had only been felt in fleeting bursts, the tiniest of excerpts granted by severe physical trauma. This was the first time he'd seen the whole picture, this realm of reality free from interruption, and it was magnificent. Past, present and future lay before him like an astral tapestry, a single work of art for him to mould however he saw fit. Never had he known such power, and never had such power known him. Oh, the marvels he could achieve; the wonders he could create…

Only, he could not move. A limitless mind trapped in a lifeless body. The humans had done what they thought was right, as would any young and narrow-minded species. He didn't blame them. In the inactivity, he focused on his Mistress; all at once, he could see as she saw, sense as she sensed, hurt as he had for years witnessed her hurting. And so he lay there, silent, and watched closely…


"Misty! Misty, wait up!"

"Pikachupi!"

The streets, buildings and passersby of Cerulean City were but a blur to them. Given the urgency of their journey, the two panicked friends had opted for the bus rather than travelling on foot or by pokémon (the latter not being an option with Charizard at the pokémon centre). The ride was infuriatingly slow, and unbearably tense, and before the vehicle had even come to a stop, Misty had shot out of those barely open doors like a stir crazy sharpedo.

"Misty, slow do- ow! S-Sorry…uh, m-medical emergency!"

The further away she hurtled, the harder it was for Ash to navigate the unamused crowds his friend had seemed to slide through effortlessly. He wasn't used to being the chaser rather than the chasee; on any other day, it would be him charging merrily down the road with his companions yelling at him as they tried in vain to keep up. This was certainly an interesting switch-up to the formula, if not a very timely one.

Get to Psyduck. Get to Psyduck. These words had repeated themselves in Misty's head from the moment she woke up that morning. She could think of nothing else – not the gym, not her sisters, not Ash, not even that haunting letter from the Pokémon League – and having not heard anything from Nurse Joy only made her all the more fearful of the worst. Her gaze was fixed forwards in a focused trance that neither her tear-filled eyes nor the glints of sunlight from between the houses served to sever. The pokémon centre was up ahead – she was just thankful she didn't have to pass the wreckage of her gym to reach it.

"I told you…to w-wait," a sodden and exhausted Ash panted as Misty's suddenly slowed pace allowed him to catch her up. She stopped at the shimmering glass doors to the pokémon centre and turned to look at the doubled-over young man.

"Ash, what if he's-"

Her mouth clenched shut before the threatening crack in her voice could make itself heard. Ash caught her eye just as she began to turn her head and smiled sadly.

"Don't think like that, Mist," he answered. "We'll go in together, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded, a little heat rising to her cheeks. As they stepped forward through the doors, the warm and humid surroundings of early morning Cerulean City were quickly replaced with yellow tiled floors, cool air conditioning and a stinging brightness from the strip lights stretching across the high ceiling.

"Nurse Joy?" Misty called out shakily. From across the foyer, a singularly tired-looking woman came scampering immediately over to them.

"Misty, thank goodness you're here," she said with a surprising lack of sincerity. "I…have your pokéballs here for you. Um, yours, too, Mr. Ketchum. I-If you'll just-"

"Why didn't you call?!" the redhead blurted out in angry distress. "You promised me! Do you know how worried I was?!"

Joy's azure eyes grew glassy with sorrow. "I tried, Misty, I really did!"

The girl's puzzled expression prompted her to continue. "I must have dialled your number at least ten times…but ever since last night, the phonelines in the pokémon centre have been down. It's…" she cast a worried glance over her shoulder, "it's a long story."

"What do you mean?" Misty inquired in a softer tone. Joy awkwardly shifted behind the front desk and inhaled deeply.

"I…maybe we should back up a little, here." With the sentence came an attempt at a courteous smile. "I have good news and bad news."

"B-Bad news?" Misty jumped in before Ash had a chance to pick.

Joy cleared her throat. "Yes. The bad news is that I'll have to keep Gyarados here for at least another day. He suffered a massive trauma to the head, though it doesn't seem to have come from any object or pokémon attack I know of. It's…a little concerning, but I imagine he should be fine with some more rest."

"Mhm…?" she nodded hurriedly, as if expecting more.

"Of course, you can come in any time to check up on him…"

"Yes?" Misty's anxiety was growing by the second.

"Oh, and I thought we might implement a leaner diet plan for him once he settles in back at the gym – you know, just until the swelling goes d-"

"What about Psyduck?"

The indignance in her voice was unmissable, but the suspense was killing her, and she had to know now. Nurse Joy's eyes darkened instantly.

"I-I…" she stuttered, wringing her tiny hands in discomfort, "I think you'd better follow me."

She said nothing else, instead lifting up the desk hatch for Ash and Misty to step through and walking resolutely through the long white corridors to the recovery wards. They ambled behind her, each step through the echoing halls conjuring another horrifying picture in their minds. Where was she taking them? What was so bad about this that she couldn't have just told them? Was it even worse than they were imagining? Eventually, they came to a moderately sized rectangular room, its windows obscured from the inside and bulging outwards in the most peculiar way. The paint was cracked all along the wall, and a pipe above their heads had clearly burst and been patched up recently. Most alarming, however, was the blackened, gnarled grid of scorch marks around the entirety of the blistered doorframe.

"What the…" Ash mumbled to himself. Pikachu shrank a little on his trainer's shoulder.

"I must warn you, what you're about to see is…quite distressing," Joy said delicately, before forcing open the heavy door and cautiously ushering them inside. Misty was not prepared for this. She couldn't take this uncertainty, the sheer theatricality of it all. Though admittedly unsure of quite what she had been expecting to see, the minute she walked through that charred doorway she knew it was absolutely not that.

"Ps-Psyduck?" she said through a startled intake of breath.

The room was completely empty, save for a crinkled mattress laid out in the middle of the floor. Nestled snugly in the thick white blanket resting atop it was a plump yellow pokémon, locked inertly in what seemed like a deep, deep slumber. The blue glow from yesterday was nowhere to be seen, Misty was thankful to discover, and his wounds had been thoroughly cleaned and bandaged. It would have been an image of great comfort, she thought, were his perpetual stillness not so profoundly unnerving to her.

Without thinking to ask if it were safe to do so, the teary young woman sank to her knees beside the makeshift bed and gathered the unconscious duck into her arms.

"It's alright, Psyduck, I've got you," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. She then aimed a distinctly horrified look at Nurse Joy, causing her to retreat slightly.

"Why the hell is he on the floor?!" she exclaimed in disgust. "Is a bed too much to ask?"

"Misty…" Ash murmured, his head on a swivel.

"And shouldn't he be hooked up to a heart monitor or something? It's like a prison in here!"

"Misty, look."

A lethargic tap on her shoulder put an end to Misty's heated train of thought, for what she saw when she followed her friend's gaze was unlike anything she had ever witnessed before. Each of the room's four walls was coated in a kind of thin, inorganic 'crust', varying in colour and texture from one spot to the next. It jutted out from the concrete surface by barely an inch, virtually two-dimensional, while large blobs of plaster behind it were noticeably warped and concave, implying a density or even a force about the bizarre material. For the most part, the staining was only chest high, but amongst the patchwork of matting lay the occasional cluster of steepled veins resembling fingers creeping up towards the high ceiling. Everything about it was unexplainable, unnatural, unsettling, and just plain wrong.

"Pika pika?" queried Pikachu as he sniffed at the base of the wall.

"Pikachu, get away from there!" Ash cried out in alarm.

"Oh, don't worry, it's quite safe," Nurse Joy assured him. "We've been running tests all morning." Hearing this, Misty stepped over to beside the inquisitive rodent and cautiously reached out to touch the otherworldly collage.

"What is this?" she asked, both rhetorically and with complete urgency. Her fingers ran lightly along the clotted substance, flinching each time she felt a new and unexpected texture underneath them. Within the mass, there seemed to be metal, plastic, glass, hints of varnished wood and several others she could not identify, all mysteriously melded together as one smooth slate.

"Hold on, is that…?" She stopped when she happened upon a notably softer spot. Whatever the coin-sized dot was had a unique velvety feel, not unlike clothing or even bedding, and when she squinted at it, a faint but familiar chansey pattern could be seen in part poking out from the corner.

"I'm…afraid it's rather hard to explain," said Joy, "but here – I think you should see this."

From behind her back the bashful woman produced a small handheld computer console. Her dainty fingers flicked at the screen for a short moment before she handed the device to Misty.

"This was ten o'clock last night," she dictated over the security footage that began to play. Ash and Pikachu huddled in to get a closer look.

"This can't be the same room," the redhead asserted, at which Nurse Joy gave a serious nod of verification. Indeed, the spotless, fully furnished hospital ward seemed like a far cry from the one in which they were currently standing. In the middle of the room was a bed surrounded by monitoring equipment, and the glow from the occupant of said bed was blinding on the grainy and monochromatic video, but Misty assumed it to be Psyduck, still emanating that ominous energy from the time of the incident.

"So, what are we supposed to see here?" asked Ash impatiently.

"Let me speed this up for you." Joy reached over to the controls at the side of the screen.

"Eleven o'clock." The scene was practically the same, except the light seemed to have grown stronger. "Twelve o'clock." Stronger still. "One o'clock." The objects around the room were now much further away from the centre. "Two o'clock." Medical apparatus and machinery had begun to warp out of shape. By this point, Misty had looked back over to the eerie wall coating, examining it far closer than she had before. The medley of materials was smooth, impossibly so, as though flattened down by an iron or a steamroller. Some fragments were lined or patterned; some contained markings resembling ink or lettering; and when she focused on the outstretching tendrils, a startling thought occurred to her that a lot of them, though almost mashed beyond recognition, looked a lot like…chair legs.

"Oh…my…god…" she stammered.

"What?" Ash inquired. "I don't get it."

"Can you g-go to the end?" she unsteadily asked Nurse Joy. The footage sped ahead to 4:37am, at which point the ward was in total disarray. A steady stream of yellow-ish gas was spilling into the room from an air vent on the ceiling, which gradually caused Psyduck's aura to recede. Then came a loud crash, followed by another, and a freakish fork of light later, the camera feed cut to black.

"We had no idea what to do," Joy spoke up somewhat remorsefully. "I've never seen anything like it. We were worried it might've spread to the whole pokémon centre if he kept going."

Misty was too shocked to say anything, so Joy thought it best to carry on. "I had a pair of weepinbell pump sleep powder into the room through the ventilation shafts, which seemed to calm him enough for us to enter. With all the equipment destroyed, I couldn't get an accurate assessment of his condition, so I was forced to place him in a chemically induced coma for the time being."

"And, er, how did that…?" Misty pointed to the scorched door while desperately trying to process what had already been said.

"The door was sealed shut from the inside, so I had to call a team of workers to laser cut their way through the blockage. Once we got in, all radio communication in the building suddenly stopped transmitting for some reason – that's why I wasn't able to contact you."

"Can someone please tell me what the heck's going on?"

Misty, having only just pieced the puzzle together herself, proceeded to immediately take her resulting stress out on her slow-witted friend.

"Psyduck's sick, you moron!" she screamed in his face. "Look at this!" Her pointing finger darted between several spots of the wall. "Lamp. Mattress. Mug. Syringe. Stethoscope. How else do you explain that?! You saw the video – it's his headache, his psychic abilities! All this time we've thought it was a blessing, but now…god, this is all my fault…"

Nurse Joy put the console down and placed her hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"Misty, I'm not sure how this happened, but one thing I am certain of is that none of it is your fault."

"Isn't there a-anything you can d-do?" Misty pleaded desperately.

"Not me, no. This is beyond anything I've ever dealt with. But I sent a message out to my cousin via carrier pidgey this morning, and we've arranged to have him moved to a laboratory in Indigo Plateau as soon as possible."

"Indigo Plateau?!" Ash repeated in surprise.

She nodded. "Psyduck needs to be examined by someone specifically trained in psychic healthcare. I've been told that a specialist is on his way to Indigo Plateau from Saffron City as we speak."

It was certainly a lot to process, and in these instances Misty's first reaction was almost always anger. She tried her hardest to push it down, taking deep breaths as she recounted in her head everything Nurse Joy had said to her.

"I…er…don't know how to…to thank you…" she whimpered as tears threatened to fall.

"No need to thank me, Misty," Joy smiled warmly. "And don't worry; I can assure you that Psyduck will be in the best of hands there."

A small nod from the redhead brought about a swift silence, more reflective than uncomfortable. Despite this, Ash quickly felt himself growing restless.

"So, uh, what was the good news?" he asked innocently.

Joy snapped her fingers. "Oh, yes! The good news is that all of your pokémon not directly involved in yesterday's…incident…have been checked over and are going to be just fine! Right this way."

Back at the front desk, Nurse Joy wheeled out a trolley containing several rows of freshly polished pokéballs. The top three trays were labelled as Misty's pokémon, while the handful on the bottom tray belonged to Ash.

"Azurill!" Misty cried as her trilling Polka Dot Pokémon bounced into her arms.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy!" Ash said for the both of them. "Did you even fix Caserin's glowing problem?"

Misty's face turned bright red, and she had to bite her tongue to suppress her mortified gasp.

"Glowing problem?" the perplexed nurse clarified. "I'm afraid I didn't notice any glowing when I was treating him. Can you describe it to me?"

"Well, he kept glowing this weird pinkish red colour, and Misty said she'd never seen him do it till yesterday. I think it made him stronger or something. Come to think of it, it only seemed to happen when I went near him…"

Gradually, Nurse Joy began to make sense of the boy's explanation, and with a telling glance at Misty, who had now turned her back, she couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

"Oh, I see," she giggled again. "Well, in that case, I can tell you that Caserin is absolutely fine – better than ever, in fact! The two of you have nothing to worry about."

Ash blinked. "Really? So, what was causing it?"

"It's really nothing bad, Ash, I promise you," she smiled playfully. "Besides, I've got a feeling you'll find out soon anyway."

"Er…well, okay. It's awesome he's alright, though, huh, Mist?"

When he looked around, however, the girl in question had already disappeared out of the doors and halfway down the road. Nurse Joy gave the pokémon trainer a quick wink, which appeared to pass him by completely, as he simply bid his farewells, tipped his and Misty's pokéballs into his backpack and skipped out of the door after his highly embarrassed friend.


Brock's narrow eyes stared intently into the dregs of his Cerulean coffee.

"Oh man…that's one hell of a story…"

"And that's not all," Misty groaned.

"Wait, there's more?!"

She unearthed the hastily folded court summons and slid it across the table towards him.

"No way," he said in disbelief, eyeing its distinctive watermarked edges, "you've gotta be kidding me. Is this what I think it is?"

"See for yourself," she replied defeatedly. The furrowed man unfolded the parchment, cleared his throat and began to read aloud.

"Dear Ms. Waterflower," he enunciated, "Following the incident that occurred at 1730 hours yesterday afternoon at the Cerulean City Pokémon Gym, you are required to attend an investigative hearing to assess the extent of the damage caused and its potential disruption to the upcoming Indigo League Conference. The hearing will take place on August 23rd at the Indigo Courthouse, Indigo Plateau, the outcome of which will determine both your direct involvement in said incident and, by extension, your future as a representative gym leader of the Pokémon League."

"Wow, they don't mess around, do they?" commented Ash in amazement.

"No, they don't," Brock agreed. "Sorry, guys – if I'd known about this, I would've tried to get here even sooner."

"How is the internship going?" Misty asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Oh, it's going great! Violet City Pokémon Centre is an amazing place, and I've learned so much working under Nurse Joy. I mean, it's a pity I'm not lying under her, but-"

"Not the time, Brock," she snapped harshly.

He scratched at his spiky hair. "Anyway…I've been assigned to look after a sick baby stantler. It's only four days old so it needs round-the-clock care. But after I heard about what happened at the gym, I told Nurse Joy I had to take some time off because of a family emergency. I wasn't lying, technically."

"Will it be alright?" Ash interjected.

"I'm sure it will. I mainly came back to see if you guys were okay, but since this hearing's only a week from now, I'll see if I can extend my stay until then. There'll be other doctors who can take on my duties."

"Thanks, Brock," Misty smiled weakly. "I think I'll feel better knowing you're there."

Ash raised his eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Of course, Misty," he smiled back. "Besides, I've been to the Indigo Courthouse a couple of times before."

"You have?"

"Yeah, back when I was a kid. My mom was summoned there quite a lot – negligence of duty or something like that. Hardly surprising, really, when you think about it. It's a wonder your sisters have never had to go."

"That we know of," Misty added dryly.

"So, what's it like?" Ash probed.

The doctor-in-training leant forwards towards his two younger friends. "Well, firstly, the Indigo Courthouse doesn't really work like an actual court. I think they just call it that to make it sound scary. There's no judge, no jury, no defence or prosecution or any of that – it's basically just a formal Q&A between you, the witnesses and the Pokémon League Trustees Bureau."

Misty gulped. "The PokéTrust?!" she repeated in terror.

"Oh, they're not as bad as you think," Brock chuckled.

"What's the PokéTrust?" asked Ash in confusion.

"They oversee the entire Pokémon League. Each region has its own board members, but they're all essentially the head honchkrows behind the scenes."

"Wait, like Lance? Hey, that's great! Surely it won't be so bad if our friends are running this thing, right, Misty?"

With her stress levels in overdrive, not even Ash's stupidity was endearing to her at this time. After smacking him over the back of the head, she growled to herself lengthily through clenched teeth.

"Wake up, dingus!" she huffed at him. When she saw him rubbing his bruise like a wounded growlithe thereafter, she rolled her eyes and immediately softened a little.

"Ash, you've only seen the nice side of the Pokémon League," she explained tiredly. "The Lances and the Cynthias and the Mr. Goodshows. They've got their roles, sure, but they're more the public face of the League – they're not the ones in charge. That's the Pokémon League Trustees Bureau, and they're anything but nice."

"Er, okay," Ash followed. "How so?"

"They're not in this because they love pokémon, like you and me. They don't care about any of that. The only language they understand is money and power, and they'll scoff at anyone who isn't on the exact same wavelength as them. I've dealt with most of them individually over the years, and they're all as cold and soulless as each other."

The pokémon trainer mulled over her words for a moment. "Oh…" he mumbled.

"Let's face it," she exhaled, "as soon as I go in there, they're going to tear me a new one."

"You don't know that, Misty," Brock reasoned.

"Oh please! If those pompous old windbags don't like what I say, I could end up losing my license!"

Ash leapt up from his chair. "They'd really do that? But you haven't done anything wrong!"

"You think that means anything to them?!" Misty exclaimed, pulling him back down beside her. "Believe me, with the PokéTrust, it's guilty until proven innocent."

The quaint little café on the quieter side of town was something of a sanctum for Misty. Every time the stress of singlehandedly running the gym began to weigh on her, she'd almost always find herself returning to this place. Sometimes she wouldn't even order anything; it was peaceful here, away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Cerulean City, and peace was the only thing she needed in those times. Today undoubtedly more than qualified, but given just how much worse things were right now, she began to wonder whether or not coming here would only taint her safe place hereafter with painful and unwanted memories.

During her brief reverie, Brock had taken it upon him to pay the bill at the counter. Ash had got up also, filling in for Misty by yanking him away from the pretty barista by his ear. They stared down at her expectantly until she eventually snapped out of it and stood up to join them.

"Look, Misty," Brock said once they were back outside, "try not to think of this Indigo Courthouse summons as you being on trial or anything. All it'll be is a stern talking to, just to get to the bottom of things – and I know you of all people can hold your own against bullies."

The remark brought a small smile to Misty's lips, much to her surprise. Indeed, if an argument was what they were looking for, then an argument was what they would get. And then some.

"And hey, I've just realised!" Ash chimed in. "Going to Indigo Plateau means we'll be able to stay close to Psyduck the whole time this court thing's going on!"

"I guess that's one good thing to come out of all this," Brock nodded.

Though their troubled friend felt just as relieved by that idea, she chose not to express such, instead picking up her pace down the quiet back lane.

"Come on, then. I told Tracey I'd meet him and my sisters at the mall in fifteen minutes."

Behind her, Brock and Ash just shrugged to each other, but nonetheless did as they were told.


It took less time than Misty had hoped to locate her sisters within the grand, sun-drenched Cerulean Central Shopping Mall. As she'd expected, the three divas were heard long before they were seen.

"Like, where the hell have you been?!" shrieked Lily, her pink hair dishevelled from repeatedly running her hands through it.

"Those three meanies made us wait for you!" a near-delirious Violet joined in. "I can't be, like, seen in public wearing this!"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Funnily enough, I've got bigger things to worry about than a tiny oil stain on your dress," she hissed tartly.

The blunette huffed in astonishment, and was about to retaliate before Daisy stepped in.

"Like, get over it, Vi," she laughed. "She's here now, right? Anyway, Misty, we needed to show you these."

From her diamond-studded handbag, the elder Waterflower plucked three identical sheets of parchment, each adorning the same waxen seal as the letter Misty had received that morning.

"Wait, you each got one, too?" Misty asked.

"Uh-huh. Some frosty guy in a suit, like, came to the lab and asked for us by name and everything. I thought he was just some creepy superfan."

"Dammit, Misty, I had a pedicure booked that day!" Lily whined. "Now I'm gonna have to go to court with, like, gross feet?!"

An elongated sigh rattled out of Misty's throat. "You do realise that if this hearing goes badly, we could lose our licenses and be left both homeless and jobless?"

"Please," giggled Daisy, winking cryptically, "those boys from the PokéTrust have let us off for way worse things than this before…"

Before the dumbfounded Misty could question this, the three Sensational Sisters skipped in unison off down the cavernous hallway, soon disappearing from sight behind a row of water fountains. Ash, Misty and Brock made their way over to Tracey and Alexa, both of whom had prominent bags under their eyes.

"Rough night?" Brock asked the former as they shook hands.

"I've had better," he chuckled tiredly. "Daisy's one thing, but all three of them in the same place…"

"Hehe, I can imagine."

Brock's uncharacteristic self-restraint caught Misty's attention immediately. Shouldn't the mere mention of her sisters, let alone seeing them all in the flesh, have sent him bouncing off the walls? Meanwhile, Ash had gone mysteriously quiet, looking up only to cast the occasional awkward, tacitly apologetic glance at his pokémon watcher friend.

"Ash, you okay?" Tracey detected moments later.

His head shot up, only for the onlooking Misty to clamp her hand over his mouth.

"Oh, it's just a little misunderstanding our pea-brained friend had yesterday," she chuckled in embarrassment. "I'll tell you later - you'll get a good laugh out of it, I'm sure."

"So, did you go to see Psyduck?" he asked her.

"Erm, yeah, we, er…did," came her meandering response. Content to leave it there, she turned away only for Ash to step into her place.

"He totalled the hospital ward so Nurse Joy's sending him to Indigo Plateau," he divulged innocently.

"Indigo Plateau? What for? Is he going to be okay?"

The two energetic men along with Brock walked further ahead as they conversed, while Misty hung back intentionally, shaking her head at the snippets of Ash's melodramatic body language she could see.

"Boys, huh?"

The Kalosian smiled as she stepped into view of the startled redhead.

"We haven't been properly introduced," she chirped, holding out her hand. "My name's Alexa. Ash and I travelled together for a while in the Decolore Islands. I was going to say something at the gym last night, but I figured that wasn't maybe the best time."

Misty nodded sheepishly and accepted the handshake. "Er, thanks. I'm Misty."

"Nice to finally meet you!" Alexa's expression turned more solemn. "Listen, Misty, Tracey told me about this business with the Indigo Courthouse this morning. As a journalist for the Lumiose Press, I've had to sit in on a fair amount of trials in the past. I know this hearing isn't quite the same, but I just wanted you to know that I'm more than happy to help build a case with you if you'd like – just to be on the safe side."

"Really?" she replied, both shocked and flattered. "I, er…yeah, that'd be great! Thank you!"

"Don't mention it," she beamed. "Any friend of Ash's is a friend of mine. Now, let's catch up with the rest of them, shall we?"

As it turned out, Misty's friends and family had covered a surprising distance in the short minute that she had looked away for. Ash, Brock and Tracey were still just visible at the other end of the hall, whereas Daisy, Violet and Lily had somehow vanished completely. She didn't mind, however; in actuality, it seemed that she and Alexa were already becoming fast friends. Perhaps it was the air of compassion about the woman, or maybe even the comforting anonymity of essentially talking to a stranger, but a conversation had started up organically on the walk across the mall, innocent at first yet steadily deepening before Misty could even stop herself.

"So, you never actually wanted to return to the gym?" Alexa asked in concern.

"No." She shook her head. "I'd been with Ash for almost five years by that point. Brock and Tracey, too. Travelling the world with my best friends, a new adventure every day – I could have done it forever."

"But you got used to being the gym leader over time?"

"I had no choice. My sisters were on a world tour, and Ash and Brock went right back to travelling. It was…hard at the beginning."

"Well, everyone here seems to think you did an incredible job turning the Cerulean gym around. Were you really voted the eleventh strongest gym leader in the world? Also, they made me swear not to tell you, but your sisters were singing your praises all night last night."

"They were?" the redhead said bashfully.

Alexa nodded. "Mhm. We all agreed that Cerulean City wouldn't be the same without the gym there to watch over it. I'm so sorry for everything that's happened, Misty."

Misty smiled, but her eyes remained pointing to the floor. "Thanks. That means a lot. But to be honest, it's not the gym I'm worried about. All I can think about is…Psyduck."

"Ah, of course – I understand. Tracey told me a little about him. You two sound thick as thieves."

"Hardly," she snorted, though with a little smile. "He's a pain in my ass. He can't swim, he eats everything in sight, and he's about as useful in a pokémon battle as a one-eyed wobbuffet." A sharp sensation burrowed through Misty's chest. "But when it comes down to it, well…"

"You couldn't live without him?" Alexa suggested, which the young girl confirmed with a stilted nod. "Relationships like that are the most special of all, I find. And from what I've seen, there's someone else you have that kind of bond with, yes?"

"Huh?!" Misty gasped, her face turning slightly pink. "Wh-What do you-"

"There you are!"

Before the redhead could finish the question, it became suddenly apparent to her that they had reached the fitting rooms at the back of a large department store, where Tracey, Brock and Ash were loitering around somewhat uncomfortably.

"Where'd you go, Mist?" Ash spoke up. "I was talking to you all the way here 'cause I thought you were still right next to me!"

"Can't you do without me for five minutes?" she snapped back, prompting the older members of the group to exchange knowing looks. To their right, the fitting room in the middle rattled with a pained grunt and a consecutive sigh of relief.

"Got it! Tray Tray, can you, like, come in here a minute? I can't decide if this bra is too small or not."

Tracey rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Coming!" he shouted before knocking lightly on the door and practically being sucked inside.

"Tray Tray?" Ash reiterated, scrunching his nose. The look of disgust caused even Misty to giggle.

"I guess I should go and look for something to wear, too," she shrugged.

"I think I see some more fitting rooms on the other side of the store," Alexa pointed out.

"Argh!" came an annoyed whine from the left cubicle. "Goddammit! Can someone, like, help me zip up this damn dress?!"

Brock's palms began to sweat.

"Oh no you don't, Mr. Swamperv!" Misty caught on immediately.

"I didn't say anything!" he defended in a manner that was, astonishingly, quite believable.

"You were thinking it," she snarled. "There's no way I'm leaving you here to drool over my sisters like a gloom."

"Don't worry, I'll go help Violet," Alexa chuckled.

"Thanks, Alexa. Right, the two of you are coming with me then."

"Why me?" Ash cried.

"Because I said so, Ketchum! Now, move your ass!"

"Girls," he muttered bitterly as he and Brock trudged along behind her.

A few minutes of clothes hunting later, Misty had finally managed to decide on a few items to try on. She flopped the clothes down on the bench inside the fitting room and turned to her friends.

"I swear, if I see either of you peeking, you're getting a mallet straight up Route Two."

"Why the hell would I want to peek at you?!" Ash grimaced, despite the faint redness in his cheeks.

"Pikapi?" answered the puzzled mouse on his shoulder.

"Not you, Pikachu, I said 'peek at you'!" His blush was now profound.

"Whatever," she sighed, slamming the door shut.

As initially amusing as their friend's growling and crashing about was, Ash and Brock quickly grew bored. The music playing over the speakers was bland and generic, and there was nothing to look at but perfumes for what seemed like miles. Despite her tone, Misty's voice eventually sounding out again was a thoroughly welcome break from the tedium.

"Ash, I need to ask you something."

Brock's mouth covertly formed a curious O-shape, and he slid back up the wall he was leaning against to stretch out his back.

"Think I'll go check out the watches over there," he whispered to Ash so Misty didn't hear. A moment later, the pokémon trainer was left sitting alone on the mirrored bench with his reflection staring blankly up at him.

"Er, what is it?" he asked towards the fitting room door.

"You know the statements we each had to make to Officer Jenny yesterday at the police station?"

He nodded briefly until remembering that she could not see him. "Oh, er, yeah, sure! What about them?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't be asking this, but…" he heard her clear her throat in an anxious manner, "what did you say in yours?"

"Uhh…" Ash pondered for a moment. "I guess I just told them exactly what I saw. You know, our battle, Caserin's glowing, Psyduck getting a giant headache, that kind of stuff. Why?"

Some muffled rustling came from within the cubicle. "Did you mention what happened to Gyarados?"

"Gyarados?" He tugged restlessly at the hems of his gloves. "I might've done, but I can't really remember…"

The rustling became more pronounced. "Think, Ash, this is important! Did you or didn't you?"

"Okay, okay, I'm thinking!" he retorted, taken aback. "Well, I was talking about the battle and how we were fighting over my hat…oh, yeah, I know! All I said was Gyarados started acting crazy and bumped into the diving board."

"Wait, you said that?!"

"Um…"

With the question came the cessation of any and all noise from Misty's side, and when her head suddenly popped up over the top of the booth, Ash performed an involuntary shiver – both at her horrified expression and her unmissably exposed shoulders.

"You dense idiot!" she screamed down at him. "Do you realise what might happen now?!"

"Huh?" Ash hiccupped in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Misty rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? If your statement makes it sound like I can't control Gyarados, the PokéTrust could take him away from me!"

"Take Gyarados from you?" he gasped. "Can they really do that?!"

"You bet they can. And they will, if they think Gyarados is prone to fits of hysteria like that."

"But I've seen loads of gyarados have wild tantrums before! Isn't that just, you know, what they do?"

"Not my gyarados!" Misty defended. "He's one of the sweetest, friendliest pokémon I've ever known. He has been trained, you know."

Ash scratched his head. "Then why did he freak out like that out of nowhere?"

The question stumped the young girl. In her anxiety, she hadn't even stopped to ask herself that. "I…don't know," she mumbled, ducking down a little in the fitting room.

"Pikachupi," gestured Pikachu with a wave of his tail. He then arched his body forward and opened his mouth wide, baring his pointy front teeth.

"What is it, Pikachu?" she called over. "Are you trying to tell me something about Gyarados?"

The imitative mouse nodded, then hopped over to another spot to continue his instructional game of charades.

"I, er…" Misty puzzled upon noticing Pikachu's latest pose.

"Wait a minute," Ash jumped in, "Gyarados saw something in the gym that made him go crazy?"

"Pika chu."

"Someone?"

Once again, Pikachu gave a stiff nod, simultaneously holding up his entire left paw.

"Three people?!" Misty deduced in horror. "Who were they, Pikachu? Was it Team Rocket?"

"Chu," he denied.

"Team Aqua?" Ash suggested. Another denial soon followed.

"It wasn't my sisters, was it?" Misty groaned cynically. To end the guessing game, Pikachu hopped up onto a nearby countertop and puffed out his chest. With a curt "Pika," he signalled for them to watch him closely.

"Pi." He sucked in his gut to appear tall and thin. "Ka." With a dull facial expression, he squatted down in a way that mimicked an egg shape. "Chu." The third persona was similar to the first, though not quite as tall, the only major contrast being his sharp, pricked-up ears.

"So, one tall, one fat, and one…pointy?" Ash surmised. Pikachu frowned, but gave an approximate 'yes' with an outstretched teeter of his paw. "Hmm…nope, I've got nothing. Any ideas, Mist?"

Misty was, unsurprisingly, just as confused. Gyarados's rampage aside, it was shocking enough to know that there were other people in the gym before the accident! Were they hurt? Did they get out in time? As for who they were, the muddled girl just didn't know where to start. Her poor gyarados had had a deep-seated distrust of men for as long as she'd known him, so she was certain at least one of them was male. That was as far as she could narrow it down, however; the gym was open to the public during the day, and she'd had more challengers over the years than she could possibly count. They could have been anyone. Anyone.

"I…" she faltered desperately, "I think maybe we should just cross this bridge when we come to it. Alexa's just offered to help me prepare for the hearing next week."

"She has?" Ash asked.

"Mhm."

Her head then disappeared back down into the cubicle, and for the next few minutes Ash was left to ruminate on this startling new development by his lonesome. Perhaps until the time came, he concluded, it might be best not to bring up this Gyarados predicament again.

"Okay, now be honest," came a sceptical voice from the newly opened fitting room, "what do you think?"

Never one to lose himself in deep reflection, it did not take much to snap Ash out of his train of thought. When he looked up, the young man was greeted by the sight of his best friend wearing a form-hugging halter-necked top, velvety and sunkern yellow in colour, accompanied by pale blue jean shorts that showed off her long, athletic legs. A pair of gleaming white trainers rested upon her feet, and in her free-flowing orange hair she had placed a dainty starmie hairclip, allowing her subtle fringe to swoop gracefully over to one side. The whole image was remarkably similar to how she used to dress herself as a wide-eyed child travelling the world, something that the equally wide-eyed Ash noticed within a millisecond of seeing her. He felt giddy with nostalgia, with pure, childlike excitement – or at least, he would have, had not an inexplicable hot flush suddenly befallen him. Right now, all he found he could do was gormlessly pan his hazy irises up and down in a mixture of awe and uncertainty.

"Y-Yes," he eventually choked out, "that one."


James and Meowth looked disapprovingly down at their wincing companion.

"I thought ya said it was gonna be desoited," the latter groaned in annoyance.

"I, er…" Jessie stammered before letting out a growl. "Well, you didn't know either!"

"You could have made an educated guess," James suggested. Jessie responded simply by punching him hard in the chest.

"Ooooooh!"

"Keep it down, wise guy!" she hissed at him thereafter.

Meowth pawed irritably at the gold amulet on his forehead. "So how's we s'posed ter steal any pokémon with deez schmucks all over the joint?"

This very question had, of course, been on their minds from the moment they arrived at the site of the ruined Cerulean gym. Jessie stuck her head back over the bush they were hiding behind, squinting her eyes to survey the scene. Though pitch black at this early hour of the morning, the condemned crater was partially illuminated by bright floodlights mounted onto a nearby crane. In addition, the large number of workers around the wreckage each wore a headlamp, making for a rather hypnotic lightshow as they individually whizzed from one patch to the next. The area was thoroughly cordoned off, as the news broadcast had foretold, though a doorway of sorts constructed from scaffolding stood rigidly in a specially dug divot of the pit, serving as both the entrance and the exit to the site.

"I'm working on it," Jessie grumbled.

"Like taking candy from a togepi, eh?" Meowth recalled sardonically. "Still think we don't need pokémon now?"

"Oh grow up, you pair of useless ingrates!" the redhead finally snapped.

"What did I do?" James cried feebly.

"Shut up, James!"

"Okay."

"Well I ain't sittin' out here freezin' my tail off if we ain't got no plan," Meowth exclaimed. "We's gotta do something!"

"I said give me a minute!" Jessie shouted at him. While she wracked her brain for a solution to their quandary, Meowth turned to look at James, who was busy rummaging through a sizable duffle bag.

"Whatcha doin', Jimmy Boy?" he said.

"I always keep a few essentials with me for just such an occasion," his muffled voice sounded mirthfully from within the bag. "Ah, here we are."

Stepping backwards, James emerged from the bag holding a set of three green hazmat suits, virtually indistinguishable from those worn by the workmen across the street.

"Whoa! Where'd you get those?" asked the Scratch Cat in astonishment.

James handed out the outfits with a broad smile on his face. "Why, this is my trusty bag of tricks, Meowth! There's no costume you can think of that I don't have tucked away in here. You never know when you'll have to dress your way out of a tight situation!"

"You know, one of these days I'm going to have to take a look in that bag," Jessie grimaced warily.

"Dis is poifect!" Meowth cackled. "Now we can slip in there all incognitus and snoop around for da twoipette's pokémon!"

Jessie slipped the suit's accompanying visor over her head, stuffing her formidable hair into the back with considerable difficulty. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" she garbled through the thick plastic. "Let's go!"

Uncharacteristically, the Team Rocket trio were able to mingle in amongst the other workers with deft grace and subtlety, entering the complex without arousing any suspicion whatsoever. Once inside, however, the sight they saw – or, rather, didn't see – was far from encouraging.

"Jeez, dis place is huge!" Meowth whispered up to his teammates.

"I'm not seeing any pokémon, Jess," James said concernedly. "Nothing but dirt, dust and debris!"

"They've got to be here somewhere," Jessie persisted. "Why else would there be people around at this hour? They're obviously searching for the twerp's pokémon, and I say we beat them to the punch. Now stop your whining – grab a shovel and try to blend in."

Having no better ideas, the two could only blink, shrug and do as they were told.

The rugged expanse was, as Meowth had pointed out, enormous. It stretched out for hundreds of yards in every direction, and despite the number of workmen roaming about the site, the sheer size of it made understandably for a lot of unoccupied spots. The naïve trio slunk over to one such spot, conveniently outside of the floodlights' reach, and began to dig.

"What are we digging for, Jessie?" panted Meowth between shovel swings.

"Whatever these guys are digging for," she replied, pointing covertly around her. "Pokémon or not, it's got to be something valuable or they wouldn't be here!"

"But how will we know we've found it if we don't know what it EEEEH!"

James cut himself off as the torchlight of a similarly garbed worker flashed across his eyes.

"Er, hey, uh, mack," the former chuckled over in a strained attempt at a gravelly voice. "How 'bout this digging, huh? Think we'll be through to Pokélantis by daybreak? The guys and I have got fifty bucks on it, ehehe."

The man's expression was not visible behind the light and the darkened visor, but his tired trudging in the other direction seemed to get his point across.

"Will you quit messing around and stay focused?!" Jessie growled impatiently.

"Hehe, sorry…guess I got carried away," he said with a nervous cough.

"Hey, you three!"

The three in question all jumped simultaneously at the booming voice directed their way.

"This area was cleared two hours ago! I'm not payin' ya to drag your feet like a bunch o' worthless slakoth – now get your asses back over there!"

From his commanding tone and the slight colour variation of his suit, they deduced the approaching figure to be the site foreman: a realisation that ploughed through their resolve and sent them straight into grovelling mode.

"Waaah! Er, y-yes, sir, r-right away, Mr. Boss Guy!"

As they began to shuffle away, the imposing man stepped in front of them and eyed them through his thick safety goggles.

"Hmm…I ain't seen you around here before," he snarled, scratching the sprigs of facial hair poking out from underneath his visor.

"We, er, just got transfoi'ed from, uhh…Sinnoh! Yeah, yeah, we woiked in da mines in Oreboigh City!" Meowth quickly fabricated through a toothy grin.

The foreman crossed his arms. "I didn't hear nothin' about no transfer. Let's see some ID."

James blanched. "ID?!" he gulped. "Oh, I, er, think I left it in my other suit…"

"Y-Yeah, me too!" Jessie added.

"ID. Now," he demanded.

The trembling Team Rocket patted their clunky suits down in desperation. "A-Actually, now you mention it, I think we do have them with us, right, guys?" Jessie stammered, which the other two confirmed with hurried nods. "Darn thing m-must be in here somewhere. Now, where did I put it…"

"Sir, alpha team has just reported a level four energy spike in the south east wing," the worker standing beside the foreman chanted emotionlessly. The foreman immediately looked behind him, putting an end to the pitiful pantomime that the scene had gradually devolved into.

"Mew's sake, ya look away for just five minutes…" he grunted, then turned back to his cringing victims.

"Y'all better not be here when I get back," he warned, pointing a fat, gloved finger in their direction. Another bout of frantic head nodding followed.

"Of course, y-yes sir! I mean, er, no, s-sir! We won't let you d-down!"

Into the darkness he vanished, leaving the three stooges to stare vacantly at the dust trail kicked up in his wake.

"Well, that was awfully close," James commented with a shiver.

"Should we be worried about that energy thingy they were talking about?" asked Jessie.

"Phooey wit dat!" Meowth rebutted. "Let's just move over there and keep soichin' for deez pokémon before da big cheese comes back."

By the time forty-five minutes had elapsed, Jessie, James and Meowth had tried digging in three different corners of the ominous chasm, all the while keeping one eye on the surveillance of the suspicious foreman. The early morning air was sickeningly cold, and their repeated lack of plunder combined with the exertion of all the constant digging was rapidly wearing them down.

"Oww…" moaned a thoroughly depleted Jessie as she cracked her seething back. "This is unbelievable! How can we not have found them by now?"

"Ya know, I'm startin' to think they ain't even here," Meowth deadpanned.

"It does seem unlikely at this point," James agreed.

"That's ridiculous! Imagine what the boss will say if wearrrryyyuugghh…"

A dramatic yawn flew out of the disgruntled woman's mouth mid-sentence, which, for her, appeared to be the final straw.

"Grrrr, how long is this going to take?! A girl needs her beauty sleep!"

"I think it'll take more than a good night's sleep for that to happen," crooned James, his own tiredness clearly overriding his sense of tact.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

James cowered as his volatile teammate leapt towards him and smacked him square in the face with her shovel.

"AAAYYYYEEE!" he cried, soaring through the air and landing headfirst in the dense earth. "Get me out, get me out!"

His stifled voice rang out below the earth, his legs kicking animatedly in the air. When Jessie refused to help him, an indifferent-looking Meowth stepped in to dislodge the howling man from the dirt.

"Now look," Jessie huffed, "I know we're all tired, but if either of you think I'm going back to the boss empty-handed AGAIN, y-"

A peculiar twinkle caught her eye before she could finish. Whatever it was winked over at her in the gap between James and Meowth, bright blue in colour and unlike anything she'd ever seen. She pushed them to either side and discovered that it was coming from the very hole from which her catty companion had just been plucked. Down to her knees she sank, and with one strained arm thrust she delved into the darkness and scooped out a handful of…

"Soil?" James asked, bewildered.

"Blue soil?" Meowth continued.

"What on earth is this?" Jessie gasped, mesmerised by its glow. "Could this be connected to what happened to the gym?"

"Never mind that, let's swipe it before deez bozos notice!" whispered Meowth.

"Is it safe?" James queried. "It looks like it could be radioactive or something…"

"Who cares? As long as we can get a bit o' dough for it once we get it outta here!"

Jessie nodded. "Meowth's right. We may have just found something even better than pokémon here! I bet the boss'll have some poindexter in the labs who can tell us what it is. Quick, James, put it in your shirt."

"Why me?" he argued in disgust.

"Because I said so, that's why!"

She didn't wait for his retort, instead unzipping the torso of his suit and tipping the luminescent substance straight down into his overalls.

"Eeek! It's so cold!" he screeched.

"Big baby," she tutted. "Now, back to the balloon, and quickly; time for Team Rocket to make their miraculous escape…"


The next eight days were rife with worry for Misty and her friends. Though she felt very at home staying with Ash and Delia, and though her sisters had finally adjusted to living at the lab, the loom of the impending court case prevented her from allowing herself even a minute's rest. Alexa's assistance proved invaluable in preparing her for what to expect and when it was appropriate to speak at the Indigo Courthouse – but she couldn't decide whether or not the sheer lengths they were going to had only stressed her out more.

They had touched on the mystery surrounding Gyarados, of course, offering many theories as to what could have caused his uncharacteristic mania. After learning about his wariness around men, Alexa had suggested that Ash might have been the trigger, and that Gyarados may have mistaken their playing for an act of violence. Misty, however, dismissed this immediately, stating that her pokémon unconditionally trusted anyone and everyone that she herself trusted. That, and she knew better by now. Yet, the three spectators that Pikachu had tried to warn her about remained completely unplaceable, no matter how hard she thought about it. At the end of the day, she just hoped that the subject of Gyarados's behaviour would be brought up sparingly, or, even better, not at all.

On top of this, she, Ash and Brock made daily visits to the Cerulean pokémon centre, having insisted that Psyduck be moved to a more comfortable room until his transfer to Indigo Plateau. As luck would have it, Misty had been informed that the facilities there would be ready to accommodate her ailing pokémon only a day after the dreaded hearing, which would certainly make her travel arrangements from then on that much easier. In truth, the thought of handing Psyduck over to someone she neither trusted nor had ever met concerned her greatly, but all things considered, she knew in her heart that she would be willing to try anything to rescue him from the deep pain he was undoubtedly in.

It was now the morning of the twenty-third, and through the industrious yet picturesque town of Indigo Plateau trundled a car filled with nervous, smartly dressed adults.

"Indigo Plateau," Ash said to himself as he looked out of the window. "It hasn't changed a bit."

"Yep, looks exactly the same as when we were last here," Brock observed. "Hard to believe that was over ten years ago. Don't you think so, Misty?"

Between them on the back seat, their friend had been worryingly quiet the whole trip here, and Brock's question did nothing to change that.

"Misty, please try not to worry," reasoned Tracey from the driver's seat. "You've done nothing wrong, and the PokéTrust know that. They'll only get the best of you if you let them, so you've just gotta stay strong."

Looking up, the anxious redhead gave a small smile, then let her eyes fall back down to her lap. Contrary to how it probably looked, she was not upset. Just thinking. Hard. Several minutes later, the car slowed to a stop in front of an immense, church-like building adorned with golbat gargoyles and a marbled dome roof surrounded by pointed steeples.

"So, this is the Indigo Courthouse," said Alexa, dusting off her blouse as she got out of the car.

"Looks more like a haunted house," Ash mocked. Misty stared up at the intimidating structure and couldn't help but silently agree.

"It's…a lot bigger than I thought it'd be," she mumbled, the first words she had spoken all morning.

"Ah, Ms. Waterflower, how nice to see you again," came an icy, jagged voice from behind her. When she looked around, a gaunt, elderly man wearing spectacles and a long black cape stood on the granite pathway before her.

"You probably don't remember me," he stated piously, holding out a bony hand. "Cecil Sterling, chairman of the Trustees Bureau."

"Yes, I remember," Misty smiled sourly, accepting the uncomfortable handshake.

"I shall be heading the proceedings this morning; though I'm afraid to say that your punctuality will not earn you any lenience from me," he sneered with seemingly a single muscle in his face.

"Nor should it. I just thought I'd get a bit of a head start," she stood her ground as Tracey had advised.

Sterling looked down his nose through his spectacles at her. "Prudent. I trust the ushers will direct you to the correct room once the hearing begins."

With a clear of his throat, he swished his cape to one side and strode his way past them to the main door. "Best of luck, today, Ms. Waterflower," he turned back to say. "You're going to need it."

The moment he was gone, all eyes were on Misty, something that didn't exactly help with her nerves.

"So, who's Frankenstein?" Ash asked in total bewilderment.

"Councilman Sterling," Brock sighed. "He's known in the gym leaders' circle as Sterling the Stern. Real nasty piece of work."

"And he's the guy questioning us?"

"'Fraid so."

"Oh boy," Ash monotoned, all of a sudden understanding Misty's nervousness.

As the group filed inside and met with Misty's sisters (who were fashionably late, as expected), Brock and Tracey split off to find their seats in the public gallery, whereas Alexa remained with the rest for the time being.

"So, is anyone else coming today?" she asked innocently.

"Delia told me she and Professor Oak were coming up to sit in this afternoon," Misty answered rather glumly. "I'm sure they'll find Brock and Tracey once they get here."

"Ah, that's nice to hear," the journalist smiled.

The group reached the large oaken door to the main courtroom, whereupon a potbellied security guard looked each of them up and down.

"No pokémon allowed," he grunted, his eyes pointed accusatively at Pikachu on Ash's shoulder.

"If he goes, I go," Ash said without skipping a beat.

"It's alright, Ash," Alexa jumped in before the guard could riposte, "I'll take him into the press booth with me. You'll do great, both of you."

She then walked down the hall and out of sight, Pikachu sitting warily in her arms. Misty turned to Ash soon after and shuffled unconsciously closer to him.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she whispered uneasily.

The pokémon trainer looked her straight in the eye, the creamy chocolate brown of his irises instantly dulling her anxiety. "It's okay, Mist," he whispered back, "I'll be right here the whole time."

She nodded, and was about to face forward again when she saw Ash's brow crinkle in the most peculiar way.

"What is it?" she probed urgently.

He scratched his head. "Oh, it's nothing much, really," he chuckled. "Just…since when do you call my mom Delia?"

On this day of all days, the last thing Misty ever thought she would find herself doing was smiling. But then, that was Ash Ketchum for you.

"I visit your mom every fortnight while you're away," she answered plainly. "Not all of us can just wander off to see the world whenever we please, you know. Those of us who stay behind have to stick together."

As the clock above them chimed ten o'clock, the guard unceremoniously heaved open the door, from which a much more civilised usher emerged to escort them into the room. Misty didn't even bother to look around; she figured she'd have plenty of time to do that while being verbally beaten into submission over the course of the day. One thing she did notice straight away, however, was the haunting semicircle of board members across the table from her, spearheaded by none other than Mr. Sterling himself. The black cloaks he and the other bureau members were wearing did little to dispel their air of intimidation.

She sat down in her designated seat, her sisters to her left and Ash a few seats away on the right. Her head was spinning; she could barely recall the last time she'd been this nervous. In the stress and turbulence of the situation, all the young girl could do was compulsively repeat Tracey's advice in her head: Don't let them bully you; don't let them bully you…

"All rise," a frightfully deep voice sounded off to the side. The whole room hurriedly move to stand. Misty refocused her gaze on the board members, shuddering when she noticed each one of them staring directly at her. Above all else, she thought, this was the moment that everything finally sunk in – and she had to grip the table to keep herself from crumpling to the floor. Oh god, her mind screamed at her, this is really happening…

"This court is now in session."