It was late at night before they decided to stop. It was dangerous to keep hiking in the dark and so they had set up camp. Greninja seemed to be constantly on guard and kept an especially close eye on Meowth. Serena felt comforted with Greninja around. Ever since she had learned that she was in the future and that Ash was dead, she had felt lost and confused. She couldn't shake the memory of Ash's smile and laughter she had heard when they had gotten to Pallet Town. She didn't believe that he was gone but at the same time she had seen that everyone around her had lost all hope, everyone except Gary that was. Misty and Tracey had fallen asleep soon after dinner and Meowth had soon joined them. Serena knew that Gary was still up to ensure that Greninja didn't try to get its revenge on Meowth. Serena couldn't relax, there were too many thoughts swirling in her mind for her to be able to sleep.
Gary stoked the fire and with a sigh took out a half of an old pokéball. Serena recognised it at once. "That's the other half to the one Ash had," Serena commented loudly to Gary. Gary smiled at her and nodded. "It's my good luck charm and apparently the other half was Ash's good luck charm," Gary informed her calmly but he noticed that Greninja was also listening intently from its vantage point in a nearby tree. "How come?" Serena asked curiously. Gary chuckled. "I guess you could say this sparked mine and Ash's rivalry properly. It was a couple of months before we got our first Pokémon. Ash was fishing at a river on the other side of Pallet. I went to the fishing spot to fish also and saw Ash catch something. It was a Magikarp and well Ash was beaten up by its splash attack. I mentioned that I saw what happened and I'll admit that I was a bit arrogant back then. We started having an argument over who had more right to fish at that spot when we both got a bite at the same time. We soon found out that we had both hooked the same old pokéball. We both wanted to catch it and we tugged on it. Eventually the pokéball broke in two and we each ended up with half," Gary explained clearly fond of the memory. "I actually tried to give Ash the pokéball half after he beat me in the Johto league and when we met up back in Pallet afterwards he returned my half to me. I guess it's a sign of our friendship," Gary concluded. Serena was stunned, she never knew how important that pokéball half had been to Ash. However it wasn't long before she fell asleep. It had been a stressful and emotional day.
They got up early that morning. They had a deadline after all. They had to get Celebi out and get Serena to the cliff by two. Both tasks held their challenges. They continued their hike and within a couple of hours they had reached the facility. Misty checked the time. It was nine in the morning. They then stopped and started to come up with a plan. Tracey and Gary would distract the guards and Serena, Meowth, Misty and Greninja would go inside and find Celebi and maybe, just maybe, Pikachu too.
Tracey and Gary ran off towards the facility. Tracey called out his Marill and Venonat. His Scyther had died a couple of years ago of old age. Gary called out his Umbreon and Blastoise. They started attacking the facility, shouting that they wanted Celebi back. A dozen guards came running out and released their Golbat and Houndoom. Misty, Serena, Meowth and Greninja took their chance and ran stealthily up to a side door and Meowth used his claws to pick the lock. They slipped inside and ran down the corridor. Meowth had never been in this facility, so he didn't know his way but they hoped that this facility followed the same layout as others Meowth had been in. Thankfully it looked that it was. Meowth led them to a surveillance room and there they scanned the screens hoping to see where Pokémon were kept. Misty spotted the cages and Meowth was able to decipher where the screen was displaying and together they sprinted to the cages. It was almost eleven by now. It had taken a long time to figure out what they were going to do.
They found the room without bumping into any guards. This unnerved them all but they didn't stop. They opened the door and slowly walked in. Greninja and Serena went one way and Misty and Meowth went the other. They looked into each of the cells, one at a time. Some were empty but they occasionally found a terrified Pokémon staring back at them with wide frightened eyes. They wanted to release all of the Pokémon but they were all too aware that the cages were probably alarmed and they couldn't afford to attract any unwanted attention. So as much as it broken their hearts, they had to leave the Pokémon. Serena was worried they wouldn't find Celebi when she heard Misty cry out softly. She and Greninja ran to Misty and found her bent down in front of Celebi in a cage. Meowth looked around for the switch but froze when he spotted something. Serena followed Meowth's gaze and saw something that broke her heart.
I've said it before and I'll say it again I love a cliff-hanger.
So until the next chapter…