Hey all. I'm back with another update for the story here, (for whoever still reads and reviews it, anyway). I'll save the excuse for my lack of updates on this story for the end, so let's get to the chapter which I'm happy to say will be the second to last one in Nacrene since we've been here too long. Now let's get to it!

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokemon. I own the OCs (Tom, Sparks, Sully, Eric, Roy, Alice, Langdon, Pierce, Clint), this story, and the idea of the story.

Chapter Summary: The gang celebrates their little victory against Team Plasma's failed heist. Tom spends his time with his recovering team and reflects on his battle against Langdon from earlier. Meanwhile, Eric entertains himself by messing with the cops.

Bold- Message Bulletins/PA System/Plaques/Books

Italics- Thoughts/Letters/Flashbacks

Bold Italics- TV/Radio/Pokedex (AKA Dexter) Descriptions/Xtransreceiver Messages/ Xtransreceiver Conversations

The sun was setting over Nacrene City and people were heading home to their families and eat dinner. While people carried out their daily activities, Tom and his friends were resting back at the Pokémon Center after the events that transpired for them. For the most part, the group felt highly accomplished after successfully stopping Team Plasma from stealing the head of a dragon skeleton that was allegedly supposed to help them accomplish their goal of Pokémon Liberation. The group was busy sitting in the cafeteria of the Pokémon Center, smiles going all around as they ate the pizza that Corey had taken the initiative of ordering when they got back.

"That'll teach those jerks to mess with us!" Elliott said as she thumped her chest.

"You can say that again," Vanessa agreed with a smile.

"I don't think they'll be trying something like this anytime soon," Kenta added as he took a bite of pizza.

"That's because they don't want another ass whoopin'," Elliott said with a smirk.

Kenta shrugged and gave a nod at Elliott's response. Corey gave a loud belch after taking a drink of soda, earning a look of approval from Elliott.

"Nice one," Elliott said with a laugh.

"That was nothing. I could do better than that," Corey replied with a wave of his hand.

Elliott was about to demand Corey to prove his claim but stopped when she saw Eri hurry up to them. They hadn't seen her since that morning and were a little concerned when they saw the look on her face. Corey was the first to say something after taking in Eri's current mood.

"What's wrong, Eri?" Corey asked as he set his soda down on the table.

"To keep a long story short, I need someone to come to the Nacrene County Jail with me," Eri replied.

"Why do you need someone to go to the prison with you?" Vanessa asked.

"Eric was arrested for a crime he didn't commit and I want someone to come with me to help vouch for him to see if we can change the minds of the police."

"I'll go with you," Corey said as he downed the rest of his soda and stood up.

"I think it'd be better if Tom was to help me on this one. He knows Eric inside out and he might have a better impact."

"Eri, I'm going with you. Tom's occupied with something more important right now."

"What can be more important than trying to get his best friend out jail?"

"Eri, drop it. Now let's go."

Eri was going to protest but a look from Corey made her think otherwise. The look was firm and indicated that he would not stand for any form of argument. Sighing at not being able to get her wish, Eri settled with Corey's answer and motioned for him to follow her out of the building. Once they were out of sight, Vanessa's gaze became serious as she turned back to Kenta. She only knew that Tom was in a bad state because she personally saw him after he came back with Kenta, Corey and Burgh.

"Kenta, how badly did Tom lose that battle he was in?" Vanessa asked.

"I honestly don't know," Kenta replied with a shake of his head. "Judging by the way he was acting when we found him, I am assuming it was a pretty one-sided battle."

"Has he said anything about the guy he battled?"

"No, he hasn't. He must have been strong though if he mopped the floor with Tom."

Vanessa had to agree with what Kenta said. Tom was the strongest of their group and for him to suffer a loss as bad as he did was surprising. The group was concerned about their usually cheerful leader as they had not seen him since they arrived at the Pokémon Center. He was probably still keeping an eye on his team as they recovered in the recovery wing. Deciding to go and check on him, Vanessa stood up and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Elliott asked as she saw her walking away.

"I'm going to check on Tom. He needs to eat and get some sleep for tomorrow when we battle Lenora," Vanessa replied as she looked over her shoulder.

"I'm sure your boyfriend is just fine," Elliott said with a wave of her hand. "Let him have his time alone."

"He'll have all the time he wants when I'm done with him," Vanessa replied, ignoring the boyfriend comment.

With that, Vanessa turned down the hall and out of sight, leaving Kenta and Elliott alone. Kenta, curious as to how Elliott's battles against Team Plasma went, asked her about them. Elliott smirked and started to tell Kenta of her battles against the grunts and then her tag team battle with Vanessa against Melanie.

Tom was standing in the hallway and looking through the window into the room where his Pokémon were resting. He had been worried about them after they were thrashed by Langdon and his team earlier that day. He took his hat off and let it hang limply in his hand, allowing his sweaty, matted hair to breathe. He pressed his forehead against the glass as his eyes made their way across the line of beds that were holding Sparks, Sully, Lucario and Snivy. All of them looked really banged up after sustaining serious damage from Langdon's Salamence and Drapion. The mere thought of Langdon and his team made his fists clench in anger.

"Who was that guy?" Tom thought as his fists shook. "I know that these criminal teams have their admins and their key leaders, but that guy…"

In the past, Tom had encounters with Team Rocket and Team Galactic, but they were nothing too major. However, he had fought one of the admins from Team Rocket once and he was pretty strong, but Tom was able to beat him. The level that an admin usually had was one of a highly skilled gym leader. Langdon was a different story. The skill that Langdon used against him was one of a champion. The last time he faced an opponent with that level of strength was when he fought Lance at the Johto League.

"Is it possible that Langdon is the boss of Team Plasma?" Tom thought as he ran a hand through his hair.

The idea seemed accurate in his mind. Obviously the head boss of any organization would be able to hold his ground against a threat, but that couldn't be right either. His mind flashed back to when he first saw Ghetsis in Accumula Town who appointed himself as the representative of Team Plasma, so it was possible that Ghetsis was the true leader and Langdon was indeed an admin. Sighing to himself, Tom continued watching his team as they rested.

"I'm sorry guys," Tom said as he looked down at the ground. "I screwed up really bad."

As he stood there he felt both guilt and determination. Guilt from being defeated and getting his Pokémon badly hurt from the battle. But now his determination was to get stronger and prevent making the same mistakes and underestimating his opponents. He slammed his fist against the wall and released a breath that he had been holding. Footsteps met his ears and he quickly shook his hand free from any pain he was feeling and glanced out of the corner of his eye to see who was coming towards him. It was Vanessa.

He was not sure what she was doing, but he got ready to talk back to his friend. The look on Vanessa's face was calm but held some concern. She stopped by his side and crossed her arms.

"How are they doing?" Vanessa asked.

"Doc said they'd be okay," Tom replied as he looked back through the window.

"That's good."

Vanessa leaned against the wall and looked inside the room. She could see Tom's team all resting on their respective beds and hooked up to electrodes. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the pained look on Tom's face and could tell that he hated seeing his Pokémon in such a condition. From her observation of his team, they looked really rough, but not too terrible.

"Now answer me this. How are you doing?" Vanessa asked as she turned to look at him again.

"Physically I'm fine. Right now I feel guilty as hell for pitting my team against Langdon and getting them banged up," Tom replied

"Tom, you can't blame yourself for this. You as a trainer should know that losses will occur at some point in time."

"I'm not mad that I lost. I'm mad that I underestimated Langdon's power and pretty much sent my team to the slaughter house. I made a call and it turned out to be a bad one!"

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose and let out another sigh as he tried to calm himself down. Vanessa, for her part, was surprised to see Tom in such a state of frustration. She had seen him mad only one time and that was when he and Trent had their argument in the burger joint yesterday. She was getting tired of seeing his emotions starting to overcome him and did the only thing she could think of. She brought her hand back and whacked Tom hard on the back of the head.

The sudden violent act made Tom hunch forward a little bit as tiny lights burst in front of his eyes. He could feel the throbbing pain at the back of his head along with a bump forming. He turned to stare at Vanessa with a confused, yet irritated look. Vanessa gave him an even stare and crossed her arms as she looked back.

"Are you done moping around?" Vanessa asked.

"What?" Tom replied with confusion still evident in his voice.

"So you made a bad call! It's not the end of the world you idiot! If you mess up, get up and dust yourself off!"

Tom was taken aback from Vanessa's outburst. He expected this kind of response from Elliott, not her. He could tell that this was going to be a pep talk that he received from his brother and his parents throughout his training career.

"Sitting on your ass and feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere," Vanessa continued. "You are not the Tom Sandbourne I know. The one that I know would be thinking of how he can rectify his mistakes to better himself as a trainer and prevent the same mistake from happening again."

"I know, I know," Tom replied as he looked through the window again.

"Then fix it," Vanessa said with a small glare. "I don't know if it's your confidence that's hurting you more right now or if it is your supposed bad decision, but you need to shape up. We're battling Lenora tomorrow and you will have a repeat performance if you don't pull yourself together."

The words entered Tom's head and started to fester in his brain. It was just as he thought. The pep talk that he hated hearing over and over again as a trainer was once again being given to him. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

"Yeah, I got it," Tom said as he looked at Vanessa.

"Good. Now, let's go get some food. Your Pokémon will be fine," Vanessa said as she turned on her heel and made her way down the hall.

Tom looked at his team one last time and placed his hand on the glass. Vanessa's words hit him deep, and he knew deep down that she was right and he had to do those things she said if he wanted any chance of progressing as a trainer. A small smile graced his lips as he continued looking at his recovering friends.

"Rest up and hang in there, guys. We'll take this loss and start our comeback tomorrow gloves swinging!" Tom thought.

He took his hand off the glass and walked down the hall, waving his hat to air it out. Resting his hat back on his head, he rounded the corner and found Vanessa waiting for him. He managed to give a small smile and received one in return.

"Feeling better, sourpuss?" Vanessa smirked.

"I'll be feeling better when I get some of that pizza in my belly," Tom said with a laugh.

"Then we'd better go and get some before Kenta and Elliott eat it all."

The pair of them shared a laugh and entered the cafeteria. Upon entering the cafeteria, Tom noticed that they were missing two from their group.

"Hey, where's Corey and Eri?" Tom asked.

"Oh, yeah, about that…" Vanessa said as she sheepishly scratched the back of her head.

Corey and Eri were standing at the reception desk and talking to the officer working it. They would not be able to see the other officers that were holding Eric and questioning him for a few minutes yet. Eri was already frustrated enough that the police didn't listen to her story about Eric being wrongly accused, even though she had the evidence to prove it. Corey wasn't sure what he could do to help since he was not present with Eri when she had her little escapade with the thief from the Pokémon Center. The only thing he could do was hopefully give some form of support towards Eric to help bail him out of prison.

"Alright, go down the hall here and wait outside holding room B," the officer said as he pointed to his left.

"Thanks," Eri replied as she and Corey started down the hall.

Eri and Corey kept moving down the hall and came to a stop at a door that had the letter B inscribed on it. There was a window parallel to the door to allow them to see inside. They could hear Eric talking to one of the officers inside and were curious to hear his side of the story.

"Alright, stand up. We're getting your mug shot," the officer replied.

"Sweet! I get to go to my first photo shoot!" Eric replied jubilantly.

"Shut-up."

The door opened and the officer pushed Eric out who was still handcuffed. Eric turned and saw Eri and Corey standing there waiting for him. He gave them a cheeky grin as the officer continued to shove him down the hall.

"Hey guys! What's going on?" Eric asked as he was being shoved away.

"Officer, wait, we've come to take him back with us!" Eri protested.

"Unless you have evidence that shows he wasn't the perpetrator, he isn't going anywhere!" The cop retorted.

Eri opened her mouth to protest but closed it. Her face was burning red with anger at being inored and her fists clenched. Taking a deep breath to try and calm down, Eri motioned for Corey to follow her again. They stopped outside the room and watched as Eric was uncuffed and given his number. The officer locked the door and went to the window to wait as the photo was taken. Eri and Corey stood beside the officer and watched as Eric got in front of the camera, still smiling as though he didn't have a care in the world.

"Alright, wise guy. One frontal and one side, let's go," the officer said through the microphone.

Eric nodded as he held up his number for the front shot. As the guard was about to take the shot, Eric struck a pose and spoke back.

"I call this one the Blue Steel," he said as he puckered his lips and narrowed his eyes.

The cop snapped the photo and Corey was doing everything in his power not to laugh. He had to turn away and bury his face in his hands to maintain his cool. Eri and the officer shook their heads at Eric's lack of respect and carefree attitude.

"Real cute, kid. Turn to the right," the officer replied.

Eric did as requested and the camera took his photo again. The officer made Eri and Corey wait outside the door as he handcuffed Eric again and escorted him back down to the holding room they were at a few minutes earlier. The officer and Eric entered the room, making Corey and Eri wait outside. The officer took a seat across from Eric who still had a smile plastered on his face.

"You think you're funny?" The officer asked.

"No. I think I'm adorable," Eric replied.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?"

"This wouldn't be the first time I got in trouble. This is just par for the course."

"I don't think you understand the charges you are facing here."

"Hey, look, I didn't do anything wrong. The girl outside the room here is your key witness to this whole fiasco that you are getting ready to charge me with."

"I know. I've heard her side of the story already, but I don't have the evidence I need to verify her story. For all I know, she could be an accomplice trying to bust you out."

Eri's eye twitched at that remark and she was growing more irritated with each passing second. She had never done anything in her life to break the law and the fact that the officer interrogating Eric claimed that she could be a possible accomplice didn't help her mood at all. She was about to knock on the door to try and speak with the officer again, but another officer came down the hall with a nurse from the Pokémon Center. Eri's face picked up a little bit as she saw the nurse and the officer and even more so when there was a tape in the nurse's hand.

"Justice!" Eri thought as she gave a mental peace sign.

The officer and the nurse entered the room and closed the door behind them. Corey went to take peek inside the window to see how the new situation would unfold. He watched with amusement as Eric put on an innocent look and kept veering his gaze between the officers and the nurse. The officer that had been questioning Eric took the tape from the other officer and walked over to the television they had in the corner of the room. He pushed the tape in the VCR and pressed play. The TV kicked to life and the occupants in the room watched the footage that was caught by the cameras at the Pokémon Center. The officers looked beside themselves at first before they turned to look at Eri through the window.

The first officer looked at Eri and Corey and beckoned them in with his finger. They entered the room and turned to face the officer that pulled them inside.

"So your story checks out," the officer said as he jerked his thumb back at the TV. "Big brother caught everything that happened."

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Eri said as sweetly as she could. "Now can Eric please be released?"

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"Because this leaves us with the first question we asked you earlier. What happened to the thief that was in the footage?"

The room went quiet for a long moment. Finally, Eric broke the silence by clearing his throat.

"I can shed some light on that," Eric said. "I gave the thief two options after I battled her. She could have either tried running and I would have had my Garchomp pursue her and take her down, or she could drop the bag and I would turn the other way."

"So you let her go?" The officer asked.

"Yeah. It's not my place to get involved with authority matters, so I let her run for you guys to catch her later."

The officers looked at each other and then back at Eric. They were now in a quandary that could result in either letting Eric go or arresting him. They had the evidence to prove he wasn't involved in the robbery, but he still let a fugitive run away. The first officer turned to Eri and Corey as he cupped his chin.

"You two said you knew this guy, right?" The officer asked.

"That's right," Corey replied with a nod.

"Here's the deal. He's free to go if you can tell me right now that he does not have a criminal record outside of this isolated incident."

Corey and Eri looked at each other. They could vouch for it and get Eric free, but they had no idea if he had anything else on his criminal record. If he did, it could come back and hurt them. Eri was now cursing inwardly as she wished that Tom was here to give some insight to Eric's past record. Going with the only option that could help her complete her goal, Eri smiled and nodded at the officers.

"Eric's a good guy. He has not done anything outside of this one incident," Eri said.

"I can attest to that," Corey added. "He's got a clean record."

The officer took in their answers and looked between the two of them. He saw that they answered with confidence and that was more than enough for him. He took the key out of his pocket and released Eric from his confines. Eric stood up and rubbed his wrists as he walked over to Eri and Corey.

"You're free to go," the officer said.

"Sweet," Eric replied as he followed Corey and Eri out of the door.

The three of them went down the hall and exited the police station. Eric continued rubbing his wrists gently after they were locked up in cuffs all day.

"Thanks a bunch guys. I owe you one," Eric said as he turned to look at them.

"No problem," Corey replied with a smirk. "Blue Steel?"

"You didn't like it? I thought it was pretty solid."

"You do owe us one," Eri interjected. "Do you know how much I went through to try and get you out? The next time that happens, I'm leaving you there."

Eric rolled his eyes and laughed at Eri's clearly frustrated tone. Eri glanced at Eric again as she thought about what she wanted to use Eric's favor for. Her mind continued to search for something, but it was proving to be a little difficult to focus on an empty stomach. Her stomach gave a growl and her face flushed with embarrassment when Corey and Eric looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Was that your stomach?" Corey asked.

"I haven't eaten anything since breakfast!" Eri snapped back.

"Alright, alright, calm down."

Eri's face continued to burn red as she started to walk ahead of Corey and Eric. As she was walking away, Eric called out to her.

"Wait, Eri, what's this favor I owe you?" Eric asked.

Eri stopped and put a finger to her chin. She then looked at Eric and gave him a smile that was almost too sweet.

"Oh, I'll think of something. Don't you worry your little head about that," Eri replied.

With that, Eri continued her stride to the Pokémon Center, leaving Corey and Eric alone. The two of them exchanged looks. Eric didn't like the tone that Eri answered his question with as it held either some form of humiliation or future pain down the road.

Short chapter, yes, but I was in no mood to combine this with the gym battle which would be long with five trainers now instead of four. Now I'll update again sometime, hopefully before my next school year starts, but we'll see. The reason why this is being updated later than some of you may have hoped is because of two reasons, actually. 1.) I just got back from training not long ago and have been busy. 2.) This story has been put on the back burner for my other Pokémon story with Ash because it's getting more feedback and interest than this one. Those of you who are still reading this, I'm sorry. But right now this feels like a chore pumping out these chapters for only like 3-4 of you instead of 13-20 others. See what I'm saying? Maybe if it picks up again I'll devote more time, but as of right now, this is what you can expect. Till next time. Later.-CaptainPrice