[Pokémon] Four Journeys

Jessie and James stood nervously at one end of the training battle field while Butch and Cassidy stood at the other end. Between the Team Rocket Agents stood their Pokémon, all awaiting their orders.

As soon as Archer called for the battle to begin, Cassidy and Butch had their Raticate and Primeape charge at Jessie's Arbok and James' Weezing with a Double-Edge and Close Combat, respectively. Both attacks hit before Arbok and Weezing could react. After a moment of stunned pause, Arbok Wrapped itself around Raticate while Weezing launched a Sludge attack at Primeape. Primeape tried to hit Arbok with a Cross Chop to rescue its companion but Arbok twisted around so that the attack hit Raticate instead. Raticate was knocked unconscious by the powerful Fighting-type move.

Cassidy recalled Raticate and sent out her second Pokémon, Wobbuffet. Weezing released a Smokescreen to cover the field in a dark cloud while Arbok launched itself at Wobbuffet to Crunch the Psychic-type in its powerful maw. As soon as the attack hit, Wobbuffet used Counter to hit Arbok and knocked it out in the process, while Primeape managed to land a Cross Chop on Weezing, knocking it out as well.

Jessie and James sent out their new Lickitung and Victreebel at the same time. Victreebel struck Primeape with Leaf Storm, knocking it out and forcing Butch to call out his Poliwrath. Lickitung used Rollout, crashing into Wobbuffet and knocking the Pokémon out, but Wobbuffet's Shadow Tag ability caused Lickitung to faint at the same time.

The two teams were now down to their last Pokémon. But that did not last for long. Victreebel used Leaf Storm again and Poliwrath was defeated instantly.

"Very good." Archer commented as the battle ended. "For J Squad, anyway." He turned to Jessie and James. "You've proven far better than I ever expected from you. I've noticed that your strategies rely too much on luck, but that luck pays off far more than it should, so I'll allow that flaw. Outlaw Squad on the other hand…" He then turned to Butch and Cassidy on the other side of the room. "You rushed in without any thought and payed no attention to your opponents Pokémon."

Archer gestured for all of the Agents to come to him. "Thunder Squad, Thief Squad, J Squad; you've all passed your training. You can report back to Giovanni for whatever new missions he will assign you. Outlaw Squad; you require far more training."

* * *

Red, Yellow and Bill all sat in Bill's living room.

"My grandfather was the old lighthouse keeper here," Bill began his story, "but when he retired he passed it on to me. After moving over here from Goldenrod in Johto, I've spent most of my time researching Pokémon. I quickly noticed the call of a mysterious Pokémon that passes through the area during its migration. I tried to call the Pokémon here so that I could study it. Any guesses as to what that Pokémon was?" Bill pulled out an audio recorder and played a ghostly wail.

Red and Yellow both thought for a while.

"I don't recognize that call at all." Red finally said.

"Dragonite." Red and Bill both stared at Yellow in amazement.

"How do you know that?" Red asked her.

Yellow just shrugged her shoulders, and didn't say anything more, so Bill moved on.

"That's right. But it wasn't just any Dragonite. This specific Dragonite was far larger than normal. Studies show that the average Dragonite is only a little taller than 7', but this one was even larger than the lighthouse itself. Unfortunately, when I called it, the giant Dragonite damaged the lighthouse, which is why it's closed right now. Although the repairs are coming along nicely, so it should be running again within a few days at most."

"Do you have any idea how it managed to get that big?" Red asked Bill.

"I'm afraid I don't. But reports of Pokémon that are different sizes or colors than normal come from all over the world. One of the most well-known would be the Cianwood Tyranitar."

"What's that?"

"In the Johto region there are legends of a massive black Tyranitar that terrorized the area in ancient times before being sealed away in the area that is now the city of Cianwood by the combined forces of Ho-Oh, Lugia and Celebi. It's the only time all three of Johto's Legendary Pokémon were known to work together. Most just assumed that the Cianwood Tyranitar was nothing more than myth until 12 years ago, during construction of the Cliff Edge Gate near Cianwood City, when the Tyranitar was reawakened and began to wreak havoc again. It was only stopped by the two strongest trainers in Johto working together against it."

Red and Yellow both stared at Bill in amazement.

"I haven't heard of that." Red commented.

"I've heard the two trainers later moved to Pallet Town a while back." Bill continued. "I think their names were Graham Ketchum and Carmine Noir. Something like that."

Red let out a sigh. "You had me going there."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm from Pallet Town. Mr. Ketchum disappeared when I was young, so never really got to know him, but I have met Mr. Noir. There's no way a lazy, unmotivated guy like him would be able to do something like that."

"You… what?" Bill was astonished by this revelation, but quickly recomposed himself. "I'm not making this up. I should still have an old news recording from when it happened."

* * *

"I am going to go with you." Bulbasaur, Charmander were both shocked by Squirtle's statement.

"What?"

"You have defeated me in battle and proven that I am not worthy of leading the Squirtle Squad."
The moment the words left Squirtle's mouth, the members of the Squad instantly started trying to convince him that he was wrong and that they would follow him no matter what, but he raised a hand to silence them.

"I know you will. But I cannot face myself and consider myself worthy of being your leader knowing I am not the best. It is for that reason that I shall travel with my superior until I can defeat him in a rematch. If that is alright with you." He turned back to Bulbasaur, who nodded. Squirtle put his hand on the shoulder of one of his followers. "I will leave you in charge until I return. And make no mistake, I will return and I will be stronger than ever!"

* * *

"This is Mary reporting in from the Gold N. Rod Corporation's annual beach fundraiser here at the Olivine Beach. Things are going great here and…"

The reporter stopped talking when everyone in the crowd behind her started screaming and running away. She turned around to see what was going on as the camera focused on a large, dark object in the background. The object crashed into the opposite end of the beach and stood up tall. The mighty black Tyranitar, standing at roughly 26 feet tall, gave a mighty roar and fired powerful Hyper Beam into the air. The massive energy beam seemed pure black, with a dark blue-purple corona.

"Oh, Arceus." Mary whispered before turning back to the camera while listening to a voice in her earbud telling her what was going on and she started talking, her voice reflecting the pure terror she felt at that moment. "This just in: a massive black Tyranitar is attacking the Olivine coast. Reports say that the Pokémon first appeared in the area around Cianwood and it… it jumped across the ocean to get here. An evacuation of Olivine City has already begun."

The Tyranitar let out another Hyper Beam, this one aimed along the beach. The attack hit miles away from Mary and the cameraman, but they were still knocked back several yards by the force of the blow. As they stood back up to run away, twin blasts of fire and water struck the Tyranitar and two teenagers ran up, accompanied by a Typhlosion and a Feraligatr.

"Are we on TV?" Asked one of the teenagers, who had black hair and gray eyes, who looked like an older Ash. "Hi, mom!"

"Graham, be serious." The other said. He had shoulder length red hair and brown eyes.

"Oh, come on, Carmine. How often do we get to be on TV?"

"Don't 'come on' me. We need to stop that thing."

The two ran off towards the Typhlosion, leaving Mary looking blankly at them before turning back to the camera.

"It would appear that two Pokémon Trainers are attempting to subdue the beast in a battle. Will they be able too-"

The newsfeed cut off as the Tyranitar deflected a blow straight towards the camera.

Red sat in stunned silence. Yellow also sat in silence, though not particularly stunned.

"I told you." Bill said, turning off the monitor that he had just played the recording from the Tyranitar attack on.

"That did look like Carmine." Red finally spoke. "I guess I don't really know him that well, but I still didn't expect him to be capable of something like that."

"Although we really didn't see him do anything." Yellow added. "It ended just as the battle was starting."

"I've decided to look into these strange occurrences. I want to find out what makes these Pokémon so different than normal. Although I've probably taken enough of your time already." Bill grabbed some small pieces of paper from his desk and handed them to Red and Yellow. "Thanks for listening to my story. It's nice to actually talk about this stuff with other people. Take these, they're tickets to the S.S. Anne."

"What's that?" Yellow asked.

"It's a famous cruise ship. There's a party being held on it in a few days, leaving from the Vermilion Harbor. I was planning to go there with a friend of mine, but I'm stuck here for a while due to the damage to the lighthouse and my friend said she was busy with something."

"And what would that be?" Yellow pressed the subject.

"I don't know. Do you want the tickets or not?"

Red grabbed the tickets from Bill's hand. "We'll take them, thank you."

* * *

Daisy had to take a moment for her eyes to adjust when she finally reached the southern exit of the Underground Tunnel. The midday sunlight was far brighter than the dim lighting in the tunnel, and nearly blinded her when she stepped out of the cave.

"Well that felt like forever." She said to herself. "I can't wait until I get a Pokémon that I can use to fly around instead of walking through caves and tunnels."

Kanto Route 6 was little more than a grassy field surrounded by trees, with a large pond near the center. Daisy walked up to the pond, took her shoes and socks off and dipped her feet into the cool, refreshing water.

"Oh, that feels so good. I feel like I've been walking for ages."

She lay back on the ground and rested until she felt something nibble at her toes. With a shriek she pulled her feet out of the water, with a small, round Pokémon still clinging on with its toothless mouth.
Daisy decided she might as well put this Pokémon to use and grabbed an empty Pokéball from her bag. After successfully catching the Pokémon, she checked its information in her Pokédex.

"Poliwag, huh. Well, I suppose having a water type in my team should be good. Looks like you're kind of small for your species, but whatever."

* * *

Red and Yellow headed out after receiving the S.S. Tickets from Bill. After walking a few minutes back to Cerulean, Red suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" A concerned Yellow asked him.

"I just remembered that I was supposed to call Misty and let her know you're alright. Apart from the amnesia. I don't know why I keep forgetting that."

"A dramatic sense of irony?" Yellow suggested.

"We can get to Cerulean faster if we use your Abra's Teleport."

"You can Teleport?" Yellow asked in amazement as she held out Abraham's Pokéball in front of her face. "That's so cool! You've got to be the best Pokémon ever. No offence, Maggie."

Yellow called out her Psychic-type Pokémon and both she and Yellow grabbed on to its arms.

"Can you take us back to Cerulean City?" She asked Abraham, before turning to Red. "Wait, how can Abraham take us there if-" Her question was cut short as she suddenly realized they were already standing in front of the Cerulean Pokémon Center.

Red noticed the confused look on Yellow's face and explained what happened to her. "Abra have Psychic abilities that allow them to read locations from their trainers mind to teleport them there."

"Does that mean you can take me to wherever my home is?" She asked the Pokémon. Abra only shook his head in response, before nodding off back to sleep.

"What do you think that meant?" She asked.

"I don't know. Let's go call Misty."

Yellow recalled Abraham and then she and Red headed inside the Pokémon Center, where they found a public video phone and Red entered in the number on the back of the card Misty had given him back in Viridian. After he entered the number into the large green box, its screen lit up and Misty's face came into view.

"Hello?" The red-haired gym leader asked.

"Hi, this is Red. We met back on Route 1 a while back."

"Oh, hi Red. What's up? Is the girl alright."

"I'm fine!" Yellow said cheerily at the screen.

"She can't hear you unless you talk into this." Red told her as he handed her the telephone.

"Thank you for rescuing me." She said into the phone this time.

"It's good to see you're alright. I'm Misty."

"My name's Yellow. Maybe."

"What?" Misty looked at the girl in confusion.

"It's a long story."

* * *

Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle went on their way in no direction in particular in the loose hope of finding any clues as to where Damian was.

"So why are we looking for this guy?" Squirtle asked.

"Because he's in danger and I need to rescue him." Was Charmander's answer.

"From what you've said it sounds like he just abandoned you."

"No! He wouldn't do that. I know he wouldn't." Charmander's voice faltered increasingly as he spoke. "He wouldn't abandon me."

"Fine, whatever."

As the three Pokémon continued their journey, they crossed paths with a large woman in a gaudy purple fur coat and hat.

"What do you think she's doing out here?" Squirtle wondered aloud.

"I don't really care." Answered Bulbasaur.

"She looks like a city human." Squirtle continued as the woman walked by them. "Not the kind you see in areas like this, out in the middle of nowhere."

"That is none of your business." The woman said.

All three Pokémon turned back to the woman, who suddenly went stiff. The woman slowly turned around to face them.

"Forget that you ever saw me." The woman told them nervously, and in a sudden flash of movement the woman was gone.

"What… just… happened?" Squirtle asked.

"Let's just pretend none of that just happened and move on." Advised Bulbasaur.

* * *

Ash sat at an otherwise empty table outside the Vermilion Pallet House, looking up at the sunset, with Pikachu resting on the table. Brock had decided to go to bed early, Carmine was taking one of his walks and Misty had to take a call on her PokéGear, leaving the young trainer alone with his Pokémon.

"It's a beautiful evening." Ash said to Pikachu, though really more to himself. "I wonder what the others are up to. I'm starting to miss the good old days when we were younger. When we were kids, Daisy would take charge of our little group and we'd all follow her into all kinds of mischief. Over time she mellowed out and Gary took over that position. Red and I would just kind of get stuck in the middle of their sibling rivalry sometimes" He stared back off into the sunset. "I miss Pallet Town."

"Everyone gets homesick." Misty said as she walked up to him, carrying a drink in each hand. She sat down in the seat opposite Ash and handed one of them to him.

"What's this?" Ash asked as he took the drink.

"It's a Tropius Shake. I went to get one for myself and thought I'd be nice."

Ash took a sip from the cool fruity beverage. The taste was unfamiliar to him, but he enjoyed it. "That seems unusual for you." He snidely remarked.

"Ha, ha." Misty said dryly. "I was just in a good mood. That's all."

"What was your phone call about?" Ash asked the red-head inquisitively.

"Oh, nothing you'd care about."

They both took a moment of silence to drink and watch the sun as it finished its descent down the horizon, the golden-orange light fading from view.

"So, what are your plans for tomorrow? Or should I say our plans?" Misty asked the aspiring young trainer.

"I'm going to challenge the gym here and earn my second Badge. Then probably head out to Saffron."

"Do you think about anything other than Pokémon?" Misty asked the boy with a small chuckle.

"You don't have to come with me if you don't want to." Ash told her.

"You still owe me a bike. And at the rate you're going, I wouldn't really get home any faster anyway, so I might as well enjoy the company."

Ash and Misty continued their conversation, full of quips and minor insults at each other, for several hours. They completely lost track of the time until Carmine came back and, somewhat hypocritically, berated Ash for staying up so late.

"This is bad. This is really bad." Thought a lone Pikachu jumping from tree to tree in an attempt to get to Cerulean City as fast as possible. "There's no way I can keep track of her if she has an Abra that can teleport anywhere. And what happens if she tries to go back home. 'He' would find her in an instant. I guess I have no choice but to face her. It's the only way I can protect her now."

* * *

Ash walked into the Vermilion City Gym with confidence in his stride. The others trailed behind him. The interior of the Vermilion Gym seemed rather plain at first, but something seemed off about the lighting, it seemed to randomly get brighter and darker at a chaotic speed. Ash looked up to see what was going on and was shocked by what he saw.

The floor was covered in orange-yellow tiles and the walls were plated in some kind of dark metal, which seemed normal enough. But the ceiling had large tesla-coil like pylon jutting down from it, with bolts of blue lightning flying between them seemingly at random.

"What…" Ash started to ask.

"Hey, kid! What do you think you're doing here?" A large blonde man in military camouflage walked up to Ash.

"I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader!" Ash answered defiantly.

"Now that's a shocker. What makes you think you can take me on?"

"I can take on anyone! I've already earned the Boulder Badge and I'm ready for another."

"Fine, kid. But you won't last long in combat." The man walked over to the other end of the battle field, clapped his hands, and suddenly the lighting turned to normal. "I'm Lieutenant Surge and I accept your challenge." The man pulled out a Pokéball and threw it out over the field, the red light coming from it revealing a Pikachu.

Ash looked down at the Pokéball in his hand. This was to be his Sandshrew's big moment. Electric-type moves wouldn't be able to affect a Ground-type like Sandshrew, as he learned back in Pewter. But then he looked over to the Pikachu standing before him and up to the one resting on his shoulder.

"Are you going to send out your Pokémon or just stand there?" Surge called out to him.

Ash let out a sign and lowered the Pokéball back to his belt. "Sorry Sandshrew." He muttered. "But I just can't resist the challenge. Pikachu! I choose you!"

Ash stretched his arm out forward and Pikachu ran along it, jumping off his wrist, doing a double summersault and sticking a three-point landing in front of Surge's Pikachu. Despite being the same species, it was clear that the two Pikachu were very different. Surge's stood several inches taller than Ash's Pikachu and had a lot more muscle to it.

"Then let the battle begin!" Lt. Surge called out. "Pikachu, Thunder Punch!"

Surge's Pikachu slammed an electrified fist straight into Ash's Pikachu's cheek, sending the Mouse Pokémon spinning back and landing hard onto the ground.

"Don't let him treat you like that, Pikachu!" Ash cried out to his Pokémon. "Give him a Quick Attack!"

In a split second Ash's Pikachu suddenly moved with speed far beyond what it should be capable of, dodging another Thunder Punch and tackling his opponent from behind. Surge's Pikachu retaliated with an Iron Tail, smashing Ash's Pikachu across the room into a wall. Rather than slamming into the wall, however, Pikachu was able to jump off of it, gaining momentum to hit his opponent right in the face with a Brick Break. Surge's Pikachu let out a Growl, which caught Ash's Pikachu off guard and prevented him from guarding against a Tackle.

"Come on, Pikachu! You can do it, I believe in you!"

Ash's Pikachu felt reenergized by his master's words of confidence and got back up. He stared his opponent in the eyes, before enveloping himself in electricity and charging into Surge's Pikachu with a powerful Volt Tackle. The force of the blow sent Surge's Pikachu flying into a wall. He tried to bounce off of it like Ash's Pikachu had done earlier, but just as he was about to do so, Ash's Pikachu hit him with a Thunder Bolt. The attack didn't do much damage on its own, but it distracted him just long enough to crash into the wall. When Surge's Pikachu fell to the ground, he struggled to get back up, but collapsed due to the strain.

"I didn't see that coming." Surge said as he recalled his Pikachu into its Pokéball and walked over to Ash. You've definitely earned this Thunder Badge."

Ash happily took the badge from the Gym Leader and held it high. Pikachu leapt back onto his shoulder and the two looked up in pride. They then realized that was a mistake as the electricity surging up above resumed.

"Quit that already!" Surge yelled up at the ceiling. The electricity stopped again and then suddenly struck down next to where Surge was standing. "What have I told you about messing with the power grid, Rotom?"

The ghostly ball of electricity made a buzzing noise before slowly drifting away.

"What was that?" Ash asked in amazement.

"Just a disobedient Pokémon. By the way, I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"How would you feel about trading that Pikachu of yours to me for one of mine?"

"What? No!" Ash was taken aback by the request.

"That's what I thought. I've been trying to get my hands on Pikachu that knows Volt Tackle for a while, but they're rare and hard to find."

"I'm not giving away my Pikachu." Insisted Ash.

"I understand. How about you just borrow one of mine instead?" Surge pulled a Quick Ball off from his belt and held it out. "See if you can teach her how to use the move."

Ash wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I'll make it worth your while. She's holding a Light Ball that I'll let you keep. It powers up a Pikachu's moves. I can also look into getting you some tickets for the S.S. Anne; the captain's an old friend of mine."

"Take the deal, Ash!" Misty yelled from the side of the room when she heard that last part.

"Okay, I guess…" Ash relented at last.

"Great! I got Volty here from a friend in Kallos. I expect you to give her back to me when she learns Volt Tackle." Surge handed Sparky's Quick Ball to a reluctant Ash, while a sly smile crossed over his face. "Or, you know, something along those lines."

* * *

Gary and his cheerleaders were making their way south on the Route 17 highway, but the traffic was so bad that Mal turned off at the first exit they could take instead of going all the way to Fuchsia like they had planned. The exit took them to a small, dingy town with only a few buildings that looked about as different from Celadon as night and day.

"What is this place?" Garry wondered aloud.

"I think this is…" Ali started to answer but trailed of. "I don't know."

"Mossgreen Village." Answered Cleo.

"I've never been here before." Kat remarked.

"Hey!" A young woman picking herbs from off the side of the road stopped what she was doing and called out to them. She had dark green hair wrapped up in buns on either side of her head and light brown eyes. "Are you looking for the Gym?"

"There's a Gym here?" Gary questioned.

"Sure there is. It just opened about a year or two ago." The woman placed the herbs she had been picking into a back labeled 'Mossgreen Medicine' as she spoke.

"Then where is it?"

"Come on, I'll take you." She stood up and motioned for them to follow her.

* * *

After seeing Ash and his traveling companions out, Lieutenant Surge returned to his Gym, where Rotom was waiting inside of a small computer terminal. The plasma Pokémon used its control over the computer to type words on the screen.

-What are you doing? You know that Volt Tackle can't be learned.-

"I know." Surge acknowledged. "During the battle, I could tell that the kid had a knack for bringing out the potential in his Pokémon. That kind of skill could come in handy for Pokémon breeding, but a kid like him wouldn't be open to that idea. So, I gave him Volty so that hopefully she and his Pikachu can get together, maybe have a couple Pichu."

-But what if that doesn't happen.-

"It doesn't really matter. Volty never liked it here and she was too fickle to use as a breeder. So at least she can hopefully be a bit happier out traveling. I'd honestly be a little surprised if she did pick that Pikachu as a mate."

-It sounds like you don't expect to get anything from this. That seems unlike you.-

"You know Pokémon breeding is a passion of mine. I want to start sharing that with others. Even if nothing happens now, I can try and more directly introduce him to the idea when he's more open to it. I just have a gut feeling he'd be a natural at it."

-On an unrelated note, when are you finally going to start using me in battle?-

"You know I can only use Pokémon native to the region for Gym Battles."

-I still had to ask.-

"Well, this is it." The green haired girl gestured towards the Mossgreen Town Gym.

"Are you sure this is a Gym?" Gary asked, a little mockingly.

"Of course I'm sure."

Gary followed the girl inside, with his cheerleader's following him. The interior of the building was covered in moss and vines, with a Beedrill hive visible in one corner.

"Yeah, there's no way this is a Gym." Gary turned to leave.

"Of course it is! What did you expect a Bug-type Gym to look like?" The girl countered.

"If this is a Gym, then where's the Gym Leader?"

"I'm standing right here." Cassandra looked indignant as she spoke. "My name's Cassandra and I hold the proud honor of being Kanto's newest Gym Leader."

"Well, then." Gary tried to hide his surprise at this revelation. "I challenge you to a battle. I've already got three badges."

"Okay then. This will be a one-on-one battle with three Pokémon each."

"Wait, what?" Gary was a little taken aback by that. "But all of my Gym battles so far were only one Pokémon on each side."

"That's because you didn't have enough badges yet." Cassandra explained. "In order to keep Gym battles fair for trainers, the rules change according to how many Badges the trainer has. Less than three means a one vs. one, and the Gym Leader can only use a basic-level Pokémon. Three to four badges is a three vs. three battle and five to seven badges is a six vs. six battle. If you already have eight badges you can continue challenging more gyms in free-for-all battles where the Gym Leaders no longer have to follow the normal Gym regulations."

"I can challenge more than just eight?" Gary asked, a smirk crossing his face.

"Yeah." Kat chimed in. "I've got nine. Plus your progress carries over between Leagues so you can continue earning Badges in other regions as well."

"I'll have to keep that in mind. Now, "Gary turned back to Cassandra, "let's start that battle."

* * *

Red and Yellow traveled through the Underground Tunnel running between Cerulean and Viridian.

"Can't we just teleport there?" Yellow whined.

"I already told you; Abra have to visualize where they're going. That means they have to have been there themselves or use their telepathic abilities to see the area through their owners memories. Since neither of us have been to Viridian and it doesn't look like Abraham's been there either, we have to walk."

"But can't we just have Abraham teleport us over there," she pointed forward, "as far as we can see. Then teleport again, and again, until we reach the end of the path?"

The two stopped walking as Red considered her idea. He looked down to the sleeping Pokémon clutched tightly in Yellow's arms.

"I guess we could give it a try. It's not like we'd be missing out on anything down here."

* * *

Gary sent out his Pidgeotto to battle Cassandra's first Pokémon: Butterfree. The two flying Pokémon fluttered around in the air before their trainers gave them the order to attack.

"Pidgeotto! Use Gust!" The Bird Pokémon flapped its wings hard to create a bellow of wind that launched straight for the opposing Butterfree, knocking the Butterfly Pokémon down to the ground. Pidgeotto followed up with a Quick Attack, dive-bombing its opponent before the Butterfree had a chance to get up.

Butterfree countered with a wave of Confusion. The purple energy blast knocked Pidgeotto away and gave Butterfree a chance to recompose itself. Pidgeotto launched two rounds of Gust, Butterfree was able to dodge the first blast of air with ease, but in doing so flew straight into the second. Pidgeotto followed the assault up with another Quick Attack, knocking Butterfree to the ground again. This time, Butterfree was unable to get back up again, so Cassandra swapped her out for Beedrill.

Beedrill opened up with a Swords Dance, using the elegant gyrating movements to hone its attack power. Gary saw this as an opening and ordered his Pidgeotto to use Sand-Attack. The Bird Pokémon swooped down and launched a blast of dirt into Beedrill's eyes. The Poison Bee Pokémon tried to jab Pidgeoto with a Venoshock, but missed because it could no longer see clearly.

Pidgeotto launched a Gust attack at Beedrill, who was knocked to the ground like Butterfree had been. Pidgeotto tried to follow up the attack with a Quick Attack like he had done with Butterfree, but Beedrill wasn't one to open itself to an easy attack. Beedrill thrust one of his arm-stingers strait up in a Venoshock attack, which Pidgeotto flew right into. Pidgeotto found itself Poisoned from the attack. Beedrill followed up with another Venoshock. Pidgeotto was barely able to muster up enough strength to hit Beedrill with another Gust, and both Pokémon collapsed to the ground.

Gary called out his male Nidoran as Cassandra sent out her last Pokémon, Parasect. Parasect immediately struck Nidoran with a Cross Poison, but fortunately for Gary, the attack didn't do much against the Poison-Type Nidoran. Nidoran charged the Parasect with his horn in a Peck attack. Parasect was sent reeling back from the super effective move, but quickly regained itself and launched a Stun Spore at Nidoran. The spore cased Nidoran to freeze up as it hit, allowing Parasect to come in close to Slash at the Poison Pin Pokémon with its large pincers.

Nidoran then stuck its opponent with a Horn Attack, knocking the Mushroom Pokémon off its legs and opening it up for a couple Peck attacks before Parasect was able to get back up. At this point Parasect was showing signs of fatigue and tried a last ditch effort to defeat its opponent with another Slash, but Nidoran evaded the hit and finished the battle with another Peck.

Nidoran began to glow a brilliant white as Cassandra walked over to Gary. By the time the Gym Leader reached the aspiring trainer, the Pokémon had evolved into a Nidorino.

"Good job." Cassandra told Gary. "Here's your Mushroom Badge."

"Nice!" Gary said as he grabbed the red fungus-shaped badge from her hand. "Another badge and an evolution! Could this get any better?"

"Don't be too confident." Cassandra said. "I'm probably the weakest Gym Leader in Kanto. The only reason I even took this job was to help bring in more business for my grandma's medicine shop."

"Do I look like I care? A win's a win. Now, off too…" Gary trailed off.

"If you follow the road through town you'll eventually get to Viridian." Cassandra politely informed him.

"Off to Viridian!"

* * *

Daisy finally made her way to Viridian City after what felt like days of walking since she left Cerulean. It probably had been days, but it was hard to tell when so much of her trip had been underground. She was just walking up to the Pokémon Center when two familiar figures suddenly popped up in front of her, seemingly out of nowhere.

"That worked even better than I thought it would. Good idea, Yellow." Red said to his young companion.

"Red? Yellow?" Daisy muttered in surprise.

"Oh, hey Daisy. What a coincidence." Red said as he noticed his old friend.

"Hi!" Yellow said cheerfully.

"It seems like we just keep running into each other." Daisy tried to downplay her surprise at the two's sudden appearance. "By the way, is your offer to go with you still open?"

"Of course it is."

"Thanks. Going alone just gets kind of boring after a while."

"Although…" Red continued, "There is a bit of a problem with that. We were going to go on the S.S. Anne, but we only have two tickets."

"I'll figure something out."

* * *

Tensions seemed high in Team Rocket's conference room. At one end of the long table sat Giovanni, stroking the Persion laying by his side. At the other end, Hunter J sat stroking a Zorua resting in her lap and smirking brazenly. Jessie, James, Meowth, Attila, Hun, Annie and Oakley all sat between them, glancing back and forth between the two.

"Ahem." Giovanni cleared his throat. "According to Executive Archer, you have all passed his training and proven yourselves to be the best Team Rocket has to offer now. Although I trust Archer's word, I will need proof of that, which is why you are here."

Giovanni picked up a small remote that had been lying on the table in front of him and clicked a button on the remote. Suddenly the table lit up with the schematics of a luxury cruise ship.

"This is the S.S. Anne. In a few days this ship will leave from the Vermillion Harbor. Its passengers will consist of the richest men and women in the country and some of the strongest trainers. Your mission is to steel every Pokémon on that ship before it reaches its destination."

Attila scoffed at that. "And here I thought you were going to give us something hard to do."

"Oh, it will be difficult." Giovanni countered. "We're going to leak information about this mission to the International Police through Domino. They will know you will be there and they will try to stop you. Your test is to pull of the mission successfully despite that."

An uneasy silence filled the room. Everyone in Team Rocket had heard the name Domino, it was the codename for Team Rocket's infiltrator within the International Police. However, Domino was so highly confidential that most in the Team thought that he or she was nothing more than rumor. For Giovanni to mention Domino so casually was a sign of how much he trusted them now.

"Hunter J will be accompanying you for this mission to help you deal with any unforeseen issues. Are there any questions?" Giovanni looked around the room expectantly, but no one spoke up. "No? Then what are you still doing here? Get ready."

As Ash and his group began their trek up north up to Cerulean, Ash decided to check out his new Pokémon. He held out the Quick Ball and pressed the front button. A beam of yellow energy shot out from the device, as opposed to the red energy of a standard Pokéball, and the Pikachu materialized on the ground in front of Ash.

Volty looked almost identical to the Pikachu Ash already had. The only significant difference being that the tip of her tail was rounded and had a small divot in it that made her tail look almost heart-shaped. A characteristic of all female Pikachu. The Pikachu resting on Ash's shoulder jumped down to the ground to greet the new Pikachu. The two sniffed at each other for a moment, then batted their tails together, sending out sparks as they made contact.

"You know Pikachu…" Ash started to say. "Things may get kind of confusing to keep calling you Pikachu if I have two of you around now. I think you need a nickname."

The yellow mouse Pokémon looked up at his trainer and gave a lively "Pika!"

"Pika it is, then." He held out his arms towards the two Pikachu. "Come on! I've got shoulders for both of you!"

Pika and Volty both jumped up his arms and climbed up onto Ash's shoulders, where they rested beside each other.

"You know, you're probably going to kill your neck that way." Commented Carmine.

"Why do you have to take the fun out of everything?"

"Because it's kind of my job." Carmine gave a small smirk. "I also find it mildly funny, and I need all the amusement I can when watching over you."

"You're kind of a jerk." Misty pointed out.

"I know I am."

* * *

Red and Yellow walked up to the entrance of the Vermilion Gym while Daisy went off to try and get an S.S. Ticket. They stepped inside the large building and Red approached the battlefield while Yellow walked up to the sideline bleachers to watch the battle.

"I challenge you to a Gym Battle!" Red shouted to Lt. Surge from across the floor.

"I accept your challenge. Let's see…" The Gym Leader looked down to a device in his hand. "It says here in your record you have two badges so far. That means this will be a one-on-one battle."

Red called out his Charmeleon while Surge sent out his Pikachu. The two Pokémon faced each other while their trainers called out their first commands.

Charmeleon and Pikachu leapt towards each other with a Metal Claw and a Thunder Punch, respectively. The two Pokémon each struck the other in the face with their attacks and glared at each other from behind each other's fists. The two then jumped away from each other to prepare for their next attacks. Charmeleon spit out an Ember at the Pikachu, who dodged the attack and countered with a Thundershock. The Electric attack struck Charmeleon and Paralyzed him. Pikachu took this opportunity to hit Charmeleon with an Iron Tail, smashing him into the ground. Charmeleon was able to let out another Ember, which struck the Pikachu this time and gave him a Burn.

With both Pokémon severally weakened at this point, it was anyone's guess who would win. Red had Charmeleon fire another Ember, which Pikachu dodged again and hit Charmeleon with another Thunder Punch. This was Red's plan however, and now that Pikachu was in range, he ordered his Charmeleon to use Scratch on the opposing Pokémon's legs. Pikachu was knocked down by the attack, allowing Charmeleon to defeat it with another Ember.

"Good match." Said Lt. Surge as he walked up to Red. "You've earned this Thunder Badge."

Red took the badge gratefully, but then Surge continued speaking.

"Where did your Charmander learn Metal Claw? That's not a normal move for a Charmander to have."

"I don't know." Red answered honestly. "I noticed he had the move back when I fought Brock, but I don't know where he learned it from."

"Oh well. It's probably not important." Surge's words suggested he didn't care, but something about his mannerisms suggested to Red that he was still interested.

* * *

While Red was challenging the Viridian Gym, Daisy was waiting in line at the Viridian Harbor for what felt like at least an hour. Finally, she managed to make her way to the stand where tickets were being sold to board the various passenger boats and cruise ships that leave from the harbor.

"Hello, I'd like one ticket for the S.S. Anne please." She told the attendant.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid tickets for the S.S. Anne are available only through invitation. You can't actually buy them here."

Daisy was disappointed and felt like she had just wasted all of that time spent waiting in line, but then she remembered something. Walking away so that those behind her could buy their tickets, she pulled a Pokégear out of the bag slung over her shoulder and used it to make a call.

"Hi, Dad. Can I get a favor from you?"

* * *

"So where did you say you were from again?" Brock asked Carmine as they, Ash and Misty walked along the Underground Tunnel on their way to Cerulean.

"I'm from Cianwood City in Johto. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. I just feel like I should get to know you better since we're traveling together."

"We're also traveling with Misty and the kid."

"I already know Misty fairly well as a fellow Gym Leader and Ash is pretty open about himself. But you seem to keep to yourself a lot."

"I've had a hard life that I don't feel like discussing at the moment. I left home when I has about Ash's age, I met Ash's dad and we became rivals and eventually friends and I was pressured into joining Team Rocket but eventually turned against them and moved to Pallet Town. That's all you need to know at this point."

"What do you mean when you say you were pressured into joining Team Rocket? Did someone make you join?"

Carmine ignored Brock's question and continued walking. Meanwhile, Ash and Misty were trailing behind the others while watching Volty's behavior.

"She sure is friendly." Misty commented as she stroked Volty's chin. Small sparks came from the rodent's cheeks and she made a small squeak of joy.

"Yeah, not like Pika here." Ash immediately regretted that remark as Pika gave him a small shock. "That was just a joke. Sheesh."

Misty let out a small giggle, to which Ash shot her a dirty look. Then that look faded into a different one as something donned on him.

"I just remembered something." Ash said as he plunged his hand into one of his pockets. "Back when I was talking to the Pokémon Fan Club President back in Viridian, he gave me this." The trainer fished a small piece from the pocket and handed it to Misty.

"What's this?" She asked as she took the piece of paper from his hand. Her eyes went wide when she took a good look at it. "A bike voucher?"

"He said it was worth any bike at the Miracle Cycle shop in Cerulean. I figure that should be sufficient payment for your damaged bike." Ash explained with a smile.

"Yeah…" Misty trailed off. "I guess it does. Which means I don't… I won't have a reason to continue to travel with you after we get there."

"Yeah. But that's what you want, right? After all, you've made it clear you don't like me and you've been almost nothing but mean to me this entire trip."

"But what about back in Vermilion? When we had that long talk over fruit shakes?"

The two gazed into each other's eyes for a moment then turned away in embarrassment.

"Okay, I guess you have a point there. You were nice to me then. But still, I thought you wanted to go home and stop traveling with me?"

"I, I guess I do. I just didn't realize you'd be able to pay me back so soon. I was expecting this to go on a little longer." Misty turned away again to hide the fact she was starting to blush.

The whole group walked in silence for the rest of the trip through the tunnel.

"Here we are, Cerulean City." Misty announced halfheartedly to the rest of the group as they reached the outskirts of the city. "The floral lagoon city and town of bursting water, my home town."

"I guess this marks goodbye, then." Ash said to her, a little sadness present in his voice.

"I'll go ahead and stick with you until you get to the Gym."

"Alright then," Ash pointed off into the distance. "Off to the Cerulean Gym we go!"

Misty pushed his arm a few inches to the right so that he pointed to the opposite end of town.

"It's that way."

The two marched off towards the Gym, but Carmine and Brock stayed behind for a moment.

"What do you think that was about?" Brock asked the older trainer.

"It looks like they've grown attached to each other." Carmine answered. "And the bonds formed on a Pokémon Journey are not easily broken. That's something I've learned from experience."

Carmine started walking after Ash and Misty, leaving Brock to catch up to them.

* * *

Gary and his cheerleaders were riding on their way to Vermilion when Gary received a call on his Pokégear. He answered the call and the girls all sat in silence as they waited for the call to be over. Finally, Gary pulled the device away from his ear and put it back away in his pocket.

"What was that about?" One of the girls asked him.

"It was my dad." Gary answered. "He said that he just got a bunch of tickets to the S.S. Anne and decided to send some of them to us."

The girls were all ecstatic with that news. The S.S. Anne was known far and wide as the biggest and most luxurious cruise liner in the country and actually getting on it was considered nearly impossible by most.

"He said we're supposed to pick up the tickets at the Vermilion Pokémon Center and that the ship leaves tomorrow."

* * *

When they reached the Cerulean Gym, Ash went straight to the pool in the center of the room, while Carmine and Brock sat on the bleachers to the sides and Misty walked around to the other side.

"Where's the Gym Leader?" Ash asked.

"There are four Gym Leaders here." Explained Misty as she reached the opposite end of the pool. "And I happen to be one of them."

Ash was caught off guard by this statement at first. But then he thought back and realized that there were signs leading up to it.

"I guess that would be why Brock knows you."

"Yep. We tend to hang out at Gym Leader meetings since we signed up for our positions around the same time."

"Well then. Misty, I challenge you to a Gym Battle!"

Misty held out a Pokéball that she had already pulled out of the console she was standing next to.

"I accept your challenge, Ash. But be warned, I may be the youngest of the four sisters that run this Gym, but I'm also the strongest."

"If you're the youngest, then shouldn't that make you the weakest?" Ash asked.

"No, why would you even think that? First off, I'm the only one who actually puts any effort in training and actually trying to do my job. And even if that wasn't the case, being younger wouldn't automatically make me weaker."

It was obvious that Ash had unwittingly hit a sore spot for Misty.

"I was just trying to make a joke. I didn't mean for you to take it personally." Ash held out his arm towards Misty. "Now, let's get this started! Pika, I choose you!"

Ash's first Pokémon ran along his arm and jumped off of it to the edge of the pool. Pika had a look of determination as he readied himself for the fight.

"Go, Staryu!" Misty threw the Pokéball out over the pool and a brown, star-shaped Pokémon with a red gem in its center came forth from it and hovered in the air above the water. "Let the battle begin!"

Pika launched a Thundershock at Staryu, who dodged the attack and flew around the room. The Water-type was spinning around so fast as it moves that it now looked more like a disk than a star. Pika kept trying to hit its opponent with Thundershock, but Staryu was able to dodge every blow with ease.
Staryu was able to make its way around Pikachu and Tackled it from behind, knocking the Mouse Pokémon into the pool. Pikachu splashed around helplessly as Staryu went in for another Tackle. The star-shaped Pokémon rammed itself against Pikachu and they both went deep into the water. That was a mistake.

"Pika!" Ash yelled. "Now's your chance! Volt Tackle!"

Pika could not actually here his master's voice from below the water, but still knew what to do. The Electric rodent shot straight out of the water and high into the air while engulfed in electricity. The electricity spread throughout the water and zapped Staryu as Pikachu landed safely on the ground.

"It looks like this battle is over." Ash said smugly.

"Don't be so sure of that. Staryu! Recover!"

Misty's Pokémon lifted itself weakly out of the water and began to glow for a second. When the glow faded, Staryu appeared to be fine, as if it hadn't even started the battle yet.

"Okay…" Ash said weakly. "I didn't expect that."

"As long as Staryu still has any energy left, it can Recover from anything you can do to it!"

"Then I guess that means I'll just have to make sure your Staryu doesn't have any energy left!" Ash grabbed the brim of his cap and turned it backwards on his head. "Pika, new plan: don't let up until Staryu's down!"

The Mouse Pokémon nodded at Ash and used a Quick Attack to knock himself into his opponent and the two fell back into the pool again. Pikachu then let out five blasts of Thundershock that spread throughout the pool, each hit doing massive damage to Staryu. Staryu tried to flee the pool into the safety of the air to use recover again, but before it could heal itself, Pikachu jumped out of the water with a Quick Attack and knocked Staryu back into the water with a Brick Break, before charging back into the water with a Volt Tackle.

Pikachu jumped out of the pool again to stand before Ash. The two were just about to celebrate their victory when Staryu rose out of the water again, and then collapsed in from Misty.

"Wow!" was all Misty could say at first. "I guess you win."

The young Gym Leader walked around the pool, over to Ash.

"Here's your Cascade Badge. I'm still shocked you were able to beat Staryu so quickly though."

Ash grinned. "I don't think you were quite as 'shocked' as Staryu though."

Misty glared at Ash for a second. "Oh, just take the badge and leave already. I also wanted to give you this." She handed him a Pokéball.

"You're giving me a Pokémon?"

"It's a Krabby that I caught while fishing on Route 1 just before… well, it was shortly before we met. I already have a Krabby in my collection and I was just going to trade it away for something else, but I figured you could use a Water Pokémon in your team."

"I guess this means goodbye then." Ash said as he took the Pokéball from her.

"I'm sure we'll meet again."

The two looked at each other before Ash turned to leave, Carmine and Brock following after him. Misty slowly walked back over to her Staryu and returned the fainted Pokémon to its Pokéball. She put the Pokéball back into the console that, in addition to storing Gym Pokémon, also worked like one of the Pokémon healing machines found in Pokémon Centers. She then noticed something odd.

"Misty? When'd you get back?" A familiar voice sounded from the entrance of the Gym.

"Hi, Daisy." Misty turned to greet her oldest sister. "I just got here. Why aren't your Pokémon here?"

Daisy blushed as she walked closer to her sister. "Well, you see… that's kind of a long story…"

"Where are your Pokémon?" Misty was becoming deeply concerned with her sister's behavior.

"Well… shortly before you left I met this guy named Bill who runs the lighthouse up north and we really hit it off. He's a big Pokémon fan and being with him, I learned more about Pokémon and started to take more of an interest in them. I decided to start training so that I could do a better job at being a Gym Leader but I've been too embarrassed to let the others know, so I've been doing it in secret."
Daisy spoke so fast that Misty was barely able to process what she said.

"Wait a minute. Did you just say that you're actually going to start taking your Gym Leader responsibilities seriously?"

"Yes." Daisy voice was barely more than a squeak.

Misty pondered that for a moment before speaking again.

"If I leave for a while, would you be willing to take charge of the Gym?"

"That's what we already do."

"I don't mean like what you have been doing. I mean, will you actually take responsibility of the Gym as a full-time Gym Leader?"

Daisy hesitated before answering. "I guess so. Where are you going?"

Misty gave a huge smile. "An adventure."

"Oh no!" The mysterious Pikachu worried to herself. "She's not here. She's already left Cerulean City. How am I supposed to find her if she can be anywhere at any time?"

"I might be able to help with that."

The sound of another's voice started the Pikachu and she shot a bolt of electricity towards its source.

"Wow, that was a close one for me."

The voice came from behind Pikachu now. She turned around to face her visitor.

"Wait a minute…" A sudden realization came to the Pikachu. "I know you. You're her Abra!"

"Guilty as charged." The Psi Pokémon said, or rather thought, to the Pikachu. "My name's Abraham."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, as I know you are already aware, I am a Psychic-type with the ability to read the minds of those around me in order to detect danger. Thanks to those abilities, I know what's going on and how important it is to keep Yellow away from 'him'."

"Yellow?" The Pikachu asked questioningly.

"That's what she goes by now. She doesn't remember her real name."

"So why are you here, anyway? You still haven't told me."

"I was getting to that. I know how important it is to prevent 'him' from finding Yellow, so I'm here to offer you a deal. I'll keep you informed of where she goes and what she does. I'll even teleport you so that you can continue to keep a close eye on her yourself. All I ask in return is that you keep 'him' from ever finding her. But that's already what you're trying to do, so it shouldn't be any problem for you."

"This is a trick."

"No, it's not. I genuinely care for the wellbeing of my new trainer and I do not want any harm to come to her."

The Pikachu eyed Abraham from head to toe, trying to find any sign of deception, but to no avail.

"Fine." She said at last. "But I still don't trust you."

"Of course not. Trust is something that must be earned over time." Abraham agreed. "Or if you can read thoughts and know someone's true intent, but I guess you're not quite developed enough for that."

Pikachu tried to hide her shock from that, not that it mattered. "How much do you know?"

"Everything you do."

* * *

Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle continued on their way in the seemingly hopeless pursuit of Charmander's trainer, Damian. With no leads to go off of and absolutely no idea where they were going, the group eventually wandered up to a Pokémon Center. Squirtle looked up at the sign on the front of the building and read it aloud.

"Rock Tunnel Pokémon Center, Route 10."

Charmander and Bulbasaur both stared at him in amazement.

"You can read human?" Bulbasaur asked.

"Of course I can! I'm sure Charmander here can read too, right?"

"No." Charmander replied.

"Huh, that's odd. Didn't your trainer ever teach you?"

"No." Charmander looked down in embarrassment.

"Are you implying that you had a trainer that taught you?" Bulbasaur asked, intrigued.

Squirtle took a deep breath and pulled out a locket that was tucked into his shell. He opened the locket and showed his companions the picture inside. It showed a young girl with light blue hair and eyes holding a younger Squirtle. The girl in the photo was wearing the same unusual, pointed sunglasses that Squirtle now wore.

"Her name was Samantha, but to me she was Sam. When she was young, she was become stricken with an illness that left her physically weak and unable to interact much with people her own age. Her parents bought me as an egg from a breeder and gave me to her to be her companion. We were happy together for many years, but the illness returned and she passed away. Sam's parents released me into the wild shortly after with only this locket and these shades to remember her by."

Bulbasaur and Charmander both stared at Squirtle in awe and sadness.

"But rather than let grief and sadness take me over," Squirtle continued. "I chose to continue on for both of us! That's what led me to found the Squirtle Squad and it is why I strive to be the best that I can be!"

Charmander and Bulbasaur weren't sure what to say, but then someone walked out of the Pokémon Center, diverting everyone's attention. It was a blue-haired boy that appeared to be in his mid-teens wearing a pink shirt and brown vest.

"Damian!" Charmander yelled excitedly.

Charmander's trainer looked down on him and smirked.

"You remind me of my old Charmander. The gullible idiot's probably still waiting for me to come back to get him, even though I've already replaced him with a whole team of stronger Pokémon." Damian said before starting to walk off.

Charmander felt the whole world melt around him into an endless void of nothing as he heard Damian's words. His trainer had abandoned him. His worst nightmare had come to pass. Charmander was quickly snapped out of his depression and back into the reality around him as Squirtle suddenly hit Damian with a Water Gun.

"Aagh! What was that for?" Damian asked in shock. "You know what, never mind. I'm leaving."

The trainer lifted up a Pokéball, from which a mighty Braviary sprung forth. Damian climbed onto Valiant Pokémon's back and Braviary flew off.

"Well." Bulbasaur said blankly. "Now what?"

* * *

Daisy walked into the Pokémon Center and looked around. She quickly found the person she was waiting for and walked up to a woman wearing a delivery service uniform.

Hello, I'm Teala from Mystery Gift Deliveries." The woman introduced herself. "Can I help you with something?"

"Hi, I'm Daisy Oak. You should have a package for me."

"Oh, yes. It's right here." The woman pulled a sealed envelope from her bag and handed it to Daisy.

"Thank you." Daisy said as she walked away.

Teala continued to wait around in the Pokémon Center for a while, before Gary walked in and approached her.

"You have a package for me." Gary said.

"Do I. What's your name, sir." She asked in response.

"Gary Oak."

The woman reached into her bag and pulled out another envelope, this one much thicker than the one she gave Daisy.

"Here you go, sir."

Gary pulled the envelope from her hand and walked off. "Smell you later!" He said as he gave a sort of half wave back to Teala.

"Interesting." Teala said to herself. "Two Oak's getting similar packages from the same person, who's also an Oak. I wonder what that's about. Oh, well. That was my last delivery here for the day."

* * *

"It's about time you got here." Lt. Surge said as Ash, Carmine and Brock reached the Vermilion Gym. "The S.S. Anne is going to set off in just a few hours. Do you still want four tickets?"

"No." Ash sighed. "We only need three now."

Lt. Surge handed three of the tickets he had to Ash, who took them and was about to leave when suddenly a voice came yelling from over the distance.

"Wait!" A girl was cycling towards the Gym at top speed and made an abrupt stop as she reached them. She was wearing a light blue jacket and denim shorts over a white shirt that, upon further inspection, was actually part of a swimsuit; as well as a blue, triangle-shaped backpack with a single strap that went over one shoulder and under the other. The others almost didn't recognize her at first until she took off her bike helmet to reveal her familiar orange hair.

"Misty!" Ash said excitedly. "What are you doing here?"

"To be able to go on a cruise on the S.S. Anne is like a once-in-lifetime opportunity." Misty answered. "There's no way I'm missing this."

"But what about the Gym?" Brock asked.

"I already took care of that. Now, are we going or not?"

"What's with the new outfit? It looks like you're planning on a longer trip than just the S.S. Anne." It was Carmine's turn to ask Misty something.

"I was on what was just supposed to be a weekend fishing trip when we met before, but stuff came up and I missed my ride back home. Since this isn't a fishing trip, I didn't feel like just wearing my old fishing clothes."

"It's good to have you back." Ash said.

"It's good to be back."

The crowd waiting to get on the S.S. Anne was a big one. Hundreds if not thousands of people were waiting on the dock of Vermilion Harbor where the famous luxury liner was going to set sail from. Red and Yellow were waiting among the crowd for Daisy to meet up with them.

"Hey, guys!" She called out as they came into her view. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"It's no problem." Red said as Daisy reached them.

"So you managed to get a ticket?" Yellow asked.

"Yeah. I had to call my dad and have him order me one, but I did manage to get it."

The three continued chatting for a bit until they were interrupted by an unexpected group of visitors.

"And here I thought this was supposed to be a private cruise. But I guess this is just open for any old losers to show up."

"Hey, Kat! Good to see you." Daisy ignored her brother's sarcastic remark and greeted her cousin instead.

"Good to see you, too. How's life been for you?"

"Don't just ignore me!" Gary shouted angrily.

"Then maybe you should give us a reason to pay attention to you."

Gary was about to retaliate with an insult towards his sister when suddenly someone ran into them and they both fell to the ground.

"Hey! Watch where you're going… Ash?"

Gary looked up at his old friend-turned-rival in surprise.

"I thought I heard your voice." Ash said.

"Wow, I guess the gang's all here." Daisy remarked enthusiastically. "What are the odds?"

"Yes." Carmine grumbled. "It seems almost a bit too coincidental. I feel like at any moment now a certain someone is going to turn up and tell us Team Rocket is here."

"You're intuition serves you well." Everyone was startled by the sudden appearance of Looker. "But the time to speak of our current problem has not yet come. We will discuss things when we get to the privacy of our cabins."

And just like that, Looker disappeared back into the crowd as quickly as he had shown up.

"Who was that?" Red asked.

"Didn't Team Rocket disband years ago?" It was Gary's turn to ask questions now. "Why would they be here?"

"It's a long story." Ash answered. "And it looks like we're all probably going to have to catch each other up on what's been going on later, so we might as well wait until then before we start talking about it."
Just then, the crowd suddenly started moving as the S.S. Anne opened up for passengers to board it. The group went along with the crowd onto the luxurious ship and made their way to their rooms. They were all stationed on the same deck along with Looker and his team as well as a few other people.

* * *

"Come on, Charmander. You need to get up." Bulbasaur tried to nudge the Fire-type onto his feet.

"No." A crying Charmander insisted. "You heard Damian. I'm worthless, I don't deserve to do anything but sit down and wait for the end."

"We all know that's not what he said!" Squirtle yelled at Charmander with ferocity to his speech. "And besides that, he's wrong. You are strong and you have the potential to be far stronger than your former trainer could have ever hoped for you to be. I see what you can become. One day you will be a Charizard, revered by everyone as one of the strongest and most courageous Pokémon of the Kanto region. The humans use your species and your evolutions as a symbol of power and a national icon."

"Really?" Charmander asked in amazement as he finally stopped crying.

"Yes, and I know exactly how we are going to prove that you are better than him."

"How?" Both Charmander and Bulbasaur asked.

"Damian wants to take on the league challenge by earning eight Gym Badges and entering the Pokémon League, right?"

Charmander nodded.

"Then all we have to do is earn eight Badges ourselves and beat him in the League."

The others just started at Squirtle in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Bulbasaur finally asked. "We can't do that. Only humans can enter the league."

"I admit that I haven't figured out all the details of how we'll pull this off yet. But I'm confident that if we work towards this goal, anything will be possible."

* * *

Ash, Brock, Carmine, Misty, Red, Yellow, Daisy, Gary and his cheerleaders all sat around Looker's room along with Looker himself, Lance, 009, Wes and Rui. Having 19 people in a room meant to only have 5 at the most was a very tight fit. They had just finished catching each other up on what had happened to each other since the four trainers had left Pallet Town.

"So, why are you here, anyway?" Ash asked Looker. "Is Team Rocket here?"

"We have heard from a reliable source that several of Team Rocket's highest ranking agents are hidden somewhere on this ship. They are planning to steal all of the Pokémon on the ship before we make land again."

"That's terrible." Daisy said.

"Ja, that's why we need to stop them." Looker continued. "And I would ask that all of you look for suspicious behavior in the other passengers and report anything out of the ordinary to us. Now, I believe that is all that must be discussed for now. You may now leave to do whatever it is you wish to do. If we need to speak to any of you again, we will contact you."

As the trainers and their traveling companions left the room, Red and Yellow approached Carmine.

"There's something I wanted to ask you." Red said.

"What?"

"When we were talking to Bill up at Cerulean Cape, he showed us a video of a news report from when a giant, Black Tyranitar attacked in Johto. The video cut out just as two trainers rushed up to fight it."

"So?"

"The two trainers were you and Mr. Ketchum."

"Wait, what?" Ash was startled to overhear that.

"That was a long time ago." Carmine said. "What did you want to ask?"

"How did the battle go? What happened?"

"We beat it, obviously."

"But how? That thing was huge and extremely powerful. What happened to it after that?"

"That's not really something I feel like talking about right now." Carmine turned to walk away and nearly walked right into Kat.

"Hey, I couldn't help but overhear that you're a strong trainer."

"And?"

"Would you mind having a battle with me?"

Carmine put his hand up to his face and sighed.

"Why did I agree to come here." He put his hand back down and looked Kat in the eyes. "Fine. I heard that there are some places to battle up top. Let's get this over with."

* * *

Meanwhile, three decks above, Team Rocket were having a meeting of their own.

"So we've all got our cover stories straight, right?" Attila asked his fellow agents.

"James and I are a married couple enjoying our anniversary. We can't have kids on our own, so we have Meowth as a surrogate. We've also never met any of you before, we just happen to be on the same floor as you." Jessie said.

"And I'm just a normal Meowth, so noes talking or walking around on my hind legs while I'm in public." Meowth added.

"Oakley and I are newlyweds on our honeymoon." Said Hun.

"And we're also on our honeymoon." Annie gestured towards Attila as she spoke. "Oakley and I are sisters like in real life and you two are close friends from childhood, so we all know each other and specifically wanted to have a shared honeymoon."

"And you?" Attila looked towards Hunter J, sitting in the corner of the room stoking the Zorua in her lap as usual. The small fox Pokémon seemed more relaxed than normal, almost like it could feel a familiar presence somewhere on the ship.

"I don't really care. I'm just here to enjoy myself and make sure things don't fall completely to pieces for you."

Attila stared angrily at her.

"What do you care, anyway? I'm not even a part of Team Rocket, I'm just a mercenary. Even if someone notices me, they can't connect it back to you. And make no mistake; I have no intention of being found out."

"Fine. That's good enough, I suppose. Just keep a low profile."

Jessie, James, Meowth left the room together. After waiting a few minutes, Attila and Hun left as well, leaving Annie and Oakley alone with Hunter J.

"So girls," Hunter J said, "I have something I want to talk to you about."

"So how do you want this?" Carmine asked to the woman that had challenged him to battle. The whole group had moved up to the top deck where several battle fields were drawn out for passengers to fight.

"How about a single battle, six-on-six." Kat suggested.

"No good." Carmine replied. "I don't have six Pokémon on me that I can use here, and I don't want it to take that long. How about a four-on-four double battle?"

"Sounds good." Kat pulled out two of her Pokéballs and held them up. "Let's get this battle started!"

Kat called out her Beedrill and Exeggcutor, while Carmine sent out a Crobat and an Ursaring. Without hesitation, both trainers started calling orders to their Pokémon.

"Beedrill, Focus Energy! Exeggutor, use Egg Bomb on Crobat!"

"Crobat, use Double Team. Ursaring, hit the walking palm tree with a Feint Attack."

Crobat created several illusory copies of itself, while Exeggutor tried pelting it with eggs, but the attack missed and hit the copies instead. During this time, Beedrill was storing up energy for its next attack, while Ursaring faded into nothing, leaving only the yellow ring on its belly visible before rushing up and striking Exeggutor. The Coconut Pokémon found itself, knocked down to the ground and pelted by Crobat's Air Slash attack.

Beedrill stabbed one of its stingers into Ursaring with a Poison Jab that left the Pokémon staggering back and poisoned. Unfortunately for Beedrill, Ursaring's Guts ability made it so that she was now even stronger due to the status condition. The Hibernating Pokémon struck Beedrill with a Slash that send it hurtling towards the ground.

Exeggutor managed to launch another Egg Bomb through Crobat's Air Slash, disrupting the move long enough to get back up and whack the Bat Pokémon with its head in a Hood Hammer attack, knocking it down. Exeggcutor used Hood Hammer on Crobat again while Ursaring hit Beedrill with a Hammer Arm, leaving both Pokémon knocked out.

Carmine and Kat swapped out their fainted Pokémon with a Scizor and Nidoqueen, respectively. Nidoqueen fired a Hyper Beam at Ursaring, who tried to counter with its own Hyper Beam, but was too slow and was knocked out by the attack. Meanwhile, Scizor used Swords Dance to heighten its offensive capabilities and Exeggutor used Trick Room.

As Carmine sent out his final Pokémon, Feraligatr, the entire field was suddenly filled with a maze of feint purple walls that were almost invisible, yet very real. Scizor tried to use Quick Attack on Exeggutor, but instead crashed into one of the walls, opening itself up to be hit by Exeggutor's Wood Hammer. After being hit by the attack, Scizor was able to strike Exeggutor with its own X-Scissor attack, knocking the Coconut Pokémon unconscious.

Kat called in her final Pokémon, the Charizard she had received when she had first started her Pokémon Journey. Charizard was able to pass through the Trick Room maze to enter the battle, but once it was out of its Pokéball, it became trapped inside with the others.

Carmine's Scizor and Feraligatr were able to hit Kat's Nidoqueen with an Iron Head and an Ice Fang while it recovered from the energy loss of its earlier Hyper Beam. Nidoqueen collapsed as Charizard came in and used Flamethrower on Scizor, knocking it out as well.

"It looks like we're both down to only one Pokémon left." Carmine said. "I must admit, you're doing better than I thought you would. Both of our remaining Pokémon are still fresh, but mine has the type advantage, so it's clear who's going to win this."

"Don't be so sure of that." Kat smiled as she spoke. "Charizard! Use Thunder Punch!"

Charizard drew back its fist, which became engulfed in an electrical charge.

"Quick! Ice Punch!" Carmine was almost beginning to panic.

Feraligatr drew back its own fist now, the air around it beginning to freeze. The two Pokémon struck each other at the same time. There was a short pause as the two Pokémon locked eyes, with each other's fists pushing against the other's cheeks. Then, they both hit each other, using the same attacks with their other hands. The two continued to stare at each other for a moment as they stood there, until finally they both collapsed and the Trick Room dissolved around them.

"I guess it's a tie." Kat said flatly as she withdrew her Charizard into its Pokéball. "That doesn't happen often."

"It's been a long time since anyone besides Graham has been able to match up against me." Carmine did the same with his Feraligatr. "A very long time. Either I've gotten rusty or you've got to be the best trainer of your generation. Probably the first option."

* * *

Attila and Hun made their way to the top deck of the S.S. Anne to observe some of the other passengers for reconnaissance. They both casually leaned against the railing overlooking the next deck while facing opposite directions. Hun overlooked the lower deck while Attila watched the deck they were on.

"What do you think is taking our 'brides' so long to get here?" Hun asked his stoic partner, who didn't answer him. Hun turned to look at Attila and noticed that he was staring intently at someone in the crowd on the opposite end of the deck. Hun looked over to see who got his attention and first noticed a familiar hat. "That's the boy from Mt. Moon isn't it?"

"Of course it is." Attila growled.

"This isn't going to be a problem, is it?"

"Why would it. If anything, steeling that son of a Growlithe's Pokémon is going to make this far more enjoyable. I may just keep that Charmander of his for myself just to spite him."

"You're a very vengeful person, Attila. All he did was try to stand up to you. You would have flattened him in an instant if we hadn't been called away."

"Exactly. I should have beaten him there, but I didn't. That's what needs to be fixed."

Before the two could continue their conversation, Annie and Oakley finally arrived. The two were smiling about something as they walked up the stairs to where Attila and Hun were waiting.

"What took you so long?" Hun asked the girls.

"Oh, nothing." Oakley said.

"Anything to report?" Asked Annie.

"Well, there's-" Hun started to say before Attila cut him off.

"Nothing. There's nothing to report yet. Everything's going smoothly so far."

* * *

"What do you want?" Gary asked Ash, who had just walked up to him after the battle between Carmine and Kat.

"I want to see how far we've come since we all started." Ash pointed dramatically at Gary. "And so, I challenge you to a battle!"

"No, thanks." Gary said smugly as he turned away. "I don't really feel like a battle now, maybe tomorrow. It's not like we don't have plenty of time."

"Wait, how long does this cruise last anyway?" Ash wondered aloud.

Gary shot a strange look at Ash. "You really need to pay more attention to these things. Although, I guess you've always been like this, haven't you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll let you figure that out on your own. But yeah, we'll be getting off back in Vermillion in a little over three weeks. Twenty-five days, to be exact."

"Three weeks?" Ash began to panic. "I didn't think this would even last one week! I'm going to fall behind everyone at this rate!"

"Fall behind who?" Gary asked. "We're all on here with you. Or have you picked up some new rivals since you left Pallet that you didn't mention earlier?"

"Oh, right. I guess you are all here. I got carried away for a moment- Ow!" Ash's sentence got cut off as one of the other passengers bumped into him.

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry." The woman said. She was a tall woman, who at first appeared to be rather heavyset but on closer inspection that was due to the heavy fur coat she was wearing that obscured her actual body shape. She had long, bushy black hair with red-dyed tips and her eyes were a strikingly light blue. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ash said as he looked up to see the woman. "Are you?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. Something just seems… off about you."

The woman looked down on him with disdain. "How rude. Kids these days have no respect for there elders."

"Sorry, Ma'am. I didn't mean to be rude. You just feel like…" Ash tried to find the right way to described the feeling. "Like you lost something, I guess."

"Ma'am? Do you have any idea who I am? I am…" The woman suddenly lost all of her anger. "You may call me Madame Darhk. As it happens I have lost something very dear to me which I'm currently looking to find. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to continue my search."

"I hope she finds whatever she's looking for." Ash said as Madame Darhk walked away.

"You've always been good at making friends with strangers."

Ash didn't realize that Gary was still there and gave a huge jump of surprise when his rival spoke up.

"What?" Gary asked.

Ash entered an elevator and pressed the button for go down to the deck his room was on. After Gary turned down his challenge, he wasn't really sure what to do. He was also learning that having both Pika and Volty rest on his shoulders was tiring and probably not good for his neck. As he waited for the doors to shut, a familiar girl walked in behind him.

"Hey, Misty." Ash greeted the Cerulean Gym Leader. "Where are you headed?"

"I want to find someplace to eat. How about you?"

"I don't really know." Ash shrugged. "I'm not really sure what to do right now."

"Then why don't you come with me?" Suggested Misty. "We can eat together."

Ash hesitated to answer at first, put Pika gestured that he wanted to go eat and Volty hopped off his shoulder over to Misty's.

"Well, I guess if these two want to go, I might as well." Ash chuckled.

The doors closed and Ash and Misty tried to decide what kind of food they were in the mood for. They couldn't really agree on anything before the elevator stopped and the doors opened, so they went to find a map with the various dining facilities available on the ship and their locations. After studying their options carefully, Ash finally pointed to a spot not far from where they were.

"How does this place sound?" He asked Misty.

"As good as anything, I guess. Come on, let's get going."

* * *

The Surfing Snorlax was an outdoor café on the S.S. Anne. Sitting at a small, two-person table were Wes and Rui, who had just finished having an early dinner together and were now discussing their current events.

"So, that 'aura' ability you have. That's what let you identify Shadow Pokémon back when we were going up against Team Cipher, right?" Wes asked his vaguely mysterious partner.

"That's right." Rui Confirmed.

"And you say that your powers are even stronger now…"

"Where are you going with this?" Rui asked her companion.

"So, if your powers are as developed as I understand them to be, then could you just be able to sense who here are members of Team Rocket so that we can go after them right away?"

"I'm afraid I can't. My powers aren't quite to that level yet, and an aura only reflects someone's nature, not necessarily everything that they do."

"Well, it was worth a shot, I guess."

The two sat in silence as they watched Ash and Misty sit down at a table on the other end of the café and order a meal.

"They remind me a little of us." Rui mused.

"A daring trainer and his annoying redheaded companion?"

Rui gave Wes a light punch in the arm in response to his joke.

"Okay, okay. So you're not that annoying. But what do you mean?"

"Well…" Rui began. "I can't really put it into words very well. The ability to see aura is in many ways an extra sense that most people don't have. And like the other senses, it can't really be described to someone with no frame of reference for it."

"Try." Wes urged Rui.

"Well, their auras are a similar frequency to ours. Although there also a bit different."

"What do you mean by frequency?"

"I'd need to start with the basics to really explain it. Every person and Pokémon has an aura. Each individual's aura has a unique pattern to it that only they have, but they can have similar auras to each other. Normally, people who have a similar aura are able to get along really well because that makes it easier for it to connect to each other, and it also allows some humans and Pokémon to bond more easily than others. Take that boy and his Pikachu for example; they both have an almost identical aura and seem to be like the best of friends, even though according to our records they haven't known each other very well."

"So, does that mean I have a similar aura to that Pikachu as well?" Asked Wes.

"Well, no." Rui said. "As I mentioned, it's hard to describe. Auras are primarily marked by a few aspects, the most commonly accepted terms for which are frequency and affinity. Frequency is the unique wavelength which identifies each individual's aura and is unique to that person. Kind of like a fingerprint. You and the boy have similar frequencies, as do I with the girl. An affinity is more like what the aura looks and feels like, and is a bit harder to describe how it works. That boy and his Pikachu have yellow, electrified auras that bond well together, while you're more of a metallic silver aura. That girl's aura is a watery blue, while mine is sort of a wavy light purple."

"So, an aura's affinity basically amounts to a color and an element?" Wes guessed.

"I guess that's one way of putting it. Although it's not quite that simple."

"Of course it isn't."

"I was heavily simplifying my descriptions of them. For example, that girl's aura isn't really just like water. It's really more like a river. But then there are other people have 'water' auras that are more like rain, or an ocean."

"You're right, this is complicated. Why don't we move on to something else?"

"I was thinking we should probably be heading back to check in with Looker." Rui said. "It's getting late and the sun's already setting."

* * *

Red, Yellow and Daisy had decided to call it a day and head back to their rooms, but before they called it a night, Red and Daisy wanted to do some planning for what to do when they got back to Vermilion.
The tickets Bill had given Red and Yellow were for a single room, and Daisy managed to get the next room over, so Red and Daisy decided to swap so that the girls could share a room, the one the three were in now, while Red was on his own next door.

The two trainers sat beside each other on Daisy's bed with a map sprawled out in front of them, while Yellow played with her Magikarp. Maggie was swimming around a large fish tank built into the far side of the room along with Daisy's Poliwag. The two Water-type Pokémon were chasing after Yellow's hand which she was moving along the outside of the glass.

"So when we get back to Vermilion, we should go north up Saffron." Red said.

"But I haven't challenged Surge yet. And what if Saffron City's still closed?" Daisy pointed out.

"Okay, then we'll stay in Vermilion for a day so you can get your next Gym Badge, but there's no way an entire city will be closed off for that long."

"A city shouldn't be closed like that in the first place. What do you think is going on there."

"I don't know." Red shrugged. "Maybe a gas leak or something?"

"Bad things are happening in Saffron." Red and Daisy both looked over at Yellow as she spoke unexpectedly. "We won't be able to go there anytime soon. Not that we should try."

"What do you mean?" Daisy asked the younger girl.

"I don't know exactly. It's just a feeling." Yellow then turned back to continue playing with Maggie and Poliwag.

"I guess we'll head east to Lavender Town then." Red said, still looking uneasily at Yellow. "Then we can go south and make our way around to Fuchsia, maybe see if we can take a ship over to some of the islands down there."

"I guess that sounds like a plan." Daisy said. "See you in the morning then."

Red left the girls' room to head to his own. As he walked to his room, he felt like he was being watched. He turned around to see what it was and got a glimpse of movement at the far end of the hallway.

"Probably nothing." Red tried to reassure himself. "Just another passenger heading off to call it a night."

Despite that, he still felt uneasy as he opened the door and entered his room. Even as he got ready for bed, something was nagging at him from the back of his mind. He knew that Team Rocket were aboard the ship, but could the two members he encountered back in Mt. Moon be among them?

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

And now, almost four decades later I can still remember that day as if it just happened.

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Glitch the Lifehacker said:

And so, without further ado

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Grammatically, seldom use conjunctives at the start of a sentence, elsewise they can lose their powerful effect. Also, I assume you are basing this version of Oak off of the games at this point, and not the manga or anime. If it is the version from the anime you have to be careful, since it is stated he has poor memory.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

Trainers-to-be were sitting

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This should be "trainers-to-be", unless you are assigning it as a title, or a rank, or titled-job.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

Well I guess we'll just save him for last and hope he shows up

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This sentence doesn't quite make sense. Is it Ash being saved? Or a Pokémon? If it is Ash you need to change "for" to "until", if it is a Pokémon, you need to add "a Pokémon" or "one" into the sentence.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

and did as the others.

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This sounds a tiny bit awkward, rephrasing it or adding to it might help.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

Grass-type Bulbasaur; Gary, you have chosen the Water-type Squirtle

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Correct use of semi colon 

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

Water-type Squirtle; and Samuel,

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Incorrect use of semi colon. With a semi colon, as a list, you either have "and" or ";", having both isn't correct. If it is as a sentence break, both sides of the semi colon need to make sense on their own.
I brought my umbrella just in case it rained; it was raining hard.
I brought my umbrella just in case it rained. It was raining hard.
I brought my umbrella just in case it rained and it was raining hard.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

of sting

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You are missing the indefinite article here.

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

What?!"

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Interabang required. "‽"

Glitch the Lifehacker said:

button for go down

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Should be "to go down"

Looker gazed towards the sunrise as dawn arrived on the first full day of the S.S. Anne. As he watched the sun slowly make its way into the sky, Looker pondered over what had brought him to this moment. Several high ranking agents of Team Rocket were somewhere aboard the ship, planning to kidnap every Pokémon aboard. All because the International Police had not properly taken care of the old Team Rocket five years ago, allowing them to reform now.

Looker had been a part of the team sent in to take down Team Rocket. It was his first mission as an agent for the International Police and he had been serving under his mentor, Agent Adonis, who had taken Looker under his wing ever since he first joined the International Police.

Looker turned around to face some of the other passengers walking by, on their way to either take in the view or find a good spot to get breakfast. Among the group, Looker spotted the trainer known as Red and the young girl known as Yellow. According to what they said yesterday, and confirmed by Misty, Yellow had apparently been fished up from a stream with no memories and wasn't even sure if that was her real name. Looker felt he could relate to the girl's plight. After all, he had been in similar circumstances once, years ago.

As the crowd moved, Looker spotted Lance talking to a tall, red-haired woman and decided to walk up to them. As he approached the two, Lance noticed him and called Looker over.

"Hey, Looker, good timing. I wanted to introduce you to Lorelei here."

"So, you're Looker." The woman said. "Lance was just filling me in about you and this whole 'Team Rocket' thing going on."

"Was he now?" Looker gave Lance an aside glare.

"It's alright." Lance tried to reassure him. "You can trust her; she's one of my fellow Elite Four members."

"The Elite Four." Looker mumbled. "I have heard that term before, but what does it mean?"

"The Elite Four once served as the last challenges a trainer had to face before they could take on the League Champion." Lance started to explain.

"But when the Pokémon League switched over to the current tournament system, we were repurposed as Gym Leaders." Lorelei continued his explanation. "But we retained our old titles and we serve as leadership council of sorts within the League. We facilitate the various meetings with the League as well as make important decisions such as opening new Gyms. The status also offers other perks, such as being privy to the goings-on within the region and helping to stop potential threats such as the one we're facing now."

"Hm." Looker closed his eyes and nodded slightly. "I suppose that would make sense as to why Lance would let you in on this. I'll let you do whatever you want to help. Although I would appreciate it, Lance, if you would let me know before you bring others into our inner circle."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I do want to let the other two Elite Four members in on this, just to give you a heads up on that."

"Fine."

"By the way…" Lance started to say. "I wanted to ask you something. When you first got here, it seemed like you had some kind of an accent and your speech was a bit off, but you don't seem to have it anymore."

"Da." Looker nodded again. "This is not my native tongue and it took me a while to readjust to speaking this language. Now that I've had some time, the lessons I've learned about how to speak it properly have returned to me."

Lorelei cleared her throat to draw the others' attention back to her. "So, Lance told me that you've been letting civilians into this little operation of yours."

"Da, er, yes. Several trainers have gotten involved in skirmishes with Team Rocket, and I felt it only fair that they know what is going on. There are also two other Gym Leaders among them."

"Yeah, that's what Lance told me. Misty and Brock, right? Those two sure are interesting."

"What do you mean?" Looker asked.

"Those two are both the youngest Gym Leaders in the region right now, and yet they're able to keep up with the others perfectly. Within a few years, they'll probably be on par with us in the Elite Four. Of course, Misty owes the majority of her success to being my protégé. I've taught her almost everything she knows. I've also heard that Bruno trained Brock as well. Those two will probably end up succeeding us when we eventually retire."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"I thought you wanted to know?"

"No." Looker shook his head. "I have little interest in the inner workings of the Pokémon League. My primary concern is Team Rocket." He paused for a moment, then added, "And if we are to continue this conversation, we should do so in private."

"Suit yourself." Lorelei shrugged as the three walked back to the room Looker had made into a makeshift base on the ship.

* * *

Daisy was hurriedly walking through the hallway to an elevator. Red and Yellow had already gone ahead to get breakfast, and she wanted to catch up to them. As she turned the corner, she was stopped by an elderly man with a thick mustache, wearing a dark blue suit and matching bowler hat.

"Excuse me." The man sounded rather desperate. Like he was trying his hardest not to panic. "I need your help. My granddaughter has gone missing and I can't find her anywhere."

"I'll help in any way I can." Daisy said without any hesitation.

"Thank you so much." The man said gratefully. "She slipped away from me because she wanted to play, but my old legs just can't go as fast as they used to. If she managed to make her way to the elevator, she could be just about anywhere on the ship by this point."

"Have you tried asking someone to put out an alert or something to get a search going?" Daisy asked helpfully.

"I haven't seen anyone else since I lost her. I had just finished searching this floor when I ran into you."

Daisy started to walk towards the elevator behind the man and gestured for him to follow her. "Then let's go see the captain. If anyone can help you find your granddaughter, it would be him. He should be able to call an alert or something to get the crew searching."

"Yes." The man said. "That sounds like a good idea. The best idea, really. Thank Arceus you arrived when you did, I was just about to lose hope in being able to find her if she's lost on a huge ship like this. Now, let's get going."

* * *

Jessie and James were at the Surfing Snorlax, sitting at a table overlooking the lower deck so that they could observe the people down below. Meowth was curled up beneath the table and pretending to take a nap.

"So, when are we actually going to get started?" James asked quietly.

"Start what?" Jessie responded.

"The mission." Was James' answer. "Just sitting around like this isn't going to do anything."

"Attila said that we needed to do a lot of reconnaissance to see what it is we actually need to do. It will probably only be a few days. Why are you asking?"

A waiter walked over and handed the pair the drinks they had ordered when they first got there a few minutes ago.

"I'm not sure." James took a sip of his warm beverage. "I just can't help shake this uneasy feeling, like something's about to happen. What happens if we fail the mission? What will-"

Before James could blurt out any sensitive information, Meowth reached over and scratched at his ankle, pretending to stretch. James bit back a yelp and kept his mouth shut for the remainder of their stay at the café, except to continue drinking. After they had finished their drink's Jessie and James got up and left, with Meowth trailing behind them. The feline Pokémon was having trouble walking on all four of his legs like a normal Meowth would, because he had grown so used to walking on only his hind legs like a human. It had taken him years to learn how to walk like that, and reverting to his natural stance after so long felt wrong to him.

Ash made his way to the battling area on the top decks of the S.S. Anne. Gary may have turned down his challenge yesterday, but Ash was determined to get a battle. As he climbed up the stairs, he looked around to find someone that looked like they could offer him a good fight. To Ash's surprise, the 'battle deck' as it was known, was almost completely empty. There was a battle going on at the far end, with a few spectators watching, and a few people looking at the ocean view over the railings, but they didn't seem like trainers. Ash turned around in disappointment, but then saw Red coming up the staircase behind him.

"Hey, Ash!" Red called up to him. "You looking for a good training match too?"

"Yeah." Ash answered. "But there's no one here."

"Then I guess we'll just have to fight each other." Red said as he caught up to Ash at the top of the stairs.

"You're on! Let's do this!"

"Alright, then let's get ready."

* * *

After Red and Yellow finally gave up on waiting for Daisy to join them for breakfast like they had planned, Red decided to go up to get some practice in for Pokémon battling. Yellow wasn't really interested in watching him fight right now though, so Red dropped her off at her room so that she could play with her Pokémon, Maggie and Abraham.

Yellow was currently trying to teach Maggie how to do some tricks but to no avail. Meanwhile, Abraham sat in the corner of the room, fast asleep in the chair that Red had been sitting in last night.

"Come on, do it like this." Yellow straightened out her arms and legs while lying on her bed and rolled across it. "Now it's your turn."

Maggie tilted to one side and then the other before straightening back up again.

"No, Maggie. I want you to roll over." Yellow complained as she sat back up. "It's really easy to- whoa!"

Yellow practically fell off the bed as Abraham suddenly appeared next to her. The Abra held up his right hand, which began to glow purple. Maggie became enveloped in a similar glow and was spun around the way Yellow was trying to get her to roll over before the glow vanished from both Pokémon and Abraham Teleported back to the chair in the corner of the room.

"See, Maggie!" Yellow told the Fish Pokémon. "If Abraham can figure out how to make you do it in his sleep, then you should be able to do it easily.

Maggie tried to roll over again, but again, only swayed to one side and back up again.

"Seriously, Maggie, this should be so simple."

* * *

Ash and Red stared each other down from opposite ends of the field drawn onto the battle deck's floor. Between the two trainers, their Pokémon faced each other as well.

"Sandshrew!" Ash called out. "Use Poison Sting!"

Sandshrew rushed at its opponent and jabbed it in the face with his claw, inflicting the opposing Pokémon with Poison.

"Paras!" Red called out to his own Pokémon. "Counter that with Poison Powder!"

Paras sent out a wave of the poisonous powder from the mushroom on its back and inflicted Sandshrew with the status condition as well. With both Pokémon now poisoned, Sandshrew jumped back and swung one of its claws in front of itself, sending out white star-shaped projectiles. Paras tried to dodge, but the Swift attack turned around in midair to hit it. Not letting its opponent get a hit in, Sandshrew ran up close and clawed wildly at his opponent with Fury Swipes.

"Paras! Fury Cutter!"

The Bug-type struck Sandshrew with its claw. Sandshrew used Defense Curl to brace itself for the next hit, and Paras used Fury Cutter again.

"This is your chance Sandshrew!" Ash cheered his Pokémon on. "You know what to do next!"

The Mouse Pokémon spun forward in a Rollout attack and ran into Paras. Paras turned to face its opponent again, but Sandshrew curved back around and ran into Paras a second time. Paras tried to use Absorb to weaken Sandshrew, but it was no use as Sandshrew struck Paras again, this time knocking it out.

"Good match." Red said as he returned his fainted Pokémon to its Pokéball. "I honestly wasn't expecting you to win with a type disadvantage."

"Well, I guess I've just improved a lot. I guess I have Carmine to thank for that since he's the one who actually got me to start training for this kind of thing."

"Yeah, traveling with an experienced trainer does give you kind of an advantage. Not to mention two Gym Leaders. I have to make do by figuring things out on my own."

"I kind of feel bad about it."

"Don't." Red reassured Ash. "It's your duty as a Pokémon Trainer to use every resource at your disposal. That includes the help of those with more experience than yourself."

The two friends walked up to each other and shook hands. After a long silence, Red finally spoke up.

"By the way, you haven't heard anything from back home recently, have you?"

"No, why?"

"I just haven't checked back in since I left. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything going on back home."

"Well, I haven't called my mom or anything, either. In fact, she's probably getting worried about me."

* * *

Daisy and the older man she was helping approached the entrance leading to the Captain's quarters. No one was outside, so Daisy knocked on the door as she walked up to it and a voice came from inside telling them to come in. Daisy opened the door and the two stepped inside the room.

Daisy was caught off guard by how sparse the room seemed. Aside from a large bookshelf in the far corner from the door and a desk directly across from when she was now standing, there was barely anything in it besides a couple chairs and some sea charts and pictures hung up along the walls. The captain sat at his desk, looking over some papers.

"Can I help you with something?" The captain asked as he looked up at the two walking in.

"Yes, I have a problem." The old man said. "My granddaughter ran off and now I can't find her anywhere."

"Well, that is good timing. You see, I was just about to make an announcement that a girl had just been found. I would assume she's your missing granddaughter." The captain pointed over to the wall opposite him, where a young girl was napping in a chair. "She wandered over here and promptly fell asleep before she could tell me where she came from."

"That's my granddaughter alright." The old man said with a sigh of relief as he walked over to pick the girl up. "She's always so energetic that she tends to wear herself out quickly. Thank you, both."

The man nodded before walking back out of the room, leaving Daisy alone with the captain.

"And what about you?" The captain asked her.

"Oh, nothing. I was just trying to help him find his granddaughter." Daisy responded. "Thanks for helping him out, I guess I'll be going now."

"Hold on a moment." The captain said as she turned around to leave. "You are a Pokémon trainer, are you not?"

"Yes." Daisy said hesitantly. She still hadn't quite figured out how people always seemed to tell that right away, just from a glance.

"You wouldn't happen to be interested in teaching one of your Pokémon how to cut down trees, would you?"

"I've never even thought about that." Daisy answered honestly. "Why?"

"I may not look it now, but back in my day I was known as the "Cut Master". I was renowned for my ability to train Pokémon how to use the move Cut to chop down trees, whether it be to make logging easier or ever just to clear a path blocked by overgrown foliage. If you want, I can teach your Pokémon how to use the move Cut. It's the least I could do."

"I guess I don't really see why not." Daisy shrugged. "It could come in handy, I guess. Bulbasaur could probably learn it."

"Great!" The captain exclaimed as he stood up from his chair. "I've been wanting an excuse to start training Pokémon again for quite some time now. So let's get started."

One week has passed since the S.S. Anne set off from the Vermilion Harbor. Ash made his way up to the battle deck at the top of the ship to have a training battle with Red, which had become part of their daily routine. Ash was met with a surprise, however, as it was not Red that was waiting for him. Gary stood at the top of the staircase, standing alone with his arms crossed and looking rather impatient.

"What are you doing here?" Ash asked his rival.

"I was bored. I figured I could liven things up a little by fighting a strong opponent, but I guess you'll have to do instead."

"Hey!" Ash yelled in indignation.

"And here I thought you'd be happy that I'm finally taking you up on your challenge." Gary shrugged while giving a sly smile. "But if you don't want to fight, I guess I can just try to find someone else that's willing to."

"No!" Ash waved his arm in front of him in a useless gesture in an attempt at adding emphasis "I'll fight you and I'll beat you."

"Okay then," Gary shrugged again. "But don't complain when I wipe the floor with you. Now, let's get started so you won't have to wait as long for your inevitable defeat."

* * *

Carmine sat in a folding chair sitting near the S.S. Anne's pool, looking around at the crowd around it. He spotted a couple of women sitting across from him that seemed oddly familiar. One was a blonde in a pink and black swimsuit, while the other had silver hair and a purple and black swimsuit. Carmine was sure that he had seen those two before, but where? And when?

"So what made you join Team Rocket?" Carmine nearly jumped out of his chair out of shock at Brock's sudden appearance, his thought process of trying to figure out who those two girls were being cut off.

"You're just determined to find out more about me, aren't you?" Carmine replied, rather annoyed. "Are you trying to become a detective or something?"

"No, actually I want to be a Pokémon breeder. Or maybe a doctor, I'm not quite sure yet."

"Then why don't you just leave me alone then?"

"Your life just seems really interesting. I want to hear more of your story."

"Well, if it will get you to stop pestering me, then I will tell you something." Carmine relented. "My joining Team Rocket had to do with my sister. There, so stop asking me annoying questions and go do something else."

Carmine didn't need to tell Brock twice; as the Gym Leader had just noticed the two women that Carmine had been watching. Without a word to Carmine, Brock was off to flirt with the two.

Carmine just sighed and shook his head while muttering to himself. "Things weren't too bad when it was just me and Ash. Or would that be Ash and I? Anyway, he may have been a little incompetent starting out, but the kid's a fast learner like his father. But now that those two Gym Leaders are here, this is getting almost unbearable."

Carmine paused for a moment, a revelation coming to him.

"Wait a minute, the kid doesn't even still need me. He's got two Gym Leaders to watch him now. That's it, the first chance I get I'm calling Delia and seeing if I can Weedle my way out of this so I can just go home."

Carmine pulled his PokéGear out of his pocket but stopped as he was about to dial Delia Ketchum's number. "Then again, with Team Rocket back it will be really dangerous for them. And who knows how strong this new iteration is in comparison. Those two with the talking Meowth that I fought back in Viridian were weak enough not to be a threat, but that girl in the mask we ran into in Mt. Moon was much stronger. And Looker said they have Shadow Pokémon now. I didn't really pay much attention to that stuff that was happening in Orre last year, but I know those are supposed to be dangerous." Carmine put the PokéGear back into his pocket. "I might need to stick around just in case."

* * *

"Fearow! Use Peck!" Ash ordered his Pokémon as the battle started. The giant bird hit his opponent with its beak, sending the other Pokémon back.

"Don't just take that, Nidorino!" Gary yelled. "Give him a Peck of your own!"

The purple Poison-type charged head-first at Fearow and jabbed the Beak Pokémon with its horn. Fearow struck back with a barrage of Fury Attack. Unfortunately for Fearow, it accidentally grazed itself against one of Nidorino's spines and poisoned itself in the process. Nidorino flipped around and hit Fearow with a Double Kick, though the Fighting attack didn't do much against the Flying-type Pokémon.

"I think it's time to use that move Carmine taught you." Ash said to his Fearow. "Fly!"

The Beak Pokémon flew up out of Nidorino's reach, dodging a Horn Attack in the process, and then dive-bombed the Poison-type, sending Nidorino reeling back from the powerful hit.

"You're not done yet, Nidorino! Use Horn Attack!"

Nidorino charged at Fearow, which wasn't easy as he could barely keep himself upright due to fatigue. The attack hit and Fearow was knocked down by the blow. The bird Pokémon was too weak to lift itself back up into the air again, so instead used Mirror Move. The air in front of Fearow solidified into a mirror, from which a phantom image of Gary's Nidorino charged out and struck its doppelgänger with the same Horn Attack that he had just used on Fearow. Both the mirror and the phantom Nidorino evaporated back into the air while the real Nidorino collapsed onto the ground and fainted.

Gary stared at the battle with his jaw hanging slightly ajar. "How did…" He mumbled. "How did you beat me?" Suddenly he was yelling. "There's no way a loser like you could be able to defeat me! You must have cheated somehow!"

"I didn't cheat." Ash defended himself. "I beat you fair and square. Er, I should say we beat you. I can't take all the credit for myself." Ash petted his Fearow before returning him back to his Pokéball.

"I still don't believe this." Gary went on. "We will have a rematch someday and I will correct this mistake! Ash Ketchum, be on guard because the next time we fight I will wipe the floor with you!"

Gary called his Nidorino back into its Pokéball and turned to leave. After taking a few steps, he turned back again for a moment, "Smell you later, loser!" then stormed off.

Ash watched as Gary left, angry at being accused of cheating, but then it slowly donned on him and Ash's frown turned into a giant smile of pure joy. "I! BEAT! GARY!" Ash jumped up and raised his fist into the air, nearly knocking Pika and Volty off of his shoulders. "Oh, sorry guys. I forgot you were there for a moment. Can you believe that I just beat Gary? And in our first Pokémon battle, even?"

"Pi-Pikachu!" Pika said excitedly as he leaped down to the ground in front of Ash, turning around to face him.

Volty used Quick Attack to run over next to Pika in a flash. "Pikapi-Pi!"

* * *

Hunter J had grown tired of waiting around in her room. So shortly after the Team Rocket agents she was supposed to be babysitting left for their 'daily reconnaissance' she left and took a walk around the ship.

"What do those fools even need any more reconnaissance for?" Hunter J thought to herself. "If I was in charge here, we'd have taken over the entire ship and I would have taken my pick of the rare Pokémon here with buyers lined up for the others and I would even be holding some of the passengers for ransom."

She turned a corner and immediately stepped back behind it. She pressed a button on the Snag machine on her left arm, activating one of the many enhancements she had added to it. A small bug-like drone only about an inch tall flew out from the machine and flew around the corner. On Hunter J's visor, a screen popped up showing the video feed from the drone's camera.

"What's he doing here?" Hunter J thought as she walked back the way she came, keeping an eye on the video to make sure that the man she saw hadn't seen her. "What are the odds that the one person who could actually blow my cover happens to be here, on the opposite side of the planet of where he's supposed to be right now?" She gave a sort of grimacing half-smile from her mixed emotions from this revelation.

"I suppose even if it's under poor circumstances, it is nice to see you're doing alright." She muttered to herself. "Wes."

Ash, Misty, Red, Daisy and Yellow all sat around is Daisy and Yellow's room. On Daisy's side of the room, she and Red were sitting on her bed. On Yellow's side of the room, she and Misty were sitting. Between them was Ash, who had pulled up the chair and was sitting in it backwards, with his chin leaning up against the headrest.

"What should we do now?" Daisy asked the rest of the group.

"I don't know." Ash answered. "There's so much to do here, and yet half the time it feels like there's nothing to do."

"Let's play a game!" Yellow suggested cheerfully.

"Like what?" Misty asked her.

"How about Hide and Seek?"

"We've haven't played that." Red pointed out. "How would you even know how to play?"

Yellow shrugged. "I don't know. I feel like I used to play it a lot before…" She trailed off for a moment. "I know that I like it and I'm sure that I'm good at it."

"We'll," Ash said. "I guess that's good enough for me."

* * *

"When are you finally going to move on with your plans?" Hunter J asked to the agents of Team Rocket when they all met up for the evening.

"When we're ready." Attila answered her. "Why do you suddenly care?"

"No reason." Hunter J replied, almost too quickly. "I'm just getting bored. It seems like you already have all the information you should need for this, and yet you just keep observing rather than acting."

"She has a point." James said. "We already know who all of the strong trainers are and what Pokémon they have, as well as what rare Pokémon are here to take."

"I know that." Attila responded. "But what we need is the right time to strike."

"What about tomorrow night?" It was Annie's turn to speak. "There's that big fire dancing show being held outside. From what we've been able to gather, almost everyone's going to be attending it. It seems like the perfect opportunity to set our trap. And then the commotion should lure out the few people not watching the show so that we can get them to."

"That does sound like a plan." Attila put his hand to his chin in thought. "How does everyone else feel about that?"

Jessie, James, Meowth, Hun and Oakley all nodded and voiced their approval.

"Then we're all agreed to set our trap at tomorrow's fire dancing ceremony." Attila turned to Hunter J. "Does that satisfy you?"

Hunter J just gave a sly smile and leaned back in her chair. "I'm never satisfied."

* * *

Ash had been chosen as the first to be 'it' in hide and seek, and had already found Misty trying to hide behind a large potted plant just down the hall from where they stared. The group had decided to stick within the hallways and staircases three levels of Daisy and Yellow's room. Ash and Misty were searching the lowest of the levels for the others. They turned a corner in the hallway and were surprised to find someone else lurking about at the opposite end.

"I've seen her before." Ash whispered to Misty, not wanting to draw the other person's attention. "She said her name was… Madame Darhk, I think it was."

"What's she doing?" Misty asked as she pulled Ash back around the corner.

"She said before that she was looking for something. Maybe she's still trying to find it?"

The two peered around the corner.

"Is she… sniffing the air?" Misty wondered aloud.

"Yeah." Ash confirmed. "She's sniffing around the walls like she's tracking something be scent."

"That's not normal behavior is it? I mean, I know rich people can be eccentric, but still."

Suddenly, Madame Darhk snapped her attention towards their direction. Ash and Misty hid behind the corner.

"Do you think she noticed us?" Ash asked.

"I don't know. But, did it seem like her eyes were glowing to you?"

'Let's just get out of here."

Ash and Misty ran back down the hallway and up the staircase to the next floor up before they finally stopped to catch her breath.

"I don't understand." Ash said between huge breaths. "She seemed perfectly normal before, although with a bit of a temper. But down there she seemed so, so…"

"Bestial?" Misty suggested.

"Yeah. Like she wasn't even human."

The two looked at each other.

"Let's just try and get back to finding the others and pretend this never happened." Misty suggested.

"Agreed."

* * *

Gary stared out across the ocean, leaning against the guard rail of one of the S.S. Anne's observation decks.

"What happened?" He asked himself. "How could I let Ash beet me? I've always been the best, ever since we were kids. I mean, sure, Red's always been pretty close to my level and I've always let Daisy take the lead on our group stuff because she's the oldest, even if it's only by a few minutes. But Ash…"

Gary tried his best not to start crying, but the tears came anyway.

"I've always been better than Ash at everything we've done. Why was he able to beat me now? I've got to be the best and yet… and yet I lost our first battle. What does this mean for the future? Have I not been training hard enough? Have I let Ash reach, or even pass, my level? What the Distortion World is going on?"

Gary tightened his grip on the railing and he looked up at the clear blue sky above the ocean's waves.
"No, I won't let this happen." He told himself. "From now on I'll put in twice the effort, twice the work. By the time we reach the Pokémon League I'll be so far beyond Ash's level that he'll never be able to catch up to me again."

In the distance, Gary thought he could make out the form of a large, silver bird-like Pokémon rise from the ocean and dive back in. The young trainer smiled at the beautiful sight of the majestic Pokémon and took it as a sign.

"I will defeat all in my way to becoming the Pokémon Champion, and from there work my way up even higher until I have become a Pokémon Master!" Gary shouted off across the ocean. "I will achieve my goals, or my name isn't Gary Bluesea Oak!"

* * *

Ash and Misty had now successfully found both Red and Daisy, but didn't tell either of them about their earlier encounter.

"Wow, she wasn't kidding." Daisy said in astonishment. "Yellow really is good at this."

"We've searched the entire area and still haven't found her." Red added.

Ash and Misty both looked nervously at each other while the other two weren't looking.

"Well," Ash started to say, "I guess we could try looking at the lowest floor again."

Misty shook her head.

"We may have overlooked somewhere down there."

She shook her head even harder.

"And with all four of us, we're bound to find her if she's down there."

Misty was starting to get dizzy from shaking her head when Red and Daisy turned around to face her and she stopped.

"Sounds good." Red said.

The four made their way down to the lowest floor within their game's boundaries and, much to Ash and Misty's collective relief, Madame Darhk wasn't there. The group made their way to the opposite end of the hallway from the staircase they used to get down there when they finally found Yellow hiding behind a large trashcan.

"It's about time." Yellow said. "I was starting to think you forgot about me."

"How could we forget about you?" Red asked.

"Well, it's been a while and none of you had even been down here until now."

Red and Daisy looked over at Ash and Misty.

"I thought you said you looked down here before you found either of us." Daisy said.

"We did…" Ash started to say.

"I guess we just didn't look over at this part of the hallway." Misty interrupted. "We didn't think anyone would actually be on this floor, so we didn't look as thoroughly as we should have. Isn't that right, Ash?" She shot him a strange look.

"Y-yeah…"

The other three looked at them inquisitively, but when the two didn't say anything else, Yellow spoke instead.

"I guess this means I'm it now. I'll count to ten and you go hide."

Almost all of the S.S. Anne's passengers gathered around the upper decks just before sunset as a group of fire dancers and their Marowak were preparing for their performance.

"What's up with those Marowak?" Ash asked Carmine, as their group sat down in their seats, near the center of the crowd.

Carmine looked closely at the Bone Keeper Pokémon and saw what Ash was talking about. They were much darker in color than the Marowak native to Kanto, with slimmer bodies and dark markings on their skulls. In addition, they carried longer bones than normal, with ghostly teal flames at each end.

"I'm not sure." Carmine answered honestly. "I've heard that some Pokémon look different depending on where there from. Maybe that's it?"

"According to the brochure, the fire dancers come from the Alola region." Explained Brock. "Apparently the area is famous for having a lot of unique Pokémon like Marowak."

"That's interesting." Said Misty. "I wonder what other Pokémon are different there."

Someone sitting next to the group shushed them as the show began and the performers began their dance.

* * *

Attila and Hun overlooked the crowd watching the fire dancers from a higher deck. As the performance seemed to reach its climax, Attila raised a radio and spoke into it.

"It's time."

As the two watched, remote detonated smoke bombs began going off throughout the crowd. Panic and confusion spread among the people from the sudden smoke, which granted the perfect opportunity for the other members of Team Rocket to start steeling Pokémon in the chaos. Attila and Hun moved towards the stairs to join them in the thievery, when they were stopped by Looker and Lance.

"Where do you think you're going?" Looker asked them.

"So you must be some of the International Police agents here to stop us." Attila calmly said to them. "Well, I guess that's too bad for you, because you're already too late."

Hun threw a smoke bomb onto the ground between the Team Rocket agents and the International Police. As the smoke cleared, Attila and Hun were gone.

"How'd they do that?" Lance wondered aloud.

"It doesn't matter." Looker said as he turned to go back down to where the crowd was. "We need to help down below."

The two ran back down, and passing them going the other way were Red, Daisy and Yellow. The trio was trying to escape the chaos going on below as people moved around in panic. Unfortunately, as the two reached the upper deck, they discovered that Attila and Hun hadn't fled very far.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" Attila said as the two walked back into the open. "If it isn't that brat from Mount Moon, and his little friend. And look, he's got another friend with him."

"I'm afraid that you have a bit of a problem." Said Hun as the kids stopped running. "You see, you managed to get away from my friend here without paying the proper price for getting in our way. And you see, he really doesn't like it when that happens. So I'm afraid any plans you had for the future are going to have to be cut short. Permanently."

Red motioned for the girls to get behind him. Yellow did so, but Daisy stayed firm by his side.

"I don't know who you are!" She shouted to the Team Rocket duo. "But you're dead wrong if you think you can beat us!"

Laughing at her remark, Attila called out his Skarmory. "So you need your girlfriend to stand up for you now?" He mockingly asked Red. "How about we have a little fight, punk, just you and me."

Red pulled a Pokéball up from his waist, but stopped from calling out his Pokémon as Yellow squeezed tightly around his arm.

"Don't do this." She told him. "It's a trap. Let's just have Abraham get us out of here."

"She has a point." Daisy agreed. "Despite by bluff, I don't think we can take these guys on."

Red shook his head and took a step forward, raising the Pokéball in front of him. "If I don't fight him now, he's just going to find us again, and again. Plus, we need to help protect those down below from having their Pokémon stolen. It's our duty as Trainers to protect those in need. Now, go Charmeleon!"
He threw the Pokéball and his starter Pokémon landed on the ground in front of him.

"Hm." Attila grunted. "So you've gotten stronger since Mount Moon. I guess that's not really a surprise, but it will make this more interesting just the same. Skarmory! Pulverize that overgrown lizard with Steel Wing!"

Skarmory flew up and dove down towards Charmeleon, its wings glowing in white light that seemed to make its feathers expand in length. Charmeleon countered by breathing an Ember at the Armor Bird Pokémon. The attack hit Skarmory directly in the face, forcing the bird to stop its attack. Charmeleon followed up the attack with another Ember, this one hitting Skarmory in the chest. Skarmory let out a Metal Sound to disorient Charmeleon and lower its defense, to which Charmeleon responded with another Ember. Skarmory sent out a volley of Swift. The white star-like energy projectiles twisted their trajectory to avoid the Ember attacks that Charmeleon used to try and stop the Swift, and struck him down. Some of the Embers struck Skarmory and forced it down to the ground. This allowed Charmeleon to launch another Ember at the Steel-type, causing Skarmory to collapse.

"What?" Attila muttered in shock before regaining his composure. "Why you little-"

"Attila!" Hun called out to his partner. Attila tried to turn to see what the other was calling him for, only realize that ice was slowly crawling up his legs and freezing him in place.

"What the?"

"I hope you weren't planning on hurting those kids." Lorelei said as she walked up to them alongside her Jynx. She then turned to Red and the others. "If you're going to flee, then do so now. Otherwise I suggest you go back now and help the others."

* * *

Hunter J smirked as she watched the panic going on outside via her drone's camera. It was definitely a much less tactical approach than she would have gone with, but it looked like they were getting the job done all the same. She stood up and walked towards the door so that she could join the others in steeling Pokémon, because after all, she wasn't going to let them have all the fun. But when she opened the door, Hunter J was greeted by an unexpected visitor standing there.

"You!" Madame Darhk almost literally growled at Hunter J.

"Do I know you?" Hunter J asked as she down towards the various Pokéballs hung around her belt.

"YOU TOOK MY SON!" Madame Darhk shrieked in reply. "GIVE HIM BACK!"

Madame Darhk lunged at Hunter J, only to be repelled by the Ariados that the Pokémon Hunter had just released from its Net Ball.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Hunter J said in a relaxed voice, as if this were not an unusual occurrence. "I only take humans if I intend to hold them for ransom, and I'm not currently holding anybody. So, unless you're a Poké- wait a minute."

Hunter J pressed a button on the side of her visor to activate its Aura Vision mode and then began to laugh.

"Okay then. I guess I do remember you. It was three years ago now, if I remember correctly, in the Lostlorn Forest of Unova." She held up a Premier Ball in a taunting fashion. "I'm afraid your little pup here has become one of the prized jewels of my collection, so to speak. I don't intent on giving him up anytime soon, Zaroark. Although I must saw, your human is impeccable for a Pokémon. I think the only other I've heard speak as well is that Meowth with Team Rocket. Of course, I plan on taking him from them as well when I get the chance."

"You're a monster." Madame Darhk seemed to slowly melt away into her true form, the Illusion Fox Pokémon. "Now give me back my son!"

Zoroark knocked Ariados away with a Night Slash, but the Long Leg Pokémon landed feet first onto the wall and was able to strike back with a Night Shade.

"Must I repeat myself?" Hunter J said. "Your Zorua is mine now, and I'm not giving him back to you."

The Zoroark that had formerly been Madame Darhk glared intently at Hunter J.

"I said GIVE ME BACK MY SON!" She howled. "I wasn't giving you a choice!"

The Dark-type Pokémon jumped out of the way of a String Shot from Hunter J's Ariados and raised her arms above her head. Her eyes began to glow brightly as a dark aura surrounded her. Zoroark then launched the dark aura at Ariados in a Night Daze attack. Ariados tried to strike back with Fell Stinger, but Zoroark disappeared for a moment only to appear right next to the Bug-type and hit it with a Feint Attack, knocking Ariados away. Zoroark followed up the attack with a barrage of Feint Attacks until Ariados fainted and collapsed onto the ground.

In a fury, Zoroark turned back to Hunter J, only to find that she had fled during the fight. Turning to face the Ariados again revealed that it too was gone. Zoroark lifted her head back and gave an anguished cry. Her son's captor had evaded her, and her chances of reuniting with him suddenly felt lost. Regardless, she ran down the hallway, making a mad dash on all four legs, in the desperate hope of finding her son again.

* * *

Ash, Misty, Carmine and Brock huddled together trying not to get in the way of people running around in the confusion created by the smoke. But then suddenly the smoke was cleared away in a sudden gust of wind. The four looked over to see where the wind had come from to see a Honchkrow flying in the air. The Big Boss Pokémon then flew down and perched on the outstretched arm of an distinguished looking old man with a thick gray mustache and wearing a tan colored three-piece suit and bowler hat.

"That ought to do the trick." The man said as the people around started to calm down. "Although, I'm curious as to where that smoke came from in the first place."

With the smoke cleared, Ash turned to face the others just in time to see a woman reaching for the Pokéballs around Carmine's belt. He was just about to warn Carmine, Sneasel came out of its Pokéball and slashed her across her face as Carmine reached down and grabbed her by the wrist.

"And what do you think you're doing?" He looked down at the woman and recognition donned on him. "Wait a minute, I know you."

"No you don't." The woman said as she tried to pull away while holding her cut cheek, which was starting to bleed lightly.

"Yes I do. I saw you and your sister before but couldn't quite place you. But now that I see you up close I know exactly where I know you from. Your name's Oakley right. You joined Team Rocket with your sister right before I left. I helped you two in your recruitment training.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Oakley insisted as she managed to slip her wrist out of Carmine's grasp. "I was just reaching down to grab something I dropped and then your Pokémon attacked me out of nowhere. Keep that thing under control!" She mimed picking something off of the ground, but it was clear that there was nothing there.

"No you weren't." Carmine said. "Besides, he barely grazed you."

"I saw you reaching right for his Pokémon." Ash added.

Oakley froze as a crowd was forming around them, trying to see what was going on. But then a large shadow passed over the crowd, pulling everyone's attention away to see the Salamence flying overhead. Oakley used the opportunity to run away, meeting up with Annie at the other end of the deck.

"That was close." Annie said to her sister. "You're lucky you managed to get away."

"Luck had nothing to do with it." Hunter J said as she ran up to the two. "That was sloppy of you. Now come on, were leaving."

"But what about the others? We can't just leave them in the middle of this." Annie asked.

"Forget them. If they want to stay here and get caught, that's Team Rocket's problem. But as of our agreement last week, you don't work for Team Rocket anymore, you work for me. And as your new boss, I'm ordering you leave those weaklings behind as we make our getaway."

"Don't think you're getting away that easily!" Wes and Rui ran up to stop the trio. Wes had his Espeon and Umbreon out and ready to attack.

"We don't have time for this." Hunter J said, and suddenly the Salamence flying around launched a Hyper Beam in front of Wes and Rui before landing besides Hunter J. The attack scorched the floor in front of the two and prevented them from continuing their pursuit.

"Come on, this is our ride." Hunter J said as she climbed onto the Dragon Pokémon's back. Annie and Oakley followed suit and they flew away from the S.S. Anne.

Wes clenched his fists tightly as he watched them get away, a look of intense anger on his face.

"Woah," Rui said as she saw Wes' reaction, "there's no need to be that angry." Rui said in concern for her friend. "So what if a few got away, we can still get the others."

"That's not what my problem is." Wes said as he headed back towards the crowd, which was beginning to thin out as people went back to their rooms.

"Then what is?" Rui asked as she dashed to catch up to him.

"Never mind, right now. It's not important anymore. As you said, there are more we need to help catch."

* * *

Seeing what was happening with the others, Jessie, James and Meowth decided that it was best to just lay low and sneak away from the crowd rather than risk making a scene by trying to steel any more Pokémon. They just needed to get away with what they already managed to get.

"Who even teaches their Pokémon how to use Defog?" James muttered to himself as they walked back inside. "That move is almost completely useless is most situations."

"Well, it came in handy for them this time." Jessie replied.

"Yeahs, unfortunately for us." Meowth whispered as he tried to keep up with the other two. "It might be better for one of yous ta carrys me, I can't go very fast on all fours anymore."

Jessie picked up Meowth and tried to stay in character by holding the Scratch Cat Pokémon like he was a baby.

"This's humiliatin'."

"Quite now, Meowth can't talk." Jessie whispered nervously between clenched teeth in a tone that could be mistaken for someone talking to a baby if they weren't really listening to her words.

The three made their way back out on the other end of the deck. This was the agreed upon rendezvous point, but no one else was there yet.

"I suppose Attila and Huna are the only others still here at this point." Jessie observed.

"But what do we do now?" James asked.

"I guess we just wait here for them so that we can make are getaway."

"It would have been nice if they had actually told us how were supposed to get off of here." James complained.

"I suppose they wanted to make sure we couldn't leave without them. It's hard to work with people as secretive as those two."

"And yet they ain't the ones what left us here." Meowth chimed in, then pointed up to the sky. "Hey, wait a minute! Are they's comin' back for us?"

Jessie and James looked up and saw that indeed, Hunter J's Salamence was flying back towards the ship.

"I knew they wouldn't leave me behind!" Jessie declared excitedly. "Girls got to stick together, after all."

"Something doesn't seem right though…" James said.

As Salamence reached the cruise ship, suddenly it opened its mouth and let out a huge Flamethrower, scorching the hull of the ship.

"What's going on?" Jessie panicked.

"Are they's tryin' ta kill us?"

"Quick, let's get inside before they fly back and strike again!" James yelled as he started to run away, but Jessie pulled him back.

"Don't be dense, you can't just run towards the fire!" She yelled at him. "Besides, who knows what kind of damage that did to the inside of the ship. We're better off staying here."

As Jessie, James and Meowth tried to figure out what to do with the sudden fire aboard the S.S. Anne, Hun walked out from the smoke, limping towards them. His clothes were scorched and his flesh was burned. The three also noticed that Hun's legs and boots were strangely wet.

"Are you alright?" James called out to the injured Hun.

"I'll be fine." He grunted out as he reached the trio. "It's nothing that time won't heal."

"But where's Attila?" Asked Jessie. "Is he alright?"

"He'll be here shortly. He just has something else he needs to do first."

Hun sat down on a box to rest and the group of four waited for their fifth member to arrive.

* * *

Red, Yellow and Daisy frantically ran away from the blazing fire that had suddenly erupted from where Hunter J's Salamence had attacked the ship. They made their way towards the life rafts, like everyone else on board was doing, but then suddenly Yellow stopped.

"We need to keep going!" Red warned as he turned back to face her.

"We can't!" Yellow pleaded. "Maggie's still back in our room! We need to go back for her."

"Looking for this?" All three turned around to see who had spoken, and were not happy to see who it was.

Attila was standing there. His clothes were damaged from the fire, one of the lenses of Attila's sunglasses was shattered and his boots were still yet from the ice Lorelei had trapped him in earlier. In his hand, he clutched the tail of a flailing Magikarp.

"Maggie!" Yellow yelled to her Pokémon, then turned to its captor. "Let her go!"

"If you insist." Attila held Maggie out over the railing and began loosening his grip to drop the Pokémon into the ocean. He laughed at the girl's distraught reaction, but then stopped when an Abra appeared in front of him. Abraham spun around in midair and smacked Attila across the face with his tail. Unfortunately, the shock of the blow caused Attila to lose his grip completely. Maggie slipped from his fingers and fell off the side of the boat into the ocean.

"No!" Yellow screamed as she ran to the railing to see her Pokémon plummet into the sea.

Red knelt down besides Yellow and put his hand on her shoulder to reassure the girl. "Don't worry. Maggie's a fish. She'll be just fine until we can find her again." He then stood back up and faced Attila. "As for you on the other hand, I can't make the same promise."

Attila just laughed at Red's threat and pulled a smoke bomb from his pocket. He threw it to the ground and by the time the smoke had cleared, Attila had walked off in the direction of the fire, already too far for the trainers to safely follow him.

"Come on," Daisy said as she grabbed Yellow by the hand. "Let's get to a life boat. I'm sure Maggie will be waiting for us."

* * *

After the fire started, Looker's team shifted their attention away from trying to find Team Rocket, instead focusing on helping the ship's crew get all of the passengers to safety. They were guiding people make their way to the lifeboats, while advising those with Pokémon to Surf or Fly away if they could, so that they could make more room for those who couldn't. Lorelei had her Pokémon create an ice platform off the side of the ship, which Lance's Dragon Pokémon were flying people onto.

"Shouldn't someone be working on putting out the fire?" Rui yelled to the others.

"I'm on it!" Wes shouted back and started running over to where the inferno was continuing to increase in size and intensity. He pulled out an Ultra Ball as he ran, calling out the Pokémon that was held inside. "Go, Suicune!"

The majestic Legendary Beast of Water emerged from the Ultra ball in a full gallop and fired a spray of Hydro Pump from its mouth. The crystal clear water washed over the flames and subdued them. Soon other trainers sent out their Pokémon to help put out the fire as well.

"He has a Suicune?" Lorelei asked, dumbfounded. "Where did he get that?"

"I actually forgot he had that." Rui chuckled lightly. "He has an Entei and Raikou, too. They were some of the Shadow Pokémon we captured and purified last year."

"That's amazing." Lance said in awe. "Having one Legendary Pokémon is impressive enough, but three? That's almost completely unheard of."

Looker cleared his throat, reminding the others to get back to work helping people off the ship.

* * *

"Here he comes now!" Hun announced as the limping figure of Attila became visible as a silhouette highlighted by the flames he was walking away from.

Jessie and James ran over to the injured Attila and helped walk over to where Meowth and Hun were still waiting. They set the large man down on a box beside the one Hun was resting on so that he could rest for a moment as well.

"I guess it's time to call this mission a loss." Attila grumbled as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a radio. He pressed the talk button and held it up to his mouth. "This is Attila. Commence evacuation protocol. I repeat, commence evacuation protocol. Get here as fast as you can, over."

"So, what now?" Jessie asked, somewhat frantic. "How are we supposed to get off of this burning ship?"

"I just called for a ship to come pick us up." Attila explained, then looked over to the fire. "Hopefully they can get here in time."

"I can't believe the others would have betrayed us like that." James commented.

"I can." Attila replied. "I just can't believe I didn't see it coming."

They all stood in silence for a moment as they waited for their getaway to arrive. Eventually that silence was broken when Meowth noticed a drop of water land on his head, followed by another.

"Is it rainin'?" He asked.

"Someone must have had their Pokémon use Rainy Day to help with the fire." Hun said as he held one of his hands out to feel the rain drops coming down. "Smart tactic."

The rain quickly went from a light sprinkle to pouring down hard, and the area became increasingly dark as black clouds filled the previously clear blue sky. The fire had almost completely been put out at this point by the combined efforts of the trainers and their Pokémon working to extinguish it, and the rain finished up their job quickly.

"I don't think this is just Rainy Day." James said as the rain started to come down harder. "This feels more like a storm."

Just as he said that, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, the deafening sound of thunder echoing throughout the ship.

"Something ain't right here." Meowth said worriedly. "Dat definitely ain't a Rain Dance causin' dis."

The storm worsened as huge waved crashed against the hull of the S.S. Anne. A whirlpool suddenly formed off the starboard side of the ship, from which a mighty figure emerged.

"Shadow Force." Attila cursed in a low tone that the others couldn't hear over the loud winds. "I didn't realize that Magikarp was about to evolve."

Water rushed down the sides of the Atrocious Pokémon as Gyarados glared down at Team Rocket, ready to attack them.

"I'm here." The unmistakable monotone voice of Agent Masque came from over the radio Attila was still clutching in his hand. "Jump off the port bow."

She didn't need to tell them twice, as the group made a mad dash to get away from Maggie's wrath as the Pokémon readied a Hydro Pump to blast at them. But as they ran, another Gyarados rose up from the water, followed by another and another until a dozen wild Gyarados surrounded the ship, much larger and more powerful than the freshly evolved Maggie.

"And it's attracted the attention of a nearby school of them."

The newly arrived Gyarados began swimming in a clockwise circle around the S.S. Anne in preparation for one of their dreaded Dragon Rage attacks. Maggie tried to stop the others, but she was too weak to stop even one of the toughened elder Gyarados from performing their move. Trainers from the aboard the ship sent out their strongest Pokémon to try and stop the Gyarados, but it was already too late. Once a school of Gyarados begins their group Dragon Rage, they become an unstoppable force that only the strongest of Legendary Pokémon could interfere with. Even the mighty Thunder of Wes' powerful Raikou couldn't even faze the twelve Gyarados.

"Can you believe it?" Ash wondered aloud in shock. "We were all having a good time and then… all of that, one thing right after another."

Ash, Misty, Brock and Carmine were all sitting on the back of a Lapras, slowly drifting away from the S.S. Anne.

"I'm never going on another boat as long as I live." Brock said.

"I'm just glad I have my trusty Lapras here to ferry us away." Misty sighed. "Everyone has all of their stuff, right? If we left anything behind, we can't exactly go back for it. It's extremely hard to stop a single rampaging Gyarados and I don't think anything could stop twelve of them at once."

"There are advantages to just keeping all of your stuff in your bag with you at all times." Carmine added. "It lets you leave anywhere at any time without having to worry about that. Not that it's much comfort right now with this going on. I just hope everyone else ends up all right."

"Do you think we should head back?" Ash asked the others. "See if we can help anyone?"

"Looker's team were already working on that and I'm sure they have it mostly under control." Carmine answered. "Or at least, no less under control than it would be if we were still there. I know this is hard to think about, but you can't help anyone if you can't help yourself. Even though helping others is important, you need to look out for yourself first."

"You right." Brock said. "That is hard to think about. I don't think I can agree with that philosophy."

"We can't Surf back there anyway." Misty pointed out. "The storm is making the water to dangerous."

"Where'd you get a Lapras, anyway?" Carmine asked the Water-type specialist. "Aren't these things supposed to be really rare and almost impossible to find?"

"She was a gift from my mentor. She raises them as a hobby and gave me this one. " Misty stroked the head of the Transport Pokémon's head. "She's not much for battling, but she's a great Surfer and a good companion for long trips."

The Lapras neighed back happily at the compliment, then returned to seriousness as she tried to make her way through the storm. Though the storm quickly seemed to fade away.

"Hey!" Ash shouted while looking back at towards the S.S. Anne. "It looks like there's something going on back there."

Misty turned her Lapras around and the others noticed it as well.

"What is that?" Brock asked.

"I don't know." Carmine answered seriously.

* * *

After Red had defeated Attila's Skarmory, Abraham had teleported away to get Pikachu in case Team Rocket would try anything else. Unfortunately they had been to late in returning to stop Attila from taking Maggie and they were all now paying the consequences. Pikachu watched in horror as the Gyarados continued circling the ship.

"This is it. There's nothing more I can do." Pikachu said to herself, trying her hardest not cry from despair. "I've failed in protecting her. My only hope is that Abraham can safely teleport her away from here and that he will continue to protect her in my place. And here I thought 'he' was the only one that I truly needed to protect her from."

It was then that Pikachu noticed that the rain had stopped falling. Not that it had stopped raining, but that the individual raindrops had stopped in midair.

"No!" Pikachu felt even more dread seep in as she looked around. The Gyarados had also stopped, encased in a faint purple glow. The people onboard the ship, their Pokémon, everything. It was almost as if time itself was being held in place by some immeasurable power. A force strong enough to seemingly control reality itself. "It can't be."

Only Pikachu was still capable of movement and, she knew, Yellow would also be unaffected by this power. Pikachu ran to find Yellow and, sure enough, the girl was looking around trying to figure out what was happening. The girl grabbed Red by the arm to try and break him out of the spell and, much to Pikachu's surprise, it worked.

"What's going on?" Red wondered aloud as he was brought back into motion.

"I'm scared." Yellow hugged Red tightly, her arms squeezing Red's waist. "I don't know what's going on, and I feel… I feel…"

"What do you feel?" Red held one arm around Yellow's back and rested the other on her head, trying to comfort the girl.

"I feel something coming. No, someone. I don't know who or what it is, but I feel… terror."

"Nothing will happen to you." Red said gently. "I'll make sure of it."

Pikachu watched the emotional scene as it happened below her. Pikachu knew now that letting the boy protect her was the right choice. In fact it looked as if it was the only right choice that she had made. She was about to hop down to great Yellow, that they could have at least one last moment together before the end. But it was too late.

Pikachu felt his presence first, then caught a glimpse of movement descending from above her. Yellow did the same, with Red looking up to see what the girl was looking at. The three all saw the same dark, cloaked figure fall gently from the storm onto the upper-most point of the wrecked ship.

"You will not harm the girl." His voice rang clear throughout the entire scene as he spoke to the Gyarados. Yet despite this, his mouth did not move, for he did not speak at all. Thoughts were projected straight from the mind of the powerful psychic. "She is mine, and mine alone. And now that I have found her, no one will harm her ever again. No one will use us again. We will finally be free at last."

"Who do you think he's talking about?" Yellow asked in a low whisper, trying not to attract the stranger's attention.

"I think he means you." Red replied, equally quite.

"Yes, I mean the girl." The hooded figure floated down to where the two were standing. "Now, you will give her to me."

Pikachu fired a Thunder attack at the stranger, who raised his arm up and absorbed the lightning bolt into its hand. In the process his hand slipped out from under the sleeve of his cloak, revealing three long, gray fingers with bulbous tips.

"What are you?" Red asked.

"Give me the girl!" The stranger reiterated.

"I don't want to go with you!" Yellow screamed at the cloaked figure.

"Yes, you do. You just do not know it right now due to your absence of memory."

"No. You feel… bad. You are bad! You're the reason I lost my memory, aren't you?!"

The stranger slowly lowered his hand down again as it became apparent that Pikachu would not try another useless attack. He was silent for a moment before finally saying: "It was an accident. I did not mean to harm you, but they had to pay for what they had done. For what they would do. Now, come with me."

"She said she doesn't want to." Red walked out in front of Yellow, as if shielding her with his own body.

"Silence, boy!" The stranger thrust out his hand and Red was lifted up into the air by a psychic grasp around his throat.

"No!!!" Yellow couldn't bear to see her friend in trouble and dashed out towards the stranger, tackling him to get him to stop strangling Red. This didn't knock him down, but it did surprise him enough that he released his grip on Red, who fell back to the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm protecting my friend from you, monster!" Yellow held out her arms in defiance against the mysterious cloaked figure. Red had been protecting and saving her ever since they met, and it was her turn to return the favor.

"I see now that your mind has become poisoned with misconceptions and lies. I will have to correct that."

"How many times do we have to tell you?" Red asked as he managed to get to his feet. "She's not going with you."

"Silence!" The mysterious stranger lifted his hand towards Red to choke him again.

"NO!" Yellow held out both of her arms towards the stranger and a white light radiated from her, spreading around her entire body and engulfing the entire ship and everything around it.