A/N Thanks to everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed so far. This chapter took a little longer than expected to write but I think that it turned out okay. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 2

Once they had safely left Dawn at the Pokemon centre, Ash and Pikachu descended into the city's sewers. Surprisingly, sewers were never hard to get into; the hardest part was making sure that no one saw them either going in or coming out again. Ash really didn't want a repeat of the time an officer Jenny had caught him climbing out of a man hole in the middle of the night.

Ash wrinkled his nose at the disgusting stench of the city's waste that hit him and Pikachu as soon as they reached the bottom of the ladder. He hated this part of the job. Why did Shifters almost always have to keep their victims in places like this? Couldn't it be a nice, clean, stink free hotel room for once? Pikachu had taken up position on top of Ash's head, as far away from the sewer muck as he could get.

As he searched for Kenny, Ash's thoughts drifted to Dawn. She had handled the whole Shifter incident surprisingly well. Most girls tended to freak out when confronted with a similar situation; shrieking and running or clutching onto him. Some got downright hysterical and refused to calm down until Pikachu gave them a weak Thunderbolt.

But Dawn had done none of these things. Okay, so she had slapped him, but that was to be expected and Ash thought that that showed guts; she had just watched him supposedly kill her friend after all. He liked that she obviously had courage, it was so much better than girls who couldn't handle themselves.

'Plus', Ash thought to himself, 'she's not bad looking either'. He was abruptly brought back to earth when his foot slipped on something.

'Oh gross!' he groaned, shining his torch on what he had stepped on and recognising it for the shed skin of the Shifter. 'Shifters are disgusting', he moaned to Pikachu.

'Pika pika chu pi', Pikachu replied.

'Yeah I know that I should have been watching where I'm walking', Ash sighed. 'Kenny, you down here?' he called.

There was no reply, so they kept walking. Ash was starting to think that the Shifter had left Kenny somewhere else and leave the sewers, when Pikachu moved from Ash's head to his shoulder, his ears twitching.

'You hear something buddy?' Ash asked his Pokemon.

'Pi', the mouse nodded and pointed down a smaller tunnel on their left.

Trusting his Pokemon's superior sense of hearing, Ash took the tunnel without hesitstion. The belief that they were going the right way was confirmed when they came across more shed skin, evidently this Shifter had changed its appearance multiple times recently.

The tunnel ended and Ash could make out the form of someone tied to the ladder that led back up to street level. Ash crouched down in front of the sleeping boy.

'Kenny, wake up', he said, gently shaking his shoulder.

Kenny's eyes fluttered open, but it took him a moment to focus on Ash and Pikachu.

'Who are you?', he asked groggily. 'And actually, where am I?'

'You're in the sewers', Ash told him. 'And I'm Ash and this is Pikachu, we've come to help you'.

'The sewers?' Kenny muttered. Something seemed to click and he snapped fully awake. 'Oh Arceus, now I remember! There was this guy who attacked me and knocked me out and when I woke up I was down here. I saw the guy shed his skin', he paused, looking as though he was fighting the urge to throw up. 'And when he was done, he looked exactly like me. What the hell is going on?' he finished, wide eyed.

'Kenny', Ash began, untying the ropes that bound the other boy. 'This is going to sound really weird and hard to believe, but the thing that looked like you was called a Shifter. It's a supernatural creature'.

'A Shifter, you mean a Shape-shifter?' Kenny asked.

Ash nodded and climbed the ladder. Cautiously, he raised the man hole cover a few inches and looked around. He couldn't see anyone near by, so he quietly pushed the cover aside and climbed out, offering a hand up to Kenny, before replacing the cover and walking back to the center of town.

It was only then that he spoke again. 'You were lucky that it was a Shifter that took you really', he commented.

'Really?' Kenny replied sarcastically.

'Yes', Ash replied in a steady voice. 'Shifters keep their victims alive so that they can... download information on you whenever they need it. Any thoughts, feelings, experiences you've had, they have direct access to as long as you're alive. It makes them more effective hunters, since they like to go after people their victim cares about. Most other monsters would have simply killed and eaten you. Or just eaten you', he finished ominously.

Kenny gawped at him. 'Are you insane?' he asked incredulously.

Ash gave a short, humourless laugh. 'I wish that I was', he replied. They reached the Pokemon centre after a short walk and Ash turned to Kenny once more. 'I know that this is going to be hard but try to put all of this behind you and forget about it okay. Oh and you might want to see Dawn tomorrow, she's pretty worried about you'.

'Dawn's involved in this, is she okay?' Kenny asked anxiously.

'Yeah, but she's fine. Don't worry'.

'Okay. Thank you for saving me'.

Ash was slightly taken aback that Kenny had actually bothered to thank him, not too many people did. He recovered quickly though.

'You're welcome Kenny', he smiled.

Ash lay in bed in his room at the Pokemon centre, thinking. Pikachu was curled up on his pillow and had long since fallen asleep, but Ash wasn't quite ready to follow his example. Now that he had nothing to do, he was free to think about Dawn.

It was weird, Ash had never really taken a paticular intetest in girls. It wasn't that he didn't like them, he did, he just never really thought much about them. Something had always seemed more important, whether it was his next gym battle or the next Hunt. Plus of course, the life of a Hunter wasn't exactly suited to romance, there was too big a risk that the poor girl could get killed as revenge by some monster or other.

Still, Dawn did seem pretty unique...

'What you thinking about?'

Ash screamed and fell backwards off the bed when the disembodied head popped up through the pillow next to him. He groaned and rubbed the back of his head, where he had hit it.

'How many times Gary, don't do that!' he hissed. 'And you're lucky that Pikachu didn't wake up'.

'Correction Ashy-boy, you're lucky that Pikachu didn't wake up, he can't shock me, remember? And also, are you ever not going to freak out when I pop up?' he chuckled, emerging all the way out of the mattress.

'Yeah, yeah', Ash grumbled, climbing back onto the bed. 'Shouldn't you be haunting the women's showers or something?'

'No one's using them at this time of night', Gary pointed out. 'So I thought that I would come and see you instead'.

'Annoy me is more like it'.

'Why so testy Ashy-boy?' Gary teased. 'Could it be that you were thinking of someone, a certain bluenette maybe?' he grinned.

Ash flushed with embarrassment. 'One, don't call me that and two, I was not thinking about Dawn', he denied hottly.

'Then why are you blushing?'

Ash cursed. 'Can it Oak, before I blast you with a round of rock salt', he threatened.

'So toucy', Gary mocked. 'I think that Ash has a crush'.

Ash growled and turned away, pulling the covers over himself but said nothing, only confirming Gary's suspicions. Spurred on by this, the ghost proceeded to spend the next few hours mercilessly teasing his friend. For his part, Ash gritted his teeth and wondered what he had done to deserve being haunted by Gary Oak of all people.

Dawn was woken the next morning by a loud tapping at her door. Being too proud to answer the door in her pyjamas, she quickly got dressed before opening the door.

'Kenny!' she exclaimed in relief upon seeing who stood on the other side.

'Hey', Kenny greeted, hugging Dawn.

'What happened?' Dawn asked.

'Can I come in? I don't really want to talk out here', he said.

'Of course, come in', Dawn replied, moving away from the door and motioning for him to sit on the bed.

Kenny told her everything that had happened to him and when it came Dawn's turn to tell her part of it, she decided that it would be better to gloss over the actual killing.

'Well, I'm glad that you're okay', Kenny smiled once she was done.'I'd better get going. Catch you at the next contest?'

'Yeah'.

'Okay, see ya', he hugged her once more before leaving.

With Kenny gone, Dawn decided that, although it was still kind of early in the morning, she may as well get some breakfast and then train.

She had been outside on the training ground for about forty minutes, when she noticed the boy from last night and his Pikachu emerge from inside the centre. She had thought a lot about him last night, wondering who he was and how he had seemed so calm and familiar with the night's weird events.

Without thinking, she ran over to him.

'Hey', she greeted.

He turned and smiled at her. 'Hey Dawn, you're up early. How's it going?' he asked in a friendly tone.

'It's going good', she replied. 'I'm training my Piplup and Togekiss.'.

'That's cool, are you a trainer?'

'A coordinator, are you going to train now too?'

'Nah, Pikachu and I need to head for the next town. Good luck with your competitions, I'm sure that you'll do great'.

'Thanks'.

'See you Dawn, be careful okay?'

'I will, bye... actually you never told me your name', Dawn realised.

'Oh sorry, it's Ash', he smiled again.

'Bye Ash, thanks for your help'.

'No problem, bye'.

As she watched him leave, for reasons that she couldn't explain, Dawn felt an irresistible urge to go with him.

'Don't be stupid, you barely know him', she tried to tell herself. But although she fought against the desire, ultimately it won out.

'Ash, wait', she called, running to catch upto him.

He stopped and turned to look at her quizzically. 'What's up Dawn?'

'Could I...', Dawn hesitated. 'Would it be okay if maybe I... came with you?'

Conflicting emotions crossed Ash's face. 'You don't want to come with me', he finally answered. 'It's too dangerous'.

Dawn drooped in disappointment. 'Oh, okay', she said quietly.

Now Ash felt bad. 'Dawn, you don't understand. I'm going after some monster to kill almost all the time and too often I've seen them get revenge, I don't want you to get hurt'.

'But I can take care of myself', she insisted.

Ash stood, undecided, torn between emotions. Part of him really wanted her to come, wanted the chance to get to know her better. But at the same time, he knew that the risks were too great. Dawn looked up at him hopefully, her Piplup and Togekiss waiting just behind her.

'Oh come on Ashy-boy, let her come', Gary said, suddenly appearing out of thin air.

Being used to this, Ash merely flinched at the sudden interruption, whilst Dawn leapt back, almost landing on top of Piplup, who chirped indignantly. Dawn ignored him though, all of her attention now on Gary.

'Are you a ghost?' she asked.

Gary grinned at her. 'Yeah, I am. Pretty creepy huh?'

'More like cool'.

'I like you', he turned back to Ash. 'Let her join us'.

'You know that it's too dangerous', Ash argued.

'We can watch out for her'.

'No'.

'Yes'.

'Did you want something else?'

'Oh yeah, Brock wanted me to tell you that there's a haunting in Chocovine'.

'Okay, let's go'.

'With Dawn', Ash hesitated and Gary pressed his advantage. 'It's the perfect case for Dawn to get to see what a hunt involves', he coaxed.

Ash glanced at Pikachu, who nodded. He exhaled noisily, knowing that he was outnumbered.

'Fine. Dawn, looks like you're about to go on your first hunt.

Just a quick note, if anyone wants something to happen or a ppaticular character to end up in the story then PM me, I am happy to take suggestions.