Sean couldn't remember falling asleep. He could only remember feeling warm. After shivering for so many hours, it had felt so good to have his body warm up enough to relax. He felt comfortable. Then Pryce kicked his foot, jarring Sean awake as he stated out. "Morning, boys. Ready to go?" Sean groggily let his eyes adjust to the soft light in the cave. It had to be really early because he could feel the chill still in the air. He started to lay back down to sleep, when he realized who he was sleeping with. Jerking upright, he blushed with embarrassment. Had he slept on Mark's chest all night? Noticing Mark's jacket was over him, he tugged it off and staggered to his feet. Pryce flashed him a smirk, smugly stating out. "See? I knew you two could get along." Sean threw the Instinct leather jacket at Mark's chest roughly, defensively uttering out. "Shut up! Nothing happened!" The jacket hit Mark hard enough to wake him with a grunting start. Moving away from Mark, Sean glared at Pryce and tried to change the subject by snapping out. "What are you smirking about? Let's get a move on!"

Pryce kept his smirk as he reached out to help Mark up onto his feet. Mark adjusted his jacket, slipping it back on with a loud yawn as he stretched his arms out. The Dragonites all rose up on all fours, stretching out their limbs in turn with loud yawns of their own. Pryce walked to a Dragonite to pet its neck. Sean removed his hat to fix his hair, sneaking a look at Mark. Would he be as smug as Pryce was over seeing them together? Mark adjusted his own clothes, his hand rubbing his side where he had been laying on him. Mark didn't act like it had meant anything. Relief filled Sean, but he couldn't stop his cheeks from burning. Just before he was going to look away, Mark finally looked in his direction and winked at him with a beautiful smile. Sean's heart fell to the pit of his stomach, causing him to avert his eyes quickly. Closing his eyes, Sean shook his head subtly and cursed internally. He took it back. He was an ass. Pryce led his Dragonite to the edge of the water, telling them confidently. "Anyone want to go first?" To avoid further embarrassment, Sean reached out for the reins.

Pryce gave Sean the reins and Sean turned his hat around. The Dragonite bent down on all fours, but Sean just jumped into the water on his own. The Dragonite gently crawled into the water, staying close enough that Sean could wrap his arms around its neck. Taking a deep breath, Sean dived and the Dragonite followed him. While the water was brighter, he still couldn't see with all the salt water. He had no choice but to rely on Dragonite. Sliding onto his back, he held on as Dragonite swam through the water faster than he could. Finding a tunnel, Dragonite dived deeper into it. As certain fish got too close, Dragonite would snap at them to scare them off. Sean had never been very good at holding his breath. His lungs began burning halfway through the underwater tunnel. After exiting the tunnel, Dragonite spread his leathery wings in the water to swim faster for the surface. Breaching the surface, Sean gasped for air as he laid over Dragonite's back. Dragonite glanced around the open area, before swimming slowly to the edge. Coughing, Sean slid off Dragonite to climb out of the water and sat on the shore a minute.

Wringing out his shirt, he mumbled out to Dragonite. "I hate being wet..." Dragonite snorted water from its nose, staying in the water as it listened. Sean examined this new portion of the cave, shaking his head as he said. "Great. No tracks... and about... six tunnels to try... Just great." Sighing, Sean waved the Dragonite away, telling it coolly. "You can go get the others now." Dragonite let out a small moaning call, before sinking seamlessly back below the water. Staggering to his feet, Sean slowly started inspecting the entrances of the tunnels. There were some tracks present, that were heading away from the tunnels. He wasn't very good at telling what pokemon they had come from though because there were so many overlapping tracks, but the tracks were small in general. Moving to the next tunnel, he froze after hearing a soft fluttering noise. Staring deep into the dark tunnel, he saw what looked to be the outline of some Zubats hanging from the ceiling. Taking a slow step backward, a hand dropped on his shoulder and he clapped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from yelling. Jumping away from the hand, he whirled around to see Nate.

Nate pulled his hand back, asking him with concern. "You alright? Where are the others?" Sean dropped his hands as his fear turned to boiling anger. Locking his jaw, he balled his fist and punched Nate across the face. Caught off guard, the blow struck Nate's cheekbone and knocked him back off his feet. Nate grunted as he hit the ground, before a human sized black fox with red hair lunged toward him to let out a vicious throaty snarl. Sean stepped backward, raising his hands to his lips as he cautiously shushed the snarling fox. He had never seen anything like this pokemon, but it moved fast to stand between him and Nate. A smaller hedgehog looking pokemon, dashed over to Nate to nuzzle his face with small cooing whines. A Cyndaquil. He had seen some Valor people with that pokemon. They usually specialized in fire types. Had Nate been apart of team Valor? To his utter shock, the fox bared her sparkling white teeth and sneered out in a threatening feminine voice. "While that was warranted... Keep your hands to yourself! Or I'll bite them off!"

Nate slowly sat up, raising a hand out to tug on the fox's long busy tail as he gruffly groaned out. "Easy, Zoey. I deserved that..." From the water a short distance away, the Dragonites came up with Mark and Pryce. Zoey's attention became divided between Sean and the others, causing her to get really tense. Sean looked to the others, feeling very uneasy himself. He didn't like being so close to Zubats without pokemon or bottles of scent spray to repel them. Climbing out of the water, Mark was the first to see them. Sean raised his hands to gesture for him to be cool, but Mark stormed over, snapping aloud. "Hey! Give us back our pokemon, you dick!" Zoey jumped to land between Nate and Mark, snarling out with her long red claws at the ready. "Stay back unless you want to lose your eyeballs too!" Nate grunted as he struggled to get up on his good leg, telling everyone. "Guys, let's just all calm down for a minute." Mark huffed, retorting darkly. "Ok. Give us our pokemon and I'll think about not dragging you to the police station when we get out of here."

Zoey puffed herself up, growling out just as darkly. "You are in no position to tell us what to do! You should be thankful we came back at all!" Pryce crept forward, calmly interjecting. "We are grateful that you came back. But we have to work something out. Let's be rational about this. Just give us back our stuff and we'll pretend this never happened." Sean nervously glanced toward the cave, then the group. Their voices were echoing in this cave and if they got too loud it would startle the Zubats. Zoey looked over her shoulder to see Nate's reaction, when Nate blurted out stubbornly. "I can't do that. No. I'll give you your bags and the stuff I don't need... but everything else is mine." Mark tensed, sternly replying. "You are not leaving this cave with them! They don't belong to you!" Nate pointed an accusing finger at him, shooting right back. "Too fucking bad! I have a job to do. That doesn't end because your feelings get hurt." Mark lunged forward just to get shoved back by Zoey. Mark fell across the ground, causing Pryce to quickly rush out. "Now wait just a damn minute!"

Pryce took a deep breath, reluctantly telling Nate in a calm voice. "Give us our pokemon back and I'll give you information that is worth their weight in gold to Giovanni." Nate's eyes turned softer as he asked a bit cautiously. "Tell me and I'll judge that for myself!" From the ground, Mark snapped out bitterly. "Don't tell him anything!" Pryce closed his eyes, taking a slow intake of breath before telling Nate openly. "Giovanni is sick, and you are holding the only pokemon that has the cure." Sean watched Nate look almost horrified by the news as he blurted back defensively. "You lie! He's fine!" Pryce shook his head, sounding genuinely honest as he said. "He is... He just doesn't know it yet. In the time I came from... I was working with him. The deal was that I'd use Celebi to save my pokemon... and then I'd give it to him to save his life. If you bring him Celebi... You can save him from the pain he suffers in the future. Celebi alone is worth more than their pokemon. It's uncatchable. You are holding the only one to ever be caught."

Mark climbed to his feet, rushing out in complete horror. "What are you doing?! You can't give Celebi to him! It's too dangerous!" Sean had to agree. Team Rocket were the worst people to give any powerful pokemon too. With enough power they'd conquer whole regions without a fight. Pryce lowered his hands, relaxing the tension from his body as he told Nate hopefully. "Listen to me, Kid. I've known Giovanni longer than you. Don't give him the bare minimum of what he wants. Give him what he didn't know he needed." Sean thought it sounded legit, until Nate narrowed his eyes on Pryce and bluntly asked him. "You think you know him better than me? Really? What's his favorite drink?" Pryce raised an eyebrow but answered carelessly. "He drinks coffee. Cappuccinos, if I recall. Expensive scotch from time to time." Nate scoffed, shooting back defiantly. "You're wrong. His favorite is a watermelon slushie cocktail. He only goes to beaches that serve it. You may know him where you came from... but you don't know ANYTHING about him in MY time."

Nate inhaled deeply, shaking his head as he told all of them. "I stand by what I said. Take it or leave it." Mark turned his eyes to Nate, asking a little confused and curious. "You know what your boss's favorite drink is? What are you? His secretary?" Nate glared at Mark, snapping back defensively. "He didn't become my boss until recently. He's my friend." Mark huffed, dryly mumbling out. "I have friends and I don't know their favorite drinks... Oh, wait... Do you like him?" Nate's jaw clenched, prompting Mark to chuckle out. "Holy shit... You're in love with your boss!" Zoey let out a deep growl, warning Mark. "I'd quit while you have your head... before you lose it." Mark glared at Zoey, retorting firmly. "You're letting him steal pokemon for Team Rocket. You know what they do to pokemon? How can you go along with it!" Zoey crackled her knuckles by curling her fingers upon replying seriously. "Team Rocket is no different from YOUR Teams. But I don't it for Team Rocket. I do it for Nate. And right now, my place is right here. Keeping you from hurting him."

Sean's eyes drifted to Nate while Mark argued morality with Zoey. Nate hadn't denied it and even if he tried too... Sean could tell by his guilty look. He didn't know anything about Giovanni, but he wondered if Giovanni was the reason that Nate had left one of the Teams. Thinking about the love of his own family, he inched forward and asked Nate discreetly while the others were distracted. "Nate... Please." Nate turned guarded eyes on him, causing Sean to lower his eyes as he shuddered out. "I'll give you anything and everything else that I own... but please don't take them from me... They mean more to me than my own life." Nate shook his head subtly with a locked jaw. Dropping to his knees, tears fell from Sean's eyes as he told him in a broken voice. "Nate... I raised them. They're my kids... you take them from me... and you might as well leave me behind to die." Looking up into Nate's eyes, he told him desperately through more tears. "What would you do for your family?" Nate's sudden fragile eyes drifted to Zoey.

Zoey was no longer fighting with Mark; she was looking at Nate with motherly eyes. Cyndaquil put a tiny foot on Nate's leg, getting him to look down at him. When he did, the Cyndaquil let out a small whine. After which, Nate closed his eyes and exhaled out softly. "Zoey... Give them back." Sean raised his hands to wipe his tears away with his sleeves as Zoey shrugged off the grey bag from her shoulder. Unzipping it, she removed their belts with pokeballs on them and tossed them to each of them in turn. Sean caught his belt and took a minute to just hug it with overwhelming relief. Zoey gave them back their bags, but Sean noticed that some things were still missing. The Prism Scale was still in Nate's possession and the G.S. Ball, but he couldn't bring himself to really worry about that right now. Hefting the bag back on, Zoey moved to Nate and pulled him into a tight hug. She whispered something to him, but her voice was too low for him to hear. After a minute, Zoey pulled away from him and picked Cyndaquil up to let Nate hold onto him.

Standing back up after putting his belt back on, Sean told Nate with respect. "Thank you." Nate nodded a bit grimly, mumbling out under his breath. "Giovanni's gonna kill me..." Limping toward a tunnel that Sean hadn't looked over yet, Nate told them all over his shoulder in a tired tone of voice. "Come on. This way." Zoey trotted over to help him, uttering out in a motherly voice. "Nate, you should call out Dash... You haven't slept all night. You need to rest." The others started to follow Nate, but just as Sean took a single step. A deep roar came from the Zubat tunnel. Everyone froze, before slowly turning to look at him. Sean closed his eyes, listening to the sudden rush of fluttering wings. Shaking his head with disappointment, Sean yelped out to the others. "RUN!" From the tunnel behind him, thousands of Zubats swarmed out and wildly flew around the cave looking for an exit with high pitched squeaks and chittering. Something big was traveling through the tunnel and causing the ground to shake. Zoey picked up Nate, running along with them as they raced into the tunnel. Ahead of him, Mark yelled back over his shoulder. "What the hell was that?"

The Zubats rushed into the tunnel with them, fluttering around them in a craze. One hit Sean's neck and in its confused fury it bit him! Screaming in pain from the Zubats small vampiric fangs, Sean stumbled and rolled across the ground. Rolling back up onto his knee, Sean grabbed the bat at threw it off of him. The damage was done though. As Sean got to his feet, the blood on his neck attracted more and they swarmed him. He screamed as they sought out flesh to bite, while Mark yelled out from somewhere. "Sean! Hang on! Raichu! I choose you!" Raichu hovered out to him, hunching up to immediately start charging itself for an electrical attack. Its body sparking brightly in the dimly lit tunnel as it hovered on its tail. Sean braced himself to be shocked... when the Zubats screeched and fled farther into the tunnel. Raichu stopped charging, its curled ears twitching as it looked up and stated with a perplexed look. "Rai...?" Sean rubbed his arms and neck, watching both Raichu and Mark's eyes widen.

Exhaling with grim disappointment, Sean slowly turned to look for himself. The second he did, he regretted it. Hot breath puffed over his face from the nostrils of a Steelix with a bright red ruby body and bluish white crystals protruding from all over its body. Taking a step back, he shakily uttered out. "A Ruby Steelix... Oh, fuck me..." To Be Continued...