Me : I'm so sorry for not updating for over a month. My laptop has been acting up again, and this time, I lost the keyboard because some of the keys doesn't work anymore! But don't worry, I have a new keyboard with me, but it will take some time getting used to it. By the way, I change my pen name to Devilboy58.

May : Why would you cahnge your pen name anyway?

Me : Because I want to match it with my DA account.

Dawn : Right...

Me : So, anyway, let's start off with the previous pop quiz. Yes, the answer is C, Blue. Catboy41, you guess it correctly, nice. As well as the others. Congratz!

Misty : Well, who will be the next guess?

Me : You'll see.

Brendan : On with the story...

Chapter 13 : Race To The Temple

It had been several hours since May had been kidnapped by the Phantom as Ash and co. were tracking him down with the help of Manaphy. They needed to head to the temple first, hoping that Phantom hadn't reached the temple yet, but they had a bad feeling that he did before they got to the temple.

Captain Stern was manoeuvring the the submarine, avoiding any currents and rocks as he follow Manaphy to the temple. While in the back, Brook was checking on his pokemon, Misty were amazed at the sight of the water pokemons, Dawn was taking a nap with her Piplup and Ash was stroking Pikachu's head as he purrs.

The Gym Leaders were talking over about what to do when they reached the temple. "So, since we need a plan to defeat the Phantom, do you any of you have a plan," Roxanne asked as the Gym Leaders were looking at each other, planning of a way to stop Phantom and get May back from him.

"We should have brought Norman along," Wattson said as he crossed his arms.

"You know pretty well what happened earlier..." Winona stated about ealrier, before they reached the docks to the submarine.

~Flashback...~

The Gym Leaders were finishing their dinner as Ash and co were talking about their past adventures. "Hey, kidos, we're going to talk about something," Wattson said with his casual self.

"Could we come?" Dawn asked.

"Sorry, but this is Gym Leader's business," Winona replied as Ash and co felt disappointed.

"Alright..." they reply in unison as the Leaders left the place.

The reason they left earlier was because they needed to talk to Norman as Wattson agreed to let him go with them. It's his daughter, so it was important to let him come along. They were now heading to the Gym when they saw Norman came out of his Gym with his Vigoroth. "Norman!" Wattson called out to him, which caught his attention.

He just raised an eyebrow while locking the door to his Gym. The other Leaders later were by his side while Norman's expressions remain motionless.

"Norman, we want you to come with us into the submarine," Flannery said as the other Gym Leaders nodded.

"Sorry but I can't, I have other things I need to attend to," Norman said as he was about to walk away when Brawly grab his shoulder.

"Look, she's your daughter for crying out loud," Brawly said in a serious tone.

"I know that. But I have other matters to attend to," Norman stated as he took Brawly's hand off of his shoulder before walking off with his Vigoroth on tow.

This left the other Gym Leaders puzzled on Norman's attitude. They rarely see him like this, which was a problem that they don't know how to solve. They then started to walk away when Wattson look back to see that Norman was riding on some bike to somewhere. He also noticed that the bike was special as it had a unique shape, like it was part jet ski.

"Hey, Wattson! Are you coming or not?" Roxanne called out as Wattson looked back.

"Of course, of course," Wattson replied quickly, catching up with the other leaders. But he looked back to see that Norman rode away already. He had a feeling that he would be there, but later.

~End of Flashback~

Wattson just sighed as he lied on his seat, not having any ideas to capture Phantom. "So, what now?" Brawly asked," he asked the others.

"I think I have one," Winona replied, which caught all of the leaders attention. "Okay, here is the plan if wearrived first," Winona started. "We'll plan out a surprise attack, with me and Wattson trying to distract the Phantom while Flannery, you will try to get May away from him when we successfully distracted him. Brawly, you and the rest of the kids will try to keep the grunts at bay as we try our best to capture him," Winona explained as the leaders thought about it before nodding.

"Great, with me and Winona, we have some slight advantages here as my pokemon is Electric type," Wattson stated.

"But you forget that they are strong," Roxanne said as Wattson laughed nervously.

"But I have this question, what happens when they got there first," Flannery asked as the other leaders looked at each other, knowing what she meant. Not only there would be an ambushed, but they won't have any advantages in the battle as they would be outnumbered.

"Well, we then have to rock it out," Brawly said as slammed his fist on the table, which caught the attention of the others in the submarine.

"What's going on in there?" Officer Jenny asked, turning away from the monitor.

"Nothing," Winona replied as Roxanne glared at Brawly while Flannery facepalm and Wattson laughing it out loud.

In the Phantom's submarine, the Phantom was in his control room, monitoring the screen for the sea temple. He was tapping his finger on his seat as he was getting tired of waiting. He then slammed his fist into the armrest of his seat, causing the grunts to look at him. "I'm going to have a word with our prisoner," Phantom said in his angry tone as he got off of his seat before walking out of the control room.

In one of the rooms, the grunts were keeping an eye on May, preventing her from escaping again as she shwed them the way to the temple. But she knew that the Phantom would come and visit her again, since she as in truth was taking the long way towards the temple, hoping that Manaphy would lead Ash and the others to the temple first.

She as about to point the opposite way of the correct location of the temple when Phantom came barging into the room. "Listen here, you little twerp," Phantom said as the hatch to the spear suddenly opened. May wanted to bolt out, but there were two grunts standing in the way, which prevented her from escaping. Phantom then stopped at the entrance of the sphere before grabbing May's collar. "You better show me the actual route to the temple, or I won't easy with you anymore. This is your last chance for me to be nice to you," Phantom said in his menacing voice, which sends shivers down May's spine.

"She wanted to buy more time, but Phantom alraedy found out about it. Since he wasn't joking with any of his threat, May knew what he meant as he pushed her back into the sphere, hard. This caused May to be a little dizzy from hitting the glass rather hard. The hatch later closed up as Phantom walked away, not rather happy about getting trick at.

Inside the temple, Blaziken had stopped practising his new move as he helped the other water pokemon to protect the temple. There were all kinds of pokemon in the temple, ranging from Corphishes to the fully evolved Tentacruels. They blocked the entrance to the temple to hold off any threat.

Blaziken knew where this was going as he went into the dining hall to see that the water pokemons also barricaded the hall with stones to prevent the enemy from advancing. Blaziken later entered the hall, which leads to the Sea Crown. There were a couple Azumaril and a Gyarados protecting the doorway to the Sea Crown, in case Phantom managed to get pass the outer defense

But Blaziken knew it wouldn't work as this wasn't the first time Phantom took the Sea Crown. The water pokemons knew to put up some defence, but Blaziken also knew that Phantom would bring more help with him. He just hope that the water pokemon could hold them off while he went somewhere to train again. He was going to master that new move, no matter what.

Back in the Kaien 1, the Gym Leaders were going through their plans as they tried to figure a way to get in when Phantom arrived first. "It won't work, they would be able to spot us anyway," Roxanne protested.

"So, what do you have in mind anyway?!" Flannery replied.

"I'd say we just go in and battle them!" Brawly replied.

"Don't be dumb. They can take us out even though we're Gym Leaders, everybody has their weaknesses and limits," Winona replied. Wattson just sat there, as the other Gym Leaders were bickering about what should they do. Wattson then look at the others, noticing that they were like any other peoples, doing their own business. He smiled at that thought, remembering what it felt to be young when he had an idea popped into his head as a light bulb lit up in his mind.

"I've got it!" he exclaimed, scaring the Gym Leaders, as well as Ash and co, with Dawn almost fell of off her seat.

"Got what?" Winona asked.

"I think I know how some of us can get in there!" Wattson exclaimed. Ash and co. later joined the conversation, as they got curious about it.

"Get in there? How" Roxanne asked.

"With them of course!" Wattson said, pointing at the four who just entered the room.

"Us?" Misty asked surprised at the sudden call.

"Them?" Brawly asked, equally as surprise.

"How? They can't defeat them, even with that many pokemons," Roxanne stated matter of factly.

"No, we are just a diversion. They will try to get to Phantom while we fight the grunts off. Since we're together, we are unstoppable," Wattson said before laughing it out like he always does. The other Gym Leaders just sighed before nodding to each other.

"Okay, I thought up of a plan," Winona began. "While we caught the attention of the grunts, you kids, along with Officer Jenny, will try to look for Phantom inside the temple. But be careful, he might have his strongest grunts with him for protection," Winona stated as they all nodded.

"Alright, let's get May back!" Ash exclaimed with a fist pump. "Pika pi!" Pikachu followed his trainer.

They then went back to their seat as the submarine was nearing the temple as Manaphy took the shortest route to the temple.

Meanwhile, in Sootopolis City, Norman arrived at the Gym as he parked his bike nearby as he entered the Gym with his Vigoroth. "Juan, where are you?" Norman called out before he heard some water splashing.

"Good job, Milotic and Luvdisc. Return to your poke balls," Juan said as both of his pokemons returned. "And hello to you too, Norman of the Petalburg Gym," he said without turning around.

"I know you knew about the reason incident, am I correct," Norman said as he crossed his arms.

"Yes I am. I also know that you want my help," Juan said as he turned around to face Norman.

"Will you," Norman said. It wasn't exactly a question as he was certain that Juan could help him in some way.

"You already know the answer to that," Juan replied with a smirk.

"Tch..." Norman sighed as he shook his head before looking back at his Vigoroth. He nodded as the pokemon went back outside, waiting for him. "I'll see you in a minute then," with that, he left the Gym as Juan sighed.

"That man. Whenever there is a serious problem, like family getting kidnap, he's a whole different man," Juan whispered to himself before leaving his Gym while making a call to someone.

Meantime, in the Pokemon Association building, the director was having multiple calls from the trainers about the Gym being closed and they couldn't challenge the Gym Leaders. "I told them that this would happen! They don't listen!" the director stated as he slammed his fist onto his table, getting really frustrated when his secretary entered the office.

"Sir, Juan of Sootopolis Gym request that he needs to close his Gym for awhile," the secretary stated, as she gave the director the form.

"Again! If the twin Gym Leaders send me the form too, I'll force them to return to their specific Gyms, personally!" the director slammed his fist onto the table out of anger while his secretary quickly left the office.

She sighed as she started to head to her desk. "The Gym Leaders better find a really good explanation for the director when they get back..." she said before going back to her work.

Underwater, both the Kaien 1 and Phantom's submarine were closing in, towards the temple. It was now a race to the temple.

~In Kaien 1~

Captain Stern was still following Manaphy to the temple, hoping that it was the shortest route to the temple. "I hope Norman gets here fast," Wattson whispered, which caught Ash's attention.

"What'd you say?" Ash asked out of curiosity.

"Nothing, nothing," Wattson said defensibly.

"Oh, okay," Ash replied before looking back into the ocean.

"What's taking so long?" Dawn asked.

"C'mon Dawn, just be patient, it won't take long," Misty stated as she sat beside Dawn.

Then there was a beeping sound on the monitor, which caught Jenny attention. "What is it?" Brock asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like we picked up something..." Jenny stated.

"Hey, look at that!" Stern called out, catching everybody's attention.

As they looked at the front window, their eyes were wide opened as they looked at each other.

"Great, just great," Dawn said, crossing her arms.

~Phantom's Submarine~

May was now showing the way to the temple, and she was hoping that her friends would be there. She couldn't fool Phantom, so she had no choice but to show them the way, to avoid getting hurt and getting her pokemon from being sold off.

Then, the door to the room she was in opened up to reveal Phantom. "Let her out. We're here," Phantom stated, which caught May by surprise. She wasn't expected that they could reached the temple that fast, nor was she expected to be that near.

The hatch opened up as the two grunts later tied her wrist together before taking her out. "Where are you taking me?" May asked as she was being moved by the two grunts.

"You'll see," Phantom said as they left the room. Outside, May saw there was a lot of grunts, lining up in the hallway, and she was shocked to see that there were a lot of them. "Let's go," with that, they started to walk towards the hatch that would leave the submarine.

While they were moving, the submarine itself was heading towards the temple. It entered the bubble as the grunts manoeuvre the submarine to the docks. As it resurface, the top hatch opened up.

May was the first one to leave the submarine. When she exited the submarine, she was looking at the temple out of shocked. What was it? Did the Kaien 1 managed to reach first or Phantom?

Me : Cliffhanger!

May : Seriously, what did I see in the temple?

Me : You'll have to wait till the next chapter...

Brendan : Now, for the next pop quiz. Please welcome, harukaxsatoshi.

harukaxsatoshi : Hey readers. Here is the pop quiz ::

- What pokemon evolved into Milotic? -

The answer would be reveal in the next chapter.

Dawn : Eventually.

Me : What's that suppose to mean?

Dawn : Nothin'...

Brendan : Anyway, R&R please!