"Crawdaunt! Use Vicegrip to toss it back!" Trey cried, beckoning to his Pokemon.
"Cra-aw!" Crawdaunt roared from the battlefield, grabbing the brilliant-green blade that was slicing through the air toward it. Locking down its pincers on it, it violently reared back and threw its opponent across the field.
"Tsk!" Nate grunted. "Leafeon, use Razor Leaf!"
"Le-e..." Leafeon panted from the field, struggling to get back on its feet.
Trey and Crawdaunt held their ground and waited, their eyes locked on Nate's Leafeon. Earlier in the fight, Murkrow had succeeded in defeating Donphan, but then he had been subsequently defeated by Leafeon, prompting Nate to send out Crawdaunt.
"What's the matter? Get up and attack!" Nate roared indignantly, his resolve beginning to break. "Go!"
"Lee..." Leafeon said softly, its legs shaking as it managed to get back up. Then it swung its head in a circular arc, shooting a flurry of sharpened leaves at Crawdaunt from the leaf emblem on its head.
"Crawdaunt, use Harden!"
"Craw!" Crawdaunt affirmed, remaining stationary as its shell shone a brilliant white for a second. When the leaves hit it, they were all deflected away uselessly.
"Grah!" Nate roared, his carefree demeanor finally chipping away as he continued to be beaten by Trey. "Just kill it, you stupid animal!"
"I think that's enough." Trey muttered to himself. Gesturing to Leafeon, he cried, "Crawdaunt, finish this with Crabhammer!"
"Craw-daunt!" Crawdaunt boomed, charging across the battlefield and sending Leafeon flying with a smack of its claws. When it landed, it remained lying on its side, unconscious.
"No!" Nate roared angrily, glaring daggers across the chamber at Trey.
"Uh, yes." Trey shot back mockingly. "He can't fight anymore, as you can plainly see. Now, you gonna send out a third Pokemon, or do you want to quit while you're ahead?"
Nate gritted his teeth. "I'll teach you to make a mockery of me, you little punk." Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a third Pokeball...
"Are you sure Spenser's around here?" May asked, glancing down at Pikachu, who was leading Ash and May down hallway after hallway on all fours.
"Pika, pikachu!" Pikachu responded sharply, rounding another corner. Ash and May quickly followed, rounding the sharp turn and coming face to face with a long corridor of prison cells, similar to the hallway May had found Ash in. Pikachu ran down the hall before turning and pointing into one of the cells.
"What is it, buddy?" Ash asked, catching up to Pikachu and looking in the cell, along with May. "Huh - ?"
"What? Hey, who are you guys?" The young girl inside the bars asked them. She had shoulder-length brown hair, and wore a jet-black, short-sleeved vest with a white tank-top on underneath it. Over her legs was a simple pair of navy blue shorts, and she bore sneakers with all three colors on them.
"I was about to ask you the same thing..." May replied slowly, peering at the unidentified girl through the iron bars.
The girl stared at them for a moment in confusion. "Well...I'm Lily...and...I've been for a few days...I guess. I came to challenge the Battle Palace, but when I beat the Frontier Brain...he captured me."
"Spenser?" Ash asked, his gaze darkening. Lily nodded. "I battled him, too, but I quit the battle early and left."
"You forfeited?" Lily asked in surprise. "Then what are you doing in here?"
"Well, uh, we kind of came back...you see, that Spenser that we battled wasn't actually the real guy. We met the real one on the way out of the city, and came back here to get rid of the phony." Ash explained nervously.
"We?" Lily repeated, looking back and forth between the two. "What, are you two, like, a couple or something?"
Ash blinked, staring back at the girl, his face reddening slightly. "We - we're not really - "
"No, nothing like that - " May added, a blush creeping up onto her face as well. Pikachu noticed this, and glanced at his two human friends in confusion.
"There's - others with us - " Ash choked out.
"Y-yeah...some more of our friends..." May added softly.
"Oh, I see now!" Lily exclaimed happily. "Sorry about that. "Well, do you guys have some way to get me out of here? That guy took all my Pokemon away when I was locked in here."
"Yeah, mine too." Ash replied, nodding to her.
"Pikachu actually found me, and helped me get him out." May explained. "By the way, I'm May."
"Oh, yeah, I'm Ash."
Lily nodded to the two in acknowledgement. "Oh, I see! So, little guy, you want to get me out of here, too?"
"Pika!" Pikachu replied, nodding jovially. A few seconds and one Iron Tail later, a few bars had been dropped to the floor in the same way as Ash's cell. Lily quickly climbed out into the hall with them.
"We were actually looking for Spenser, when Pikachu found you..." Ash said slowly.
"Oh, no problem. I need to get my Pokemon back, anyway." Lily said happily.
"All right, then. Let's go, Pikachu!"
The group continued down the corridor of cells, and were about to turn a corner and leave, when they heard another voice behind them.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Spenser's voice echoed.
Ash and May turned sharply in place. "Spenser!"
"Yes, I'm here." He said slowly.
"Why didn't you say anything a minute ago?"
He turned and looked at them through the cell bars, the ever-present smile on his face. "I didn't want to interrupt you."
The group traded questioning glances to each other before walking over to the old man's cell and promptly releasing him.
"I guess your Pokemon are gone, too, huh?" Ash asked him sadly as the newly enlarged group continued through the labyrinth of tunnels.
"Yes." Spenser responded, his voice dropping slightly. "What about your Pikachu? Why was he not taken away as well?"
"I don't really know what happened to him." Ash responded, looking to May.
"Well, Trey and me came in looking for you guys. He's still in the battle chamber, as far as I know, holding off Spenser's double." May explained quickly.
"Trey's here too?" Ash asked.
"Yeah. Pikachu found me in the tunnels and led me to Ash's cell, and then to that hallway where we found you two." She finished, as they all rounded another corner.
"Hey!" Lily exclaimed, running ahead of her companions. "Look!"
Around the corner, in a much larger cell than any of them had been in, resided a small horde of Pokemon. Ash quickly pinpointed his own, realizing that this was where the prisoners' Pokemon had been kept.
"It's our Pokemon!" Ash cried happily, as Pikachu broke down this cell wall as well.
Once they were all inside the bars, Ash hastily made his way over to his Pokemon, who looked happy to see him, to say the least.
"Hey, guys!" He cried jubilantly.
"Gro-vyle!"
"Phaa!"
"Swellow!"
"Corphish, cor!"
May slowly walked up behind him, grinning, as he recalled his four partners. Across the large cell, Spenser had greeted his Shiftry, Venusaur, and Claydol, and recalled them as well. Lily had done the same, recalling her Leafeon, Butterfree, Quilava, and Prinplup.
Spenser turned back to leave, but stopped when he saw Ash and May standing close to one another. He continued watching them for a moment, as May said something to him, causing them both to chuckle as they turned back to the makeshift entrance. He grinned to himself as the group exited the holding cell.
"Let's see you defeat this one!" Nate roared, pulling out a third Pokeball from his coat. "Go, Venusaur!"
"Veeenusaur!" Venusaur bellowed, materializing on the field in a flash of white energy.
"I think I could manage that." Trey joked to himself as Crawdaunt got into a battle position.
"Use Vine Whip, now!"
"Venu-saur!" Venusaur boomed, striking out with the two concealed vines on its back. Crawdaunt wasn't fast enough, and before Trey knew it, its pincers were both tied up in one of Venusaur's vines, unable to move.
"Crawdaunt! Shake them off!" Trey cried.
"Craw - !" Crawdaunt grunted, its pincers flailing around as it tried to shake off the vines to no avail.
"Now hit him with Solarbeam!" Nate roared.
"...Vee...nuu..." Venusaur grunted slowly, lowering its head as sunlight began to collect in the massive flower on its back. "...SAUR!"
The beam fired, hurtling across the battlefield straight for the defenseless Crawdaunt.
"Crawdaunt!" Trey cried helplessly.
Suddenly, an equally-sized lightning bolt streaked across the field from a side tunnel, colliding with the Solarbeam in mid-air, causing a massive explosion.
"What the - ?" Nate growled, raising an arm to block the smoke from the explosion as he looked to the source of the lightning attack.
Emerging from a side tunnel into the main chamber, was Pikachu, with Ash, May, Lily, and Spenser close behind.
"I don't think so!" Ash cried, running into the chamber next to Pikachu.
"Hey there, about time you guys got back." Trey called to them, smirking. "Hey, wait a minute - "
Lily quickly made her way to the front of the group. "Trey! You came back!"
"What? Lily?" Trey replied in disbelief as she ran up to him. "What are you - ? You got captured by that guy?"
She nodded eagerly to him. "Yeah! I beat him in a battle here and he took me prisoner!"
While everyone else was staring in confusion and disbelief, Trey turned back to Nate, who was steaming with anger at this point. "I'd back out while you still can, phony. This battle just got personal."
"What exactly - ?" May asked confusedly.
Lily turned back to her. "Oh, you didn't tell me that you came here with Trey! As in, my boyfriend!"
There was a long silence among the group.
Please R&R!