.

"I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people."

–Hugh Jackman

Before she knew it, every step Misty took came with a splash of water soaking through her socks, through her shoes. And the thin puddle was only rising.

"Are we going to sink?" Misty called over to Phoebe.

"No," Phoebe answered immediately, though she was putting no effort into hiding the worry on her face. "We have hoses that should be handling most of the water. And bilge pumps that should be handling some of it. So I don't know why it's rising this fast!"

"Well, where are the hoses?"

Phoebe grimaced. "I don't know. We'd have to look around the sides of the boat."

Misty knew something about boats. It was obvious that Phoebe did too, but Misty wasn't sure that she was an expert on her boat. Images flashed through Misty's mind with everything that could be going wrong, all ending with them on the bottom of the ocean. Lightning striking, cracking through the wooden deck. A giant wave knocking them overboard, capsizing the boat. The slow but inevitable sinking of a boat gradually filling with water. Watching as their chance of survival wittled away with every falling rain drop.

No, there was no need to think like that. The integrity of the boat was fine. They were not sinking.

Yet.

"I can go look." Ash poked between Misty and Phoebe with a hand raised as though to volunteer himself. "I can look around the outside of the boat."

Another simultaneous crash of thunder and lightning hit and everyone winced, looking up at the angry sky.

"I don't know," Phoebe said. "Right now I think we have bigger fish to fry. Namely, not letting ourselves get fried."

Ash perked up. "I have an idea for that too! Pikachu!" Pikachu floated on over, looking intently at Ash. "Pikachu, divert any lightning that gets too close with your Thunderbolt Attack aimed to the sky, alright?"

"Pi pikachu!"

Pikachu scampered through the air up to the top of the mainmast and sat, studying the sky, ears erect at attention. Moments later, he fired a Thunderbolt at the sky, meeting in the air with a lightning bolt. The impact was enough to leave Misty's eyes dazzled for a moment, but they were safe. She looked down at the deck and blinked before she remembered that all she was looking at in that moment was water, now up to her ankles.

"Ash, go look for the hoses!"

Ash nodded and began to fly off before he turned back, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh, what do they look like?"

Misty groaned. "They should just look like hoses! Make sure that they're intact and not clogged or anything. They should be spitting this water out into the ocean."

Phoebe, meanwhile, was splashing about a bit in the water. Misty pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are you serious right now?"

Phoebe smiled blithely. "This is a pretty shit situation right now, but, hey, at least my deck is getting clean without me having to mop it."

It took all Misty had not to reach over and dig her fingers into Phoebe's bare shoulders and shake her like a madwoman. Really, though, she just needed to do something. She couldn't leave the fate of this boat only up to Ash's—assumed minimal—knowledge of boats. She reached around to her 'Belt.

"Okay, let's give this a try," she muttered under her breath.

She released the PokéBall and that combined with a fresh flash of electricity from Pikachu lit up the dismal gray world they were trapped in. Frillish came out, floating in the air before Misty. Misty smiled, glad to see him.

"Frillish, I'm not sure how well this will work, but I need you to try and absorb this water," Misty kicked the water at her feet for effect, "and then Water Gun it the heck off this boat."

Misty's Frillish had Water Absorb; she had seen it work in Battle. When a Water Attack hit him, it did no damage and instead restored his health. Frillish as a species had incredibly thin skin that was quite porous and allowed water to osmose easily. She could only hope that it would work here.

"Good idea, Misty!" Phoebe cheered as Frillish got to work, shooting water out of the boat.

Ash appeared then from over the side of the boat and Misty immediately went over to him. "I found hoses. But they weren't pouring water out of the boat, exactly. It was going into this thing."

"This thing? What thing?" Misty asked impatiently.

"Uh…" Lines were breaking out all over Ash's forehead as he appeared to strain to put an image together. "It was boxy and metal—"

"Just show me," Misty cut him off. They hardly had time to waste with Ash trying to mime whatever mechanism he'd seen.

"Show you?"

"Yeah." Misty went over to Ash and pressed her back against his front, taking his arms and putting them around her waist like when he had carried her in the Viridian Forest. "Let's go."

Not a second later, Misty's feet were pulled out of the water with a sopping schlick as Ash lifted her over the side of the boat. Misty couldn't help but notice how warm and dry Ash felt against the pelting rain. It took some of the shivers away as he warmed her through her heavy, sodden clothing.

"Here it is."

Ash had stopped in front of what was definitely the type of hose that Misty and Phoebe had been referring to. And, at first glance, after wiping her dripping bangs out of her eyes, it didn't look like it was in bad condition or in need of replacement. But it only took a second for Misty to realize the problem.

"Oh no."

"What?"

"The hose is draining into the bilge pump."

Misty could feel Ash cock his head. "And why is that bad?"

"Because the bilge pump can't handle that much water. The hose is supposed to work independently from it and just pour off the side."

"Well, then what do we do?"

"I guess we have to move it."

"Okay…"

"Ash, just get me closer to it!"

"Right, right."

Ash floated Misty down, closer to the bilge pump, which was getting her far closer to the raging water of the ocean than Misty wanted to be. She pulled her legs up to her chest and reached out to grasp the hose. The hose, it turned out, was made of a very thick material, nearly unyielding as Misty tried to bend it to pull it out. Yet, she was hesitant to bend it too far, because the last thing she wanted to do was crack it.

Eventually, she managed to redirect the stream, letting the water pour out into the ocean, splashing herself quite a bit in the process. She was soaked through. Her teeth chattered.

"T-Take me back up now."

"Okay!"

With a laugh bursting from his lips, Ash rocketed up, earning himself a scream from Misty right in his ear. When he placed her gently on the deck, Phoebe rushed over, eyes wide. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, Ash is just a wise-ass," Misty said, slapping him upside the head and shivering as cold water reabsorbed into and then squished out of her socks again. "But we fixed the hose. Probably."

"Good!" Phoebe exclaimed. "I'm not sure that we're out of the woods yet, though."

"Frillish?"

Misty went over to Frillish to see for herself. He was still firing Water Guns off the boat, but she noticed the fatigued expression behind his usually unreadable eyes, and the fact that the Attacks weren't making the same arching distance that they had when he'd first started.

"I'm just not sure that he has enough surface area to handle all of this," Phoebe said, gesturing to the water that was yet a couple inches higher.

Not knowing what else to do, Misty pet Frillish on the short, crown-like spines on his head. "You're doing great, Frillish. Don't over-exert yourself, okay?"

"All we need to do is outlast the storm," Phoebe said, shielding her eyes from the pelting rain as she looked up. "We'll be fine once it lets up."

"Yeah…" Misty looked up at the unrelenting sky as well, searching for a patch of blue. There was none. "But when's that going to happen?"

Pikachu loosed another Thunderbolt, its punctuated "Chuu!" sounding more tired as well. The thunderclap came only a moment behind.

"The storm's still right on top of us," Phoebe observed, shaking her head. "There's no telling."

Misty felt Frillish beginning to huff and puff under her hand. As part Ghost, Frillish had great endurance, but this particular task was using all of his body constantly. And, while he was getting soaked with the rain, he didn't have the benefit of being completely submerged that the species needed to thrive.

"Take a break, Frillish," Misty urged. "It'll be fine."

After a breath, Frillish shook his head and let out another Water Gun into the ocean, then another and another.

"Frillish."

Suddenly, Frillish stopped, looking up at Misty with an uncharacteristically emotive expression in his eyes. Misty nearly gasped, struck with familiarity that she had never noticed in Frillish's eyes before. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was like she was looking at something long ago lost from her mind. As if in a trance, Misty felt the urge to move forward, but then Frillish's gaze shifted, suddenly more present and stark.

"What?"

Then, all at once, the world turned white. Another shock from Pikachu and the sky lit the world. But even after fading, all Misty could see before her was blinding light.

"Wh-What's going on?"

"He's evolving!" Ash said, coming over and putting a hand on Misty's shoulder to get a better look.

Everyone had to step back as Frillish doubled in height and absolutely ballooned in volume. He was now wider than he was tall, practically exploding off the deck.

The light faded, but Misty's world was still white as she was face to face with what looked like an enormous white mustache wrapping around the face of her new Pokémon.

"It's a Jellicent!" Ash exclaimed, looking beyond excited as Misty glanced back at him. "So cool!"

Misty was about to acknowledge that, yeah, it was pretty damn cool, before Jellicent shifted away from her, turning his face back towards the ocean, and nearly knocking her over in the process, because that was his widest angle.

Jellicent took in a deep breath and exhaled a huge torrent of water in to the ocean, so much that Misty could see the water level on the boat sink a little bit.

Phoebe practically squealed as she noticed the water as well. "He definitely has enough surface area now!"

Sure enough, with his draping tentacles flat against the deck, the bulbous base of his head came into contact with much of the water on the boat, absorbing easily into his body before shooting back out into the ocean where it belonged.

Within minutes, the water was a thin layer on the boat, not even high enough to submerge Jellicent's thin tentacles and Misty had no choice but to call him back to his 'Ball before he got dehydrated. Even the rain was letting up a little bit and Pikachu was able to use his Thunderbolt less and less until he was mewling for company to assuage his boredom.

"We made it!" Phoebe cheered, looking up at the sky, which was now a far less angry gray, though still seeping with water. "I don't think we even need to dock at Fuchsia!"

Ash grinned. "Okay, so straight to Cerulean!"

Misty felt her heart drop at that stark reminder. All the excitement—nay, terror—of the storm had pushed everything out of her mind, but all at once it came rushing back and shivers were again, coursing down her spine like a paralyzing poison. She almost wished for the storm to return.

"Come here, Pikachu!"

Pikachu dove from the top of the boat into Ash's arms, both of them looking pleased more than anything to be back together, despite the fact that they had only been meters apart from each other through it all.

"Come on, Mist," Ash patted Misty on the back, "be excited you didn't drown."

Misty smiled flatly. "Very excited."

The Cerulean Gym. It had only been a couple weeks since Misty had been there, and yet she was nervous. It was her Gym. Her home. She had walked this cement sidewalk thousands of times, never hesitating before walking right in with a bag of feed thrown over her shoulder or a pocketful of PokéBalls fresh from Nurse Joy bulging at her hip. But somehow, she didn't feel welcome—it was like she needed permission to go in.

Phoebe, however, didn't have that problem.

Phoebe pushed right past Misty's frozen form and waltzed into the lobby, dragging Misty along with her. Ash and Pikachu took up the rear, pushing her in so that, really, she had no choice.

"Hold on!" Misty squeaked. "I…I'm not sure I want my sisters to see me like this! Maybe I should go somewhere to freshen up first?"

Misty knew she was grasping at straws, but she hoped that Phoebe would see her point. The two of them did look like a mess after what they had endured on the ocean. Misty's shoes were still soaked, though most of the rest of her had managed to dry. Her hair was a tangled mess and she was still frozen to the bone. The only reason why Phoebe didn't look half as bad as Misty was because she had a pixie cut and, even in northern Kanto, still refused to wear shoes.

"Misty," Phoebe laughed. "This is your house! You can freshen up here, ya noob."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Misty," Ash said, looking at her blankly. "You look the same as always."

Misty frowned. "Thanks," she drawled.

Abruptly, Misty heard chatter echoing from the pool, which was just beyond the lobby. Her heart clenched and she absently reached a hand up to her hair, trying to flatten down the most scraggly bits of it.

"…and I was like, oh boy, don't hurt your brain with that line! I mean, like, really?"

The tinkling of laughter was heard, the doors opened, and Misty was face to face with her sisters. The scent of floral perfume immediately filled the air, the first sign Misty usually got that any of her sisters were close. If there wasn't high pitched chatter ringing off the hard tile of nearly every room first.

"Like, Misty!" Daisy squealed.

The three of them erupted into shrill and fussy sounds at a high enough frequency to make Pikachu grab his ears and pull them down. The girls hugged Misty all at once for only a moment before pulling away.

"Ew, Misty, your skin is, like, rough. What is that?" Lily asked, rubbing her fingers together with the residue.

"Oh," Misty blushed, "that's just salt from the sea wind. Sorry, we just got off the bo—"

"Misty, your hair!" Daisy gasped, looking scandalized. "What happened?"

"Well, we were caught in kind of a torrential downpo—"

Violet was next to interrupt. "Oh, Misty, those shoes! You have to take those off on the tile, like, right now."

"Okay, okay!"

"Hey, Misty, like, why are you back so soon?" Lily asked.

"Well…that's kind of—"

"Hold on, Lil," Violet interjected, "we're being, like, totally rude. Our little sister brought a guest!"

All attention turned to Phoebe, who looked completely unfazed by the babbling and the fussing. Daisy was the one to step forward. "Hi," she said, putting out her hand with a graceful smile, "I'm Daisy, and this is Violet, and this is Lily. We're Cerulean's Sensational Sisters. And you are?"

"My name's Phoebe," Phoebe said, meeting her with a smile. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise!"

"Okay, now I understand why you're here." Lily grinned. "Your friend, like, didn't believe how beautiful we were when you described us and so she had to see us in person!"

Misty's expression deadpanned. "No, Lily, actually that's not the reason."

"Then what is it, Misty?" Daisy asked.

"Uhh…"

Daisy had just paved the way for the moment of truth. Misty's hands immediately went clammy, despite how cold they were from the weather. She just needed to get up her nerve. Phoebe was there, putting her hand on Misty's shoulder in support. Ash and Pikachu were there. Noir was there…

Misty's eyes snapped to Noir for a second before remembering that she had the three sets of eyes of her sisters boring down on her. She then glanced over at Phoebe, who was also looking over towards Noir, and Misty realized then that Phoebe hadn't been touching her in support—she had been trying to subtly point out Noir's hidden presence in second plane. One speedy glance at Ash and Pikachu showed that they'd noticed as well and, from the looks of it, felt pretty awkward about it.

All at once, whatever nerve Misty had been building up popped like a balloon to a needle.

"Then I panicked and said that I would tell them later, I just needed to freshen up first." Misty groaned as she buried her face in her hands, refusing to look Brock in the eyes, even through a video phone.

Misty was in her room, talking on her personal video phone which she had lobbied for months to obtain from her sisters a couple of years before. They'd fought her on it, because she was already the only one to have her own room—her sisters still shared the long room they'd all fit in as kids. As Misty and her sisters began to butt heads more and more, everyone had agreed that Misty could move into their mother's room where all the furniture was too tall and nothing felt like it was hers. Was that just another thing that wouldn't have happened if Noir hadn't been influencing her thoughts about her sisters?

Nevertheless, as the price of video phones went down, she'd managed to earn a private one. Using the public ones usually ended up with one of her sisters sneaking up behind her and eavesdropping before realizing that whatever conversation Misty was having—usually with Brock—was too boring to hold their interest. She was seated in the wooden desk chair from a decades' old bedroom set and Ash and Pikachu were off to the side a few feet away from her.

"Which they went for immediately, because it's your sisters," Brock finished for her.

Another groan. "Right."

"So where's Noir now? Did you talk to her?"

Misty looked away again, a renegade blush suffusing her cheeks.

"You didn't talk to her?"

It was obvious from Brock's tone that he was chiding her. Ash came over and looked accusingly at Misty as well.

"Isn't that what I told you to do too?" he said.

Misty glared at him. "Oh, like it's so simple."

Ash looked at Pikachu and shrugged. "I don't see why not. You guys are best friends. It'll be fine."

"Hold on," Misty heard Brock's voice coming from the speakers. "Who are you talking to? Don't tell me you've replaced Noir already."

"This is Ash," Misty stated. When Brock's face continued to look blank, Misty realized that somehow in her last update to Brock she had completely forgotten to mention Ash. "He's a ghost that we've been hanging out with lately. And this," Misty plucked Pikachu off of Ash's shoulder, "is Pikachu."

Even though Brock obviously couldn't see, Misty held Pikachu up to the video phone and scratched at Pikachu's head before placing him down in her lap.

"Well, um, nice to meet you, Ash," Brock said, not knowing exactly where to look.

Ash took it in stride and said, "You too."

"He says you too," Misty echoed, acting as an intermediary.

Brock developed a pensive look on his face, rubbing his thumb and forefinger over his chin as he looked in the vague direction where Ash was. Suddenly, his face lit up with understanding. "Oh, back in Viridian, is he the ghost who—"

"Who saved me from those ghosts! Exactly," Misty interrupted.

Brock looked a slight bit taken aback by that, because what she had said for him hadn't been what he was planning to say at all. The one thing Brock really knew that happened in Viridian City was that she had called asking about the war. And she didn't need Ash hearing anything about that.

As Misty glanced back at Ash, though, he smiled with as much ignorance as one could hope for. "And from death by multiple elements today," he added.

"And from drowning, yes," Misty said with a breath of relief as Brock went along with her. "Though the lightning was really all Pikachu."

Ash frowned. "It was my idea, though."

Pikachu blew a raspberry in his vague direction and Ash's frown dissolved and he reached over Misty's shoulder to scratch Pikachu's ears playfully.

Brock, meanwhile, was smirking at her. Clearly she couldn't fool everybody. "So am I to understand that Ash thinks that you should talk to Noir as well?"

Misty frowned, refusing to answer. However, it was taken out of her hands when Ash suddenly switched from Pikachu's head to the top of Misty's skull, and jerked it up and down as if nodding in affirmation.

"Hey!"

Brock just laughed. "Well, then it's two against one, Misty. You've gotta talk to her. What else are you going to do? Never speak to her again? Is that really what you want?"

Misty groaned. "No, that's not what I want. I just…don't know what to say."

Finally some sympathy came back to Brock's face. "Misty, that's okay. I think, actually, all you need to do first is listen. You don't know her side of the story."

"You should just call her," Ash offered.

Misty began tensing her fingers in Pikachu's fur, the nervousness getting to her. "I could…"

"Remember, the longer you wait, the worse it'll be," Brock warned.

Misty cringed. "I know, I know."

"So do it now," Ash insisted.

Misty sighed, feeling beaten from all angles as even Pikachu began to paw at her chest, a supportive look on his face. She rolled her eyes. "You dumb boys."

"Is that a yes?" Brock asked.

"I guess it is," Misty spilled out before she could change her mind.

"Okay, just call me soon and tell me how it went. Besides, apparently we have a lot to catch up on if you're actually traveling with a ghost now."

Misty heard Ash laughing, but she ignored it and instead said, "Sure thing, Brock. Thanks for the advice," before turning off the phone.

"So that's Brock." Ash grinned. "Nice guy. You gonna tell him all about how awesome I am? Detail the times I've saved your life?"

Misty smiled easily, ignoring Ash's last few lines, and said, "Yeah, he's the best. Aside from just now, with you two ganging up on me."

Pikachu pawed at her.

"Sorry. You three." She glanced down at Pikachu. "You know that's only making it worse, right?"

Pikachu shrugged ambivalently and yawned on a high-pitched, "Chaa."

All at once, Misty noticed that Ash had bent over, his face a lot closer to hers and his eyes narrowed at her. "What?" she asked, her face flushing and the hairs on her arms standing up on end.

"I think you're stalling right now." He snatched Pikachu out of Misty's lap and took a step back. "We're leaving and you're going to call her. Otherwise I'm going to pick you up and fly you straight into the nearest Bug Type I can find."

A rogue shiver went down Misty's spine at the mere thought of it and before her body had even finished seizing, Ash and Pikachu had vanished from her room. She still heard the sound of the water on in the distance—Phoebe was taking a shower, actually freshening up, while Misty took her surreptitious phone call. Misty took in a deep breath. It was now or never.

Misty closed her eyes. She imagined Noir there in her bedroom, where the two of them had grown up together. Where they had played and gossiped and tried to master Noir's use of the planes. It was an easy image to procure, and when Misty opened her eyes, Noir was right there in front of her, a mess of expressions on her face.

Misty couldn't help the flurry of emotions that washed over her. She had expected to just be mad when she saw Noir. But first, she was hit with relief. All she wanted to do was stand up and hug Noir; she even felt like she could cry. However, even though that's what her heart was telling her, her brain reminded her to keep her distance. And so she did. Even still, she couldn't help cracking a small smile as she said, "Hi."

Noir's lips twitched, as though thinking about smiling back. "Bay."

With a deep breath to steel herself against any answer to the following question, Misty looked straight in Noir's fuchsia eyes and asked, "Care to tell me if you hate my sisters?"

Pokémon language couldn't be as complete as human language because of the finite number of sounds each Pokémon can make. But with a connection to a Pokémon, you could pick up on their feelings and fill in the blanks accordingly. So, Misty understood Noir's argument to be this: Misty's sisters had treated Misty with cruelty that Misty had done nothing to deserve. They had banded together and intentionally left Misty out of things. They'd left her to work the Gym almost singlehandedly.

Yes, Noir had always hated Misty's sisters, but it had been justified.

Misty listened, taking Brock's advice as Noir painted her picture of their lives. For the most part, it wasn't too different from what Misty had heard from Noir all throughout their lives, so she was inclined to believe that Noir wasn't lying.

"Okay, then. Noir, tell me: did you, or did you not want me to spend time with my sisters?"

Noir shook her head, not even trying to hide. Or maybe she thought there was nothing to hide. That there was nothing wrong with her stance.

"So you got in the way of me and my sisters being close," Misty said. "Even if it wasn't your strict intention, and even if we may not have ever been close anyway, you were happy to see us separate. Just because of a stupid grudge that you were born with."

Misty hated how her voice wavered. She hated how emotional she was getting. She hated that she had to be having this conversation with her best friend in the whole world.

It only took a few words from Noir, because Misty knew the answer was that simple. Noir had always been more than content—she had been ecstatic to have Misty all to herself, and her sisters nowhere close to them.

Misty looked down at her hands, shiny in the creases with sweat. She shook her head a little bit and pursed her lips. She felt Noir's eyes on her, begging to know what was to come of this. But Misty didn't even know.

"We're still friends," Misty said finally. She looked up and she saw visible relief on Noir's face, just like she knew she would. That was almost enough to make her crack a smile. But not quite. "But not first and foremost right now. Right now I need to see if there's any way to recover what could have been with my sisters."

Noir's face fell, which Misty had also known was going to happen. She wanted to look away so that she didn't have to see it, but she wanted to maintain a strong façade to hide the glass house encasing her emotions.

Misty took a deep breath to steady herself, because she knew that the last thing she had to say would be the hardest. "And even though I want us to be okay, I think it's best for all of us if you're not around for that."

The blow was crushing. Both to herself and to Noir. Still, Misty knew that Noir understood. Maybe Noir was a Pokémon that lacked the natural empathy that most other Pokémon seemed to have, but Misty held on to the fact that Noir knew her well enough to understand why she had to do this. At the very least, Misty held on to that belief with all that she had, because if she didn't have at least that much faith in Noir, their relationship would crumble right there on their childhood floor and be swept away before either could gather enough pieces to restore it.

Resigned, Noir nodded and began to float backwards and fade away. Before Misty even knew what she was doing, she stood up out of her chair and rushed towards Noir, crushing her in an all-consuming hug before she could vanish out of sight.

"I'm going to miss you," Misty managed tearfully.

"Bay, banette," Noir returned.

"I'll call you when it's time to come back."

"Bay nette."

"I promise."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door and Misty quickly released Noir out of habit and turned away from her and to the door, hastily wiping her eyes.

"Come in!" she called with false enthusiasm.

Daisy and Violet's faces appeared through the crack in the door, looking at Misty for a moment before opening the door widely and coming in. "Misty, it's pretty late," Violet said.

"Yeah, Lil's getting Phoebe some PJs right now," Daisy added.

"So, like, are you staying?"

Staying? The word sounded so permanent in Misty's mind. "What do you mean?" Misty asked, embarrassed by how high-pitched and thick her voice still was.

"Like, are you staying the night?" Violet clarified.

One glance out the nearly black window answered that question pretty easily. Misty was about to open her mouth when Daisy cut her off.

"No, wait, actually… are you going to, like, stay awhile?"

Misty had wanted to go off on her own. But so far, she had only managed to do so for two and a half weeks before ending up back at the Gym. And the second half of her journey, at least, had been exactly what she'd been dreaming of. She wasn't sure that she wanted to give that up in exchange for the monotony that she had just escaped from.

But still…she had to do this.

Misty nodded firmly. "I think so. At least a little while."

To Misty's surprise, both Daisy and Violet nodded. "Okay, great!" Violet bubbled. "You can start taking on Gym Battles again!"

Misty pursed her lips. "Right."

"Okay, see ya tomorrow, little sis!" Daisy said as the two of them turned on their heels to leave.

"Uh, actually!" Misty squeaked. Daisy and Violet turned back around. "We'll, uh, talk tomorrow, right?"

Daisy and Violet blinked at her. "Uh, sure," Daisy said. "That'd be nice."

Misty nodded, letting the tension that she didn't know she had out of her shoulders. "Okay. Good. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Misty closed the door behind them, latching it before resting her forehead against it and taking a deep breath. She then turned back around and noticed that it was starkly empty.

Noir had long since left.

A/N: I guess part of the reason why the Cinnabar chaps feel so old is because I remember the time and place of writing them so specifically, and from this chapter up until the arc I wrote in the 2020s, I don't think I have any specific memories like that. Even though this chapter has one line inspired by real life that tells me it was written only shortly after the previous, it feels much newer, in a strange way. The brain plays tricks on you. That said, I do remember some of the process of this chap. All the boat research that was definitely woefully surface-level, but hopefully enough for the sense of this chapter. And the surprise of Frillish evolving! That just came as I wrote it and I loved the sort of serendipity of that occurring. That's the magic of writing. And obviously, Pikachu fighting off the lightening is inspired by the Pikachu short that accompanies the 4th Pokemon movie where Pikachu and Elekid do that. I guess I just like this chapter because I love an action scene and I felt like everything came together so well in this one, including the AAML interactions.

I'm honestly a big fan of the storm scene. I love an action sequence. Not so much the rest of the chap, lol, but I'll let you know why later. Hope you liked it, though! Important stuff going down!