Chapter 8

They were on the boat back to Kanto when the storm hit. Ash had been leaning against the railing, talking to Misty when the first wave slammed into the boat's starboard side. Both of them lurched, almost toppling over and Ash managed to catch ahold of Pikachu's tail as the mouse fell from his perch on the railing and head first into the churning water below.

'Are you alright?' Ash asked, turning to Misty hanging onto the railing beside him.

'Yes', she nodded. 'That was unexpected, the sea has been so calm until now'.

'Guys', Dawn called as she, Brock and May made their way over.

The boat was rocked by another wave, this one more powerful, followed quickly by another and then another. Now everyone on board was struggling to maintain their balance as the boat rocked wildly. One man fell, hitting the deck hard and Dawn saw his glasses skid across the planks and disappear over the side.

'Where the hell did this storm come from all of a sudden?' May wondered.

The boat bucked violently and Dawn lost her balance and fell forward. Ash caught her, Pikachu hopping out of his arms to get out of the way.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

She nodded. The boat lurched yet again. Ash, already off balance from Dawn's momentum, slammed hard into the railing. His eyes widened in shock as he felt himself begin to tip backwards over the rail. Dimly, he heard Pikachu call his name and saw Misty reach out and catch hold of Dawn's leg, but he and Dawn had all of the momentum and the three of them were suddenly falling through open air.

Ash wasn't prepared for how cold the water would be and it was a shock to his system. His head went under and water rushed into his nose and mouth, stinging his nose and throat. He kicked his legs and coughed up water, cringing at the salty taste when his head broke the surface. He pumped his legs furiously in an attempt not to go back under and looked around him for Dawn and Misty, but all he could see was gigantic waves. He opened his mouth to call for them but a wave swept over him, forcing him back under. He fought his way back to the surface only to be pushed down yet again by another wave.

It was impossible to swim in any direction. Every time he tried, the waves would push him back and now he was beginning to get tired. It was all he could do to keep his head above the water. He decided to stop fighting and let the current take him wherever it was going.

He didn't know for how long he was carried along, but at some point he noticed that the water had gotten shallower to the point that he could feel sand underneath him. Forcing himself up on shaky legs, he stumbled forward a few steps before collapsing onto the beach where he fell asleep completely exhausted.

Misty

'Great, where am I?' Misty grumbled to herself as she sat up and took in her surroundings.

She was sitting on a beach next to a large, jagged, red-brown rock. The sea was at her back and a dense forest loomed before her. She turned around, hoping to spot a boat passing close enough to the island that she could draw the attention of its crew. But the clear blue water was completely devoid of any signs of life. The sun beat down on her as she stood there hopefully waiting for a rescuer to come, the waves gently lapping at the toes of her shoes and she realised that she was getting thirsty.

Clearly she couldn't drink the water here, that only left her with one option. Reluctantly turning her back on the sea, Misty set off into the forest.

Dawn

Dawn had already been up and moving for hours. Well, she thought that it had been hours; it was a little hard to tell as she had no watch and had no idea how to tell the time based on the sun's position in the sky.

As soon as she had woken up and taken in her surroundings, Dawn had realised that the most important thing was to find a drinkable source of water and that she wouldn't find it sitting around on the beach and so she too had headed into the forest.

Dawn pushed through a tangle of brambles, wincing slightly as the thorns pricked through the material of her jeans, which she was now glad that she was wearing rather than her usual pink skirt. The air in the forest was humid, making the going even more difficult, although there blessedly seemed to be no bugs of any kind to bite her. She was getting increasingly frustrated by her inability to find a source of water. With all this greenery around there had to be one near by!

Eventually, she was forced to take a quick breather. Dawn flopped down and leant back against the trunk of a tree and fanned her face with her hat in a futile attempt to cool herself off. She had been sitting there for a few minutes when she heard the sound of footsteps and the the rustle of leaves as somebody or something brushed against them. Warily, Dawn stood up and looked around her for a weapon. Spotting a sturdy enough branch, she bent down and grabbed it without once taking her eyes from the direction the sounds were coming from.

Dawn tensed and held her branch at the ready when the bushes directly opposite her moved. She wouldn't go down without a fight!

'Dawn?'

It took Dawn a moment to place that voice but when she did, her muscles relaxed and she dropped her branch. 'Misty! She exclaimed and ran to hug her friend, overjoyed to see a familiar face.

'Hey', Misty smiled, returning the tight embrace. 'I'm glad to see you, are you alright?'

'Yes I'm fine. Are you okay?'

'Except for all these stupid brambles scratching my legs to ribbons, yes'.

'Do you know what happened to Ash? I'm sure that he fell overboard with us', Dawn asked.

Misty's face fell. 'I haven't seen him', she replied.

Dawn's heart sank. 'Me neither'.

'Look don't worry', Misty tried to reassure her. 'Ash is always getting into these kinds of situations and he's always okay'.

'Yeah, I'm sure that you're right', Dawn replied, also trying to be optomistic.

'We'll look for Ash later. Right now the most important thing is finding water', Misty decided.

'I've been going this way for a while now', Dawn said, indicating the direction in which she had been walking. 'I figured that if I went in a more or less straight line, then I'd have to come across a stream or river eventually'.

'Sounds like a plan. Let's go', Misty encouraged.

The two girls set off deeper into the forest.

May and Brock

May, Brock and Pikachu watched in horror as Ash, Dawn and Misty fell over the railing and disappeared into the violent sea below. Brock felt sick when he thought how easily his friends could be being picked up and smashed against the side of the boat by the waves. Or else drowned as the waves crashed endlessly over their heads, keeping them under.

'Pikapi', Pikachu called, preparing to jump in after his trainer.

'No Pikachu!' Brock cried, grabbing hold of the mouse before he could leap off the boat.

Pikachu shouted angrily at Brock and struggled in his arms, going so far as to hit him with a fairly weak Thunderbolt when the doctor still wouldn't let him go. Brock winced but held onto him determinedly as Pikachu cursed Brock, telling him that he had to go and save Ash and why didn't Brock care that his trainer could be drowning and how he would hit Brock with a proper Thunderbolt if Brock didn't let him go. May watched all this sadly whilst keeping an eye on the water below, hoping to see a patch of red, blue or black somewhere down there. She thought that she saw Misty's hair at one point but before she could so much open her mouth to draw Brock's attention to it, it was gone again.

As soon as the storm ended, Brock and May raced to the bridge of the ship to beg the captain to turn the boat around to look for their friends. The captain was adamant that he couldn't however and even refused their request to be allowed to take one of the lifeboats and look themselves.

Both of them were frantic by the time their ferry docked. Brock quickly got directions from the first person they saw once they had gotten off the ferry and he and May sprinted to the near by coast guard station.

'You've got to help us', May shouted as she and Brock burst through the front doors, startling the young man sitting behind the reception desk.

'Whoa, calm down. Now what's the problem?' he asked in a calm voice.

'There was a storm on the way back from Jhoto', Brock explained. 'Our friends went overboard. You've got to go and look for them'.

The man gave them an odd look. 'There's been no storms at sea today, we would have heard about it'.

'Yes there was', May insisted. 'We were right in the middle of it, ask the captain if you don't believe us'.

The man, who's name was Aaron hesitated. The coast guard definately hadn't picked up or been told about any storms today but the teenagers in front in of him didn't seem to be pulling a stupid prank. They were both visibly upset, unless they were exceptionally talented actors but he doubted it. They both looked as if they wanted to cry and the Pikachu in the boy's arms looked downright miserable.

'Wait here', he said, deciding to believe them. He poked his head into the boat area. 'Jimmy?'

'What?' Jimmy yelled back from somewhere on the other side of the boats.

'Some kids say that their friends need help, could you come out here please?'

Jimmy came and Aaron relayed what May and Brock had told him in a low voice. Jimmy looked over at them suspiciously.

'There hasn't been a storm', he frowned.

'I know, but do they look like they're joking to you?'

'Not really'. Addressing May and Brock he said ' alright you two, give us five minutes and Aaron and I will take you out on one of the boats to look for your friends'.

May smiled up at him, tears at the corners of her eyes. 'Thank you'.

'No problem. Just be ready'.

Dawn and Misty

'It can't be much longer until we find water can it?' Dawn asked, side - stepping a patch of nettles.

'I don't know', Misty sighed tiredly. 'We don't even know how big this island is and for all we know we could be going around in circles'.

'I don't think that we are. Nothing we've seen so far looks familiar'.

'I'll have to take your word on that'.

They were both tired and extremely thirsty by this point but they determinedly pushed on and were rewarded with the ground gently sloping downhill and becoming increasingly moist.

'I think that I can hear running water'. Dawn suddenly perked up and ran in the direction that the sound seemed to be coming from.

'Dawn, wait up', Misty called, chasing after her.

They broke through the trees and found a shallow, clear stream. Dawn let out an excited squeak and all but threw herself into the cool water, not caring when it soaked through her jeans and flooded her shoes. Misty wasn't far behind her, kneeling down beside the shallow stream and scooping water into her hands to drink from. When she had had enough, she lay on her back in the water. Closing her eyes as the current gently washed over her, removing the sweat and dirt of the last few hours. Dawn took her shoes off and dangled her feet into a small pool while she sat on the bank.

'Hey Misty'.

'Mmm hmm?'

'Do you think that Brock and May are looking for us?'

'I'm sure that they are'.

'Do you think that they'll find us?' This time, Dawn couldn't keep a bit of worry from entering her voice.

Misty opened her eyes and sat up to look at the younger girl. Dawn was sitting on the bank, biting her lip, her head hanging. Misty felt a pang of sympathy and moved to sit next to Dawn, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

'Don't worry Dawn, I promise that we'll get off this island, ok?'

'Ok', Dawn whispered. 'So, what now?' she asked in a stronger voice.

Misty stood up. 'Now, we find some food, because I'm getting kind of hungry'.

Ash

Ash had managed to find drinkable water a lot quicker than Misty and Dawn had. He had spotted the stream leading out of the forest as soon as he woke up. Once he had satisfied his thirst, he realised that he was hungry and headed into the trees, keeping the stream to his right for when he would inevitably need another drink.

He guessed that he had been walking for about an hour and a half when he heard voices up ahead. He hesitated. A few years being a Hunter had made Ash a lot more wary than he used to be when he was just a trainer. Yes, he could hear voices up ahead, but he couldn't be sure that they belonged to someone, or even something, friendly.

Treading quietly, he inched forward, senses on high alert for an attack. As he drew closer, he was able to hear that the voices belonged to girls, two of them by the sound of it. He crouched low and crept behind a bush. He peered out around it carefully and felt relief wash over him when he caught sight of familiar red and blue hair.

'Dawn, Mist', he called out to them, standing up and walking out.

Dawn and Misty looked over their shoulders, eyes widening in surprise.

'Ash', they cried, running to hug him.

'You're alright', Misty gasped in relief. Ash smiled down at her, but recoiled as pain exploded in his head, curtosy of Misty's mallet. 'Don't make me worry like that again Ketchum', she growled playfully.

'It wasn't my fault', he protested, rubbing his head.

'Well I'm still going to blame you'.

Ash rolled his eyes. 'Isn't that a surprise', he muttered.

Misty's eyes narrowed dangerously. 'What was that?'

'Nothing', he said quickly, sweat - dropping.

'Nothing is right'. She smiled sweetly up at him. 'Now let's find something to eat, I'm hungry'.

The three of them followed the stream farther inland, on the look out for anything edible. Dawn glanced up and spotted some fruit hanging from the highest tree branches up ahead.

'Are those apples?' she asked.

'Looks like', Misty replied, squinting above her.

'Alright'. Ash rubbed his hands together and approached the trunk. He scrambled up it, only almost losing his grip and falling twice before he reached the lowest branches. He took a moment to balance himself before reaching up and pulling himself onto the branch above him. The higher up he got, the thinner the branches became and Dawn got nervous when she saw the tree begin to bend.

'Ash I think that you should come back down', she called.

'It's fine', Ash called back nonchalantly.

'Save your breath Dawn', Misty sighed. 'He'll only listen when that tree bends too far and sends him shooting off somewhere'. This statement was met with an apple clonking her on the head. She glared up at the boy above her. 'Did you do that on purpose Ketchum?'

He gave her a cheeky grin. 'Maybe if your head wasn't so big, it wouldn't be so tempting to throw things at it', he replied.

'Wait until you get down here', she grumbled.

The girls moved out of the way as Ash dropped more fruit down and then took them to the stream to clean of the dirt.

'Aaaaggghhhh!'

Dawn jumped and Ash fell out of the tree at the high pitched scream, lucky for him, he had already reached the lowest branch, although that wasn't much conciliation to his face when he landed on it. Dawn snapped around to see Misty scrambling backwards, away from the stream. Her eyes were wide and terrified and she was even paler than usual.

'Misty, what's wrong?' Dawn asked, worried by her friend's actions, hurrying over to her and crouching down before her.

'Th-th-there w-was a... a... a'.

'A what?' Dawn asked patiently.

'A bug!' Misty managed to squeak out, visibly shaking.

'A bug?' Dawn asked, confused. She couldn't see what the big problem was.

'I... don't like them', Misty whispered.

'Oh'. Dawn suddenly realised what the problem was. She wrapped her arms around the older girl and spoke to her in a calm voice, waiting patiently for Misty to regain her composure.

Ash on the other hand, was less sympathetic. He picked himself up off the floor, groaning.

'Really Misty? You gave me a heart attack over a bug?'

Misty turned to glare at him. 'Well, excuse me Mr. Pokemon master. I'm so sorry that I caused a problem for you'.

'Well come on', Ash snapped back. 'You made me fall out of the tree over some stupid bug. That hurt you know'.

'Ash!' Dawn said sharply, surprising even herself at her tone of voice. 'Everyone has something they don't like, so just drop it okay'.

'Okay', Ash replied, looking taken aback. 'Sorry Mist'.

'That's okay', Misty replied maturely.

'Good. Now let's finish washing these apples and then we can eat'.

Brock and May

Brock, May and Pikachu looked out anxiously at the calm sea around them. They were sitting at the front of the lifeboat being driven by Jimmy, Aaron was sitting just in front of him.

'So where is it that you think that your friends went overboard?' the latter asked May and Brock.

'I'm sure that it was somewhere around here', Brock replied. 'I remember passing that yatch anchored there just after it happened'.

'Let's go and see if your friends are onboard', Jimmy decided, steering the lifeboat towards said yatch. 'There's a good chance the people it belongs to saw your friends in trouble and helped them out'.

They pulled up alongside the yatch and Jimmy killed the lifeboat's engine.

'Hello?' he called. 'It's the coast guard, we want to talk to you'.

There was a moment's silence before they heard the sound of footsteps on wooden floorboards and a man in his late forties appeared, looking down at them quizzically. His skin was tanned from long hours in the sun and he was beginning to wrinkle around his eyes, which were green. He wore a straw hat, red polo shirt, a pair of blue shorts and sandals.

'Can I help you?' he asked. His voice was deep.

'Hi', Jimmy replied. 'We're searching for three people who apparently fell overboard a ferry around about here. Mind if we come aboard?'

'Not at all, come on up', the old guy said, lowering a ladder over the side of his boat.

Aaron and Jimmy let Brock and May climb up first, Pikachu clung to Brock's shoulder. A middle aged woman had joined the man. She had brown eyes, less wrinkles than the man and was wearing a flower printed sundress.

'What can we help you with?' she asked politely.

'Well ma'am', Aaron began.

'Oh please, call me Mary', the older woman interrupted. 'And this is my husband, Frank'.

Aaron smiled at the couple and relayed to them what May and Brock had told him and Jimmy, along with descriptions of Ash, Misty and Dawn.

'Oh that's terrible', Mary expressed. 'But I'm afraid that we haven't seen them'.

'Not at all?' May asked, looking crestfallen.

'I'm sorry dear, but no'.

'Didn't see or feel any storm either', Frank added, frowning.

'People keep telling us that but there really was a storm, we were in the middle of it', May said, looking to Brock to back her up. Brock nodded in confirmation.

'This storm part is really weird', Jimmy said almost to himself.

'What do you think is going on?' Brock asked him.

'I don't know', Jimmy answered thoughtfully.

'We should keep looking', Aaron said. 'Thank you for your help'.

'Your welcome', Mary replied. 'I hope that you find your friends soon', she added to May and Brock.

'Thank you', they replied, climbing back down the ladder.

'You know', May said when they were all back in the lifeboat and once again on their way. 'We should try looking for an island, they might have washed up on it'.

'Good idea', Brock agreed.

Jimmy and Aaron exchanged glances.

'Are your friends good swimmers?' Aaron asked them.

'Misty's great, Ash isn't bad and I don't know about Dawn', May replied. 'Why?'

Aaron hesitated. 'We didn't want to tell you this but... If they're not good swimmers, chances are that they might have drowned by now', Aaron told them, hating the horrified looks on their faces.

'But they could have reached an island', May insisted.

'May', Jimmy said gently. 'There are no islands around here'.

Ash, Misty and Dawn

Night had fallen on the island and Ash, Dawn and Misty had decided to make camp next to the stream. They made a meal out of the left over apples and, as tiredness set in, they lay down on a dry patch of ground under a tree.

Dawn and Misty fell asleep quickly but Ash stayed up a while longer. As he sat leaning against the tree, he found that his gaze kept returning to Misty. He felt old, familiar feelings resurface as he watched her sleeping peacefully, feelings that he hadn't felt since his travels through Jhoto and which he had long since forgotten about. A piece of her hair had fallen across her face and Ash had a sudden urge to brush it aside. He reached out a hand but stopped when he was half way to her face. He exhaled loudly and withdrew his hand.

On his right, Dawn rolled over in her sleep so that she was pressed up against him. He looked down at her. He thought that he had liked Dawn and he did, it was just that after meeting up with Misty again, Ash realised that he liked Dawn just as a friend.

He lay down and closed his eyes. He was on the verge of sleep when he felt it; something that brushed against the edge of his consciousness.

Ash opened his eyes. He could still feel that... prescence. It felt like somebody was watching the three of them and it felt cold, dark. Evil. That was it, the night held an evil prescence and Ash, wide awake now, had no doubt that it meant he and the girls harm.

'Girls, wake up', he hissed as the feeling grew stronger.

Misty and Dawn groaned when he shook them and reluctantly woke up.

'Ash what's the problem?' Misty yawned, wiping sleep from her eyes.

'Can't you feel that?'

'No. What?'

'That feeling that we're being watched'.

'By who?' Dawn asked, who was now also awake.

'I don't know', Ash replied.

Misty frowned. Now that the last traces of sleep had left her, she too began to sense something. 'Your right', she said.

The feeling seemed to draw closer, pressing in on them until they began to feel claustrophobic. Ash could feel adreniline rush through his body and his senses switched to high alert; honed through years of hunting the supernatural. He was confident that if something approached them, he would hear it well before it had the chance to strike. The girls instinctively pressed closer to him.

The pressure was kept up for a few minutes until it withdrew and disappeared as quickly as it had come.

'What do you think that was?' Dawn asked in a small voice, looking to Ash for answers.

'I don't know', Ash replied, lost in thought. 'I've never come across anything like it'.

If it was possible, Dawn looked even more freaked out at that answer.

'It doesn't matter, it's gone now', Misty said, trying to comfort the younger girl. 'Right Ash?'

'Yeah, it's okay. We should all go back to sleep'.

Dawn and Misty reluctantly settled back down and although it took them a while, they finally managed to fall back asleep. Ash on the other hand, planned on staying up for the rest of the night as look-out. Something about that prescence still bothered him.

When it had left, it had almost felt as if it was laughing.

'