Ash and Yohana walked quietly towards the Pokemon Center, no longer holding hands.
"What do you think will happen now, Ash?" Yohana asked. "We're stuck in Hoenn for two weeks, don't know who to trust, and now every criminal organization out there knows we exist, just not who we are."
"We'll be okay. We just have to keep on the move and come back for the boat in two weeks." Ash replied.
"What about Max? He'll be disappointed we can't hang out with him and his family." Yohana pointed out.
"I don't know. I don't want to put him or his family in danger, but…" Ash trailed off.
"But?" Yohana urged.
"We're being followed." Ash said.
Yohana jumped at the sudden switch to telepathy. "Who by?"
"I can't tell. Probably Max and May. Possibly someone worse." Ash told her.
"Do you think they heard us talking?" Yohana asked.
"Maybe… Hang on a second…" Ash narrowed his eyes, concentrating. "There's four people following us and I don't think May and Max's parents are that nosy. This can't be good."
Just then, they heard a scream.
"That sounded like May!" Yohana gasped.
Ash was already running towards the sound.
Yohana took off after him. "Ash, wait!"
Seconds later, Ash was blasted back by a Hydro Pump attack.
"Ash!" Yohana cried, catching up to her friend and kneeling beside him.
"I'm okay!" Ash said, wincing since he had been hit in his bad shoulder. "But May and Max aren't! Some thugs have them!"
The two ran towards May and Max and the thugs. One of the thugs had just pulled out a gun, and he was pointing it at Max.
Ash jumped in front of the younger boy and put up an aura shield in the nick of time.
"Pretend you've been hit." Yohana said, making that illusion.
Ash fell to his knees, holding where the bullet would've hit had it not been stopped by the aura shield. It would've hit him in the chest.
"Ash!" Max cried.
May broke free of the second thug and knocked the first thug down, wrestling the gun out of his hands and throwing it away.
Yohana noticed the second thug sneaking away with May's pokemon. She used psychic to take the pouch out of the second thug's hands and put it in her own hands. She ran over to Ash.
"Can I stop pretending now? I'm not hurt." Ash begged, looking at her.
"No. We can't let them know you have the ability to stop a bullet." Yohana replied.
(Ash! Don't die! I can't lose you!) Pikachu whined.
Ash blinked at him. "I-I'm sorry… Pikachu…" He dropped to the ground, pretending to die.
Pikachu started shaking Ash's head, trying to wake him up. (Ash! No! Don't leave me!)
Yohana turned to face the thugs. "You hurt my friend. That's unacceptable."
"Yeah? What are you going to do about it?" The first thug asked, finally managing to get May off of him.
"Leafeon! Razor Leaf!" Yohana shouted.
The attack blasted the first thug back. Unfortunately, he was now closer to his gun. He looked pointedly at the second thug, who grabbed May, before grabbing his gun and pointing it at May.
"Try anything else and we kill the girl." He said.
"Tell me. Does your friend have a gun too?" Yohana asked.
The thugs were confused.
"No. Why?" The first thug muttered.
Yohana smirked and used Psychic to hold the first thugs still, take the gun out of his hands, and remove the ammunition.
The thugs froze as the ammunition landed in Yohana's outstretched hand. She let go of the first thug.
"Leave the girl! Let's get out of here!" The first thug panicked.
The second thug agreed and released May, who ran over to hide behind Yohana.
Yohana handed May her pokemon while keeping the thugs from escaping with Psychic.
"Do you have any rope?" She asked her.
"N-no." May replied.
Yohana thought quickly before grabbing Gloom's pokeball and releasing him. "Gloom, use Sleep Powder on those two thugs!"
(Yes, Yohana.) Gloom replied, obeying.
Soon, the two thugs were laying on the ground, fast asleep.
"I'll get the police." May said.
"Don't tell them everything. I don't want them knowing that I'm a Psychic and Ash can stop a bullet." Yohana told her.
"Ash can what?" May asked, spinning around to look at Ash, who took this as his cue to sit up.
(ASH! HOW DARE YOU LET ME BELIEVE YOU WERE DEAD?! DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW I FELT?!) Pikachu yelled, although, to May and Max, he sounded like he was just saying his name.
Ash flinched. "Sorry, Pikachu. I had to make it believable."
Pikachu Thunderbolted him in anger. (That's for letting me believe you were dead!)
"S-sorry… Pikachu…" Ash mumbled, falling over from the electrocution.
Yohana and May giggled at the sight.
"May, police." Max reminded his sister.
May nodded. "Right, be right back." She ran off.
The smile slipped off Yohana's face. "Ash, we need to get out of sight."
"Because of the police? Okay. Just let me tell Max." Ash replied. "Max, Yohana and I will be right back, okay? We won't go far."
"What if they wake up?" Max asked.
Ash glanced at Yohana. "He's right. We can't just leave him. I'll stay. You can go around the corner and watch from safety."
Yohana returned the glance unsurely. "I'm not just going to leave you out here alone. I'm staying too."
"You're right, Max. We'll stay with you." Ash said, confusing the younger boy.
"Okay…" Max said.
May returned with the police a few minutes later.
"So those thugs attacked you and tried to steal your pokemon?" Lilycove City Officer Jenny asked.
"Yes, and they tried to kill my little brother, but our friends Ash and Yohana got here in time and Ash knocked my little brother out of the way." May explained. "Then, they fought off the thugs and Yohana's Gloom knocked them out with Sleep Powder."
Lilycove City Officer Jenny nodded in understanding. "Those two are actually wanted by the police for multiple murders and thefts. You kids were lucky not to get hurt. Anyways, thank you for your help. They won't bother you again."
She and her fellow officers carted the two thugs off to jail, leaving Ash, Yohana, May, and Max by themselves in the alleyway.
May and Max turned to Ash and Yohana, wanting answers.
"How did you survive that shot, Ash?" Max asked. "You were bleeding and…"
"Yohana's a psychic." Ash answered. "And I can use aura. The bleeding was just an illusion and I put up a shield to stop the bullet from hitting me. We didn't want the thugs to know that though, so we pretended."
"That makes sense. It also explains how Yohana managed to keep the thugs from escaping and disabled the gun." May said. "What I don't get is… what's aura?"
"Aura is the essence inside all living beings, pokemon and human alike. I have the ability to manipulate aura and it's helped me out a lot." Ash explained.
"Okay. Next question. Why did you really leave the café in such a hurry?" Max asked.
Ash and Yohana exchanged glances.
"That really doesn't matter. Why were you following us?" Yohana replied.
"Because Mom wanted us to bring you some cinnamon rolls she'd bought." May said simply.
"Oh. That was nice of her." Yohana said.
There was an awkward silence.
"Let's head to the Pokemon Center. It's safer there than it is out in an alleyway with sunset approaching." Ash said.
They headed towards the Pokemon Center, but their path was suddenly blocked by some people in red uniforms with big 'M's on their shirts.
They quickly turned around to find they were surrounded.
Ash and Yohana cursed under their breath as they, along with May and Max, stood with their backs to each other.
Seconds later, they were tied together and thrown into a truck.
The 'M' people climbed in after them.
The truck roared to life as they were taken far away from Lilycove City onto their next big adventure.