The morning following the storm over a certain island in the Seafoam Archipelago Islands is bright and cheery, if not a little wet. It’s one of the smaller islands, but it has the most variety in its landscape, and surprisingly there isn’t a single hotel or tourist resort marring its peaceful beach for as far as the eye can see.
    Misty doesn’t take much comfort in that.
    “Marooned on an uninhabited island…” she sighs, trying to spot any kind of human activity without straying too far from her campsite—Togepi and James are both waiting there for her, after all. “Is this how I’m going to spend the rest of my life??”
    She wrings out her tank top for maybe the fiftieth time since she regained consciousness. “Even if I don’t find any people, PLEASE let my clothes dry faster!!” she grumbles.
    A soft groan rises from the small camp, drawing Misty’s attention. She’s relieved to see James, who had been stranded unconscious not too far away from where she had been beached, finally returning to the land of the living. Togepi, next to him, rouses as well, awakened by his moan.
    James’ eyes flutter open to behold a worried but relieved Misty hovering overhead. “Are you okay?” she asks rhetorically, smiling in relief. “I was so scared you wouldn’t wake up!!”
    He coughs violently for a moment in response. “I think I’ll live,” he croaks once the fit has run its course, sitting up. Misty kneels beside him, and Togepi brrrriiii’s worriedly, waddling up to his lap. He smiles down at him, but makes no other motion, and Misty picks the baby Pokémon up.
    “So, how do you feel?” she queries, honestly concerned, once Togepi’s in her arms. “Faris’ Dragonair and your bag were beached with you; I sent Utena into the ocean to go for help. If you want to change out of those wet clothes, the stuff in your bag is still dry, miraculously. Even that book of yours.”
    James shakes his head slowly, trying to hush the roar of blood in his ears. “Thanks,” he mutters. “Ugh.. I don’t feel too good.” His stomach growls, as if to accentuate the point.
    Misty giggles a little. “I know how you feel…” she smiles. “But you’d better change soon. I didn’t see anything worth eating on the beach, but there’s a forest in the distance, and we might be able to find something there.”
    He smiles at her, sincerely. “Thanks, Misty.”
    She blushes slightly. “No, it’s no problem.”
 

    “STARR! Come on!”
    Ash shakes Starr a little harder, but the still-out-of-it-since-washing-up-on-the-beach, waterlogged former Rocket makes no reply...except to twitch her pinky finger a little.
    However, Ash is ready to take anything as a good sign now and shakes her harder. “Starr! Please! Wake up, come on, wake up...” he pleads.
    Starr’s eyelids flick once, then her bright emerald-green eyes open wide. “Huh...”
    Ash sighs in relief. “Geez, don’t do that! Are you okay? I was so worried...”
    Starr sits up slowly, holding a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. “Lovely weather. I enjoy the fact that it’s decided to clear up now instead of an hour ago when we needed it.”
    “Three hours.”
    Starr’s eyes go huge with a nearly audible ZING.
    “THREE HOURS? I’ve been zonked for that long??”
    “Almost,” Ash affirms. “I was really scared you weren’t gonna get up at all...if I knew where Pikachu was I would’ve had her shock you awake,” he adds with an evil grin.
    “Ha ha ha,” Starr says. “Wait...you can’t find Pikachu?”
    Ash shakes his head. “I lost track of her in the storm...I hope she’s okay. Raichu isn’t here either...”
    “What about everyone else?” Starr asks. She pulls her Pokéballs from her belt, where they all managed to stick on. Yes, Vulpix is around...so is the rest of her team, except....
    “Hey, where’s Wartortle?”
    “Twor?”
    Starr turns.
    Wartortle is standing behind her; a little water drips onto its chin.
    “Wartortle, what are you ACKPTH!!!”
    At that moment Wartortle decides to let loose with the water gun he’s been building up. As does Squirtle, standing on the other side of her. For about five seconds straight, poor Starr is drenched by two freezing cold jets of water until the turtles realize what’s going on and quit it.
    An again-soggy Starr glowers at Ash, who puts a hand on the back of his neck.
    “Heh heh heh...I told them to splash cold water on you if you didn’t, you know, get up soon...heeeehhh...”
    Starr shakes her head, splashing Ash and getting him almost as wet as she is. When she finishes, the cherry spikes of her hair are in their usual state of slightly messy kawaiiness.
    “It’s okay. I didn’t know you cared that much about me. I did, after all, try to thieve your Pikachu,” she remarks.
    “That was when you were still in Team Rocket,” Ash shrugs, making a weird face and taking in a funny voice as he mentions Starr’s former employer.
    Starr snickers. “Heh heh. I don’t know why I even stayed so long. I mean, my very first mission, James knocked me off that balcony and I landed on Faris’ mother’s pointy-ass shoes. The second mission required me to be meaner than I can possibly get, and the third one was really just Giovanni sending us off to do jack-squat so Faris could get Mewtwo...I’m glad Jessie and James and Faris are out. I was only staying because they were there.”
    “I wonder where everyone else is, speaking of those three,” Ash remarks. “It looks like just us on this whole island...and I don’t even know how big it is. I wanted to explore, but I didn’t wanna leave you alone in case you woke up.”
    Starr stands up and stretches. Her T-shirt has already dried out in the bright island sunshine. “Much as it’d be fun to stay here and work on a tan, I think exploring would be better. Maybe someone else got washed up here, or swam over.” She pulls off one sneaker and empties out the rest of the water. “Who knows, we might even find some new kinds of Pokémon, or something.”
    Ash’s face lights up. “COOL!”
    Starr sweatdrops. “I think I may have just made a mistake telling him that,” she says to Squirtle and Wartortle.
    Both water turtles nod vehemently.
    Ash pulls out his Pokédex from the inside pocket of his vest. Fortunately, said electronic picture book is waterproof.
    “There’s probably all kinds of great Pokémon on these islands! And we’ll be the first to see them and capture them!!! WOW! This’ll be GREAT!!!”
    Humming a victorious little song, Ash strides confidently off into the brush.
    “Hey, wait up, Ash!” Starr yells, jogging after the again-carried-away trainer. As an afterthought, she leaves her hair tie on the beach. If anyone comes by, they’ll know she was here. In front of the scrunchie, she draws an arrow pointing into the woods, towards a small path.
    THEN she charges after Ash.
 

    “Ugh.”
    Meowth opens his eyes to a very offending bright morning.
    “After what I went through last night,” he spits, “and NOW it decides to be sunny and cheerful?! What a crock!!”
    <Would you rather it still be storming?>
    “Huh?” Meowth looks to his side to see Batts. “What’re you doin’ here?”
    <Surviving,> is his simplistic answer. <I do not know where Pikachu or Raichu are. You must have fallen off.>
    Meowth spits out some ocean water. “Yeah, I remember something like that,” he grumbles. “So what’re we gonna do?”
    <The answer should be obvious,> Batts replies. <We search for the others.>
    “But we don’t know where t’start lookin’!” Meowth protests, climbing onto his feet. “They could be on the other side of the world, for all we know!”
    <That is highly unlikely,> Batts tells him. <My guess is that all of us landed on this same beach. If we just travel along the shore, we should eventually find one of our lost friends.>
 Meowth makes a face. “Ugh.”
    <That was how I found you,> Batts rebuts.
    The kitty Pokémon sighs. “Okay, I ain’t got any brighter ideas, so let’s go wit’ your plan.” He takes a look around. “So, um…where do we start?”
    <To the east,> Batts replies. <I came from the west. You were the first one I found.>
    Meowth shrugs. “Awright.”
 

    “Mmmphhph…” Jessie opens her eyes to the sight of a virtually cloudless blue sky, with dew decorating the grass around her and birds singing cheerfully.
    She closes her eyes. She doesn’t want to look at something so disgustingly happy, not when her life is a wreck.
    “Vaporeon?”
    Her eyes snap open and she turns her head to the side. What Jessie sees there is a Vaporeon lying next to her, worriedly scrutinizing her.
    “Leave me alone,” she snaps crabbily. “I don’t want you around.”
    “Por…” Umi murmurs, hurt.
    “Get lost!!” Jessie snarls, heaving an arm at the bubble-jet Pokémon. Although her aim is true and Umi cries out in pain, she still doesn’t leave.
    Jessie’s at the end of her patience. She wants to sulk alone, without any of Faris’ stupid pets around. She climbs to her feet and takes a look at her surroundings.
    To her right, there’s a rich, verdant forest alive with creatures. To her left, there’s a beautiful grassy field that drops off into a cliff, which Jessie suspects leads down to a horrible death among the jagged rocks and saltwater ocean.
    Jessie heads towards her left. Umi follows closely.
    “Leave me alone!” she snarls, kicking at the water Pokémon. This time, though, Umi expects it and dodges out of the way. Jessie gives up and just fumes all the way to the edge of the cliff.
    She stops just in front of it. She was right. A thousand yards, maybe, straight down; a sheer drop onto rocky crags and unforgiving surf.
    Jessie lies down, gazing down into the alluring sight. Umi regards her curiously.
    “If I were to jump down there…” she murmurs to herself, smiling, “…would anyone care? Would anyone even notice that I was gone?” She runs a hand through her loose hair, still damp from the storm. “And if anyone did, would they remember me?” A tear runs down her cheek, but she doesn’t notice. “Then again, why would anyone care if I died…I’m not important to anyone. I’ve never been of any use to anyone; I was a fool to think anybody ever cared about me. Who’d want to bother with a stupid white-trash bitch like me? I’m so completely worthless….”
    Tears flowing freely down her cheeks, Jessie stands and lets the wind toss her hair aside. She can’t remember the last time she left it loose like this… She pushes her bangs out of her eyes. When they’re blown back into her face, Jessie gives up and simply closes her eyes.
    A strange sense of calm fills her body. ‘Right…no one cares about me…’ she thinks, finally grabbing onto some measure of peace. ‘…so it doesn’t matter if I kill myself here. I’m nothing to anyone… so I don’t need to stay in a place like this......’
    Jessie takes a step into nothingness and lets herself lean forward.
    “JESSIE, STOP!!!” a male voice screams.
    Startled, Jessie manages to turn around to see who it is—Brock—before slipping over the edge.
    Brock’s there in an instant. He and Umi have a tight grip on Jessie’s ankle; a split-second later and she would have slipped out of their grasps.
    “What were you thinking, Jessie!?!” Brock yells down at her as he and the water Pokémon begin to heave her back onto dry land.
    “Nobody cares about me!!” she snaps back, the tears starting again. “So it shouldn’t matter if I live or die! Let go of me! I’m in charge of my own life, and I want to end it!! Let GO!!!” She kicks at them with her free foot, but Brock just grabs that foot too.
    Jessie gives up and lets him drag her back up. Next time, she’ll just have to be quicker about it…
    For the most part, the journey to Brock’s campsite is a quiet one, but once he sits her down and starts cooking, he starts talking, much to Jessie’s annoyance.
    “That was a foolish thing to do,” he scolds her severely while cooking breakfast. “Killing yourself wouldn’t have made anything any easier!!”
    Jessie nods, not really listening. She doesn’t really care what he has to say. He probably just doesn’t want her blood on his hands. Stupid selfish jerk. Next time, she’ll have to try to make it bloody. Maybe slit her wrists. That’ll teach him.
    “Are you listening to me!?! JESSIE!!”
    “Yeah, whatever,” she replies monotone.
    Brock sighs heavily. “Here,” he says, handing her a bowl filled with steaming stew. She glances over at it, then gives him a questioning glance. “You need something to eat,” he clarifies. “C’mon, take it. You might feel better with something warm in your stomach.”
    “I doubt it,” she mutters, but she takes the bowl anyway. Brock serves himself a bowl of bubbling stew from the makeshift pot, warm coals still burning underneath, and gives Umi a dish of the brew.
    They eat their meal in silence.
    When Jessie finishes, she places the empty bowl on the grass to her right. “Why’d you bother to save me?” she asks glumly. “I know you don’t like me. Nobody likes me, so what do I have to live for?”
    “That’s not true!!” Brock insists. “You have a lot to live for, Jessie!”
    “Like what?” she snaps sharply. “I have no friends, no family, nothing to fall back onto. My name is dirt at Team Rocket, so nobody’s going to help me there. And I’m marooned on a deserted island with a stupid jerk who never even opens his eyes!! WHAT do I have to live for!? You should have just let me drop, that’d be one less annoying Rocket to get in your way!!”
    “Get OVER yourself!!” Brock yells, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a little. “What happened to the old Jessie, who never let anything dominate her fighting spirit!?”
    “She disappeared!!” Jessie snarls back.
    “Well then, LOOK for her!” he demands. “Find her, and bring her back!! I’d rather have Persistent Jessie around than Depressed Jessie!”
    Jessie shoves Brock away. “You can’t tell me what to do,” she growls.
    “If you’re so out of it that you’re trying to kill yourself, I have to take care of you! I won’t let you throw away your life, because even if I may not like you that much, there are other people who would be sad if you died!”
    “Like who!?”
    “Like STARR!!”
    “—….” Jessie’s next words are cut off before they ever leave her throat. That’s true, Starr cares about her…
    “C’mon,” Brock continues in a gentler voice. He stands and holds a hand out to her. “We’d better get moving. We should try to find the others.”
    Jessie nods mutely and takes his hand.
    “Hmmm…” Misty murmurs, turning her head from side to side. After drying their clothes and finding breakfast, she and James had set off into the forest. Togepi had tired again, all worn out from the storm only hours earlier, and retired to Misty’s backpack. While he slept, Misty and James had conversed to fill the quiet during their journey. There had been a path—but now it’s breaking off into three separate directions. “Which way should we go…”
    James is likewise pondering the situation, hefting his bag back onto his shoulder. His old clothes had dried quickly, but he’d changed into a new set of clothing anyway, packing the remnants of the storm into the remarkably durable bag with THE TRUE HUMAN MAGIC lying on top.  They’d left their camp behind without cleaning up, and set down a couple of sticks pointing towards the path in the forest; that way, if Faris and Utena did show up there, they’d know where to start looking. However, the branch in directions has put a good-sized wrench into that idea. “If I were Faris,” he muses to himself, “which direction would I go in…” He sighs. “I bet she’d have to great plan to find her way through the forest by now. I wish she were here…”
   “I wish she was here too,” Misty frowns, looking none too thrilled by the situation herself. “Faris always seems to know what to do. I hope she’s okay… And Starr and Jessie and Meowth too.”
    “And Ash and Brock and Pikachu, too,” James adds.
    They turn around and look at each other strangely after realizing who said what; then, they bust up laughing.
    Once the laughter dies down, Misty wipes a tear away. “That was funny,” she smiles. “But we still gotta figure out which way we should go.”
    “I say we go left,” James states, pointing across Misty to the path leading into a dirt path with various-sized rocks decorating the edges. Certainly, there would be some sort of civilization in that direction.
    “No, I say we go right,” Misty protests, pointing across James towards the opposing path which is marked with red flags every few meters, entailing that it’s rather well-used.
    “You should go straight,” someone, probably a young girl from the timbre of the voice, says behind them.
    “That’s right, we should go—” James starts to say before he realizes exactly what’s going on. He and Misty turn to face the speaker—
    And greet the pathway they’d been walking.
    The two blink. Then slowly turn to face each other.
    “Someone did we should go straight…” Misty starts slowly.
    “…right?” James finishes.
    They turn to the straightforward path, which is just a path, as ordinary as the path they’d been walking, except there’s a sign blocking it off that says, “DANGER – DO NOT COME THIS WAY”.
    The two pause for a minute.
    After the minute has passed, James reiterates, “Left.”
    “Right!!” Misty snaps, losing her patience.
    “Left!” James dares the press the subject.
    “WE GO RIGHT!!!” Misty roars, not feeling like arguing anymore. “And that’s that!!” With that, she grabs James’ wrist and drags him behind, complaining, onto the right pathway.
    After about ten minutes of walking (during which time James gave up and has started walking on his own), a tree falls in front of them, so close that if they’d been a step closer they would have been trailkill.
    “EEEK!” Misty shrieks upon the tree falling so unexpectedly, jumping into James and sending both of them sprawling onto the dirt. After regaining her calm, though, she inspects it more closely. “…This tree looks like it’s rotten,” she says. “We can climb over it, I bet.”
    “I can’t climb over anything while you’re sitting on me,” James tells her.
    “Huh?” Misty blinks, then looks down—to see, yes, she is indeed sitting on James’ chest. She blushes lightly and springs to her feet. “Oh! Sorry,” she apologizes, holding out a hand to help him up. “Well, come on, we’d better get going.”
    James hasn’t even started to reach for her hand before another tree falls down, directly on top of the already felled tree.
    There is a long moment of silence.
    “That tree doesn’t look rotten to me…” James squeaks a little.
    Misty sloooowly turns around….
    She realizes out loud, “That’s a really big tree… for something to make a really big and healthy tree fall over like that, it’d have to be really big…”
    “And really powerful…” James continues.
    “And really…”
    “Really…”
    They stare at each other, then finish in unison, “Dangerous.”
    They’re silent for about a second more before they’re back on their feet and sprinting for the left path.
    “See!? Didn’t I tell you, Misty!?” James hollers as they run. “You could have gotten us killed!!!”
    “Shut up and keep running, James!!” Misty yells back.
    They continue to run until they’re five minutes, walking time, down the gravel path. Then they slow down and stop, panting.
    “I just… hope that… whatever was back… there… didn’t… follow us,” James gasps between breaths.
    Misty pants in agreement.
    There’s an almost unnoticeable movement in the branches of the trees above them—and, of course, being caught up with catching their breath, James and Misty don’t notice it. If they had noticed it, however, and had looked up, they would have seen a slight flash of light pink and a surreptitious giggle.
    “I…guess we should start…down this path, then,” Misty says, gulping a little for extra oxygen.
    James nods, and after another minute of breath catching, the two start down the path.
    However, this too is an endeavor in futility; for, not more than five minutes down the path, a soundly sleeping Snorlax rests in the middle of the road, fully blocking it off. The trees and bushes are likewise too thick to cut through, if one was masochistic enough to try to cut through thorn bushes with their bare hands.
    “Well, it looks like your idea won’t help either,” Misty glares, placing her hands on her hips.
    “This isn’t fair!” James whines. “C’mon, you stupid Snorlax, wake UP and get out of our WAY!!!” He kicks it, and although the exceedingly fat Pokémon does murmur a little, it does not comply with his wishes, and what’s more, James’ foot gets stuck in its endless layers of blubber.
    James cries a little.
    “Looks like we have no other choice,” Misty sighs, moving to help him free himself. “Since we certainly can’t go straight, let’s go back to our camp and try to skirt the edges of the forest. Maybe there’s another path in.”
    James sighs heavily before they manage to pull his foot, but not his shoe, out of Snorlax.
    After much whining and pulling and a loud POP, James puts his shoe back on and he and Misty head back to the crossroads.
    However, their troubles aren’t over quite yet. At the crossroads, their way back has been blocked off—this time by a glimmering spiderweb that spreads across several trees and deeply suggests they should ignore the danger sign and go straight, especially since said sign has been knocked over into the dirt.
    The sight just as deeply stuns James and Misty for several long minutes.
    It’s James that finally speaks. “Someone really wants us to go straight,” he comments, blinking.
    Misty nod-nods before taking one of her Pokéballs into hand. “I guess we’ll just have to be ready for whatever’s so dangerous,” she smiles. “I’ll keep Starmie in hand, and you keep Weezing around, just in case, all right?”
    He smiles back, pulling out a Pokéball. “Sounds good to me, but I think I’ll use Victreebel instead.”
    Misty nods, smiling, and James nods back. The two then head towards the straight path, walking disrespectfully over the felled sign. This time, nothing obstructs their travel.
    From in front of the spiderweb, a small pink creature floats down. Next to it, a slightly larger spider, brown with a gray violin mark on its back, literally hangs from a thread.
    “Thanks for the help, pal,” the pink creature remarks cheerfully in a familiar little-girl voice. “I appreciate it!”
    “*Squeak*,” the spider Pokémon Arachne replies happily before pulling itself back up into the trees.
    Having settled that, the pinkish Pokémon floats off after Misty and James.
 

    There’s a little bit of a worn path winding its way through the brilliant green brush and trees of the island. ‘That’s a good sign,’ Starr thinks. ‘It means somebody’s been here before us. At least this isn’t a totally uncharted island.’
    As if in agreement, Dexter begins talking away as Ash clicks one of its button. “Although the main islands were developed as tourist resorts, the smaller islands in the Seafoam Archipelago were designated as Pokémon reserves three years ago,” it says in its cheerful electronic voice. “Though they seem quite deserted at first glance, there are a few research station and paths spread over the islands. Rumor has it that many rare, unrecorded and undiscovered Pokémon make their homes there, although this has been neither confirmed nor denied by the researchers living on the islands.”
    Ash closes the computer for the time being. “Well, we aren’t exactly the first ones here...” he muses, looking a little disappointed.
    Starr pats his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. You heard Dex...there’s probably some undiscovered Pokémon around here...and it’s safer that there are people here anyhow. If we find one of those research stations Dex was talking about, then we can go for help there.”
    “Yeah, I guess—WAAAAAAOW!”
    Ash’s reply is suddenly cut off, and the trainer looks up at the sky, his eyes HUGE and a few zillion stars shining inside them. “THERE IT IS!!!!” he yells.
    “There WHAT is??” Starr exclaims.
    “THAT!” Ash cheers, pointing to the sky.
    Starr follows where he’s pointing, and her mouth drops open a little.
    “Oh, waowwwwwww...” she breathes, echoing Ash.
    Flying overhead is a huge, beautiful bird Pokémon of some sort. Its colorful feathers have a gold shine to them in the brilliant sunshine. It has a long, trailing tail, a medium-sized beak, and a crest on top of its head.
    “What IS it...?” the awestruck former Rocket wonders in amazement.
    Ash suddenly has a mild spazz, grabbing for his Pokédex and pointing it at the disappearing form.
    “Unidentified Pokémon. No information available,” says Dexter.
    Ash exhales a little puff, then suddenly looks up at Starr and grins hugely. “I can’t believe it. I saw that bird Pokémon when I was first starting out...Pikachu got attacked by a bunch of Spearows and there was this really bad rainstorm... We beat the Spearows since Pikachu got the lightning to come down and help her—THAT was cool—but after that she was so worn out, I didn’t know if she’d be okay...then the rain stopped, and there was this rainbow...and that bird Pokémon flew right over us!” Ash exclaims, waving his arms around to illustrate the story. “It’s even cooler now that I see it again! Professor Oak never believed that I really saw it...but now YOU saw it too! And we were both fine! It *wasn’t* a mirage! I know it was there, and so do you! Someday I gotta find out what that Pokémon is...” he finishes, grinning and pounding his fist into his other hand.
    “It sort of looked...” Starr muses, “...almost like a Phoenix.”
    “A Phoenix?”
    “Yeah. It was this magical bird of legend that built a nest close to the sun every five hundred years.... The nest would burn and so would Phoenix, but a new Phoenix would appear from the ashes of the old one, more beautiful and stronger than ever before...”
    “Neat.” Ash smiles. “Maybe it IS a Phoenix!”
    “I don’t think so....they’re legendary after all...but you never can tell.” Starr smiles too. “Come on, Mr. Pokémon Master. I thought you said you wanted to explore, not talk about Phoenixeseses...” Starr stumbles over the last word for some reason and laughs. “Phoenixes.”
    “Heh heh...yeah. Just seeing that Pokémon again was so cool...” Ash goes starry-eyed for a little bit more, then snaps back into his usual mood. “Well, what are we waiting for! There’s tons of Pokémon out there just waiting for us to—”
    “*Squeak*?”
    Ash and Starr blink.
    “Squeak???” Starr repeats.
    “*Squeak*”
    Both slowly look in the direction if the sound.
    Hanging from a tree, next to Starr, is a strange-looking little grayish-brown Pokémon that somewhat resembles a fuzzy Paras. It has a violin-shaped marking on its back, eight little legs, and a curious expression on its face.
    “What the heck is he?” Starr piku’s. “A little spider?”
    “*Squeak*,” the Pokémon seems to agree.
    Ash pulls out Dexter and hits the scan button. “Hope he knows what this guy is,” Ash mutters, still a bit miffed that Dexter had no clue about the bird.
    “Arachne,” Dexter says after beeping, “a recently discovered, but as of yet unrecorded, Spider Pokémon. Despite its somewhat fearsome appearance, Arachne is quite peaceful. It’s shy of humans and tends to avoid trainers; when found, it will usually run away, and considering Arachnes great speed which only increases when it evolves, this makes it tough to capture. Arachne works well as a pest control Pokémon, as it enjoys feasting on pesky insects and rats. It’s very intelligent and even-tempered, and as such makes a fine first Pokémon. This information is compliments of the elite Galuf Research Team, and is meant to be locked until the final report is released, or an Arachne is faced.”
     “Well, this one doesn’t seem to be interested in running away....” Starr says, looking at the little spider looking at her.
 In fact, the Arachne seems quite interested in them both. It reaches out one of its eight fuzzy legs and walks onto Starr’s shoulder...and up onto her head.
    “EEEEEEEE! That TICKLES! Cut that out!” Starr giggles uncontrollably.
    “Fearsome?” Ash states at Dexter, then at Arachne on Starr’s head. “No way! That’s the coolest-looking Pokémon I’ve ever seen!”
    “But why’s this one so outgoing?” Starr wonders.
    “Maybe it’s the leader, or something. Maybe there’s more of them someplace.”
    As Ash ponders this, Arachne suddenly makes a leap down from Starr’s head to the path, and looks at both trainers meaningfully.
    “What, want us to follow you?” Ash asks, knowing this pattern of behavior. Pikachu does this a lot, and he knows it’s best to pay attention to a Pokémon when it’s acting weird.
    “*Squeak*” Arachne nods, then takes off down the path at top speed.
    “WOW, they are fast!” Starr exclaims. “HEY! WAIT UP!”
 

    If the cries for help hadn’t been as loud as they were, Meowth and Batts might have passed by the rest of their Pokémon companions without ever noticing it. The former was the first to notice.
    “Hey, what’s that noise?” he speaks up.
    <Hmm?> Batts directs his attention towards the rock mount a hundred meters from their current position. <The voices are coming from there…>
    “Guess we oughtta check it out, then.”
    <Yes,> Batts agrees before teleporting the two of them to the lip of the mount.
    Over the side, a Golem is terrorizing two electric mice Pokémon who, much to their dismay, can’t affect it with their electrical assaults.
    “’Ey, it’s Pikachu and Raichu!” Meowth realizes upon peeking down at them. “Who figgered Pikachu could ever get in over her head?”
    <We should assist them,> Batts tells him.
    “Yeah, but my attacks won’t do a t’ing to Golem’s rock shell,” Meowth rejoinders.
    <That is true, but my psychic abilities affect the mind, not the body. No rock shell can protect against my Psychic maneuver,> Batts replies fluidly before teleporting down to the bottom of the rock shaft.
    Meowth watches with interest as Batts dispatches the seemingly invincible Golem before it gets tired of its game and decides to squish Pikachu and Raichu.
    Raichu and Pikachu are more than a little thrilled to see their savior.
    “PIKA~~~!!!” Pikachu rejoices, glomping the psychic Pokémon.
    <It is good to see you as well,> Batts replies good-naturedly. <Are you all right?>
    “<Yeah, thanks to you!>” Pikachu beams. Raichu runs up, joining the two, as Meowth slides down the rock ledge and walks over.
    Raichu gives him a curious look. “<I wondered where you ended up,>” he comments.
    “I wondered where you ended up,” Meowth mimics, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I almost DROWNED at that’s all you have to say!?!”
    Raichu shrugs. “<Yeah. Was I supposed to say anything else?>”
    Meowth sighs and drops his head.
    <In any case, we should move on,> Batts tells the others. <Our respective trainers are likely also on this island. It would be best if we were to search for them; we do not know their current situation, and they may need our help.>
    Pikachu nods, already worrying about Ash. “Pikapi…” she murmurs.
 

    The walk into the forest is a quiet one for Brock. Jessie’s right behind him, and behind Jessie is Umi, making sure that she doesn’t try to wander off. Although he’s grateful for it at first, after several long minutes of wandering in a seemingly unending forest, he decides to try to strike up a conversation.
    The trouble is, he has no idea what to talk about.
    “So, Jessie…” Brock speaks up, then pauses for a second before grabbing onto something. “I was curious...why’d you join Team Rocket?”
    She doesn’t reply for a moment. Brock’s about to turn around to make sure she’s still there when Jessie states flatly, “None of your business.”
    “Ah, well… if you don’t want to talk about it, I guess that’s okay…” Brock falters. He pauses for a few seconds more before continuing, “But.. is there anything you want to talk about?”
    “No,” is Jessie’s immediate and very flat answer, flat to the point that it would make the horizon look like an orange rind.
    Brock bites his lower lip a little. This isn’t going very well… “Well, um… do you want to talk about anything at all, Jessie?”
    “I SAID, no,” she reiterates, her tone growing annoyed. “Leave me alone.”
    “Por, vaporeon…” Umi wonders, looking up at the red-haired girl. Jessie’s bangs cover her eyes, even more so that she’s staring at the ground, but there’s an air around her that Umi feels nervous about…
    Brock decides to push further, however, against his better judgement. “Oh, come on, Jessie, maybe you’ll feel better if you get your feelings off your chest—”
    “I SAID NO!!!” she screams, coming to a complete halt. Brock turns to her, startled. “I know you don’t care about me, so don’t pretend that you do!! Just shut up and let me sulk in peace!”
    “But Jessie—” Brock protests weakly.
    “Shut UP!!” she screams, stamping her foot. “I’m sick of everything! I’m sick of you, I’m sick of Faris, I’m sick of James and I’m sick of living!! Just leave me ALONE!!!” Shoving him aside and onto the ground, Jessie sprints off the path and into the densely woven forest.
    “Vaporeon!!” Umi calls, on the chase immediately. Brock gets to his feet, dusting himself off, and starts to run after the two. However, he doesn’t get very far before he hears a girl scream.
    “Jessie!!” he yells, speeding up a little. He’s about to arrive at the site where he heard the scream when…
    “VAPOREON!!” Umi yells, jumping at him and knocking him to the side.
    Brock cries out and the two of them fall into the bushes. “Umi, what are you doing?!” he demands. “We’ve got to find Jessie and help her!!”
    “Poreon!” she replies urgently, getting up and indicating the step where Brock was about to land onto. Puzzled, he follows… and sees that it’s a deceptive step. The place where he was about to step is slightly elevated, so one can’t see that there’s a large hole in the ground, leading down into god only knows where.
    “Jessie!!” he yells down, getting on his knees. “Are you okay??”
    “What are you still following me for!?” comes the agitated and obviously pained reply. “NO, I’m not okay! I just fell down twenty feet onto solid rock!!”
    Brock forgives her sarcastic remark, considering the situation, and instead says, “I’m gonna try to climb down to get you, okay? Then I’ll try to see if anything’s broken, and try to figure out if there’s any way back up!”
    There’s a low mumble, but Brock can’t make it out. He positions himself so that he can climb down...
    …And ends up sliding down a crystalline cave wall, landing next to Jessie on his butt.
    “VAPOR!” Umi yells down before jumping and landing on Brock’s head, then bounding gracefully to the side. Brock, in response, groans in pain and falls over, his head mercifully ending up in Jessie’s lap.
    “Get off,” she says flatly, pushing him aside.
    Blushing deeply, he obliges. “Ah, erm, uh, anyway,” he stutters, “I wonder where we are?”
    “So many feet closer to hell,” Jessie murmurs under her breath. She shifts a little, then winces in pain.
    He gives her an odd look, noticing the wince. “Did you twist your ankle or something? Here, let me see,” and he makes a move towards her.
    Out of pure reaction, Jessie kicks him in the face with her good foot.
    “……..Ow.” Brock falls over.
    “Por…” Umi says quietly, padding over to the two.
    Jessie, a little out of embarrassment, coughs a little. “I’m just fine,” she says coldly. “I can walk by myself.” To prove her point, she rises to her feet, but just as quickly falls to her knees when her right foot gives way.
    Rubbing his face, Brock helps a greatly embarrassed Jessie up. “Here,” he says gently, “let me just take a look.”
    She mutely nods, glowering at her treacherous ankle. Brock pulls her shoe and sock off to show a bright red ankle just starting to swell and covered in blood.
    “Looks like we were just in time,” he comments. “If you left your shoe on, you’d never be able to get it off later.”
    “Yeah,” she mutters.
    Brock holds her sock over to Umi. “Could you wet this for me?” he requests of her. Umi nods and uses a small Water Gun to both clean said scrap of cloth and to soak the reddened sock in something other than blood.
    Jessie winces as Brock wipes away the blood with the soaked sock and inspects her ankle more closely.
    “It’s not so bad,” he announces after a moment. “Just a small cut—you probably got it when you landed. It’s just bleeding a lot. If I bandage it up, it should be all right; I can help you walk.”
    Jessie scowls, but allows him to remove various bandages and medicinal items from the front of his jacket and wrap her ankle.
    “Someone, or something, is following us.”
    This determined statement comes as a complete surprise to Misty, who turns to stare at James, who in turn is glancing around them suspiciously.
    “How can you tell?” she queries, eyebrows raised slightly.
    James gives their surroundings—thousands upon seemingly thousands of densely woven trees—one more surreptitious glance before turning to his young companion. “I can’t explain how I know,” he confesses, shrugging his shoulders. “But whenever we stop talking and just walk, I swear I can feel somebody looking at us.” He glances around one more time and leans forward. In a whisper, he confides, “And I’m positive I heard somebody giggling or something!”
    Misty scoffs, although she’s not entirely convinced that what he says isn’t true; she, too, has felt the uneasy sensation of being watched. “It’s just your mind playing tricks on you,” she tells him. “There’s lots of Pokémon in this forest, probably tons that we can’t even see. That feeling’s probably just those Pokémon staring at us! But as long as they just look and don’t attack, I’m fine with that.”
    James still looks a little unsettled. “Well…okay. I guess that makes sense,” he concedes, and the two walk on.
    A small, floating, pinkish-white Pokémon follows them, hardly able to contain a giggle. As this unknown Pokémon floats closely (and silently) behind James, the giggle bursts forth.
    James spins around.
    Again, nothing but trees greet him.
    “Hmph.” He scowls a little, but turns around. Misty, who’s looking at him curiously, says nothing, and the two continue to walk.
    The pinkish Pokémon floats back down from the treetops, where she’d shot up to upon losing control. Even though she’d slipped, it turned out to be funnier than she’d thought, the Pokémon thinks smugly. Yes, these two would supply a great amount of entertainment, she cheers silently as she floats behind James.
    Discreetly, James turns his head to the right, trying to peek behind him.
    The small floating Pokémon, who had been floating towards his right, floats over to James’ left as he does so.
    As discreetly as before, James peeks to the left.
    Even as he does so, the pinkish Pokémon floats back over to the right, and all James sees, again, is an endless amount of trees.
    James slumps over a little, and the delighted Pokémon settles right behind his neck. Maybe he is imagining things. Maybe it is just the wild Pokémon spying on them—
    The pinkish Pokémon disappears via the Teleport technique just before James whirls around.
    He blinks a couple of times, stopping in his tracks. Misty walks a few more yards, just short of a sharp turn in the path, when she realized he’d stopped.
    “James?”
    James slowly turns his head toward her, his face a blank. After a moment of silence, he shakes his head. “I…” he says uncertainly.
    Misty just sighs and shakes her head before turning to the path before them and crossing the turn.. Her expression brightens, although James can’t see it, and she backs up a little. “Hey! I think we’re approaching a clearing!” she cheers to him, waving him over. “I see a big patch of light up ahead!”
    James’ dark mood clears instantly as he jogs forward. “Really??” he says, looking for himself. His entire face lights up when he sees she’s right. “Let’s go!”
    With a couple of cheerful yells from both of them, Misty and James sprint off for the patch of light.
    Watching the couple from the branches of one of the taller trees overlooking the area, the pinkish Pokémon giggles into her tiny paws, guessing what the two humans’ reactions are going to be once they make it to the clearing.
    The sight that sprawls before Misty and James stuns any possible forthcoming comments from them. Even though there had been signs of human life on this island, they had been expecting something along the lines of small wooden huts and native tribesman living in synch with nature, or some other stereotypical view of isolated island life.
    By far, they were not expecting to find a highly efficient, top-of-the-line research facility in one of the forest clearings. That’s just not something one expects to find on an isolated, possibly uncharted island.
    “………………………..” Misty and James concur before staring at each other.
    “This just gets weirder and weirder,” Misty comments. James nods vehemently.
    “Should we approach it?” James wonders as much to himself as to Misty.
    She sighs, placing her hands on her hips and turning towards it. “What other choice do we have?” she frowns. She brightens, an idea occurring to her. “Hey! I bet this facility has a phone or something like that!” she smiles.
    “And that means we could call for help!” James follows up, catching on to what she has in mind.
    “Exactly!” Misty grins. With renewed vitality, the two of them charge off to the research facility.
    Above them, the pink Pokémon soars overhead, pausing to giggle at what she knows will happen, and Teleports into the facility.
    As she’d expected, as soon as James and Misty get within 20 yards of the mysterious facility, at least fifteen boys and girls, ranging in appearance from ages 12 to 17, emerge from various hiding places. Each teenager has a Pokéball in hand, and none of them look like they’re part of the welcome wagon.
    James and Misty are duly unnerved.
    “Leave here,” the eldest of the various trainers, a young brunet of perhaps 17 years, states. “If you don’t turn back now, this place will be your grave.”
    “You…you don’t scare us, you big bully!!” Misty yells, her tone quivering underneath the tough-girl exterior.
    “Correction: They don’t scare you,” James squeaks, hiding behind the 13-year-old girl. “That’s a looooooooot of trainers, and they don’t look friendly….”
    Misty piku’s, although she acknowledges, if only to herself, that they are badly outnumbered.
    However, the brunet just shakes his head. “We’re not threatening you, we’re warning you,” he informs her.
    “If you stay here too long,” one of the older girls, one with long lavender hair and reddish-purple eyes (reminding James of Faris, of whom he thinks longingly) adds in, “one of the guards will find you, and they won’t give you a chance to turn tail and run.”
    Misty stares, completely confused. “What are you talking about? What could be so bad about this place? We just want to get off this island and go home!”
    “That’s what our mentality was, wasn’t it,” the girl remarks dryly, more to the other children than to Misty and James.
    One of the younger children steps forward. “If you wanna go home,” he says, “you’d better get away from here, and fast!”
   “But why?” James asks, getting to his feet. “If you’re not going to attack us, then why should we leave?”
    “You’re better off not knowing,” the girl says, flipping her hair and returning her Pokéball to her belt. “The less you know, the better your chances for getting off this god-forsaken island. Now get out of here before they find you!” she hisses dramatically.
    “Who??” Misty demands, getting tired of this strange game.
    “We already said! The less you know, the better your chances of leaving!” the eldest snaps. “Now get out of here already!!”
   “We’re not going anywhere until you explain what’s going on!!” Misty snaps back, thoroughly irritated by now.
    “Yeah, that’s right!” James backs her up, although he doesn’t quite share her enthusiasm.
    The childrens’ sighs are accentuated by the aiming of several guns from a guard force three times their number.
    “You are trespassing on private property,” one of the guards tells James and Misty calmly, “and now that we’ve found you, we’re taking you prisoner. That, my friends, is what is going on.”
 

    Arachne takes to the trees after a little while, jumping over branches and leaves, but it makes sure to stay within Ash and Starr’s field of view. He DOES want them to find something; namely, his family.
    As the two out-of-breath trainers part a curtain of branches Arachne points out, both of them gasp, “WHOA!”
    “It’s a whole family!!!” Starr laughs.
    About twenty Arachnes have made a colony in the middle of a circle of trees. Some are sitting on little webs they’ve made; some are dangling out of trees. Three of them are engaged in what looks like a game of tag...
    ...And they all freeze when they notice Starr and Ash.
    Just as the entire group of Arachnes is about to take off spazzing into the woods, the ‘leader’, the one who brought Starr and Ash here in the first place, jumps out into the circle and begins squeaking emphatically to its family. They all turn to look at him, and some nod their heads and squeak in reply.
    “I wish Batts was around. I could use a translation of this,” Starr remarks.
    Though Starr and Ash don’t understand the complex language of Squeak, the Arachnes seem to understand them pretty well. The ‘leader’ faces Ash and Starr, then launches into a complex dance/explanation of events.
    “This is your colony...these are all your brothers and sisters....you’re the oldest one....and you don’t know where your mom is but we should be careful before she gets back...I wonder why...?” Ash scratches his head.
    “Maybe she’s over overprotective?” Starr guesses.
    All the Arachnes nod in agreement, then the leader goes back to his explanation.
    “...There aren’t many of you guys left...so you want to spread out to trainers everywhere but your mom is worried that if that happens, more of you will die off...?”
    “That’s sad.” Starr looks sympathetic as she speaks to the Arachnes. “I can see where the mom is coming from, but I think you guys are right. If you’re given to trainers, people will know more about you, and people like Professor Oak can concentrate on figuring out how to keep you from dying out.”
    With a very happy squeak, the leader launches at Starr again and lands on her shoulder, nuzzling her cheek happily.
    “I think that one likes you!” Ash laughs.
    Starr giggles. “It still tickles...you know, usually spiders sort of freak me out, but these guys don’t make me the least bit scared.”
    “You’re scared of spiders?” Ash giggles, picturing a little SD Starr spazzing and running from an Arachne.
    Starr b’iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihs him. “Not really scared. Just a little. But I never squash them. I usually just get them to walk onto a piece of paper and put it outside.”
    This seems to improve Arachne’s opinion of the emerald-eyed girl even more.
    Soon Ash and Starr are having a great time hanging out with the Arachnes. One of them knocks Ash’s hat off his head, then leaps to the ground so it falls on top of him.
    “HEY!” Ash exclaims as the Arachne skitters away.
    “Beware the haunted Official Pokémon League Hat,” Starr intones.
    Ash rescues his hat, but the Arachne stays inside. When the young trainer puts his hat back on, it promptly walks away again.
    Starr falls over giggling. “Oh, MAN! That reminds me of this thing that happened once when I was still in Team Rocket...Raichu....I was doing the laundry...and he fell into the dried clothes! We were out of fabric softener that day...the static was awful...It was all James’s socks, and when Raichu came out, he just looked like a bunch of socks because he generated MORE static! They were stuck all over him! Raichu was so mad... he ran around trying to get them off…right into James’s room…and James spazzed! He thought his laundry was haunted! I thought he was going to go running all the way to Maiden’s Peak to get some of those anti-ghost charms!!!”
    “Heh heh...I remember when we all went to Maiden’s Peak...there was this Gastly that kept trying to freak everybody out. HE was pretending to be the Maiden Ghost.” Suddenly Ash stops snickering and looks thoughtful. “You know, whenever the Maiden appeared, she had lavender hair! Maybe THAT’S why James and Brock went wacko over here! She had hair like Faris does! Well, the front of the Maiden’s hair was different, but the color  was exactly the same.”
    “Maybe Faris is the Maiden Ghost reincarnate. The Maiden was always waiting for her love, and I guess Faris...sort of was. Waiting for a love that wouldn’t disappear on her, I mean.”
    “That’s a cool idea.”
    “But don’t tell Faris, she’ll probably get annoyed with me.”
    Abruptly, one of the Arachnes near the edge of the clearing begins to spazz. He charges over to the leader (up Starr’s arm and onto her head) and squeaks frantically.
    The leader’s eyes get HUGE, even huger than they already are. It leaps from Starr’s shoulder, and begins its dance again.
    “Your mom is coming back? What’s so scary about their mom?” Ask blinks.
    “Maybe when they evolve they go nuts...like Magikarp when it turns into Gyarados! It freaks and tries to eat everything it can see.”
    As if to drive home Starr’s point, an ominous shadow falls over the clearing...
    ‘I rest my case...’ Starr gulps as she and Ash slowly turn, and see...
    …an IMMENSE spider Pokémon of some sort, with Scyther-ish blades for front legs. With its seven jewel-like eyes, it bestows upon Ash, Starr and the Arachnes a death glare so pants-pissingly scary it cannot possibly be described in normal terms.
    “What...the hell...is that..?” Starr squeaks under her breath.
    Ash pulls out his Pokédex. At first, his hand is shaking so badly that he can’t hit the button properly. It takes him two or three tries before he manages to click it.
    “Unlike its previous form, Arachnid is very vicious and ill-tempered. It’s extremely powerful, but its wild and unruly temperament more than negates that. The females are considerably more powerful than the males, and when pregnant have an insatiable hunger. Their intelligence is combined with a ruthless cunning. Combined with its immense speed, its deadly poison, its intelligence and cunning and its ability to suck the blood from its victims, Arachnid is an incredibly dangerous Pokémon, so approach with caution.”
    “Fun!” Starr remarks as Ash’s eyes get huge and he blinks.
    “I hope this isn’t a female..” Ash shudders.
    “This particular Arachnid, marked on its belly by a distorted red Japanese symbol meaning ‘death’, is the female of the species,” Dexter finishes cheerfully.
    Exchanging a wide-eyed glance, Ash and Starr sigh, “Crap.”
    Arachnid hears, and immediately glares at them with an even more ill-tempered expression.
    “M..maybe it’ll—she—she’ll leave us alone if we...you know...show her we’re not gonna hurt the babies....?” Ash suggests, voice shaking audibly.
    Trembling quite a bit, he extends one hand toward Arachnid, aiming for the top of the spider’s smooth head...
    Before he even has time to blink, Arachnid lunges and chomps down on his hand, HARD!
    “YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!” Ash yowls, trying to pull back, but Arachnid seems intent on chewing his hand off.
    Starr dashes forward and grabs Ash’s wrist, pulling back, and at the same time she connects her fist with Arachnid’s jaw.
    Snarling, the overgrown spider Pokémon spits out Ash’s hand. He staggers back, favoring his heavily bleeding and much mutilated right hand, and Arachnid slashes at Starr with one of its scythe-arms. She jumps back onto the tips of her feet and sucks in her stomach, but the blade grazes her anyway, slicing across the front of her shirt.
    The leader of the Arachnes looks from Starr to Ash to its mom rapidly, then scurries forward and waves two of its eight legs in the air, squeaking vehemently.
    Its mother gives it a LOOK, takes a deep breath, faces Starr and Ash...and SCREECHES.
    Starr yelps and clamps her hand over her ears, shuddering violently. Arachnid’s screech is THE ONE SINGLE MOST AWFUL SOUND SHE HAS EVER HEARD. It sounds like...nails on a chalkboard times one thousand times over. Worse.
   Ash is in a similar position, but he has to cover his ears with only one hand, seeing as his right hand is mercifully going numb. Arachnid didn’t poison him, but probably there’s something in its spit that would paralyze smaller creatures.
    The Arachnes all dive for cover. All except their leader, who stands his ground.
    Mom pays him no mind. She merely steps right over him, fully intent on having Starr and Ash for lunch.
    The huge shadow falling over Starr snaps her back into reality.
    She pulls out a Pokéball and throws it. “CUBONE, GO!!!”
    Ash hears the ball open and realizes that calling something out is the only way he’s going to avoid becoming fast food for an overgrown spider with an attitude problem. He fumbles in his pocket with his left hand and pulls out a Pokéball of his own, throwing it out as best he can. “GO, BULBASAUR!”
    Cubone materializes behind Arachnid, as does Bulbasaur, although said plant Pokémon is a little off to one side. Ash’s left-handed throw isn’t too great.
    “Bulbasaur! Use your Sleep Powder to knock this thing out!” Ash hollers.
    “BULBA!” Bulbasaur growls in assent; he’s not going to let some ugly spider eat his trainer, after all. His bulb opens slightly, and a shimmering blue powder wafts toward Arachnid.
    Arachnid suddenly dashes out of the way. Before Bulbasaur knows what the heck is going on, the spider’s behind it. Arachnid snarls and snaps at the little plant Pokémon, not even bothering to try and battle it before she eats it.
    “AAAAAAAAAAAAA, BULBASAUR! RETURN!!!” Ash frantically tries to return Bulbasaur with his left hand. After three nerve-wracking tries, he succeeds.
    Cubone, without even being ordered to by Starr, draws back and throws his little bone boomerang as HARD as he possibly can.
    Arachnid just catches it in her mouth and snaps it in half with one movement of her merciless jaws.
    Cubone piku’s heavily, taking a step back.
    Arachnid snarls.
    “Cubone, RETURN! Zubat, GO!” Starr cries well into an adrenaline rush by now. Cubone is rescued from imminent chomping, and Zubat now flaps over Arachnid’s head. Arachnid, unimpressed by this turn of events, tries to knock Zubat out of the air.
    “ZUBAT, GO SUPERSONIC!” Starr roars. “Maybe this will show you not to scream like that again, you freakish Lilith-spawn! Go back to Terminal Dogma!!”
    Zubat opens its wide mouth even wider and emits a high-pitched hum. Rainbow-coloured rings of energy bombard Arachnid.
    Of course, though, a creature with such a demonic screech of its own is not about to be taken down by a little sonic wave. It knocks Zubat from the air and glowers at Starr. Though it doesn’t understand the Eva references (Arachnids aren’t big anime fans), it gathers that Starr was insulting it. As she returns Zubat, she charges and swipes at her again with its claw, knocking the Pokéball from her hand and effectively shredding a good portion of her shirt.
    Ash, who was tunneling in his pocket for a spare Pokéball in order to capture the vicious Arachnid, finds his Pokéball knocked away as well.
    Ash gets PISSED. Ash doesn’t usually get pissed, but this is the sort of situation that calls for pissiness.
    “THAT’S IT! NO ONE TREATS MY FRIEND OR MY POKÉMON THAT WAY! GO, CHARIZARD!!!”
    This time his left-handed aim is accurate. Charizard materializes, looking over Arachnid and looking largely disinterested.
    Arachnid doesn’t look very interested in Charizard either. She walks calmly around it, leisurely advancing toward Ash and Starr again...
    Suddenly Arachne squeaks up, pulling down one eyelid at Charizard and beeping out a little ‘nyah-nyah-hyah-nyah-nyaaaaah’ song in the huge fire lizard’s direction.
    Charizard whips around with a snarl and unleashes a massive Flame Thrower attack at the small spider.
    Arachnid, in turn, depends her offspring with an impossibly swift Slash, letting out another deafening screech as she does so.
    Charizard is surprisingly unfazed. In fact, the screech made her even madder. She swipes at Arachnid with her tail and slams her against the nearest tree.
    The impact rolls Ash’s stray Pokéball over to Arachne, who looks at it curiously.
    Arachnid lands gracefully and rushes Charizard, chomping down on the fire lizard’s left wing before it has a chance to even register the fact that Arachnid has recovered.
    A strange-looking glow overtakes them both.
    “Oh, crap! She’s using Leech Life!!!” Starr cries. “ASH! RETURN CHARIZARD!!!”
    As Starr yells this order to Ash, Arachne suddenly realizes what that two-colored rolly-thing is supposed to do! He picks it up carefully with his two front legs.
    “**SQUEAK!!!*” he yells at the top of his lungs, demanding that his mom QUIT IT RIGHT NOW!!!!
    “Mom” pays no mind. She’s too busy trying to keep from being dislodged from Charizard.
    Charizard roars and slams Arachne into a tree.
    Starr thinks that this scene reminds her of a cheesy Godzilla movie.
    Finally, Arachnid lets go of Charizard, but Charizard is too drained to do anything but give Arachnid her own brand of death glare.
    Arachnid advances on Starr...
    Arachne takes aim with Ash’s Pokéball and lets out a final warning squeak...
    Annoyed, Arachnid turns her head around to see what’s the matter.
    ...And Arachne THROWS THE BALL AS HARD AS HE CAN THROW IT! The Pokéball strikes Arachnid right in the center space of her seven ruby eyes, and she’s engulfed in the crimson light and sucked into the ball. It rattles violently as soon as it shuts, but Starr, with a yell of, “OH, NO YOU DO NOT,” pounces on the ball and holds it closed until the vibrations stop.
    Ash, Starr, and Arachne sigh with relief.
    All the other Arachnes creep out from the trees, and when they see Starr with the Pokéball in her hand, they immediately put two and two together and cheer.
    The lead Arachne jumps onto Ash’s wounded hand and carefully wraps it in string. Ash laughs, “Hey, cut that out! It tickles!”
    One Arachne pokes Dexter curiously.
    “Arachne and Arachnid’s silk has healing properties,” Dexter says.
    The Arachne spazzes and runs away from Dexter until it shuts up.


    Pikachu-tachi trek across the beach, leaving four paths of Pokémon prints behind, searching for their lost masters. As they walk, they call out the names of their respective masters (sometimes with additional comments, most frequently from Meowth), hoping that perhaps they’ll be overheard.
    So far, their attempts have not been successful.
    “<This sucks!>” Raichu complains, zapping various shells and rocks decorating the beach out of annoyance. “<We’ve been walking forever and STILL no sign of Starr and the others!!>”
    “<We gotta keep looking!>” Pikachu insists. “<Or we’ll never find them!>”
    “And how do you know they didn’t wander into the forest?” Meowth snaps crabbily, in much the same mood as Raichu. “We could walk this beach for months and never find them if they did!”
    <Even if they entered the forest, eventually they will find their way out and return to the beach,> Batts reminds them. <We should have patience.>
    “BITE ME!!” Meowth and Raichu snarl in unison, although the combination of human-speech and Raichu-speak sounds rather odd.
    <Your lack of faith in your trainers is appalling,> Batts rejoinders calmly.
    “<That’s right! If we keep looking, I’m sure we’ll find Ash and the others!>” Pikachu follows up.
    Batts smiles lightly down at the small electric mouse, but despite his words, he has his worries. If Faris had landed ashore this island and regained consciousness after the storm, he should at least feel a buzz of her consciousness at the back of his mind—at least that. But he can’t feel anything. That can mean one of two things; the first is that she didn’t land on this island. The other…is simply unthinkable. Batts pushes such thoughts out of his mind for the time being, instead concentrating on the task before them.
    “I say we start looking in the forest,” Meowth announces after a moment of quiet. “Looking at nothing but sand is so boring!”
    “<I go with Meowth,>” Raichu agrees readily. “<We can handle anything in that forest! C’mon, what makes the Pokémon in the forest any different from the Pokémon on the beach?>”
    Pikachu frowns. She’d like to go into the forest, but she’s nervous about straying too far in, and besides, she’d rather rely on Batts’ judgment. Searching for an answer to the dilemma, she looks up at him questioningly.
    <…> Batts ponders the matter. They had seen no sign of the others, if they were indeed on this island, upon the beach; perhaps the surf and wind had scattered all the signs of their respective landings away. It did seem most likely that they had wandered into the forest… <We should continue to search the beach until we’ve returned to our original position,> he finally decides. <Then we should try to search the forest.>
    “Booooring,” Meowth sighs before tripping over something and landing face-first into the sand.
    Raichu stops, looking down at him, and Pikachu and Batts gather ‘round. “<What happened to you?>” he wonders.
    Meowth lifts his head, spitting out the fine beige sand. “I tripped, what’s it look like!?” he grumbles, getting to his feet. He turns on the cause of his fall—a long, smooth rock rising up from the sand—draws his foot back, and kicks.
    “MEOOWWWWWW!!!” he shrieks, hopping around on one foot, as his kicking foot had come close to breaking on the immovable stone. “Ow ow ow ow owwwww…..”
    “<It’s kind of weird from something like that to just be sticking out of the ground, isn’t it?>” Pikachu comments before scraping away some of the sand. “<It doesn’t look like a normal rock. Raichu, Batts, help me dig it out!>”
    Working together, with Meowth sulking in the background and favoring his right foot, the three of them soon uncover the stone. It’s a rather unusual stone, mainly because there are very sharp carving inscribed on it depicting several different pictures of what appears to be a Chinese dragon or something of the sort.
    “<Weird stone,>” Raichu comments, scratching his head. “<What should we do with it?>”
    “<Maybe we should take it along,>” Pikachu suggests. “<I bet Prof. Oak back in Pallet Town could figure out what it is!>”
    <Do you think the dragon is some sort of Pokémon?> Batts queries, peering at the inscriptions.
    “<I bet it is!>” Pikachu nods.
    “Forget that,” Meowth grumbles from the side. “Who’s gonna carry it?”
    Three sets of eyes fall upon the talking cat Pokémon.
    “NO,” he states flatly before anyone can suggest a thing. “I couldn’t carry that thing anyway. It’s twice as big as me!”
    <Then logically, the strongest Pokémon should carry it,> Batts reasons.
    This time, three sets of eyes fall onto Raichu.
    Raichu’s ears fall behind his head and he whimpers a little, trying to look as not-strong as possible.
 

    Brock’s beginning to wish he’d never tried to push Jessie into a conversation. Even if it had been quiet while they were in the forest, at least there were the sounds of wildlife surrounding them. In this dank cave lit only by a torch made from wood Brock found at the bottom of the drop and set aflame by Vulpix, there’s only a maddening drip-drip-dripping sound to accompany the silence. Not only that, but the three of them are making a snail’s pace because of Jessie’s sprained ankle.
    Jessie herself doesn’t look too pleased with her situation. The one time he had tried to start a conversation anew with her, she just gave him a Death Glare and returned her sapphire eyes to the rock floor slick with water. Brock sighs; at this rate, they’ll probably be stuck down here for hours, or worse yet, days.
    “Poreon!” Umi calls suddenly from in front of the two humans, breaking into a run.
    “Huh?” Brock stares as she sprints off for something. “Umi, where are you going?” He struggles to pick up his pace, but Jessie doesn’t feel like speeding up any, and he’s forced to stay at her pace.
    “Por por!” Umi barks back. “Vaporeon!!”
    “Tell that stupid water mutt to shut up,” Jessie mutters crabbily.
    Brock frowns his disapproval. “Jessie, she might have found a way out!” he scolds her. “Don’t you want to get out of here?”
    “What difference does it make?” she sulks. “The way my luck has been running, I’ll probably be dead before I can see the light of day.”
    “Don’t say stuff like that!” Brock says a little too sharply. When she gives him an annoyed look, he coughs a little and elaborates, “If you say it, it’ll come true. So don’t even think it!”
    Jessie smiles mirthlessly, but anything she may have said in response is cut off by Umi’s insistent calls. Brock picks up his pace, and thankfully Jessie does so as well. After a few minutes of jump-hop-stepping, they find an underground river, spinning wildly with hidden and open currents to the point that the waves are more white than craggy crystal, with Umi sitting before it.
    “See?” the former gym leader says triumphantly. “We’ve found a river! Now we can sit down, relax, have a drink—and hey! There’s a good chance this river is flowing from above ground!”
    “And if it’s not?” the former Team Rocket member returns dryly.
    Brock has to take pause at that. He hadn’t bothered to look at the downside… “…We can’t think about what-ifs,” he replies hastily. “We can’t cross a river this turbulent anyway, so we may as well go for the option that’s open to us.”
    Jessie mumbles something that maybe assent or dissent, but regardless she sits down with him and Umi to take a break and a drink.
    The break is for the most part an uneventful one, and before long the three are heading upstream along the path accompanying the raging river. As they walk, they gain an increasingly claustrophobic feeling, as if the rocky walls above them are getting lower and lower.
    Which, as it turns out when the ceiling makes a sharp incline to cut off any way of passing through the river except by swimming through it (which would be impossible, going upstream against such a strong current).
    Upon viewing the discouraging sight, Brock sports a lovely bluish sweatdrop while Jessie awards his efforts with a venomous glare.
    “Well,” she spits, “didn’t I tell you it wouldn’t be worth it?!”
    Pressing his index fingers together, Brock replies, “You didn’t say it wouldn’t be worth it, you just said what if it didn’t lead outside…”
    “It doesn’t matter what I said!!” she roars as she grabs the front of Brock’s shirt, losing whatever little patience she may have had. Umi barks her protest, but Jessie pays her no heed. “The FACT of the matter is that you got us completely lost!!!”
    “Now, hold on, Jessie, we’re not lost, all we have to do is go back the way we came!” Brock protests, holding up his hands.
    Jessie jerks him forward, causing her to take a step back and bringing them both dangerously close to the edge of the path, but right now she’s too angry to notice, let alone care. “Now LOOK, jerk,” she snarls. “I’m hungry. I’m tired. I’m upset, and I’m in a REALLY BAD MOOD. This past week has been nothing but hell for me, and I’m NOT gonna be forgiving about this!!!”
    “But you’re never forgiving…” he murmurs, sweatdropping.
    “I DON’T CARE!!!!” Jessie screams, shaking him violently. “I’ve had a really rotten day, an even worse week, and the worst life abso-f**king-lutely POSSIBLE!!! I want to utterly destroy something, and unfortunately for you, YOU’RE IT!!!!”
    Jessie’s comments about her bad day, a worse week, and “the worst life abso-f**king-lutely possible” couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. You see, there is a God, and at this point in time this God likes to play tricks on people. For instance, when someone says, “Could things possibly get any worse??”, this kind and loving God thinks, “Oh, yes they can,” and makes things worse. This particular God has been listening in on Jessie, and decides that he should accentuate her point by collapsing the rock underneath her foot into the raging river, which said redheaded girl is already far too close to for safety.
    And as such, the rock underneath Jessie’s foot collapses before she can get a chance to smash Brock. A visage of pure surprise crosses over her face just before she plunges into the river, pulling Brock with her. Before either can cry out in surprise or shock or terror, the two are swept away.
    Umi panics, paces in a couple of tight circles, then jumps into the river and swims for all she’s worth after the two rivercast humans.