Hello, everyone! Here's a new chapter to this story. I know I said I had hoped to get a new chapter up by the first Monday of this month, but I also said to not quote me on that. Still, sorry for having given such an unrealistic time frame there. I'll try to keep from giving out concrete times when there's no guarantee that it will even be concrete.

But yes, I know this has almost been a month since the last chapter was posted. The reason for that is simple: I'm preparing to graduate from college! Oh, it's really so exciting! Should everything be in order and I have all my classes done, I'm thinking of being able to graduate by the time the Spring quarter ends. It really is amazing to think that I started college five years ago and am now about to be done with it. Even when you think you're not having fun, time manages to fly by really quickly!

On that note, it should explain why there was such a slowdown in my updates. I want to make sure that I don't mess up in the last few classes that I need to take, so I'm devoting more time to them than I am to these stories. That and one of my English classes is a fiction writing workshop and requires us to do weekly two-page brainstorms, or word vomits as the professor calls it, while thinking of a 15 page story for both our midterm and finals. So yeah, I have to think of so many new and fresh story ideas that having to commit with this Pokemon one right now is close to impossible. Note that I said close to impossible; it clearly isn't plain impossible since I managed to get this chapter out. But still, it was torture to write this and do my fiction homework at the same time.

Now that I've explained why things have slowed down, I do hope that you all can understand. Just because there's a big gap in update times doesn't mean that I've abandoned it like a couple of people who PM'ed me thought I did. And speaking of PM, please don't suggest to me through review or PM how I should be writing the next part or a future segment of my story. (NOTE: the usage of you for the next few sentences is used as a broad term; it's not meant to single anybody out.) First off, having a reviewer telling me how I should be writing a story would then make it your story, and that would defeat the purpose of me writing it. Secondly, I personally find it insulting if someone were to tell or even suggest that I write my next chapter or future segment based on their thoughts. To me, it sounds like you think that my story isn't that great or going along with how you would want it to progress. If you feel that a certain segment of my story isn't going the way you prefer it to or that you prefer a certain something happening in a future chapter, then write your one story or one-shot. This is fanfiction after all; you can post your ideas on here rather than asking me to work with or consider your suggestions to be added into my own stories.

With that out of the way, I'll leave you all alone to read the new chapter. Please don't forget to leave a review before you leave. They are always helpful as both morale boosters and for me to know what it is you as the readers are thinking. And please, only constructive criticisms or just plain positive reviews. I don't mind if you send me a negative review so long as you can back it up with why you feel negative about whatever it is that caught your attention in the chapter or story. I don't easily take offense from constructive criticism, so don't feel that you have to hold back with me. Seriously, you should be in my fiction class when we review everyone's stories. You sometimes hear things you don't want to or expect to hear, but it could also prove helpful if it's constructive and not just plain attacking in nature.

pikachewy1: I've already answered your review through PM, so I won't spend too much time with my response here. With regards to you wanting me to put more description in my battle scenes (I've seen the example you gave on my PM, but I never responded back), I personally don't think that would work. When it comes to action scenes, it's best that the narrative moves as fast as possible while being descriptive in as few words as possible. When in the middle of an action scene, it's not good for the dialogue to be fast paced and for the narrative to be slow. It ruins the pacing along with the feeling of being in the middle of an intense situation. As such, the example you provided would fall under the "optional detail" category and can be omitted. And from what I heard from my fellow classmates in my fiction class when they review stories with intense action, it's a general consensus that less narration is better since, and I quote from a classmate, "it's impossible to notice everything during a chaotic situation, and it would be unrealistic if everything that could possibly be seen or felt is put on the narrative." Still, thanks for your suggestion on how you thought I could better my action scenes. (Also, please post links with spaces. The site doesn't allow for links, but it can be bypassed if you typed it in with spaces.)

jakeroo123: Yes, this story is an interesting concept. As I said in the first chapter's author's note, I came up with the entire story in my head back when I was in seventh grade almost ten years ago. (I sucked at writing and using a computer, so I planned the whole story in my head). While I've forgotten most of the action that went on, I still clearly remember the central plot point and how it was supposed to be intentionally confusing. And thanks for letting me know about Ash's aura. That means I now have full reign to do what I want with the idea since Pokemon never elaborated on it! Yay!

Dragonsrule18: It's good to know that you like this story. And yeah, I agree with you that Pikachu's cute. I tried to reflect that through his actions along with how he really cares about Ash. He's my favorite Pokemon; I always have him in my team whenever possible even though I greatly prefer a Dragon/Dragon hybrid only team. He's the only non-Dragon who's permitted to be on my roster. I guess it's because I always saw him with Ash when I watched the series starting as a little first grader that I grew to prefer Pikachu.

Chapter 6: Beyond Confusing

"Am I hearing you correctly?" the suited man asked, his right hand swaying a glass of wine a bit too violently that it threatened to spill out. His left hand was irritably adjusting the knot on his red tie. His eyes were harshly staring at the scientist on his monitor. Said man looked like he was ready to disappear at any moment. "Are you really going to let a couple of complications get in the way of our work?"

"But these aren't just simple complications, sir!" the scientist quickly explained. He had a clipboard in his hands and was constantly shifting his gaze between it and his monitor. At the same time, there were other scientists rushing in and out of sight in the background. "We've run simulations to see what would happen if we ignored it. Needless to say, the results have proven to be catastrophic!

"And just how catastrophic are you talking about?"

"Everything we've accomplished would disappear in a matter of seconds. It's not just an involuntary memory wipe; it'll also be a major short circuit of all our computers that can result in an explosion! All of our research along with the lives of the scientists who know this project will be gone. So unless we can figure out the problem and fix it, we can't continue on."

The brown suited man muttered something unintelligible under his breath before setting down his glass. The computer on his desk was showing various numbers and graphs, all of them either colored red or in a red zone that was deemed dangerous. There was also a small window warning of a potential system overload.

"I-Is everything okay, sir?"

"Are you sure you can't just work around this problem?" the man asked at almost the same time.

"I-I'm sorry?" the scientist apologized, momentarily looking confused before wincing at the death glare he received.

"I'm asking if there's a workaround, you idiot! If there is, then stop wasting time and get to it!"

"Uh, I wouldn't recommend that, sir. The chances of us losing all of the resources and manpower put into this project is too great. I think a temporary suspension in lieu of pinpointing the cause of this problem is the best course of action."

The man was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "How long do you expect this fix to take?"

"I'm not sure. We only just found out about this a couple hours ago and don't have a lot of information to work with." The scientist paused for a moment to look over some papers a fellow scientist handed him before shooing her away. "We do have reports showing that there's an internal issue, but they're too preliminary to rely on. Once we've gathered more data, I can tell you how long the fix will take. Until then, suspension of our work would be the safest thing to do. I only ask that you be patient with us."

A tense silence came between the two for the next few seconds. The scientist started to get fidgety as he fiddled with some papers on his clipboard. The suited man picked up his wine glass and took a long sip. Both seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move out of this unfavorable situation.

"If that's what you have to do," the man finally said with a heavy sigh as he swayed his glass again. "Just make sure this gets resolved as soon as possible. I've come too far for this to be scrapped because of a technical glitch. Is that clear?"

"Understood, sir!" The scientist saluted before quickly turning off his end of the video feed.

"Why must this happen?" he grumbled before downing the last of his wine. "We just found the key to enact our plans. Why is this problem different from everything else those imbeciles had to deal with? Somebody must've been asleep in the tech department to have let something like this slip by!

"Oh well, I suppose all I can do now is wait," he sighed as his lips curved into a wry smile. "Then again, I guess I can spare a few more days. After all, waiting will become an inconsequential thing for me when the program's ready to run. I just hope they don't take too long fixing the problem."

-Meanwhile-

"Geez, my head's killing me!" Ash groaned as he slowly came to. "It's like someone's stomping around up there."

He slowly opened his eyes, but his vision was too blurry to discern much of anything. The only thing he could make out was Pikachu, but that was because of the Pokémon's easily recognizable body frame and yellow fur. And based on the sluggish movements, he assumed that the little mouse was also just waking up.

"Are you okay, Pikachu?" He got a groggy squeak in reply. His vision cleared in a few seconds, and he saw Pikachu on his feet trying to shake the sleep away. "That's good. You're not hurt or anything?"

"Pika," Pikachu answered, sounding more awake this time. The little mouse then went to Ash and gave his face a careful lick.

"Don't worry, buddy; I'm fine. Got a bit of a headache, but it's nothing too bad."

Having finally regained his bearings, Ash looked around to see where he was at. He was in a room, the walls a stained ivory white with cheap wood flooring that was partially covered by a tattered one tone rug. He could see from his position a simple dresser set up next to an open doorway that led to a cramped bathroom. From the covers that slipped off his bare chest and the bedside dresser that had his black shirt folded on top of it; he figured he was asleep in someone's bedroom.

"How'd I get here?" he wondered aloud as Pikachu explored the room. "The last thing I remember are two Charizards trying to make a getaway. I think they were about to burn us alive when Gary and Surge jumped in their path and…" He trailed off before suddenly remembering something. "Wait a minute!"

He immediately looked at his arms once he remembered that they were supposed to be burned. Instead of that or even bandages wrapped around them, they were clear and free of any damage whatsoever. There was not even a hint of a scar resembling a burn anywhere on him. He then stole a glance at Pikachu and saw that his fur was sleek and clean without any signs of singeing.

"Pikachu, do you remember two Charizards trying to barbeque us back at Professor Oak's lab?" The little mouse hopped onto the bedside dresser and slowly nodded. He also seemed to notice the lack of burns and was looking at Ash's arms before looking himself over. "So you do remember that. Then it wasn't a dream; we really did go up against those two guys dressed in black. What's going on? None of this makes any sense! First we wake up smack in the middle of some war; now we're waking up in a strange room with no idea how we got here or why we're not burned to a crisp. Watch we find out we're floating out in the middle of the ocean next!"

"Attention passengers," a voice suddenly announced. "As captain of the S.S. Anne, it's my pleasure to bid you all a good afternoon. We've just reached the midway point of our cruise to Kalos. The seas look calm, and we should arrive in Courmarine City a few days earlier than expected. I hope you'll continue to enjoy the hospitality of my crew for the next week of our journey."

"You're not serious, are you?" Ash deadpanned as he stared at the speaker box atop the bathroom doorway. He then got up and made a beeline to the window, his mind barely able to register his bare feet hitting his shoes and the chill of the wooden floor. Pikachu had beaten him to the window when he arrived, nearly tripping over the hem of his jeans in the process, and saw nothing but an endless expanse of water. "We really are at sea? But I was only kidding when I said that!"

"Chu," the Pokémon whined before running towards a closed door. He jumped onto the handle and turned it so as to open it and slipped through once there was a gap big enough for him to pass through.

"Hey, wait up!" Ash shouted. He quickly slipped on his shirt before trying to catch up with Pikachu.

When he made it through the door, he found himself in a metal hallway. It was a pretty small space but not so much that two people could not walk beside each other. This was easily demonstrated by a young couple that irritably squeezed by him. The walls were the same shade of white as the room he came from, the door having slowly closed on its own with a light click. The floor was fitted with a cheap red carpet that was worn from constant foot travel but still felt somewhat soft against his bare feet.

"So we're really on a ship," he murmured as his eyes fell on a map hanging on the wall nearby. He quickly glanced over it and saw the traversable area was formed in the shape of a ship. He then remembered what he was doing and looked up and down the hallway in search of Pikachu. "Where did he run off to?" He suddenly saw a familiar yellow blur go around a corner and went chasing after it. "Wait up, buddy!"

Pushing past the couple that had just passed him by and ignoring their angry glares, Ash turned the corner and ran up the metal stairs. He arrived on the new floor and noticed it had a lot more open space. As such, there were plenty of people chatting with one another while heading to wherever it was they were going. He nearly lost sight of Pikachu amidst the chaos, but he soon caught him heading towards a doorway that had light pouring through it. Determined to keep his eye on the mouse, he pushed through the thick crowd and ignored the string of curses that were thrown his way.

Now outside, Ash brought an arm up to shield his eyes from the bright light. He felt a cool breeze hinted with flecks of salt blowing against his skin, a perfect counter to the pleasant warmth of what was no doubt the sun hitting him. The air was strong with the smell of the sea, so much so that he cringed his nose at the unexpected scent. He could catch scattered bits of people's conversation as well as the playful sounds of nearby Pokémon.

Once his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, he brought his arms down and scanned the area. People and Pokémon were scattered about, all of them happily doing their own thing. They were either taking a walk or simply standing around, but all clearly enjoyed being with their respective company. Some people were dressed in casual clothing while others had no shame in flaunting their obvious wealth. The Pokémon were either faithfully by their trainers or playing with each other. Pikachu was the only one by himself standing on a nearby railing, his ears flicking against the wind and his gaze glued to the grand expanse of water.

"Wow, this is really beautiful!" Ash gasped, immediately becoming entranced with the cloudless horizon and forgetting about Pikachu's earlier runaway stunt. Instead, he stood beside him and leaned against the railing in an attempt to take everything in. Right below them in the blue waters were some water Pokémon happily splashing about alongside the ship. "I still can't believe we're actually onboard a cruise ship. With a view like this, I guess randomly waking up here can't be too bad."

"Pikachu~!"

"Nice to see you two enjoying yourselves."

Recognizing the familiar voice, both turned to their left and saw Brock standing with his arms crossed. His Vulpix was right next to him and glancing every which way as though trying to soak in all the sights.

"You're here, too, Brock?"

"Looks like it," the older teen said with a shrug. Pikachu hopped off the railing and went to greet the small red vulpine. "Although I don't know how I got here in the first place. The last thing Vulpix and I remember was extreme heat before passing out."

"Same with me and Pikachu. You don't think someone saved us and got us on this ship, do you?"

"I don't think so, Ash. I remember my arms getting burned when we were blasted with that heat. But as you can see, I'm nowhere near hurt." Brock brought his arms up and showed how impeccably smooth they were. "It doesn't matter how well they're treated; burns like that are supposed to leave scars. And besides, I think we're supposed to be waking up in a hospital if someone did save us."

"I know; it just doesn't make any sense," Ash agreed with a nod. The two Pokémon were now running around like they were playing tag. "Or maybe whoever found us had no time to get us to a hospital and just booked us on the next ship out. I mean, things were starting to get pretty hectic when those guys in black were causing trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if it was hard just to get us on here."

"I don't think that's the case. I did some poking around before I found you. From what I've gathered, it sounds like the incident at Professor Oak's Lab is something only we know about."

"What're you saying, Brock? That can't be right. I've lived in Pallet Town my whole life. It may be a small town, but word of anything good or bad happening has a way of travelling fast. And besides, I think it's impossible for at least Vermilion City to miss two huge Charizards hovering over the town. Someone there would've realized what was going on and told everyone else about it."

"And I agree with you, Ash. However, everyone I asked didn't know what I was talking about. One even said something about a Pokémon setting Pallet Town on fire last year and that nobody's lived there since."

"Last year? But Surge said that fire happened four years ago!" Ash exclaimed. Pikachu and Vulpix both stopped playing and stared at him in confusion. "Maybe there was a second fire he didn't know about? Or maybe the person you asked has memory problems?"

"Trust me; the man I asked had a good memory. He tried to give me a detailed history lesson when I suggested Pallet Town suffered two fires," the older teen groaned as he recalled the moment.

"But then this doesn't make any sense! How can there only be one fire but two people giving us completely different times of when it happened?"

"Look, I know you're confused right now," Brock said as he put an arm over Ash's shoulders and walked with him. A small crowd was beginning to form because of the young teen's outburst, and the older one was wanting to escape from their quizzical glares. Vulpix and Pikachu followed closely behind, both also noticing the stares and nervously keeping their eyes on their trainers. "I'm feeling the same as you. Still, you can't just start making a scene. I don't think you'd want to be known as the crazy kid and have everyone avoiding you while we're on this ship."

"So I'm just supposed to act calm and pretend everything's normal?" Ash nearly shouted. If his arms which had been flailing about for the past minute did not draw any attention, then his exclamation did the trick. "How am I supposed to do that? Nothing makes sense!"

"And you panicking is not going to help. You need to calm down now!" the other emphasized, taking hand of Ash's arms and forcing them to stop moving. "Things are going to be a lot harder to figure out if you lose your head. Now start relaxing or these people are really going to brand you as crazy!"

Ash took Brock's suggestion and finally began to calm down. He leaned his chest against the ship's railing and took a couple of deep breaths to steady his mind. Pikachu jumped onto Ash's shoulders and comfortingly pawed at the back of his head. Vulpix cuddled herself against Brock's leg, her head nervously turning every which way as she stared at all the people staring at them. Brock calmly waved everyone away, releasing his hands from Ash's arms but still staying close for comfort.

It took almost a minute before everything finally went back to normal. The once near-hysterical teen was now as calm as he could be considering everything that was swimming in his head. Many in the crowd went back to their own things thanks to Brock; a few stayed behind while trying to act casual. They were quickly chased away by Pikachu threatening them with a Growl and a few sparks from his cheeks.

"You've calmed down now?"

Yeah, Brock; I'm good," Ash sighed. He turned to face Brock and now had his back on the railing. "But I'm still confused about what's going on. It's like every answer I get just leads to more questions."

"Then perhaps we should try getting things straightened out," Brock suggested as he bent down to pick Vulpix up into his arms. "I think it's time we start asking around for some concrete answers. How about you ask around out here while I go inside?"

"You want us to split up?" the young teen asked the same time his Pikachu let out an inquiring mewl. "Are you sure that's safe?"

"Don't worry; I doubt anything crazy is going to happen. Ship's like this usually have security onboard to keep both rowdy Pokémon and passengers in line. And besides, it'll be faster to get more information this way while we look for Tracy."

Ash looked confused for a moment before realizing that he had forgotten all about the sketch artist. "Wait a minute; are you saying he's here, too?"

"I'm not sure, but that's one of the things I want to find out." Brock then turned around and started walking away. "We'll meet back here in about an hour, alright?"

"But what if I don't learn anything new?" his question fell on deaf ears as the Pewter City Gym Leader quickly disappeared into the interior of the ship. Both Ash and Pikachu were left on their own, confused as to what they should do next.

"Pika pi," the yellow mouse said as he poked the teen's head to get his attention. "Pi pika Pika-Chu."

"You really think Brock knows what he's doing?" Pikachu merely hopped off of Ash's shoulders in response and pointed at a nearby group of people. "If you say so, buddy. Still, I bet we're going to be more confused when this is over."

Letting out a small sigh, the yellow mouse waited for his trainer to come towards him before once again hopping onto his favorite shoulder. Together, the duo spent their time doing what Brock suggested, to go around asking people for information. Ash just hoped that this would work, or he would have had to suffer the people's harsh glares of implied insanity for nothing.

Well, I hope that you all liked the new chapter. I hope the title for this one lived up to its namesake. This one was relatively short compared to the others. And I had a lot to say at the beginning author's note, so I'll try to keep this one short.

I'm sorry if the ending felt rushed. I was just sick of seeing this chapter for almost a month and wanted it done. That and it was hard to work on it since I had way too many story ideas floating through my head courtesy of my fiction writing class. Oh well, at least it's on par with what I originally had in mind.

And about Pikachu's speech. I found a place on the internet where there's a page dedicated to Ash's Pikachu and a small section about his speech patterns. Just type in "Ash's Pikachu" on google and you should find it. Needless to say, "Pika pi" is for Ash, and "Pika-Chu" is for Brock; anything other than what was said on that web page is just nonsensical and made up by me.

On the rare occasion that Pikachu gets to say a full sentence instead of a one-word phrase, I'll always have Ash pretty much repeating what was said. In this case, I had Pikachu say something along the lines of "Let's do what Brock said" with Ash asking if he thought Brock knew what he was doing. Of course, you can interpret his words however you want; the response that Ash gives right after those sentences should provide enough context clues to get a basic understanding of the topic. I just want it to be as real as possible; I'm sure all Pokemon trainers in the anime had to learn their Pokemon's vocal cues and body movements to know what they're saying. So there will be no clear translations either in the story itself or in my author's notes. Ash's response will be the only clues for you to determine what Pikachu said.

And lastly, I'm going to be capitalizing the name of moves when I use them in the story. I'm sure you all noticed the word "Growl" when Pikachu scared some people away. That was on purpose since Growl is a move. Just letting you all know in case you find a random upper case word and think it's a typo.