Meowth used a wall to support himself while he caught his breath. Three Pokeballs were on the ground by his side.

His arms struggling to hold the Pokeballs he had grabbed in that last-ditch effort, Ash's pace slowed as he picked up the Pokeballs Meowth had dropped.

Pikachu dropped the Pokeball she had been holding in her mouth. She rolled it to Ash with her nose, then sat back on her haunches.

Ash started the work of minimizing each Pokeball to its smallest size and loading them into his pockets. When he had completed this task, slid down the white wall to a sitting position, his knees curled up to his chest. "We didn't get them all."

Still wheezing, Meowth answered, "We saved a lot."

Pikachu laid her paw on Ash's arm. She heard a screeching sound—she quickly recounted if she had missed zapping any security cameras in their escape. Her mental checklist was interrupted when a large purple object hit her in the face.

"Crobat?"

"Ash!" Misty appeared around a curve in the hall. She ran up to him, kneeling beside him. "You're stuck down here too! I was worried about you. We've been trying to get back to Rock Tunnel for hours, but this place is so disorienting. We ended up in an abandoned power plant, and then Victreebel tried to eat me…" Her voice trailed off as she noticed Ash wasn't listening. "…What…what happened?"

He emptied some of his pockets to show the Pokeballs. "It's what we thought it was. There were giant bins full of Pokeballs. They must go through hundreds a day." He avoided her eyes. "We saved some, but…"

Pikachu finished his sentence. "We couldn't catch them all."

Charizard stretched his neck out, tired of maneuvering around small underground spaces. "So now what?"

The yellow mouse stood and craned her head up to look Charizard in the eye. "We disrupt their whole system."

Pikachu's intensity was interrupted by a squeak. "Hey, uh, Misty?" Meowth cleared his throat, deepening his voice to hide his nerves. "Did ya disable da safety cameras as ya made your way down here? Dere's tons of dem." He twitched a little.

"Oh! We didn't disable them, but Togekiss used some light screens around us. If it worked right, all the cameras would see is a reflection of the walls." Misty gave Togekiss a thumbs-up, and the flying-type ruffled his feathers in pride.

"Good, good." Meowth relaxed, slumping down to the floor. "I dink I had enough running for one day." He sighed. "Da way back to Rock Tunnel is northwest." He pointed to a hallway behind Venusaur. "We take dat one follow it as long as we can, and we should pop up in a PokeCenter a mile away from the caves."

Venusaur turned around to scope out the hallway. He couldn't see an end to it, and he hesitated to trust a former Rocket's sense of direction.

Before they reached the branching point, Pikachu's ears twitched: there was music. Out of tune, uncoordinated, unintelligible singing grew in volume. Brock appeared with a relieved expression. Jessie and James, behind him, were striking poses as they hummed the theme song to their favorite spy movie.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you." Addressing anyone and everyone, Brock hung his head. "Please, please get me away from these two."

Jessie and James twirled and said, in unison, to the tune of the same theme song, "Don't complain! We punched out the cameras! Follow us! We'll be back in no time! Da da! Duh di dah dah. Duh duh—Dah di daaaah—"

Brock held his head in his hands. There was a tug at his pant legs. Meowth used his paw to hide his mouth as he spoke. "Yo. Just let 'em get a lead of about twenty paces, and you'll hardly be able to hear them. Dey do dis every time we're in da tunnels."

"How do you handle it?"

"I don't." Meowth walked ahead.

Hands in his pockets, Ash concentrated on the Pokeballs he managed to take with him. Where would he release them? Would they just get transferred back to that place again? And, how would Pikachu prevent more Pokemon from being used as infinity energy? Professor Oak knew what was going on, but did Gary know? His face reddened, and Ash couldn't tell if he was feeling anger at Gary's potential knowledge or shame that he cared so much about it.

Pikachu walked beside him, lost in her own thoughts, and she received a light punch on her shoulder. Wartortle.

"You did good."

"I don't want to talk about it." Her fur bristled with static.

"You don't have to." Wartortle stretched his arms behind his head.

"It's one thing to know about it, Wartortle—it's something else to feel it! The electricity in that place…in a lot of places…it doesn't feel any different…but where it comes from…" Pikachu paused, realizing that Wartortle hadn't pushed her to talk, but continued anyway. "I feel dirty every time I notice a lightbulb." She pointed to the fluorescent lights above them. "There. There. And there. Everywhere. I can't ignore it."

"I don't know what to say, Pikachu."

"And then there's Ash! Here I am, feeling bad about being able to feel the currents, but he's able to feel Pokemon's energy itself. What that room must have felt like for him! And I'm complaining!"

Wartortle sighed. "Even leaders need to vent, Pikachu."

"And that, too. I'm not a leader. I do what you or Ash or even Meowth says. And I shouldn't be unloading all this on you—"

Wartortle put his hands up, stopping Pikachu short. "—Yeah, but leaders do something that's called 'taking advice.'" He smiled. "If people turn to you for help, and you do what you can, that's all it takes."

"Thanks for the pep talk." Pikachu smiled back when a purple object crossed her line of sight. "Did you see that?"

"See what?"

Ash, his face still flushed, abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"Are you okay?" Misty was carrying Corsola, who had gotten tired teetering on coral spikes meant for the water.

"There's a bunch of Pokemon…and people…through that wall, but it's almost like they're asleep or something." An image flashed in his mind: the hundreds of Pokeballs he left behind. "We have to help them."

The purple object Pikachu had noticed—was it solid or liquid—started to seep under a seam in the wall. She pointed at it. "That!"

Brock rubbed his chin. "Looks like a Ditto to me."

Venusaur extended a vine to poke it, but he was slapped away by Charizard. "Don't touch it!"

Misty set Corsola on the ground. "Like this day can get any weirder."

"Jess! Jimmy! Come back here. We got a problem!" Meowth called to the two figures leading the way that, at this distance, looked like two dark lines against a field of white.

"I hope they stopped their 'routine.'" Brock massaged his temples.

Meowth heard this, even though Brock had said it under his breath. "Ditto." He grinned, fangs showing, gesturing wildly to the purple slime. "Did you see what I did? I'm hilarious!"

His pun went unnoticed, and Meowth consoled himself by recalling the saying that true genius was not recognized in its time. He waited for Jessie and James, then pressed a few well-camouflaged buttons to open the panel Ditto was currently sliding under.

Instead of another white hallway, the wall opened to show a dim, cold room, lined with rectangular metal tiles. Ditto made its way inside.

Backing away, James shook his head. "This is what morgues look like on those TV shows."

"This is boring." Charizard used a claw to tap one of the metal panels. A large cylinder shot out, frost and condensation visible on the glass. Intrigued, he used his paw to clear it.

"What happened to not touching things?" Venusaur walked towards Charizard and looked down at the glass. A familiar face met his. "Nurse Joy!" Venusaur jumped and Charizard thrashed, his tail knocking into several other metal tiles and releasing more tubes that contained Nurses Joy and Officers Jenny. Several Ditto emerged from the tiles as well, disturbed.

Looking away, Pikachu reached out and touched another tile. Another cylinder extended into the room. She held her breath and peered through the glass. This one held an Officer Jenny. "No."

"Nurse Joy? Officer Jenny? I will rescue you all!" Brock blushed and skipped around the extended tubes. "This is…this is a dream! My dream!"

"You are disgusting." Misty whacked Brock upside the head. "They are clones! Not your girlfriends!"

Ash touched the glass. "We should free them."

"If they're clones, probably not. If they're in these tubes, they're not ready to be released. The process would kill them." James examined the wires that were present at the bottom of a tube. "I thought they only cloned Pokemon."

"Dey did clone Pokemon years and years ago, and Giovanni put the kibosh on dat when one of da clones went nuts and took down a whole lab." As Meowth said this, he felt a tugging at his memory, like he was struggling to remember a dream that related to this fact.

Everyone else in the room also felt their minds searching for a memory that did not exist, but no one said anything, as each thought they were alone in having that feeling.

Jessie, unfazed by the sensation, was staring at an open file cabinet drawer. "So the whole sister act was just that. An act. No wonder I had no chance in nursing school." She reached into the drawer and pulled out two discs and a dog-eared manual.

Pikachu gestured to Jessie's find and whispered to Meowth, "What do those say?"

"Jessie, let me see dose." He stood on his toes to reach Jessie's hands. "Dis CD is called 'Programming for Nurse Joy,' and da odda one is 'Programming for Officer Jenny.' Da book here—" Meowth paused to lick his paw and flip open the worn cover. "—is 'Using the DNA-Induced Transformation Type Organism: D. I. T. T. O.'"

Her curiosity piqued, Pikachu attempted to watch the multiple Ditto's movements from the corner of her eye. They didn't seem to react to Meowth's words or anything else, for that matter. She realized the futility of staying in this room: they could not free the Joys and Jennies, and the Ditto didn't seem to care about their intrusion at all. She spoke clearly, "We need to go. Get started on stopping more Pokemon from being…" The rest didn't need to be said—the toll of infinity energy spoke for itself.

Ash didn't budge. He stared at a tube holding an Officer Jenny. "They deserve to be free…"

Eyes downcast, she shook her head. "They do, but they'll die, Ash." She turned to the Ditto and addressed them. "Ditto, would you like to come with us?"

There was no visible response from the purple audience. But as Pikachu started making her way towards the tunnel, she looked behind one more time and found a trail of slime. The Ditto were beside her.

As the group left the cloning lab, Ash lingered. He pulled out one of the rescued Pokeballs from his pocket, examined it, and put it back. He joined the others in the now-blindingly bright hallway, careful to avoid slipping on the Ditto.

James closed the wall panel. "We don't have much farther to go."

As they neared their exit, Meowth continued flipping through the manual. "Dis is incredible. Disturbing, wrong, and incredible. Dey give a Ditto to each Joy or Jenny and have it transform into an Arcanine or Chansey. Each Joy or Jenny is 'programmed' to believe da Ditto is da real deal, so dey don't even know dat deir partners are Ditto!" James redirected Meowth by the shoulders to keep the cat—nose in book—from walking into a support column.

Jessie pointed to a disguised door. "That's our exit."

They made their way through the service entrance of the Route 10 PokeCenter undetected, their escape assisted by Togetic's light screen. When they finally emerged outside, dusk was approaching.

"I hope Psyduck's okay." Misty paused, then gave a small smile towards Jessie. "Wobbuffet too!"

Jessie flapped her hand. "Wobbuffet's so tough he's practically a steel-type."

Pikachu, Wartortle, and Venusaur led the way back to Rock Tunnel. As the rest waited for the all-clear, Ash released the Pokemon. He felt lighter after seeing them run off into the woods, noting that it may just be that he had gotten rid of a dozen or so Pokeballs in his pockets. It seemed as if he had picked up their Pokeballs an eternity ago. Meowth watched the Pokemon being released, and he tried to say something, but all that was present in his throat was a lump. He twiddled his paws.

/

Their passage to the cave only took fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours. Wobbuffet and Psyduck met them at the entrance and were intrigued by the Ditto.

The cavern headquarters was no longer dark, as wired construction lights were hung throughout the space.

"Woah." Ash slowly spun around to take in the space's transformation.

Brock beamed. "I know, I know. And, wait until you see the food we got!" He disappeared for a moment, then returned with a display of foam instant noodle cups, freeze-dried berries, and a variety of candies. "There's more."

Jessie scratched her head. "So, you set everything up too?" She then spoke into James's ear, "What an overachiever. No wonder he was complaining so much."

James stifled a laugh, then asked, "So. The generator? Walkie-talkies? Hot water heater? What about all that?"

"It's all here. We have a fully functional bathroom."

"Man, I miss traveling with this guy." Wartortle snuck a handful of Pokefeed from the horde of supplies.

James mouthed, "How?" Brock had stepped away from him, though, to place food on the table.

"Might as well learn as we eat." Misty wove her hand towards Meowth, speaking with her mouth full, "Let's see what's on those CDs."

"You got ya laptop?" James pushed his computer towards Meowth, who fumbled while inserting the disk. It loaded after a few seconds, and the cat tilted the screen so it was visible to those around him. Realizing that Pikachu, and pretty much all Pokemon, were illiterate, he summarized the text aloud, "It's a buncha instructions for how Joys are supposed to act in da PokeCenter. Ding's to do wit abandoned Pokemon…sheesh. 'Put da Pokeball in da marked receptacle.' We all know where dat goes now, I guess."

Pikachu felt that same flash of nausea, but her hunger won out. She continued with her meal.

"Dere's also a bunch of codes. Like da one we heard Oak say! 'Code bitter berry' means 'danger of societal collapse.' Oh! And dis is priceless: 'code miracleberry' resets da clones. Dere's a lot of codes." He switched to the CD concerning the programming of Officer Jennies. "Same ding here. Except da Jennies have a whole ding about weapons, and how much force to use, and stuff like dat. Same codes as da Joys, too." Meowth continued rambling until he had covered the content of the files on both discs. Brock, Venusaur, and Psyduck had started to doze off at the table.

The others went to sleep in a trickle. Pikachu watched the humans perform their nighttime routines and her fellow Pokemon search out the perfect sleeping spot. Wartortle had retreated into his shell, Venusaur had occupied a niche in the cavern wall, Wobbuffet had fallen asleep standing up, and Charizard was snoring so loud that it echoed. Before long, she realized she was the last one awake.

And even though she was exhausted, her mind kept reeling back to the feeling of where that artificial light in the hallway, in Professor Oak's lab, in the PokeCenter, in every building had come from—though, she remembered, thankfully the lights Brock had hung in Rock Tunnel were powered by a pilfered generator, not by a regulated power plant. Pikachu closed her eyes and meditated on the electricity in the room. The signals in everyone's nervous system, heart, brain. She wanted to feel that natural electricity more; she wanted it to drown out the buzzing of hallway lights and TV cameras and the great big hulking machine that ate souls, that ate what Ash could feel.

Meowth was spread out a few feet away from her. She edged closer. She could feel his electricity. His heartbeat. His mind working even as he slept. She could feel it even more if she could just get even closer—

"What are you doin'?" Meowth sat up, meeting the eyes of Pikachu, who had been staring at him, her face only a few inches away from his.

Pikachu jumped back, and words spewed out of her. "Oh! Ha. I, uh, okay, so you have electricity, right? Everybody does. So the hallways felt so bad, and that room felt so bad, and the electricity in other people feels better so I just wanted to be closer to your heart and brain so I could sleep I'm so sorry this is so embarrassing please understand—"

"I don't get you electric-types." Meowth sighed. "Go to sleep. It's fine."

Pikachu sank into the ground beside him and edged her cheek to his shoulder. Meowth became very still as he realized her presence was also comforting to him. Was this a fluke? Had she lost it in the tunnels? He didn't dare to move, concentrating on the feeling of her face against his arm. He fell back asleep in minutes.