Dena walked out of the cafe, four coffees in one hand and a bag of biscuits in the other. She strolled through the clinics hallways until she came upon a room with the words Ketchum and Ren written across the door. The doctors had decided to keep everyone who'd been poisoned under surveillance for the night and had assigned them with their own room.

Putting the biscuit bag in her mouth Dena grabbed the door handle and entered the room, saying "I have returned with life restoring beverages", upon her entry. However with the bag in her mouth she sounded more like, "Mh hmm mmhmh mhm mhh mmhhmh mhhmhm!"

In the room Ash and Cal lay sound asleep on two hospital beds, Diana, Aura, Braxien and Serena were all scattered around the room. Aura and Diana had taken refuge at a small table and had been keeping themselves awake with a game of War. Serena and Braxien had each set up camp next to Ash's and Cal's bedsides, respectively.

All four looked up from their seats at Dena's theatrical entrance. They were very confused as to her mmhming and looked at her as if she had lost her marbles. It was only after she spat out the bag that they understood what she was saying, but by that time the mood had been lost. Dena felt discouraged by their lack of appreciation for her dramatic entrance and decided to toy with them by holding their coffee hostage.

"You would deprive us of our coffee!?" Diana asked in horror.

"Dena, think of the innocent." Aura said. "Look at poor Serena. She's been up all night watching over Ash, and looks like she'll drop at any moment."

Serena did look rather exhausted but still refused to sleep, "No, I'm...yaaah... fine. I just need meh coffee." She said with a sleepy yawn.

Aura quickly recanted her remark about Serena needing coffee and changed it to her needing sleep, which earned her a cup of joe. Dena continued her tyrannical embargo on the coffee for another five minutes but eventually became bored with her tomfoolery  and gave Diana, the life sustaining nectar she required. When Serena reached for it, however, she was greeted with empty air.

"Oh no, none for you." Dena said coldly as she passed her drink off to Braxien who slurped it down with gusto.

"M-my coffee." Serena whimpered, broken heartedly. Her gaze hardened for a second on her traitorous Pokémon, who simply smiled at her from across Ash's chest.

"We're doing this for your own good, Serena."

"Uhhhhhhhh." Was Serena's only reply as she buried her head in the sheets of Ash's hospital bed.

"Serena you've been up all night. Ash isn't going anywhere and you need to get some rest. You're no good to anyone as you are now."

"Nooo. I'mm pearfectly okay." She protested with half her face drooping in exhaustion.

Dena could take no more of Serena's antics, "That's it no more Mrs. nice girl. It's time for the heavy artillery."

The way Dena had phrased her sentence awoke an old memory from Serena's childhood causing her dreary eyes to open wide in horror. Just judging from her reaction Aura and Diana knew they were in for a show and took up seats next to Braxien as they waited for the spectacle to unfold.

"Dena, no!"

"Too late, it's happening sweetheart." Dena responded and promptly began singing in an enchanting, honey rich, mezzo-soprano pitch.

"To the Fear-ow on high;
To the Spear-ow that fly;
Hear, my parting, lu-ul-aby."

"Dena... stup... Ehm... nut...-." Serena groggily protested, to which Dena simply closed her eyes to block out the distraction.

"The breeze is low;
As the light does go;
Away, to the land, where dreams, do grow."

When Dena finished she opened her eyes to see Serena snoozing peacefully at Ash's side. She also saw that her three on watchers were giving her a silent standing aviation, of which she graciously accepted with a small curtsy and a mirthful grin.

"That was lovely, Dena." Diana whispered softly, so as not to reawaken the girl Dena had so effortlessly put to sleep.

Aura nodded in agreement. "Why did Serena not want you to do that? Other than the obvious of course."

In the time the two had spoken Dena had moved over to Serena and was leaning over her. The group assumed she was simply making sure her cousin was comfortable and waited patiently for her to finish. When she looked up though, it was clear she was up to something more nefarious than the concerned cousin role they'd been anticipating her to play.

Two red circles on her cheeks, a black triangle on her nose, two black circles around and on her eyelids, were the handy work that Dena had so quickly and carefully applied to Serena's face. Topping off her masterpiece was a wide spread coating of yellow across all unaccounted spots of Serena's complexion.

Aura and Diana gapped in horror at the defacement of Serena's face they had just witnessed. Braxien on the other hand was finding it very hard to contain her laughter at her trainers new Pikachu face. Dena was the only one unfazed by her actions, and made a move towards, a horrible shade of green, nail polish she had stashed in her bag.

Aura and Diana realized what she was going to do and rushed in to stop her. They could not allow the abuse to Serena's appearance to spread any further than it already had. Aura grabbed hold of Dena's left side, restraining the hand with the horrid polish. Diana grabbed her other side and put her hand over Dena's mouth, keeping her from waking anyone in their struggle. In response Dena licked Diana's palm, completely revolting the teen, but making her more determined not to surrender now that she'd lost her peace of mind.

The two then dragged her out of the room as Braxien lay gasping in laughter on the clinics floor. Just before she was carted out the door, Dena shot a look to the fox Pokémon. Her gaze held one clear message in it, "carry on my work for me". Braxien received the transmission and as soon as the door was shut, went to carry on the dastardly deeds.

Outside the door Aura and Diana released Dena, after she'd sworn not to try anything. She then apologized to Diana and commented on the rather pleasant flavors of her hand. What had meant to be a simple yet odd, compliment turned into a rather peculiar spectacle as Aura curiosity as to the flavoring of Diana's hand grew increasing more compelling. When she could take no more suspense Aura grabbed Diana's hand and tasted her palm.

Her eyes widened in surprise of the multitude of taste that had descended upon her taste buds. "It's like a full corse breakfast buffet on your hand." Dena smiled and nodded her agreement. "I told you her hand tastes good."

Diana had now had both of her hands sampled and was feeling a number of conflicting emotions. On the one side she was receiving complements for just being her, on the other side she had just been licked twice and was feeling very disgusted and slobbery at the moment. And on the third side her two friends were eyeing her up as if to decide whether or not eating her was worth it.

Rather than find out Diana offered up the idea of a cafe breakfast. Aura quickly got out of her cannaibalistic trance and suggested a little known shop with the best mini cakes in the whole city. Dena practically dragged the two girls out the door. If there was one thing in the world she could not resist, it would be sweets.

The trio made it all the way out to the deepest parts of the city before they realized two things. One, Dena had no idea where she was going and had inadvertently gotten them lost in a 'not so glamorous' side of town. And two, not a single one of them had brought a Pokémon with them.

They had all left their partners to their own devices the previous night and hadn't gone to retrieve them in the morning. Most likely their partners were still resting beside their sickly Pokémon pals, who had been placed in a large room of their own as they recovered from their illness. Meanwhile their trainers were faced with a shady group of people, who had probably pegged them as their next targets; and were following them through the city.

A few seconds of the stalking was all Dena needed to get mad and acting on her anger, she brashly turned to face their shadows.

"If you're going to keep following us you might as well be useful and point us towards Puff Pastries, so we can get at least get a bit to eat before we mugged!"

Her outburst had been so outlandish and absurd, that no one knew quite how to respond to it. One of the thugs slowly raised a hand and was about to provide her with the directions to the shop, but was stopped by his colleagues who instead had their Pokémon move forward to attack the girls.

Dena turned to her friends and shrugged, "It was worth a shot, now run!"

With that Dena took off leading the getaway as Diana and Aura juggled catching up with Dena and outrunning their pursuers. The group, in all its entirety, wove through the city streets like a runaway car. People dove out of the way as they saw them coming and nobody tried to stop them. It was only when Dena ran into a dead end, literally, that the chase scene stopped and the girls were faced with the thugly trainers.

Panting from the long chase, the leader of the thugs shuffled forward to demand the girls belonging. Before he could say "Hand'em over" a woman in a large grey cloak scissor kicked him in the head, causing him to crumple like a rag doll. His two lackeys stood speechless as they watched their leader fall helpless to the hard prismatic ground beneath them. The cloaked woman hefted up their boss and tossed him into them.

"Run."

They needed no more encouragement and were already out of sight when the woman turned on the girls.

"Are you three alright?"

Diana was the first to speak up, "Yes, we're fine. They didn't-"

"Good, I'd hate for my bargaining chips to get scratched."

The three girls stared in shock at what their, once savior now captor, had just said. The implications of her words were still registering with their minds as two goons, cloaks similar to the woman's, walked out from the shadows. Two lengths of ropes in each of their brutish hands.

Their non-savior savior, gave the two goons a weary scowl; looking as if they'd repeatedly disappointed her and now she'd just come to expect it. "It seems, SOMEONE, forgot to bring a third rope. So, whose ready to buddy up?"