[Pokémon] Four Journeys

The first thing Red noticed was the feel of the sand beneath him, followed by the sound of waves crashing against the shore. He slowly opened his eyes and sat up, to find that he was on what appeared to be a small deserted island. Beside him was Yellow, who was also just waking up.

"Where are we?" She asked as she got up. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure." Red had to grab his forehead due to a throbbing headache. "The last thing I remember was…" He tried to think. "The S.S. Anne was on fire, and then it there was a storm. I think… Some Gyarados showed up and were going to destroy the ship?"

"I remember that. And that mean guy from the mountain tossed Maggie away." Tears started to well up in Yellow's eyes.

"That's right. The Gyarados must have wrecked the ship and we washed up here."

"I'm never going to see Maggie again, am I?" The tears started flowing down hard as Yellow cried. Red hugged her tightly to comfort the girl.

"You don't have to worry about that." The two quickly turned around to find the source of the new voice. Behind the, was a large rock, roughly 20 feet in height and shaped almost like a giant fang. At the base of the rock was a small cave, inside which they could faintly see a small figure standing there. "Your Gyarados was the one who brought you here. She should still be swimming around the island."
Just then, Red and Yellow heard the sound of something emerging from the water and they turned around to see a Gyarados waiting there.

"Maggie!" Yellow hopped to her feet and ran over to her Pokémon. Red followed her as the girl hugged her first Pokémon, her arms not even reaching half way along the massive Pokémon's thick body. Red handed Maggie's empty Pokéball to Yellow, who took it and recalled Maggie back into it. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again!"

"It's always nice to see such happy reunions." Said the figure in the cave.

Red turned back to see the person again, just in time to see the entire cave lit up by a blue lightning bolt. The lightning was being held by the person in the cave like a staff or walking stick, its light revealing the man's features. But he wasn't a man.

"You're a…" Red was dumbfounded. "You're a Pikachu?"

The Electric Mouse Pokémon chuckled, his voice being surprisingly deep for something of his small size. "Yes, I am a Pikachu. But I'm not a normal Pikachu as I'm sure you can tell."

The Pikachu walked out of the cave and into the sunlight, allowing Red and yellow to get a closer look at him.

"You're cheeks are blue." Yellow noticed. "And your ears and stripes to."

"A Pikachu with blue markings…" Red muttered to himself. "That sounds familiar…"

"I should hope so." The Pikachu laughed again. "Otherwise that would mean that your kind have stopped telling the stories of my exploits. For you see, I am…" The Pikachu paused for dramatic effect. "Pikoa! Guardian of the Seas!"

* * *

"I think I'm starting to get seasick." Brock groaned.

"We're almost to land." Replied Misty. "I'm sure of it."

"How many hours have we been out here?" Ash asked aloud.

"I'm telling you we're almost there!"

"I think I see something!" Carmine stood up and lost his balance, almost falling off the Lapras.

"Sit down!" Misty yelled at him. "And I see it too. The shore's just up ahead."

Lapras surfed towards the land and eventually the group were able to make their way onto a sandy beach overlooked by a steep cliff.

"Not ideal." Brock said. "But it's better than being on the water for any longer."

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Ash asked the others as Misty recalled her Lapras.

"I thought you were supposed to be an expert climber." Carmine pointed out. "It's the one thing you've always been good at."

"That doesn't mean I can scale a thirty foot cliff!"

"How about we just go over there?" Misty pointed down the shore, where the cliff steadily sloped down to shore-level.

"Right. I knew that was there." Brock said a little too defensively."

* * *

"How do we get back to land?" Red asked Pikoa.

"You're on land." The unusual Pikachu pointed out. "But if you want to get back to the mainland, I can help you out. Just ride your Gyarados across the ocean, I can guide you."

Obediently, Yellow pulled out Maggie's Pokéball and tossed it out over the ocean. Maggie dove into the water and surfaced again by the shoreline. Red lifted Yellow up onto Maggie's back and then climbed on himself. He then held a hand out to help Pikoa get on, but the Pikachu instead ran out to the waves and leapt out onto the water. He seemed to slide along the surface as if her were surfing as a wave formed below him that seemed to follow his will.

Pikoa surfed a lap around Maggie, who was slowly swimming away from shore. As he went out in front of her, he gestured back for Maggie to follow him, which she did. They made their way across the ocean at breakneck speed until they finally reached the shore. Red and Yellow climbed off of Maggie onto a long section of some kind of boardwalk.

"If memory serves," Pikoa scratched his chin, "This is what you humans would know as Route 13. If you head north you should reach Lavender Town, south will lead you Fuchsia and west should take you to… Vermilion, I think."

"Thanks for your help!" Yellow called back to him.

"Yes, thank you." Red added. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

"It was no trouble at all!" Pikoa nodded back to them. "It's just nice to get company once in a while. Until we meet again, humans!"

Pikoa surfed away while Red and Yellow waved in goodbye. When he had left, the two turned around and made their way north to Lavender.

"I used to hear stories of Pikoa when I was young." Red commented as they walked. "But I always thought they were just old myths. He'd have to be thousands of years old at this point."

"What kind of stories were they?" Yellow asked inquisitively.

"Mostly stories about a surfing Pikachu who could control the waves and carried as staff of lightning. He would go around helping fishers and sailors when they were lost at sea. But those stories are thousands of years old. He certainly matches the descriptions given in those old stories, but he'd have to be ancient."

Red let out a depressed sigh, which caught yellow's attention.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about my mom." Red answered with sincerity. "She's probably worrying herself sick right now, and I mean that literally. I need to find a phone."

"But don't you have one of those PokéGear things like what Daisy has?"

"I wish."

* * *

Ash's group made their way along the shore until they managed to reach the end of the cliff, then decided to walk up the cliff to get a better viewpoint to figure out where they were. To their surprise there was actually a small town at the top of the cliff.

"I've heard of this place." Brock said. "This is Maiden's Peak."

"How do you know that?" Ash asked him.

Brock pointed to a statue of a woman situated at the center of the cliff's peak, overlooking the ocean.

"The town is named for that statue, which is said to hold the spirit of a young woman who waited for her lover to return from an ancient war long ago. They say that she waited, standing there, for her lover's boat to return from the war. But the boat never returned, so she waited until her body eventually turned to stone."

"I wonder if the boat was destroyed by Gyarados?" Ash mused.

"It wouldn't surprise me." Misty said. "Gyarados are renowned for their legendary tempers. Boats thses days have to be specifically designed not to attract them."

"Then I wonder what caught the attention of the ones who attacked the S.S. Anne?"

"We may never know." Carmine said seriously. "Though I'm more curious about what that white flash was right before we were blown away from the ship."

"I just hope everyone else mad it." Ash hung his head down.

"I'm sure their all just fine." Misty reassured Ash, though she didn't really believe her own words. "Some of the best trainers in the area were on that ship. I'm sure they managed to get everyone to safety."

Gary woke up in an unfamiliar hospital room, looking up at a plain, white ceiling. "Where am I?" He muttered as he sat up.

"Nice to see that you're finally awake." Kat stood up from the chair beside Gary's bed that he had been sitting in.

"What happened?" Gary asked his cousin.

"The ship went down. No one knows exactly what happened, but they found all of us washed up on the shoreline near Route 11. We're in a hospital in Vermilion right now. I heard that they've had to get doctors from all over the region here to treat everyone."

"Where are the others? Is Daisy alright?" Fear was starting to sound in his normally prideful voice.
Kat pointed to the next bed over. Gary looked over to where she was pointing and saw that Daisy was lying unconscious in the bed.

"The doctor said that she has a mild concussion and a few minor injuries here and there, but that she's in fairly good shape. Apparently everyone is in pretty good shape considering what happens, but that just adds more confusion as to what actually did happen. Kat sat back down again. "By the way, Mal, Sue and Ciel are all over in the waiting room. Ali and Cleo are on their way home to Pallet. They said that they can't put up with this anymore."

"What about Ash? Red?"

"I'm afraid that no one's seen them." Kat looked down to the ground. "They weren't with the rest of us when we were found. Lorelei of the Elite Four said that Ash and his traveling companions should be fine. She saw them riding off on a Lapras which she was adamant would be able to take them safely through even the worst storms. They probably just made their way to a different shore then the rest of us. We don't know about Red or the girl he was with though."

"I feel like I'm largely responsible for what happened to that girl." A doctor who had just entered the room. "I was the one who signed off to let her go with him." The doctor forced a smile, which years of practice made sure looked completely genuine, and turned to Gary. "Hello, my name is Doctor Sallow and I will be overseeing your recovery. How are you feeling, today?"

"My entire body feels sore and I have a bad headache." Gary complained.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Doctor Sallow said while checking the clipboard hanging from the end of Gary's bed.

"Do you have any idea when my sister will wake up?" Gary looked over to the unconscious Daisy.

"She should be waking up any moment now, actually." The Doctor said as he put the clipboard down and turned towards the girl.

Sure enough, Daisy's eyes flickered open as she slowly became aware of her surroundings.

"What happened? Where am I?" She asked as she sat up and raised one of her hands up to her forehead.

* * *

David Oak set his phone back onto its receiver and looked up. He was sitting at his desk in his home office back in Pallet Town. Sitting in the many chairs that lined the room were friends and family. They all waited with baited breath.

"That was the hospital." David announced. "Gary and Daisy are both awake and fine, but I'm afraid there's still no sign of the others."

The members of the Oak family and most of their close friends that were there all gave a collective sigh of relief. The two women who were sitting off to the side of the room, however, still looked depressed. Delia Ketchum tried her hardest to remain calm with the situation for the benefit of the other woman, and overall was doing a fairly good job of keeping her composure. She placed a comforting arm around the woman that was sitting in the seat beside her, who was taking the news, or rather the lack of news, much harder than Delia was.

Sariah Redwood was a rather frail woman. Ever since her ex-boyfriend left her almost eleven years ago and she was left to raise their son on her own, Sariah's health had been in a constant and continuous state of decline. Over the years she had been reduced to little more than skin and bones, with a sickly pale complexion. She also had coughing fits that she was normally been able to keep relatively under control, but had recently started to become more and more frequent with time.

Unlike some of the others in Pallet Town, Sariah was not a particularly wealthy person, and her medical expenses would have outright bankrupted her long ago if were not for the generosity of Delia and the Oaks, who were willing to pay her medical bills for her. But even so, life was an uphill battle for Sariah, until recently when her health had finally started to balance out. But now the stress of current events was quickly undoing any progress she had made and if anything she was now in worse shape than ever.

"Red will be just fine." Delia reassured Sariah.

"I'm sure he probably just ended up on another beach and is looking for a phone right now to let you know he's fine." Professor Oak added.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." Sarah said between her crying and a few coughs.

The phone rang again and David picked it up almost instantly. His eyes grew wide as the person calling started to speak and a live video of the caller popped up on the phone console's display.

"Yes, she's right here." He spoke into the phone. "Hold on a moment, I'm going to put you on speaker."

David pressed a button on the console and turned it around so that the others could see who it was.

"Hi, Mom!" Red called out over the phone. "I called home but there was no answer. I figured this was the next best number to call. I'm doing just fine!"

Sariah instantly started to feel better at the sight of her son, alive and safe. She let out another cough before greeting him in return.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Samuel."

"Hi, Red's Mom!" Yellow came into view of the screen and waved at the screen on the phone they were calling from until Red pointed her to the camera.

"Who's that?" Sariah asked in confusion.

"Oh, right." Red embarrassment was made clear by the expression on his face. "I keep forgetting to call and let you what's going on. This is Yellow."

Red told them the story of his adventures since leaving Pallet Town. He was fairly detailed for the most part of his story, but he did make sure not to mention their meeting with Pikoa. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that encounter, so he thought it would be best not to mention it to anyone yet.

"And so we made our wayup north to the Route 12 Gateway, which is where we're calling from using a payphone. The way to Vermilion was blocked by a sleeping Snorlax, and they're know to sleep for days on end, so we're going to head up to Lavender Town next."

"Well, be safe." His mother replied. "And make sure to check in more often."

"And if you see Ash, tell him to call in more, too!" Delia added, confident that if Red and Yellow had made it to safety, that her son and his friends would too.

"I will. Goodbye!" Red waved to the screen as he reached over to end the call.

"Bye!" Yellow added just before the call ended.

"Well that certainly puts a heavy weight off of all of us." David said as he turned the phone back to its normal position. "It's good to know Samuel is alright."

"Although I am a bit curious about that girl, Yellow." Professor Oak stroked his thin thoughtfully. "I can't shake the feeling that I've seen her somewhere before, but I can't seem to place her anywhere. That's why I didn't bring it up."

"I suppose it's only natural that Red would be good with taking care of people like that." Sariah said. "After all, sometimes it felt like he was taking care of me as much as I taking care of him when he was growing up."

After awaking on land with no memory of how she got there, Zoroark made her way north. The Dark-type Pokémon was succumbing to fatigue and had no idea where she was going or how she would get there, but she was determined to get there.

She started moving at a sprint, but eventually had to slow down to walking, and then she had to crawl. Eventually she was just dragging herself across the ground as she reached a heavily wooded area that reminded her of somewhat of her home. It was at this point that whatever little strength she had left was gone and she blacked out for a while.

* * *

Built around Maiden's Peak was a small town called Maiden's Village, which was currently celebrating its annual Summer Festival, as Ash and his companions soon learned after entering the village. Paper lanterns and strings of lights lit up the whole area as the sun set over the horizon and the sound of drums could be heard in the distance. People filed the streets, dressed in traditional celebratory garb as they participated in various games and activities, or just generally enjoying themselves.

Ash's gang were too tired to really get involved in any of the celebrations however, and decided to just find somewhere to stay for the night. The small town did not have a Pallet House or even just a Pokémon Center, so they had to search around for a small, very traditional inn. The group checked in for the night and went off to their rooms.

"Now that were settled in, I'm going to call back home and let everyone know we're alright." Carmine announced to Ash and Brock after they had settled down into their shared room. "Although I should probably find somewhere private to make the call from, first. These walls feel like they're paper thin. Isn't that right, Misty?"

"It's almost like the walls are actually made of paper." Misty agreed. Despite being in the next room over, it still sounded as if she was right there with the others.

Carmine walked out of the room, leaving Ash and Brock to get ready to go to bed. The beds were of an old design, like everything there, and seemed to be little more than just mats on the floor.

"I've stayed somewhere that feels so… rustic." Ash noted. "It feels really weird."

"I like it." Brock said. "It gives me an idea of what it was like for people back in older times."

"I know, right." Misty added in, still in the other room. "It's so nice to just take a break from the modern industrial society and enjoy a simpler time."

Ash shrugged. "I guess I just don't see the appeal. Although it looks like Pika and Volty seem to be enjoying it."

The two Pikachu were resting at the foot of Ash's mat. They were curled up so that their heads were resting against each other's sides and their tails formed a ring wrapped around them.

"Is that normal behavior for Pikachu?" Ash wondered aloud.

"Pikachu are known to huddle together for warmth at night." Brock pointed out.

"I think they already fell asleep." Ash observed. "And I think I'll join them."

* * *

Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur had been wandering around ever since their confrontation with Damian and deciding to challenge the Pokémon League by themselves. Unfortunately they had yet to find a way to do so without a human trainer, so they had been spending their time wandering in a desperate attempt to find anything that could help them in their goals. They eventually found themselves traveling south on Route 6, where they found an unfamiliar black and red Pokémon collapsed onto the ground. The Pokémon seemed to be sleeping, but awoke as they approached it.

"Are you alright?" Bulbasaur asked the barely conscious Pokémon as he lifted it up to its feet with his vines.

"I must find…" the Pokémon moaned, "my son."

"Well I'm afraid you won't be able to find anything in the shape you're in right now." Charmander told the mysterious Pokémon. "Come with us, we'll help you recover your strength so that you can continue your search."

The group made their way off the beaten trail and made a small shelter. Bulbasaur fashioned a leaf into a cup, which Squirtle filled with water for the black Pokémon drank graciously while Charmander went off in search of berries to eat.

"Thank you." The Pokémon said. "My name is Zoroark."

"Hmm…" Squirtle thought about something. "Have we met before?"

"I don't think so." Zoroark answered.

"It's just…" Squirtle said. "Your voice seems very familiar to me."

"I know!" Bulbasaur chimed in. "You sound like that one won weird lady we met that one time."

"The human woman who could understand our speech." Squirtle remembered.

"I know what you're talking about." A look of realization crossed Zoroark's face. "That was me."

* * *

Giovannni sat alone in his office watching a news report about the S.S. Anne.

"Interesting." He said to himself.

Just then a small red light started flashing on Giovanni's desk. He quickly turned off the news report and pressed a button underneath the desk and nine large screens slid down the wall in front of him. The center screen lit up to show a slightly plump blonde man in a white suit.

"Are you insane?" The man yelled furiously at Giovanni. "What were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?"

"I assure you, destroying that ship was not our intent." Giovanni politely told the angry man. "It was merely an unfortunate coincidence."

"Like the Distortion World it was! The Foundation was barely able to make it through the Cipher incident last year without anyone getting suspicious. The last thing we need right now is you complicating things any further. Another stunt like this and we're cutting you off!"

"Relax, Mr. President." Giovanni's calm demeanor remained completely unfazed. "The International Police can't even touch us without having to risk Operation Pay Day taking effect."

"You do realize that scheme of yours would affect everyone, right?" The blonde man was clearly uneasy with the mention of Giovanni's contingency plan. "Not just the police, but every government would be ruined. Even the Foundation would be affected if that happened. Even you would be."

"That's exactly what makes it so effective of a threat." Giovanni replied. "No one wants it to happen, even you. Which is why the Foundation will maintain its support of Team Rocket."

The blonde man stared angrily at Giovanni, then finally spoke. "I'm calling a meeting of the council."

"Go right ahead."

The man pressed a button on his white desk and slowly, one by one, the other screens each lit up to show another member of the mysterious council until only one remained blank.

"I hereby this meeting of the council to order." The blonde man announced. "As president of the Foundation, I make a movement too…"

The man trailed off as suddenly the last screen lit up and an unexpected guest joined their meeting.

"I hope I'm not too late." Said Hunter J.

"Who are you." Asked the man in white asked angrily. "How did you reach this channel?"

"You would know me as Hunter J." The woman said slyly. "As I understand it, your little club is now short a member now that Es Cade is in prison and Cipher has disbanded. I am here to announce myself as his replacement."

"Es Cade didn't have a replacement." Pointed out a bespectacled, red haired man. "None of us do."

"But she has a point." Said a serious looking man with light blue hair. "We need a tenth member and Es Cade is gone."

"But how do we know we can trust the lass?" Asked a large, heavily tanned man.

"Giovanni can vouch for me, can't you?" Hunter J said with a flirtatious smile.

"You pouched two of my agents and left five more to die on the wreckage of the S.S. Anne." Giovanni explained. "The only thing I have to say about you is that you cannot be trusted."

"They chose to join me." Hunter J explained. "And your other men made it out just fine, from what my sources say."

"I like this woman." Said a man with long, puffy green hair. "I vote for her to join."

"This isn't up to a vote, yet." The man in white said. "Although we do need to replace Es Cade's seet on the council. In one week the nine of us will meet to discuss possible candidates. After that we shall hold a vote. If we vote for you to join "Hunter J" then we will contact you. Otherwise you are not to contact us again. If you have not heard from us by the end of the month than you are to destroy the transceiver you used to reach us and forget this frequency. Tell no one of our existence or the consequences will be dire for you."

"I guess this is it." Pikachu muttered to herself, lying still on a sandy beach in some unknown place, unable to open her eyes for fear of where she would find herself. "I have failed her. After I tried so hard to do everything in my power to stop him from taking her, he was still able to get to her anyway. What was I even thinking? There was no way I could stop him. He's too powerful for me to stop. For anybody to be able to stop."

"Well, it may seem that way, but clearly someone or something was able to stop him, otherwise we wouldn't still be around to think about it."

Pikachu was shocked to hear the familiar voice, but not enough to open her eyes. Not that it would do any good as the voice was projected into her mind, meaning that even if she did look around, Abraham wouldn't be there to see anyway.

"So I guess that means I'm still alive at least, or else you're dead too." Pikachu thought back to the Psychic Pokémon.

"No, you're definitely alive. I'd say probably somewhere on one of the islands south of the Kanto mainland. I can't quite pinpoint your location to bring you back, but I can still connect to you via the psychic link we've been using to communicate."

"Oh, goody."

"Yellow's safe by the way. I'm not quite sure what happened but we washed up on an island and were able to find our way back on Maggie, being guided by some sort of ancient water-Pikachu-deity thing. I'm not really sure what he was."

Pikachu's ears perked up at the news.

"She's safe? I never thought she'd be able to get away from him in a direct confrontation."

"Well she did, somehow. And there doesn't seem to be any sign of him continuing his pursuit. My guess would be that whatever happened drained enough of his power to force him to retreat and recuperate. Hopefully it will buy us enough time to find a more permanent solution than just 'keep a low profile and hope he doesn't find her.' Because I think we both know that isn't going to work."

"For someone who doesn't actually talk, you're quite the chatterbox." Pikachu remarked.

"I only seem that way to you because you're so stoic."

"And what do you propose we could do to stop him, anyway? What could possibly stop something with his power."

"A Legendary."

"What?" Pikachu said blankly.

"I don't know how we'll find one or get it to help us, but the only solution in fighting something that has been granted such power would be with something that already has enough power to equal it. A Legendary Pokémon."

"Good luck with that." Pikachu sighed. "I'm just going to enjoy my rest here and find a more practical solution."

Abraham didn't say, or rather, think, anything else. Pikachu took that as a sign that he had left their mental conversation for the time being. She continued to lay there motionless for a while before finally deciding it was time to get up and figure out where she actually was. She crept one eye open, and then the other, before standing up and taking a look around.

"Well, none of this looks familiar at all." Pikachu said to herself. "Though that's not really all that surprising. I guess I should probably try and find some higher ground to get a better look around."

* * *

Pika was suddenly rolled onto the ground, falling hard onto the wooden floor. Pika opened his eyes to see what had disturbed them, to see Ash leaving the room. The trainer was still in his pajamas and seemed to be in some sort of trance as he walked out the door. Pika shook his partner awake and Volty opened her eyes groggily in response.

"What?" Volty asked sleepily.

"Something's wrong with Ash." Pikachu whispered to her, not wanting to wake the others about this matter, yet. "He just left without us."

Sleepiness suddenly left Volty as she was shocked awake by that information. "Should we go after him?"

"Of course we should." Pika responded. "Come on, before we lose track of him."

The two Pikachu ran out of the inn and chased after their trainer. Pika ran as fast as he could, while Volty used her Quick attack to make short sprints so quickly that it looked almost like she was teleporting. They caught up to Ash as he made his way slowly towards the statue of the maiden. Pika and Volty each grabbed onto one of Ash's legs and tried to pull him back, but they were not strong enough. Finally, Pika gave up on that idea and shocked Ash with Thunderbolt.

"Aagh!" Ash yelled, then looked around in confusion. "Wait… where am I? What am I doing?" He turned back to see his two Pikachu, who looked relieved to see that Ash had regained his senses. "What's going on, guys?"

Suddenly, a wall of ghostly fire encircled the trio, trapping them in the spot.

"You will not escape so easily." A deep, raspy voice echoed through the flame-lit field. "She is expecting you, and I will make sure that she is denied your presence no longer. She has waited too long already."
Pika and Volty leapt onto Ash's shoulder as the three all looked around to try and find the source of the haunting voice. A spectral image suddenly faded into view in front of them of a dark sphere surrounded by a purple fog materialized. Two big white eyes suddenly opened wide on the sphere and a huge mouth spit out its tongue before the sphere vanished into nothingness again.

Ash fell to the ground in shock from the sudden ghostly appearance and he instinctively reached down to grab his Pokédex, which had been left back at the inn.

"Who… who are you?"

"I am the one who will reunite the maiden with her lost love. The one who has spent countless centuries waiting for his soul to return here. You may call me…" The sphere suddenly appeared behind Ash's shoulder. "Ghastly!"

Ash stumbled forward at the sudden appearance of the ghost and almost walked right into the ghostly blue flames surrounding them.

"But what do I have to do with that?" Ash asked, fear evident in his voice.

"Why, you have everything to do with it, of course."

Pika jumped at Ghastly and swung down its tail in a Brick Break, but the attack passed harmlessly through the air as the ghost faded away again. Pikachu landed on the ground and looked around in confusion.

"Oh, don't think you'll be able to get the best of me that easily." Ghastly's voice haunted the air. "The maiden has been waiting a long time for her love to return to her and now that I am so close to reuniting them, I won't let anything stop me."

* * *

Looker and his team, currently consisting of himself, Lance, 009, Wes, Rui and Lorelei, made their way back to their headquarters in Viridian with the aid of 009's Alakazam.

"I never thought I'd miss this place so much." Wes remarked.

"That could have gone much better." Said Lance.

"Ja." Looker agreed. "Though we should be grateful that it did not turn out worse."

"How could that have gone worse?" Rui asked.

"Everyone on that ship could have drowned at sea." 009 explained. "But as it happens, there are no confirmed casualties. Almost everyone was accounted for when we awoke after the storm, and those who weren't have since been confirmed as alive."

"But I am curious as to what attracted those Gyarados." Lorelei said. "All I can think of would be the fire. But who's Salamence was that, that started the fire in the first place?"

"I believe that the Salamence in question belonged to the mercenary known as Hunter J." Looker explained. "The International Police have been after her for quite some time, but we have been unable to capture her or even learn her true identity."

"Her name is Jael Jaeger."

Everyone turned to look at Wes.

"How do you know that?" Looker asked him.

"Jaeger." Rui mouthed the name in recognition. "But that's… it's your…"

"It's my last name." Wes confirmed. "Because she's my mother. At least with the biological sense of the term, anyway."

Pikachu hopped back onto Ash's shoulder as the sound of Ghastly's laughter echoed around them. The Ghost materialized again in front of Ash and continued speaking. Pika and Volty took the opportunity to strike, sending out dual Thunderbolts which collided in the air to merge into a larger electric strike which was able to zap Ghastly directly. The ghost reeled back from the blast towards the flames behind him. But to the shock of Ash and his Pikachu, Ghastly did not actually touch the fire. In fact, the entire ring of fire seemed to move back to keep Ghastly within it, forcing Ash to take several steps forward to avoid being burned by it.

"Why do you continue to fight against the inevitable?" Ghastly asked in a pained voice. "No matter what you do, I will unite the lovers."

"I still don't know what you're talking about!" Ash shouted in frustration.

"It would appear that you need a sample of my power to get you to cooperate. Now… let's see what it is you fear most…"

Ghastly faded away again and for a moment there was complete silence. A shadow formed on the ground beneath where Ghastly had been and slowly grew out of the ground. Ash and his Pikachu watched in shock as the shadow took form.

* * *

"Alright, we had a little setback, but now it's time to get back on track!" Gary said triumphantly as he walked out of the hospital alongside his sister. Kat and the others trailed behind the two. "Onwards to Lavender!"

"You're going to Lavender Town?" Daisy asked her brother in surprise.

"Yeah, what's it to you?"

"Well, I was thinking about going with you for a bit, but if you're going to that haunted ghost town then count me out."

"What? Don't tell me that you're afraid of a few ghosts." Gary teased her.

"You know those ghosts are just rumors, right?" Ciel asked the two.

"No they're not." Kat argued. "I've seen a few."

Daisy froze up in panic at that remark.

"Of course, they're only Ghost-type Pokémon." Kat teased.

"I don't care." Daisy waved her hand through the air in a dismissive manor. "I'm not going to Lavender Town with you and that's that."

"I never said you could come, anyway." Gary pointed out.

* * *

"You's called for us?" Meowth asked as he, James, Jessie, Attila and Hun hesitantly walked into Giovanni's office. Their leader looked upset about something, but his frown quickly changed into a slight smile as he saw them.

"Yes." Giovanni said calmly. "I wish to discuss your mission. You failed to capture any Pokémon, three of your teammates went AWOL and you've attracted the unwanted attention from some very powerful people."

The members of Team Rocket all froze, each waiting in anticipation for what horrible punishments they would receive from their failure.

"However," Giovanni continued, "that means our membership in only down by three traitors and the world now thinks much more highly of our threat. This has served as an even greater example of what happens when people try to interfere with us than I ever could have hoped. You may have failed the mission that you were assigned, but you've still done will enough to earn yourselves a promotion… Elite Squadron."

The five stood there in surprised shock. Seeing their reaction, Giovanni decided to continue further.

"However, you will need to fill out the missing positions of your team, so I have hand selected three new members of your Squadron." He waved towards the door and Agrnt Masque walked into the room, followed by Butch and Cassidy. But something seemed odd about the two. They seemed cold and emotionless, while their eyes seemed like they no longer reflected light. They had been changed in the same way that Masque had. Their hearts had been closed up, leaving them as only shadows of their former selves.

"As it happens, I don't have another assignment for you quite yet. So I suggest you do some training to get to work better with your new teammates. That will be all for now, you may go."

* * *

"Behold your greatest fear!" Ghastly laughed evilly. "It is…" The ghost's voice faltered. "you?"

The black mass had formed into a duplicate of Ash, though the copy did have a few noticeable differences. The copy didn't carry himself with quite the same air of confidence that the real Ash had developed and looked almost like he was slightly younger. A duplicate of Pika rested on the fake Ash's shoulder, but with no Volty besides him. The copy stared meekly at Ash, who looked back with unease.

"I don't get it." Ghastly rematerialized next to the real Ash. "Are you truly afraid of yourself?"

"No." Ash said, more to himself than to Ghastly. "I don't think that's me. Something's different about him."

The fake Ash assumed a fighting position, with the fake Pikachu's cheeks sparked with electricity.

"Come on! Let's battle!" The fake Ash challenged his true counterpart.

"I guess I don't have a choice." Ash held out his right arm, giving Pika his cue to enter the battle.

Pika hopped onto the ground between the two Ashes, his mirror duplicate doing the same. Ash and his counterfeit copy both gave their Pikachu their first orders and the two Pokémon acted at once. The fake Pikachu launched a Thunderbolt at Pika, who shrugged off the attack and retaliated with a Brick Break. Pika's tail slammed against the imposter and sent him flying out of the ring of fire.

"Looks like you won this fight," the duplicate Ash said, "but how about a rematch?"

"You don't have another Pokémon." Ash pointed out.

Another illusory Pikachu materialized when the first one had stood. Ash sighed as the battle begun again. The copy Pikachu tried to use Thunderbolt again, only to be knocked away by another Brick Break.

"Wow, you're good. But I bet you can't beat me again."

"I think I'm starting to get it." Ash said as Pika defeated a third copy. "This isn't me at all. Or at least, not the me that I am." A fourth Pikachu showed up, and Pika defeated it like the others. "It's would I could have been. What I could still be." Pika defeated a fifth Pikachu. "This is an Ash Ketchum who never learned, a me that has dedicated so much to becoming a Pokémon Trainer that he has forgotten his, no, my true goals."

"Come on. I'll win eventually!" The fake said after Pika defeated yet another copy Pikachu.

"I still don't understand." Ghastly said.

"I always thought that I wanted to be a Pokémon Trainer and eventually become a Pokémon Master. It's what we all wanted to be back in Pallet Town and I felt I had to surpass my friends. But seeing this me has made me realize something."

"What?"

Ash turned to the Ghost. "I want to be more than that. I want to grow up. If I were to pursue that goal endlessly, I'll never really amount to anything. I can't afford to let life pass me by as I widdle away my time were working towards endless pursuits."

"That's deep." Ghastly nodded wisely. "And I was just trying to scare you to death. Literally."

"I still don't understand why you want me."

Ghastly looked at Ash, then to the copy. The ghost decided to let his illusions fade away and the wall of fire surrounding them died down.

"I'm assuming you've heard the story of Maiden's Peak?"

"One of my friends told me about it earlier."

"Well, after the maiden passed on, I agreed to help return her love to her. I've been spending the centuries since then looking for him, but obviously humans don't live this long. So, instead of searching for him, I've been looking for someone who shares his soul. And as it happens, I've found it in you."

"But I'm not him." Ash pointed out.

"I know. I let my quest take over me, much like you're worried will happen to you. But now I realized that I failed my quest long ago and will never be able to reunite them."

"That's okay." Ash jumped when he heard the sound of a woman's voice behind him. He then got an even bigger scare as he turned to see who it was and saw the maiden's ghost floating there. "I understand and I think that after all this time that we have finally met the point where we must both move on."

"You're right, Hanami. It is time. But what should we do now?"

"You could help me in my quest." Ash said once he regained his senses. "You are a Pokémon, right Ghastly?"

"Yes." The Ghost-type Pokémon eyed him warily. "But I thought you were giving up on becoming a Pokémon Master."

"Don't be ridicules." Ash smiled. "I'm not giving up on my dream just yet." He then dropped his smile and his tone became more serious. "I just need to make sure that I don't let it take over me and I'm sure you can help with that."

"Fine." Ghastly nodded. "You have a deal. But what about you?" Ghastly turned back to the maiden's ghost.

"If it is alright, I would like to travel with you as well." The woman said. "At least until I find something else to do."

"Sure." Ash said, holding out his arm to shake her hand. "Of course you're welcome to."

The maiden. Hanami, looked down at Ash's hand and giggled. Ash then pulled his hand back in embarrassment, realizing that a ghost had no physical form, and therefore could not shake his hand.

Daisy walked up to the Vermilion City Gym and held out Bulbasaur's Pokéball. "This is it." She said to her starter Pokémon. "We probably should have done this before getting on the S.S. Anne, but oh well. We're going this now."

She walked into the large industrial building and immediately her hair began to frizz up from the acces static hanging in the air.

"What…" Daisy had no idea what was going on.

"Welcome to the Viridian Gym." Lt. Surge greeted Daisy, who was greatly intimidated by the large man, standing at almost twice her height. "I'm guessing your here to earn the Thunder Badge."

"That's right." Daisy managed to get out. "My… my name's Daisy."

"Alright. I think I remember seeing your records. Daisy Oak, right? You've got two badges already?"

"That's right." Daisy confirmed.

"Good, good. Then this will be a one-on –one fight like your previous Gym battles have been. Get to your position and we'll start the match."

Surge jogged up to the opposite end of the battle field while Daisy nervously walked over to her end, still uneasy about the electricity flowing through the room. She called out her Bulbasaur while Surge sent out his Pikachu.

"Use Sleep Powder!" Daisy called out to her Bulbasaur, who sprayed out a wave of pollen from the bulb on her back towards Surge's Pikachu as it charged up to her for a Thunder Punch. The attack caused Pikachu to trip and fall to the ground asleep. Taking the opportunity, Bulbasaur launched a volley of Razor Leaf and lashed out with a Vine Whip. Both attacks hit Pikachu at the same time, knocking the Electric rodent back and also jarring it awake. Pikachu rushed up for another Thunder Punch, this time dodging out of the way of a Razor Leaf and hitting Bulbasaur right in the cheek. Electricity rushed through Bulbasaur with the shock of impact, paralyzing the Grass-type.

Pikachu prepared to hit Bulbasaur with an Iron Tail, but was interrupted as Bulbasaur was able to spray a puff of Poison Powder right into Pikachu's face, sending the Mouse Pokémon stumbling back in a coughing fit. Bulbasaur tried to take advantage of this by charging forward in a Takedown, but her paralysis left Bulbasaur unable to move fast enough and Pikachu was able to back away and fire a Thundershock at Bulbasaur.

Bulbasaur launched another Razor Leaf, sending two of the leaves arcing forward in two directions. Pikachu easily dodged the attack and started running up to Bulbasaur to hit it with another Thunder Punch. Fortunately for Bulbasaur, she hadn't really been aiming for Pikachu with that move and the two leaves finished their arcs, returning towards her and striking Pikachu in the back, knocking him to the ground.

"This is it, Bulbasaur!" Daisy encouraged her Pokémon. "Finish the battle!"

Bulbasaur lashed out with a Vine Whip, knocking Pikachu unconscious and winning the fight. With the battle won, Bulbasaur began to glow and grow into its evolved form, Ivysaur.

"Very good." Surge clapped lightly as he walked up to Daisy. "You've earned this." He handed a Thunder Badge out to Daisy, who graciously accepted it.

* * *

Ash quietly snuck back into the inn, making sure not to wake anyone. Pika and Volty rode on his shoulders while Ghastly and Hanami silently floated behind him. As Ash reached his room, he reached into his backpack and pulled out an empty Pokéball, holding it out to Ghastly who gently bumped his against it and was engulfed by the red energy.

"I'm going to go back to sleep now." Ash whispered to Hanami as quietly as he could. "See you in a few hours."

"Actually…" Hanami said at her regular speaking voice, worrying Ash that she would wake up the others. "As a ghost, I can only be seen or heard when I choose to be. As such you will not be seeing me again until I choose for you to. I would also like to keep my presence a secret."

Ash nodded to the ghost girl and lied down on his sleeping mat, Pika and Volty returning to their resting place by his feat. Hanami watched as the boy fell asleep and after a while Ghastly left its new Pokéball.

"He is the current vessel of Katsuo's soul, is he not?" He asked her.

"I cannot say for sure." Hanami spoke mournfully. "It could just be a coincidence that he looks and feels the same as him. But either way it would be unfair to end the boy's life just so that I could be reunited with my love. I have waited for over a thousand years for him to return to me, and I can surely wait another lifetime."

* * *

"So what you're saying is that you have the power to make yourself appear human?" Squirtle asked as he, Charmander and Bulbasaur finished listening to Zoroark's story.

"Yes. I just told you that a few second ago." Zoroark pointed out.

"I know. I was just confirming it to myself while I think."

"What are you thinking about?" Asked Charmander.

"I think I have an idea. We need someone to help us go through the Pokémon League and Zoroark need to find her son. I think we can help each other out."

"How so?" Zoroark questioned.

"You can turn into a human and register as a Pokémon Trainer. We could then go around collecting all of the Gym Badges while searching for leads on where this Hunter J lady is."

"That would never work." Said Bulbasaur. "They'd see right through the disguise immediately."

"No, I think he's on to something." Charmander added.

"Is no one going to ask me what I think?" Zoroark asked.

"Right, this decision should be Zoroarks." Said Squirtle. "Take your time to think about it."

"I don't need any time. I'll do it."

"Really?"

"I have nowhere else to go."

* * *

"Wow! That's the biggest building I've ever seen!" Yellow looked up in awe at the massive tower before them as she a Red reached Lavender Town.

"I think that would be the Pokémon Tower." Red explained. "It's supposed to be the tallest man-made structure in the region."

"Neat! Can we go there?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Red said. "It's a… well, it's a cemetery."

Yellow's cheery disposition faded away. "What?"

"Or I guess it would be more accurate to call it a mausoleum." Red looked down at his feet as they continued to walk through town. "If I remember correctly from my history classes, it was first built thousands of years ago after the Great War. Ever since then the tower has been built up and restructured several times. People and Pokémon are still buried within to this day."

"Do we have to stay here?" Yellow asked.

"We're just going to stay the night at the Pokémon Center and leave in the morning."

"Alright." Yellow looked uneasy. "But, is this place haunted?"

"People have claimed to see ghosts in the area for centuries." Red looked at Yellow and saw how frightened she seemed. "But there's no such thing as actual ghosts, of course. It's just Ghost-type Pokémon and people thinking they see things that aren't really there."

"Let's just hurry to the Pokémon Center." Yellow said.

The two walked a couple more blocks and took a turn, reaching a friendly looking, red roofed building they both recognized immediately. The Pokémon Center seemed highly out of place when surrounded by the old and faded pinkish-purple stone houses that filled the rest of the town. Red walked inside the Pokémon Center, with Yellow right behind him and they were greeted by a friendly nurse.

"Hello and welcome to the Lavender Town Pokémon Center. Can we heal your Pokémon?"

Red walked up to the counter the nurse was standing behind and handed her his Pokéball, which the nurse placed in a healing machine. While he was waiting for that, Yellow wandered around and found a creepy looking woman with unkempt bushy black hair standing off to the side.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" The woman asked as she noticed Yellow.

"N-no." Yellow stuttered out.

"Your right of course. Ghosts don't exist. But then again, what's that hand on your shoulder?"
Yellow jumped up in freight and turned around to see what the woman was talking about, but didn't see anything there. The woman cackled in delight from Yellow's overly dramatic reaction to her joke.

"That's not funny!" Yellow whined.

"It was for me. But seriously, kid. Ghosts aren't real." The woman paused for a moment in consideration. "Spirits on the other hand are all around us."

Yellow froze up as Red walked over to her and rested his hand gently on her shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

"Hold on!" The woman shouted. "Wouldn't you like to have your fortune read before you go?"

"No thanks." Red herded Yellow away from the creepy woman as they went to the resting area to stay for the night.

Ash woke up again in the morning to find that the others were already up and packing. The maiden's ghost was nowhere to be seen, like she had told him.

"About time you woke up." Carmine said to him. "You back to your old sleeping habits?"

"No. I just woke up in the middle of the night and it took me a while to go back to sleep." It wasn't the whole truth, but Ash didn't exactly lie either. He got up and packed his own things, which didn't really take long since everything was already in his backpack.

When they were done, Ash, Carmine and Brock met up outside the inn with Misty and the four headed west. It didn't take long to reach the edge of town and soon they were hiking through the wilderness.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Misty asked.

"Wherever we end up." Ash answered her.

"Which according to this map would be Lavender Town." Brock clarified.

"Bleh." Misty stuck her tongue out in distaste. "Do we need to go to the ghost town?"

"Don't tell me you believe in ghosts?" Carmine mocked the Gym Leader.

"Of course not. It's just creepy, is all."

Ash couldn't help but grin at the irony of their conversation as he looked over to where he imagined Hanami was floating. For a split second he thought he saw her flicker into sight, smiling back at him and trying not to laugh, before she vanished again.

"What are you smiling about?" Misty yelled at Ash, snapping his attention back to the others.

"Oh, nothing." Ash lied. "It's just fun seeing you get scared."

"Why you little…" Misty punched Ash lightly in the shoulder.

"Come on!" Ash shouted as he started to run. "The faster we get there the faster we can leave!"

"Oh, you're on." Misty stopped and reached into her backpack, pulling out her bike. "I can get there faster than you can!"

"Ah, youth." Carmine sighed as Brock ran to catch up with Ash and Misty. "Why do people always seem to get so nostalgic for it?"

* * *

Wes' Espeon and Umbreon nuzzled up against his hands as he slouched in the chair opposite Looker's desk.

"There you go." He told the International Police officer. "A full report of everything I know about my mom. Can I go now?"

"Hmm…" Looker looked through the papers that Wes had handed him. "Yes, I think this should be good for now."

"Great." Wes said sarcastically as he got up and turned to leave, his two eeveelutions trailing behind him.

"Although I do have one more question." Looker said before Wes was able to get out the door.

"What?"

"This report says that she was a member of the gang known as "Team Snagem" but that she left them to join Cipher, leaving you in the care of Snagem's leader."

"Yeah, I know." Wes said irritably. "That's kind of the entire point of the report."

"But you never mentioned your father at all." Looker continued.

"What father?" Wes said in a mocking tone. "I never knew who he was and it's not like Mom ever mentioned him at all."

"I see that this is a sore subject for you." Looker noted.

"Yeah, no kidding. Now can I go?"

"Yes, of course."

Wes stepped out of Looker's office, leaving the brown trench coat clad officer alone.

"The higher ups will be very glad to have this." Looker said to himself as he read through the report again. "But what were the odds that I would recruit the son of a mercenary that Team Rocket hired. I can't tell if this is just a coincidence or if there is something more going on here."

Looker was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Come in." He said.

009 walked in and sat in the empty chair that Wes had been in only a moment ago.

"What do you want?" Looker asked the girl.

"I was wondering if I could take a look at that report when you were finished with it." She explained.

"Why?" Looker asked inquisitively.

"I just want to know more about the people we have to go up against."

Looker studied 009's face carefully, but the girl's face was as unreadable as ever.

"Fine. I'll let you see it when I am done. But for now I would like to be left alone."

"Of course." 009 stood up again and left, closing the door behind her.

Looker sat there staring at the door for a moment. The girl had been placed under his supervision for several months before they had been assigned this mission, yet he felt like he hardly knew her at all. Tulip Black, known by the codename 009, was the youngest recruit the International Police had ever had, a record previously held by Looker himself years ago. She had apparently been working towards the position her whole life and had some of the highest test scores they had ever seen. But when it came to anything not involving her work for the IP, she was like a black slate. She didn't seem to have any interests, any friends, or even any family. Any attempt at learning anything about her personally had been met with nothing until finally he just gave up on pursuing the matter.

* * *

"Here we are, Lavender Town." Mal said as she drove into the small city.

"I can't believe we had to pull an all-nighter just to get here." Ciel complained.

"What are you talking about? You barely even drove at all!" Mal yelled at her younger sister.

"Can you keep it down up there?" Kat asked, having just woken up from a nap.

"Why are we here anyway?" Asked Sue.

"Because I felt like it." Gary said.

Mal pulled into a parking lot behind the Pokémon Center and the five got out. Gary walked around to the front of the Pokémon Center with the others following him in.

"Welcome to the Lavender Town Pokémon Center! May we heal your Pokémon?" The nurse asked.

"No thanks." Gary told her as he walked over to a map of the town hung up on one of the walls.

While he looked at the map, the girls went to sit down on some nearby couches to rest for a bit. After sitting down, Kat happened to look up to the entrance to the sleeping area and noticed pair of familiar faces walking out and decided to get back up and walk over to them.

"Hey, kid." She said to Red. "What's up?"

"Oh, hey." Red was visibly startled by the sudden appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, nothing." Kat shrugged and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "Gary over there just thought he wanted to check the place out for some reason."

"Hi, miss." Yellow waved at Kat.

Gary noticed his cousin's conversation and walked over to her to see who she was talking to.

"Oh, it's just you two." He scoffed as he saw Red and Yellow. "And here I thought we might actually meet someone interesting here."

"Like who?" Yellow asked.

"I don't know." Gary said a little more defensively than he meant to.

"All kinds of people come here to see the Pokémon Tower." Kat said. "Some have family or ancestors buried there while others see it as more of a tourist attraction."

"A very morbid tourist attraction." Gary added.

Yellow started to look worried as she remembered just where they were and Red was just about to walk her out so that they could leave when another boy and girl entered the Pokémon Center.

"Gary?" Ash yelled in surprise as Misty put her bike back in her bag. "And Red? What are you guys doing here?"

"Wow, I didn't think we'd all be meeting up again so soon." Red said.

"Yeah, unfortunately." Gary snickered. "Although Daisy won't be here. She wimped out and decided she doesn't want to be anywhere near this place."

"That's no way to talk about your sister." Kat scolded him.

"What? It's not like she's here."

"That just makes it worse."

"Would you all just keep quite over there?" Ciel called from over on the couch. "Some of us are trying to rest."

Brock then walked in on the scene, with Carmine following shortly after. The Pokémon Center looked on at all of the steadily growing commotion going on and gave a defeated sigh. She decided to just back away instead of trying to calm things down.

The Department of Pokémon Training building in Vermilion City was unusually empty. A lone worker nodded off behind a counter while he waited for anyone to show up. After a while, a young woman walked in and approached the worker, who snapped back to attention.

"What can I do for you today?" He asked her.

The woman appeared to be somewhere around her late teens to early twenties, with long bushy black hair that turned red at the tips and she wore a furry black and red coat over a black dress. She had a Squirtle with her that seemed to be wearing an oddly angular pair of sunglasses.

"I'd like to apply for a Pokémon License." She said to the man while looking him with her strikingly bright blue eyes. She had a foreign accent that he couldn't quite place.

"Sure." The man said eagerly. "All you have to do is fill out this paperwork."

The woman took the stapled sheets of paper and pen that the man handed her and walked off to a nearby chair to fill it out. The worker watched her as she filled out the form. If he didn't know any better he'd say that the Squirtle was actually telling her what to write down. But that wouldn't make any sense, would it?

When she finished, the woman returned to the counter and handed the forms back to the man.

"Will this suffice?" She asked.

"It sure will, Miss, uh…" He looked down at the name filled out on the form. "Zahira Darhk, is it?"

"That is correct." The woman confirmed.

"Okay, then. Now all we have to do is get a license filled out for you."

* * *

Daisy walked along the path from Viridian City to Celadon City at a leisurely pace. Now that she had finally earned her third badge and caught up to Ash and Red, she was hoping to quickly be able to earn her fourth and possibly pass them in badge count. Daisy's walk was uneventful at first, but then suddenly her bag began to shake violently.

"What's this?" Daisy reached into her bag and pulled out the source of the shaking: the portable incubation chamber she had been given to keep her egg in. "Oh, wow. I actually forgot I had this with me for a bit. It looks like it's hatching."

The pink egg covered in white star-shaped marking shook and began to crack open. Daisy watched as the egg became engulfed in a bright white light similar to the one that encased a Pokémon upon evolution. As the light faded away, a newly born baby Pokémon appeared in the egg's place. The incubator automatically opened up and the pink star-shaped Pokémon with conical green ears fell into Daisy's other arm.

"Oh, it's so cute." Daisy said as she put the incubator away and pulled out her Pokédex. "Cleffa, huh? Well I'm sure that you'll make a very nice addition to our team."

"Cle!" Clefa squealed happily, gazing up at Daisy with sparkling green eyes.

"Oh, look at that! You can already talk! Kind of." Daisy held up the baby Cleffa in front of her face. "Come on, you baby star, you! Let's get going."

* * *

Charmander and Bulbasaur sat out back behind the Department of Pokémon Training, waiting for the others to return. Charmander was drawing lines on the ground with his stubby fingers while Bulbasaur was lying down, trying to take a nap. After a while, Charmander looked up from his doodles to see the two figures of Squirtle and Zoroark walking towards them and nudged Bulbasaur back awake.

"So, how did it go?" Charmander asked excitedly.

Squirtle smiled as Zoroark reached into her coat and pulled out her new Trainer Card.

"Wow!" Bulbasaur and Charmander both looked at it in amazement.

"It just goes to show how flawed the system is if they can allow for something like this to happen." Squirtle said in a snobbish tone of voice. "But who cares? It sure worked out for us well enough!"

"Now!" Charmander pointed his finger out dramatically in a random direction. "We move off to get our first Gym Badge!"

Bulbasaur and Zoroark followed Charmander as he marched off in the direction he was pointing before Squirtle had to run up ahead of him and redirect them to the correct way to get to the nearest Gym.

"Right." Charmander said Mareepishly. "I knew that. I was just testing you."

"Sure, you were." Squirtle said sarcastically. "How about you just leave the navigation to me, for now."

* * *

"Well, I think we'll be going now." Red said to the others as he grabbed Yellow's hand and began guiding her out of the Pokémon Center so that they could finally leave Lavender Town.

"What?" Gary asked mockingly. "Are you scared of a few ghosts?"

"No." Red answered. "We just don't feel like lingering around here."

"Fine, fine. Coward." Gary called to them as they were about to walk out the door.

"No." Yellow suddenly stopped. "Let's stay."

"Are you sure?" Red asked her, concerned. "You know you don't have to cave into bullying like that, right?"

"I'm sure." Yellow turned back to face the rest of the crowd. "In fact, how about we all go up to the highest floor of the tower. We'll see who's afraid then."

"I'm not sure I like that idea." Ash said.

"Oh, shut it." Gary snapped at him. "There's no way I'm turning down a challenge!"

"Then it's settled." Yellow said. "I'll see you all at the top."

Yellow smiled and ran out of the Pokémon Center. Red turned to the others and gave an embarrassed half-smile before going after her.

"Well, that was a thing." Misty said flatly.

"Come, on!" Gary called to his cheerleaders as he stormed out after Red and Yellow.

"Yeah, there's no way I'm doing that." Ciel said.

"Me neither." Ciel and Mal both agreed.

"Fine, then." Kat sighed. "I guess I'll go after him alone. You know, for hired chaperones, you people don't really do much."

"I guess we're going to." Ash said as he headed out after Kat. Misty, Brock and Carmine begrudgingly followed.

* * *

Zoroark, or rather, Zahira, walked into the Vermilion City Gym. Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur all followed after her. The four all looked around inside and noticed the electricity floating between the pylons on the ceiling.

"Well, I'm out." Squirtle said matter-of-factly as he turned around to leave. "Tell me when you get the badge."

"Wait, what?" Charmander asked, astonished. "What about our goal?"

"I don't mean I'm giving up on that. I'm just not comfortable with all this electricity. I am a Water-type, after all."

"But you're the only one who knows what we're doing!" Bulbasaur called after him.

"I'm sure you can figure it out." Were Squirtle's last words before heading out the door.

Lt. Surge noticed the commotion and headed over to see what was going on.

"Hello there!" He said as he walked up to the disguised Zoroark. "Are you here for a Gym Battle? Or maybe some tips on Pokémon Breeding?"

"The Gym Battle." Zoroark said with a huge awkward smile that looked almost like a grimace as she limply held out her hand.

"Of, course you are." Surge said. "Everyone's always here for that. What's the point of even having a hobby if no one else is ever interested?" He reached out and shook her hand vigorously, with much more force than she was expecting, causing her to wince. "But never mind about that. If it's a Gym Battle you want, it's a Gym Battle you'll get. Now, I don't remember seeing you in the Pokémon League Records before. Are you just starting out?"

"Yes." Zoroark said. "I just got my license today." Then, as an afterthought. "My name is Zahira. Zahira Darhk."

"Well, Zahira, if this is your first Gym Battle, then this will just be a simple one-on-one battle."

Surge walked over to the other side of the room while Zoroark looked back and forth between Charmander and Bulbasaur.

"Which one of you should I use?" She asked them.

"I'll do it." Bulbasaur said as he turned to face the Gym Leader. Charmander walked back behind Zoroark.

"Are you ready?" Lt. Surge called out after letting out his Pikachu.

"I guess so." Zoroark said back.

"Then let the battle begin."

Pikachu charged up for his opening move of Thunder Punch. Bulbasaur interrupted the move by reaching out with his vines and wrapped them around Pikachu, lifting him up the ground. Pikachu struggled to be let free from Bulbasaur's grasp and send a Thunderbolt running down the vines, shocking Bulbasaur and forcing him to release his grip.

Pikachu was able to guide his fall to bring him closer to Bulbasaur and slapped him across the face with an Iron Tail. Bulbasaur retaliated by launching a Leech Seed at Pikachu. The seed hit Pikachu on the top of his head and small vines grew out to latch itself onto the Electric-type Pokémon, slowly draining his health and transferring it to Bulbasaur.

Pikachu then tried Thunder Punch again, but Bulbasaur picked him up with his vines again, this time launching his Razor Leaf attack at the same time so that Pikachu was hit before he had a chance to react. Bulbasaur then followed up with another Razor Leaf, but Pikachu was able to react in time sending a shock down the vines and getting free before the leaves hit. Unfortunately for Pikachu, Bulbasaur was planning on that and had been preparing his strongest move, Solar Beam.

Bulbasaur finished gathering enough solar energy for the attack right as Pikachu was about to land on the ground. The Seed Pokémon opened up its mouth and a beam of raw solar energy blasted out. Pikachu took the brunt of the attack head-on. As the energy dissipated, Pikachu was still standing there, almost out of energy. The Leech Seed then drained a bit more of his health, which served as the last straw for Pikachu, who then collapsed onto the ground.

"It looks like you win." Lt. Surge said. "Congratulations!"

The Gym Leader walked up to Zoroark and handed her a Thunder Badge. "Here you go."

Zoroark accepted the badge, thanked him and walked out with her Pokémon. Lt. Surge watched them leave as he heard Rotom enter the computer terminal behind ham and he turned around to face it.

-You do realize that woman wasn't actually a human, right?-

"Of course I realized that."

-Then why did you let her fight.-

Surge shrugged his shoulders before replying. "I thought it would be interesting. I've never seen a Pokémon try to command another Pokémon in a fight like that before."

-Sometimes I worry about you.-

"There's no need for that. I know the Pokémon League Rules like the back of my own hand and there is no actual rule against a Pokémon entering the league. If anyone else is going to have an issue with it, then that will be their problem, not mine."

-Yes, and this is the same kind of rule exploitation that lets you use a Pikachu that is as strong as a Raichu, with moves that it shouldn't be able to have at its level, just because you bred it yourself locally.-

"Yep. The rules say that the lowest level Gym Team has to consist of a single basic-level Pokémon that is native to the region. They don't say anything about how powerful that Pokémon can or cannot be." Surge confirmed.

-And yet you still can't use me for a battle.-

"I'm sorry Rotom, but you're not native to Kanto. I may exploit loopholes in the rules, but I don't break them. If we get called to an expedition tournament or something along those lines, I'll be sure to use you, but for Gym Battles, I just can't."

-Fine.-

* * *

Ash looked up at the Pokémon Tower as he stood outside its entrance. The dark, intimidating stone structure suddenly seemed much larger than it had when he had noticed it earlier. Misty, Brock and Carmine caught up to him as he stared up.

"Aren't you going inside?" Carmine asked.

"Y-yeah." Ash stuttered nervously. "I was just waiting for you guys."

"Pika!" Pika chimed in.

Ash swallowed his fear and opened the door leading inside the ancient mausoleum. Despite the spooky atmosphere of the tower's outer wall, the first floor was actually quite pleasant. The floor was lined with green tiles that were well polished and a yellow reception desk stood over to the side, right next to the staircase leading up to the second floor.

"Welcome to the Pokémon Tower." A receptionist said as she saw the group walk in. "How may I help you?"

"Uhh…" Ash was thrown off-guard by the unexpectedly pleasant lobby and did not know what to say.

"We're fine for now. Thank you." Carmine told the receptionist as he grabbed Ash's arm and pulled him towards the stairs.

The two walked up the steps with Misty and Brock keeping close behind them. Carmine let go of Ash as they reached the second level and Ash was left stunned for a completely different reason than he had before.

The first floor of the Pokémon Tower may have been unexpectedly pleasant, but the second floor was exactly what Ash had expected the inside of the tower to be like. The floor tiles when still green, but they did not look like they had been cleaned in any way for a very long time. Stone graves were packed so closely together that they only left narrow paths between them that formed a sort of maze. But none of that compared to the light, purple mist that seemed to permeate throughout the entire chamber.

"What is this?" Misty asked in disgust.

"This is what happens when you pack too much death in one spot." Carmine explained. "It attracts Ghost Pokémon like Venomoths to a candle. Normally a place like this would hire Channelers to exorcise them from the area, but it looks like they haven't been able to keep up with it. Ghost-types are attracted to high places, which means that it should only get worse as we get higher."

"I'm thinking that maybe we should head back." Brock said. "I'm not sure this will be worth it."

"No." Ash said. "We're going to the top."

"But why?" Misty whined.

"Oh, just quit your whining and do as the boy says." Misty and Brock both jumped in fright while Carmine only reacted with mild surprise to the sudden appearance of a Ghastly behind them. "He is your leader, is he not?"

"G-g-g-ghost!" Misty screamed.

"Oh, right." Ash said. "I haven't introduced you yet. Guys, this is the latest addition to my team; Ghastly."

"When did… what?" Brock clambered.

"I caught him while you were all sleeping last night." Ash explained.

"Well, you didn't really catch me so much as I agreed to go with you, but the result is the same. Hello, everyone."

"I would complain," Carmine said, "but that would make me a hypocrite. I get into all kinds of stuff while you guys are sleeping and don't tell you about it."

"Wait, what?" Ash asked. "Like what?"

Carmine smiled. "We should probably get going."

* * *

A few floors up from where Ash's group was, Red and Yellow were trying to make their way up the tower.

"This was a bad idea." Yellow admitted to herself.

"Don't feel too bad." Red tried to comfort her. "You had no idea it was going to be like this."

The two turned around a corner in the pathways between graves and realized they just walked into a dead end.

"Man, it's so hard to see through this fog." Red commented. "Come on, let's find a different way."

They turned around and noticed a dark mass rising in front of them.

"Ooooagh…" The being moaned as it moved closer to them, revealing the form of a woman with long, gray hair and wearing white robes. The woman's eyes were glossed over and she moved like a marionette being controlled by an unskilled puppeteer. "You… should not… have come… here…"

Each word that came from her mouth between raspy breaths sounded like the gasping of someone who had spent a week wandering through the desert with no source of water.

"Stay back." Red warned the woman, putting his arm in front of Yellow to shield the girl as she clung tightly to his leg.

"You… will be… punished…"

The woman let out a howl as her arms rose up high and a ball of gas sprung out from her mouth. Red sent out his Charmeleon as the ball of gas formed into a Ghastly. Charmeleon blasted the Ghastly with an Ember and the Ghost-Pokémon seemed to explode into nothingness. The woman collapsed onto the ground as the fog around them cleared up.

"What happened?" The woman asked as she sat back up again. "Where am I?"

"Where in the Pokémon Tower." Red answered cautiously.

"Yes. That's right." The woman stood back up. "The other channelers and I were trying to clear up the Ghastly infestation here when something caught us off guard. The Ghastly were able to overpower us and take over our bodies. I didn't… I didn't harm you, did I?"

"No."

"That's a relief." The woman wiped her forehead of sweat. "But the others are probably still possessed. You should leave now while you have the chance. I'll work on freeing the others."

"No." Yellow said to Red's surprise. "We'll help you. What do we need to do?"

The woman looked at her in astonishment. "Well, I suppose you could try to find the other channelers and free them the way you freed me while I work on expelling the infestation. But be careful."

Pikachu sat beside a fire that she made herself by gathering some fallen tree branches she found around the island she was on and blasting them with a Thunder Shock. She was stranded on the small deserted island she had washed up on with no way of getting across the ocean that surrounded her in every direction. Her only hope was that some friendly Pokémon or ship would pass by and see her fire.

"In other words," Pikachu thought to herself, "I have no hope left."

As she sat there, the fire slowly began to die down over time. Pikachu shifted some of the branches, causing the fire to flare back to life.

"Well, this is boring." Pikachu muttered to herself.

"Why, hello there!"

Pikachu jumped back from the unexpected, deep booming voice that came from behind her.

"Who are you?" She asked the stranger who had suddenly shown up out of nowhere.

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" The stranger asked. He appeared to be a Pikachu, but with blue markings around his body. "I am Pikoa, Guardian of the Seas! Do the Pikachu of these regions no longer pass down the stories of my many heroic tales?"

"I, uh…" Pikachu lost her train of thought for a moment as she noticed that this 'Pikoa' was not standing just offshore as she had originally thought, but on the water itself. "I didn't grow up in the wild. I do not know any of the stories they pass down, about you or otherwise."

"Oh, okay then." Pikoa sounded a little relieved. "That is understandable. Anyway, I just happened to be Surfing by when I noticed you here. I just wanted to come by and see if you needed any assistance. I happen to be in the business of rescuing stranded Pokémon and people. If you want, I can take you back to the mainland."

"And what would that cost me?" Pikachu raised one of her eyebrows inquisitively.

"My, you are quite the mistrustful type. Would you mind if I asked you what happened to make you this way?"

"I would mind that very much, actually." Pikachu said defensively.

"Well to answer your question, it will not cost you anything to get a ride back to the mainland." Pikoa said, dropping the subject. "It is my duty to help all those in need of my assistance, with no reward or payment needed."

"I don't see how anyone could possibly live like that."

"Trust me, when you live as long as I have, you start seeing things in a different light. Things go away over time, but the impact you can make by doing something good lasts forever."

"Quit the motivational speech." Pikachu snapped. "Let's just get going already."

"Alright then, just hop up here." Pikoa gestured to the raised section of water he was standing on. "Don't worry. You will be able to stand on it just fine."

Pikachu hesitantly approached Pikoa and eyed the water carefully. After a moment of consideration, she hopped onto the wave and, to her surprise, Pikoa was right.

"Alright then." Pikoa said. "We're off!"

The two Pikachu sped off towards the mainland. Pikachu silently cursed herself for agreeing to this as she tried to keep herself from getting sick. She had never experienced anything like this before and hoped she never would again.

* * *

Ash stepped out onto the next floor of Pokémon Tower. Ghastly floated along beside him while the others stayed a little bit behind, still uneasy by the presence of the Ghost Pokémon. Ash made his way through the maze of graves, looking down to make sure he stayed on the path when suddenly he crashed into someone and was knocked down to the ground.

"Ouch." Ash said as he hit the floor.

"Watch where you're going, loser." Ash recognized the voice instantly.

"Gary?" Ash stood back up as his rival did the same.

"Oh, great." Gary gave an exasperated sigh. "I can't believe a loser like you managed to catch up to me. Obviously it's only because the fog is making it so I can't see where I'm going, but still."

"Who are you calling a loser?" Ash snapped back. "I managed to beat you in our battle!"

"That?" Gary asked mockingly. "That was simply beginner's luck. Trust me when I say that it won't happen again. In fact, why didn't we have a rematch, right here, right now?"

"Um…" Ash hesitated for a moment as he looked around at their current surroundings. "Wouldn't that be kind of disrespectful to the dead here? Plus it would be nearly impossible to fight in this environment."

"I hate to say this, but I guess you're right. As soon as we get back out of here, though, it's rematch time."

"You're on!" Ash said excitedly as Gary walked off. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

"I'm beating you to the top, obviously. What else?"

* * *

Route 7 was a grassy area that was surrounded mostly by thick trees, much like most of the routes in Kanto. It was here that Daisy saw a city's skyline come into view as she was walking.

"You see that?" She asked the baby Cleffa cradled in her arms. "That's Celadon City. It's where I'll be fighting my next Gym battle."

"Cle!" Cleffa raised its hands up joyfully.

Daisy continued on her way to Celadon, but soon her steps began to falter and she came to a stop as she noticed a nearby bush was rattling violently. A Vulpix suddenly pranced out of the bush, startling Daisy. The orange Fox Pokémon looked up as it noticed Daisy, then turned around and fluffed its tails out tauntingly. Daisy shifted Cleffa into one arm and reached her now free hand into her bag, pulling out a Pokéball and thrusting it out.

"Bubble!"

Poliwag came out of the Pokéball and immediately sprayed a barrage of water bubbles from its mouth, blasting the Vulpix with perfect aim. The Vulpix turned back and looked injured, not in body but in pride. The Fire-type's face then turned to anger as its six tails stood on end and began to glow in a blue fire. A similar fire grew around Poliwag and suddenly the Tadpole Pokémon became burned. The injured Poliwag then sprayed a Water Gun at its opponent, nailing Vulpix right in the face. Vulpix retaliated with an Ember, but before the attack even hit, Daisy had thrown an empty Pokéball at it.
Vulpix was sucked into the Pokéball via the standard red light and the ball shook on the ground a few times. The red light on the front button turned off as the Pokéball stopped moving. Daisy recalled her Poliwag and pulled out her Pokédex to check what it had to say about her new Pokémon as she walked over to pick Vulpix up.

"Well girl," Daisy said as she picked up the Pokéball. "Welcome to my party. I'm sure you'll be very useful in our next Gym Battle. From what I've heard, the Celadon Gym Leader is a Grass-type specialist." Daisy put the Pokéball in her bag and looked down at Cleffa. "It's nice how things tend to work out like that, don't you think?"

"Cle,cle!"

* * *

"We did it!" Charmander yelled happily as he, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Zoroark made their way out of Vermilion. "I can't believe we actually did it!"

"Don't get too excited, now." Bulbasaur tried to calm Charmander down. "That's only one badge. We still have seven more to go. And that's just to enter the League Tournament. We still have a long way to go before we're done."

"I know." Charmander looked down at his feet, embarrassed.

Zoroark, still in the guise of Zahira Darhk, held the Thunder Badge towards the light of the sun, admiring how the light reflected off of it.

"Are you going to pin that to your jacket?" Squirtle asked her.

"I'm not wearing a jacket." Zoroark reminded him. "It's just a part of my Illusion ability."

"Right." Squirtle said. "I forgot about that."

Zoroark pulled a small dark case out from the inside of her jacket. She opened up the case and placed the Thunder Badge inside. "That being said, I can keep some stuff tucked into my fur. Like this badge case."

"Where did you get that?" Charmander asked.

"I got it with the license." Zoroark explained.

"What was I doing?" A channeler wondered aloud as she picked herself up off the floor, looking over to see Red and Yellow standing in front of them along with Red's Charmeleon."

"You were possessed," Red explained to the woman.

"That's right." A sudden look of recognition crossed over the channeler's face.

"The others that we've been able to free are gathering down below to try and expel the Ghost Pokémon from the tower. You should probably go join them."

"Of course." The woman walked away hurriedly, being cautious not to accidentally trip over a gravestone or encounter another Ghastly before she made her way to the others.

"How many more do you think there might be left?" Yellow asked Red as they continued making their way up the Pokémon Tower.

"I don't know." Red answered honestly. "In fact, I've lost track of how far up we are right now. I don't know how much longer we have until we reach the top."

"I kind of regret coming up with this idea. But at least we're helping people." Yellow paused for a moment in thought as the next staircase came into view. "I wonder what the others are doing right now."

"I don't know." Red said as he started to ascend the staircase up to the next floor. "But I guess we'll see after we make it to the top."

* * *

Ash and his group reached another level of the Pokémon Tower. To their surprise, the floor wasn't covered with the same purple fog as the floors below it had been. In fact, the room was filled with a bright, white light. Ash looked over to see a group of women gathered in a circle a little way off from where they were.

"What's going off over their?" Ash wondered aloud.

"It looks like they're probably trying to get rid of the ghost infestation." Carmine whispered to him. "It would probably be best not to interrupt them."

"I agree." Brock chimed in.

"Hey, Ash, what happened to your Ghastly?" Misty asked quietly.

"I don't know." Ash said as he looked around some more, just noticing that the Gas Pokémon wasn't there anymore. "He was just behind me a moment ago."

"Pika, pika." Pika said as he and Volty both motioned down to Ash's waist, where his Pokéballs were resting. Ash held up Ghastly's Pokéball and saw that it was full.

"If the ceremony that they're casting over there is meant to get rid of the wild Ghastly, then it's probably having a negative effect on yours as well." Carmine pointed out. "He probably had to retreat because of that."

"Right, that makes sense." Ash put the Pokéball away and started walking ahead again. "Why did we even agree to come to this place, anyway?"

"We?" Misty asked. "What do you mean 'we'? This is all on you."

* * *

After Daisy finally made her way to Celadon City, she made a quick trip to the Pokémon Center to heal her team and set off to find the local Gym. It didn't take too long for her to find the Gym and she walked in eager to earn her next badge.

The interior of the Celadon City Gym was filled with bushes and flowers that formed a maze. Daisy had to make her way around without any idea of where she was going for several minutes before she finally made her way to a large open area within the maze. A young woman with shoulder length dark hair stood at the other end of the area in front of a small table with several pictures on it. She seemed to be staring at one picture in particular.

"Ahem." Daisy cleared her throat to draw the woman's attention. "Are you the Gym Leader?"

The woman slowly turned towards Daisy. "Oh, uh… yes. I am Erika, Gym Leader of Celadon City. Sorry about that. I was just lost in thought."

"Then I'd like to challenge you to a Gym Battle." Daisy said.

"Yes. Of course." Erika reached absently for a drawer under the table behind her. "How many badges do you already have?"

"Three."

"Then this will be a three-on-three battle." She pulled a set of Pokéballs out of the drawer. "We will start when you are ready."

Daisy pulled a Pokéball out of her bag and held it out in front of her. "Alright, girl. I know I just caught you, but do your best."

Vulpix sprung out from the Pokéball and landed gracefully on the ground in front of Daisy. Meanwhile, Erika called out her first Pokémon, Tangela. Tangela stood cautiously, waiting for Vulpix to make the first move, while the Fox Pokémon sat back and looked at her opponent smugly, as if daring the ball of vines to try anything against her. After a moment, Erika finally gave her Pokémon an order.

"Use Poison Powder!"

Tangela spread a wave of poisonous spores through the air in Vulpix's direction, but eh Fire-Typ seemed unfazed. Rather than dodging the attack, Vulpix instead shot forth a blast of fire from her mouth, incinerating the powder before it could even reach her. She then followed by sending the blast further away, hitting Tangela head-on. Tangela then used its Ingrain move, sending some of its vines down into the ground below it to absorb nutrients and restore its health. This gave Vulpix enough time to use another Flamethrower before Tangela could try and attack. After taking the second hit, Tangela tried to use Growth to increase the power of its next attack.

"Now finish it off with another Flamethrower!" Daisy ordered her Pokémon.

Vulpix opened its mouth and, rather than sending forth another stream of flames, let out a load Roar that seemed at odds with the Pokémon's small stature. The force of the Roar sent Tangela flying back and it was sucked back into its Pokéball, with Erika's Weepinbell taking its place.

"What?" Asked Daisy, confused. "That's not what I said to do."

"You said that you just caught that Vulpix, correct?" Erika asked.

"Yeah."

"Sometimes Pokémon will not instinctively follow your orders and choose to do what they want to instead, until they have learned to trust your commands and leadership."

"I guess that makes sense." Daisy said. She then held out Vulpix's Pokéball and the Fox Pokémon was pulled back inside. "I guess I'll use Butterfree for now, then."

Daisy tossed another Pokéball into the battle and her Butterfree flew out of it. Or at least, it appeared to fly at first, but quickly fell to the ground, soundly asleep.

"Oh, right." Daisy muttered to herself. "I forgot about that. I'll guess I'll just have to make due."

* * *

"It looks like the smoke is finally starting to clear away now." Yellow observed as she and Red made their way up another flight of stairs.

"Yeah, I guess the channelers are making progress with getting rid of the Ghost Pokémon." Red said back.

"I'm starting to get tired." Yellow said. "Can we take a break?"

"You don't have to ask me twice." Red said as he sat down on the cold tiled floor. "I've completely lost track of how many stairs we've gone up."

The two sat there in silence for a while, but that silence was broken by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs behind them.

"Gary?" Red asked as the other trainer's spiky brown hair came into view.

"What, did you losers give up already?" Gary asked back as finished climbing the stairs, clearly exhausted himself. "Well, if you're not going any higher right now, I might as well wait a while."
Gary sat down next to them and the three all waited there for a moment before more footsteps could be heard. Ash walked up to them, followed by Brock, Misty and Carmine.

"Hey, guys." Ash said. "Are we all taking a break? I'm fine with that."

"Actually," Yellow said as Ash and the others started to sit down as well. "I think I'm ready to go now."

Yellow got up and started walking towards the next staircase, with Red following her there. As they went, however, a sudden chill wind suddenly passed through the room.

"Maaaaarrooooo…" Came a harsh moan echoing throughout the tower.

"What was that?" Misty asked aloud.

"I don't know." Carmine said.

"Be gone…" The voice came again. "Intruders…"

Erika ordered her Weepinbell to strike Daisy's sleeping Butterfree with a Vine Whip. The attack struck the Butterfly Pokémon against the back of her head, but was not enough to wake her up. Erika then followed up by having her Pokémon increase its offensive power by using Growth to increase the size of its vines and strike with another Vine Whip, right across Butterfree's back. This time Butterfree was snapped awake by the blow and hazily flew up into the air.

Weepinbell launched a Razor Leaf at the Bug-type before she became fully aware of her surroundings, but was too late. Butterfree effortlessly dodged the attack and retaliated by using its Psybeam attack, sending a wave of psionic energy at her opponent. The powerful attack caused Weepinbell to be sent flying back and crashed into a nearby Oran Tree. Weepinbell lifted itself up from the pile of scattered pink leaves that had been left from the impact and as it hopped away it noticed a small blue object that caught its attention. It quickly swallowed the Oran Berry and was partly revitalized by it. The now reenergized Weepinbell leapt back into battle and grabbed Butterfree with its vines, tightening its grip into a Wrap attack.

As Butterfree struggled to break out of Weepinbell's grasp, she fired another Psybeam at her opponent. Weepinbell was stuck by the blast again but was able to hold its ground this time. It slammed Butterfree hard into the ground before she could fire another attack at it and then followed up with another Vine Whip attack. As its mighty vine dropped down where Butterfree laid, the Bug-type quickly rolled out of the way of the attack and took to the air again. Butterfree began flapping her wings hard and created a gust of air laced with powdery scales and blew the Silver Wind attack straight at Weepinbell, who took the brunt of the attack head-on.

Butterfree felt a surge of energy course through her as Silver Wind's secondary effect kicked in and she gained a temporary boost to her speed, power and defense while Weepinbell collapsed onto the ground. Erika returned Weepinbell to its Pokéball and sent out her third Pokémon.

"Gloom, come out and finish this battle." She said as the blue Weed Pokémon came out of its Pokéball.

* * *

"Leave this place." A ghostly haze of purple mist materialized in front of Red, blocking the way to the next floor of the Pokémon Tower.

"What's going on?" Yellow asked, fear imminent in her voice. "What is that thing?"

"It's probably just a Ghastly." Gary said. "I noticed a few of them on my way up here."

"That can't be." Carmine pointed out. "All of the Ghastly should have been driven out by the banishing spell that just passed through here."

Ash looked around at the others as they reacted to the ghostly apparition, when he heard the voice of the Maiden pass through his head.

"That's not just a Ghost-type Pokémon." She said. "It's an actual ghost. I'm going to see if I can force it to take its true form."

"Hey, wait a minute," Misty then said, "it looks like it's doing something."

The purple mist suddenly started to pulse and there was a sudden flash of blindingly bright light. It took a moment for everyone's eyes to readjust themselves, but when they could see again, the mist had been replaced by a Pokémon.

"That's a Marowak." Brock muttered in shock.

Standing at a little over three feet tall, the Bone Keeper Pokémon hovered just above the ground, its toes almost touching the cold tile floor beneath it. It held a single bone firmly in its right hand as it stared furiously at the humans who had dared to invade this place.

"Well, I don't care what it is." Gary said as he took a step forward. He held up an empty Pokéball and through it at the Marowak, who didn't react as the ball passed harmlessly through it.

"What?" Red wondered aloud in astonishment.

"No problem." Gary said slyly. "Obviously I just need to weaken it first. Go, Wartortle!"

Gary held up his starter Pokémon's Pokéball and waited for Wartortle to come out of it. Nothing happened.

"I said go!"

There was still no reaction. The others started to check their Pokéballs as well and quickly discovered that none of them were working.

"That ghost Marowak must be interfering with the Pokéballs' internal systems somehow." Brock suggested.

The Marowak suddenly let out a roar and assumed a battle stance, holding tis bone club behind it, ready to attack.

"Great. That leaves us with no way to defend ourselves." Red sighed.

"Don't be too hasty." Ash said. "even if Pokéballs aren't working, I've still got two Pokémon ready to fight."

"Pikachu!" Pika jumped off of Ash's shoulder onto the ground, ready to defend everyone if necessary.

"Chu, pika." Volty did the same.

"Oh, great." Gary said sarcastically. "We have two Electric Pokémon to fight off a Ground-Type. However could this go wrong?"

"Don't worry about that." Ash said. "I can just have Pika use Brick Break. It'll be super effective."

"No good." Carmine pointed out. "That thing's a ghost, which means Normal and Fighting type attacks won't effect it either."

'I didn't think about that."

Marowak then let out another roar and charged forward to attack.

"What do we do now?"

* * *

Erika's Gloom released a Sweet Scent from the flower atop its head which spread throughout the area. Butterfree noticed the scent and became enamored by it, stopping what she was doing and leaving her open for a spray of Acid. Butterfree snapped back to its senses after being hit and started flying circles around Gloom, still experiencing the boost that Silver Wind had given her. Gloom tried to launch another spray of Acid at Butterfree, but missed. Butterfree stopped flying behind Gloom and hit it with a Psybeam. Gloom was knocked flat onto its face by the force of the blow. Before it could get back up again, Butterfree hit it with another Psybeam and then another. After the third hit, Gloom didn't get back up again, so Erika had no choice but to recall Gloom back to its Pokéball.

"Yeah!" Daisy shouted in excitement. "We win!"

"Not yet, you still haven't defeated my Tangela yet." Erika said as she called her Vine Pokémon back into battle.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." Daisy said, embarrassed. "But it's already been weakened, so this should be a piece of cake. Butterfree, use Silver Wind again!"

Butterfree began flapping its wings heavily like before, but before she could launch the attack, Tangela hit her with a spray of Sleep Powder and Butterfree almost immediately fell to the ground, sound asleep.

"Oh, bother." Daisy sighed as she lifted up Butterfree's Pokéball. "Well, you did good while you were still awake. Now it's time for Bulbasaur."

Daisy was just about to call out her starter Pokémon when suddenly Vulpix came out of its Pokéball. The Fox Pokémon let out a howl as her feet touched the ground and let out a spiraling stream of fire from her mouth. The Fire Spin attack hit Tangela and formed a burning ring of fire around the Grass-type. The move proved too much for the already weakened Tangela and it fainted.

"Now you've won." Erika said as the flames died down and she called her Tangela back. "Congratulations."

Daisy walked up to Erika, who handed her a Rainbow Badge.

"Thank you." Daisy said as she took the badge.

"You know," Erika said. "You remind me a lot of an old friend of mine."

"Really."

Erika turned to the picture she had been looking at when Daisy arrived, and Daisy took a closer look at it. The picture showed a younger Erika with another girl, with chestnut brown hair and strikingly blue eyes.

"Who's she?" Daisy asked.

"Her name is Karla. Her parents used to serve my family and we grew up together. We were as close as sisters when we were younger." Erika gave a depressed sigh. "Though, I haven't heard from her in years. I have no idea what's become of her."

"That's sad to hear."

"Never mind." Erika turned back to Daisy. "Anyway, congratulations again on earning the Rainbow Badge. I wish you luck as you continue to make your way through the Pokémon League."

Wes was washing his hands in the Adonis Detective Agency's bathroom when he looked up at the mirror in front of him and stared at his reflection. Recent events had caused a lot of bad memories and old resentment to start bubbling back up inside of him.

"Why did she have to get involved in all of this?" He muttered to himself. "Just when I thought I was finally moving on with my life and put the past behind me."

He studied the details of his face. It was the face he had always had and yet right now he couldn't even see himself, only his mother. Sure he had brown eyes rather than her blue, but the details of his face her nearly identical and he had inherited her silver hair as a painful reminder of his background. Even his deep tan from living his whole life in the harsh desert of Orre was steadily fading away. The tan line left after he removed the reflective tape he used to wear across his face to keep the desert sunlight out of his eyes had become only faintly visible.

Wes placed his hands on the sides of the sink and clenched his fists tightly shut. He closed his eyes and relived the events of his mother's departure when he was just a boy. This didn't last long, however, as he was suddenly snapped out of it by a knock on the door.

"Are you okay in there?" Rui asked from outside.

"Yeah, I'll be right out." Wes called back as he put his gloves back on and opened the door. "What's up?"

"Oh, not much." Rui held her hands behind her back and moved her left foot lightly across the floor beneath her. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go out and do something. Maybe go get dinner?"

A faint smile slowly creased Wes' lips. He had done a lot of bad things in his life, made a lot of mistakes, but joining up with Rui was not one of them. The girl always knew how to cheer him up. It probably had something to do with her powers, now that he thought about it, but that wasn't important right now.

"Sure." He said. "I could go for some food."

"Great!" Rui beamed. "Let's go find someplace good!"

Rui turned around and left, Wes following close behind. They made an odd pair, but they were a pair nonetheless. Wes wouldn't trade their friendship for anything in the world. Maybe his past wasn't so bad, Wes thought, if it's what eventually led him to her.

* * *

The members of Team Rocket's Elite Squadron sat around the long table situated in the main conference room of the organization's headquarters. Giovanni stood at the end of the table, ready to give them their new orders.

"I'm sure you are all wondering why I have called you here." He said as he pushed a button on the table in front of him. The room went dark and an image lit up on the table showing the S.S. Anne shortly before it had set off for its final voyage. "As you all know, this ship sunk just recently under mysterious circumstances. Every passenger and crew member washed up on shore with barely any injuries and yet no one has any recollection of what actually happened. In fact, most of you were there at the time as well and yet none of you have been able to shed any light on the subject. However, we now finally have a lead on what happened aboard that ship."

Giovanni pressed another button and the picture of the ship was replaced with an aerial view of the ship surrounded by a pack of Gyarados.

"It took a lot of resources to get this satellite video feed of the ship's destruction and even more to make sure that no one else was able to access this same information."

Everyone watched as the pack of wild Gyarados surrounded the ship and then as they stopped. A dark figure flew over to the ship and there was a mild commotion before there was a flash of white light and the feed cut out.

"We do not know for sure what that thing was, but we have reason to believe it has something to do with one of the old Team Rocket's plans: Project ReBirth." Giovanni glanced over to Jessie to see the look of recognition pass over her. "Yes, I'm sure that name would be very familiar to you."
"But that project never went anywhere." Jessie pointed out. "My moth-, er, Agent Myra Starr and her team were never able to find what they were looking for, so the project was never able to move forward."

Giovani gave a sly smile. "Yes, that's what you were told. But you have a much higher clearance level than you've ever had before. I think it's time for you, and everyone else here, to learned the truth. While it is true that the scout team never returned from their expedition, they were not emptyhanded. They were able to send back precisely what was needed and the project was carried out in the utmost secrecy on a small island to the southwest. Only a small group of scientists were allowed in on the project and even fewer knew of our involvement. The entire project was then thought lost after an 'accident', but it would appear that not everything was as it seemed."

"I'm confused." James interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, yes." Giovanni turned to him. "You wouldn't be familiar with this. Then allow me to go into further detail on the subject."

* * *

The Marowak ghost threw its bone club towards Pika and Volty. The two Pikachu jumped out of the way as the bone spun furiously past them and nearly hit Ash who has standing behind them. The bone then curved around the room and everyone else had to duck as it went soaring over their heads and straight back to the Marowak, who expertly caught it.

"What do you want?" Misty cried out to the ghost.

"Leave this place."

"Sounds good to me." Gary quickly made his way towards the staircase leading back down. Suddenly the ghost disappeared for a second and reappeared in front of him. "Hey, I thought you wanted us to leave!"

"I don't think it meant for us to leave that way." Carmine said.

"Well, what other way is there… oh, wait." Gary's face gained an expression of horror at the realization of what he meant.

Marowak tossed its bone again and Gary had to dive out of the way. The bone arced its way around the room as before and smacked Yellow in the back of her head, knocking the girl unconscious.

"Yellow!" Red cried out as he grabbed her before she could fall onto the ground.

"That's it!" Ash cried furiously. "You're going down! I don't care if you can't be hit by physical or electric moves, Pika, Volty, take that ghost down!"

The two Pikachu nodded at their trainer and faced their opponent. Volty charged forward with a Quick Attack while Pika jumped up high in the air and came falling down with a Brick Break. Both Pokémon passed harmlessly through the ghost and crashed into each other.

"That's no good." Brock said. "You need to come up with some other strategy."

Marowak swung its club down at Volty, who managed to dodge out of the way. The Marowak then threw its bone again.

"That's it." Ash muttered to himself, then turned back to his Pikachu. "Aim for the bone!"

The two Pikachu both looked at him in confusion and then fired a twin Thunderbolt at the bone as it arced back. The blast knocked the bone off course and it slammed into Marowak's head, knocking it down.

"Way to go!" Misty cheered.

"It's not over yet."

The Marowak grabbed its bone off of the floor and used it to pull itself back up onto its feet. It looked over to Ash in fury and swung its club up, scraping the ground as it went. A huge storm of dust filled half the room and when it faded way everyone that was caught inside was gone, leaving only Gary, Red and the unconscious Yellow alone with the ghostly Marowak.

"Well, that's not good." Gary said bluntly.

"You think!" Red snapped back at him.

"Now, off we go." Daisy said to her Cleffa as she set out from Celadon City and onto Route 16. "At this rate, we might actually be able to pass the others and reach the Pokémon League first."

"Cle." The pink and green baby Pokémon giggled back at her.

"Oh, that's right." Daisy said absently. "You haven't even met the others yet. I can't wait until I can show you off to them."

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?"

Daisy turned around to see Giselle walking over to her. She had a smug confidence to her posture that Daisy thought reminded her a lot of her brother Gary.

"It looks like we meet again." Giselle said.

"What are you doing here?" Daisy asked her.

"The same thing as you. Or so I would imagine, anyway. I'm making my way to the next town and with it the next Gym. Unfortunately, the way is blocked from here. Unless you have a bicycle, Route 17 is completely off limits and this place is little more than just a dead end."

"Oh," Daisy looked down shyly at the ground. "I wasn't aware of that. I guess I'll have to find another way."

"I see that you've been busy since we last met. You even managed to get yourself a baby Pokémon. Those aren't exactly easy to come by." Giselle bent down slightly to get a closer look at Cleffa. Suddenly the smugness of her expression faded. "Wait, hold on a minute. Is that a shiny?"

"No, she's a Cleffa." Daisy pointed out.

"I know that." Giselle said angrily. "I was asking if she was shiny Pokémon?"

"I don't know what you mean." Daisy said, confused.

Giselle sighed. "How do you not know what a shiny Pokémon is?"

Daisy shrugged her shoulders.

"I shiny Pokémon is a Pokémon that has a different coloration than normal. For example, Cleffa normally have brown ears, not green."

"Really?" Daisy held up her Cleffa to take a closer look at the baby Pokémon. "I didn't even realize that."

"Shiny Pokémon are, like, extremely rare. How did you even manage to get one?"

"She hatched from an egg I was given by a Clefable in Mt. Moon." Daisy explained as she lowered Cleffa back down into her arms.

"Fine, if you don't want to tell me, then don't." Giselle sighed.

"But it's the truth!"

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I know we're rivals and all, but since we both need to head back to Celadon and find a different Route to take, would you mind if travel together for a bit?"

"Um, sure." Daisy answered, surprised by the question.

"Normally I wouldn't ask for something like this." Giselle tried to defend her own ego. "But it gets kind of boring traveling alone all the time."

"I know that feeling well." Daisy added.

With that, the two girls turned around and headed back to Cerulean. This was definitely an unexpected setback, Daisy thought, but at least she had a bit of company for the time being. This also gave her a chance to get to know her self-proclaimed rival a little better.

"So, where are you from?" Daisy asked Giselle.

"Don't push it."

Then again, getting to know her might be a harder challenge than Daisy thought.

* * *

"What are we supposed to do now?" Gary yelled at Red. "We're being attacked by a ghost that won't let us leave, we can't call out our Pokémon and the others are just… gone."

"I am well aware of the situation!" Red yelled back as he lifted Yellow's unconscious body onto his back. "Just give me a little time to think."

"We don't have time!"

The Marowak ghost slowly walked up to them, holding its bone club high above its head ready to strike. Gary tried to call out his Wartortle again, but his Pokéballs were still inactive. Marowak struck down with its club, but both trainers were able to dodge out of the way of the blow.

"Hold on!" Red suddenly shouted. "I think I have a plan."

"Good, now would you mind sharing it with the rest of the class?" Gary asked sarcastically.

"There's only one ghost, but two of us. If we both head in opposite directions, it won't be able to stop us both from leaving."

"Well, I guess that's better than just standing around and waiting to get hit." Gary said as he started running towards the stairs leading back down the tower. "Smell you later!"

Marowak turned back and forth between Gary and Red as they ran in opposite directions away from it, unsure of what to do. After a moment, it made a decision and bolted straight for Red. Fortunately for him though, he had enough of a head start to reach the stairs and make his way up. Marowak did not follow him.

When Red had safely made his way to the next floor of the Pokémon Tower and was sure that the ghost was no longer followed him, he gently set Yellow down on the tiled floor and sat down beside her.

"I don't remember the last time I've been that scared." He whispered to himself. "But at least we made our way out of that. Now I'm only worried about how we're supposed to make our way back down from here."

Red then looked up to see if he could at least find the staircase leading to the next floor and to his surprise he wasn't able to find one anywhere. He gently nudged Yellow in an effort to wake her up and after a moment the girl's eyes finally flickered back open and she sat up.

"Good to see you're okay." He said to her.

"It depends on what you mean by 'okay'." Yellow groaned. "You wouldn't believe the headache I have right now."

"Getting hit in the back of the head with a bone will do that to you." Red replied. "Anyway, it looks like we've finally made it."

"Really?" Yellow stood up excitedly and looked around. "Oh, wow. I was starting to think we'd never make it up here. Where are the others?"

"Well," Red wasn't quite sure what to say. "Gary had to make his way back down so that we could get up here and I don't know what happened to everyone else. They just kind of… vanished."

"What do you mean by-" Yellow's question got cut off as they heard a yell echo across the room. Red and Yellow both looked around to see where it came from and noticed for the first time that they were not alone up there.

At the other end of the room, an old man lay on the floor, backing away from three men dressed in black uniforms that had a very familiar design to them.

"Team Rocket." Red growled. "What are they doing here?"

Red called out his Charmeleon and Paras, glad to see that his Pokéballs were working again, and they ran over to help the old man.

"Stay here." He told Yellow. "This might be dangerous."

"Come on, old man." Said one of the Team Rocket grunts, distinguished by his long, blonde hair tied back in a rather unkempt ponytail. "Just give us the information that our boss wants and this will all be over. No one needs to get hurt."

"Hey, who are you?" Another grunt asked as he noticed Red's approach. This one had short, black hair with large sideburns.

"Leave him alone!" Red demanded.

"Look, kid." Said the third, brown-haired, grunt. "I don't know who you think you are or how you even managed to get up here, but you should just leave now. A kid like you has no business interfering with Team Rocket, isn't that right, Ken?"

"That's right, Al."

"I'm afraid you're wrong about that." Red said. His Charmeleon let out a small breath of flame to show that they were serious. "I've beaten your kind before and I can do it again."

"Alright then." The blonde grunt sighed. "It's your funeral. Which is kind of ironic, given where we are right now."

"I'm not sure that would actually be considered irony, Harry." Al replied.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just get this over with."

Harry called out his Muk while Ken sent out his Tauros and Al sent out his Hypno.

"Face it, kid. You're clearly outmatched here." Al said.

"Yeah? Well, we'll see about that."

"Where are we?" Ash wondered aloud as he, Pika, Volty, Carmine, Misty and Brock woke up in a long, dark tunnel.

"And more importantly, what's that smell?" Misty asked, plugging her nose.

"It sounds like there's water flowing by us." Brock observed. "Could this be some kind of underground river?"

"That, or it could be a sewer." Carmine said. "I'm inclined to think sewer."

"Well, how are we supposed to get back out of here?" Misty asked irritably.

"I guess we should just pick a direction and walk until we find a way out." Ash suggested.

"If we're doing that, we should probably make sure that we can see where we're going first." Carmine pointed out. "Otherwise we could easily end up falling straight into a river of raw sewage."

"Yuck." Misty made a disturbed face, not that anyone noticed it.

"Right." Ash said. "Pika, Volty, I think you've got this handled."

The two Pikachu both let off a series of sparks from their cheeks that dimly lit up the area.

"Yep, definitely a sewer." Carmine commented.

"How do you know?" Misty asked him teasingly. "Have you ever been in one before?"

Carmine gave a menacing glare in Misty's direction. "And why are you still here, again? I thought you just came back for the cruise and that's already over."

"I… I just felt like tagging along for a bit longer." Misty blushed and quickly glanced at Ash for a fraction of a second, though the poor lighting made it almost impossible to notice.

"Alright," Ash tried to ease the growing tension. "I guess we should get going now. The less time we spend down here, the better."

With that, Ash turned around and walked along the narrow pathway that they were standing on and the others quickly followed after him.

* * *

"Alright," Squirtle said to the others as they huddled behind the Mossgreen Gym. "From the looks of it, I'd say this place specializes in either Grass or Bug types. Charmander has the type advantage, either way, so he's our best bet. Are you up to it?"

"Definitely." Charmander declared proudly.

"Okay then. Now that that's settled, it's time to go in. Is everyone ready for this?"

Charmander, Bulbasaur and Zoroark all nodded back at Squirtle and Zoroark walked around to the entrance of the building with the others following close behind her. They entered the Gym and found the leader picking some herbs growing off to the side of the room. She didn't notice them as they approached, so Zoroark had to clear her throat to draw the Gym Leader's attention.

"Oh, sorry about that." The Gym Leader said as she stood up and turned to face Zoroark. "I didn't notice you over there. I'm Cassandra, the local Gym Leader. Are you here for a Gym Battle?"

"Yes." Zoroark answered. "My name is Zahira and I already have one badge."

"Okay, let's not get wait any longer then." Cassandra and Zoroark each walked over to the opposite ends of the battlefield. Charmander readied himself while Cassandra sent out her Paras. "Let the battle begin!"

Paras sent a spray of Stun Spore in Charmander's direction. The Lizard Pokémon blasted a hole through the spores with an Ember and unleashed an intimidating Growl. Paras retaliated with a Scratch but was unable to put its full strength unto the attack due to the effects of the Growl and Charmander countered the attack with another Ember, forcing Paras to take several steps back.

Paras shook itself back to its senses and released a spray of Poison Powder at Charmander, inflicting him with poison. Charmander used Ember again but Paras was able to dodge to the side in time to avoid the attack and hit Charmander with an Absorb, draining some of Charmander's health. Charmander then struck Paras with a Scratch attack and knocked the Bug-type onto its back. Paras tried to roll back up onto its feet but before it was able to, Charmander hit it with another Ember. Paras flailed its legs out widely for a moment before it gave up and passed out.

"That went by faster than I thought it would. You must be an exceptionally good trainer." Cassandra commented as she walked over to Zoroark. "Then again I don't really have much experience with this. Anyway, here you go. You've earned this Mushroom Badge."

Zoroark took the badge and nodded before placing it inside the badge case tucked inside of her 'pocket' before she turned around and left.

"Well, she's not very talkative." Cassandra muttered to herself as she returned to picking herbs. "But I guess it doesn't really matter."

* * *

"Woohoo! Made it out alive!" Gary cheered himself on as he took his first steps outside of the Pokémon Tower. He turned around on the off chance that Red was behind him. "Well, I hope they make it out, but there isn't really anything I can do to help them."

"Well, I definitely didn't think you'd be out of there so soon." Gary jumped as Kat walked up to him. "I guess you probably didn't make it all the way up to the top of the tower, did you?"

"N-no." Gary admitted reluctantly. "But that doesn't matter right now. I just want to get out of this crazy place as soon as possible and get back to sanity."

"That's kind of a strange thing to say." Concern showed in Kat's voice. "What happened up there?"

"I do not want to talk about it." Gary's turned absently off to the side as he spoke.

"Alright then, but are you really sure you want to be leaving so soon?"

"I am very sure of that, yes." Gary turned back to his cousin.

"But what if I told you that there was a Gym on the outskirts of the town?"

"I… wait, what?" Gary was caught off guard by this.

"Yeah, the Gym Leader here is kind of a recluse, so not very many people even realize that she's here, but I do know where her Gym is."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Gary screamed angrily.

"I was waiting for a good time to mention it." Kat shrugged.

"Well, 'a good time to mention it' would have been when we first got here! Or even before that!"

"Fine, fine." Kat raised her hands in a motion for Gary to calm down. "I guess I should have mentioned something, but I had no idea you'd act like this."

"Wait a minute." Gary said as he started to calm down and take things in. "Where are the others?"

"Back in the Pokémon Center. I just came out here to stretch my legs and maybe see when you got back."

"Oh, whatever. Let's just check out that Gym."

* * *

"That's two down already." Bulbasaur said excitedly as they walked away from the gym. "We're making great progress so far."

"Let's just hope that we can keep it that way." Squirtle commented.

"We'll do fine." Charmander added. "No one can stop us!"

"I'm just worried about how long we can keep up this masquerade." Zoroark said. "I've only used my human disguises for short interactions or in large groups where everyone's attention is divided away from me, using personalities I specifically use to try and make people not want to talk to me for very long. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, though I will do my best."

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Bulbasaur tried to comfort the Dark-type. "You've been able to do a good job so far, after all."

"True." Zoroark muttered.

"There is no obstacle big enough to get in our way!" Squirtle announced loudly. "If we put our minds to it, anything is possible! That's my guiding philosophy and the principle upon which Team Pokémon stands!"

"Team Pokémon?" Bulbasaur questioned.

"That's the name I have chosen for our group and soon everyone will learn to hold that name and all that it stands for with only the highest of honors!"

"I guess that works." Charmander said.

"I think it sounds stupid. I mean what, just because we're a bunch of Pokémon we should be called 'Team Pokémon'? What kind of logic is that?" Bulbasaur complained.

"I like the sound of it." Zoroark argued. "And being Pokémon is what sets us apart from everyone else."

"Exactly!" Squirtle said matter-of-factly. "So then we're all agreed on the name?"

"No, we are not." Bulbasaur said.

"Perfect!" Squirtle ignored him. "Then onward we go, Team Pokémon! Our destinies await!"

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Red said as the three Team Rocket Grunts ran away from him in defeat.

"Yeah." Yellow agreed as she walked over to him. "I thought for sure they would at least be a challenge. There Pokémon looked strong, at least. But on the bright side, it looks like Paras is evolving."

Sure enough, the Grass and Bug-type Pokémon glowed bright white and grew slightly larger, the two mushrooms on its back combining into a single large mushroom.

"Neat." Red called both of his Pokémon back into their Pokéballs and turned his attention to the old man the Rocket Grunts had been harassing. "Anyway, are you alright?"

"Yes." The old man responded. "Thank you very much for saving me from those ruffians."

"Wait a minute…" Said Yellow, "They just ran back down the tower, but isn't the ghost still there? In fact, how are we supposed to get back down?"

"Don't worry about that." The old man said as he gestured towards a differently colored tile off to the side of the room. "We had this installed just recently. It's a state of the art teleport tile, straight from Silph Corp."

"Wow!" Red did nothing to hide his surprise. "I've heard of these things but I've never seen one in person."

"Follow me." The old man walked towards the teleport tile. "I have something I want to give you as a thank you gift for saving me."

* * *

"Well, this is it." Said as she and Gary stood outside the Lavender Town Gym.

Gary hesitated before entering the light purple colored decrepit old building that looked like it hadn't been used in a very long time. To his surprise, the Gym's interior was lit entirely by candlelight and he could faintly see the form of a short old lady standing in the center, keeping herself propped up with an old, gnarled cane.

"I had a feeling someone would be challenging me today." The old woman said as Gary cautiously approached her. "I am Agatha, the Gym Leader here. And who might you be?"

"I-" Gary's voice cracked as he spoke. "I'm Gary Oak."

"Ah, yes." Agatha muttered to herself. "Oak. I used to train with your grandfather, you know. Sam and I had a rivalry that drove both of us to our limits to try and outdo each other. But that was a very long time ago. Your grandfather decided to pursue a more academic lifestyle, leaving me to train alone. Now, let's see if you have even half of the battle prowess that Sam had at your age."

Agatha tapped her cane against the floor and the shadows around her twisted and turned as a Ghastly rose up from them. Gary grabbed a Pokéball from around his waist and called out his Nidorina. Ghastly's eyes lit up as it used Hypnosis to try and lull Nidorina to sleep, but Nidorina was able to look away just in time and avoid the effects of the move as she rushed forward and used Bite. A dark aura surrounded her jaw as she clamped down her teeth hard on Ghastly's face, which allowed the attack to effect the Ghost-type, who flinched, leaving it open to another Bite.

"If only I could have done this against that ghost." Gary muttered to himself.

Ghastly was able to back away from Nidorina before being hit by a third Bite and attacked with Nightshade. A dark flaming wave of energy radiated from the Gas Pokémon and knocked Nidorina back. Ghastly then sped towards Nidorina to try and use Lick on her, but she was able to prevent it by using another Bite just as it reached her. Ghastly flinched again and Nidorina was able to finish it off with one last Bite.

"Very good." Agatha said as she recalled her Ghastly to its Pokéball. "But just using the same move over and over again isn't a very good strategy in the long run, is it."

She pulled out a black and green Dusk Ball and called out her second Pokémon, a bluish gray ghosy with a string of red pearls around its neck.

"Hey!" Gary called out in anger. "I thought Gym Leaders could only use Pokémon native to the Kanto Region!"

Agatha chuckled back at him. "It is a common mistake to think that Misdreavus cannot be found here, but the truth is that a Ghost can be found anywhere if you know where to look."

"Yeah, whatever."

Misdreavus opened with an Astonish, fading out of view and and reappearing in front of Nidorina with a terrifying face. Nidorina was caught off guard by the attack and was stunned long enough for Misdreavus to follow it up with a Psywave, blasting Nidorina back. Nidorina quickly got back up to its feet and launched a Poison Sting from its mouth. The tiny purple dart struck Misdreavus right int eh center pearl of its necklace inflicted it with poison.

Misdreavus tried to use Astonish again, but this time Nidorina was prepared and used Bite as it appeared in front of her, leaving Misdreavus stunned long enough for another Bite. Misdreavus backed away and started floating in circles around Nidorina.

"That Bite of yours is becoming quite the nuisance." Agatha said. "Let's fix that, shall we? Spite!"

A shockwave flew out from Misdreavus. At first it didn't seem like the shockwave did anything, but then Misdreavus flew back within Nidorina's range and she tried to get it with another Bite, but the dark aura didn't appear and her teeth passed harmlessly though Misdreavus and her jaw clamped together as if there were nothing there.

"What will you do now?" Agatha taunted Gary.

"More Poison Sting, obviously."

Nidorina launched another purple dart from her mouth which stuck Misdreavus exactly where the first one had. The Screech Pokémon was now showing signs of fatique, which Nidorina took as an opportunity for another Poison Sting. As the dart hit Misdreavus' pearl, it began to crack and Misdreavus fell to the floor.

"That was better than I was expecting, but there is no way you will be able to defeat my final Pokémon."

"We'll see about that." Gary remarked.

Agatha recalled Misdreavus and sent out a Haunter. Meanwhile, Gary swapped out his own Nidorian for his Wartortle. Haunter attacked Wartortle with a Sucker Punch, its hand moving through the air independently from its body and striking Wartortle right in the face before he could react. Wartortle shot a furious look at Haunter as the evolved Gas Pokémon's hand returned to it and used Bubble. A stream of water bubbles shot out of Wartortle's mouth and struck Haunter, slowing down its movements. Haunter tried to swoop in closer to hit Wartortle with a Shadow Punch, but just as it was about to get in range, Wartortle jumped up and used Bite.

"You just love that move, don't you." Agatha said bitterly.

As Wartortle fell back down to the gorund, he retreated into his shell with Withdraw. Haunter hit the shell with Shadow Punch, but was unable to do much. As Wartortle hit the ground, a Water Gun shot out from his shell and hit Haunter, causing it to drop down closer to the ground and leaving it open for Wartortle to jump forward and get it with another Bite. Haunter flinched, leaving it open to another Bite, and the battle was won.

"You did a lot better than I was expecting." Agatha said. "Perhaps there is still hope for the Oak family after all. Take this Spectre Badge. You've earned it after all."

Gary took the badge, which resembled a dark gray Yin-Yang symbol.

"Thanks." He said as he turned to walk away. As he left the Gym with Kat, he turned to his cousin. "Did you know about her and Grandpa?"

"No." Kat answered. "I've never actually met Agatha before and I've never heard Grandpa mention him. It was definitely news to me."

"Huh." Gary shrugged. "I mean, I knew he was a trainer at one point, but I've never really thought about it before. I wonder if he had any other rivals."

"Who knows? Maybe we should ask him when we get the chance."

"No thanks. It's not really all that important."

"Yeah, you may feel that way, but I want to learn more. I'm going to get Grampa to tell me about his time as a trainer whenever we finally get back home."

The Teleport Tile sent Red, Yellow and the old man directly to the first floor of the Pokémon Tower and from there the old man led the two kids to a nearby building.

"This is the Volunteer Pokémon House." The old man said as he opened the front door. "I opened this place up many years ago as a place to take care of abandoned Pokémon."

Several Pokémon were scattered around the house, enjoying themselves. On the far side from the entrance, a girl around Red's age was tending to an injured Cubone.

"This is Reina. She's our only volunteer here at the moment, but she does more than enough work to make up for that."

"Thank you, Mr. Fuji, but I just do what I can." Reina blushed as she accepted the compliment.

"Though I suppose you two would be more interested in hearing about Cubone. You see, that Cubone is the son of the Marowak ghost that you encountered up in the tower."

Red and Yellow weren't sure what to make of this revelation.

"Not too long ago a group of evil-hearted Team Rocket members attacked and killed Cubone's mother. When we found them shortly afterward, we took Cubone in and made sure that Marowak had a proper burial in the tower, but then her spirit started to haunt the floor she was buried in and attacking everyone in sight. I went up there to try and calm her down, but then those three you fought showed up and only agitated her spirit further, trapping us on the top floor."

"Wait, you were attacked?" Reina gasped.

"I will explain later." Mr. Fuji told her before turning his attention back to Red and Yellow. "Now I'm afraid I will have to go up there again to calm her down, but in the meantime, I wanted to give you a gift for saving me."

Mr. Fuji walked over to a nearby set of drawers and picked up a small case and some sort of wooden flute. He then walked back to them and handed the flute to Yellow.

"This is a Pokéflute. They say that the sound it makes is capable of waking up any sleeping Pokémon." He then turned to Red and handed him the small black case. Red opened it up to find a small black bracelet and some sort of marble that shone blue and yellow as light reflected off of it. "I don't know for sure what this is, but I feel that it will come in handy for you at some point."

"We can't take these." Red insisted.

"Nonsense! I'm giving them to you because I want you to have them. Are you really going to turn down an old man's generous offer like this?"

"I-I guess not." Red said.

"Good. Now, I wish you the best of luck in your travels!"

* * *

Daisy and Giselle were just reaching the outskirts of Celadon City when they found their path blocked by two men on motorcycles.

"Now what do we have here?" One of the men mockingly asked the other. He was a thin man with a spiked Mohawk and a brown leather coat. "Yo, Cue Ball, what do you make of this?"

"Looks like a couple kids trying to make their way past our turf." The other man said. He was a very heavyset man with a black vest and his head was cleanly shaven to the point where light reflected off of it as if his scalp were made of glass.

"That's what I thought." The first biker said. "But surely no one would be that stupid, right?"

"Not unless they want a beatin'." 'Cue Ball' agreed.

"Get out of our way." Giselle ordered the two bikers.

"Oh, this girl thinks she can just go and order us around like we're her servants or something. Well, guess what, girlie: The Gyarados Gang down's take orders from nobody!"

Giselle smirked. "That's a double negative, which means that you do take orders from somebody. And I guess right now that somebody would be me."

"Why you little-" The first man said, gritting his teeth. "Come on, Cue Ball, it's time we teach these two a lesson on respecting their elders."

"I guess this will be our first team battle." Giselle said to Daisy. "Two rivals teaming up to fight off a common enemy. It's almost poetic, don't you think."

Daisy, who had been looking on in horror as Giselle had somehow managed to make a bad situation even worse for them, meanly sighed as she pulled out one of her Pokéballs.

* * *

"What do you think it does?" Yellow asked Red as the made their way out of Lavender Town. Red had put the bracelet on his right wrist and was examining it closely.

"I'm not sure." Red answered as he pulled out the marble-like object. He held the strange gemstone up to the bracelet and noticed there was a small opening just large enough to put the marble in. He inserted the marble into the bracelet and found that it fit perfectly.

"It looks good on you." Yellow smiled.

"Yeah, but I'm sure there's more to this thing than just a fashion accessory. Oh, well. We'll figure it out eventually I guess."

The two continued walking in silence as they made their way along Route 8 until eventually Yellow turned to Red.

"I think someone's following us." She said to him.

Red turned around and saw that there was indeed someone following them. A young woman with long purple hair that Red recognized as the woman that had been asking Yellow about ghosts yesterday.

"Can I help you with something?" He asked her.

"No, not really." She replied.

"Then why are you following us?"

"Oh, no reason. I was bored and thought you looked interesting. I thought that if I went with you for a while, something might happen."

"Well, you can't just follow someone around without their permission." Red said.

"Alright then. Can I go with you for the time being?"

Red thought for a moment, but couldn't really think of a good reason to say no. "Um, sure, I guess. At least until we get to Saffron."

"Oh, good." The woman clapped her hands together.

"I'm Yellow and this is Red." Yellow greeted the girl. "What's your name?"

"You may call me Sable."

* * *

"How much longer do we have to go?" Misty whined as she, Ash, Carmine and Brock continued to make their way through the sewer tunnel they had become trapped in.

"Who knows?" Brock answered. "We don't even know where we are right now. We might not even be in Kanto right now."

"In fact, it was a ghost that sent us here, so for all we know we're actually stuck in the Distortion World for all eternity." Carmine joked.

"That's not funny." Misty said angrily.

"I'm just messing with you. According to the map on my Pokégear, we're somewhere between Lavender Town and Saffron City, heading towards Saffron."

"Wait, you've had that the entire time?" Misty asked. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"No one asked." Carmine replied. "Besides, it's not like this thing will tell us where the sewer exit is. I can't make a call from down here."

"But can you at least tell us how far much longer we have to go until we reach Saffron City?" Ash asked. "There should be some way out over there."

"It shouldn't be too much further. Although it's hard to tell because I lost the signal for the map a little while ago."

"Well, this is just great." Misty said, "Just when we get some sort of hope about knowing when we're getting out of this stupid place, it just goes away. We're going to be down here for the rest of our lives, aren't we?"

"Don't be ridiculous. There was to be a way out somewhere and we're going to-"

"Going to what?" Ash asked as Carmine didn't finish his sentence. When no reply came, Ash turned around to see Carmine, Misty and Brock all standing still. Something seemed off about their eyes. Ash started to walk back to them, but just as he took the first step, suddenly a loud chattering sound echoed through the tunnel and he, Pika and Volty all had to cover their ears to try and block out the horrible noise. He tried to yell over the deafening noise, though of course no answer came. Ash turned around again and saw ten glowing eyes come into view ahead of him as the shadowy silhouettes of some unknown Pokémon made their way closer to him.

Daisy and Giselle stood with their Ivysaur and Cubone, respectively. Across from them, the two bikers had sent out a Grimer and a Weezing. Daisy waited for their opponents to make the first move so that she could counter them, but Giselle was the first to act.

"Bonemerang!"

Cubone tossed its bone club at Weezing. The impact of the attack knocked Weezing to the ground where was then hit by a Vine Whip from Ivysaur. Grimer tried to help its ally by distracting Cubone and Ivysaur with a Sludge attack, launching a poisonous blood from its mouth at Cubone. Cubone dodged to the side and tossed another Bonemerang. This one struck Grimer head-on, but the bone became stuck in Grimer's gooey body, making Cubone unable to retrieve it.

"That was a miscalculation." Giselle said as she bit her thumb lightly in frustration.

"Hold on, I have an idea." Daisy said to her. "Ivysaur, use cut on that small tree over there!"

Ivysaur looked over to where Daisy was motioning and saw a small sapling growing out of the ground. She launched a Razor Leaf at the base of the tree which cut cleanly through it. Giselle was confused by this at first at first but quickly realized what Daisy was doing and ordered her Cubone to retrieve the fallen sapling. The baby tree was larger and heavier than the bone it was used to wielding, but that did not stop Cubone from putting the makeshift weapon to good use. Cubone smacked Weezing back into the ground just as the Poison Gas Pokémon had lifted itself back up. Ivysaur Tackled Koffing and sent it rolling straight into Grimer, knocking Cubone's club out of its ooze. Cubone grabbed its club off the ground and used Focus Energy before smacking Weezing with both weapons. The force of the blow shook through Weezing and into Grimer, knocking them both out.

"Well, well, well." Giselle said tauntingly at the two bikers. "And who was supposed to be teaching whom a lesson here?"

"Why you little…" Cue Ball started to say before his speech gave haw to unintelligible angry gibberish.

"You may have gotten lucky this time," the other biker said, "but if we ever see your faces around these parts again, you will rue the day you ever messed with the Gyarados Gang!"

The two recalled their Pokémon and rode off furiously.

"And here I thought they'd at least be a challenge." Giselle said before turning to Daisy. "Nice thinking, with the tree club idea. I hate to say this, but it looks like we actually might make a good team after all."

"Wait, does that mean you didn't think we'd work well together?" Daisy asked.

"Not at all. Now come on, let's go."

* * *

Ash took several steps back as the heavily shadowed figured continued their approach towards him. He didn't know what they were and he wasn't particularly interested in waiting around to find out, but he wasn't about to abandon his friends either. Carmine, Misty and Brock remained motionless as if being held in place by something and Ash quickly realized that Pika and Volty had frozen up now as well.

"Now what do I do?" Ash asked aloud.

"That's up to you." Ash jumped as Ghastly suddenly appeared next to him but before he could say anything else, the creatures came into view.

"Are those… Raticate?" Ash wondered in surprise.

"Don't be fooled." Ghastly said. "They may look like normal Raticate at first, but they are more than that. That's a Raticate King."

"What?"

"When a Raticate's tail gets tangled up with another's, their minds become momentarily linked until they can be separated. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but when five Raticate manage to get their tails together at once they become what is known as a Raticate King. Legends say that they gain powerful psychic powers in the process and no longer have the ability to be safely be removed from each other."

"I've never heard of that before." Ash said as the Raticate King came closer. Ash could now see the knot in their tails that connected them.

"I'm not surprised. To my knowledge, a Raticate King has not surfaced in hundreds of years. This is a troubling turn of events indeed."

"So are they preventing the others from moving?"

"It would look that way. I appear to be unaffected due to my Ghost-typing, but I have no idea why you are not affected by their control."

"Well, we don't really have time to think about that right now. Use Shadow Ball to fend them off."

"I'm afraid I haven't fully regained all of my energy from the banishment spell earlier." Ghastly said. "I don't think I have enough strength for that right now, but I'll see what I can do."

Ghastly spread its gaseous body towards the Raticate King as it approached. The Raticate King stopped as it inhaled the poisonous fumes, coughing violently. Ash tried to come up with a plan while it was distracted but could only think of one thing to do.

"Pokéball, go!" He tossed the small red and white ball at the Raticate King with as much force as he could muster, but the Pokéball merely bounced harmlessly off of it.

"That won't be nearly enough." Ghastly explained. "A Raticate King isn't going to be captured by just a regular Pokéball."

"Noted." Ash said, looking around desperately for something else as the Raticate King resumed its steady approach towards them. After a moment, he ran up to Carmine and started rifling through his bag. He pulled out what he was looking for just as the Raticate King finally caught up to him and pounced. There was a flash of yellow light and the Raticate King was gone, leaving Ash lying on the floor, clutching an Ultra Ball tightly in hand as the others regained movement around him.

"Guys!" He yelled at them. "You'll never believe what just happened!"

"We already know." Carmine responded. "And I would appreciate it if you wouldn't go through my stuff without permission."

Ash blushed as Pika and Volty hopped back up onto his shoulders. "Sorry, it was the only thing I could think of."

"I know. That's why I'm going to let you keep that thing."

* * *

Gary walked into the Lavender Pokémon Center after defeating Agatha. Mal, Ciel and Sue were all still sitting in the lounge area as he approached the front desk.

"Hello and welcome to the Lavender Town Pokémon Center!" The nurse said joyfully. "May I heel your Pokémon?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Gary said unenthusiastically as he placed his Pokéballs on the tray she was holding out to him. He turned back as she put the tray into the healing machine beside her. Kat walked in after him and met up with the others. Meanwhile, a strange woman with bushy purple hair walked up to Gary.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" She asked him.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason."

The woman left without another word as Gary turned back to the nurse to get his Pokémon back.

"Here you go. We hope to see you again!"

Gary gave the nurse a half-hearted grin as he walked left to go meet up with his cheerleaders. The strange woman had walked over to the opposite side of the Pokémon Center and was staring at Gary. He gave her a sour look before turning to the others.

"Alright, I'm all done here. Let's get going before we all get haunted or something."

"Sounds good to me!" Mal said as she stood up. "Come on girls, we're finally getting out of this place."

"You know we haven't been here for more than a few hours, right?" Gary pointed out.

"And that's still too long." Said Ciel. "This place gives me the creeps."

"Where are we going next, anyway?" Sue asked.

"I say we head north to Rock Tunnel." Kat suggested.

"Why would we go that way? Gary asked her. "Wouldn't that just take us back around to Cerulean? Why would we want to go back there?"

"Because there's another Gym Leader there." She explained. "Like Agatha, he tends to keep to himself so most Trainers don't realize he's there, but it's not that far, so you might as well challenge him and get another Gym over with."

"I guess I can't argue with that logic." Gary said, then realized something. "But wait a minute, don't all Gyms need to be in a city or town?"

"That's a common misconception. Most Gyms are in major settlements to make them more accessible, but it's not actually a rule. It's one of the major reason most trainers don't realize this Gym Leader is there."

Ash stared at the Ultra Ball in his hand as he continued to make his way through the sewers. The others followed him closely, ready to finally find the exit and make their way back to the surface.

"What are you going to do with that thing anyway?" Carmine asked Ash.

"I'm not sure. I don't know if the Raticate King counts as a single Pokémon or five. For all I know, just having this thing brings me over the maximum Pokémon Team limit and I can forget actually trying to use it in official battles."

"If you were able to catch it with just the one Ultra Ball, then it counts as only a single Pokémon, somehow. Although I'm not sure if I'd want to use that thing if I were you."

"Why not?" Ash asked as he put the Ultra Ball back along his belt.

"I've dealt with powerful and unusual Pokémon like that before." He absently held up a Heavy Ball from his own belt and stared at the gray and blue sphere. "From what I've seen, the best thing to do is to simply make sure that they stay under control. When you become a powerful enough trainer, you should be able to train it but even then it should probably only be a last resort."

"Wait, what Pokémon do you have in there?" Brock asked curiously.

"It's none of your business." Carmine put the Heavy Ball back down around his waist.

"I think I see an exit!" Misty yelled excitedly, pointing over to a hatch on the ceiling just ahead of them with a ladder leading up to it. "We can finally get out of this stupid place!"

* * *

"Celadon City!" Squirtle shouted out dramatically as the city's skyline came into view. "Or at least it should be, anyway. I'm not sure where else it would be."

"You know, this is going much faster than I thought it would." Zoroark said.

"That's probably because we haven't really been doing anything else. If we were actually training between Gym battles or even just had other stuff come up, I'm sure this would take much longer."

"We'll train when we need to train!" Said Squirtle. "But for now we seem to be doing fine without it."

"But how long do you think it will take before we reach that point?" Charmander asked.

I'd say right after this Gym, actually. Once we have three Gym Badges the Gym Leaders are going to start using three Pokémon each, which will make things much harder for us."

"Well, we have three Pokémon ready to fight, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"Yes, but we have to keep type matchups in mind. Also, it will get even harder once we get to the point where the Gym Leaders will be using full teams of six Pokémon."

"Wait, what?" Charmander was thrown off guard by this. "How are we supposed to put up with that?"

"That's actually rather simple, my friend. We just have to get that strong. After all, the whole point of our mission is to prove ourselves as the strongest this land has ever seen."

"I thought we were just proving that we don't need trainers." Bulbasaur pointed out.

"And looking for my son." Zoroark added.

"Okay, so I guess we each have our own personal reasons for doing this, but the point still stands. If we do not become strong enough to do this, then we will never be able to accomplish our goals. Except you, Zoroark. Strength shouldn't have anything to do with finding your son."

"But we'll need to fight that monstrous woman who kidnapped him."

"I stand corrected. Anyway, onward towards our next victory!"

* * *

The roads of Saffron City were uncharacteristically quiet as a lone manhole cover was lifted up from the ground and Ash, Misty, Brock and Carmine crawled up onto the empty street.

"Finally!" Misty said with a sigh of relief as she laid back onto the cold, hard pavement. "I never want to see another sewer as long as I live."

"We do seem to have a strange habit of ending up stuck in dark confined spaces." Brock pointed out.

"Well, I guess we should head over to the nearest Pokémon Center and rest up, right Carmine? Carmine?" Ash looked over at the older trainer and saw that he was looking around at the surrounding area. "What's wrong?"

"We're in the middle of a road in the largest city in the region in the middle of the afternoon." Carmine muttered. "This whole area should be teaming with people, which brings up the important question, where is everyone."

"He's right." Brock said. "I can't see anyone around here."

"Maybe it has something to do with why the city has been blocked off for so long?" Misty suggested.

"But that just brings us back to why the entire city would be shut down. That's not something that just happens unless there's some kind of major disaster going on."

"Okay, let's just keep calm and head to the Pokémon Center." Ash said. "If there's someone there, we can ask them what's going on. If there isn't for some reason, we can at least rest for a bit."

"I'm up for that." Misty said as the group began making their way down the road. "I feel like we've been walking non-stop for hours now."

"That's probably because we have been." Carmine sighed.

* * *

"Well, it looks like we're taking the Underground Tunnel to Celadon." Red said as he, Yellow and Sable stood outside the closed off gateway leading into Saffron City. "I really thought they'd be open by now. How does an entire city get shut down, anyway?"

"Something dark is stirring in there." Sable said ominously. "It's for the best that we don't enter there."

"Okay…" Red wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Anyway, let's head back to the tunnel."

"We can use Abraham to get through it quickly like we did last time." Yellow said as they turned around and started heading over to the entrance way they had passed by just a few minute earlier.

"Although it is starting to get dark." Red noticed. "We should probably camp out here for the night before we head down there."

"Sure!" Yellow said cheerily. "That sounds like a good idea."

"Whatever you say." Sable said dryly. "Though I was hoping we'd be able to do something more interesting."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, just something."

"Well, we're camping for the night outside the entrance to the Underground Path." Red said. "And then in the morning, we'll use Teleport to get across to Celadon as quickly as we can. If you want something to do, there should be plenty available there."

"I guess that works." Sable relented.

"Great. Although I just remembered that I still only have one sleeping bag."

"That's fine. I don't really need one anyway."

"And here we are." Yellow said as the three walked up to a small building along the side of the route.
"I suppose we should set up camp now, then." Red pulled out his sleeping back and handed it to Yellow, who laid it down on the ground. "I'm going to go gather some wood for a fire. Do you want to help, Sable?"

The strange woman was looking off into the distance, up at the treetops. "What? Oh, no. I'm good."

"What are you looking at?" Yellow asked her.

"Nothing. I just thought that I… uh… heard something. It's nothing."

* * *

"Finally." Pikachu thought to herself as she once again felt Yellow's presence nearby. "I thought I had lost her for good, but now she should be just up ahead."

Pikachu jumped from treetop to treetop as she felt the presence grow closer and closer. Soon she felt Abraham's presence enter her mind as well."

"What took you so long?" She asked him.

"Sorry. I've just been distracted lately by stuff that's happened. I'll give you the details later."

"What kind of stuff."

"We had a run-in with a ghost and now we have a new person with us."

"What?" Pikachu couldn't hide her shock.

"Yeah. Not really sure what to make of her, though. She's been acting kind of off and she seems to be able to shield herself from my telepathic abilities so that I can't read her mind. But at the same time, she hasn't really done anything yet to suggest she's hostile or dangerous and there's something about her that just seems… familiar."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it, but I guess you'll see what I mean in just a moment."

"Hello?" Ash called out as he walked into the Pokémon Center, which seemed to be as deserted as the streets outside. "I guess there's no one here, either."

He headed over to a coach situated on the right-hand side of the room and sat himself down, relieved to finally rest for a while. Misty and Brock both sat down as well. Carmine, on the other hand, walked straight to the counter where a nurse would normally be standing by to heal trainer's Pokémon.

"I'm going to see if I can find any clues as to what's going on." He said as he hopped over the counter. "Stay there until I get back."

"That shouldn't be a problem!" Ash yelled back to him.

"And for the love of Lugia, keep your voices down. We have no idea what could be listening."

Carmine walked back and knocked lightly on the first door he passed before checking to find nothing but empty rooms. Eventually, he reached the last door and knocked on it. He thought he heard a faint shuffling noise come from the other side. He opened the door slowly and immediately had to duck down to avoid an Egg Bomb aimed directly at his egg.

"S-stay back." A panicked-looking nurse sat on the floor on the opposite end of the room beside an angry Chansey that was ready to toss another Egg Bomb.

"I'm not here to hurt you." Carmine said a reassuringly as he could while holding his hands up to show his lack of violent intent. "I just want to know what's going on here."

"How could you possibly not know that?" The nurse asked, surprised.

"My traveling companions and I have just arrived here."

"That's impossible. The entire city is blocked off."

"I know. We had an unfortunate trip through the sewers that lead us just a few blocks away from here. If you don't believe me, then the smell should probably be enough proof."

Both the nurse and Chansey took big sniffs and immediately recoiled.

"Now," Carmine continued, "What exactly is going on here."

"They took over the city." The nurse said frantically.

"Who took over the city?" Carmine asked.

"They blocked off all the exits and forced everyone into their homes." The woman was becoming more and more panicked as she recalled the events of what happened, not even hearing Carmine's words. "All communications have been cut off so that we can't get help."

"But who did this." Carmine grabbed the nurse by her arms and held her tightly, trying to snap her out of her panic.

"T-Team… Team Rocket."

Carmine released his grip and both he and the nurse slumped down onto the floor.

"Team Rocket did all of this?" Carmine asked absently.

"Yes, but they weren't alone. They had help."

"From who?"

"Sabrina."

* * *

"Welcome to the Celadon Gym. My name is Erika and I am the Gym Leader here." Erika introduced herself as Zoroark and Charmander approached her.

"I'm Zahira," Zoroark said, "and I'm here to challenge you to a Gym Battle."

"Very good then." Erika smiled. "I'll just pull out my Pokémon then, shall I?"

Erika grabbed a Pokéball out from underneath the sash of her kimono and called out her Tangela as Charmander readied himself for battle.

"Let the battle commence." Erika said as Tangela lifted up a pair of dark blue vines from its body in preparation to attack.

Charmander let out an Ember as Tangela's vines swung down, forcing the Vine Pokémon to abandon its Vine Whip attack and use Ingrain instead, growing roots down into the soil below to steadily regain health. Charmander charged toward its now immobile opponent and hit it with a Scratch attack. Tangela retaliated with a Vine Whip, knocking Charmander back, but Charmander hit Tangela with an Ember as he fell and caused some of Tangela's vines to catch on fire.

Tangela started flailing itself around in an attempt to put out the flames, leaving itself open to another Ember, which caused Tangela to fall over. The flames were put out as Tangela hit the ground but it also severed the roots of Tangela's Ingrain. Charmander hit it with another Ember as Tangela got back up and then slapped Charmander hard with a Vine Whip and knocked him down. As Charmander got back up onto his feet, Tangela grabbed him with its vines and tightly squeezed him with Constrict.

Charmander tried to hit Tangela with another Ember but was unable to take a deep enough breath to launch the attack. After a couple minutes, Tangela released its grip and slammed Charmander into the ground. Charmander forced himself up with great effort and let out one final Ember, which hit Tangela but was not strong enough to defeat the Grass-type.

Both Pokémon were now physically exhausted and the battle has no a matter of seeing who would land the next blow. Tangela sent out one of its vines to his Charmander again, but Charmander was able to use Scratch to stop the vine before it hit him. Tangela tried again several more times, but Charmander was able to stop the attack each time until finally Tangela's strength gave out and it collapsed.

"Congratulations!" Erika said as she recalled Tangela and walked over to Zoroark. "Here's your Rainbow Badge!"

Zoroark took the badge and picked up Charmander, heading out of the Gym. When she exited the building, Squirtle and Bulbasaur were there waiting for them.

"How did it go?" Bulbasaur asked.

"We won, just barely." Zoroark said as she lowered Charmander onto the ground.

"I'm surprised I even managed to hold out as long enough to win. If the battle had gone on just a few seconds longer I probably would have lost." Charmander said as Squirtle handed him an Oran Berry that he accepted graciously and downed in one gulp. "Oh, that's much better. I can already feel my energy coming back."

"Well, it sounds like we should probably start training now to make sure we can stand up to stronger opponents." Squirtle said. "It will only get harder from here and we can no longer rely on just our base strength."

"Weren't we just talking about that this morning?" Bulbasaur asked.

* * *

"Sabrina?" Carmine tried to make sure that he heard that right. "You mean a Gym Leader has joined forces with Team Rocket?"

"Yes." The nurse confirmed. "Well, sort of."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't witness what happened first hand, so I only have rumors to go off of. From what I've heard it sounds like Sabrina confronted Team Rocket when they arrived but was defeated and knocked unconscious by a mysterious woman who wore a white mask over half of her face. Team Rocket then took her away, only for her to come back several days later working for them. No one knows why he would have joined them."

Carmine remembered their confrontation with the masked woman back in Mt. Moon. He hadn't noticed anything particularly off about her besides the half-mask, but Ash had seen something about her which was enough to make Looker worried. He still wasn't sure what that meant, but it couldn't be good.

"Well, there's nothing we can really do about that now. Is it okay if my companions and I stay here for a while to freshen up before we head out?"

"Uh, of course. This is still a Pokémon Center after all."

"Thank you. I'll let them know and we'll try to see if there's anything to do to help."

With that, Carmine left the room and headed back to the entrance, leaving the nurse and Chansey behind. He wasn't sure what to make of the current situation. A hostile takeover of an entire city seemed wildly out of character for Giovanni, so what was he planning? And how did they manage to recruit a Gym Leader? Carmine tried to push these thoughts to the back of his mind as he made his way back to the front counter.

"There's a lot we need to talk about." He said as he hopped back over the counter. "Team Rocket is here and-"

The nurse walked up to the counter in case anyone needed to heal their Pokémon, just in time to see Carmine clench his fists tightly as he looked angrily at the empty couch.

"Is something wrong?" She asked him.

"I told them not to leave." Carmine said behind gritted teeth. "So what did they do? They left, of course."

"Oh no." The nurse gasped.

"It's all right." Carmine turned back to her. "They should be able to handle themselves for the time being so long as they don't draw attention to themselves and I'm going to go find them." He took a brief sniff. "Right after I take a quick shower."