By the time Misty had finally calmed down, the police had already reached the mall. Immediately, a burly officer pulled Ash aside and began questioning him. Ash, however, knew he didn't have the patience nor the time at the moment to talk. He had to find Dawn and Zoey as soon as possible.
"Look! I already told you I didn't do anything! Now I have other things to attend to!" Ash snapped furiously at the officer.
Unfortunately, showing a harsh attitude did nothing but make Ash appear even more suspicious. Shaking his head, the officer shook his head and replied, "Listen, son, acting like that isn't helping anyone, especially not you! Now, we need you to come down to the station and-"
As Ash and the policeman continued to argue, Misty glanced over at Paul's body as a pool of blood formed under it. Without a word, a nearby officer stood over the body with a look of pure disbelief, tears streaming down the sides of his cheeks. That was when Misty realized that man was Paul's cousin, who she had met at a party once.
Looking around, Misty caught sight of two or three more bodies lying on the floor, cold and unmoving. 'This is so horrible...' Misty thought sadly, 'So many people were hurt...and Paul...why...why did this have to happen?' Suddenly, she felt a hand wrap around her own. Looking up, she saw that it was Ash.
"C'mon...let's go..." he whispered as he pulled her out to the parking lot, somehow getting past all of the police without being noticed. Once they reached the car, Ash took off his hat and wiped his forehead. "How'd you convince him you didn't do it?" Misty asked as Ash opened the car door for her.
"The police these days are nothing but fakes nowadays," Ash remarked as he got into the driver's seat and turned on the engine, "All I had to do was slip a hundred-dollar bill into his open palm and I was good to go!" Misty didn't say anything as the car drove out of the parking lot and moved onto the highway.
After a few minutes of silent driving, Misty looked at Ash and pleaded, "Ash...listen...about what happened four years ago at that contest...I didn't mean to get so upset with you...I...I...just felt betrayed, and I-" Ash cut Misty off by bending over and kissing her powerfully on the lips.
When they separated, Ash quickly turned his eyes back to the road and said, "Misty...I'm not mad at you...I never was. I blame myself for allowing May to have taken advantage of me like that...I don't love her, Misty...I love you...and nothing will ever change that..." At this point, Misty couldn't stop the tears of happiness that began to flow from her eyes.
"Ash...I love you..."
"I love you, too...Misty..."
Somewhere out of town...
Harry Luxford, owner of a small gunshop, had expected today to be like any other day, slow and uneventful. Instead, he found himself trying to make a successful business deal with a psychotic red-head. "Listen, little girlie!" he snapped, "If you plan on buying one of these hand-crafted weapons, you're gonna need to act a little more civilized!"
The red-head wasn't about to give up however, it seemed. "F-Fine...just give me a pistol or something...I don't care..." she hissed as she slammed money down on the table. After showing her license and everything, the girl smiled to herself as she stuffed the gun into her pocket and ran out into her car.
As he watched her drive away, Harry let out a cough and thought, 'Hmm...Zoey, eh? Looks a little messed up in the noggin, if you know what I mean...'
"DAWN! ZOEY! ARE YOU GUYS IN HERE?"
As Ash and Misty stepped into the apartment complex, it became clearly evident that neither girl was present at the moment. Misty looked around a bit and muttered, "So...this is where you've been living for four years? How depressing..."
"Oh, crap! I was hoping that Dawn had found Zoey and brought her back here, but I was wrong! This isn't good!" Ash exclaimed, his face covered in sweat. Suddenly, Pikachu hopped out of nowhere and picked up a small folded piece of paper on the table.
"Pi! Pika Pika Pi!"
Taking the letter from Pikachu's little fingers, Ash slowly opened it up. His eyes barely scanned over it as he started to read aloud.
" 'Ash, I want to finish up our little confrontation from before. Come and meet me at the docks tonight at 8 p.m. Be prepared...' "
As he looked over the letter for the umptenth time, Ash's hands began to tremble. His entire body almost seemed to be shaking with fear. Not fear for his own life, but fear for others. Misty looked down at the letter, than up at Ash.
"...Ash...please...please don't go...you'll get killed...just like Paul! I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!" Misty cried. Ash just slipped the paper into his pocket and turned to Misty. Suddenly, his serious face broke out into a playful grin.
"Well," he said, "You always used to keep me out of trouble when we were kids. It would be best if you came, too...you are the seme, anyway..." This resulted in Misty giving him a rather large bonk on the head. 'Just like old times!' Ash thought as he rubbed the swollen bump that had formed on his scalp.
'Still...it looks like it's up to Dawn to find Zoey now...I really hope everything ends up all right in the end...'
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