Ash and May remained asleep for the next hour or so, around which time Brock and Max had finished sorting things out at the Pokemon Center and had already begun to head back to the hospital, along with Pikachu.
Once they arrived, they asked the doctor if it was alright for them to go in, who simply chuckled and said yes. Clearly not getting the joke, they simply thanked him and made their way to May's room on the second floor.
"Huh, that's weird." Brock commented as they approached the door to her room. He noticed the darkness present around the edges of the door. "It looks like the lights are off..."
"Pika?"
"Maybe they're sleeping or something?" Max suggested, shrugging.
"Yeah, but why would the doctor tell us that it was alright to see her?" Brock pointed out, putting a hand to his chin. "It doesn't make sense..."
"Maybe they were awake the last he saw them?" Max countered, shrugging off Brock's argument as he opened the door. "You're just thinkin' too much - "
Max froze on the spot when he saw Ash slouched over in a chair, his face lying on the edge of May's bed, both of them asleep. He was too short to see their clasped hands on the other side of Ash, but he stared in confusion nonetheless.
"Huh? What the - ?"
"Pi-ka..." Pikachu gasped in wonder.
Brock entered the room behind him, staring at the pair as well in surprise. He did notice the two of them holding hands in their sleep, but decided not to divulge that particular fact to Max. Instead, he merely chuckled and crossed his arms. "Looks like someone's having good dreams."
"What?" Max cried, turning to Brock in shock.
"Uuuh..." Ash groaned, slowly waking up from his sleep, blinking his eyes open. After a few seconds, his eyes focused, and he saw Max and Brock standing in the doorway, staring at him. "Uuh...huh?"
"Ash, what's goin' on?" Max demanded, as Brock closed the door behind them and flipped on the lights, causing Ash to recoil.
"Ah...wh...what do you mean?" Ash replied, still half-asleep as he squinted his eyes momentarily to allow them to adjust to the light. As he sat up, however, Max caught sight of his hand holding May's.
"Huh?" Max cried again, locking his gaze on the two joined hands.
"Uh - !" Ash choked out, realizing what he had just done. He swiftly yanked his own hand away from May's and shot his friends an innocent expression. "Well...uh..."
"Ash, what're you doin' holding hands with my sister?" Max demanded. "Do you remember who she is?"
"I...uh...it's not what it looked like..." Ash defended lamely, scratching his head in anxiety as May slowly awoke beside him.
"Piika...?" Pikachu asked softly, approaching Ash's feet.
"Uh...hey, buddy..." He greeted awkwardly.
"May!" Max continued, turning to his now-awake sister instead as Pikachu tentatively clambered up to Ash's shoulder. "What's goin' on?"
"Huh?" May replied confusedly, turning to Ash for help. He frowned back at her with a worried look in his eye, telling her that they had been caught. "Wh-what are you talking about?"
"I saw it! You and Ash were holding hands while you were sleeping!"
"It wasn't like that...see..." May explained slowly, making something up as fast as she could. "I was just...in a lot of pain, and I told Ash it would just make me feel better if I had someone to...hold on...to?"
"And...uh...we must've just fallen asleep like that." Ash finished, also rather lamely.
"But that's so weird!" Max exclaimed. "Why would you want Ash to hold your hand? Why would Ash even want to?"
"Uh...well...you know..." Ash replied, not actually saying much of anything.
As Max continued to interrogate the two of them, Brock remained standing off near the door, watching the two of them closely as something finally clicked in his brain.
The next day, Trey and Lily's ferry arrived at Cinnabar Island. They noticed Will disembarking as they too got off, but didn't pay it much mind.
After spending an hour or two perusing the city together, they finally decided to make their way to the Battle Pyramid, which was readily visible floating off the coast of the island. After taking a short shuttle ride across the gap of water, they stepped off onto the metallic structure for the first time.
"Wow, this place is pretty cool!" Lily exclaimed as they made their way to the large doors leading inside. "I'd sure like to have my own personal flying pyramid."
"Yeah, it's pretty big." Trey agreed. "I wonder how they get the fuel to fly this thing everywhere?"
Once inside, they continued down a long one-way corridor similar to the one at the Battle Palace, only the walls were made of metal instead of stone. As they drew closer to the arena, they heard consistent battle cries from both people and Pokemon coming from the end of the hallway.
Once they reached the end of the corridor, they found a massive open room again similar to the one at the Palace. The floor was brown dirt this time, and the walls were light blue stone with strange carvings etched into them. On the battlefield, however, they found Will standing there, facing off against the Pyramid King.
"What?" Trey cried in disbelief. "What do you think you're - !"
"Hm? Oh, it's just you - don't distract me!" Will shot back angrily. He had changed out of his old attire and was now wearing a simple black t-shirt which complimented his long dark hair nicely, along with denim jeans. "Come on, Yanmega! Use Air Slash!"
"Yan!" Will's Yanmega roared deeply from the battlefield, quickly growing tired from battling with Brandon. It quickly drew itself up, however, and thrashed its heavily beating wings forward, sending a flurry of glowing blue streaks across the field at Brandon's Regirock.
"Regirock, Iron Defense!" Brandon commanded. He was clad in the same olive green uniform he always was, complete with the casts wrapped around his ankles.
"Regi-rock-ock!" Regirock grunted in its hollow robotic voice, crossing its arms in an X-shape across its chest. The Air Slash streaks slammed into the rock-solid arms, not even denting Regirock's defenses.
"No! Hit it again, Yanmega!" Will ordered angrily.
"Yaaan!" Yanmega cried again, firing another Air Slash across the field at Regirock, who merely remained in position. It took the attack head-on with no apparent damage yet again.
"Argh! This is stupid!" Will spat. "Yanmega, get it with Giga Impact, now!"
"Ya-an!" Yanmega bellowing, charging across the stadium as a giant lavender-colored aura sprang up all around itself, with large orange streaks running through it.
"Keep it up, Regirock! Iron Defense!" Brandon called.
When Yanmega collided with Regirock this time, Regirock still didn't flinch, but was still pushed backward all the same, Yanmega's attack boring into his Iron Defense. Finally, Regirock swung its arms out in a wide arc, throwing Yanmega off of him and leaving it suspended in midair, struggling to catch its breath.
"Yanmega! What're you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Trey cut in coolly. "It's going to take it a minute to recover from using Giga Impact. Even you should know something like that."
"Shut up!" Will shot back angrily, glaring up at his Pokemon. "Come on, Yanmega! Move!"
"Yan..." Yanmega breathed, panting heavily.
"Finish this, Regirock!" Brandon ordered. "Use Hyper Beam!"
"Regi-rock!" Regirock roared, bringing its two hands together and firing a giant orange beam from the space between them. The beam slammed into Yanmega full force, sending it flying across the chamber and into the opposite stone wall.
"Yanmega is unable to battle, leaving Will, the challenger, with no Pokemon left! The match goes to Brandon and Regirock!" Brandon's referee roared, raising a hand on Brandon's side of the field.
"No! This sucks!" Will spat, angrily recalling his Yanmega.
"Young man!" Brandon bellowed from across the field, glaring defiantly at Will as he silently recalled Regirock. "You do not trust your Pokemon in battle! You order them around like slaves! That is why you could not defeat me!"
"Shut up, Pyramid King!" Will fired back, placing a mocking kind of emphasis on the last two words. "I'm gonna beat you next time! Just you shut up and wait!"
Brandon merely grunted in discontent as he watched Will storm out of the chamber. After he was gone, he turned to Trey and Lily. "Excuse me! Are you two here to challenge me as well?"
"Yeah." Trey answered, turning to Lily. He gestured out to the challenger square on the battlefield. "You want to go first?"
"Sure!" Lily said, nodding happily to him. Trey leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss, whispering words of good luck to her as she made her way to the field.
"O-kay!" The referee cried jovially. "This battle will consist of four Pokemon on each side with no substitutes. First one to knock out all of their opponent's Pokemon wins! Are you both ready?"
Brandon nodded gruffly. Lily nodded as well.
"All right! Then let the battle begin!"
Please R&R!