Chapter 45 - Collars and Darts
Amidst the chaos, Celeste's heart pounded.
After they arrived in the lapras cavern and got ambushed by the poachers, Lorelei took the lead. She left her friends under the care of Fractal, her own lapras, and confronted Ryder by herself. He revealed important information… or meaningless breadcrumbs. Celeste wasn't really sure. And then, after a lot of talking, he tried to attack her.
Ryder tried to get Powder.
Shots were fired, and a dart hit the transport pokémon's neck.
Before Celeste could react, Aria and Lorelei knocked Ryder into the freezing water. Lori then jumped to the shore, and soon her friend was battling the bigger, scarier poacher, Gozu. The other poachers—or Rockets, as they seemed to call themselves—had scattered around. Some were going after Lorelei's dewgong who was trying to rescue the captured lapras, and one was securing their other catch, a frigibax. Yet none were batting an eye over to Celeste and her friends.
What could a bunch of kids riding a groggy lapras could do, after all? Especially when said lapras was moving erratically, struggling to keep even a straight line.
"We need to get to the shore." It was Luan's voice that first cut through the tension. "Fractal can't carry us like this."
As Luan spoke, Rey was grappling to get onto the lapras' neck and get rid of the dart. Whenever the boy came close, however, Fractal would sway her head in painful, large motions. With concern, Celeste's eyes drifted to the other captured lapras on the side. Even though the net trapping them had been broken, they were still lethargic, neither trying to escape nor fight back.
That had to be where Fractal's condition was heading.
Suddenly, as Lorelei's mamoswine charged towards Gozu's aggron with a deafening roar, the whole cavern trembled. Feeling the urgency in the situation, Celeste took her slowpoke's pokéball and released the pokémon into the water before turning back to Luan.
"Let's have Pat and the psychics guiding Fractal," she said. "They can psychically pull her forward while Pat creates a stream to steer her on the water."
The air was heavy with silence, and tension mounted as Luan fidgeted with his pokéballs. Still, he somewhat recomposed himself and commanded his pokémon to help. Even Olga's vanillite, who'd been protectively hovering around Rey, joined in by blowing an icy wind over Fractal's back.
Slowly, they moved to what seemed like safer shores, and stepped on the ground just as the lapras screeched and submerged.
She'd be safe underwater… right?
Celeste's eyes lingered on the water for a moment, until Aria poked her cheek, which jolted her back to reality, and made her aware of Rey staring right back at her.
"Well?" the boy said, crossing his arms.
"What?" she muttered.
"Do we join Lori in battle?"
"Against that aggron?" Celeste blinked, looking towards where Lorelei and Gozu were fighting, but her focus quickly shifted to something else. In a corner, not too far from them, one of the poachers, a young woman with a million freckles on her face, was directing her weepinbell to load the frigibax's cage onto a cart.
The little dragon looked terrified.
Celeste bit her lower lip. "I've got something better," she began. "Let's split up. Lori's dewgong is already handling the poachers who are after the other lapras, but they're vulnerable. Luan—"
"Luan can use his psychics to protect them," Rey smirked, interrupting Celeste. "In the meantime, I can—"
"I'm going after the frigibax," Celeste asserted back, her voice overpowering Rey's. "You go help Luan."
The silver-haired trainer scoffed. "And leave you to fumble an important rescue?"
Not waiting for an answer, Rey released his eevee, Mag, with a proud grin on his lips. Watching him, Celeste puffed some air out of her mouth and rolled her eyes.
Unfortunately, though, Aria was not doing the silently annoyed act. Immediately, the girl's eevee scurried down from her trainer's shoulder to where her rival was and puffed out her chest to appear more imposing.
Like a goddam piplup.
Mag hissed at Aria. Aria hissed back. Rey clicked his tongue.
Both trainer's and their pokémon could—and in different circumstances would—argue right away. Luckily, they had the good sense to accept they were both going to help the frigibax and, in silent agreement, decided to cooperate instead.
Luan simply sighed.
—*—*—
They'd almost got to the frigibax when the cave shook violently and rocks cascaded down from the opening in the ceiling.
Celeste couldn't help but scream in surprise as a rock narrowly missed her, and, despite her better judgement, she turned to Rey for support. His face had gone pale, and his trembling hands balled into fists as smaller rocks continued to pelt down around them.
That was a dangerous situation turned a lot worse.
"We are good for now," Rey said, looking at the pokémon by them. His mother's vanillite, his eevee walking by Aria and Pat, lumbering just behind. "Can't your slowpoke put up a barrier?"
Celeste shook her head, cursing herself for never getting the Protect TM she'd won in the Snowflake Cup.
That would have come in handy.
Taking cover behind a stack of crates, the trainers paused and took a deep breath. Just a short distance away, the Team Rocket grunt they were after was engrossed in inspecting the contents of the frigibax cage, while her weepinbell nervously stared to the sides.
"It's four of us against one," Celeste whispered, relieved that they had gone unnoticed. "I think we could gang up on them… Rey?"
Beside her, the boy paid no attention to any of her words. He'd just reached into one crate, retrieving a handful of small darts. Two were marked with a red label, reading BX0F12, and one was blue, labelled TX82.
"Fractal was shot with the blue one," Rey whispered, locking eyes with Celeste. His expression hinted at some sort of understanding, but there was no time for explanations as the sound of squeaking wheels echoed.
The poacher was leaving with the frigibax.
"Ganging up, you said?" Rey asked, springing up. Neither of the teens needed further prompting. "Mag, use Bite!"
"Join in, Aria!" Celeste commanded, following into action as they closed in on the cage.
Rey's eevee dashed ahead, her teeth crackling with dark energy as it sank them into one of the grass-type leaves. When Aria reached the scene, she delivered a Quick Attack, causing Mag's teeth to shred through the plant that was launched towards a nearby rock.
Aria puffed her chest again, this time with pride, but Mag began barking at her in frustration.
"Seriously, Celeste? Make your eevee useful or step aside," Rey shouted, coming to a halt next to the two normal-types.
"Aria's helping!" Celeste spat back, but her eyes darted to the angry poacher by the cage. "Pat… um… can you put her to sleep?"
They were past the point where they cared if they were attacking a human… right?
"Helping who?" Rey waved his hands, barely paying attention to the poacher herself.
"You? The frigibax? Lori? Honestly, take your pick." Between puffs of air, the girl looked at the small frigibax, whose eyes were swelling with tears, and felt her heart clench. The only thing between her and the cage was the poacher "Pat, come on!"
"You're being so—" Rey's voice trailed off as he noticed something.
A loud, croaky noise reverberated through the cave. While they argued, the weepinbell had regained its footing and began to expel some noxious powder. It was a disconcerting sight, watching the pitcher plant twist and release the attack.
"That is Poison Powder," Rey stepped back immediately, covering his face.
Celeste's eyes widened at the mention of poison, but her body remained frozen. She could only watch in horror as the cloud of dangerous spores drifted toward the two eevee.
"Mag, finish it off before the poison knocks you out," Rey commanded with determination. Although his words were resolute, his attention was divided. Celeste felt him pulling her back, and she was grateful when he hastily wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose. She blinked and clung to it for protection.
As the spore cloud dissipated around them, she could see Aria appearing dazed with laboured breaths and drooping eyelids.
She could see Aria was poisoned.
Mag, who looked equally affected, didn't stop battling, though. Nor did her trainer. Rey's eevee lunged forward, almost getting to the weepinbell, but a well-timed razor leaf made the pokémon dodge and narrowly avoid the strike.
"Don't waste time defending or dodging," the boy commanded, his tone devoid of his usual charm and emotion, resembling his mother. "Remember, you're on a timer."
Celeste opened her mouth and felt her lips dry. "They are poisoned."
"Yeah, so?"
"They are hurting."
Rey turned to her, raising his eyebrows. "Don't come to a fight if you and your pokémon aren't ready to get hurt. Right now, you're just getting in the way."
The cave shook once more and Celeste trembled along with it.
Then reality snapped back into focus when Celeste realised the poacher had unleashed two more pokémon: a drowzee and a gloom. Both terrifying and both wriggling leaves and arms menacingly toward her and Pat.
It could never be easy, could it?
The girl struggled to find her voice and issue a command, her grip tightening on both Aria's pokéball and Powder's. She was afraid to release the vulpix near Team Rocket, and she wasn't sure she could let Aria keep on fighting both the battle and the poison.
"Pat…" Celeste began, her indecision hanging heavily in the air. Seconds could be a lifetime in a battle, and hesitation a death sentence.
This was a lesson she knew she'd carry with her in the future.
But in that very moment, Celeste blinked, and sharp leaves sliced through her arms like razors.
She cried out, and a fresh barrage of leaves aimed at her collided with the stars from Aria's Swift Attack, resulting in small explosions that blew her back to the ground. Without any need for a command, her eevee then blurred toward the gloom with a Quick Attack, followed closely by Pat's Water Gun.
"Aria?"
Poisoned but not out of the fight by a mile, her eevee smirked and cast a confident glance back at her trainer. Aria had always been the brave one.
"Are you okay to… to fight before the poison takes over?" Celeste's words were hesitant and fractured, but Aria barked in response, as if dismissing any concern.
With a deep breath, the young trainer rose to her feet, ignoring the stinging sensation in her arm. She shot a determined grin back at her pokémon and nodded confidently.
If they were brave, she'd be brave too.
"Alright then…" Celeste began, scanning for their enemy. The gloom was some distance away, but the drowzee was closing in. "Aria, Swift the hell out of that psychic. Pat, I need you to do something different. Focus on your psychic abilities. You got to prevent it from using Hypnosis or Confusion, understand? It could be Disable or whatever you think will work. I know you can figure it out."
Beside Celeste, Rey couldn't help but chuckle. "Maybe there's hope for you yet."
His gaze then briefly flicked to her arm, recognising the injury, but he shrugged it off as he reached for another pokéball—his capsakid, no doubt.
"Moody…" he began, but it was the vanillite that dashed forward to join the battle instead.
"Guess he doesn't want to be on the sidelines any longer," Celeste said, glancing at Rey. 'Think you can battle with your mum's pokémon?"
As the air settled, the girl couldn't help but to focus her attention on the vanillite charging toward the gloom. The grass/poison-type was a nightmarish sight. Its smooth purple body was laced with darker veins that pulsed and throbbed, clearly nourishing the ominous flower atop its head. The red, polka-dotted flower was the textbook description of poisonous. Yet, what was even more concerning was the way it appeared inflated, as if it was storing venom for an upcoming attack.
Rey didn't get the chance to decide whether he could command his mother's pokémon or not, and Celeste never learned what move the gloom was preparing for. The vanillite reached his opponent and violently unleashed a barrage of sharp Icicle Spears, impaling the plant against a rock.
"I guess he can hold his own," Rey said, slightly cringing at the sight before them.
Celeste nodded, her eyes never bulging.
One of the icy spears had pierced through the gloom's bulb, causing black, corrosive liquid to ooze from the wound. This substance not only ate away at the solid ice but also mixed with the thick drool that dripped from the pokémon's mouth, creating a putrid odour that was reminiscent of raw meat and death.
However, the worst part of the scene was yet to come.
Another spear had impaled the pokémon's stubby arms, causing green sap to bleed through. Oddly, the grass-type seemed unfazed, continuing to advance with a big, goofy smile while allowing the ice to cut through its body.
Fortunately, the vanillite seemed undeterred, relentlessly tearing into its opponent.
Celeste shook her head. She had her own pokémon to help.
Or so she thought.
Around the drowzee, Aria's stars had inexplicably halted, suspended in mid-air by an invisible force that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Aria herself struggled to push through, while Pat and his psychic opponent engaged in an intense, silent… staring match?
Celeste had no idea what sort of command to give to her pokémon. "Um… keep going, Pat!"
Before she could come up with something else, her attention shifted to the frigibax. The poacher was attempting to make a getaway, clutching the cage in her arms.
"Oh, no, you won't," Celeste blurted out, deciding to tackle the woman herself.
They both tumbled to the ground, and the cage crashed down with them, causing the small dragon inside to burst into a piercing cry.
Yet Celeste couldn't help but grin.
The poacher was down, and in her book, that was a victory.
And then, from behind them, a Hyper Beam was fired.
—*—*—
The world around Celeste buzzed and swirled as she blinked, her eyes gradually adjusting to the aftermath of the blinding flash of light. She instinctively brought her hand to her ears, rubbing them to clear the disorienting sensation. The buzzing gradually gave way to muffled yells and thumps.
"Get…off…way."
"Fuck it. Mag!"
"…don't… crates…"
Regaining her focus, Celeste realised the poacher she had tackled was no longer in sight, and her injured arm was throbbing painfully. She resisted the urge to inspect the wound and instead started scanning her surroundings. Through the dust and swirling snow, she could make out a few shadows in motion, and voices began to grow clearer.
"Vanillite, Mag is down. Are you okay?"
"…Plan…art. Br…collar."
"…Over, Gozu."
Lori!
Celeste gasped, recognising the last voice. As she followed the sound, she noticed that the putrid stench from the gloom had been replaced by the scent of burned metal. Not too far from where she stood, she saw the aggron lying motionless, emitting smoke. Gozu, steadily marching towards his pokémon, appeared composed, but so did Lorelei. She stood by her mamoswine, who had very visible bruises, and panted heavily, but also roared protectively, guarding her trainer.
The girl rubbed her ears again.
"… nothing else you can do." Lori's voice came through, unwavering, as her gaze remained locked on her adversary.
Around her, other voices were becoming more clear too.
"Keep the barrier up! Lulu, be on the lookout for falling rocks!"
"… ed… Th… ed… art."
"Of course she took care of that weepinbell… did you ever doubt she would?"
A wave of relief washed over Celeste as she recognised the voices of Lori, Luan, and Rey. Now all she had to do was find…
"Aria!" she called out, spotting her eevee lying near the drowzee, which was now bleeding from multiple cuts. Aria's Swift had evidently worked in the end, but the poison had also run its course.
Kneeling by her pokémon, the trainer gently tapped a pokéball on her eevee's head and whispered a few words of gratitude. A few inches away from the drowzee, she also found Pat, who was snoring loudly, despite having his eyes half opened.
Celeste let out a weak chuckle.
Had her slowpoke concentrated so hard he fell asleep with his eyes open?
"Thanks for holding that drowzee away for so long," she whispered, recalling Pat to his to his ball.
Further ahead, things were looking bleak for the poachers. Not far from where Celeste stood, she saw the unconscious weepinbell, and a trail of brown leaves scattered behind it led to where the gloom… lay?
The poison plant had lost an arm and was still bleeding out a mixture of sap and toxins, but it was motionless now. Its feet dangled, and an ice spear skewered it through the forehead, pinning it against the half-destroyed cart from earlier.
Celeste felt her chest tighten. Plants could regenerate… right?
Rey, his capsakid, and vanillite were the next group Celeste spotted. The Ice-type was blowing some frosty wind on the frigibax cage and the grass-type was trying to cut the frozen cage bars with sharp leaves. The little dragon hadn't stopped crying, but they could soothe it later, once it was out.
Then it hit her. "Did… we win?"
By the water, Luan continued his efforts to protect both people and pokémon from falling rocks, while the dewgong had mostly dealt with the two poachers who had been attacking the lapras.
"We won!" Celeste repeated, her breath coming in quick bursts.
As the words left her mouth, she felt her lips twitching upward. She hurried over to where Rey was, her grin growing wider by the second, and released Powder.
"Mind helping vanillite with the cage?" the girl asked her vulpix. Then, turning to Rey, she added, "Do you think we can bring those poachers to the police with us? It would help clear Lori, Topaz, and me of any charges."
Rey glanced to Celeste and then back to the two poachers by Lori's dewgong. "I suppose," he shrugged. "I don't think vanillite needs any help from your pokémon."
Rolling her eyes, Celeste ignored the comment. "What happened to the weepinbell?"
"Mag took care of it, obviously." Rey crossed his arms. "I'm serious, Celeste. These people are after your vulpix. You should recall her."
"It's fine." Celeste grinned. "Look around. We won. It's safe."
The little vulpix regarded her trainer with a puzzled expression, tilting her head before letting out a shrill cry that made Celeste giggle.
Relief could be truly blinding sometimes.
"Sorry you missed most of the action," the girl said, kneeling by her pokémon and petting her. "I thought you'd be in too much danger. See the poachers, they—"
Before Celeste could finish her sentence, a loud squeak echoed through the cavern. The capsakid and vanillite had successfully broken the lock, and the small frigibax was finally free. Powder cast a glance at the cage, her expression seemingly irritated, and Celeste felt like giggling again.
This time, however, laughter other than her own pierced the air. Her arm stung and her bones froze as she recognised it. Twisted and deranged, even more so than usual, the sound of Ryder's laugh was suffocating.
By one of the cave openings, the head of that group of poachers stood. He was drenched, his face pallid, and his eyes bulging with red veins. His body quivered, not from the cold, but from that maniacal, unending laugh.
Beside him, the woman Celeste had tackled held a dart gun and some collars. They were flanked by two new Rockets, each clutching pokéballs in one hand and a harpoon with a net in the other.
"Did you honestly believe you'd leave this place with my catch?" Ryder hissed through clenched jaws, his words coming out as angry, breathy whispers.
Ryder trembled with amusement, relishing the attention he was now receiving. His grin widened with each passing moment as he raised a hand, pointing toward the lapras that Luan had been protecting.
Two loud bursts from harpoons rang out, and the man rapidly released their pokémon for support. A weezing materialised beside Ryder, and an ariados began crawling around as soon as it was out, further ahead.
"Sorbet," Lori's voice thundered, and her dewgong, whose tail was already gleaming with a metallic shine, wasted no time. With a swift plunge into the water and an equally rapid ascent, Sorbet was ready to cut down as many nets as needed. However, just as he resurfaced, a third red pokéball beam shot toward the water and took the form of a seaking, blocking the ice-type's path.
Ryder's maniacal laughter grew even louder. "Not so easy, is it?" he taunted, snatching both the dart gun and a collar from the woman's grasp.
"Aurora, use Ice Shard!" Lori commanded her mamoswine, pointing toward Ryder. But the weezing jumped in the way, spewing a thick black smoke.
"Shit…" Celeste heard Rey mutter beside her. His tone turned more aggressive as he barked a series of commands to his capsakid.
Uncertain, the girl glanced at her vulpix. She shouldn't have Powder out, but without her, they were both vulnerable.
"You'd get mad if I called you back, wouldn't you?" she asked her pokémon with a sigh. "Stay close to me at all times, okay?" Celeste added, watching her pokémon give a determined nod before vanishing into the spreading smoke.
Feeling her vulpix blush on her leg, the girl took a cautious step forward, but a sense of urgency washed over her as she heard a shot. They would be too late and exposed if they stumbled blindly through that smoke.
"Can you disperse it with Powder Snow?" Celeste suddenly suggested. "Vanillite, if you're here, help Powder out with Icy Wind. If both of you focus on the wind part of the move, maybe we can clear the smoke… Rey?"
"I'm here," the boy replied, reaching for his friend's hand. As one of the lapras began wailing desperately, he tightened his grip. "Maybe rush with those moves?"
Within moments, the wind around them intensified and pushed the smoke away, slowly clearing the air. Unfortunately, as a result, the biting cold became even more unbearable, causing Celeste's injured arm to throb with pain.
She didn't have time to dwell on it for very long, though.
In the water, Lori's lapras had resurfaced, appearing refreshed and ready to battle, and her dewgong was engaged in a Horn Attack duel with the seaking. Further back, another lapras, the light blue one Celeste had met during her first visit to the cave, cried out in agony. Trapped beneath a net with a red dart lodged in its neck, it continued to wail as Ryder forcefully attempted to fasten a collar around its throat.
"I knew it…" Rey said with his jaw clenching. He pointed towards Ryder and simply said. "Moody, don't worry about the pokémon. Attack that human."
"The red dart…?" Celeste said slowly, watching as the weezing blocked Moody's moves. They needed to get closer.
"The pokémon aren't aggressive because of the collars," Rey continued. "It's because of the darts… It makes sense, doesn't it?"
Celeste pursed her lips in thought. "If they have something to make pokémon angry, they must have something to calm them down too…"
"Yeah," Rey agreed, reaching into his pocket to retrieve the red darts he had picked up earlier. "If the blue darts are tranquilisers, then the red ones must be the opposite of that…" He looked ahead, eyes resting on the wailing lapras. "Maybe it sounds bad, but I think we need to hit the lapras with the blue dart before Ryder does whatever he's planning."
Before Celeste could respond, their deranged opponent released another piercing laugh. He had secured a collar on one lapras and was now aiming his dart gun at another. Luan was the closest to him, but the boy remained focused on shielding the group from falling rocks and couldn't intervene.
"Gotta be brave too…" the girl muttered, earning a puzzled look from Rey. "Try to help the lapras with the collar!" she blurted out, signalling for Powder to follow as she sprinted toward Ryder.
With a surge of adrenaline, she leaped over rocks and dashed past the weezing, barely flinching as she did so.
"Hey asshole," she yelled, gesturing for Powder to freeze things. "Heard you wanted to catch a vulpix?"
From the bottom of her heart, Celeste hoped her plan wouldn't backfire. And for a moment, as she watched incredibly large chunks of ice being hurled in Ryder's direction, that hope actually grew.
But Ryder just continued to laugh, getting louder and louder. He lowered his dart gun and somehow dodged the icy assault. The ice hit the already agitated lapras with a collar instead, causing it to thrash wildly and unleash rainbow-coloured beams from its mouth.
"Sh—" Celeste began, but before she could react, Luan's Munna flew over and erected a protective barrier around her and Powder just in time to shield them from the incoming Aurora Beam.
"Bad call, kid," Ryder snarled, turning his attention toward Luan. The boy looked terrified, but as Ryder moved closer, the newly collared lapras went fully berserk, dragging him and the net back with its erratic movements.
Ryder groaned, more veins bulging around his eyes as he picked up the dart gun again. However, the collared lapras was now free and completely out of control. The poacher couldn't get a clear shot as the pokémon thrashed about wildly, unleashing all sorts of hell and cries of agony.
Fractal, who had been assisting Rey and Lori in dealing with the ariados, halted in her tracks as she heard the lapras's cries once again.
"Go," Lori instructed her pokémon, then gestured for the tired mamoswine to rejoin the battle.
The situation was spiralling back into chaos… and Ryder kept fucking laughing.
In the water, Fractal swiftly swam back to the other lapras. Her body emitted a mystical green glow, and she began to sing a soothing melody while Life Dew formed above her horn. However, before any of these moves could take effect, sticky white strands of webbing shot toward the water-type. The mamoswine was too slow to intervene in time, and both vanillite and Rey's capsakid were busy dealing with the weezing, which left the ariados free.
The bug pokémon crawled along the cave walls, using its web to seal Fractal's mouth and restrict her movements.
"She was trying to sing…" Celeste muttered, widening her eyes. "Luan!" she called out, with a new idea flashing in her mind. "Tell your pokémon to put the lapras to sleep. That should calm it down."
Luan appeared flustered, seemingly nervous. In an attempt to snap him back to action, Celeste started moving toward her friend, but her path was abruptly blocked by Gozu.
"I remember you," the hulking man growled in a gruff voice, narrowing his eyes and clenching his teeth. "When Ryder said there was a kid with an Ice vulpix… I didn't expect it to be the same kid."
Celeste scrambled to her feet, glaring defiantly at the man she had encountered months ago on Mount Lanakila. Powder, standing by her side, seemed to share in her trainer's dislike, although she couldn't possibly remember Gozu.
"Re-ready to beat you any time," Celeste tried to look imposing, which came out rather pathetic.
The man scoffed. "That spunk is new…"
Powder growled with anger, and Celeste crouched beside her pokémon, shielding her protectively. The poacher with the weezing joined Gozu, and Rey followed closely behind, with his capsakid and the vanillite taking up defensive positions.
Finally, Luan approached as well. But so did Ryder.
Neither of them fought, though. While Ryder made his way to Gozu's side, Luan commanded his pokémon to shield everyone—friend and foe alike—from a new onslaught of falling rocks. He wiped away sweat from his brow and surveyed the situation with anxious eyes. The rampaging lapras was launching a relentless barrage of attacks, causing the cave's structural integrity to deteriorate. His pokémon could only shield them for so long.
"G-Guys, we need to stop the lapras…" Luan stammered, struggling to maintain a composed voice.
The lapras cried louder as all of them stood still, not daring to attack or step away. Then, one last Aurora Beam struck a wall, creating a new passage leading deeper into the cave system.
The entire cavern shook violently as the lapras kept crying and Luan's face drained of colour.
And then it stopped.
The rampaging lapras vanished into the passage it had opened, and a hush fell over the cave.
"That lapras," Luan said, his gaze fixed on his two psychics. "M-my Munna says it was crying for… for Articuno!"
A/N:
Been a while, life was busy past month, but I hope you enjoy this chapter :)
Hopefully the next one will come A LOT faster.
NEXT CHAPTER: In you I Trust