When Cal arrived back at the Pokémon center he was met with a starting sight that would haunt him to his grave. Sitting on a table, amid his four female friends, was his head smiling with childlike joy. Cals didn't react at first, and just stared at his head in shock, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Dena eventually noticed him standing in the doorway, dumbstruck, and snapped him out of his daze by carrying his head over to him.

"Cal you're back! How'd your gym battle go?" Dean asked as his head looked at him with curious eyes.

"It- it went well, I managed to get the Rock badge, but forget about that; why is my head in your arms?!" Cal said, panic creeping into his voice.

It was then that Dena realized Cal hadn't been there for the past few hours and had missed basically everything that had happened. "Oh sorry Cal Nurse Joy said Ditto should try transforming into stuff, to test how well it was recovering, and when we showed him a headshot of you he transformed into your head."

"Ah, I see." Cal said looking uneasily at Ditto as it looked back at him with his eyes. "Could you get him to turn back, please?" Cal asked unsure how much more of looking at his head he could take.

"Fine, since you asked nicely; Ditto could you go back to normal, before Cal passes out." Dena said, smiling jokingly at Cal as she made fun of how freaked out he was by Ditto.

Ditto for its part, did as it was asked and returned to its pink putty like form and smiled affectionately at Dena who rubbed his head. Cal sighed, relieved to no longer see his head off of his body.

"So Cal what do you think of my new partner, he's pretty neat isn't he." Dena said gleefully as she held up Ditto closer to her face and shared a smile with her new pokemon.

Cal did not think Ditto was pretty neat, in fact he was utterly creeped out by the beady eyed pink blob; his prejudice with wasn't actually based on an appearance bias but solely because he couldn't get the image of Ditto transformed into his disembodied head. Cal didn't tell Dena how much Ditto actually freaked him out, and instead smiled nervously as he complimented her on what a wonderful addition to her team she had.

Dena seemed to be so engrossed with joy over catching her second pokemon that she didn't notice the uneasiness in Cal's voice. Serena however did spot it and decided to change the topic before Cal reached his daily Ditto limit. "So Cal how'd you like your first Gym battle?"

Cal jumped at the escape route Serena had given him; unknowing that it would lead to a much more complex conversation. "My battle was so much fun; I had to push my team to our limits fighting Roxane's Pokemon, and we got to see one of those Alolan Pokemon Ash was telling us about."

It was about this time that everyone noticed Ash wasn't there with them, and they turned Cal's conversation into an interrogation. "Cal where's Ash; why didn't he come back with you, and why are Eevee and Pikachu with you?" The girls asked in rapid fire session.

"He's running some errands and sent me back to tell you he was going to be awhile and to eat lunch without him; and Pikachu and Eevee are with me because he wanted to make sure they got fed after battling so hard for him." Cal responded just with as much swiftness as the girls. He hadn't actually told them what was happening and would come to regret adding details to his lie, for Serena caught him within seconds of his falsification of the truth.

"Cal, you tell us right now what Ash is doing; because there is no way he would skip out on lunch, especially not after he texted me he asking for a BLT sandwich an hour and a half ago!" Serena demanded, as she held up a lovingly prepared bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich.

Cal backed up into the doorway, thinking he might need to make a break for it soon, and tried to think of a way out of the web of lies Ash had helped him into. "Well... you see... uh why don't I just go and get him to tell you!" Cal said as he turned and ran out the door, giving Ash's Pokémon an order to stall the girls as he fled.

The girls were actually to stunned by his evasion, to give Cal chase right away; when they did eventually decide to hunt him down Pikachu and Eevee stood definitely in their way. Dena, Diana and Aura each took out a Poké Ball, knowing that Ash's Pokémon were strong and wouldn't go down without a hard fight, and readied themselves to face off against the duo; only to be stopped by Serena who told them she would handle these two, and that they should go around back to cut Cal off.

The girls reluctantly did as they were asked and left Serena to handle Ash's partners by herself, as they went to hunt down Cal. They barely had to go a minute before they spotted him and after making eye contact they got involved with an over two hour long chase: jumping over street vendors, climbing fences, running in and out of alleyways, dodging the cops who had been called by said street vendors, and eventually ending in a food court of a small mall.

"I-I give up." Cal said through exhausted gasps for air as he slumped at one of the food courts tables.

"Finally, man that was exhausting." Dena said as she joined Cal at his table, sitting wearily across from him.

"Now you're going to tell us everything... once Serena gets here with some water." Diana said as she and Aura each took a seat next to Cal trapping him at the table.

They waited fifteen minutes after sending Serena a text telling her their location as well as beg her to bring food and water; and thankfully she didn't skip out on either. In between gulps of water and munching on food the group asked her how she managed to defeat Pikachu and Eevee all by herself.

"Oh that was easy; I distracted Eevee by sending out Sylveon, it was pretty obvious he had a thing for her." Serena whispered so Sylveon and Eevee couldn't hear her from their seat at her feet.

"As for Pikachu, well he couldn't find it in him to attack me, I guess he just likes me too much; don't you Pikachu." Serena said as she gave Pikachu a loving scratch behind his ear that caused him to coo with bliss.

"Oh. Well good job, Serena." Aura said, a little surprised by how easily Ash's team had been disabled by the honey blonde girl.

"Thanks Aura, but I think we should move on to more pressing matters; right Cal?" Serena said her blue eyes turning icy as they fell on him.

If Serena's ice cold stare wasn't bad enough, Cal also got three other menacing looks that ranged from blazing hot fury to arctic nether lands. The navy haired teen was no match against the death glares from his friends and crumbled under their oppressive gazes. He told them everything he knew from the letter, who it was from, and where Ash was going.

After hearing Cal's confession Serena calmly stood up, picked up Pikachu, and called Sylveon and Eevee to follow her. She then began walking towards the exit, talking calm and relaxed steps as she left. Her friends all looked at each other, sharing in their confusion, before getting up and jogging over to her.

"Serena are you alright?" Diana asked, nervous that Serena had blown a fuse after hearing the ridiculous thing Ash and Cal had put them through.

Serena cast a smile smile over to Diana. "I'm fine, everything is fine." She said plainly before continuing her easygoing pace.

"Really? Because you were all panicky before and now you're too calm." Dena said bluntly.

"That was when I thought Ash was in danger. Now that I know he's not, I'm doing much better."

"What makes you so certain Ash isn't in danger?" Aura asked, saying what everyone was thinking but not wanting to say.

"Oh that's because the man he's meeting is Mr. Stone, who is the father of our friend Steven Stone. So I at least know he's not being chased around by gang leaders or anything like that." Serena said, making a left turn as they left the mall.

"Okay Serena, one last question. Where are we going?" Cal asked tentatively, as he was uncertain if she was still upset with him.

"We're going to Devon Corp., Ash is there and we need to have a talk about what he can and can't keep from me-us." A slight bit of her earlier frustration creeped into her voice and made everyone stay silent for the remainder of their walk.

The only sounds that any of them made for the next hour, came from the beat of their shoes against the pavement and the Pokémon chatter between Sylveon and Eevee as they tried to turn the tense situation into a pleasant stroll. Eventually the group of people and Pokémon, reached a large building with the words DEVON CORPORATION plastered across the top of the building in large golden letters.

"Looks like we're here." Dena said, stating the obvious. "Now what are you going to do?"

Serena looked at the top of the building and hardened her gaze at the rooms she felt Ash was; she then pointed her finger at the rooms she'd set her gaze upon and said. "I'm going to go up there, drag Ash out of his meeting, and have a long discussion about him lying to me; and getting Cal to lie for him."

Her friends nodded, approving of her plan; but before they could even take a step closer to the building the rooms Serena had been pointing at exploded in a ball of fire. The group watched in shock and terror as fire rained down from the top floor. They all began backing up and taking out their phones to dial the fire department, when reality hit Serena like a blow to the heart.

"Ash... Ash. ASH!" She screamed and ran straight towards the building only to be held back by Dena who grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a hug that kept Serena facing away from the flames while giving her full visibility of the fire.

"You running into there would only make it that much harder for Ash to get out; he'd be to concerned with getting you out unharmed that he wouldn't be able to take care of himself." Dena said as she held her cousins head against her shoulder.

"But I could-" Serena began to say only to be stopped by Diana.

"You can stay here where it's safe and wait for the firefighters to arrive and take care of this. You charging in there would also make it harder for the firefighters to do their job and rescue Ash. Now why don't we move back to Cal and stay out of the way of the firefighters."

Serena nodded and took Diana's hand as she and Aura lead her away from the blazing building. Dena was about to follow when she saw a large figure limping over to the edge of the burning fifth floor; a second passed and Dena watched in silent horror as the figure jumped, a red and white hat getting blown off their head and burnt in the flames as they fell the five stories.

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Duh-duh-dah! Dramatic cliffhanger! 😈
I hope you guys liked this chapter, it wasn't supposed to end so ominously but I sort of just went with my gut and this happened; I'm actually kinda glad because the next chapter I'm going to do a flashback to Ash's visit to Devon corp and this explosion just made it a lot easier,(somehow).

Anyways vote and comment for anything you liked, and I expect to see at least one "Well that escalated quickly." Comments. I will be severely disappointed if I do not get one.(but not really) Thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next chapter.😁

Shoutouts:ASHKETCHUM190495 Shiny_Dunsparce Snow_Ice_Queen Shattered_Natari and amourfangirl1