Chapter 19

Misty's old beat-up alarm clock went off at exactly midnight, and a few minutes after Miranda had reached over and shut it off, they were both dressed and had quietly snuck out of the gym without waking anyone. The two then hopped on their bikes and coasted most of the way through a series of winding side streets, carefully avoiding the main road until they reached their destination.

As they rode through the small section of town dominated mostly by small family owned shops, Miranda heard a quietly squeaked warning in her ear. "What is it?" she asked, squeezing her handbrakes and taking her feet off the pedals as she skidded to a stop.

The rattata on her shoulder scurried down her arm to stand upon the bike's handlebars before sniffing the air again. "Nez," he confirmed with a nod, glancing meaningfully at Misty as she skidded to a stop beside Miranda.

"Something wrong?" she inquired, straining her ears to hear what concerned the little rodent so much, but all that she could make out was the gentle hum of the street lamps and quiet gurgling of the river only a block or so away.

"We're being watched," Miranda replied, leaning back and peering into the darkened storefronts as she slowly drew her bokken, "Any idea where, Nezumi?"

The rattata closed his eyes and stood on his hindquarters, his whiskers twitching slightly as he moved his head slowly from side to side. "Ra," he replied sadly glancing around with equal suspicion.

"It could be nothing," Misty offered, zipping her coat up a little higher as a sudden cold wind blew past them, heralding the entrance of a dark figure from a nearby alleyway.

"Nothing?" inquired Ash in a bitter tone as he stepped out into the street, "That's where you're wrong, 'old friend'."

"No," replied Miranda thoughtfully, "I think Misty's right. It was nothing."

"What?!" the trainer exclaimed angrily, "Pikachu! Thu-! What-? Where-?!"

There was a quiet snickering as Ash ran back into the alley and came back a moment later with a struggling pikachu in his arms. "Misty!" the trainer called out formally, setting the pokemon down but keeping a firm hold of the creature's shoulders, "I- I challenge you!"

Misty sighed, hiding her face in her hand as she shook her head in dismay. "We really don't have time for this," she muttered, glancing at him from between two fingers, "Why don't you just go home? I'm sure there's a hundred or so other people you've ticked off in the last couple of years who'd love a rematch."

"I don't care!" Ash exclaimed, stomping his foot and causing his pikachu to jump a little as he stared up at Misty apprehensively, "I've spent the last month and a half studying up on gyaradoses and I'm not about to let all that time go to waste!"

"You want to have a battle? Here?" Misty exclaimed in disbelief, looking around nervously and wondering how many people Ash's ranting had woken up already, "Between Charizard and Leviathan? Are you insane?!"

"No," Ash replied simply, a cunning smile crossing his thin lips, "I intent to use Pikachu. A little lightning ought'a put you and that dragon of yours in your place."

"Whatever," Misty muttered, unzipping her coat again and pulling out a pokeball, "let's just get this over with..."

"And don't you dare interfere, cheater!" Ash warned, pointing angrily at Miranda.

"Misty can fight her own battles," the courier assured him, sheathing her sword and chuckling as Leviathan materialized beside his trainer, "And don't worry, Nezumi's saving the cryokinetics for later."

Ash glowered at her for a moment, barely noticing the loud; heavy breathing that caused a cloud of visible hot air to slowly rise all around him. Not to mention the quiet whimper that Pikachu let out as he tugged desperately at his trainer's pant leg.

"What is it now?!" he demanded at last as Miranda glanced to her right smiling, "Can't you see I'm-! Oh man!"

Leviathan's long scaly body slowly uncoiled as he arched himself higher into the air before looming dangerously close to Ash, leering hungrily down at the large yellow furred rodent at his feet. The trainer looked into the gyarados's huge dark eyes and gulped as Leviathan hungrily drooled saliva that puddled at Pikachu's feet as the monstrous, amphibious serpent looked up to meet the impudent human's gaze.

"You still wanna battle?" Misty teased, she reaching out to run her fingers affectionately across Leviathan's glistening blue scales, causing the creature to turn his enormous head around to face her, "My little friend here hasn't eaten in a few hours and he's VERY hungry. Isn't that right, you little sweetheart?"

Ash's eyes widened in disbelief as he stood stammering, watching as Misty affectionately scratched the gyarados's eye ridges until Leviathan closed his eyes contentedly and made a happy growling sound somewhere deep in his throat.

"We- We're not afraid of some overgrown magikarp! Are we, Pikachu? Pikachu?!" Ash's attempt at melodrama was brought to an abrupt halt as he glanced down at his feet and found himself alone.

"Come back here!" he shouted, running back a short distance to grab his pokemon who seemed to be in the process of sneaking away by the scruff of the neck, "Now thunderbolt that thing already!"

Leviathan's monstrous head swung around immediately, his suddenly glowing red eyes staring right into the smaller creature's soul as Ash held the hapless pikachu forward with both hands.

"Pika!" the electrokinetic rodent exclaimed in abject horror, scrambling to turn himself around in Ash's arms before tearing the lining of the trainer's coat to ribbons with his small claws in an attempt to escape.

"Your pikachu obviously doesn't want to battle," Miranda commented, not finding the situation as funny as her rattata seemed to, but making no motion to keep Nezumi from the sudden laughter he'd broken into, "Don't you know it's cruel to force someone you care about to do something they don't want to."

"Shut up!" shouted Ash accusingly, showing all too well that his maturity level still didn't match his age, "What do you know? You only do this fun! You don't take pokemon battles seriously! So stay out of this, amateur!"

Miranda sighed warily, almost feeling sorry for Ash as his desperate tone echoed in her ears, but refusing to baited by such a childish taunt. 'Well, at least she's holding it together, ' the courier thought, glancing over at Misty who was now clenching her fists as she glared at her former traveling companion.

'Goodness she's beautiful when she's angry, ' Miranda mused, blushing a bit as she felt her body react on a primal level. 'Oh my... ' the courier thought inwardly, glancing down at herself as a peculiar tingle spread though her at about the same time Misty gritted her teeth and prepared to initiate an attack, 'What an odd thing to feel at a time like this... '

As Ash practically tossed poor Pikachu towards monstrous gyarados, Misty's words rang out into the night. "Leviathan! Tail-whip!"

"What?!" laughed Ash as loudly and tauntingly as he could, even as the enormous serpent uncoiled his tong sinewy body and his finned tail lashed out in a wide arc, "You taught that fish of yours 'tail-whip'? Are you nuts? That's not even a real attack! It just-! Oh my-! Pikachuuuu!!!"

Had Miranda not been straddling her bike, she would have taken a step back. As she and Nezumi looked on in a mixture of awe and amusement, Leviathan snapped just the very end of his tail at Pikachu, filling the air with a quick sonic blast that rattled windows, popped everyone's eardrums and sent the smaller pokemon sailing into the air.

"No! That's not fair-!" exclaimed Ash, hopping over the serpent's tail as he ran after his airborne pikachu who slowly rotated as he swiftly fell to earth at a sharp angle, screaming the entire way.

A short moment later, a frightened ball of yellow fur collided with and completely shattered the window of a deli, sending shards of sharp glass everywhere and the sound of a wailing alarm from within that joined with Pikachu's loud, angry exclamations to form an earsplitting cacophony.

"I'll get you for this!" shouted Ash as he ran the block and a half to where his pokemon had made a crash landing before leaping through the shattered window and madly tossing aside strings of linked sausages, wheals of cheese and blocks of dried meat out into the street in an attempt to rescue his friend.

A moment later, however, a blindingly bright light illuminated the area from behind the suddenly startled trainer. "Alright, buddy," called out a bored sounding voice with a hint of a Scottish accent, "I think that'll be quite enough, don't you?"

Ash turned to face the speaker, but immediately regretted it as the pokeforce officer's flashlight blinded him. "Off- Officer, I-" he stammered, only to feel the sharp sting of metal across his wrist before being easily thrown to the floor.

"Save it for Jenny," muttered Officer Geoff in an annoyed tone, his mind still obsessing on his dismissal from his job as a Sylph Co security guard after the incident that gave Miranda Lilcamp her gastly, but he hated owing Officer Frank more than anything. Even more than taking the cop's night patrol for him.

'Oh well, ' thought Geoff, looking on the bright side for once as Ash struggled and complained, 'At least I caught myself a thief... '

Frank looked up as Bow let out a low whine. Down the street, approaching slowly from where Sea Breeze Way became Route 4, he could make out two figures on bicycles. As they approached, one waved silently.

"You ready?" the cop inquired, glancing down at the growlithe whose tail was going a mile a minute.

'Bring it on!' she yipped in pokespeak, causing Frank to chuckle lightly as he adjusted the folds of his long dark brown trench coat, the twin revolvers he wore making him a little self- conscious in regards to their concealablity.

Frank gave a short wave as his almost-niece and her lover skidded to a halt not far from where Frank was leaning against the back of the city's welcoming sign. "Have any trouble getting here?" he inquired with a mischievous smile as Miranda walked her bike towards him.

"Nothing we couldn't handle," the courier assured him with a chuckle as Nezumi hopped off the bike and scurried over to Bow, "Or Leviathan to be more precise."

Misty grinned broadly as she waved a pokeball at Frank in amusement. "It was both childish, and deeply satisfying," the trainer replied with a bit of a chuckle as Frank pushed himself away from the sign and stepped over Bow, moving closer to keep his voice low.

"So?" he inquired with a glance to the North, half trying to make out the distant image of Ces Batards De L'autre Cote De La Rue Restaurant Of International Cuisine, "You ladies ready?"

The two nodded. "As we'll ever be," assured Miranda, "Any idea, though, as to where we should stash our bikes?"

Frank nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, we'll just put them with the car," he told them with a wave of his hand before heading back along Route 4.

"They gave you a new car then?" inquired Misty with an amused glance at Bow, who had somehow caused Nezumi to gulp loudly and look strangely pale, "Your growlithe must be happy."

The pokeforce officer chuckled to himself for a moment. "Actually, miss," he admitted, glancing over his shoulder in time to see Miranda's sudden twitch to his response, "It's Jen's. But she won't mind. Assuming she never finds out that I borrowed it..."

As Nezumi leapt off the handlebars of Miranda's bike, Bow looked up at him and yipped a quick greeting. "Hey! Pyro-puppy!" the rattata exclaimed, bounding over to the canine with a renewed energy, "Waz'happen-iiing?"

Bow sat down on her haunches, giving the human's half a glance as they discussed things. "Feeling better, I see," she replied with smile, her tone a little concerned.

"Ah well," said Nezumi with a nonchalant shrug, "I finally had a chance to yank all those freakin' spooky-eevee hairs outta my fur, so I'm doin' good. And I'll be doing even better once we kick some dark chef butt and put Boss Lady there in a better mood."

Bow nodded. "Yeah," she whispered, leaning in conspiratorially as Frank stepped carefully over her, "He's been all weird the last while. Won't eat a thing! Which means of course, 'I' don't get to eat either! So you see the problem?"

"Yeah," laughed Nezumi, "You're spoilt rotten!"

"Spoilt?" replied Bow, tossing her long, lacy fur out of her eyes, "Me? I am NOT spoilt. I'm simply pampered. And let me tell you, little mouse, I'm worth it!"

Nezumi's jaw dropped as the growlithe invoked a simple technique (that humans claimed involved the release of pheromones and most referred to simply as 'Charm') that caused everything else around him to fuzz out slightly. The only image that the little rattata's vision could clearly focus on was Bow, her bright red and gleaming white fur seeming glow with an inner light that caused the already more than adorable growlithe seem even more irresistibly cute.

"Gah..." commented Nezumi loosing his thought for a moment, his brain going into a default setting as the humans started walking away, "Say, did you know that we rattatas is always 'in season'?"

Bow chuckled as she turned to follow Frank, to then ends of the earth if necessary. "That, my dear," she replied with a mischievous grin as she swished her tail to bat Nezumi playfully across the face, "Is quite true. Your kind produces thousands of offspring every year. However, that's only because we predators simply can't resist the taste of your sweet yummy flesh."

Nezumi went pale for a moment as Bow laughed. "Don't worry," she called back teasingly, "I'm NOT a meowth!"

"Thankfully," the rattata muttered, shaking his head clear and scurrying after the group, "But hey! Did you know that our offspring would be able to see in no less than two hundred and fifty six different shades of gray?!"

"Give it up, Nezzy!" Bow laughed, suddenly wondering if they'd be able to raid the pantry once they'd arrested the criminal chef. 'Silly human, ' the growlithe muttered with mock severity as she caught up with Frank, 'It's waaaay past dinner time... !'

Chef Troy took off his hat, letting his long, dirty blond hair fall about his shoulders as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a towel that one of his commise instantly handed to him. "What a day," he muttered cynically; accepting the water bottle another handed to him as his kitchen staff hurriedly cleaned up and made the place ready for the morning rush, "Oh well. At least our 'guests' have moved on."

One of the commises glanced up from where she was wiping a countertop down and shuddered visibly. "With all due respect, sir," the woman commented, keeping her gaze respectfully lowered, even as Troy crouched down to pick up Salmonella who seemed to be in an affectionate mood, "Ms. Forester scares me. Her lover is cute, though."

Troy smirked evilly. "Very true," he agreed, the hair on the back of his neck suddenly standing on end.

Instinctively, even before hearing Salmonella's warning hiss, the dark Chef turned on his heel in time to see the strange distortion effect as an oddly proportioned figure teleported directly in front of him.

'My, Mistress sends her regards, Chef Troy.' The words were planted directly into the man's mind by the female alakazam without a thought as to whether he consented to the mental intrusion.

"Talia," replied Troy through gritted teeth as he petted the umbreon in his arms compulsively, "so nice to see you again. Did you forget something, my dear? Or are you just here to reimburse me for the loss of my computer system. Not to mention ALL my secret recipes!"

The alakazam chuckled, both in reality and in Troy's mind. 'Fear not, Chef, ' the psychic type assured him, thoughtfully combing the long white whiskers that sprouted from her short snout as she glanced at the gawking commises, 'Rockets take care of their own. Or so I'm told. And I'm sure that my Mistress can give "Uncle Auggie" a call on your behalf.'

Troy cringed at the lack of respect that the pokemon showed for Augustus Giovanni. The man had made the leadership of both Viridian City and Team Rocket his life's work. He'd even personally funded Chef Troy's latest endeavor, and no doubt many of Professor Katherine Forester's as well.

"So tell me, Tal," the Chef said conversationally, hoping to goad the overgrown psionic vole into causing trouble, "How's Tashiro doing? That little brain aneurysm all cleared up yet?"

Talia gritted her teeth, her voice in Troy's mind sounding darker as she spoke. 'The reptile shall survive, ' she hissed in annoyance, 'But the damage to his brain was substantial. He shall have a few problems for a time, but once he advances to his adult phase, Tashiro shall be whole once more!'

"Give him my best regards, then," Troy replied with a shrug, turning to go back to his duties.

'Wait, human!' Talia commanded contemptuously, causing a peculiar reverberation in the air that caused several people to scream and at least one to drop the stack of plates he'd be carrying, 'I am NOT here simply to socialize.'

"Then make it quick," growled Troy, turning back around and intending to take no guff from a mere pokemon.

'My Mistress wishes to expand this current endeavor, ' Talia answered, ignoring the list of alakazam recipes that suddenly filled Chef Troy's mind, 'She wishes you to get in touch with your many cousins and-'

But Talia's words were cut short as across the room the door to the loading dock slid up into the ceiling and three very annoyed looking people stepped boldly into the room.

"Chef Troy?" called the plain-clothed pokeforce officer in loud, authoritative tone as commises scrambled out of his way, "The name's Officer Frank, and I'm callin' you out!"

"Excuse me," muttered Troy with a smile, stepping around the alakazam and out into the far aisle, "Yes... Officer, is it? I can only presume that you have a reason for bursting into MY kitchen with your little 'posse'? Or is it that all the donut shops in Cerulean City have finally closed for the evening?"

"Actually," replied Frank with a sudden grin, finding the comment more amusing than insulting, "I'm here to arrest you."

"Oh really? On what charges?" inquired Troy in an innocently condescending tone, as Salmonella glared evilly at the growlithe at Frank's feet.

"Serving non-food pokemon in your restaurant!" accused Misty, stepping forward and clenching her fist threateningly.

The dark Chef gave her an amused, patronizing smile, "Then I can only presume that you have evidence to support this claim. Is that right, Officer?"

"Well, um, no... Nothing legal," Frank replied, shuffling his feet and looking embarrassed for a moment before meeting Troy's steely gaze, "But you know how Officer Jenny is... She'd ticket you for jaywalking in your living room! Of course, I MIGHT go easy on ya if you told me where Katherine Forester's gotten herself off to. I got a score to settle for an old friend you see. And so does his daughter as a matter of fact."

Miranda stepped to one side and grinned threateningly at the chef, who simply ignored her out of hand even as she reached for the wooden sword attached to her belt. "It's just too bad really," said Troy casually as he turned to walk away, "You just missed her by about an hour or so, and besides, revenge is a dish best served cold. Now then, if you're done, kindly leave. I'm a busy man, and I don't have time for such childish games."

Chef Troy stopped, a wide, amused grin crossing his face as all noise in the kitchen stopped dead as the sound of the safeties coming off two pistols that echoed throughout the room.

"Hold it right there, sir," said Frank grimly, "I don't wanna cause a scene here, but there's some black marks on your record that I think you should be answerin' for. And harboring a wanted criminal is the least of 'em."

"Now detective," chuckled Chef Troy, stealthy snatching a large gleaming and sliding it up his sleeve as he set Salmonella down on the counter before raising his hands and turning back around, "surly you know what the penalty for drawing a gun is? Let alone two?"

"Nine. Each," answered Frank indignantly as he leveled both revolvers on Chef Troy, "That's the number of reports I have to fill out. Fourteen each just for pointin' em at ya, and thirty one apiece if I have ta explain why yer arms are floppin on the ground as opposed to still bein' attached to your shoulders. So what'cha say I paint you a little picture. You see, the less you cooperate, the angrier you make me. And the angrier I get, the more reports I have to fill out. And you know what? Filling out reports makes me VERY angry. So you can see where this is going, can't'cha? A real vicious cycle, eh?"

"Then perhaps, detective," replied the dark Chef as he lowered his arms and in one smooth motion, retrieved the aerodynamic kitchen knife from up his sleeve before tossing it in Frank's direction, "I should teach you a lesson in anger management!"

Frank's eyes widened as he instinctively threw himself to the floor, his trigger fingers already moving back and forth, sending a hail of high velocity steel-jacketed lead into the air as the knife sailed in an unerring line towards the spot where he'd been standing.

"Look out!" shouted Miranda over the noise, immediately reaching out with her hand, catching the knife a mere inch from where it would have plowed into Misty's forehead.

"Whoa..." her lover replied, going pale and shaking even as a mildly hysterical grin crossed her face, "Thanks, Miri!"

"It gets worse!" Miranda warned, motioning to the sudden odd sound of bullets ricocheting off something distinctly unnatural.

They both glanced over and saw Talia, standing before Chef Troy with an amused grin as she casually held her four-fingered hand out before her, causing a barrier of curious red light that stopped the bullets in their tracks.

"Kazam," she chided, shaking her head in mild amusement, as the loud explosive sound of Frank's pistols gave way to an ominous clicking.

"Oh, oh..." muttered Frank, a second before a pair of spoons materialized in the alakazam's hands and the cop went sailing into the air in response to a raised hand.

"I- I'm alright!" assured Frank as he suddenly found himself being grabbed by the right wrist and right ankle by an unseen force before being spun in place in response to the swirling motion Talia made with one of her spoons, "I'm just a little airsick-!

For an uncertain moment, Miranda watched as her almost-uncle spun in the air before being released, landing on a long counter, only to slide the entire way down, knocking off a variety of metal bowls and stacked plates before crashing off the end with an equally loud clatter. This was followed by a panicked yelp from Bow who then proceeded to run in the direction her human had been thrown in.

"I- I'm fine!" called Frank, "It's just my spleen! Don't worry about me!"

"Alright, that's it!" growled Miranda though gritted teeth, tossing the knife aside as she produced a pokeball from seemingly nowhere, "Nezumi! Wraith! Umi! Triple attack 'Omega Beam'!"

In the time it took for the pokeball in her hand to activate, and for Umi to materialize from within the device, Wraith had stirred from his hiding place in Miranda's pokedex and chose a rather disturbing method of coming on the scene. He phased his way out of Miranda's backpack, through the courier, and seemingly out of her chest, causing her to shiver slightly as Nezumi also ran from hiding to stand beside the materializing dratini.

As one, the trio let out a confirming exclamation before executing the technique. It began with Wraith smiling balefully and radiating an eerie dark purple light as he floated back to hover just over the heads of his companions. Meanwhile, Nezumi glowed with a blinding white radiance, shifting into raticate mode as an odd crackling sound emanated from just in front of his incisors followed by a shifting blue/white light that seemed to draw in all warmth in the area. For her part, Umi reared up like a snake preparing to bite, snarling at the alakazam menacingly as orange flames licked across her sharp pointy bared teeth.

Then, as one, the three pokemon released their fury. Nezumi puffed out his cheeks and exhaled fiercely, his claws all but digging into the linoleum tiled floor as the beam of pure, focused cold shot forth as Wraith's three fingered hands dropped down, hovering on either side of the beam as dark purple light flowed from his open palms, merging with the ice beam near its point of origin. And finally, Umi lunged forward, spitting out a small ball of burning flame that somehow became trapped in the strange energy beam's gravity, before spinning and spiraling down its length.

Talia's now dark, featureless eyes widened in panic as the ice- beam hit her psychic barrier like an elemental battering ram. The shimmering red haze shuddered, as icy tendrils of frost crept across its surface, radiating out from the point of impact. A heartbeat later, and Wraith's dark-chi hit, causing the barrier to buckle, crack and finally shatter.

With a frightened yelp, the alakazam instinctively raised her arms and turned away, just as Umi's small ball of flame met the dual attack at its pinnacle and the three crashed into Talia, causing a small explosive reaction and a wave of seemingly reverse light to fill the room as she flew backwards end over end into a group of scrambling commises.

"Give it up, Troy!" exclaimed Frank, looking extremely disheveled as he clambered back up from under a pile of pots and pans, "Your out classed, out numbered, and out gunned!"

The dark chef glared at the cop with a sudden fury. "In MY kitchen!" he shouted angrily as he reached under the counter and grabbed something that made an awful clicking noise, "You WILL refer to ME as CHEF!!!"

Frank's eyes widened, and he immediately dropped down behind the metal counter once more as Chef Troy pulled a tommy-gun out and began firing madly in the officer's direction.

"What next?!" exclaimed Misty, noticing that the commise who hadn't immediately fled the scene were now taking up large knives and frying pans before rushing to their leader's aid.

"As I said, it only gets worse!" answered Miranda, stepping around Misty as she drew her bokken in time to parry the cleaver of a stealthy commise who thought he could backstab her lover.

"Wow," commented Misty, glancing over her shoulder in time to see Miranda's knee connect with the commise's groin and the man go down groaning, "I'm really going to owe you, aren't I?"

"Then in return we could use some more firepower!"

"Well then, Miri, dear," Misty replied with a wide grin as she pulled out two minimized poke balls and prepared to lob them with all her might, "I hope you'll settle for a little water power! Shadow! Umberlee! Save Uncle Frank!"

Chef Troy ducked momentarily as several rounds from Frank's revolver whizzed past him and impacted with the far wall before leaping up once again and spraying the area, inadvertently wounding several of his own minions. In his excitement, however, he failed to notice as a pokeball enlarged itself from storage mode in time to bounce off his head.

"Ow-! Shizen-!" he exclaimed, staggering backwards as his tommy- gun continued to fire blindly before a very large, very determined ten-pointed starfish landed on him, pinning the dark Chef to the floor.

"Sal-! Salmonella!" the man shouted as his tommy-gun clattered to the floor and he struggled with the enormous starmie, "Get this thing off of me!"

"Guys!" ordered Miranda as she made a flinging motion with her bokken to dislodge the meat cleaver, "Split up and incapacitate anyone who's not running away! We're NOT here to cause permanent harm!"

"Even if they ARE," muttered Misty a touch bitterly as she watched the cleaver spin over once before sailing in an unerring line across the kitchen before stabbing into a cupboard door. "Wow!" she laughed, "Aerodynamic!"

"Whatever works!" commented Frank as he and Bow leapt out of hiding and dove over the counter to help Umberlee as Troy finally tossed her off on his own.

"Salmonella!" the chef called out, not noticing as behind him, Shadow began to swivel in the air, the ends of his five arms sending out a fine mist, "Where are you!?"

"Probably hiding!" chuckled Frank, aiming both pistols at Troy and motioning for the man to rise, failing to clue into the staryu's intent, "Bow, give chase. That little pokemon's probably more trouble than her master."

"You have no idea," Troy replied with a toothy grin as Bow yipped and ran off as behind the dark Chef, Shadow's spinning turned him into a blur before each of his five arms let loose with simultaneous blasts of water that spun into a spiraling jet of water before crashing into the dark chef's back.

With a surprised curse, Chef Troy ploughed into Frank, causing the officer to drop his revolvers as the two men collapsed in heap and Umberlee reached out with her mind.

'Sleeeeeep!' came the distant sound of the starmie's voice in both men's minds.