After their encounter with Team Shade and the mysterious Agent Charger, along with a rather refreshing meal; the girls decide to hurry back to the rest of their group before anything else happened. Practically sprinting, the trio rushed back to the clinic, with a few leftovers from their meal, and down the hall to the boys room.

As they reached the room they heard what sounded like someone crying loudly and, fearing the worst, burst into the room armed with throwing pastries. What they found however was the complete opposite of the dire situation they had been expecting.

The crying, or the laughing as it were, was coming from Cal and Braxien, who were joyously admiring her handy work. Sitting across from them was a Pikachu faced glamafied Serena, who was less than pleased with Dena's and Braxien's artistic design.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally came back to admire her apprentices workmanship!" There was an obvious bite in Serena's words that Dena completely brushed aside with a shrug.

"We got side tracked by some weirdos trying to kidnap us and one who saved us, then bought us pastries; speaking of which we brought some back for you."

Dena tossed Serena a brown bag with a pair of sweet croissants and a chocolate muffin, which she caught with a pair of colorful nails. "Hmm, the little Pokémon on her nails are a nice touch, Braxien." Dena commented on her protégés extra effort.

"Enough about my nails." Serena ordered, a slightly peeved edge residing in her tone. "Tell me what happened with the kidnapers."

"Wait, who got kidnaped?" Ash asked in confusion, as he walked into the room carrying a small metal box.

"No one's been kidnaped. But what's up with the med-box?" Diana asked.

"Serena needed something to whip the marker off her face, thanks by the way, and she refused to go out with it on."

"You try walking around with a Pokémon face painted across your face and see how helpful people are." Serena huffed, as if having a Pokémon face was a common occurrence for her.

"Right. At any rate Cal and Braxien were of no help, leaving me to ask the nurses for some supplies to clean her face." Ash began opening up the med kit and unpacking some cleaning supplies. "Oh and while I was there the nurses told me someone had spiked the food and drinks with Rage Powder. They said the police couldn't press charges until the culprit is found and that we're free to go whenever we're ready.

"Then we should get out of dodge as fast as we can." Dena said, a level of maturity in her statement that was rather unlike her, and made her request ever more urgent in appearance.

Ash had been dabbling a cloth with rubbing alcohol, but turned his attention away from his task to address Dena's statement. "What's with the sudden desire to leave? We've barely even seen half the city."

Aura frowned sourly at his statement, "And the half that you have seen now has a new burnt spot and a cave in." She knew she was being unfair to him, since both times had been caused by Team Shades mischief; but she was feeling rather bitter after losing her home.

Ash decided to take Aura's retort as an expression of her loss and didn't hold it against her. "I suppose trouble does have a way of following us. It would probably be in the cities best interest if we left asap."

Diana nodded in agreement before saying, "Not to mention there's a deranged woman hunting for us and our movements are rather restricted down here."

Serena couldn't look at Diana due to Ash cleaning the marker off her face but her tone conveyed her frustration. "Is this woman part of your potential kidnappers, whom three have yet to tell us about!"

"Yeah she's like their boss or something." Dena replied completely disregarding her cousins agitation. "She was way scary though. Causing street thug to run in fear with a single kick, threatening to use us as hostages, and squaring off with the international police, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke."

Ash continued to clean off Serena's face but now was just as interested in the kidnapping event as Serena, and joined her in her escapade to compel the story out of Dena. After awhile of skirting around the topic, and a bribe of Serena's chocolate muffin, Dena finally told them the whole story, explaining every little tidbit of the escapade in great detail. By the time Dena was wrapped up herb story with Charger loosing his watch, Ash had completely cleaned up Serena's face and both of them were staring at the ground with troubled expressions.

Their uneasy looks remained on their faces until Cal said something that was actually helpful. "If there's a crazy lady hunting and she just got her butt handed to her, she's probably laying low and treating her Pokémon."

"Which means she won't be able to go after us for a while." Diana said, finishing Cal's thought.

"Exactly and we can use that time to get our stuff and make a break for the next town."

Aura nodded approvingly, "Great plan, Cal, but not everyone has their things in the same place as you four."

"Wait, since when are you coming with us?" Cal asked, perplexed by the sudden addition to their group.

"Since it's safer in numbers, and since you and Ash rescued me last time. Unless of course you prefer I travel alone?" Aura added the last statement just to pull the rug from underneath the Cal, giving him a little extra nudge convincing him that she should travel with them.

"No, no. I just was surprised to learn we'd gained a new member." Cal said frantically as he tried to smooth over his blunder, "Welcome to the team, Aura-"

"I'm coming too." Diana said, in a way that left no room for discussion.

"-and Diana."

Dena giggled at Cal's discomfort and deterred the conversation away from him, saving him from any continued embarrassment. "So now that we've got the travel arrangements sorted out, how about we get going. If we leave now we should be able to make it to the hotel and grab our stuff before psycho chick comes after us again."

Dena's idea of leaving at that moment was one that everyone in the room agreed upon. However her decision to head to the hotel caused a fifty-fifty split in the groups plan of action. Serena and Cal were all aboard the hotel plan, since that was where most of their belongings were.

Aura and Diana, however, had their belongings stashed elsewhere and would have to, temporarily, separate from the rest of the group to retrieve them. Ash also had to go elsewhere for he had yet to acquire whatever Aura's grandfather had for him, and felt it was important for him to go to the old man before he left the city. After a brief discussion through the clinic halls the group reached an accord and had their plan of attack.

Dena, Serena and Cal would head off to the hotel and pack up everything they needed for the journey; meanwhile Ash, Aura, and Diana would head in the direction of Aura's grandfathers shack. Diana was only going to walk with the two until she was close enough to her lodgings where she felt comfortable enough with going solo. From there she planned on getting escorted to the city exits by her brother; whom, she expected, would be gone by the time the rest of the group arrived, as per his lone wolfish nature.

With their plans all laid out the group grabbed the Pokémon and headed out in the doors to fulfill their missions. As they separated, Serena stole a glance back at Ash not wanting to be separated from him at this dangerous time. Resisting her urge to follow Ash, Serena pressed on towards their hotel, knowing that he'd be able to handle whatever life threw at him.

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They didn't have to walk for long before they arrived at their hotel, and once they entered the extravagant building they were greeted with a, rather pleasant, surprise. All of their bags and belongings had been neatly stacked on a dolly by the front desk, and were safely being guarded by a hotel employee reading a magazine.

"A mysterious man concealed in a cloak came in here a little while ago," The employee said from behind his piece of literature. "Saying stuff about being with the international police and you guys needing to leave in a hurry." He then lowered his periodical just enough for the girls to identify the sly face of their former hotel escort, Sicarius.

"After I heard that I took it upon myself to have your stuff packed up and brought down here. I even swiped some of the hotel soaps and a few towels for you since, you know, I forgot to bring you the lunch I promised." Sicarius seemed genuinely remorseful for forgetting to feed them two days ago.

The three hastily grabbed their luggage, grateful to Sicarius and Charger for having their things ready for them. Thanking the employee for his help and forgiving him for his forgetfulness, before making their way to the exit. Before they reached the door though Sicarius stopped them having more to say.

"The police officer also said you might have come across a white watch when you last saw him." The question he was asking rather obvious Dena produced the watch and hesitantly handed it over to Sicarius.

"Don't worry, I promise I'll get this back to its rightful owner." He said as he pocketed the watch. "You three should get going though, don't want the time you gained to go to waste."

Serena nodded and tossed a parting "thank you " over her shoulder, as she jogged out of the building with Cal and Dena at her heels. As the three exited the building Sicarius said something so quietly that only Dena, being the last one out, heard; but she was rather unsure if she had actually heard him say, "Take care you three, I hope we meet again someday." or if she had just remembered what Charger had said to her just a few hours ago.

Unable to dwell on what Sicarius may, or may not, have said, Dena jogged after her friends as they made their way to the rendezvous point to wait for the rest of their group to arrive. Unknown to them, at the time, the perils that their friends were facing, and how deeply these strifes would affect the future of their journey.

To be continued...

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I know I haven't had a, I think this is a footnote, in a while but I've been trying to pump out chapters unhindered by the addition of these notes. If you guys prefer the addition of these, please tell me cause I put these in mainly to help clear up any confusion you have with the chapter, but also to thank the readers who are persistently reading my stories.

Sticking with what I just said, I'd like to thank Ash-GreninjaGirl, Amourshipper444, and AmourAuraGaurdian19 for being great supporters of my stories. I'd also like to thank everyone else who has voted, commented, and or added my stories to their reading lists, the appreciation you guys show for my work helps compel me to write more and better chapters.

Anyways thanks for reading, feel free to vote and/or comment and I hope you all enjoy.