"On and island in the sun, we'll be playing and having fun, and it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain. We'll run away together, we'll spend some time forever, we'll never feel bad anymore," - Weezer "Island in the Sun"

5 Oupavos, the Sky City

Oupavos was a magnificent place. The little town of Ciel seemed to smile as we drew into port. It was cut out of the woods, beginning where the sand of the shore ended. A Pokemon Center stood amidst a movie theater and a tiny little shop that said it sold everything. Across the street from it was a much, much larger store that claimed the same thing.

A Hawaiian style coffeehouse was nestled between a souvenir shop and a happy little restaurant called The Floating Buizel, whose promotion art depicted the otter Pokemon resting atop an inflatable donut in the water.

The most impressive thing about the town was the large, imposing stadium behind the rest of the shops. It was set back, halfway in the woods, and was kept in peak condition. Yata said something about that being where they held local battles and contests.

However, the stadium was overshadowed by the intimidating Mt. Fellorit. (Apparently, the Anumic people had a god who always mumbled and spoke in a gruff, muffled voice due to his incredibly thick beard. One day, he was walking with his buddy and tripped over the mountain. When asked what happened, his reply was a muffled, "I, er, fellorit." Thus, we have Mt. Fellorit.) The mountain was bare of any vegetation as far as I could see, and looked as unforgiving as a serial killer. It went up, up, up; so high that I was looking straight up, and I still couldn't see the summit.

The Pokemon in the Anumics were the same we would see everywhere else, with the exception of the legendary Yacaeli. Since no one was entirely sure of her existence, it was safe to assume that we would encounter nothing out of the ordinary.

"So what are you guys here for?" Yata asked lazily as she showed us around town. Much to Max's joy, the smaller of the two shops that sold everything had glasses that fit his prescription perfectly, and there was no trace of the upset boy anymore.

"Professor Oak sent us," I told her. "He wants us to go find Yacaeli."

Yata spun around with such a furious hiss that I expected a forked tongue to flick out of her lips. "Yacaeli will not be found!" she said dangerously. "You should leave now, before she grows any angrier."

"Hey, hey, chill out," Drew said. "We don't even know if the thing is real yet."

"She's real," Yata said shortly.

Misty gave her a disbelieving smile. "No she's not," she replied, as if this were all a joke.

Yata's golden eyes told her to go to hell. "Yes, she's real. I've seen her many times." She suddenly changed the subject. "There's Professor Teak," she observed. "If Professor Oak sent you, then you might want to talk to her." She spun around and faced us, halting in her step. "I will meet you guys at The Floating Buizel for dinner around six. Bye." And she was gone.

May stared after her. "Is she curt or what?"

Dawn watched her go as well, her mouth bunched up on one side. "She got really defensive when we mentioned Yacaeli."

"Good thing we didn't tell her we were here to kill the thing," I said, my arm behind my head in embarrassment.

"Hi!" Brock cried, rushing over to Professor Teak. The woman turned around, her short brown hair brushing across her face like a curtain. "My name's Brock, and you're Professor Teak! Gosh, you're beautiful, would you care to join us for dinner?" he pleaded. The rest of us practically fell over in disbelief.

Teak grinned sheepishly, and you could practically see the sweat drop. "I'm sorry, but I'll be working late tonight," she said in a voice as soft as cotton.

Brock looked absolutely heartbroken.

Max stood on his toes and pinched Brock's ear between his fingers. He proceeded to drag the protesting Brock away from the nervous Teak. I stepped forward. "Hi!" I greeted cheerily. "I'm Ash, and this is Pikachu," I told her, giving the usual introduction. "Professor Rowan sent us…"

"Oh! That's right." Teak smiled an angel's smile. "Come on, I'll take you to my lab."

We followed the kindhearted professor through the gentle streets of Ciel, people waving at us as we walked. They all seemed extremely friendly and glad to see us.

"I'm guessing you guys met Yata, yes?" Teak asked, striking up conversation.

"Yeah," I replied. "What's her problem?"

Teak shrugged. "I think she hallucinates," she admitted sadly. "If Yacaeli is real, she would never show herself to something she considers as low as humans."

"So you don't think she's real?" Misty pried.

Again, the professor shrugged. "I don't bother her, she doesn't bother me. There's no scientific proof of her existence, but there are historical documents. Whether or not to trust those is entirely up to you." She approached a quaint house sandwiched between another house of similar style and a place that claimed to be Madame Eulixia's Fortune Telling. "I do all my work from home," Teak admitted with a shy grin. She jammed the key in the lock and we entered the home.

It was much cheerier than the other labs I'd been in. For one thing, the windows were decorated with colorful curtains, and photos of family members adorned the walls. An old but comfortable-looking couch rested in front of a very large TV. Between those was a coffee table that also served as the dining table, the remnants from that morning's breakfast still waiting to be picked up. Fuzzy carpeting was spread through most of the home, indicating that Teak went around barefoot most of the time. Her computer resided on a desk that was cluttered with papers and pens and a coffee mug that read "Tomorrow—one of the greatest labor-saving devices of today."

I snickered at that. I glanced over at Teak to see that she was in her tiny kitchen, pulling out another mug. This one said, "Instant human. Just add coffee." "I'm sorry," she told us. "I'm tired, and I need my coffee." She looked around the kitchen. "Where did I put it?"

May grabbed a kettle filled with the devilish black liquid and handed it to the professor. She poured some in her mug and popped it in the old microwave. Drew was busy looking around. "Nice place," he commented.

"I'm sorry I didn't have time to clean," Teak replied in a soft voice. Suddenly, the microwave beeped and she pulled her coffee out. After taking a long drink, she said, "The newest thing I have is the TV." Her voice was suddenly much stronger, and she didn't look so gentle. "Did anyone want any coffee?"

"Um, no," we all said in one way or another, except for Dawn. A wild grin was spreading on her lips. With a jolt I imagined Dawn on caffeine, and it was not pretty.

"Paul wants some," she said with her tongue between her teeth.

This caught me totally off guard. Apparently, Paul too, because he was surprised enough to unfold his arms and make a single noise of protest before remembering he was Paul, and had to act as if nothing affected him. "Sure," he said with disinterest.

"I call picking the mug!" Misty cried, and she raced over to the cabinet that Teak had gotten hers from.

I jumped over to join her, glad that I wasn't the only person who had noticed Teak's hilarious mugs. We opened the cupboard to see it practically overflowing with mugs. I glanced over at her, grinning like an idiot. This was going to be so much fun.

We discarded the "Freudian Sips", "Computer Survival Guide: Ctrl Alt Delete", a mug from the Far Side with a frog who had its tongue stuck to the bottom of the plane (kudos to whoever gets that one), one in the shape of Darth Vader, two with cows on them, one with a car that said, "I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe", and one that simply said "You are dumb." We finally settled on one that blared "Some people are only alive because it's illegal to shoot them". Sniggering to ourselves, we handed the mug to Teak for her to fill with coffee.

"Cream and sugar?" she asked the silent Paul.

He gave the slightest shake of his head. Teak shrugged and put it in the microwave black. As soon as it was done, she handed it to Paul and whisked us away to the lab part of her home.

"I study the effects Pokemon have on each other," she told us. She sounded more awake and forceful with each sip. I was willing to bet she was a force to be reckoned with when she was fully awake. "Specifically different types. Certain moves do certain things to certain Pokemon, that kind of stuff. It's not very exciting, but ever since Yacaeli started acting up, my work's gotten much more important. I've been trying to discern what move she could be using to control Pokemon world wide, and if there's any variation on the behavior of the types."

"Any luck there?" Drew asked, though he was focused on watching Paul take his first sip of the coffee.

"Yeah, actually. I found that the water types are more violent than all the others," she said.

Misty was suddenly interested. "Is that because Yacaeli is made from water?"

"Supposedly, yes," Teak replied. She took a long draw of her coffee and Paul, seeing this, did the same. Clearly he did not like the taste. I was really excited to see what caffeine did to him. "I haven't had a chance to study Pokemon that have dream attacks and psychic abilities; although I think the results are the same."

Paul's usually glaring eyes were starting to get a bit wider. He looked at the coffee in disgust, but when he saw May eyeing him critically, he took another long drink.

"I specialize in water Pokemon," Misty was telling Teak. The rest of us looked away from Paul to listen, or at least pretend that we were. "Should I take any precautions?"

Teak nodded gravely. "Water types in general are more likely to break out of their pokeballs, while only the extremely strong ones of other types will do so."

I recalled the feeling of my Pokemon fighting to break free on the boat. It was a terrifying thought. However, at that instant Paul took another sip, and my attention was captivated by the sight of his pupils dilating.

"How are you feeling?" Dawn whispered evilly.

"I'm going to get you, Troublesome," he hissed back.

Dawn just leaned back with a cruel smile on her face and waited for the show to start. May reached out, and the two exchanged a high-five. Drew met my eyes and smirked in Paul's direction. I nodded in agreement.

Brock was too entranced by Teak's beauty to notice anything else that was going on, while Misty and Max were busy listening. Good thing, too, because I had a feeling that whatever she was talking about was important.

Drew came to stand beside me. "Twenty bucks that Paul hits his caffeine high while Teak is talking, and severely offends her," he bet.

I contemplated all the possibilities. A glance at the clock told me it was past five. Probably not a good time of the day to drink coffee. "I was thinking more like during dinner, but sure, you're on." We discreetly shook hands and tried to look interested in Teak's speech.

"The Pokemon around here vary quite a lot, but mostly we have psychic and dark," Teak was saying. "Yeah, an island full of psychic Pokemon and I'm yet to study them." She shook her head. "Anyways, we have all sorts. The ones you want to watch out for are the Houndooms and the Mightyenas, because they're already vicious, and with Yacaeli, they're just plain deadly…" Again, I stopped listening to watch Paul.

His foot was tapping at a very fast tempo, and his fingers were drumming across his thigh at an equally speedy rate. His right eye began to twitch. It seemed as if his throat was containing a series of caffeine-powered outbursts. Dawn could not have looked more satisfied if her Piplup won the Grand Festival.

"Also, we have a number of Fearows on Oupavos that have anger issues," she continued. "Obviously there's countless water Pokemon surrounding the island. I'm not sure what all of them are, but we've seen Horseas to Seels to Gyarados, and let me tell you, they're not friendly."

"Sounds like all the Pokemon here have a temper," Misty said dryly.

Teak shook her head. "Naw, I'm just warning you about these ones. If you want nice Pokemon you should…"

Paul was just too interesting. He had started shaking his head every so often like a nervous tick. His mug was empty, a good thing, because he kept bouncing up and down so violently I'm sure that any contents left in it would be splashed all over Teak's carpeting.

May was watching him out of the corner of her eye, feigning interest in Teak's rambling. She let out a quiet snort when she caught sight of Paul's expression; he looked ready to explode.

"Alright, Ketchum," Drew murmured. "Get ready to pay up."

I matched his smug expression. "If I know Paul, he'll make sure no one sees him explode," I told him.

Suddenly, Paul set the mug down as gently as someone who had just had a cup of straight caffeine hit his bloodstream could (i.e. not very gently). "Excuse me but I just remembered I left something important on the boat I must go get it BYE!" and he bolted out the door and was gone.

"The boat's already left, you won't—." Teak broke off. "Where'd he go?"

Dawn stifled her laughter with May. "Yeah, important like your self control, huh?" she chortled.

"Are you offended at his outburst, Professor Teak?" Drew asked hopefully.

Teak looked at him as if he were crazy. "No, of course not, I do that all the time."

Drew waited until she turned around before rolling his eyes and handing me a twenty. I smirked victoriously. "Care to bet on how long it will take him to run off all that energy?" I teased.

He shoved me away. "No thanks, jerk."

I met Misty's confused gaze and mouthed "Paul" and showed her the twenty. She nodded in understanding before turning back to Teak's riveting presentation.

Now that Paul was gone, there was nothing to distract me from Teak, and I was sincerely missing him. Not that it wasn't interesting, no! I just have a really short attention span and was eager to start up the mountain.

I hadn't really thought about what Oak said until then, since there was really nothing better to do. After all, he'd said I needed to kill this thing. I started wondering if I could do something like that. I guess I ate Miltank steak and Spearow wings for dinner, but I wasn't the one ending those creatures' lives. I just reaped the rewards. Actually slashing something with a knife was a totally different matter.

Then again, I probably wouldn't have a knife. Chances were that I would have no weapon but my bare hands and my Pokemon, and Yacaeli could control those at will. I hadn't seen anywhere to buy a weapon on this little island, so I was stuck with what I had. Maybe I could borrow Misty's mallet.

Then there was the possibility that Yacaeli wasn't real, and it was actually a person behind all of this. I guess if that were the case, and it was Team Rocket causing all this trouble, I could just blow up whatever they were using to control the Pokemon and then hopefully escape with my life. After that I could go back to Oak and tell him what was going on and the government would take care of it. I wouldn't have to kill anybody.

I could kill a Pokemon. Maybe I'd be depressed for the rest of my life, but hey, at least I'd have saved the world.

*AN: Oupavos is the Greek word for sky (or it's similar. I'm not sure). Ciel means something too, but I can't remember what. I absolutely love Professor Teak and her wonderful mugs. And the hateful Paul got a caffeine high! This was SUCH a fun chapter.

My review strategy didn't work... sad. Anyways, I'm going on a nerd trip (w00t!!!) to see nuclear reactors and all that awesome stuff and hang out with all my besties and of course the super-hot-soccer-playing-genius-son of my physics teacher, and other nerds worthy of such a description (hot nerds. What has this world come to?). So I won't be updating for a while. Sorry. Also, look up Cinaed. It's a clue!!! Clue clue clue!

Thanks for reading, enjoy this chapter, I'll update when I get back, and all that fun stuff. Bye!*