Happy Memorial Day! For me, it means a day off of school.

It's not a very long chapter, but, as measly as this may be, I want to dedicate this chapter to myself, for reasons listed below. There is no author's note at the bottom of this chapter, simply because I don't want to ruin the ending.

Answer: I would say, "A teenage boy of questionable mental health, who spends hours a day writing "pretty good" but not "great"fanfictions". I take this title as a badge of honor, believe it or not.

Question: What is your favorite scene so far in the story?

Also, it's my first anniversary of being a member of . I think that this is a cause for celebration, so send me a cake or something. Or root beer. (I'm just kidding). In addition, we have three important birthdays coming up. June 7 is Vice President Mike Pence's 58th birthday, June 12 is my own birthday (I'll be 17), and June 14 is the birthday of our President, Donald J. Trump, his 71st. This year, I'm not going to ask for any video games, because gaming is no longer that big a part of my life; maybe a couple of buffs, a fanfiction T-shirt if there is one, and a book by Dan Barker. And yes, I share a birthday with Anne Frank and former President George H.W. Bush.

In any case, that's enough about me. You didn't come for that. Here comes the chapter.

SAMUEL'S POV

The way things were going, this outcome was far preferable to what could have happened, which would have been Lucas not being rescued at all. Based on that alone, you could say that I had no right to complain. Even so, being teleported was a jarring feeling that did not have any equal.

Imagine standing on a completely solid piece of land, one that doesn't move at all. Say, a highway. Now imagine being grabbed by the arm and spun like a top, through blackness, until you touch down somewhere completely different.

As soon as you land on the ground, imagine feeling like you were just on a broken teacup ride at an amusement park. You constantly feel as though you are about to vomit, one of the least pleasant sensations there is in this world. You're holding back the urge to lose your lunch.

Now, imagine that there are bright lights where you end up, instead of where you had come from, which was a dark, dank prison cell in the headquarters of Team Rocket. It's definitely a change that you will need to adjust to.

The second we landed, everything seemed to be chaos. We had landed in the emergency department of the Pokemon center's hospital section, and Lucas London was still with us. He was still slumped on the ground, completely dead to the world.

"Where did you teleport from?" a nurse asked in an urgent tone of voice. "Why is your Zoroark in chains?"

There was really no way to answer that question. Would they believe that Lucas had been kidnapped by Team Rocket?

"We got him from Team Rocket!" Garfield said, not seeming to care whether or not he was believed. "Just please help get him better. Are you going to?"

"I mean, you're in the ER of the Pokemon center" the nurse said. A nametag read NURSE BLISS. "We are obligated by federal law to treat him. We'll diagnose the problem in the exam room. Although, I see that you have an aura user with you. You people have been staying with us for two nights now, right?" She looked over us, evidently confident that we were the same people who had just spent the last two nights in the Rocket Pokemon center.

"That is correct" I stated. "My name is Samuel Cranmore. Let's go to the exam room, and you can figure out how to treat him there".

Nurse Bliss didn't seem to have any problem with that, so I went into the room with her in order to see what they would do to Lucas.

Presumably due to the ordeal Lucas had been through, the young man remained either asleep or unconscious even as they were doing X-rays, which found nothing broken. In addition, there were other Lucario in the exam room who were able to determine his state using aura. I was permitted to watch the medical team as they cut the chains off of Lucas's wrists and ankles, which only resulted in a small amount of bleeding. It really only squirted slightly out.

Even so, this proved that they had been rubbed raw from the metal, and so he was bandaged around those parts. No other cuts or bruises were found, but his blood pressure was quite low, so they decided to try to fix that problem as well. Evidently, the reason his blood pressure was low was because his blood volume was low. Nothing to worry about, the doctors assured me.

Now, I was sitting by Lucas's bedside, reading Battling Magazine. Michelle sat on the other side of the bed, and Malcolm was standing on the ground, sniffing around for something, I didn't know what. Eric and Garfield were not present, since there was a limit of four visitors per patient at a time, but Kieran was, sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. Lucas was still sleeping, and he had an IV in that was giving him fluids. This was an improvement over his state just a few hours ago, that was for sure.

"I'm glad this worked out" Michelle said, grabbing Lucas's hand that did not have the drip in it. "I don't know what would have happened if...we had not rescued him".

I nodded. I didn't want to think about that hypothetical possibility, particularly since that had not panned out to be the case. Lucas London had been saved, at very little cost to our group. The more I thought about it, the happier I felt.

"So…" Michelle began, looking around the room, "...what happens when Lucas gets released? Where do we go?"

"The flower?" Malcolm asked, clearly trying to suppress a giggle.

Looking up, I saw that the flower, the same purple one that we had risked so much to get, had somehow not been thrown away by the doctors. Of course, if it really was enchanted, it was entirely possible that it had simply reappeared magically, and just wouldn't go away.

Currently, it was sitting in a jar that looked similar to a pill bottle, on top of the cabinet behind Lucas's IV stand. It looked as innocuous as ever to an outsider, since some hospital patients probably had flowers by their bedside, but it was completely clear that it was the same flower. Yep, Vivid Violet, #854185...that was it.

"Do you think that we should figure it out as soon as possible?" Kieran asked. "Get it ready right now, so that we can not be too worried later?"

"No" I said. "I think it best to wait until Lucas wakes up, involve him in the discussions. I think it'd be better that way".

"I agree with Samuel, Kieran" Lucas's sister said. "Let's wait until he's up, and then we'll figure things out. It might require using the flower first, in which case we're absolutely going to have to wait until he's out of the Pokemon center. It's a good thing that Zoroarks heal pretty fast".

I looked into the aura of Lucas London. I could tell that he was on the mend, for sure, but still pretty weak. He definitely wasn't as healthy as he had been before we had gotten the flower. Of course, the flower was not the cause of his current state...or was it?

Had the flower not rendered us all temporarily unconscious, would Team Rocket have still been able to kidnap Lucas? I suspected not, just because of the fact that we would have likely not been backed into a corner, all feeling like we had such enormous hangovers. Aura was pretty powerful, since it allowed me to check on Lucas's general vital signs and state.

Aura did have its limits, however. I could not always tell if a person had a chronic health problem, like cancer or a heart problem, unless it had gotten to the point that the person was overwhelmed with illness. Because of this, Lucario were not recommended to perform early cancer screenings without a mammogram, or whatever test was used to detect that type of cancer. Please see your normal medical professional for that.

"I think he'll wake up tomorrow morning" I said, knowing that I was right. Even though I had only been a Lucario for five or six weeks, I had become quite an expert at this.

"How do you know that?" Kieran asked. "Is it because of your aura?"

"Yes" I said, feeling rather irritated that the gray-haired man didn't realize that. You'd think that he would, since the power of aura was common knowledge to just about everybody.

"I can see it too" Kieran said, growing pale. In addition to his new pale skin tone, he also looked embarrassed, as if he had just told us too much and was wishing to retract one or more of the statements he had just made.

Before I could ask why Kieran could see aura, or why he saw fit to tell us this, he ran out of the room like someone who had just been caught in a shameful act.

Michelle, Malcolm, and I all looked at each other, before staring once again at the sleeping Zoroark in the hospital bed.

LUCAS'S POV

The last time I had passed out, as they were taking an insane amount of blood out of me, I had thought that I might never come to again. As much as I didn't know everything about Team Rocket, I did know that when they tried to kill Pokemon, they didn't mess around. I should have been dead.

I entered a strange world of dreams. Not normal dreams, mind you. More like the kind of dreams you have when your temperature is over 100, and you're sweating all night. These weren't lucid dreams, and I didn't remember passing out. Was this the afterlife?

If so, this was my idea of hell, for sure. Blackness, with shapes in all colors of the rainbow materializing in and out of the darkness, was the pattern. It looked not unlike something you'd imagine from after Alice fell down the rabbit hole, or after Veronika decided to die. Yep, this could be purgatory. That was entirely possible.

Instead, I woke up to the sight of my slightly-emaciated body lying in what appeared to be a hospital bed. I was still very hungry, to the point that I could have won Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (Zoroarks can burn as much as 9,000 calories a day, since they do a lot of running around and are large in size). Of course, I probably wouldn't be able to eat them that quickly, since I was also feeling extremely weak. I doubted that I could have even gotten out of the bed, not least because I had an IV in my left arm, right below a bandage.

I remembered why I was here, or rather, what had happened before I got here. I'd been chained down in Team Rocket's headquarters, them having taken my blood (an insane amount, mind you), in order to figure out why I had turned into a Zoroark, exactly the question that everyone else wanted answered as well.

I wondered if they had figured it out now, and were looking for the right opportunity to take me back. It had, of course, been largely my own fault for getting kidnapped. All I had had to do was not tackle the Team Rocket grunts, and I would have probably been safe. I'd be kicking myself for a while.

Looking around, I saw that I was in a hospital room within a Pokemon center. In addition to the normal doctors and nurses, my younger sister was dozing in a chair next to my bedside, along with Samuel. Although, I was surprised to see another person there.

Eric Owsley, the man who had taught me illusions, had been given what looked like a yoga mat to sleep on. He still wore a slightly militaristic expression, even as he lay prone on the floor. If sleep could not take away that type of demeanor, what could?

Why is Eric here? I thought. Did they enlist his help to rescue me?

If so, I was quite grateful, but I still didn't see why he had decided to appear out of nowhere. Truth be told, the sight of Eric kind of reminded me of when we had been attacked by Kieran on top of the hill. Although we were now allies, the memory made me reconsider our alliance. Was Kieran Mortimer really trustworthy, or was he going to turn his back on us at the earliest opportunity?

I decided to voice my concerns aloud. "Why is Eric here, Michelle?" I rasped, realizing just how dry my throat was. Clearly, I had been asleep for some time.

My younger sister woke up, realizing that I was awake as well. "Oh, Lucas, you're up. Good. What was it you were asking me, again?" she asked, with a slightly confused expression on her face.

I tried not to sound frustrated, even though I was frustrated to a small degree. "Why is Eric here? I honestly thought we were going to be done with him once I'd learned my illusions".

Michelle elbowed Samuel, jerking the Lucario awake. "Why did you wake me up?" he said, using aura.

The "voice" of a Lucario, when used via aura, sounded kind of like a robot or a computer. Clearly, however, he was angry at my sister for waking him up.

I spotted a clock nearby and saw that it was about 5:10 AM. Of course, they would be sleeping at this time; it was kind of an ungodly hour, although it wasn't unheard of me to get up this early on occasion.

"To answer your question, Lucas", said Michelle, "he just came out of nowhere. Somehow, he found us at this Pokemon center, and he told us he was going to help us save you. We trusted him, because we didn't see that much of a choice. He was telling the truth".

I gestured to the IV drip. "How long do I have to stay here?" I asked. "Where are we?"

"Rocket, Maine" Samuel said. "Just a few miles away from the Team Rocket fortress. As for how long you're going to stay here, they plan to release you sometime tomorrow".

Sometime tomorrow. There was still another day that they could get to me, unless we managed to get away before they became aware of where we were.

"How did you guys save me?" I asked. Looking at my wrists, I saw that they were bandaged, including a patch of bandages with an unjustifiably large size for only having one IV on my left wrist. Why, exactly, had I been bandaged?

"We ran into the fortress and discovered you in your cell. Eric's Mesprit teleported us out of there, and the doctors had to cut away your chains. Sorry for giving you so many details, I know you must be tired". All of that was Samuel's monologue.

"I'm not tired" I said. "How long have I been sleeping for? It has to have been close to a day".

"Maybe it was" Michelle said. "We know that you were unconscious when we got into the cell, so at least eighteen hours or so. Are you thirsty?"

I nodded. My mouth really did feel like sandpaper, or the part of a beach that is farthest away from the ocean. In other words, I was parched.

"You probably should drink" Samuel said, filling a paper cup from the bubbler on the other side of the room. He helped me sit up in order to drink it. "The faster they are convinced you are healthy, the faster you can get out of here".

Michelle nodded. "They were waiting until you woke up until we decided on where we would go next. The way it was going, we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, with you being unconscious. We wanted to involve your intellect in the decision".

I felt praised by that. It wasn't often that someone told me that I had an impressive intellect, but I took it as a compliment. Sometimes, I don't pick up on the proper meanings of words said by others, but that's what can come with being a geek in general. Still, I got the feeling that the implications of what Michelle was saying were good.

"What about the flower?" I asked, my vocal cords not hurting so much when I spoke now that I had gotten some water in by mouth. I was also feeling a bit more energetic, now that I had recalled exactly what our whole quest had been before I had been abducted by Team Rocket. The whole reason I had been kidnapped in the first place was because we had gone to look for the flower.

"It's currently in that jar behind your IV stand" Samuel said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Somehow, it's still there, and the doctors didn't try to get rid of it. There must be some kind of magic to it, because of that".

"Plus, you'd think that it would just wilt from being handled so much" I said. "But, no, it's still there".

Samuel and Michelle looked at each other. "I think we'd better tell Eric that you're awake" my sister said. "He'll have plenty to talk with you about".

That was a little ominous to me, I thought as I sank back down into the bed. I was careful not to let my claws tear the sheets to shreds, because that was a real risk when you were a Zoroark.

I had thought that, once we had been able to retrieve the flower, the rest of the quest would have been simple. We would have been able to continue on our way, finding out the next place we needed to head to.

Instead, this was not the case at all. I'd almost gotten killed by Team Rocket, and it was only by sheer dumb luck that I had been rescued. I was still alive, more from other people's successes than my own. All I had had to do was endure a treadmill test, getting a lot of blood taken from my body, and getting rescued by a man with a Mesprit.

And to think that it was only Friday. Only a few days since I had been back in school back in Hanover, New Hampshire. So much had happened since then, so much had changed, that I had a hard time deciding what to think about it.

I couldn't go back to sleep. Nor could I reach for the flower without disturbing the drip, so I just waited for Eric to come in. Then, things would hopefully be made more clear. I'm not one who likes going through a day without a plan. I prefer being told, "Okay, Lucas. We're going to do this, and then we're going to do this, and then we're going to do this". I like knowing what to expect.

Unfortunately, I had been thrust into a situation in which there was no way to know what to expect.

MICHELLE'S POV

A day later, my brother was released from the medical area of the Pokemon center with instructions to take it easy for a little while. Exactly what constituted a "little while" was not made clear, and so we wanted him to be careful.

"Ah, our Comrade has finally been discharged from the Hospital!" said Garfield, raising his arm in a pose that was reminiscent of a knight, throwing up their sword in celebration of a battle they had just claimed victory in.

"That's right" Lucas said, walking slowly. I could tell that, although he had been rehydrated, and his bandages had been taken off, he was still feeling pretty weak. Maybe it had been a good idea for him to take it easy, after all.

We walked along the avenue outside of the Pokemon center. We didn't want to attract any more attention than necessary, although, again, necessary was probably a pretty high amount, particularly when you considered the fact that Lucas was a Zoroark, and we also had a large, burly Irish guy, a Lucario that had once been a human, a hyperactive Zorua, a militaristic middle-aged man (if you could call someone who was 34 middle-aged), and, of course, a normal human teenaged girl. We were quite a group, and asking not to attract attention would, in this scenario, be like the kettle asking not to be black. It just didn't work that way.

Kieran whistled, calling a Crobat down to the ground. This Crobat seemed to be the same one that we had taken from our house back in Hanover (which had now been destroyed) to the Zoroark village up in Quebec.

The reason I could be sure of this was because the safety harnesses were still attached to its back, making it very easy to see that it was indeed the same one. We climbed onto its back and buckled up. It really was lucky that we had the harnesses, because Lucas still looked so weak that he might not have been able to hold on. In fact, he was so exhausted that he fell asleep as soon as we were in the air. I knew that he had to have been as tired as hell if it was possible for that to happen in the air, since I knew that Lucas wasn't a fan of heights. Even so, he was insulated by the fact that Garfield was behind him, and Eric was in front of him. The two biggest guys in our group were surrounding him, preventing him from falling off.

Lucas woke from his nap as soon as we landed in Cape Elizabeth. That was where we were going to be staying next, since it was a town with a lot of police officers, and far away from any Team Rocket bases, and yet still close enough that they wouldn't be expecting us to go there. Hiding in plain sight; that was our strategy.

We left Crobat to fly wherever he wanted, and then we headed into the nearest Pokemon center. Lucas still seemed tired, but he was still clutching the flower, which he had taken with him as we left the one in Rocket. There was a strong possibility that the flower was magical, but we did not want to take any risks. Even as he had slept, it had remained firmly entrenched in his paw; maybe he had never let it go.

"So", Lucas said once we were stretched out on our beds in the Cape Elizabeth Pokemon center, "what happens now? Should we ask the flower? Is ask even the right word to use with what we're talking about?"

"I guess that using the flower is as good an idea as any" Kieran replied. The gray-haired man looked paler than usual today. Maybe, if I had been able to pick up on aura, I would have seen why he looked this way. Chances were, this journey was taking a toll on him.

There had to be a reason that he seemed so tired, though. He was such a young man, only 24 years old, that he couldn't possibly be tired due to his age. There was just no way.

"I suppose we should use the flower, then" Garfield said. Now that all seven of us were in a room together, I was really appreciating the fact that we were all able to talk with one another. When Lucas was in the hospital after being rescued from the clutches of Team Rocket, only four of us had been allowed to visit him at a time, meaning that only five out of the group of seven would be able to discuss our plans.

Now, it wasn't like that. The room at the Pokemon center in Cape Elizabeth had eight beds. On one side were Lucas, Samuel, Garfield, and Malcolm, in that order, while I was in between Eric and Kieran on the other side. We could talk whenever we wanted, about whatever we wanted.

"Here's the flower" said Malcolm, pointing to the jar by Lucas's bedside. "It was on the cabinet by your bed in the hospital. Shall I do the honors?"

"Okay" said Samuel, stretching his arms. He always had to be careful not to pulverize something on accident with his spikes, although he'd had plenty of time to practice with that. "Go and get the flower, Malcolm".

The jar the flower was in always seemed to change when it was indoors. In keeping with the hospital theme, it looked like a medicine bottle, not something that would look out of place in the medical wing of a Pokemon center. Here, however, it looked like an ordinary jar that one might keep flowers in. Nothing too unusual.

Malcolm, as he reached out a paw to collect the flower, accidentally let it go too far down. The jar tipped, before releasing the flower and dropping onto the floor, missing Malcolm's head by two inches.

The jar shattered with a rumble that made the whole room look like the "Surrender" music video by Billy Talent. Luckily, nothing else fell to the ground, but Samuel put his paws over his head. Lucas did the same, not wishing to end up in hospital again so soon.

"MALCOLM!" I yelled. "Why not be more careful?"

He looked back at me. "I'm sorry, Michelle. It wasn't on purpose. You forgive me, right?"

I had a hard time doing so, but I decided that I was going to let it go. The flower, evidently, was magical, because of the fact that it was now in a jar. And yet, I was sure that, as Lucas had been clutching it in the air, it hadn't been in a jar. I of course couldn't be a hundred percent certain that we weren't in the matrix right now, but I was as sure as I could be that I wasn't being delusional about this. So, maybe 99.9999%.

Malcolm stared at the flower for a few seconds. "It says that we should go to New York City. Somewhere in Central Park, that's where we'll find the next flower. This really is like a treasure hunt!"

Indeed, it was kind of like a treasure hunt. I reminded myself that this was probably the only reason Malcolm Greenlake was in it at all, just for the adventure.

Could we really trust the little scamp?

GARFIELD'S POV

Later that evening, myself and all of my fellow Adventurers were eating the food that we had ordered from the cafeteria in the Pokemon center. It was a good thing, since Lucas was absolutely ravenous, as were the rest of us.

"Hospital food sucks, guys. It's pretty awesome to eat real food again" he said, putting his feet up on the rails at the end of the bed. He was slurping his udon noodles, some of which were getting all over his stomach. I decided not to mention that to Lucas, since I didn't want to embarrass him.

"Just glad we rescued you" I said. "Without you, I don't know how our Quest would have gone, or if it would have been able to continue at all. You were always our first priority".

Lucas held out his arms as if embracing someone in a hug. "I'm very grateful for that. And this food really rocks, too. Thanks for saving me".

"Just don't tackle any more Team Rocket members, Lucas" Michelle said, clearly trying not to giggle. In my opinion, this was no laughing matter, because the fact remained that, had Lucas not actively gone after Jessie, we would not have ended up in this situation. Even so, I hoped we could get past this. Once Lucas had gotten more of his strength back, we could head down to Central Park in New York City.

Apparently, that was where we would find the next flower. It was entirely possible that Malcolm could have been lying about what the flower had "said" to him, but why would he have been? There was seemingly no purpose to the potential deception, and, in general, I'm not one to accuse a Comrade of lying. Particularly when that Comrade is a naive, young, energetic Zorua.

I mean, Malcolm Greenlake was such a cute guy, there was probably no way he was doing this. They always said, however, to be careful not to judge a book by its cover. That was one mistake that I very much did not want to make, because if I did make that mistake in this case, I would either be dead or spend the rest of my life regretting it. Neither option was good.

I don't know how long we sat there, content to eat our yaki udon noodles, pizza, and apple pie, all of which we had ordered from the Pokemon center cafeteria. Eventually, however, all of us had eaten our fill, and we got some clothes from the cabinets underneath our beds. (The Pokemon center we were staying at provided clothing for an extra fee, a price that Eric had been more than willing to field).

At least, those of us who could actually wear clothes did. For the most part, I just slept in boxer shorts, as did Eric. Kieran, on the other hand, usually did wear pajamas to bed, something that I found weird. Weren't pajamas only for young children, not twenty-something men?

Eventually, Kieran's facial expression became somber. "There's something I have to tell you guys".

"What is it?" Lucas asked.

Kieran Mortimer stared right into the soul of Lucas London, with a look as intense as a boxer staring down his opponent. "I'm dying".