Chapter 5

June 7th, 2006

There was a hallway to the right of the large room. Misty looked up and saw the high vaulted ceiling which she previously didn't notice; a glimmering chandelier was completely still. Iris walked with a bounce in her step, keeping very close to her beloved Haxorus. Haxorus was the only thing that was on her mind really, not her friends nor Cilan. Ash hurried up to her and walked really closely beside her.

"So what pokémon do you have? I wanna battle you!" He challenged.

"No." Iris said plainly.

"What? Why not? You let me battle you plenty of times in the past!"

Iris glanced over at him. "I know that your pokémon will be stronger than mine, I did watch the Kalos league you know. I'm not quite prepared to go up against your Greninja. Plus I just became the new Champion and I don't exactly want you to take my title away from me, at least not this soon." She shrugged lightly at him. "Another thing is that if you did win then you'd have to be champion and I don't want to just put you on the spot with Unova's issues right now, it wouldn't be fair for you."

Ash slumped over. "Yeah you've got a point… but not even a friendly match?"

"No." Iris shared a look with her Haxorus that nudged her. "Well, maybe I can do a quick one-on-one battle to test Haxorus' strength."

Ash's face instantly lit up with glee. "Yes!" He picked Pikachu up from off the ground beside him. "How about it buddy? A battle with Iris! You wanna help her right?"

"Pikachu!" His partner replied.

Misty smiled and rolled her eyes. Down the hallway was a series of other hallways that led off into different directions. It still had the same gold tile and even on the walls. Chandeliers lit up the halls nicely as well as little candlesticks positioned around the walls looking as is they were suspended in the air. There were gilded picture frames dotting the main walls as the neared a large wooden door that was decorated with all types and kinds of pokémon that were normally found in the Unova region. The pictures were lined in order, the newer champions and elite four members were closer to the exit into the Champion's chamber. The Champions and Elite Four she was looking at were from decades into the past.

Iris pushed open the door and walked inside. "Whoever's last, just leave it open for now, that way Agent Ortiz can come in when she's ready." Iris stepped around her desk and leaned back in her chair, sighing happily. She opened an eye and looked around. "Ah, I need more chairs…." She reached for the pager at her desk and sent something out. In a few moments, there was a beeping noise and a paper was being printed back.

"Iris," Dawn asked. "Is Agent Ortiz the lead G-Men agent?"

Iris looked over the paper and nodded once to her blue haired friend. "Yes that's her, I'm unsure whether you've heard of her or not, most likely not…." She mulled over the thought, "No definitely not. She's been undercover as a trainer for some time and has infiltrated the Plasma base a few times. This is the second time Plasma has made a stand against the League in the past few years," she looked pointedly at Ash. "Ghetsis was properly defeated and he seems to have come back. He is no longer in prison despite the fact that he was placed into a maximum security one that was very much an outlier from the rest of the region. There was no destruction, no evidence of a body being found, nothing. With all the recent events of him disappearing, and what Plasma is taking part in, it's very safe to assume that he is behind the whole plot."

Misty frowned and scratched her head. "Where exactly was this prison?"

"Far out, near Undella Bay." Cilan answered for her. "It was still within Unova, but as far out as we could possibly have it. It's more of a shared prison between Sinnoh and Unova. Looker was the one who arrested him, so that's also a key reason as to why he was put there and not to a separate prison that we have south of Castelia City."

Paul grunted. "I know who Looker is."

"So do I!" Dawn added. She glanced over to Paul. "I don't know how you know Looker, but I met him in Sinnoh with Ash and Brock."

"I just know who he is." He said vaguely.

Ash wrinkled his nose. "But Looker is a super important person to not be known. How do you know who he is exactly unless you met him before?"

Paul sighed and rubbed his forehead. "This isn't something I should really be telling anybody, it's a secret in my family." He wasn't looking directly at anybody and opted to close his eyes. "I had a few cousins who were in Team Galactic. All of them got arrested and for some reason they contacted my brother about the whole situation instead of their own parents. Ash if Reggie was going to do anything about it. We have absolutely no contact with them, their just pathetic human beings that I really wish I had no relation to, much less they even exist." He cracked open an eye. "I swear to Arceus though, if this is ever put in the media I will be pissed and strangle you. I want to become champion and I rather this relation not be present when I accept the title."

"Don't worry buddy, we won't say a word." Gary promised. "That kind of stuff isn't really generally accepted in society so I can understand why you want it to be on the down low. It's a good thing none of us hate you."

"Don't call me buddy." Paul grumbled. "And I don't care whether any of you hate me or not. As long as this stuff isn't released to the public, I don't give a shit about your opinions of me."

Iris pushed her hair out of the way as it had fallen onto her face. "You piss me off sometimes to be frank, but I don't hate you. You just need to work on your attitude." The purple haired man sent a glare her way.

"Well his attitude has improved a lot actually…" Dawn said quietly. "He's a much better person than when I first met him."

"At the Oreburgh Gym she tried to kill him because he forgot her name." Ash added in and got a smack from Dawn.

"Shut up! I was a kid!"

"You still are a kid." Paul muttered.

May huffed and crossed her arms. "Iris, you need to arrest Paul."

Iris blinked. "Why…?"

"Pedophillia."

Dawn choked on her spit and coughed roughly. Paul was sending a deadly look at May which she expertly ignored. "May!" Dawn hissed. "You shut up too!"

May shrugged. "Well you are only sixteen."

"We're not in any sort of relationship besides friends!" She had a furious red blush on her face. "I-If anything it's Cilan that should be arrested!"

Cilan's eyes widened. "Why are you bringing me into this argument?" He straightened himself up and completely towered over everybody in the room. "How about we just leave this subject behind us and not worry about what anybody does in their past time? That sounds like a pleasing idea!"

There was a knock on the door to Iris' office. A rather tall woman was standing there with large buns that had hair trailing down to her hips. She was dressed in very casual clothing and even had a bag slung over her shoulder. "Interesting conversation." She said with a grin and made her way into the room. "Welcome home Iris." She greeted kindly and manoeuvred herself around all the people standing in the room.

Iris smiled sheepishly. "Thank you Rosa." Rosa stepped back beside her and smiled to the arrange of people also in the room. "This is Agent Ortiz. Leaf, could you close the door?"

The brown haired girl still didn't talk all that much to the group other than the ones who were also from Kanto. She nodded once to Iris and closed the door with a quiet click.

"Thank you," Rosa said, she placed her bag onto Iris' desk. She unzipped it and pulled out papers, handing them over to her champion. "These are the reports we collected, just copies though."

"Copies are fine. Can you just explain everything verbally to us; these people are fine to know. They are who I've been with the past few weeks and I can vouch for them all and confirm that they are all safe persons to the government."

Rosa nodded. "Well if the Champion herself can vouch for you all then that definitely means that you are all safe to know. Cilan approached her with a chair but she shooed him away with a smile, however that smiled soon turned into a very serious expression once she began to speak about the events that had transpired in the timeframe of a month when which they were gone. "The incident happened on June 14th. The league building itself was safe but two of the gyms in the region were attacked. Virbank City gym which is run by Roxie Rosenfeld and Humilau City gym which is run by Marlon Paul, these two gym are newly formed ones and that happened back in June 2004. At the moment, Marlon operates the strongest gym in the region, preferably the last gym that trainers go to. Roxie is holding the spot as the second gym." Rosa flipped through her papers that she had brought with her. "At the moment one of these people in missing, Roxie Rosenfeld." She glanced up to Cilan. "You were uninformed, but your two brothers had opted to reopen the gym you three ran while you were away, currently is just a water and fire-type gym since you are not present to take you position but whether you decided to go back and become a gym leader or not is completely your option.

"What happened between both Virbank and Humilau gyms are varying in degrees. When the Virbank Gym was attacked, it held a concert. Thankfully the attack wasn't all that horrifying, nobody was killed but some were injured and one, being Roxie, was kidnapped." She said slowly.

"You said it was varying in degrees of danger I presume," Cilan started. "From what you've said I take it that Roxie's gym was the lesser of the problem. What happened to Marlon?"

Rosa blinked and stood up straighter. "Marlon is currently in the ICU of the Casteila City General Hospital."

Iris abruptly stood up. "CCGH?" Iris spluttered. "That's the best hospital in the region, what is Marlon's condition?"

Rosa pulled out a page and handed it to Iris, not saying a word. The purple haired Dragon Master's expression was enough to saying to the group. "He's brain dead…"

"That is what the doctors put on his record, though he does indeed have a chance of surviving. He is one of the hospital's top priorities right now and they are doing as much as they can to bring him back to he can give us the rundown of what really happened in the gym. The security cameras were messed with by a masked figure before the event happened. No witnesses were present and none of his pokémon were found other than a decapitated male frillish which showed evidence of a pokémon fight upon it's autopsy. There was a golbat's poison in it's circulatory system as well as blackened lungs which is assumed from prolonged exposure to a smokescreen.

"Regarding the two cases, we don't have too much information to go off on. There is a bit of good news however…" Rosa said. "Both Hilda and Natural have contacted us since they both disappeared a few years ago, Natural is busy doing different arrangements with his two sisters, and Hilda has captured and arrested four of the seven sages that were previously part of Team Plasma, they have all pleaded guilty. They have all made comments saying that they understand how they have been in the wrong and are willingly accepting their fates in life sentencing, despite their sentences becoming shortened because they had admitted their crimes."

Iris smiled. "Well that is encouraging to know." She leaned closer to her head agent. "So any news on any of the others in your group? The only whereabouts I know of are of you and Hilda. What about the others? Nate, Hugh, Cheren, Bianca, Hilbert?"

Rosa laughed and shook her head. "All are carrying their lives out in more normal ways than Hilda and I are."

"Make sure to tell them hello from both Cilan and I." She smiled. "I'd like to see them again sometime."

"I'll pass on the word!" Rosa promised and picked up her bag, but not before gently organizing the papers and leaving them in a pile for Iris.

Iris waited for Rosa to close the door before sighing and rubbing her forehead. "Now that that's figured out, we need to find somewhere that we can all fit to stay the night. I have an apartment in Opelucid City, it's just one bedroom. Most if the champions work from home rather than at the league building like Lance and Wallace…"

"There's my place?" Cilan offered. "The café is plenty big to accommodate everybody." He frowned, "But it's quite far so perhaps not…"

"Why can't we just stay here?" Gary asked.

Iris glanced to him. "There is a bedroom for each high ranking member in case they need to stay overnight and just a simple cabin area for the others, but the bedroom that I have isn't big enough, it's not all that grand, just a double bed and a few of my things…. What we need to know is if there's anybody we know, or at least knew when we were kids, that live near here with a mansion."

"Drayden?" Cilan offered, "He's still mayor and he has that grand apartment complex?"

Iris shook her head. "I don't want to ask him any more favours; The Village of Dragons is close?"

"But they just have those tiny one room cabins!" Ash whined. "It's not much better then here!"

Cilan sprung from his seat, "We can take the train from here to Lacunosa Town!"

"Train?" That was Ash.

"Lacunosa?" That was Iris.

Cilan nodded his head vigorously. "Yes! As an expert train connoisseur, I have memorized the exact layout of the underground subway so we can easily use the train the league has and drive us to Lacunsoa Town! That is where Burgundy lives, it'll just be around twenty-five minutes, plus we can easily take the train back when we need to, or just drive which is about an hour at most. Burgundy is the only one who lives closest to us; Bianca is in Nuvema, which is on the other side of the region. Stephan in Driftville, Georgia in Icirrus, Cameron in Nimbasa, Trip in Nacrene, Luke in Virbank. Virgil is literally in the middle of nowhere and has absolutely no room with his million children!" Cilan listed off.

Iris gave Cilan a pointed look. "There is no way in hell that we are staying with Burgundy. You and her will fight non-stop."

"My unhappiness is but a small price to pay for us all to be sheltered in a roomy house. She, out of all of us, is the one most successful beside you; she is rich since she became an S class connoisseuse! She can't say no to the champion who is standing on her doorstep!"

June 7th, 2006

"Non!" The door slammed into their faces.

Iris huffed and slowly turned to Cilan, "Excellent idea." She hissed. "I told you she would do this!"

Cilan raised his arms up in his defence. "Now just hold on a moment. I know how we can get her to let us in!" A breeze passed over the group and they all shivered violently, who thought that it was a good idea to live this close to the freezing Giant Chasm? "Burgundy! My brothers—"

The door flung open and she had a wild look in her eyes. "Tu est horrible!" She growled and opened the door widely. "Hurry up and get inside!" She spat. "Tu est un trou du cul Cilan!"

Cilan's eyes widened, as did Clemont and Serena's. "Burgundy!" He shouted, "There are two people here from Kalos!"

"Pensez-vous que je me soucie?"

"Oui!" Cilan yelled back. "Soyez poli, ils sont les champion's invités!"

Ash scratched his head. "Cilan, when did you become so good at French?" He didn't answer his friend.

Burgundy harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest. Her whole physique had changed drastically since the last time Ash had seen her, she was way more feminine. Way more. Her attitude however? Probably got worse, okay, definitely got worse. Currently she was wearing professional clothing, a black skirt and a white blouse. Her hair was long enough to be pulled up in a loose bun, and her face was properly applied with makeup.

"Just get inside, il fait froids!"

"I can agree with you there…" Ash muttered. The whole group turned to stare at him. "What?"

"You understood what she said?" Misty asked. "You were asking Cilan about his capabilities of speaking French, but the real question is, how do you know it?"

Ash blinked. "Oh, well I don't know it, I can't speak anything but basic stuff but I understand what people are saying. I did just finish traveling in a French region."

"Ash shut up." Gary said with a yawn. "I'm tired and I don't care. There's too much French happening right now I can't keep up."

Burgundy pointed directly at Gary. "I like you." She stated. "Now everybody get inside!" The group squeezed into her nicely sized, yet still large, home. It was very beautiful on the inside, nicely decorated in a style that was homey but also classy. "You better all have clean clothes." Burgundy huffed. "You are definitely not staying in my house without clean clothes and pajamas!"

"We have clean pajamas, don't worry." Iris sighed.

Burgundy lead them all into her spacious living room and everyone took a seat someplace or another, whether it was on a couch, loveseat or the plush carpeted floor. "Now why are you all here at my house?" She asked. "I thought you dropped off this child two years ago?"

"Were the same age!" Ash defended and moved Pikachu onto his lap as he sat on the floor.

Burgundy didn't even acknowledge the pokémon and wrinkled her nose at the black haired trainer. "Are we? I thought you were what? Fourteen?"

Ash bristled. "I'm eighteen!" He pointed to his face. "Look! I'm totally different looking! I even didn't have time to shave today!"

"Shave what?" Misty sneered at him. "I just see a baby face."

Ash pouted and crossed his arms. "Mist! You're supposed to be on my side! You're my girlfriend!"

Burgundy began to choke on her own spit. "Y-you have a girlfriend?" She spluttered. "How?" She looked to Misty. "She seems like she could do much, much better than you!"

"I could." Misty agreed.

"I hate all of you." He quickly pointed between Iris and Cilan. "They're dating too."

"Oh I already knew that." Burgundy shrugged and sat in the arm of her loveseat. Paul quickly moved his arm out of the way and moved closer to May and Drew who were also squished on while May was holding Dawn captive on her lap like a child despite the fact that Dawn was taller and was also partly sitting on Drew as well who just looked very uncomfortable in the situation. "The air about them was so awkward and they so obviously were very into each other no matter how many times the denied it, the rest of the region knew what was going on. Plus they're both idiots, perfect couple!"

"Excuse me?" Iris spat. "I'm an idiot?"

"Yes!" Burgundy nodded her head once curtly. "The state of this region is atrocious! There are so many families in poverty, the whole region is abnormally cold, not just here, which means that there is no crops growing, constant threat from Team Plasma! The very, very corrupt league! This was bad before you came, but they just got worse since you were crowned."

The whole room was silent and Iris held a strong seething glare with Burgundy. "The whole world is falling apart or have you not noticed?" Iris challenged. "There's a reason as to why there were that many refugees that came here from other regions, Unova is one of the most stable right now as sad as it seems, just after Kalos which," She leaned forward and knocker her knuckles against the wooden coffee table, "is the best place right now." She leaned back into her original sitting position. "Just so you know, we just came all the way from Johto, do you know why Johto suddenly reappeared from its supposed disappearance?" She gestured widely to the group sitting in the room. "Because of us, that's why it's back."

Burgundy pursed her lips. "How can you possibly do that?"

"By making what was wrong, right again." Iris said vaguely. "I can't fully trust you, it's strictly league only business aside from the people involved. That is all you need to know."

Burgundy stood up, her black pencil skirt bunched up and she pulled it down into its proper position. "Stay there, I'll get you some blankets. You're all sleeping down here tonight." She said. "There are two full bathrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. Upstairs has both a shower and a bath so if two of you are comfortable enough." She gave each of them a stern look. "No snooping, no gorging on food, no entering my room, no sexual activities. I see one of these broken and you are to be kicked out and my Samurott will spray you with water so you will get sick." And with that, she turned and left.

"She scares me." Drew admitted.

"She scares all of us." Gary consoled.

June 8th, 2006

A sweet aroma woke the group from their slumber, or really just one person. Everybody was mostly in a heap of bodies and blankets aside from three people, Paul, Drew and Leaf. Even though the room was large, everybody was still cold and this was the best and most successful idea they had. Everyone slept better than a snorlax.

Serena yawned and attempted to get up, but a bundle of legs and a set of arms blocked her. The legs belonged to Gary and the arms were Cilan's. She heard a clicking noise and lifted her head gently; her hair was snagged under the body of May who was lying above her.

"Oh! Burgundy, the blonde girl's awake!" A new voice said. Serena winced and pulled her hair free, now scooting up to rest her head on May's side so she could get a view of the person.

The person had pink hair, kind of similar to Burgundy's purple. Her hair was just at the chin in a bob and her figure was very much the same as Burgundy's. She saw Burgundy peek her head in through a doorway, an apron was on her and she was holding a pair of tongs. "I don't know any of their names other than the three you know too." Burgundy stared at her and Serena blinked stupidly.

"I-I'm Serena!" She stuttered out. "I'm o-one of the people from Kalos!"

Burgundy nodded once. "Bonjour alors, vous n'êtes pas ennuyeux."

"M-merci!"

The pink haired girl gave Burgundy a look. "What?"

"I said good morning."

The pink haired girl wrinkled her nose. "That many word just to say good morning?"

"Amongst other things, yes."

The girl glanced at Serena from the corner of her eyes and moved her head back to face her, her eyes were a lovely shade of green, different than any other she had seen before. It was not a usual colour in Kalos. "Can you do me a favour and pretend to sleep again?" She asked. "Iris is my rival and if I can embarrass her I will."

"Uh, yes, sure…" She agreed and just closed her eyes, there was a rapid amount of clicks then the girl spoke again.

"Okay we're good. I can help you out now if you want."

"I'd appreciate that, yes thank you."

The girl picked her way around the mass of bodies and roughly kicked Gary and Cilan out of the way. "Grumpigs…" She muttered and pulled Serena up by the wrist. "I'm Georgia by the way." Serena dusted off her pajamas and gave a smile to Georgia. "How do you know these people?"

"Oh, I just finished travelling Kalos with Ash, all the rest are people that I've met through Ash aside from Clemont." She gestured to the blond haired boy. "He was with us as well."

Gerogia nodded once. "Yeah that makes sense. That's how Burgundy and I met, because of him too." She made her way back over the sleeping people and into the kitchen, Serena following after. "Wanna help us make French toast?" She asked.

"Sure!" Serena smiled. "I love cooking sweet things!" She peered at the pile of toast already sitting on the table.

"How much do all of those idiots eat?" Burgundy asked.

Serena blushed. "A lot, what you have could probably fill half of us alone. It's mostly Ash, Gary and May that eat everything."

Burgundy snorted. "They can all starve then."

"I wouldn't mind if you did that!" Serena laughed. "I know how hard it is to cook for them. I took turns with Cilan and Clemont while we were away."

There was a loud groan from the living room. "Great, the rest are waking up." Burgundy grumbled. "There goes my quiet time." There was a thud that made the floor shake and a voice yelled out.

"You idiot get offa me!"

"You're the one laying on me!"

Serena awkwardly laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "That's Ash and May…"

"May shut up!" A third voice rang out.

"Drew, you're my boyfriend you're supposed to be on my side!"

"Hey don't steal my line! I said that last night!"

"Ash you shut up too!"

"Paul, you're my friend—"

"I am not your friend!"

Georgia rolled her eyes. "I'll get them to shut up, Serena, you come too." Georgia stepped into the room and took a deep breath

Ash's eyes locked onto the pink haired woman and widened. "Geor—"

"Shut the hell up and get your asses into the kitchen to eat!" She shouted. Everybody who was asleep jumped awake and those who were awake jumped onto their feet and hurried into the kitchen aside from Paul who scowled at her and slowly began to make his way over. "Are you going to make me say it again? Get the hell up!"

"Who's yelling?" Iris grumbled, her hair was a fray and sticking up in all different directions. Georgia grinned evilly and pulled out her phone and took another quick picture.

"You look very beautiful today Iris!" Georgia sneered. "You look just like an unkempt chincino!"

Iris's eyes narrowed instantly. "Georgia! Delete that right now!"

"No! I'll consider the idea though if you get the rest of your friends up and into the kitchen." She sang the last part tauntingly.

"Consider it?"

MORE CHAPTERS! MORE CHARACTERS! MORE STRESS ON WRITING EVERYBODY! YAAAAAAAAY!

That's all I want to say.

Have a lovely week guys!