Hey, guys! Told ya that I'd have the next chapter done sooner! XD I hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. If I did, Ash wouldn't have lost to Cameron in the Unova League.

Chapter 53: "Rescue Mission Start! The Maze of Doom!"

Gavin blinked a few times as he, Pichu, and Meowth stood there and continued to stare at Walker and the two Aipom on his shoulders in silence. He didn't know what to say. He could feel himself fidgeting because of the awkward silence. Finally, he managed to blurt out, "Walker, what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Walker said with a smug look on his face. "I brought you something."

"Brought me something?" Gavin repeated. He was confused. Why would Walker be bringing him something? Then, his eyes widened in realization. "They didn't."

"Oh, yes, they did!" Walker grinned. He reached his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a gold-colored badge that looked similar to a police officer's badge. "You're looking at the newest field agent of the International Police! And I'm here to make a delivery to the IP's top agent, Gavin Ketchum!"

Gavin's eyes went even wider in fear when he realized what Walker had just said in front of Meowth. "WALKER, NO!"

Walker put his hands over his mouth. "Oops."

"Oops? OOPS? You freaking blabbermouth!" Gavin yelled. His hands were clenched, his heart was racing, sweat was running down his brow, and he could feel himself shaking. He looked over at his cousin's Pokémon with fear.

"Huh?" Meowth tilted his head at Gavin in confusion. "International Police? Top agent? What's he talking about Gavin?"

Gavin gave a large gulp. "Well, you see…"

…

"SAY WHAT?"

Meowth's jaw had dropped and he had a shocked look on his face as he looked at Gavin in surprise. "You're telling me that you're an agent for the International Police like Looker, and you haven't told anyone?"

"Uh, maybe?" Gavin said, twiddling his fingers in his nervousness. "You see, I'm kind of one of their top agents and was assigned a job to deal with the problems with Team Umbra here in Amaro."

"A t-top agent?" Meowth stuttered. "Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"Because I'm not supposed to!" Gavin snapped. "I was ordered to never let any of you know about my true identity unless it was absolutely necessary! However, since Walker opened his big mouth…"

"Hey, I resent that notion!" Walker interrupted.

"Will you be quiet already?" Gavin shouted, causing Walker to immediately become silent. "If I told any of the others that I was an agent for the International Police, Team Umbra might kill them!"

Meowth's eyes opened up as wide as a Snorlax's stomach. He was completely dumbstruck by Gavin's answer. Finally, he managed to say, "They'll kill them?"

Gavin nodded gravely. "This is why I need you to keep this a secret, Meowth. Please. None of them can know. Especially Ash or Dawn."

Meowth looked down at the ground and thought about it for a moment. Finally, he looked back up at Gavin and answered, "All right, you're secret's safe with me. But what are we going to do right now? Ash and the others could be anywhere by now!"

"Well, actually, they chased the clown into the woods right over there, and then they got captured," Walker said informatively. "I saw the entire thing go down."

Gavin, Pichu, and Meowth glared over at Walker. "Um, Walker?" Gavin said. "One question. If you were there the whole time, why didn't you try and stop them before they got captured by a psycho clown?"

"Well, I was waiting for you," Walker said to him. "I didn't want to get distracted from my first assignment as an official field agent. It might look bad on my record."

"Walker, wouldn't it look bad on your record if you let innocent people get kidnapped and didn't try to save them?" Gavin asked.

…

"Hot buttered biscuits, you're right!" Walker exclaimed with a look of severe worry on his face. "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? If the agency finds out about this, I'll get in so much trouble! They might even demote me back to an Intel person, or worse… the guy who goes and gets the doughnuts! I don't want to have to do that again! I'm allergic to honey-glaze!"

At Walker's statement, the other three facepalmed themselves in their embarrassment. "Is that seriously what he's worried about?" Meowth inquired. "An allergy to honey-glazed doughnuts?"

"They give me hives, man," Walker said to Meowth. "I don't want to have to go to the emergency room again. That place is seriously expensive, and I don't have health insurance."

"Well, Walker, if you don't want to be 'Doughnut Boy' again, you're going to have to help us save the others," Gavin told him. "You and your two… Aipom? Walker, when did you get another Aipom?"

"Huh?" Walker raised his eyebrow in confusion. "What other Aipom?" he asked. Then, his eyes widened in realization. "Oh, you mean 'Zozo'? She's not an Aipom. She just likes transforming into Aipom. Hey, Zozo, change back to normal, would ya?"

The Aipom on his left shoulder grinned and snickered devilishly while its eyes glowed a light blue color. Then, it jumped into the air and did a back flip. It rapidly spun backwards until its body began to glow and it formed a pink ball. A few seconds later, it came back down and landed back on Walker's shoulder. To Gavin, Pichu, and Meowth's surprise, the Aipom had changed form and was now a slate-gray, foxlike creature with triangular ears that had dark insides and it had a scruff of fur on the top of its head that was tipped with red coloration. Its eyes were now light blue with no pupils, it had red eyebrow-like markings and eyelids, it had a ruff of black fur around its neck, its tail was bushy, and its feet had red tips on them. As it saw the others staring at it, it snickered once again.

"Guys, meet my new Zorua, Zozo," Walker said as to rub the Tricky Fox Pokémon's head affectionately. "I got her just last week. Isn't she just precious?"

"Uh, yeah," Gavin said as he looked upon his friend rubbing on his Pokémon's head with embarrassment. "Precious."

While Gavin and Meowth stared at Walker and Zozo awkwardly, Pichu noticed that Aipom was glaring at Zozo angrily. It seemed as if it was jealous of the love and affection that Walker was giving Zozo instead of it. To be honest, Pichu understood what his rival was going through. There were times that he would be jealous of the love and affection that Gavin would give Dawn from time to time. But then, they would do that weird thing with their mouths and cause him to throw up. Dawn could have that kind of affection, because Pichu didn't want it one bit. If Gavin ever tried to do that mouth thing to him, Pichu would probably electrocute him, throw up, and then gargle about ten gallons of mouthwash. Pichu's stomach churned just thinking about that possibility.

"Okay, so who exactly was this clown that you said captured them anyway?" Gavin asked.

Walker shrugged. "I'm not sure. I've never seen him before. All I know is that his jokes were terrible. I'm much better at telling jokes than him."

"How did he capture them?" Gavin inquired.

"He had his Mime Jr. use Trick to steal a bunch of their things from them," Walker answered. "Then, he ran into the woods, they chased him, and then I assumed that they were captured when I heard them all scream. That's all I know."

"Well, I guess we'll have to go in there after them," Gavin decided. He then took a Pokéball off of his belt, threw it into the air, and called out, "Leafeon, come on out!"

In a flash of blue light, the Verdant Pokémon appeared in front of her trainer. She smiled and mewed, "Lea-lea!"

"Hey, Leafeon," Gavin said to the Grass-type. "Ash and the others have been captured by some sinister psycho clown. I know that Dawn's probably wearing that lavender-scented perfume she likes so much, so do you think that you could try sniffing her out?"

"Leaf!" Leafeon nodded. She got down on the ground and began sniffing the area while the others stood there waiting patiently. Finally, after a few moments of intense sniffing, Leafeon lifted her head up and smiled at him. "Leaf!"

"Leafeon says that she's got the scent!" Meowth interpreted happily.

"Great!" Gavin said, beaming at his Pokémon. "Let's go find the others!"

With that, the two teens and the five Pokémon ran off into the woods, not knowing what dangers awaited them inside the dark mass of trees.

The seven of them walked through the woods for about twenty minutes as they followed Gavin's Leafeon as she tracked the scent of Dawn's perfume. It wasn't exactly their favorite experience as there was no clear path through the woods. So, they ended up having to squeeze between trees, bushes, shrubs, and other forms of foliage. Walker even got a splinter from putting his hand on a certain tree that was a bit more brittle than some of the others.

"Could you please pull it out?" Walker asked. Tears fell out of his eyes as he clutched his hand where a sharp piece of wood sat in the skin of his palm. "It really hurts!"

Gavin sighed. "Fine, get over here."

…

PWOINK!

"YOW!"

It kept going on like this until they suddenly found themselves standing in front of a large structure made of tall, brick walls that reached up to a height of about fifteen feet high. The entire structure looked to be about two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide. There was no roof on it, but in the center of it, there was a wooden door painted white with a golden door knob. Strangely enough, there was a doorbell on the side of it, as well as an intercom speaker that had a talk button above it.

"So…," Walker began. "What do you think it is?"

"How should I know?" Gavin snapped.

"You're the top agent," Walker pointed out.

"Walker, just ring the bell," Gavin growled.

Walker pushed the button and they all heard a loud bell chime throughout the structure. It was a few seconds before a voice said over the intercom, "Knock, knock!"

Gavin and Walker looked at one another in confusion. "Uh, who's there?" Walker asked as he pushed the talk button.

"Ach."

"Ach who?"

"Haha, I made you sneeze!"

Gavin slammed the talk button in and snarled, "Look, are you the clown that kidnapped my friends?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'kidnapped'," the voice answered. "Most of them are teens, so I would say that I 'teennapped' them. And then there's the case of their Pokémon, so then you could say…"

"Look, I don't have time for this!" Gavin yelled. "Let my friends go!"

"Oh, but that would be two easy for a top agent and a field agent of the International Police," he said with a hyena-like chuckle. "You'll have to pass a test if you want to get them back."

"What kind o' test?" Meowth asked.

"Nothing much," the voice said. "All you have to do is make it through my… wait for it… MAZE OF DOOM!"

The wooden door abruptly opened up as if electronically. Once it had opened up completely, Gavin and Walker were shocked to see what looked like a giant labyrinth with brick walls making up most of it. The voice snickered. "Isn't it 'a-maze-ing'? All you have to do is go through the maze. If you find me, I'll let your friends go unharmed. But be warned: there are traps everywhere. Plus, if you don't get to me in two hours, I'm going to blow up your friends! Have fun!"

"Why you little-," Gavin started to say, but the intercom went silent. Gavin sighed. "I guess that we'd better get started. Leafeon, do you still have Dawn's scent?"

"Leaf-leaf!" Leafeon nodded.

"Good," Gavin grinned. "Let's go."

The seven of them took their first few steps through the door into the maze. As soon as they all entered the maze, the door behind them slammed shut and a bunch of buckets filled with ice cold water fell down on them.

"Gah!" Meowth yelled. "That's cold!"

"Pi-chu!" Pichu shivered in agreement.

They heard the voice over the intercom say, "Aw, you're all wet! Sorry if the water's too cold for ya! You looked a bit mad, so I thought that I'd cool ya all down! Enjoy!" He gave another one of his spine-chilling laughs before the intercom resumed its silence. Gavin and Walker stood there soaking wet and shaking in anger.

"I really hate that guy," Gavin growled as he quivered and shook his cold, wet body.

"Uh, Gavin?" Walker said in a muffled voice, tapping Gavin's shoulder. Gavin turned around and was shocked to see a metal bucket squeezed over Walker's head. It was as if he was a bucket-headed guy with a teenage male's body. "I can't see. Did that clown guy take out the sun?"

Gavin sighed. "No, you just have one of the buckets stuck on your head."

"Oh," Walker replied. "You know, it's strange, but this is like the fifth time this year that this has happened to me."

"Fifth?" Meowth said with a confused look on his face. "How did it happen the first four times?"

"Let's just say that before I was promoted to Intel, I was working as a janitor at the agency," Walker answered.

"Hee-hee-hee!" Zozo snickered, causing Aipom to glare at her angrily.

"So could you guys get this thing off of me?" Walker asked.

"Sure," Gavin said, "just give me Tut's Pokéball."

"Tut?" Walker repeated. "What do you need him for?"

"I'm going to use him to pull off the bucket," Gavin explained.

"But why Tut?" Walker inquired.

"Would you rather I use Gyra?" Gavin queried.

…

"Fair enough. Here you go."

Walker handed Tut's Pokéball over to Gavin. Gavin tossed it up into the air, and in a burst of bright blue light, the golden and blue sarcophagus with red eyes, a deviant grin, and four ghostly black arms appeared. As it floated a couple of inches off the ground, the Cofagrigus looked at Gavin and murmured, "Cof-a-grigus."

"Hey there, Tut," Gavin smiled. "Your trainer's got a bucket stuck on his head. Do you think you can help me get it off?"

"Cof-a-grigus," Tut nodded with his invisible neck. He floated over to his trainer and placed all four of his ghostly appendages onto the bucket. Once he had a firm grip on the metal can, Tut began to pull as it could. It kept pulling until the bucket finally came off.

"Yay, it worked! Now, we can WHOA!" Walker yelled. Due to his abrupt release from the bucket, Walker was completely off balance and began to stagger forward towards Gavin and the others. Gavin and the Pokémon tried to step backwards away from Walker so that he wouldn't run into them, but then everybody except for Tut ended up tripping over what they could only assume was an invisible tripwire. They all began to fall backwards, along with Walker, who had tripped over the wire as well in his state of imbalance. As they fell to the ground, they thought the worst was just going to be hitting the ground hard, but when the two teens and the Pokémon landed, they heard a few cracks and crumbles before the ground opened up and they all fell into a large pit that was at least ten feet deep. Meanwhile, Tut floated over the pit, laughing at his trainer and the others' misfortune.

As the group sat moaning in the pit, they heard the voice over the intercom say, "Hey, guys! Welcome to Pittsburgh! Population: You. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The microphone cut off.

"Ugh," Meowth groaned in pain. "Now I know how the twerp must have felt during me, Jessie, and James' pitfall craze."

"Is everybody okay?" Gavin asked.

"Pi-chu."

"Ai-pom."

"Leaf."

"Hee-hee-hee-hee!"

"Gavin, the bucket is stuck on my head again."

Gavin sighed and looked up to Walker's Ghost-type Pokémon. "Hey, Tut, do you think you can get us out of here?" he asked.

"Cof-a-grigus," the Coffin Pokémon nodded. His eyes began to glow a light green color and he raised all four of his arms up into the air. Light green outlines appeared around the seven of their bodies and they began to float up out of the hole and were placed gently back down onto solid ground above the pit. Tut then used his Telekinesis attack again to pull the bucket off of Walker's head.

"Thanks, Tut," Walker said appreciatively.

"Grigus," Tut grinned.

Gavin stared down the maze pathway. "All right, we're going to have to be really careful from now on. This guy is tricky and I'm sure there's plenty more traps to come. Let's stay on our toes. Unless there's any more pitfalls. In that case, make sure to stay off of your toes."

"Oh, come on, Gavin," Walker said calmly. "I'm sure that we'll be fine. I'll bet that was the only pitfall at all in this maze."

The new field agent grinned and took another step forward. It was at that point that all of them but Tut fell into another pit. As they lay in the pit, they heard the voice over the intercom laugh and say, "Hey, what do you know? Two hole-in-ones in a row, and I've never even played a game of golf in my life! Sweet!"

…

"I really hate that clown…"

As Gavin, Walker, and the Pokémon continued to travel through the seemingly impossible maze, Chester sat in his technical booth at the end of the maze, chuckling to himself as he watched his prey fall into pitfall after pitfall on the special hidden cameras that he had placed all throughout the maze. He was ecstatic. He couldn't remember a day that he had ever had as much fun torturing people before today.

"This rocks! I'm so glad that Crystalline assigned us to this job," he snickered. He turned to the Pokémon on his shoulder and said, "Wouldn't you agree, Mime Jr.?"

Mime Jr. nodded and laughed, "Mime-mime!"

Chester grinned and was about to turn back towards the screen when he suddenly heard a female voice groan. He turned around in his spinning chair away from his video monitors and looked at what was behind him. It was there that Ash and the others were all tied up and leaning fast asleep against the wall behind them. From what he could tell, one of them was slowly waking up. It was a blue-haired and blue-eyed girl wearing a white cap with a pink Pokéball symbol on the front. She murmured weakly, "Gavin?"

"Oh, my," Chester said in mock surprise. "It seems like someone's waking up earlier than expected. We'll have to fix that, won't we? Let's have some fun, Jynx!"

He tossed a Pokéball to the ground where it opened and released a flash of light blue glowing light. From that light appeared what looked like a bulky woman with a purple face, pink lips, saucer-like eyes, and long blonde hair. She seemed to be wearing a red gown that covered her feet, and she had white arms connected to purple hands. The Human Shape Pokémon smiled and said, "Jynx."

"Jynx, use Lovely Kiss on that girl," Chester instructed, pointing directly at Dawn.

Jynx nodded and her lips took on a pink glow. She smooched and blew a kiss, releasing a pink wave that was shaped like a heart. The heart went straight towards Dawn and hit her in the face. The blunette's eyes fluttered shut and dropped back down, mumbling, "Gavin," before she fell right back into her deep sleep.

Chester chuckled. "Sweet dreams, princess. Soon, your prince will come. And then he'll die."

About thirty or forty pitfalls later, Gavin, Walker, and the Pokémon were all finally back on solid ground and there seemed to be no more pitfalls as far as they could tell. Following Leafeon, the group continued on the path they were taking until they came to a fork in the road. One path continued on forward while the other went left. They all stopped and tried to decide which path they would take.

"Leaf-leaf!" Leafeon yipped.

"Leafeon says that the perfume seems to be coming from both directions," Meowth translated.

"Hmm," Gavin said, scratching his head in thought. "Chester must have figured out how we were tracking the others. Looks like we'll have to pick a path."

"Let's just keep moving forward," Walker told him. "Follow me! OW!"

Walker had taken a step forward to continue down the straight path, but was stopped when he ran into some invisible force. As Walker fell back down to the ground, Gavin reached out and tapped what felt like an invisible wall made up of glass. "I can't believe that he would resort to this," Gavin said, surprisingly impressed.

"I could," Walker groaned from the floor. He was then helped up by Aipom and Zozo. "Thanks, Zozo," he said to the Illusion Pokémon.

"Hee-hee-hee-hee!" Zozo snickered in delight as Walker reached down and rubbed on her head. Meanwhile, Aipom was glaring at the Dark-type murderously.

"Poor Aipom," Meowth whispered to Pichu.

"Pi," Pichu nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, they all heard the static of the intercom again. The voice that had been taunting them all of this way laughed. "Looks like your path isn't as clear as you wanted it to be. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he said before he giggled like a hyena once again before he turned off the microphone.

Gavin sighed. "Looks like we go left," he said.

The others nodded and they turned left as they continued on to find their friends. It was a few minutes later before they found that the straight path that they were on was a dead end. The thing that really caught their interest was what was on the end of the hallway. Standing there was a large stone pedestal, and sitting on the top of the pedestal was a large, perfectly-cut diamond that was bigger than even Pichu. Gavin raised an eyebrow.

"This is obviously a trap," Gavin decided. "I mean, even a Magikarp could figure that one out. How dumb does he think we are, anyway?"

"Ooh… shiny…," Walker murmured, staring at the diamond in a sort of daze. He slowly began to step down the path towards it.

"Um, Walker?" Gavin said in confusion as he watched his friend start moving towards the large gem. "Walker? Hey, you know that's a trap, right? Walker? Walker!"

"Shiny…," Walker smiled as if he was getting the world's most comfortable massage of all time. He continued to slowly move down the pathway. When he got about halfway, Gavin and the others were shocked when they saw him step towards a section of oddly-placed bricks. Gavin realized what was going on.

"Walker, no!" Gavin shouted, running over to him and grabbing him. He shook him until his friend looked like he had finally broken out of his daze.

"What is it, Gavin?" Walker asked. "I'm just trying to get over towards the Shiny."

"Dude, have you not seen any explorer adventure movies before?" Gavin inquired. Walker shook his head. "Well, whenever there's a path leading down to some sort of a big treasure, there's always a part where someone steps on a trigger that causes panels on the walls to lift up and shoot arrows at you."

"Oh, come on," Walker said, rolling his eyes. "Those are from movies. I seriously doubt that's going to happen now."

Walker turned around, took a step forwards, and his foot landed on a step that pushed down and clicked when he stepped on it. "Uh-oh," Walker gulped. "What was that you said about explorer adventure movies?"

Panels on both the left and right walls began to lift up, and what appeared to be plungers were revealed to have been sitting behind them. Once the panels had all fully lifted up, the walls began to fire plunger arrows at them. Gavin, Walker, and the Pokémon all panicked and started to all run straight down the path towards the diamond sitting on the pedestal. As they did, however, they all stepped on more pressure triggers that caused even more plunger arrows to be fired at them. Most of them weren't hurt, but Walker had gotten one stuck onto his face. Gavin had to drag him down the rest of the path until they finally reached the point where they were safe from any impending plunger arrows.

"I really hope that these things have never been used," Walker said in a muffled tone as Gavin tried to pull the plunger off of him. Eventually, it came off with a pop and Gavin sighed in relief.

"Well, at least that parts over with," Gavin noted, "but it looks like we'll have to figure out some way to get back down that path again without activating any of the pressure triggers. Okay, Walker? Walker? Walker!"

Gavin had just turned around to see that Walker was now holding the diamond in his arms, and sitting in the gem's place was an angry-looking Pichu.

"What?" Walker asked as Gavin and the others all glared at him. "Look, it's simple. I get the diamond, you save your friends, and all Pichu has to do is sit here and not move for the rest of his life. See? Everybody wins!"

"Pi!" Pichu said angrily. He then hopped off of the pedestal and landed in front of Walker, who glared at him.

"You just couldn't be a team player, could you?"

Suddenly, the pedestal where the diamond had once been began to lower down into the floor. Meanwhile, the wall behind it started to go into the floor while the group was shocked to see that behind the wall had been a ramp that had a large rock about the size of a Snorlax perched on top of it. As the wall finally entered the ground completely, the boulder rolled down the ramp and began to move towards them.

"AHHHHH! IT'S COMING FOR US!" Meowth screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Move!" Gavin yelled. At his command, everyone began to run back down the path the way they came while the boulder started to chase after them at a speed that was growing more rapid by the second. When they came to the plunger trap, everyone stepped on triggers and Walker got even more plungers stuck all over him. Eventually, they managed to reach the crossroad where they had been before, but when Walker tried to run down the path where they had fallen down all of those pitfalls, he was stopped after he slammed into another invisible wall.

"WHEN DID THIS FREAKING THING GET HERE?" Walker shouted in anger.

So there they were: Stuck between two invisible glass walls and a giant boulder that was about to come and squash them like bugs. And as they stood there waiting for their impending doom, their tormentor laughed over the intercom and said, "Well, guys, it's been fun, and I've had a ball, but it looks like you're about to be run over, so I guess I now have to say 'Bon Voyage!'"

The microphone clicked off and Gavin could feel sweat running down his brow as he awaited his impending doom. Was this how it was all going to end? Being run over by a rock in a deadly maze with Pichu, Walker, Meowth, and the other Pokémon while his beautiful girlfriend, his cousin, and his other friends were held hostage by an insane, psycho clown that had a really messed up laugh? No, this couldn't be it. He had to find a way out of this, but how? Then, his eyes widened as an idea struck him like lightning.

"Pichu, Leafeon, use Thundershock and Magical Leaf to break down that wall!" Gavin yelled, pointing at the wall that had blocked their path before.

"Piiiichuuuuuuuuu!" Pichu said as he released a bolt of yellow electricity from his cheeks at the wall. At the same time, Leafeon let out a barrage of glowing green leaves at the same target.

"Aipom, help out with Swift!" Walker ordered.

"Ai-pom-pom-pom!" Aipom chanted as it swung its glowing white tail and fired a bunch of glowing yellow stars out at the glass barrier.

"And I'll finish it up with a little Pay Day!" Meowth called out as he crossed his arms and then opened them quickly, releasing a multitude of glowing white balls from the charm on top of his head.

All of the attacks hit their mark and pelted against the glass until the wall shattered, finally unblocking their pathway. As the rock rolled ever closer towards them, Gavin pointed where the glass wall had once been and yelled, "Jump!"

Pichu, Meowth, Leafeon, Zozo, and Aipom all leapt over the broken glass and scurried down the path until they reached the point where they knew that they were safe. Walker and Gavin soon followed, but Gavin stopped and looked back. To his astonishment, he had dropped his sunglasses in the rush, and unless he hurried, they were going to be crushed by the giant rock. He took off running towards them.

"Gavin, what are you doing?" Walker asked in shock. "It's not worth it!"

"Yes, it is!" Gavin called back. "Like my cousin with his hat, I just can't live without my shades!"

"If you don't stop, you won't live at all!" Walker reminded him.

"Don't worry," Gavin grinned. He began to slide down the floor covered in broken glass; wincing a bit as he felt the sharp pieces cut into his legs and arm. Eventually, he got to where his sunglasses were sitting on the ground, grabbed them, and then jumped with all of his might out of the way just as the boulder crashed into the brick wall. As the smoke caused by the crash cleared, Pichu and the others were relieved when they saw that Gavin was still alive with his sunglasses in hand.

"And this is why I'm top agent," Gavin grinned. He began to stand up, but flinched when he felt pain from where the glass on the floor had cut into him. The pain was murder. Walker quickly ran over to him and put Gavin's arm over his own shoulder to help the top agent up.

"Hey, Mr. Top Agent? Never do that again," Walker said with a serious look on his face. "Dawn would kill me if she knew that I had almost let you die like that over a pair of sunglasses."

"Heh, no promises," Gavin managed to say with a smile. He then grimaced when he felt another flash of pain run through him.

"Pi-chu/Leaf!" Pichu and Leafeon both said with looks of concern for their trainer.

"Are you okay?" Meowth asked, looking just as worried as the other two Pokémon.

Gavin nodded. "I'll be fine." He tried to get Walker to take his arm off of him so that he could walk on his own, but then he felt pain bite into him again, and he started to fall to the ground. Luckily, Walker managed to catch him with the help of Aipom and Zozo.

"Thanks, Zozo," Walker said to his Pokémon.

"Hee-hee-hee-hee!" Zozo snickered with delight. At the same time, Aipom, who had helped get Gavin back up as well, glared at the Zorua, wishing that it could tear the little fox apart.

Gavin looked down the path ahead. "We're almost there. Let's keep moving." Walker and the others nodded, and then they all continued on towards their destination.

Slowly but surely the group trudged down the path, but they eventually managed to reach the end of the path where a large room with what looked like a battlefield was sitting. When they entered the room, they noticed that a guy wearing a jester hat, a pink jacket, a white T-shirt, yellow pants, and plaid shoes was standing on the battlefield across from them. On his shoulder sat a Mime Jr., and the guy had a creepy grin on his face.

"Why, hello there!" he said with a laugh. "You finally made it! And with thirty minutes to spare, no less! My, my, you two are quite the agents. Although, one of you looks to be a bit injured."

"No thanks to you, you deranged psychopath!" Gavin snarled.

"Pi-chu!" Pichu growled in agreement.

"Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words that I don't know the meaning to will never hurt your ol' pal Chester here!" Chester said with a hyena-like snicker.

"Okay, we beat your maze, so let our friends go!" Gavin yelled.

"Uh-uh-uh," Chester said, shaking his finger at the teen. "We still have thirty minutes left before I have to kill you and your friends, so why don't we have a battle to pass the time! It simply is no fun when I have to end the game early."

"Why, you little-," Gavin started to say before he felt another flash of pain hit him that caused him to fall. Luckily, Walker caught him and then gently placed the top agent down with his back against the wall.

"Don't worry, dude," Walker said while grinning. "I've got this. You just leave this clown to the newest IP field agent!"

"Oh-ho-ho!" Chester laughed. "You're going to try to take me down? That joke's funnier than any other joke that I've made today! Do you mind if I borrow it some time?"

"Feel free," Walker said as he stepped up onto the battlefield. "However, it won't be funny as I'm a field agent, I've got a giant diamond, and I'm about to kick your buuuuuuuuutt!"

As soon as he had stepped onto the battlefield, Walker had slipped over a precariously-placed banana peel and fell forward flat onto his face. As he did, he had dropped the diamond that he had been holding, which shattered on the ground into a million pieces to Walker's horror. "B-b-but how?" he stuttered.

Chester laughed. "You really don't think that I would actually leave a giant diamond lying around, do you? That's just cut glass that I use to fool people I pull my pranks on. What do you think? Was that funny enough for you?"

Walker didn't say anything for a moment, but then to Chester's surprise, Walker started to chuckle as he stood up from the ground. "Oh, it's funny," he said with a maniacal grin on his face. "In fact, it's so funny that I'm going to be laughing about it the whole time that I'm taking you down."

Next Chapter: Chapter 54: "The Comedic Battle Begins! Walker vs. Chester!" – After going through a deadly maze of epic proportions, Gavin and Walker have found themselves face-to-face with the deranged clown that kidnapped Ash and the others. Will Walker, the new field agent, be able to win against Chester's mysterious team? Find out next time on "Pokémon: League of Ultimates!"

I hope that you guys liked it! Please read and review!

Okay, so I actually started and finished this chapter the day after I posted Chapter 52, but I wanted to wait a couple of days just in case. Also, don't expect this to be a continuous thing with me from now on because starting next week, I'll be dealing with the last 4 weeks of this semester, and I'm going to be extremely busy from that point on until the end of April. I am still working on Chapter 54 in my spare time, however, and because it's a battle and not a Contest, it won't take me as long as certain other chapters have. And yes, it won't be a three-month wait like last time. It won't be an instant thing like this time, either, but I am working on it just so you all know.

BTW, I keep forgetting this, but I've had my own special website on Weebly since August. There, you can find out what other stories I've been working on, get a link to the Advancers, an Advanceshipping forum that I'm a moderator on, and even see some of my mediocre artwork! So check it out!

Well, that's all I have to say. Thank you all for staying with me and I hope that you will continue to read this story. I'll try to finish Chapter 54 as soon as I can, but until then, see ya!