Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

First; damn, it's been a while, hasn't it? I have to apologise for the extended schedule slip. I expected that I might fall behind a little, but not this much.

As I noted a few chapters back, I started university in late September. At about the same time, Mists of Pandaria was released. Those two factors, combined with some actual work I have to do now and with the daily routine I've had to adopt, have meant that I've completely neglected updating this story. Sorry about this.

However, I'm now going to try to get back into the swing of things. I'm no longer going to guarantee Thursday night updates, nor even once a week offerings, but I'm certainly going to return to actually writing these chapters and forcing myself out of the malaise that I'm currently in.

On a mostly unrelated note, I don't know if any of you noticed but they decided to give Kotetsu the dubbed name of Cameron. Yeah, I was surprised too. Ironic, ain't it?

To avoid any confusion, I've added to chapter two (my Cameron's first appearance), stating that my Cameron has absolutely no relation to the anime's Kotetsu/Cameron. Indeed, this fanfiction began before Kotetsu's dub name was announced – it began, in fact, two or three months before Kotetsu's first episode even aired in Japan.

This is probably the hardest chapter I've written so far for Venatus – I haven't had writer's block so much as I've completely fallen out of a writing pattern, and it's taken some time to get used to it all again.

On reviews; thanks, J.F.C. and Nauran, your comments are very much appreciated as always.

The same goes to all of the guest reviewers and Bloomscool, sorry for worrying you, but I'm back now. I certainly wouldn't drop this work just because the anime moved on; hell, that was always the intention. As a forked canon, this holds on everything to everything up to BW089 and then diverges there.

Thanks for your reviews too, Julianmarq; in terms of the Johto champion, the simple answer is that there isn't one, or at least not a specific one. As in the games, Kanto and Johto share a champion, and so Lance is champion of both Johto and Kanto.

We're with Ash/Cynthia/Hilda/May for another chapter in this mini-arc now. Chapter twenty will focus on something a little different, however. Chapter twenty-one will, currently, remain with A/C/H/M, with twenty-two projected to continue with B/C/D/I. They'll certainly get their time in the limelight, don't worry.

In terms of chronology, this chapter (nineteen) is set the day after chapter eighteen, directly following on from it. It thus takes place on the third day of the Kanto group's vacation, two days before chapter sixteen, and during the fourth morning since Ash and Cynthia left Kanto.

(Ash, Cynthia, Hilda and May)

Mauville City turned out to be very much the same as Ash remembered it from his last visit. Like many of Hoenn's larger settlements, the city embodied a distinct duality of rustic traditionalism and welcoming homeliness.

Every locale had something that marked it out, of course, and Mauville was no exception. The city practically hummed with a certain barely-contained aura of excitement; the people normally extroverted, lively and always prepared to help resolve the slightest problem.

This attitude was best exhibited by the city's gym leader, Wattson, who had not lost his irrepressible spirit in the time since Ash had last seen him.

They woke early to avoid the morning bustle - none had any particular issue with getting up at such a time; it was one of the things that they had become acclimatised to on the road – and met the jolly man outside his gym, his Manectric shuffling happily alongside him, basking in the cool morning air.

After a short time spent catching up with Ash and May and meeting Cynthia and Hilda, Wattson insisted upon accompanying them to their destination; the house of the most recent missing person – the most recent victim of kidnapping. Wattson sadly informed them as they walked that the person's relatives were inconsolable, and that the experience might be a little difficult.

Ash knew how it felt to be separated from those he loved without the certainty that he would ever see them again; it had happened numerous times throughout his regional journeys that the group had been split up somehow, or one of their Pokémon had been snatched away. He clutched Pikachu a little tighter as they solemnly followed the road back past the Pokémon centre to the house.

Wattson left them at the doorstep of the house, explaining that he had a challenge to take at the gym. Cynthia took the lead and knocked heavily on the door three times.

The brief hope on the face of the mother formed knots inside their stomachs as it gave way to disappointment when she realised that her child was not among the group. She was panting from the exertion of sprinting to the door; she had clearly been crying on and off for some time and had had little sleep, given her bleariness and the dark shadows under her eyes.

The missing child was ten. Just ten.

"He was just about to get his first Pokémon!" The mother - June - had wailed, snorting into a worn handkerchief over a cup of tea. The uncontrollable waterworks were back. Cynthia had quickly aimed to be as comforting as possible – with practiced ease - leaving Ash, Hilda and May to feel extremely awkward about the situation.

Ten. Ten years old. That was me just a few years back.

Now that he thought about it a little more, Ash found that he could understand Misty's feelings about being left behind as he had travelled, and recalled the worry he had witnessed in May's parents just a few days before. There was no certainty to be had in such separation; only the hope that someday, somehow, they would see each other again.

"He said he was just going to play near the day care for a little while… That was the last I saw of him! He just disappeared, I haven't seen him since!"

The police had performed a thorough search of a three mile radius around Mauville City, but had found no trace of her son.

"We'll do whatever we can to find him…" Cynthia soothed her gently.

"Please…"

And what about mom? His thoughts pressed on as he observed the tearful woman, and his sense of inner turmoil increased. Does she go through this every time I'm away? Is this why she never stops smiling when I'm back?

And what about me? Leaving aside anything that could happen to me, I'm away for so long that anything could happen to mom or my Pokémon while I'm gone…

They left with information to follow up on, offering further, placating promises to do what they could to find the wayward child.

Ash looked back one time more than the others, taking in the distraught mothers' face once more as they walked away. He clutched Pikachu a tighter still as he suddenly found that he was no longer warm or comfortable, even as the temperature rose and the sun soared higher in the sky.

"I can't imagine what she must be going through…" Hilda whispered.

"We'll be the ones to bring her son back home." Cynthia replied.

They said no more all the way back to the Pokémon centre, reflecting silently on the mother's pain.

"First things first, just to get it out of the way," Cynthia began again as they reconvened in front of the red building. "Are we sure this is Plasma?"

The other stared at her. Despite not mentioning the criminal organisation to the woman, they had all taken for granted that Plasma would be involved.

"He might just be lost."

"What's there to gain in kidnapping a kid without any Pokémon?"

"Shock and fear, maybe."

"He was almost ready to get a starting Pokémon, maybe they wanted to send a message?"

"Either way, it's worth checking out." Cynthia summed up their trains of thought. "Confirming that it isn't Plasma will make Wallace breathe a little easier, if nothing else…"

"And finding him should be our top priority anyway, no matter how he disappeared." May added.

The possibility of Plasma not being involved didn't matter to them. Not after meeting the mother in person. Their mission could wait a few days if it turned out to be unrelated.

It was the sort of distraction that Ash had come to expect on his travels, and that he had hoped to avoid in the future for the sake of efficiency, but now he remembered just how much those experiences – experiences of helping people – had actually mattered. He really didn't mind being thrown off course now.

"Well, where do we begin?"

"Hilda," Cynthia turned to her suddenly. "Can your Reuniclus detect whether people have passed through an area?"

"Psychic tracing?" Hilda blinked. "Yeah, but the whole thing's a bit restricted. Yuna can tell whether or not people have been in an area, but she can't really tell who they are, and it doesn't go back more than a day."

"All right, guess we'll have to work this out the hard way then."

Hilda stayed out of the discussion about where to look first, not having travelled through Hoenn at any point in her life before. The others considered a map on Cynthia's phone.

"They might've gone east; somewhere across the river?"

The route up to Fortree City involved tall grasslands, then steep inclines and a lot of fog and rain. Crossing it the first time hadn't been the highlight of Ash's journey across Hoenn.

"Maybe, but there's not really any place they could go from there without taking a very long journey." Cynthia pointed out.

"West, then?"

"June said that the Day Care people hadn't seen or heard anything unusual on that road in days." May recalled.

"Darrell's had the south locked down for a while now…" Ash said. "Which leaves the north."

"Route one hundred and eleven." Hilda read off the map, then lightly smacked herself across the face. "Aww, now I'm doing it too…"

Ash remembered how he and his friends had nearly died of heat exhaustion in the desert along that route, saved only by good fortune and the kindness of a passing Camerupt.

Not a happy memory…

"They might have gone to Lavaridge Town, or even all the way up to Fallarbor."

"There are also the mountains here," The Sinnoh champion laid a finger down east of Lavaridge, then swept it further across. "Or the desert here. I'd say it's most likely to be one of those two."

"That journey looks like it could take a while, though, and we don't have time to waste." Hilda said, dubiously staring at the map. She was right; while the road west would have taken a few hours, heading north would consume the better part of a day, and they did not want to go looking around in the dark.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Cynthia said, the slightest mischievous grin forming across her face. "I've got that covered."

"Woah."

"Damn."

"Piikaaa."

"Nice."

"It's not my style, but it'll do." Cynthia said brightly, enjoying their looks of astonishment.

She had directed the group round to the back of the Pokémon centre and revealed to them a little secret that she had been keeping since the start of the day.

The car was indeed not one of Cynthia's favoured types, but it was certainly a modern make, and would do what they needed it to do.

"And they just gave it to you?" Hilda whispered as Cynthia dangled the keys in front of them before unlocking the car.

"Champions are entitled to, eh… Commandeer… Equipment when they require it, and that includes vehicles." She replied, stretching into the front seat and motioning for the others to enter as well. "I just politely asked if they had anything because we might need it, and the centre was happy to help. Besides, I'm going to bring it back. I, uh, left my own keys as collateral."

Hilda sniggered. Ash looked at her strangely, and then examined the car as they all buckled in.

It has a roof. It has a roof and it has air conditioning. Glorious air conditioning…

There was no argument on the subject of seating this time; the back had enough room for three, so Ash was squeezed into the middle by the two girls on either side. With Pikachu on his lap, he couldn't help but feel a little squashed.

Traffic was beginning to pick up in the energetic city, but could never reach the point that it would become difficult to manoeuvre, especially when compared to a place like Rustboro City.

"We'll go up to the mountains first, leave the car just outside and have a look around." Cynthia said as she swung out onto the open road.

"Couldn't someone just steal it, though?"

"I'll take the keys."

Oh. Duh.

Ash didn't think that he preferred travelling like this to just walking everywhere. Sure, they saved a lot of time, and when they didn't have much to spare he could see it being invaluable to be able to speed around the countryside like this.

Still, if they had travelled around like this before, how many experiences would he have missed? How many friends would he have never made? How many Pokémon would he never have encountered, and how would his own have grown so strong without their adventures?

Yeah. I definitely prefer my way.

Twenty minutes later – having caught the slightest glimpse of the desert as they sped through - they arrived at the foot of Mount Chimney. Cynthia parked under some nearby trees and joined the others to look across their objective.

Mt. Chimney stretched across the horizon as far as they could see, with only a small path indicating a route towards Lavaridge, and another, rocky and untamed, beginning the trek up the mount.

The mountain was an active volcano, which accounted for the ash it frequently belted out, showering Fallarbor Town and surrounding routes in its choking mockery of rain.

"This is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack…" Hilda muttered, tipping her head back to take it all in. "Where do we even start?"

"Most of the mountain is impossible to climb without equipment." Cynthia said, checking files that she had saved on her phone. "I can guess we can rule those parts out, huh?"

"So we're stuck at the bottom?"

"Last time we were here we took a cable car up to the top." May recalled. "There was some trouble with a meteorite."

"We met a Professor here who helped used keep it out of Team Magma's hands and…" Ash stopped, realised Cynthia was looking a tad impatient. "I'll explain later."

"You'd better. I'm looking forward to it." Hilda winked. Ash blushed. May growled. Cynthia sighed.

They walked up the mountain route and the cable car station quickly came into sight. It was exactly as Ash remembered, even down to the smoky grey substance that covered its roof. To the left of the station – and its cabled ascent – was yet another path.

"Last time we were here, the guy in the station said that there are a few caves around the foot of the mountain." May told Cynthia.

"Ok, that's helpful. Hilda, can you ask Reuniclus to check the area, please?"

"Uh, sure, but she's not really built for scouting, I mean-"

"Psychically, please."

"Oh. Right. Yuna, come on out!" Floating in the air, Hilda's Reuniclus awaited her trainer's command with a calm, soft sigh. "Give the area a psychic sweep!"

"Yuuu… Nee…" Reuniclus swept a gelatinous arm in a wide arc, blue traces of psychic energy glowing across the tips, then spreading to cover the area before the station. The energy seemed to catch and stagnate around some parts of the area. Some clung to the trainers and Pikachu, while others clutches hung around in the air, particularly near the door to the station and around the path.

Cynthia clicked her tongue in frustration.

"I was afraid of that." The champion of Sinnoh grimly swung her eyes from option to option as Hilda thanked and recalled her Pokémon. "We can't be sure either way, so we have to cover both."

"It could just be hikers – they could be going either way."

"Looks like we're splitting up." Hilda reasoned, her eyes quickly settling on Ash – a gesture which Cynthia caught.

"Yes," She said, and then quickly continued. "But no." She gave the champion of Unova a piercing stare, and Hilda looked away. May looked relieved; Ash merely confused. "I'll go with Ash, up on the cable car. You two check these caves out, but be careful."

"Alone with her?" May groaned.

"Hey!"

"We all need to be focused if we're going to find this boy and bring him home." Cynthia reminded them, adopting a no-nonsense tone, signalling that she wasn't willing to negotiate on this issue. She handed one of the bags containing supplies that they had brought to May. "We'll see you in a couple of hours." She walked off, leaving the girls looked a little defeated, and Ash just looking a little confused.

"Well, uh, see you later." Ash lingered a moment longer, completely lost at the frostiness of the end of their conversation, and entirely clueless as to the reason for Pikachu's sudden snickering.

Ash and Cynthia found the cable car station to be deserted, which wasn't too much of a surprise given that the car hadn't been docked when they had entered – the attendant accompanied it up and down. They waited in silence for a short while before Ash's grumbling stomach suddenly reminded them both that neither – nor their Pokémon – had had lunch. They went about rectifying that problem with impressive efficiency.

Feeding one's Pokémon always came before feeding oneself, Brock had once told Ash, and it was advice that he still followed. Totodile dug in almost before Ash had removed his hand from the bowl, then proceeded to reward the raven-haired trainer with an affectionate nip for his trouble. Ash's other Pokémon were a little more conservative in their displays of gratitude.

Ash then observed Cynthia feeding her Pokémon, a ritual that never ceased to impress him.

Each of her Pokemon had their own little preferences and habits. Spiritomb refused to eat unless Cynthia threw berries up for it to catch. Braviary was partial to one flavour of Pokémon food over all of the others – a flavour which all of Cynthia's other Pokémon reviled. Garchomp was the least fussy of her six; she ate what she was given.

"What kind of Pokéblock is that?" He asked, curiously eyeing the violet treat in her hand as she carefully fed them to a purring Glaceon. Come to think of it, it didn't look too far away from the disaster that had been May's Purple Surprise…

"It's a special recipe." Cynthia replied, stroking Glaceon as she reached for more. "My Grandma taught me it when I was little; you met her back in Sinnoh. I've got a few like it."

"Oh, yeah." He caught sight of what she was withdrawing the Pokéblock from, and frowned, intrigued. "What's with the pouch?"

"What about it?"

"It looks pretty… unique."

"Good or bad unique?" She smirked.

"Well, all right, interesting." Ash fumbled, mentally cursing her ability to pick apart sentences.

Cynthia laughed. She moved over to Roserade and Gastrodon, handing them a few fragments of viridian Pokéblock.

"Someone made it for me when I was little." She said, looking a little wistful. "A long time ago."

"Your grandma?"

"Nope. Anyway," She moved the conversation on; just quickly enough for Ash to recognise that she wasn't too keen to be talking about whatever the conversation had brought up right now. "We've got something we need to talk about, and I think you already know what it is."

"Uh, I do?" He said, startled.

Cynthia gave him a sympathetic, almost pitying smile.

"It's about Hilda and May." She said gently.

"Oh, right." This didn't really ease his confusion. "What about them?"

Pikachu gave Ash an annoyed jolt; not painful, just mildly irritating, and shook his head at his trainers obliviousness, ears flopping everywhere.

"About how they behave when they're around you," She continued, a slight look of desperation on her face now as she tried to help him understand the situation - at least a little. "And how we might solve that problem."

"The fighting?" He frowned. "What's that got to do with me? I thought that was just them getting used to each other. I thought that they were over it now."

Pikachu snickered again, and Ash was beginning to feel like he was the butt of a joke that everyone else in the room could see. It was his turn to hope the conversation would take a different turn – and soon.

That cable car's taking a while. He inwardly grumbled. We must've just missed it.

Cynthia looked like she wanted to go on, but suddenly thought better of it.

"You're probably right." She said, though the way it came out sounded to Ash as if she thought the opposite. He tried another topic.

"Do you think he'll be up here?" It was a question that all four had been thinking on the drive north, but none had given voice to it. Cynthia didn't respond right away, thinking her answer over.

"If I were speaking frankly, and on a mathematical basis?" She said slowly and carefully, sounding out what she said. "No, I don't. We've got a lot of ground to cover. He might even be in the desert, or we might have had it completely wrong in coming north in the first place, even if our reasoning suggests it as the most likely place that he might have been taken – or got lost - if he wasn't found in the area near to Mauville City."

"Yeah." Ash watched Pikachu scurry over to calm down Totodile, who was exciting himself by running around Cynthia's amused Garchomp.

"But we will find him." She added, an edge to her delivery, a steely glint to her already grey eyes.

Ash felt a little more hopeful seeing her determination. He could only hope that she was right.

At first, Hilda and May operated under a joint, unspoken agreement of silence as they walked to the cave. May had never come this way before, but the route was intuitive enough that they had no trouble quickly finding it. They had come to much the same conclusion as Ash and Cynthia upon reaching the entrance to the cave, and so dug into their supplies, keeping mostly to themselves after splitting them evenly.

The roof of the mouth of the cave was covered with ash, and they had to watch their step to avoid upwards rock formations as they advanced. As they resumed walking into the cave, they were both beginning to hope that if they could just get through this in silence, there would be little embarrassment to follow, and-

"OW!"

"Hey, watch it!"

"That was your fault!"

Or maybe not.

"How was it my fault that you tripped over something that I easily avoided?" Hilda snapped at the coordinator as they both stumbled to her feet. May had gone down over an unexpected chunk of rock at the entrance, and once again had taken Hilda with her.

"You didn't warn me it was there!"

"Oh, do I have to point out every little obstacle in the way? Watch out, hon, there's a pebble there."

"You know what I mean!"

"No, I don't."

"Well, you should! It's not my problem if you don't conduct yourself with basic etiquette!" May pouted, turning away.

"Well, evidently it is your problem." Hilda flashed back. "You were the one who tripped, after all."

May snarled at her but finally dropped the argument and, taking a deep breath, started walking further into the cave. The champion paused, shaking her head in exasperation, before following her.

They had only continued on for another few feet before it suddenly became drastically too dark to see as the last light from outside was obscured by the overhang of the cave.

"Ow!" May came to a halt, nursing her knee after contact with a shard of rock out of the wall.

"Can't blame that one on my path finding, I'm behind you." Hilda said sweetly.

"Shut up, it's pitch black here." May groaned.

"I'll have Zee light it up. Zee, come on-"

"No!" May cried, grabbing her arm before she could toss the ball.

"What?"

"Feel the cave walls; you'll never fit Zekrom in here! It's too narrow a space!" The coordinator was right, and Hilda was quick to realise it.

"Got any electric-type Pokémon?"

"No. I guess I could use Blaziken, but-"

"Come on out, Gal!" There was a brief flash of light before the bug/electric dual-type emerged into the cave, then a moment of darkness before it began generating an illuminating charge at its feelers.

"Eeeek!" May recoiled in surprise, which proved to be a mistake as she slammed back into the cave wall behind her. "Aaargh!"

"Aww, scared of spiders?" Hilda happily reached up to stroke her Galvantula's back. It clicked appreciatively in response.

"N-n-no, you just s-surprised me, that's all! Again, some warning next time, please!"

"Whatever." Hilda brushed off the coordinator's indignation. "Let's move. Follow Gal."

May obeyed, fuming, and they walked in silence for a little longer. They moved deeper into the void ahead with every step at the slightest of declines, suggesting that they were gradually heading underground. At time, they had to fall into single file; at others, it was possible to go two abreast.

"I hate caves." May said five minutes later, apparently apropos of nothing but their surroundings. "Too dark. Too damp. We could get lost in here forever."

"I hate people who whine. And we've only been in here five minutes. And it's been a straight path all the way." Hilda said cheerfully, and May grimaced ahead of her.

"Why the cheap shots?" She asked, keeping her tone as level as possible. "What did I do to you?"

"Well, I just don't particularly like you."

May hadn't expected any different answer, and yet it still hurt – for some reason - to hear. She felt like she didn't like that much about the brunette champion; her arrogance was frustrating, it annoyed her how Hilda always edged closer to Ash as they travelled, and to be very honest, May could see some parallels with herself, especially regarding their tempers. Equally, however, that didn't mean that she didn't not like her.

"Why?" She asked, biting her lip.

"Ash." Hilda said, and left it at that.

"What about him?" May asked, surprised enough to nearly walk into another cutting. She'd expected something about being a coordinator instead of a battler.

"I like him." Hilda could be very blunt, it seemed.

"Oh… Kay, fine…" This confession was hardly news for May, and it really only confirmed her suspicions; she'd been able to work it out not long after they had met. "I don't really see how that relates to me, though."

"Really?" Hilda sounded surprised - not that May could see her face to confirm it as she kept her eyes firmly on avoiding the natural, static obstructions to their progress. "Well, uh, never mind all that, then. Never mind."

Ash hadn't believed that it was possible for anyone to be able to spend ten minutes debating whether or not to buy a cookie before, but Cynthia was apparently very much capable of doing so.

"Sorry, Ash, but it was an important decision." They were sat on a bench outside the upper level cable station, waiting for the car to ascend once more to pick them after what had been an entirely fruitless search. "Plus, I had to be sure that I could afford to get you one as well."

"They are amazing." He admitted, taking a bite, then lowering the confection back to his lap for Pikachu's sake.

The ride up the side of the mountain had been quick – ten minutes - but boring. They had asked the attendant if he had seen anyone suspicious in the area in the last few days; he said that he hadn't, but he also was not the only worker for the transport – and so, to be sure, they had needed to check.

It quickly became apparent that there was nowhere on the accessible part of the upper level for anyone to hide; it was far too flat for subterfuge. They hiked up to the peak where the slightest hint of lava could be seen, and even checked the site of an old Team Magma base that Cynthia remembered Wallace once mentioning, but found nothing. They trudged back down to the station, immediately realising that they would once again have to wait for it to return.

The only person they did find, in fact, was an old lady selling lava cookies. Given that they now had time to kill, Cynthia hadn't felt too bad using some of it to consider purchasing a treat.

"I really can't imagine how June must feel." Ash said, his thoughts returning to their current problem again. "I was thinking earlier…" Cynthia motioned for him to continue when he paused. "Well, I was wondering if that's kinda how mom must feel when I'm gone so long, wondering if I'm all right. Especially with all this about Plasma, and me getting involved, I could tell she wasn't that happy about me going off again so soon."

"You speak to Professor Oak quite often, don't you?" She asked.

"I guess so, yeah."

"Then she'll hear about you all the time. Don't worry about that." She reassured him.

"I suppose. Still, I'm going to call more often." He vowed, and Cynthia nodded.

"Can't hurt." She winked, finishing her cookie.

It wasn't too warm, even so close to the peak; they had a nice, cool breeze blowing in from the south, even if the environment and air was a little oppressive.

"How about you, if you don't mind me asking?" Ash felt like he ought to find out a little more; he didn't know as much about this friend as he did most of his others

"Gran knows what's it's like." She replied, chewing on a few remnants of the cookie, then smiled at a memory. "She always yells at me about something or the other when I get back, but she never stops smiling."

He nodded, entirely understanding.

The cable car arrived, and they went back down the mountain.

"Maybe we should turn back, we've been down here twenty minutes, we really could get lost."

"We haven't diverged once, this cave goes on for miles." Hilda said. "Come on, five more minutes."

May nodded her assent, and the two kept walking, Galvantula lighting the way.

"Can I ask you a question?" May struck up a minute later.

"Depends on the question."

"Why Ash?"

"What d'ya mean?"

"The two of you had never met before, and there are plenty of famous Pokémon trainers in tournaments on TV out there. Why Ash in particular?"

May waited so long for the answer that she had begun to assume that it wasn't coming.

"His was the first Pokémon battle I saw on screen." Hilda said at last. "He knocked out a trainer just with his Kingler after it evolved mid-battle. First round, Indigo League. I was so gutted when he lost that tournament, and I've rooted for him ever since. He's kinda like my idol, and it helps that we're the same age. Makes it seem more real. Plus, my dad had… connections. I've heard about some of the stuff Ash has done in the past, like saving the world from uncontrollable weather in the Orange Archipelago… He's a hero."

May couldn't disagree with the last part, but recognised the way Hilda was talking in the way some of her love-struck friends had talked back in school before she had started her own journey.

"Here's one for you, then." Hilda said after another minute of nothingness. "Why contests?"

"I tried to be a battler, once." May replied. "I was never any good, and not long after I started travelling with Ash, Brock and Max we heard about contests. I liked the sound of that, so I tried it, and enjoyed it. I got pretty good, too."

"You're not half bad at battling now." Hilda grunted as she turned sideways to avoid a protrusion that May had indicated to her. "From what I saw yesterday."

"Heh. Thanks."

It was an awkward few minutes indeed, but at least they now had things to talk about instead of just snapping each other. Neither by this point expected to find anything in the cave.

"You start your journeys at fifteen in Unova?"

May was curious at the difference in customs between the regions. She couldn't imagine starting later than ten.

"Yeah. It's pretty annoying. They make us stay at home or do some kind of schooling for five more years, so I just started helping out with mom's shop."

"What's Unova like?" Might be worth visiting, someday…

"It's different from Hoenn and, from the other regions, or so I've been told. It's very urban, lots of big buildings, but there's still a fair bit of countryside if you know where to look. There are mountains like this in the north-east and around Victory Road, but they don't get as tall as this one. There's - wait, what's up, Gal?" Hilda stopped suddenly, holding May back with a hand on her shoulder and pointing at her Pokémon, who was not moving a muscle, poised as if to listen. It motioned with a feeler ahead, and shut off its spark.

The light didn't go out. Which meant…

There was light up ahead. Straining, the two could even hear voices.

"Jackpot." Hilda whispered, thanking Galvantula and returning it to its Poké ball. The two moved up carefully and peered around a bend in the cave.

There was a small, hollowed out room, dimly lit by several electric lights. A table and a few chairs filled much of it, but what really drew the eye was the large, unusual piece of machinery at the back of the room that seemed to be humming with energy.

More importantly, though, were the people in the room. A man and a woman, both dressed in a black uniform identical to the ones worn by the guards in the Rustboro tunnel, stood next to the table. Sitting at it, and handcuffed to it was a small, scared and intimidated-looking boy who couldn't have been more than ten years old.

"Plasma?" May asked.

"The Plasma I thought at the Unova league had white uniforms." Hilda noted doubtfully.

"The ones in the tunnel had dark."

"They did? I was too busy beating them up to notice."

The male guard spoke, causing Hilda and May to jump back around the corner.

"I'm heading back to check in." He said. "Keep your eye on him."

"Who's going to come down here?" The female guard retorted, sounding extremely bored.

"We don't want another Rustboro." The first said simply. There was a flash of light, and when the two glanced back around the corner, he was gone.

"Betcha that machine at the back is a teleporter."Hilda whispered. "We'd better be quick when she's not looking."

"I've got her." May said firmly. "Beautifuly, on stage! And quietly!"

Beautifly fluttered in the gloom, scaled wings catching what illumination they could and sparkling from it.

"I need you to move ahead and Stun Spore that guard." May said. Beautifly complied; seconds later, there was a soft sigh of surprise. Looking out, the two trainers saw that the guard had been paralyzed before she had been able to move to get help. "Nicely done! Return!"

The boy at the table looked at them, alarmed, as they approached. He looked close to tears.

"Wh-who are you? Please, I want to go home." He begged.

"It's all right, sweetie, we're here to help." May kneeled down and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"No key for the handcuffs." Hilda noted having checked the guard's pockets and belt. "The other must have it. No time to waste, he could be back any moment.

"Blaziken, cut off this cuff!" May summoned her starter, who made quick work of the shoddy iron restraint. "What's your name, sweetie?" She asked the boy soothingly, trying to calm him down.

"M-M-Mikey." He stuttered.

"We're getting you out of here, Mikey."

"Come on, let's go, let's-" Hilda said impatiently, eyes on the teleporter.

They had lingered too long.

It burst into life, briefly stunning the girls with its brilliance before revealing the returning male guard.

"Intruders!" He bellowed, and dived back into the still-open portal.

Now they had a problem.

"And would you care to explain why your satchel is radiating an aura of unstable energy?"

- Search Warrant, Return to Ravnica