Me: Yay!

Gardevoir: *wary* What?

Me: I just went and saw a magician yesterday! It was so fun! He made it snow in the auditorium!

Gardevoir: Psht! That's easy! I can do more magic than that guy!

Me: *dubious* Oh really?

Gardevoir: *nods* Tell me what to do.

Me: *crosses arms* Okay. Make Max appear right here.

Gardevoir: *smirk* Easy. *waves hands around with psychic powers*

*POOF*

Me: *wide eyes* Um...that's not Max

Gardevoir: *sees that it's actually Carlos in a pink robe sleeping upright with a Pikachu plushie* Oh. *sweatdrop* Oops.

Carlos: *starts waking up* Wha...?

Me: *hastily throwing arms around* Send him back, send him back! Before he notices!

Gardevoir: *quickly makes Carlos disappear* Well that was...strange. Disclaimer: Eon does not own Pokemon in any way. *sigh* If you guys are anything like me, you probably are getting sick of that by now. Lol

Chapter Ten: Green

"What?!"

Crystal cringed slightly at Red's outbreak and nodded.

"B-but…how?!" He yelled hysterically.

Black and White's heads popped up on either side of Silver behind Blue's shoulders.

"Yellow's in a coma?!" The girl asked in a high-pitched tone.

"But I've never heard of something like that happening!" Black exclaimed with furrowed eyebrows as he racked his brain for anything he might have once come across at the many libraries he'd been to in his life.

Crystal sighed and held up her hands. "Let me try to make it simpler. Somehow, someone was able to 'mutate' a certain amount of Sleep Powder so that it not only put someone to sleep but also slowed down their body.

Blue's breathing stuttered. "Uh, would you mind repeating that last part?"

"Remember how I told you about the pressure issue and slow release? Well, it basically goes like this—since the powder was forced to operate slowly…" Crystal broke off a second. "It in turn forced her body to move slowly."

Red's fingers clenched the desk again as she went on.

"When the powder absorbed into her skin, it entered her body and made everything begin slowing down. Her systems started performing at slower rates, and her blood wouldn't move as fast as it normally does." Crystal nodded at me. "That's why her pulse isn't as high as it should be. Her heart isn't pumping like usual."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Silver said with wide eyes. "If this keeps going, won't she just…shut down?"

Red grit his teeth at that, but thankfully, Crystal shook her head. "I don't think so. I believe all the powder will do is keep her in this slow-motion state."

"But how do we stop it?" Blue asked desperately. "There's got to be something we can do to, like, snap her out of it!"

Crystal bit her lip, a habit I was beginning to notice that she did quite frequently in situations like this. "I-I'm afraid not. The only thing I can think of besides an actual cure—which they're probably making sure you guys don't get—would be to do something that would cause a sudden rush of adrenaline or spike of fear that might get her blood and systems running quick again. But she's unconscious. We'd never be able to get through to her."

"Could we, like, go inside her thoughts and try to shock her from the inside?" Black suggested suddenly, making us all turn to him.

Everyone paused, and Gold and Emerald looked at Crystal with widened eyes. The girl was looking quite surprised herself and glanced up with a finger at her chin. "That sounds quite interesting actually. But how would one go about doing that?"

The brunette took a Pokeball from his belt and held it up to show a pink Pokemon smiling out from inside. "I have Musha! He's a Munna. They're a special type of Pokemon that deal with eating people's excess dreams." He laughed. "Or at least my excess dreams."

"Eating dreams?" Crystal said shocked. "Well…it seems like it might work. But how would that help? Can a Munna actually control the dreams of someone?"

Black scratched his head a moment before shrugging with a sweatdrop. "I, uh, don't know. I've never really tried it before."

Crystal nodded with a small smile. "Well then, let's rule that out for now. But we're starting to think on the right track now. We need to somehow wake her up from the inside."

Red looked up from the floor where he'd been staring keenly at, and his face softened at her. "Thanks for telling us, Crystal."

She saw the glossy look coming to his eyes and breathed in quickly. "Red…"

He smiled sadly and shook his head, turning away to sit down in a chair off screen. Her blue eyes trailed after him, and she sighed. "I-I just wish there was something more I could do."

"No, you've done great," I reassured her while giving Red a blank look. "It's thanks to you that we know what we're dealing with now."

Despite my words, her eyes fell to the desk, and Gold looked at her worriedly.

"He's right, Crys," the goggled boy said softly.

Emerald nodded and reached out to hug her. She looked up and smiled at him, completing his embrace. "I know, but I can't help but worry."

I glanced over at Red. "You're not the only one."

A beep suddenly sounded from the other end of the line, and Crystal broke away from Emerald to find the source—her Pokegear. Squinting her eyes at the screen, she sighed. "Sorry guys, but I have to get back to work. Professor Elm had to leave to see a colleague for a few days, and I'm in charge of recording the Poffin experiment data."

Blue nodded, pausing at the light strain to her back. "Thanks for calling."

Crystal nodded back before giving a hesitant wave. A fuzzy screen soon followed, and I clicked it off.

We sat there in silence, this new information whirling through our heads like a typhoon. It wasn't until Blue leaned back on the chair and gave a sharp cry that we even remembered she was hurt.

"Somebody get Nurse Joy," Silver said tightly, helping her up from the chair and starting for the front desk.

White ran ahead, leaning frantically over the counter as the pink-haired woman emerged from the door behind it. I took Blue's other arm and glanced at her pained expression as I wrapped it around my neck. When I'd checked her back earlier, it hadn't looked too bad so I hadn't been all that worried. She cringed as we started shuffling along and my eyebrows creased lightly. But it must have been worse than I'd thought.

We moved slowly to help keep her from losing more blood, but even so, as White finished explaining and a stretcher was brought out, Silver and I could see that more red had stained her blue shirt as she was laid out. The girl looked up at us and tried to smile, but a second later she passed out.

"Blue!" The redhead cried out before Nurse Joy reassured him and held the boy back as she and Chansey took her to the emergency room.

Black and Red were standing motionless behind us as White came to our side. The brunette stared at the door Blue had disappeared behind and bit her lip lightly. "D-do you think she—"

"She'll be fine," Silver interrupted sharply, but his voice was hollow, and I turned to see him also watching the doors intently.

The time gradually slipped by, and the others slowly drifted to the lounge area to sit down. Silver and I, however, stayed planted to the spot, shoulders tense as we waited for someone to come back through the door.

An hour or two passed and nothing changed. Then, finally, we heard footsteps from the other side, and our ears perked up when the door began to open. We rushed forward just as Nurse Joy stepped out onto the lobby floor.

"Blue, is she okay?" Silver asked quickly, his words a jumble as they raced to escape his lips.

Nurse Joy nodded. "I called in some doctors, and they're almost done. I can give you a full report once they've completed."

He hung his head in relief, but I raised an eyebrow at the mention of doctors before remembering that Pokemon Centers were for Pokemon—not people.

"In the meantime," Nurse Joy said happily. "You can come see your other friend. We've gotten her all settled."

Silver tilted his head, and I almost jumped as Red suddenly materialized beside me. "Yellow?"

She nodded with a smile, and he quickly walked past her, not even stopping to ask which room said girl was in. Nurse Joy stared after him, and Silver waved a hand at Black and White who walked over to us with identical expressions of confusion. Without a word, the pink-haired lady took us through the door and led us along the various hallways. Most of the rooms just had a recovery table hooked up to a healing machine for the injured Pokemon, but as we paced along and Nurse Joy opened up one of the doors for us, I could see that it contained an actual bed. And in that bed was a certain sleeping blonde girl.

Red looked up from Yellow's side, already sitting in a chair and standing guard near her head. She had been hooked up to a few machines so we could keep track of her heartbeat and what else was going on inside her, an IV tube sticking out of her hand to keep her unresponsive body sustained.

Nurse Joy left us to sit ourselves, and we soon did so, Black and White claiming the last two chairs while Silver and I stood at the foot of the bed.

"It doesn't look like much has changed," the redhead said, commenting on her normal breathing and soft pulse beeping on the monitor hanging on the wall.

Nobody really answered, the five of us just kind of standing there in silence as we looked at Yellow with Crystal's new information running through our heads.

"I just can't believe it," Red muttered to himself, fist clenching around the protective bar on the bed. "A coma!"

"T-there's still a chance Crystal could've been wrong," White said doubtfully, trying to put our minds at ease.

Black turned to her and shook his head. Crystal had guessed dead on about Yellow's heart rate. We all knew her theory was right.

"Hopefully the doctors might come up with something," I said with crossed arms, breaking the silence. "We asked them to hook her up like this so we could try to find some way to wake her up."

"Sounds like a good idea," Black agreed. A second later, a loud grumbling noise sounded, and we all turned to see him smiling sheepishly.

"For a second there, I thought that was Red," Silver muttered, making the black-haired boy look over at him with a mock glare. He shook his head and walked over to Black and White. "Come on; let's go find the cafeteria. I'm sure you both are hungry."

Black immediately jumped to his feet with a smile, and White did too after contemplating her appetite for a moment. They filed out the door, and Silver turned to us with a hand on its frame.

"We'll be back in a while." His eyes grew worried for a second. "Come get me if any news on Blue comes."

I nodded, and he vanished around the corner. I looked back at Red and pulled up a chair beside him as he took Yellow's hand.

"What are we going to do?" He asked helplessly, staring at her with wide red eyes. "We can't just let this keep going. There's got to be some way to wake her up."

"There is," I reassured him gently. "We just need some time to find it. That's all."

He shook his head lightly, his grip tightening. "That's what I'm afraid of. We might not have that much more time."

I turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "We just disappeared in the middle of the day a few hours ago. It'll be a while before Melany can find us again."

His eyes didn't leave her face, but I could see them narrow. "I don't know, but for some reason, these past few times it hasn't taken them that long at all to."

My eyes widened a little as I realized he was right.

"Besides, how do we know that making her sleep is all this powder will do?" He added, his breath leaving him. "Crystal said it had taken on different qualities than normal. W-what if...it keeps on making her slow down until…"

He trailed off and closed his eyes. I could sense the fear radiating off him and felt myself soften at him. I knew it was hard for him to keep calm in a situation like this, especially concerning Yellow, and after seeing him freak out earlier, I had a feeling he was starting to break.

"Hey, Red."

His eyes opened, and he looked at me. "Yeah?"

"Do you remember when we went into the TR pendant's tracker chip, and we had to go shut down the virus?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember what I said when we were in the forest?"

His eyes widened.

"That's what I think is wrong with you."

My answer to his question as we were running through Celadon earlier finally clicked in his head, and his jaw dropped open a little. "D-do you really think…?"

I nodded. "Yes, I do." I paused and glanced at Yellow's peaceful form. "After all that's happened, you're only going to get one chance to tell her when she wakes up. So you better say what you really want to say."

He clamped his mouth shut. "Yeah."

There was so much emotion swimming in his crimson irises, and he softened his grip on Yellow's hand.

But a second later, hers tightened around his.

"Y-Yellow?!" His voice was high in shock, and my head snapped up as the monitor started beeping a little faster.

Our eyes flew to her face and widened when we saw her frown.

"W-what's going on?!" Red shouted distressed. "Is she waking up? Yellow!"

Her eyes stayed firmly shut, but her lips began to move. She mumbled something, but neither Red nor I heard it.

"What'd she say?" I murmured, leaning forward with him.

Her voice rose drastically in a matter of seconds until she was basically screaming, and Red and I could plainly make out what the words were.

"Her who?!"

The blonde started tossing and turning, and Red fought to calm her down. "Her who?!"

Her kicking got to the point where Red had to stand and pick her up, restraining her from moving her limbs as he crushed her against him. He stroked her hair gently and coaxed her to calm down with a soft voice. Ever so slowly, her struggles and voice fell until she was limp and quietly shaking.

"Her who?" She whispered to no one, tears running out the edges of her still-closed eyes.

The monitor slowed down, and Red softly placed her back on the bed as her face smoothed out, and she stopped shaking. Brushing the stray tears away with his fingers, he sat back down with wide eyes. "What in Arceus' name was that?!"

"I-I don't know," I admitted, eyes quite wide myself. "A nightmare perhaps?"

Red bit his lip. "But I thought her systems were working too slowly for normal activity?"

"Apparently not her mind." My head tilted at the rise and fall of her chest. "Or her lungs."

Red sighed and held his face in his heads. "Well, I guess that's a good thing. Wouldn't really like it if she just stopped breathing." He brought his eyes back out but kept his hands on his chin. "But what was that she was saying?"

"I think it was, 'her who'," I said, trying to recall her loud, sharp words.

He shook his head and laid it on the bed's side bar. "What does that mean?"

I shrugged lightly and gave the sleeping girl another look. "Who knows?"

The door opened suddenly, and we whipped around to see Nurse Joy staring at the monitor. "I thought I heard something," she told us, walking over to the machine and checking its history. Her eyes widened at the event a few minutes ago, and she turned to us. "It looks like there was spike just now."

"Yeah, she said something in her sleep, but she was still unconscious," I said smoothly, leaving out the puzzling message that Yellow had given us.

The pink-haired woman nodded and stood back up, aiming for the door. "Well, I was on my way here to tell you that you can go see Blue now."

I was on my feet in an instant and turned to Red. He nodded, and I quickly followed Nurse Joy out of the room. She led me through the maze of hallways not far from Red and Yellow to another part of the building that had been made into a room for Blue. She opened the door for me, and I brusquely walked in to see her lying on a bed similar to Yellow's, her cobalt eyes concealed at the moment.

"The doctor will be back soon with the results," Nurse Joy said, watching me as I pulled up a chair beside Blue. "I'll be sure to send them here when they do."

"Would you mind getting Silver? The kid with red hair?" I asked her, my eyes not leaving Blue. "He's in the cafeteria."

She nodded silently and softly shut the door behind her.

I stared at Blue's unmoving form with wide eyes. Her hair was disheveled, and I could see the white bandage wrapped around her back and chest beneath the thin covers. Her shirt had been washed and folded, lying in a small pile with her hat and bag on the table beside the bed. Picking up the clothing, I narrowed my eyes at the three giant slits in the material at the top of the back and could only imagine what her actual shoulder must look like under the bandage. I grabbed her yellow bag and rummaged through it until finding the extra shirt she'd bought the other day and exchanging it for the ripped one. I didn't think she'd want to feel a breeze when she put it back on.

The door opened again, and I turned around to see Silver standing there with his hand on the knob, gaze trained on the brunette unconscious on the bed. Mechanically, he grabbed another chair and settled beside me, plopping down in the seat without a word.

"Man, she really got banged up this time, didn't she?" He said bluntly, gloved fingers lightly passing over the slightly red bandage across her back as she was lying on her stomach. "I was worried she might've lost some blood on the way here."

I sighed and shook my head. "Arceus, she's got to stop doing this to herself. If this keeps going on, she's not going to have any more blood left to lose."

"Well, for now she does," said a dark-haired doctor from the door that Silver forgot to shut. We looked at her as she stalked over to the foot of the bed with a clipboard in her hands. "The results show that a good portion is gone, but thankfully she didn't lose enough for it to be critical. However, we want to give her some just in case."

"Okay," I nodded. "Where it is?"

The doctor frowned. "See, Blue has B- type blood. So we can only give her another B- or O- transfusion. However, there was an emergency earlier today, and all of those types were used up. We haven't had enough time to replenish our stocks."

Silver and I simultaneously took off our jackets and thrust out our arms. "You can use our blood."

There was a weak cough behind us, and we quickly turned around to see Blue looking up at us with a small smile. Throwing our jackets on the chairs, we went back to the side of the bed and knelt down face to face with her, the doctor following.

"You idiots," she rasped. "You can't give me blood. You're both AB+. The only people you can give blood to are each other."

"Wait. How do you know our blood types?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

She smirked faintly. "I told you; I know many things." She coughed again and laid her head back down. "Get Red. He's got O- type blood."

Silver nodded and took the doctor to see Red. Grabbing a chair from behind and sliding it beneath me, I leaned forward and put my arms on the bedrail. She saw the coming smart talk in my eyes and frowned.

"Don't even. I'm not in the mood."

I smirked and scoffed lightly. "Tell me not to worry…"

She glared at me, and I gave a short laugh. "Go to sleep. Red'll no doubt give you some blood, and you'll feel better in no time."

She closed her eyes and grabbed my hand on the sidebar. "Thanks."

I gritted my teeth a little at the blush that flooded my cheeks. "Don't thank me. It's not my blood."

She smiled and intertwined her fingers with mine, nodding off a few moments later. Seeing her asleep, I considered pulling my hand away before remembering that Blue was a reflexive sleeper and soundly kept it where it was. I really didn't feel like having her subconsciously dig her nails into my skin. I looked at her serene face and carefully turned my chair so that I could lay my head down on the sidebar. Besides, this wasn't so bad. Maybe I could get a nap before they came in and gave her the transfusion.

My eyes fluttered shut, and my mind calmly began to settle, nothing but soothing blackness overtaking the many thoughts that were floating around in my head.

"So you're saying they are?"

"Or they aren't?"

"Hard to say really. It's an on-off thing. I can't tell right now."

I huffed groggily in frustration as my slumber was disrupted by three loud voices. My loud breath caused them to turn to me, and I could tell who they were even in my half-dead state.

"Ah! Looks like they're starting to come to!" White said happily. I heard her walk up to me and poke the back of my head. "Wake up, Green!"

"White!" Red called out with a warning. "I wouldn't do that—"

He was cut off as my free hand shot behind my head and grabbed her wrist, twisting it slightly to the side. She let out a small cry, and Red pried my fingers off.

"He's a reflexive sleeper," the black-haired boy said apologetically, putting my hand back on the bedrail near the other one that was still entwined with Blue's.

I'm not the only one, I thought drowsily to myself, feeling Blue's grip tighten slightly.

"I don't think he's the only one," Black said as he strolled over to the two standing behind me, taking the words straight from my sleep-mode brain. "Remember when they tried to pull him away to give Blue the transfusion? She held onto him like a Combee on honey! I swear I heard her growl, too."

Red snickered. "I think Green did the same."

"Aha!" White exclaimed, and I could just imagine her finger in the air. "So they are, aren't they?!"

"Like I said," Red sighed. "I don't know at the moment."

I opened my eyes to slits and saw them knelt down right near my face. "You know I can hear you morons, right?"

White's eyes widened, but Red just waved the comment away. "He's not the best morning person either."

Black let out a small chuckle. "Apparently not."

I rolled my eyes and slowly leaned back into the chair, rubbing sleep from my eyes. "So they already came and gave her the blood?"

Red nodded with a smile. "Yep!" He showed me his arm which had a white gauze taped over it. "She's all good to go!"

I sighed and saw Silver leaning against the wall near the door. "Well that's a relief. Did they say how bad her wound was?"

The redhead nodded. "It wasn't that serious or anything. The cut just burst all lot of surface vessels which was why she bled so much. One of the gashes was a little deep though so they sewed it up."

I nodded back at him and faced the three at my side. They were staring with tilted heads at Blue and mines still locked hands, and my cheeks went pink as I tried to pull it away. The next second I winced as her nails bit into my skin and gave up the struggle. Sighing with closed eyes, I opened them back up to find White scratching her head.

"I'm so confused," she stated simply with a sigh of her own.

Black's head stayed tilted. "Me, too."

I arched an eyebrow. "How come?"

Red smirked and put a hand beneath his chin. "Well see, we walked in here earlier to find you asleep holding hands with Blue. Of course, it's only natural that our juniors wonder if you two are dating."

My eyes widened, and I could feel the heat rising quickly to my face at their questioning gazes. My mind fumbled for something to say, but nothing would come out of my mouth. Red sat there with an evil smile, and I glared at him with bared teeth.

Stupid Red.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" I growled at him, face still the shade of a Cheri Berry.

He put a finger to his cheek and pretended to think. "Now, where have I heard that before?" He smiled at me. "I have to get my revenge somehow. That slap hurt you know."

He chuckled at my glare and turned to Black and White. "So what do you guys think? Are they a couple or not?"

White titled her head and looked up a second. "Hm…I would say yes."

I turned my hard drowsy eyes to Black, and he gulped. "Um, whichever answer doesn't get me killed."

Red laughed and stepped in front of him protectively. "Then that would be yes!"

I stared daggers at him, and everyone turned to Silver who had been carefully keeping quite. Attention now drawn to him, he looked at Blue and me a moment before closing his eyes and leaning his head against the wall. "I withhold judgment."

Black laughed a little, and White turned to me as I gave a small yawn. "So are you guys?"

I sighed and rested my forehead on the bedrail again. "I'll let Blue answer that one."

I thought it was a good answer considering she was currently out cold, and they'd all forget this stupid, mortifying conversation by the time she woke up, but oh no. Just to make this whole situation worse, the brunette had to lift her head just then and smirk at my horrified face.

"You know what?" She said sleepily, raising her head up to smirk at Red. "I think that's Green's decision."

Silver almost burst out laughing, and the other three fell to the floor doing so as my eyes widened and, if it was even possible at this point, my face burned an even brighter shade red. I gritted my teeth and glared at Blue who only smiled at me and laid her head back down, waiting for my answer.

Growling lowly to myself, I pulled my hand away from hers. "I withhold judgment."

"Are you sure they came here?" The black-haired boy looked around nervously. "Are you sure it was this town?"

The blonde beside him sighed. "Yes, it's exactly where the tracker said she was." She looked at him with curious eyes as they walked past the Pokemon Center. "Is something wrong?"

He didn't say anything, just watching the ground as they walked along under the glow of the streetlamps.

The girl tilted her head in the twilight, and her face softened. "This is where your father died, isn't it?"

The boy tensed but kept walking. "How did you know that?"

"Don't you remember?" She chuckled shortly. "There was actually a time when we were open with each other, Amber."

A memory of him, her, and another certain girl suddenly popped into his mind, but he shoved it away forcefully. "I've kind of tried not to reminisce ever since that incident, Melany."

The blue-eyed girl hung her head. "Yeah, me too."

Amber's golden-orange eyes flashed for a minute. "What do you have to be upset about? I thought you were a traitor from the start?"

Melany didn't lift her head, but he could see that his words hurt her. Biting his tongue to refrain from saying more, he gave his surroundings another look before shuddering a little.

"Let's just get to the Safari Zone."

She barely nodded, silently following him along the deserted streets until they came to the back part of said property and stealthily jumped the fence without detection from the security cameras. Quickly getting up into some nearby trees, they scoped out the area to make sure it was clear before relaxing and settling onto the huge oak's branches.

"How long are we going to be in this city?" He asked quietly, leaning back on the tree's trunk just above Melany.

She looked up at him worriedly. "Amber, you have to learn to let that go. You can't let it keep bothering you forever!"

He stared at her with open anger. "You think I can just forget about something like that?! I saw him get shot with my own eyes!"

She narrowed hers at him and jumped down to the ground. Not yet done talking, he went after her, feet thumping on the soft grass as he landed.

"There's no way I could ever forget! It's been permanently burned into my memory!"

Melany clenched her fist. "But that doesn't mean you can't learn to live with it!"

Amber stopped suddenly, eyes wide as she breathed heavily.

"Stuff's going to happen in life, okay?" she told him bluntly, closing her eyes and tightening her fist. "Stuff that you can't do anything about. And although it may weigh down your mind every second of the day, you need to learn how to cooperate even with it there."

He tilted his head. "What are you talking about? I do. You don't see me curling up into a ball all the time do you?"

She cocked an eyebrow and reached into her pocket. "So you're saying that something like this doesn't bother you?"

A second later she whipped out a small black gun, and Amber jumped back five feet with his face full of horror.

"Holy Mother of Mew! Put that thing away!" He yelled frantically, arms waving wildly in front of him.

She sighed and face-palmed. "I'll take that as a no."

She set her face and started walking towards him. He backed away quickly in response.

"W-what are you doing?!" He shouted fearfully, eyes wide as he watched her advance.

"You need to get over your fear," she said simply, continuing to walk towards him.

In his haste, he tripped over his feet and fell backwards. His hands gripped the grass as she came to a halt in front of him and he stared up at her in shock. "But you don't have to shoot me!"

She gave a small laugh and smiled. "Yes I do!"

Her finger pressed the trigger, and he slammed his eyes shut, waiting for the crack of the barrel and an explosion of pain. He jolted them back open in surprise as he was doused with a small torrent of ice-cold water.

He wiped his eyes and looked up to find her smirking. "You really thought I would shoot you?"

He frowned at her. "I don't know what to expect with you anymore."

She lost her smile, bangs falling slightly over her eyes before she put the water gun back in her pocket and glanced at him with a blank expression. "When I found out that we were heading to Fuschia City, I had a feeling your old memories of the town would come back. So, until we get an exact location Yellow, I'm going to help you overcome your fear."

Amber's eyes widened at her, and she smiled a little. "Might as well do it now. No better time than when we're in the actual city itself."

Melany reached a hand out to help him, and after staring at it for a minute, he cautiously took it. On his feet again, he followed her as she climbed back up the tree. "So…how do plan on helping me with this?"

Their feet scrabbled on the bark as they reclaimed their previous branches. Melany brushed her long bangs out of her eyes and scratched the short hair near the back of her head. "Well, I think you're right when you say that you can't forget about what happened." She looked down at her lap. "It's never easy to forget about stuff like that."

Amber turned his head down at her, eyebrows scrunching slightly before she went on.

"But! Hopefully I can make it so that you can subdue that fear and not let it become a problem during a hasty situation."

He glanced back up at the sky and closed his eyes. "How are you going to do that?"

His eyes were still shut, but he could sense the smirk on her face.

"You'll just have to see tomorrow. Now go to sleep."

He sighed a little and leaned back on the trunk, thoughts gradually melting into a pleasant dream where there were no guns or haunting memories of his past in sight or mind.

"Up and atem!"

Amber's eyes drearily cracked open at Melany's loud and cheery voice, and he looked down to see her waving at him from the foot of the tree.

"We don't have a lot of time before we have to get back to the mission so let's get to work!"

The bright-eyed boy gave a small groan and closed his eyes to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, he let out a yelp as something grabbed him and flew the boy down to join the blonde who was waiting with a hand on her hip.

"You lazy bum! Let's get going!"

Amber looked up at her Venomoth as it let go of his shoulders and followed her to the edge of the large clearing where she picked up a short thick twig. Walking back to him, she held it out in front of her, the brown ends of it sticking out of either end of her fist.

"Get it out of my hand," she demanded calmly.

He raised an eyebrow but ran at her anyway, hands reaching out to knock it out of her fingers. An instant later, she shot forward, twisting his arms behind him and holding the stick to his neck.

"Dead," she murmured in his ear, twig pressing lightly on his skin before he was released.

He spun around to face her, eyes wide as he realized that this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

She stood with her feet planted on the ground and held her hand out. "Try again."

He scoffed in annoyance. "How is this supposed to help?"

She only shook her head. "Just do it."

An idea forming, he ran at her once more, dodging swiftly when she lashed out to grab him again. Quickly twisting back around while she got her bearings, he tackled her to the ground, the collision causing the twig to get knocked out of her hand. Nimbly jumping off her sprawled form, he snatched it in his fingers and waited patiently as she got back to her feet and faced him.

"Now there're the moves I taught you!" She said happily. He only kept a carefully blank face, and she huffed in light annoyance. "Alright then. Let's move on."

Her Venomoth suddenly appeared from behind her, and Amber jumped in surprise when it shot a Psybeam at him, making him drop the twig. Melany caught it, and Venomoth landed on her shoulder.

"Now let's see how you do with moving projectiles," she said challengingly.

Still not quite sure how this would help him overcome his fears, he nodded and proceeded to jump again as another beam was shot. He landed on one knee, eyes instantly searching for Melany as she began running around him and having her Venomoth send out more Psybeams.

Continuing to dodge and roll, he gradually kept getting closer to her until he finally had an opening. When a Psybeam blocked her vision of him, he jumped over the move straight at her, hands tearing the twig from hers as he shot by and landed on the ground behind.

The Venomoth ceased its shootings, and Melany turned to him, a smile on her face as she came all the way around. "Well look at you Mr. Stud! Dodging all those Psybeams like they were nothing!"

He smiled ruefully to himself, handing her the twig again as she walked up to him. "Like you said. All moves that you taught me."

Her eyes clouded over for a moment, memories coming back to her before she forced herself to shake her head. "Let's go again."

Amber looked at her for a moment before backing up a little and preparing himself. Melany stayed staring at the stick in her hands, not noticing that he was ready until the black-haired boy cleared his throat. The noise caused her head to jerk up, and she glanced over at him, seeing him watching her curiously.

"What's wrong?" He asked, concern showing lightly in his voice.

She shook her head slightly and closed her eyes. "What…what happened to us?"

Amber's eyes instantly hardened, and he bared his teeth. "You know the answer to that. Don't even go asking me a question like that. I don't know what Sam meant when she said 'thank you', but I'm not about to say anything like that anytime soon."

Melany flinched barely and bit her lip. "What happened with Jade wasn't my fault, Amber."

He almost growled. "It was, and you know it!" He shook his head and took a calming breath, biting back another retort. "Let's just go."

She gave an imperceptible nod and flicked a hesitant hand at Venomoth.

Eventually, their tenseness faded as the morning slipped into mid-afternoon, and they began to realize what time it was. Both were covered in sweat from the high summer sun when Venomoth shot the last Psybeam, and Melany signaled at it to stop.

"Whew! I think that's enough! What time is it?"

Amber panted a little as he withdrew his black Pokegear from his pocket. "A bit after four."

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly returned her Pokemon. "Well then we better go! There's one more thing I want to do before we get back to tracking."

His eyes narrowed in suspicion as he followed her carefully over the fence, but it wasn't from the mystery of what was next. It was the mention of tracking. The thought of Yellow made him think back to what Blue had told him the other day at the library.

"Hey," he said sharply as they walked slowly down the street, him a step behind her as she led him to wherever it was that they were going. "Remember that powder you told me to use on Yellow at the eclipse? The one that would make her fall asleep?"

Melany nodded from ahead. "Yeah. Why?"

Amber's eyebrow rose. "You do realize that she hasn't woken up yet. Right?"

His words made her freeze, right in the middle of the street. He stopped directly behind her and stared at the back of her head.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?"

She didn't say anything, and he walked up beside her to give her a sideways look. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

He saw her eyes darken. "I was hoping that I didn't have to." She looked up at the sky, ignoring his shocked face. "I'm surprised that fire didn't do the trick."

"W-what are you saying?" He stuttered, trying to comprehend what she was talking about.

"Hm," she hummed to herself. "I guess we'll have to find another way to wake her up."

Amber's eyes narrowed. "So you do plan on helping them get her conscious again?"

She waggled a finger at him. "Ah, ah. I didn't say I was going to help them! But is important that we get her back on her feet."

The two started to walk again, and Amber let out a small sigh. In a way, she'd avoided his question, but it was a relief to know that were going to help Yellow. He smiled to himself. That definitely makes me feel better.

He skidded in surprise when Melany suddenly turned down an empty alley. The streets around them were mostly vacant, no one around in sight. So it made him wonder why she was wandering down this alley.

Following her in, he glanced up at the tall brick walls on either side before bringing his gaze back down to find that she had stopped halfway to the street on the other end of the little alley. Her hand went to her belt, and his eyes widened when she brought out a gun. This time, a real one.

"Okay, now what're you up to?" He asked wary. The combination of gun and street alley was not helping him suppress his childhood fear.

"Remember the training we just spent all day doing?" She said expectantly. "Well, it's time to put it to the test."

He had just enough time to comprehend what she was saying before the first shot went off and he bolted to the ground. A bullet whizzed in the air above, and he glared at her. "What the heck, Melany?!"

His only answer was another shot, and he had to leap up and flatten himself quickly against the wall to avoid being struck. It was then that he realized what she was doing. She was trying to get him to understand how to fight with someone who had a gun. The previous training was supposed to simulate how to dodge the bullets, and now his job was to adapt to an actual firearm and learn how to defeat its user.

"But what about the stray bullets?" He called out to her worriedly. "What if someone gets hit?"

Silently taking out a Pokeball, Melany released her Heracross, and Amber watched as it used its Protect move on the entrance to the alley. "That way, any bullets will be shattered upon contact."

He nodded approvingly and sprang off the wall at the sound of another bang. Using his ears more than his eyes, he was able to judge when the shots were made and how fast they were going, ultimately telling him how much time he had to dodge. Constantly on the run as a kid, his senses had grown finely tuned to his surroundings, and it was no wonder that he was able to move as fast as he could.

And as they continued their dance of shots and swerves, there was one thing that the both of them hadn't seen. Right as they'd turned down the alley just a few moments before, they had thought that the streets were completely empty. However, one lone figure had stood about a quarter mile down the road, the blue-eyed brunette recognizing the two of them in an instant and sprinting like her life depended on it.

What the three of them failed to realize was that it just might.

Me: *smirk* See? I told you you couldn't do it!

Gardevoir: *points a finger* Actually, you didn't say that at all.

Me: *narrows eyes* Fine! Then prove me wrong and make Max appear!

Gardevoir: *sigh* It's obvious that they're sleeping at the moment. *frown* Which you should be doing.

Me: *sweatdrop* Oh. Right. Well, I have high hopes for satisfied readers! Hopefully that whole powder thing is understood better! *sigh* Again, not easy to explain. But anyway! Review and return guys! Let me know what you thought!

P.S. Hey Maxy, here's that chapter you were hoping for! I was planning to post it today, so what a coincidence! Teehee!