The twins flew high through the sky over the land and, whenever they could the pokemon flew down close to the water, splashing water up in their wake. They repeatedly changed position until, eventually, the Pokémon got tired. When that happened they were over Cianwood City. The Pokémon, ignoring their trainers' pleas to go on, circled slowly, gliding down to the ground, landing just outside the Pokémon Centre of Cianwood City. They returned their Pokémon and took them into the Pokémon Centre to get them looked at by the resident Nurse Joy. They handed them over at the desk and Nurse Joy took them from them and away into the Pokémon Centre's evaluation room. Once there she was astounded by the condition that they were in. She went out and told their trainers that they were no longer in any condition to carry them two metres, let alone carry them to the Safari Zone. They asked Nurse Joy to take care of them and then send them on to Professor Oak's Laboratory. That was when Liza flew in on Charla; Ash's Charizard was following behind as well. She offered to take them over to the Safari Zone the next day, in return Ash had to agree to take on the responsibility of raising one of their children from an egg that he received from Liza. Ashleigh rapidly offered to take another one and, at the urging of Ash, Charizard and Charla accepted the proposal. Ashleigh then contacted Professor Ivy and asked her to send her Toxicroak over. The next day the twins were up bright and early, as were Liza and the Charizard. They got into the balloon basket and took off towards the Safari Zone.

Two hours later they arrived at the safari zone. They went inside the entry building and told them that they were there to take part in the grand opening promotion event. The officials told them that they had arrived just in time as almost all of the Safari Balls had been handed out already. The twins took the balls gladly and then entered the park. "Hey Ashleigh, do you want to stick together while we're doing this thing or what?" Ash asked.

"Nah, let's do our own thing and then meet up back here when we're done" Ashleigh replied. When they were in the park the first thing that they saw was a large amount of people queuing up to go down this one staircase. Ash and Ashleigh walked up to some people and asked why it was that there were so many people lining up like they were.

The people that they had asked, unbeknown to them(incredibly) was none other than the team from Team Rocket that Ash somehow always managed to cross paths with. Ashleigh had her own problems with the criminal organisation as well, but that's for another time. the female of the rocket duo, Jessie, grabbed James' shoulder and crouched down, drawing James with her. She said "I don't believe it...it's the twerp."

"How did he follow us here. We checked before we came here and he had no tickets to the Johto region, nor any idea about this promotion."

"It doesn't really matter does it?"

"Of course it matters. He never goes anywhere without that Pikachu of his, so this is our chance to nab it."

"Uh, sorry Jess, but it looks like he don't have Pikachu this time" Meowth said.

"What?" Jessie asked, dumbfounded at the possibility of an Ash Ketchum without a yellow, pint sized rat with him.

"Hey you know what, Meowth is right, he doesn't have Pikachu with him" James said.

"Really? Then this is our chance" Meowth said.

"Chance? For what?"

"Think about it. In all our battles against him what's the one thing that never changes?"

"We lose?"

"We end up flying off into the distance and landing in some place that we invariably fall from?"

"No. Whenever we try and steal his Pokémon he always uses Pikachu to beat us. Which means..."

"That without Pikachu we'll be able to beat him" Jessie half asked; then, with more confidence she continued "and steal all of his Pokémon!"

"Yeah, and then we'll send 'em to the boss and he'll reward us handsomely. Then I can get all the catnip I want."

"A yacht for me so I can spend my time sailing the world's oceans" James said, off in dreamland.

"And I'll buy all the clothes that I want and open up a clothes store with only the best designer clothes" Jessie said, also in dreamland.

"Well first of all we gotta get his Pokémon, so this is what we'll do..."

By this time Ash and his sister had moved off and asked someone else and they replied "we're all lining up here because this leads to the Marshland and it apparently has the most Pokémon. The man in charge also said that the Pokémon in this section of the park are the easiest to catch and really good for beginner trainers."

"Beginners?" Ash said in a questioning tone "I can see heaps of people here that I know have been training Pokémon for a really long time."

"Yes, well some of us, such as myself, have children at home and want a Pokémon that they can grow up alongside."

"I see. My mother had a few grass and flying types for me to play with when I was growing up."

"Dad was much the same, except he had water types rather than grass types."

"Not that surprising really, when you consider that you grew up in the Orange Islands."

"You from the Orange Archipelago?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Which island do you come from?"

"I grew up on a small island near Kinnow Island."

"I see, I'll have to tell my boy to go there, he's talking about taking on the orange league when he's old enough to become a trainer."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm afraid that he can't then."

"What? Why not?"

"Because, it's said that the Orange League is so strong that nobody without at least three badges will have any hope of competing, let alone winning, against even the weakest of the Orange Crew."

"I see. I'll have to tell my boy that then. Thank you for the information."

"No problem Jiji."

"Hey, Ashley, that's rude."

"It's no problem, to you youngsters I probably do seem like an old man. But I'm only 38. So Jiji doesn't really apply." Ash sighed in relief and the person continued "I'm Xavier. If you're ever in Azalea Town, please just ask anyone, they all know where my family lives."

"Sure thing."

"Alright, thanks for the info. We'll go somewhere else for the time being."

"I hope to meet you again."

"I have the feeling that we will" Ash replied.

"Well then, I'll see you later."

Ash and Ashleigh then walked away from the crowd and when they saw entrances to areas with signs posted next to them, one saying Mountain and the other Forest. "I think that I'll go to the Mountain Area" Ash said.

"I've never really been a fan of the mountains, I had more than enough of them growing up; I'll go into the Forest."

The twins then split up, each taking different stairs. When Ash reached the top of the set of stairs, which turned out to have actually been cut into the side of a cliff, he saw the Mountain Area, and the name was a definite understatement. There were no less than twenty mountains in the area. Ash correctly deduced that they would all contain different sets of Pokémon, when he got to the bottom, not having any idea of which Pokémon resided in each mountain, he just picked one at random and decided to search it for Pokémon. In Ashleigh's case, her staircase was slightly different, she had had to enter through a slight corridor before she came back out into the light and saw her set of stairs. Hers actually consisted of a series of planks placed into a tree. When she got to the bottom of the tree she just walked away from the staircase, not really caring where she went. Ashleigh walked looking around her everywhere. Everywhere she looked she saw all different kinds of Pokémon; in the trees she saw flocks of Pidgey, on the ground were Bellsprout, every-so-often she would see a Bronzong levitating around, sometimes they were travelling with an Electabuzz. The first time she saw that she rhetorically asked "I wonder why they're travelling together like that."

All of a sudden a creepy person crept up behind her and said "I can answer that."

Her eyes widened to comic proportions and she stammered out "wh-wh-who a-ar-are you?"

The person pushed their glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. As he did so they somehow flashed and he said "I'm Conway, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Uhh...the pleasure is all yours, I'm sure" Ashleigh replied.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to be related to Ash Ketchum by any chance, would you?"

"Uh yeah, I'm his sister" Ashleigh answered.

"I thought so. But as to why Electabuzz and Bronzong travel together, the answer is quite simple really. Wild Bronzong tend to use up a lot of power with their attacks, so, when they run out, Electabuzz can easily recharge them and Bronzong can protect Electabuzz from ground type Pokémon. It's a symbiotic relationship. Unfortunately for trainers such a situation tends to make them difficulty to catch. That's why there were a large amount of trainers entering the Marshland Area of the Safari Zone. They want to conserve the power of their Pokémon. Of course, once you catch a Pokémon here you can use it to battle other Pokémon, but they'll also be exhausted and therefore almost useless."

"Wow, you seem to know a lot about the Safari Zone Conway. Especially since it only just opened."

"Of course. A for a trainer to be successful correct information is a necessity."

"I've never once thought that and I've mastered both the Kanto Battle Frontier and defeated all of the members of the Orange League."

"Really? I see that Pokémon battling talent must be in the Ketchum blood."

"Well, it has been said so."

"Really? When is that?"

"My mother said that battling skills run in the family when Team Rocket tried to steal the Pokémon from Professor Oak's Laboratory, although all through history it has been said time and again."

"History?"

"Yes. Our ancestor, Satoshi Ketchum was the one that brought an end to the tyrannical rulers of the Kanto Empire. He defeated all of their Pokémon, along with their guards with just six of his own."

"Six!"

"Well, at least that's the story. Wether that was what really happened or not is actually unknown."

"I see. No wonder I was defeated then."

"What?"

"Your brother didn't tell you? He defeated me to go on into the quarter final of the Sinnoh League Competition."

"Ohh! You're the creep that was following Dawn around."

"I'm not sure I like how you put that, but yes; that was me."

"Well, thanks for telling me about the symbi-watzit relationship between Bronzong and Electabuzz."

"No problem" Conway said, walking away from Ashleigh. When he was out of earshot he quietly said "there's another that I'm going to have to keep an eye on." He then chuckled creepily.

"Well, I can't really say I'm not relieved that freak's gone" Ashleigh said to herself. As she was saying that she saw, to her surprise, a Beldum bouncing around, not a care in the world. "A Beldum" she said to herself. "That's a really rare Pokémon, and, if I remember right, it evolves into a Metagross, It'll be so cool if I can catch that and then I'll finally show my brother up once and for all...damn him catching a Gible when I caught a Deino." She then crept up upon it and, when she was right behind it, she threw the Safari Ball at it and it got sucked in the ball then shook once, twice, and then it popped out and rapidly bounced away, too quick for Ashleigh to catch up with it, even at her top speed. Ashleigh dropped down to her knees and her hung her head at her lack of a catch.

Meanwhile Ash was halfway up the cliff that he had picked to climb and see if he could find any Pokémon. He reached up for another handhold and, feeling that it was different to every other handhold he looked up and saw that it was in actual fact, not another handhold, but actually a ledge. He thought to himself 'finally, a place to rest. It's about bloody time.' as he said this he reached his other hand up and, having his hands in a position where they could easily take his weight if needed, he moved his legs up to where his hands were two steps ago. He rested his arms on the ledge and then, with an almighty heave, he pushed himself up on his hands and swung his legs over the ledge. Finally having a place to rest Ash flopped down and extended his arms behind himself, propping himself up into a sitting position. He sat there panting for a while before seeing that there was a vending machine full of water that had been provided by the organising committee for people that had reached that spot. After he had sated his thirst, at first slowly as he knew that if, when you're in extreme thirst, what you need to do is not drink large amounts of water as quickly as possible, but drink small amounts at a slow rate so that you don't fall down in extreme pain, and then at a faster rate to replenish all the water that he had lost in his climb up.

He then looked around him. He could see the peak of the mountain from where he was but decided against trying to climb to the top purely so he could say that he had done so as, undoubtedly, someone else had climbed it first. Besides, the oxygen levels at the height that he currently was at were pretty low, any higher and he might not make it back alive. So, discounting any attempts at climbing further up he looked around him. To his left, about twenty metres away he saw a cave entrance. He then looked to the right and saw a series of caves, easily accessible, but there were so many he wouldn't know where to start. He decided to start, as you normally do, at the beginning, and climbed over to the first cave. Once he was in the cave he saw that it was actually very dark, too dark. So he decided to call Charizard out, thinking 'Charizard's tail be able to...argh...what was I thinking, climbing all this way when I could've just as easily...' he audibly growled and heard a leathery flapping of wings. He started to ask himself "what is tha..." when he was bombarded by wings. He got a flashlight that was conveniently at the top of his bag and turned it on to see that it was a flock of Zubat and Golbat flying at and around him as they tried to exit the cave in fright. Ash fell flat against the ground, hoping to avoid getting hit anymore than he already had. When he fell down though he landed in a pile of a semi-soft substance. He heard a squelch and thought 'oh no, Zubat and Golbat plus a cave means...urgh...well, at least they're gone now. I suppose that that's all there was in this cave anyway.' Ash then went into the next cave to his right and that's when he saw something that he would rather he hadn't, a colony of Lickitung going at it. 'okay, I don't want any of them...plus, if they see me they might...just then one of them saw him and its tongue darted out at him. He ran outside, jumped out into the air and called out "come on out, Charizard."

Charizard came out of its pokéball with a roar and, seeing Ash falling through the sky dived towards him. He then grabbed Ash in its hands and flew up, allowing Ash to catch its pokéball. Once Ash had it he told Charizard "now let me down on that ledge there," pointing at the ledge that he was on previously. Once he was on the ledge he said "thanks Charizard, you saved me again." Charizard let out a proud sound and Ash continued "but now I want to go and see what that mountain over there is like," pointing to another mountain. Charizard made another cry and turned around, allowing Ash to get on his back. Charizard then sort of fell over the edge of the ledge as a way to take off.