Chapter 16: Bust Out And Blast Off
"What do you want with us?" Dawn asked, her forceful voice making the question sound more like a threat. May frowned and nodded.
The slightly taller of the two Rocket women laughed a cold, sinister laugh. "The boss told us we might find you jailbirds around here. It's time to bring you back…"
"I don't think so! C'mon out, Blaziken!" May shouted, throwing Blaziken's pokéball onto the ground in front of her. In a flash of light, the towering blaze Pokémon took to its defensive position.
"Blaziken!" She cried.
"You come out, too, Pachirisu!" Dawn shouted, releasing the electric squirrel. As May looked at it, she was surprised by its resemblance to Pikachu.
On the other side of the field, the Rockets sent out a Dunsparce and a Hitmonchan to fight. The battle began immediately afterwards.
Following May's commands, Blaziken launched a flaming fist towards the enemy Dunsparce, who dug underground at the right moment. Just as Blaziken wondered where her foe had gone, Dunsparce suddenly shot up from the ground, knocking Blaziken to ground.
Meanwhile, Pachirisu was jumping back and forth to avoid Hitmonchan's rapid punch attack. Pachirisu then gave a cry of "Pachiri-SUU!" and sent a powerful blue bolt of electrical energy at Hitmonchan.
Dunsparce was unable to dodge Blaziken's quick attack, but as it hit the ground, it shot a bubblebeam at the fire-type. Shaking off the relatively weak attack, Blaziken jumped high into the sky, then, one flaming foot in front of her, came crashing down on Dunspace like a meteor. The weakened Dunsparce managed to use counter, getting a good hit on Blaziken. In a final, devastating move, Blaziken launched her blast burn attack, charring Dunsparce and knocking it into the grunt with such force that the grunt fell into unconsciousness.
In desperation, Hitmonchan tried freezing Pachirisu with an ice punch. Narrowly dodging the attack, Pachirisu used thunder wave to paralyze Hitmonchan, then used thunderbolt to send it crashing into its trainer, who was also beaten into unconsciousness.
May and Dawn recalled their respective Pokémon and were about to get underway again when a man's voice came from behind.
"Heh, congratulations on your battle. However, I see that you're tired out now. Just perfect! I'm in luck!"
The girls turned around to see another grunt standing a few meters away. The man, who could be identified as a Team Magma guard based on his outfit, opened one of his pokéballs, and a Graveler took the field.
"All right now, ladies. You'll be coming with us, or there'll be big trouble headed your way! The boss sent me to find you two. He and lord Giovanni have been searching for you!"
"Well, tough. We're looking for our friends, and we don't have time to chat now. So if you'd be so kind, we'd like to get going without incidence," May huffed.
"Heh, so you're heading towards your enemies even now! Excellent. I won't stop you, then. But let me give you this parting gift. Graveler, use –"
"Go, Scyther! Stop Graveler with your leaf blade attack!"
"Scyther!" The bug/flying type went into action, its two large scythes glowing a bright green. In one fell swoop, the Scyther landed on its feet. Behind it, the Graveler stumbled and collapsed onto its master, knocking him out cold.
May smiled at the young man running up to Scyther.
"Thanks for saving us, …uh…"
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Tracey Sketchit. I'm professor Oak's assistant in Pallet Town."
"Ditto. My name's May. I'm from Petalburg City in the Hoenn region."
"And I'm Dawn. I hail from Twinleaf Town in the Sinnoh region."
"Wow, you've both come a long way. I'm sorry your visit to the Kanto region turned out to include this."
"No need to worry!" Dawn gave her trademark expression.
"Yeah, it couldn't be helped, Tracey. Besides, I've been here to Kanto before. It's a wonderful place, based on what I can remember from the last time I was here with Ash."
Tracey raised an eyebrow at the mention of Ash's name. "Is Ash okay? He called me the other day, saying there was trouble here in town, so I came as soon as I could."
May's cheerful face became one full of worry. "It's kind of a long story, Trace. We'll just tell you what you need to know now, and tell the rest later. Right now, I have a gut feeling Ash, Brock, Drew, and my brother, Max, are all in trouble."
For about the next ten minutes, both May and Dawn filled Tracey in on what they think had happened and what their plan was. To Tracey, it was an insane idea, but he liked it nonetheless.
After dragging the unconscious grunts out of sight and dressing themselves in the garments of their foes, May, Dawn, and Tracey began heading towards the Rocket's building, the same one May and Dawn had been incarcerated in yesterday. Dawn didn't particularly relish the thought of going back to that place, but if May was right (and she believed May was right), then the guys were in need of a rescuing.
The guards suspected nothing as Dawn and May, dressed as Rockets, entered the building, followed by Tracey, dressed as a Magma grunt. Things were going smoothly. In their disguises, they'd be able to sneak around the building without detection while they searched for the guys. However, May decided they'd have to split up.
Giving the instructions, Dawn asked Tracey and May to take the elevator down to the basement to the prison area, while Dawn herself would risk searching around the upper floors. Dawn knew her part was the riskiest, but she had to do it in order to succeed. Besides, there were bound to be things of interest upstairs.
Tracey and May stepped into the elevator and went down to the basement. A minute later, the elevator car came back up to the first floor. Dawn stepped in, pushed a button taking her up one floor, and took a deep breath, exhaling as the doors closed and the elevator moved upwards.
This sucks. This is just not my day, Ash thought, nursing his nose, which was still oozing blood. In addition to the nosebleed, those rather rough guards had given him what he was sure to be a nice black eye. He suspected Brock had sustained several similar wounds.
The scuttle in Giovanni's office didn't exactly go according to plan, but then again, it was yet another spontaneous train of ideas that he acted upon as they occurred to him. This reminded Ash that he'd need an elaborate, thorough plan to get out of here. However, he doubted he'd be let out of his cell ever again.
Harley stopped at Ash's cell and looked in, a stupid smirk crawling across his face.
"Well, well, well. Look what's happened to the big mouth!" he mocked.
"Shut up, Harley. I can still take you."
Harley laughed loudly. "Oh, you mistaken fool! You couldn't even fight back the master's guards! If we were to have it out right now, I could win simply because you're in no fighting shape. Look at you! Your nose is bleeding, and may I say what a lovely black eye you have?"
In his rage, Ash ran to the iron bars and threw his fists out at Harley.
"Come closer! I'll strangle you!"
Harley, who was way out of the angry youth's reach, closed his eyes and grinned. "I don't think I want to. Enjoy the rest of your life in that cell. You can rot in there for all I care."
Whistling, Harley walked towards the elevators, his joy following him out of sight and out of earshot.
Stupid, evil Harley...I hope he gets what's coming to him! Ash was so angry, he shouted out his thoughts.
"You got that right, Ash!" Brock's voice called. The communication chain got started once again when Max inquired what Brock was talking about. And so it became obvious to Max and Drew what had transpired in the last several minutes.
DING!
The elevator doors slid open, allowing the disguised May and Tracey to step out. To their shock, a man whose clothes resembled a Cacturne was waiting for an elevator. He turned to face them, pushing his purple hair out of his face.
"Not again! Does the master need visitors again already?" Harley asked, unaware that Giovanni had left the building some time ago.
"Uh…" Tracey stood glued to the floor. What was this guy talking about?
May came to his rescue. "Yes, he does. If you don't mind, we'll be needing the trainer named Ash."
Harley winced. "Oh…alright. Here's the combinations to all the cells. I assume you remember the rule: two guards to every prisoner. Let me give you a tip: he's very combative, so don't ever let your guard down around him!"
Harley reached into his pocket, produced a piece of paper, and handed it to May. He still didn't know the Rocket in front of him was actually one of his rivals.
"Thanks. Oh, and the boss says you can leave for the day."
"Really? He's never dismissed me early before…"
"Leave." Tracey growled, catching on to May's charade.
"Oh…why, yes, of course. I'll leave right away and leave you two alone. But remember, be cautious with Ash!"
As soon as the elevator had taken Harley upstairs, they proceeded into what looked like a prison complex. May led the way, since she remembered this place well. In no time, they came to Ash's cell.
Ash was leaning against the wall, cursing under his breath, when he looked up to see a Rocket grunt enter the code to his cell door. Opening it, she and a Magma guard entered.
"Oh, you want more? I'll give you mo—"
May ran up to Ash and placed her hand over his mouth.
"Ash, it's me! May!" she said, taking her hand off his mouth. She removed the cap to make her identity clear to him.
"May? What're you doing here? Please don't tell me you joined Team Rocket!"
May shot Ash a look of annoyance. "Oh, relax, Ash, I'd never work for Team Rocket! I'm here to get you and the others out."
Relieved, Ash turned to the Magma guard, who lowered his hood to make his face visible.
"Great to see you again, Ash. It's been a long time."
Ash smiled. "Tracey! When did you get here?"
"Oh, not too long ago, and when I arrived, things seemed far worse than you described to me."
"Why're you guys all dressed up, then?" Ash asked.
"We, ahem, borrowed these so we could get into the building without detection. Dawn's here, too. She's somewhere above us, having a look around." May explained.
"Well, that's great, but I don't have my Pokémon with me! Giovanni's got them and Pikachu locked up in his office on the top floor!" Ash huffed.
Tracey looked thoughtful. "All right, so I guess we'll bust the others out of here and look for Dawn and your Pokémon before we get out of here."
Ash nodded, and followed his friends to free Brock, Max, and Drew.
Dawn was more than halfway up the building. Of the ten floors of this building, she was currently on the seventh floor. She started her search on the second floor and, finding nothing unusual, proceeded up to the next. On each floor, she was able to fool everyone she encountered, but their personalities became less welcoming as she climbed upwards.
Dawn sighed. She just now finished her search of the seventh floor and found nothing. Stepping into the elevator, she pressed the button to take her to the eighth floor. Stepping out, she began another search. Ten minutes later, it ended in the same way as the others. Dawn also noted how nasty the people on this floor were. They seemed angry she was here, where she had no business.
Once more, Dawn boarded the elevator and headed to floor nine. It was here that things became really interesting. There were no friends, no Pokémon…no people, even! But Dawn noticed two metallic doors on the side of the room. At the far end of the room, there was some sort of giant energy-sucking machine. Between Dawn and this machine was a table. Dawn walked over to it.
The table's surface was buried underneath reports, blueprints, and miscellaneous other documents.
The blueprint documented the machine in the room. Apparently, there were two large platforms with several electrical pads to be applied to the subject's skin at certain points. A second picture on the blueprints showed how Dialga and Palkia were to be hooked up to this abomination of science and technology.
Her interest whetted, Dawn looked at one of the documents.
Date: (blank)
Report: Sinnoh expedition successful. We now have Dialga in our keeping. The legendary, which is to be used alongside Palkia, will be kept in the lab on the ninth floor of the Viridian office building. For now, we are keeping the two in separate rooms and are constantly keeping them sedated. We will standby until lord Cyrus gives the command. We shall then hook the two legendaries to the machine. Electrical impulses should stimulate a reaction on the part of the two Pokémon. We shall then tweak the machine's settings to lure all other legendaries into the vicinity. Once that is completed, we shall modify the machine to fit the others. Hypothetically, the combined powers of all the legendaries should be enough to overwhelm the denizens of this world as we seek to rebuild it to each of the lords' likings.
Dawn put the report down in horror. The situation was far worse now than it had looked at first glance. Looking again at the doors in the sides of the room, Dawn guessed that was where Palkia and Dialga were being kept.
So, these goons seek world domination. Not if me and my friends can help it!
Dawn was more than happy to enter the elevator and head up to the tenth floor. Once the elevator stopped, she walked into a carpeted hallway. There were four doors to the side, and one at the end of the hallway. As she walked, she read each sign outside the corresponding door.
The first door's sign had a red mountain rage on it – the symbol of Team Magma. It read:
Maxie
Team Magma Head Boss
Hours: 9 AM – 5 PM. Visitation by appointment only.
All the other signs along the side read similar things, differing only in symbol, boss's name, and boss's title. Archie's office was across the hall from Maxie's, and further down, an empty office suite sat across from Cyrus's office. Finally, May came to the final door. The sign read:
Giovanni
Team Rocket Head Boss
Hours: 9 AM – 5 PM. Visitation by appointment only. Security cameras in use inside.
Dawn hoped that nobody would recognize her in her disguise as she opened the door, which she was surprised to find was unlocked.
The clock on the back wall read 6:13 PM. What the time was, however, was trivial to Dawn as she heard a familiar voice.
"Pika! Pika pi! Pikachu!" the yellow electric-type shouted out to Dawn, happy to be in the company of someone he recognized.
"C'mon, Pikachu," Dawn said as she snatched the cage off of the desk. The cage had no doors, and Dawn was unable to find a way to open the cage. She'd have to break Pikachu out. She knew how, but didn't have any fire-types that would be needed.
Now that she had Pikachu, Dawn noticed a chest along the back wall behind the desk and in front of the window. She kneeled down to get a better look at it. She wanted to find out what was inside, but the chest was locked by a combination lock. She felt discouraged.
"Pika, Pikachu," the mouse said.
"You sure you can do it, Pikachu?" Dawn asked.
"Pika, pika!"
"All right, then." Dawn set the caged Pikachu down right in front of the lock.
Pikachu shoved his round arms between the bars of his cramped prison and perked up one pointy ear. Just as skilled thieves could open twist-knob combination locks, so could Pikachu with a number lock. As he pushed buttons and numbers scrolled up and down in four viewing slots, he listened carefully for clicks in the locking mechanism to indicate a correct number in the correct position. After a few minutes, he heard a fourth click. Pushing a fifth button, the chest made a loud click, indicating the lock had been disarmed.
"Nice work, Pikachu!" Dawn praised as she opened the lid of the chest. Inside were several pokéballs. She could guess who these belonged to – the Rockets made it clear to take Pokémon off captives at the time of incarceration. Carrying the balls in one arm and Pikachu's cage in the other, Dawn got up and headed out the office towards the elevator.
During this time, a security camera witnessed the whole thing, as did three individuals who were watching the whole thing on screen in another part of the building. Quickly, they got up and headed towards the main entrance of the building to intercept the theif.
Now that Brock, Max, and Drew were once again freed from their cells, Ash, May, and Tracey (the latter two now discarded their guises, as they were no longer necessary) made their way towards the elevator to head up to check on Dawn. Just as they got there, the elevator door opened.
"Harley…" Drew gasped.
"I thought I told you to leave!" Tracey shouted at Harley as he stepped out of the elevator car.
"And so you did, though I see now that I was fooled. I just came back here to make sure everything was okay, and I'm glad I did, because I see there's a jailbreak in progress!"
Ash glared at Harley. His nose had stopped bleeding several minutes ago, but his eye was still black. Nonetheless, he was ready to throw down with the jailor.
Harley turned a cold look towards Ash. "So, I guess I underestimated the power of your connections once again, Ash. This time, however, you won't be getting out so easily. Come on out, buddies!"
Harley threw all five of his pokéballs onto the ground. Ash now stood face to face with Cacturne, Banette, Ariados, Octillery, and Wigglytuff. Ash reached for his belt before remembering his Pokémon weren't with him.
"Oh ho! What's this? It seems the punk doesn't have his Pikachu to defend himself with! All right, I'm gonna beat you all back into your cells!" Harley mocked.
May and Tracey stepped forward.
"You leave Ash alone!" May scolded.
Harley brushed her off. "So, May," he said in an icy tone. "I'm not surprised. It figures you'd stand up for Ash and defend him after all the times he saved you. Today, though, he is useless. And after all the times you've shown me up, it's about time I got my revenge! Everyone, attack!"
At this point, May sent out her Blaziken and Tracey sent out Scyther to defend against the oncoming attacks. Blaziken battled Cacturne, Banette, and Ariados with her fiery moves while Scyther used his leaf blade attack to keep Octillery and Wigglytuff at bay.
While the battle was going on, Ash slipped to the sidelines and sneaked over to where Harley stood. Because he was so involved in his battle, Harley failed to take notice of Ash until it was too late.
"Think fast, Harley!" Ash shouted as he launched himself at Harley, tackling him to the ground. Quickly, Ash grabbed Harley's arms and held them against his back. The concurrent Pokémon battle took a turn for the worse (from Harley's viewpoint) as his confused Pokémon were slashed and burned into submission.
Ash dragged a kicking Harley into his cell's doorway and kicked Harley's back in such a way that Harley flew into the cell and fell flat on his face. While he was getting up, Ash swung the door shut.
"Well, Harley, looks like I'll be keeping my promise to lock you up again after all!" Ash smirked.
Harley chuckled. "Ah, but you forget that I have the combination to this cell memorized!"
Ash gritted his teeth. May stepped forward.
"Memorize this, Harley! Blaziken, use your fire punch attack on the cell lock!"
"Blaziken!" Blaziken's wrist engulfed her talon-like hands in flames, and she raised her fist. Harley, who was in the middle of entering the combination to unlock the door, jumped back before the attack landed. A small explosion ensued as Blaziken's fiery fist destroyed the locking unit.
The exposed circuitry shot out a few electrical sparks as the automated system failed. The lock on the cell door was now permanently active. To top that off, the door was effectively welded shut. Once again, Harley had been double locked within the cell.
As the six heroes made their way to the elevator, they couldn't help but laugh as Harley's voice shouted several profanities behind their backs.
Dawn was waiting on the first floor for her friends to arrive. Now that she had finished her task, the Rocket outfit was no longer of any use, so she discarded it. She had just gotten down here, and already her arms were starting to ache. Fortuantely, the elevator dinged, and as the door opened, May and Tracey stepped out, followed by Ash, Brock, Max, and Drew.
After everyone had been accounted for, and the guys had their respective Pokémon back on their persons, it was finally time to free Pikachu from his cage.
Ash called out Chimchar and Turtwig while Dawn summoned Piplup. Pikachu pressed himself against the opposite wall of the side Chimchar was using flamethrower on. Piplup then sprayed the red-hot metal with water gun to rapidly cool it. After a few cycles of heating and cooling, the metal's integrity had been weakened considerably. Turtwig then shot a razor leaf attack at the weakened portion of the cage, and after a loud metallic clang, Pikachu hopped out of his cell. He ran around the room a few times to stretch his legs – he'd been in that cell for over six hours.
Dawn wanted to tell everyone what she had found out, but decided it was more important to get out of here first. Once everyone stepped outside the building doors, they all breathed a sigh of relief. The feeling was cut short, however, by too-familiar voices beginning to recite an all-too-familiar motto.
"Prepare for trouble, we saw what you did!"
"Make it double, we found you before you could be hid!"
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all people's within our nation."
"An evil as old as the galaxy."
"Sent here to fulfill our destiny."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth, dat's right!"
"Wo-buffet!"
"Mime, Mime!"
"It's Team Rocket!" Ash and his friends cried out.
James smiled. "Look, Jess! I do believe I see that the other older twerp is in their midst this time!"
"Looks like you three haven't changed a bit since last I saw you," Tracey shot back.
Jessie smirked before speaking. "Well, of course we haven't. We're Team Rocket, and we're on a mission to take back what's ours!"
Max looked curiously at the Rockets. "So, where's the other two?"
Meowth almost laughed with pleasure. "They said they's was takin' a nap, an' dey left us in charge of keeping a soiveillance on da place, and den, we sees dat twoipette stealin' from de boss's cache! So we came down here ta stop ya!"
The heroes had had just about enough of the Rockets for one day. They wanted to nip this in the bud.
May's Blaziken and Tracey's Scyther took the field against Jessie's Wobuffet and James's Carnivine (after he had pried it off his head).
Scyther used leaf blade against Wobuffet, who countered the attack. Blaziken did a bunch of punching and kicking against a defending Carnivine. However, Blaziken, like her trainer, was fed up with Rockets and their Pokémon, so she used blast burn to knock Carnivine out. She then assisted Scyther against Wobuffet, who was enduring and reflecting every attack. So well, in fact, that Scyther was put down after giving fury swipes a try, and Blaziken was surprised her own attacks were being reflected against her.
Much to everyone's surprise, Meowth threw himself into the fray. He jumped up onto Blaziken's head and launched a frenzied assault on the blaze Pokémon (while commenting on how hot it was).
Ash, who had been watching from the sidelines with everyone else, saw this sudden turning of the tide, and decided the Rockets had crossed the line for the last time today. Throwing Pikachu onto the field, the mouse ran at Meowth at great speed, knocking the scratchcat Pokémon off Blaziken's head and into the ground at his comrades' feet.
Now was the time for the decisive final blow.
"Blaziken! Overheat!" May commanded.
"Pikachu, thunder!" Ash followed up.
The combined electrical/fire attack flew at a despairing Team Rocket. Even Wobuffet was unable to withstand this kind of an attack. An explosion occurred as the fiery electrical torrent came down on them.
"How is it we succeeded earlier with Butch and Cassidy, yet failed on our own?" Jessie whined as they flew up into the sky.
"Well, I still think it's worth it to leave them behind," James commented.
"Yeah, but I still tink we made an impression on de boss! So we won, in a twisted kinda way," Meowth added.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" the three shouted as they disappeared with a flash into the deep purple sky.
Several minutes later, the town's Pokémon center's cafeteria was packed with seven hungry trainers. They had left their Pokémon with Nurse Joy. They chatted excitedly with each other about miscellaneous topics, mentally deciding to save the serious stuff for later. For now, it was time for the guys to celebrate being free men again. Everyone vowed that for all future journeys, they'd travel together. It was now too risky to be alone or in groups that don't have the full strength of all seven.
It was some time later, after dinner was eaten, teeth brushed, and rooms rented, that Tracey heard the details of the predicament. As he learned, nobody was in Kanto by choice – they'd been brought here by Teams Rocket, Aqua, Magma, and Galactic. They vowed that they would resume with their original plans as soon as this mess was cleared up.
Dawn then unveiled the criminals' intentions to the group. She described the machine she had seen, as well as what she had read in the report. This, of course, caused general panic and a feeling of despair amongst the group, but Dawn was able to assure them that the criminal masterminds would not succeed in their endeavors. She didn't know when the machine would be used, though, so she just kept her fingers crossed that Paul and Misty would get here soon. It was a good thing Tracey was the first here, and he'd already proven his mettle.
May noted to herself that she and Dawn's successful rescue had taken a little over two hours to complete, and the outcome was the best that could be hoped for. Interestingly to herself, she had felt a sort of connection to Ash during the whole thing. She smiled in particular to how their teamwork had gotten Harley sealed up in that dungeon!
The time was now five past nine, so they now decided to do whatever they wanted to. Because of the relative calmness the night always brought, Ash, May, and Max decided they'd go into the forest to train their Pokémon. Everyone else had had too much excitement for the day and went to bed.
The training in the forest was blissfully uneventful. May stood and watched as Ash tried Pikachu out against Max's Beldum. They were rivals of sorts. Where Pikachu was speedy, Beldum was steadfast. They trained in this meant-to-be harmless competition, and were about ready to call it a night when Beldum seemed to look into the treeline.
A lone Beldum came through the trees, looking dazed and distraught. As it righted itself, it took particular notice of the other Beldum in its presence. The two struck up a conversation.
The humans stood and watched. Every now and then, Max's Beldum would look their way, as if to reference them. It soon became apparent that this other Beldum had come from the same group as Max's. The group's power-hungry leader, Metang, had found it unworthy of remaining in the herd, and so it was banished. In its despair, its departure led it here to the Kanto region. It had nowhere to go, and was looking for a place to inhabit when it stumbled upon them. At the conclusion of the conversation, the second Beldum came up to Max with a look that was too familiar to Max. He accepted it into the group.
The two Beldum seemed to dance in joy, and then something incredible happened. The two rose into the air, glowing brightly, as their twin forms seemed to merge into one being.
"Metang!" the new being cried.
"Awesome, Beldum! You evolved into a Metang!" Max happily exclaimed. Ash and May were also happy for the young trainer and his Pokémon.
Shortly after this, Ash knew it was getting late, so he decided it was time for the group to head back to the Pokémon center. Max ran ahead of Ash and May.
"Hey, May?"
"Yes, Ash?"
"Thanks for saving us earlier. I'm lucky to have such a good friend as you."
"Anytime, Ash," May said, smiling.
A thought then crossed Ash's mind.
"And…um…"
"What?"
"Oh…never mind." Ash had been thinking of telling her about how he felt, but decided maybe it was too soon. He'd just broken up with Dawn, as May had with Drew. Besides, maybe Dawn was right. Maybe he had rushed things with their relationship. He didn't want to make the same mistake again. Still…
May looked slightly disappointed, but smiled when she saw Ash turn away in a poor effort to hide his blush. Of course, he was her friend, and she valued having him by her side again.
When they got back, they said their good-night's to each other and slipped into an untroubled sleep. Well, except for May and Ash, who started invading each other's dreams in a most pleasant way.
Long chapter, I know, but there was a lot of stuff I wanted to get into this one chapter alone to do it justice. Hope you enjoyed, and the next chapter'll be up tomorrow night.