Ash woke up brightly, remembered what happened yesterday, and then shook his pokemon awake. Sunlight wasn't yet streaming through the small window, but he was getting used to waking up early. Before his journey it would be miracle to get up before the sun came out. Now, it was routine.

Apep grumbled once but popped his eyes open, twitching his tail sluggishly. The rattle sounded around the room, still as dry and scratchy as ever. Neither his gold or purple had dimmed or darkened, which meant he wasn't close to evolving. He really was a younger pokemon than Ash had originally thought.

Ro immediately snapped up with the sound of the tail, eyes wide and staring. His wild instincts flared like this every so often, and Ash both enjoyed and feared them. Wild pokemon had brilliant intuitions, of course, but they also didn't know how to function in everyday society or in battles.

But they were both awake, and that was what counted. He changed quickly, dropping his old clothes into the laundry shoot. One of the many brilliant perks that came with staying in a Pokecenter.

Apep slithered over to him and poked his ankle with his nose, flicking his tongue out. Ash rolled his eyes. "Yeah, come on up buddy. But the second we start training, you're off."

The ekans shot up his leg, twining around his chest and resting his head on his shoulder. His weight was still heavy but after carrying his very full bag every day, Ash was getting more and more prepared to handle it. Although when he was an arbok, things might change. He didn't quite think he could support the much larger snake.

He'd try, anyway.

But the three of them plodded out of the room, Ash tucking two fresh potions in his pockets. For the training he'd be doing, it'd be better to keep them on him instead of having to come down and get Nurse Joy to heal his pokemon up every second.

The food court was open and almost empty except for a few random trainers, most his age or slightly over, a few pokemon littered around their feet. There was a size limit for pokemon allowed to be out in the Pokecenter, and Ro just barely fit within that height. He walked up to the vender and showed the man there his two pokemon, and was gifted with a breakfast dish for himself and two bowls of the generic pokemon food.

They ate quickly, though Apep eating right next to his ear was slightly distracting. But once they finished, he promptly left the room and went to talk to Nurse Joy.

She perked up when she saw him, smiling warmly. "Hello, Ash. Are you leaving for your journey now?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm actually planning to stay for about a week. I do have a couple of questions, though - am I allowed to go into the gym when I don't want to challenge Brock? I'd like to get his help for a few things. Also, do you know of a training field anywhere around the Pokecenter?"

"Oh!" Nurse Joy visibly brightened. "Brock would love that. All trainers do these days is go there to challenge for gym battles, and that gets very boring. Poor boy just has to sit there until someone else comes along, as he can't really train his pokemon in the off chance someone comes in. I understand that some of the larger, more famous gym leaders don't appreciate it, but I'm sure that Brock would. He's such a nice boy - you should ask about his golem. He can talk your ear off when he wants to."

"Thanks!" He left the Pokecenter with a plan.


Brock, as it turned out, greatly appreciated Ash coming over. He was still sitting in his meditative position in the middle of the darkened side of the room, and he immediately burst out into his 'welcome, trainer' speech until Ash announced who he was. The teen had shot to his feet, a real smile on his face.

"Ash! Back again so soon?" He said warmly, striding over to clasp the younger boy's hand in his own.

"Yeah." He shook back as strongly as he could. Brock's grip was rough, heavy with callouses. A fitting hand for a rock type trainer. "I was wondering if you had any extra time to help me out? I'm planning to stay here for a week, but I don't quite know what I should do-"

Brock grinned widely. "I think I could spare a minute or two."

He smiled back.

Brock, as it turned out, had a killer training regiment. He started off with looking over his pokemon, examining their claws and scales and teeth. He checked their current movesets with Ash's pokedex, glancing over their future possible moves. Then he asked them to jump, run, jog, sprint - and when he was finally satisfied, he started to command them.

Apep, of course, refused to work with him at first. The prideful snake only managed to get a rueful smile out of Brock. At least until Ro started to jog slowly at Brock's command did he shoot forward to beat his rival, determinedly moving faster.

That was the first day. The second day was what floored Ash.

He came in to see Brock stretched over the floor, a book in his hand and another by his side. The lights were on dimly and the air was cool, but no pokemon were out and the referee was probably in her relaxing room.

Ash inched toward the field just as Brock finished up his second book and asked him to release his pokemon.

Thirty minutes of sheer breeder ability.

The book he had been reading was part of a nearly 800 book long series, one written by a team of twenty people working constantly. It was called A Breeder's Guide, and every book had a different pokemon. Brock had grabbed his copy of ekans and nidoran and read through them, preparing for today.

He showed Ash everything important over his pokemon. Apep had four poison glands inside of his mouth, one behind each fang with a secondary opening in the back of his throat for the moves like Acid and Poison Sting. It constantly produced poison and when the glands were full, it released the poison into Apep's system where it was absorbed into his blood and organs.

Ro, on the other hand, had a different method. He had a secondary layer of skin, which was what accounted for his ability Poison Point. The second layer of skin acted as an enormous poison gland over his entire body, though his horn did have a poison gland of its own. The layer of skin constantly produced poison, just like Apep, and his barbs absorbed it to be able to inject opponents with contact. The rest of the poison streamlined toward his mouth, allowed him to use Toxic Spikes and the like.

It was incredible and Brock hooked him up with the website that sold the books, saying the best place to buy them was in Celadon, where there was a hearty discount for buying multiple.

Brock spent the following two days just making his pokemon go faster and faster, explaining everything he did with brilliant overdetail, making sure Ash would remember what he did. Running sprints for two minutes at a time, then three, then four, until they reached the maximum of five. Running that fast with two rather slow pokemon could hurt or stress them, and battles at this stage of their development shouldn't last more than a couple of minutes. Once they started to get stronger he should increase the length, but not yet.

Then they worked on endurance, and when Ash hesitantly suggested working on jumping, they did that too. Ash never thought that Apep would be a good jumper, but Brock only grinned and showed him something incredible that his own onix used - Iron Tail.

By charging up the move and slamming it into the ground, Apep was able to get enough of a boost to propel him upward. It wasn't very high, only a couple of feet, but that was infinitely higher than anything he had done before. The first time it had happened, Apep had hissed violently as he flew through the air, writhing before he thunked against the ground. Ash had laughed himself silly at his pokemon's disgruntled expression.

Ro, being both kingsize and gifted with very stubby legs, never really made it very far up. But that was fine for him, Brock explained. The nidoran line was destined to be tanks. They weren't fast enough to be able to dodge hits and they were powerhouses, so it was their best strategy to dodge the hardest hits but otherwise sit there and take it, dealing out blow after blow. It matched pretty well with what they did in the wild as well.

On the third day, Brock brought out a graveler.

It wasn't that large of one, but it was still at least double, maybe triple the size of the geodude Ro had fought. It grinned at them with black eyes and beat two stone fists together, stomping its feet against the ground. It was nearly up to Ash's chin and looked ready for business.

Brock told him to fight it with both Ro and Apep, to get ready for double battles.

He lost. Spectacularly. And then had to deal with the sulking Apep who hissed at anyone who dared come close to him for losing when Ro was right there.

Brock pointed out his faults, telling him where he went wrong. He had commanded too detailed of moves, acting like it was still one on one when he only had to focus on one pokemon. Ro and Apep had run into each other once when he gave them both the command to get in close and attack the legs, and the graveler had merely kicked them away without even a move. It hadn't been good for his self esteem.

But Brock helped him up after that, spending the rest of the time teaching him little tips and tricks in order to let his pokemon have more of a say, giving them basic commands and letting them run the show. The next day, when he brought out the same pokemon, he won. It was close and Ro was knocked out by a well-placed Rock Throw, but when he returned from the Pokecenter the next day there was a bright smile on his face.

Brock had a competitor that day, a bright-eyed bushy-tailed beginner who threw out an oddish. He won the battle, barely, against the geodude, but fell prey to the onix. His spearow didn't fare much better and he left the room in defeat to Brock's warm words of comfort.

Brock was just… nice. There wasn't another word to describe the man.

The next day passed quickly, testing out each of his pokemon's moves. Brock didn't have the clearest idea on how to improve both of their toxicity, but he suggested looking up diets that trainers used to teach their non-poison type pokemon poison-type moves. It might help them out but he didn't know for sure.

Ash spent one more day with the gym leader, talking for hours about different ways to train up pokemon. Brock was a veritable well of knowledge and Ash did his best to be as a sponge and soak it all up, even writing notes down on his pokedex. But all too soon the day came for him to leave in order to be able to stay at least slightly on schedule and be able to make his way to Fuschia City any time soon. The Safari Zone was opening in less than a couple of weeks, and he'd like to make it there and find a strong pokemon to catch. There were even rumors of dratini sightings, and that was enough to make him drop his previous plans and speed towards there.

However much he wanted to go nice and easy for his gym battles, he'd drop it all if there was a chance he could catch a dratini.

So he said goodbye to Brock at last, promising to call him if he caught a new rock type at Mount Moon or needed some help working with Ro. The gym leader had bonded well with the nidoran, much to Apep's displeasure. He really was the most prideful pokemon Ash had ever seen.

But he headed up to room, brushing the last remains of sleep out of his eyes. He had only stopped for a couple of minutes at the gym for last farewells before he planned to leave. Mount Moon could be out of the way in a single day, though he'd be cutting it close. He'd have to travel for a bit longer than he was used to, but it was better than trying to find a place to sleep surrounded by hundreds of wild pokemon and millions of pounds of rock. He wouldn't get a lot of action in there as well, as most trainers avoiding fighting in the mountain to avoid causing fractures or even collapses.

He checked over the room one more time, peeking his head under the bed just to make sure he hadn't missed anything. It would be just his luck to accidentally leave his pokedex here, the one thing he couldn't replace.

Apep yawned, fangs extended. He slowly slithered out from underneath the poison resistant blanket that he had made his home over their week stay at the Pokecenter. Ro preferred the harder ground, though there had been one night where he had tried out the cushiony mattress of the bed.

He had decided then and there that he would much rather sleep on the floor, and Ash had done his best to pad it with blankets and pillows. Ro had much appreciated it, though he had shoved away a few pillows that made the entire nest too lumpy.

Slipping his bag back around his shoulders, he showed the pokeball to Ro before recalling him. The pokemon still didn't like crowds all too much, and Ash would wait until he was on the route to Mount Moon before calling him back out. Apep immediately slithered up his leg and rested his head on his shoulder, as usual. Lazy snake.

Grabbing his key, he left the room.

Nurse Joy smiled at him as he handed her the key, slipping it into a slit under her desk. Her eyes were warm. "Are you finally ready to leave to Mount Moon, Ash? I've heard a rumor that there has been some pretty strong geodude around the front, if you want to catch one."

He smiled back at her. "Thanks for telling me! I'll be sure to keep an eye out. They'd be a good challenge."

"Of course, dear. Now go on the route before it gets too late!"

He left the Pokecenter with a warm feeling in his chest. The sun had barely peeked over the edge of the horizon, casting a brilliant golden hue over the tall buildings of Pewter City. Few people were out, chatting happily to each other while small pokemon ran underfoot. A persian played a fun game of tag with a growlithe while their two owners looked over the pair of them with smiles on their faces.

Route 4 started with a graveled path, one that didn't last long. The sides of the path were covered in short hrubs that were neatly trimmed, and a few had began to flower in the warm spring weather.

After a couple of minutes down the path, the gravel rapidly disappearing under his feet, he released Ro. The nidoran shook his head, peering curiously around. Ash patted his head lightly, brushing his fingers over the spines running down his back. He could feel thick muscle beneath the violet skin, muscles that had only been growing over the past couple of days. While he never would be good at speed or endurance, he had been increasing every day, and Ash was now much more sure that he would be able to keep up while they walked toward Mount Moon. There might have to be a short break inside his pokeball once in the mountain, but he believed in Ro.

Apep flicked his tongue out at the poison type, and then promptly prodded Ash with his nose. He laughed but got the message, starting to walk once again. Ro lumbered on beside them.

The route was serene. Eventually the shrubs faded away and they were blanketed by the expansive forest that coated the bottom of the mountain, both sides. It wasn't nearly as large as the one before Pewter City, but it was still substantial. Route 4, at least, was blessedly short. It might take them an hour with some change to reach the tunnel the League had carved through the mountain.

Apep eventually joined Ro on the ground, though not of his own accord. There were some disgruntled hisses as Ash unwound him, but he started to slither along beside them. Hey, Apep wasn't getting any lighter. He didn't show any signs of evolution - yet - but Ash was already keenly feeling the restocked supplies in his backpack and didn't need the extra weight of the snake.

They passed one trainer about thirty minutes in, an eleven year old with a sullen lurch in his step. Ash got the feeling he hadn't been able to make it through Mount Moon in one day. Out of both respect and slight concern, he didn't even try to ask for a battle and instead raised a hand in greeting.

But they kept going and eventually rocks started to litter the smooth dirt they were walking on, until eventually the soil cleared to make way for the thick stone of the foot of the mountain. The trees faded away until he could crane his neck back and see the top of the mountain, impossibly high above them.

He was suddenly very glad the League had decided to make the tunnel. It might take a week to climb the dang thing, and just as long to go around.

Within a few minutes, they had reached the edge of tunnel. It stretched forward, an eery black hole. A few small craters were dotted around the outside, showing recent geodudes. Maybe he'd find one that seemed strong enough to keep. It took a fair while to train them up to be golems, but they were strong pokemon. And beside, it'd give him a reason to call Brock and then bug him for more training tips.

He shouldered his bag, sucked in a deep breath, and then plunged into the darkness of Mount Moon.

Ro grunted in distaste but Apep was, by nature, a nocturnal pokemon. His eyes gleamed in the dark as he scanned the ground and ceiling, hissing when Ash stepped too close to a hole or a wall. But once he made a turn and the light behind faded away, his eyes slowly began to adjust.

It was moments like this that he wished one of his pokemon could learn fire-type moves, but he could still see the twisting formations of stalagmites and stalactites, their edges sharp. Cracks littered the walls and he could see the blank eyes of paras and parasect gleaming from within, but everytime he stepped closer they disappeared.

The temperature dropped as well and the humidity surged, though it wasn't that bad. But the entire thing gave the tunnel a thoroughly creepy feeling. The evenly interspaced lights that the League had placed helped, though they were purposely heavily dimmed and tinted blue in order to not disturb the natural pokemon. He stumbled more times than he could count in the first hour, and his hands burned slightly with the scuffed skin.

Ro nosed against his leg and he sighed but recalled him, understanding that this was not at all what the pokemon was used to. Apep, at least, would burrow when it got too cold out, though never in any holes of this size.

He didn't see any other trainers, which was strange. There would normally be at least a few. He couldn't rely on Apep's ears, as he didn't have the best of hearing, relying more on his sense of smell. It was possible he had passed trainers in the dark and not even realized it, which was weird to think about.

It was also quite, the pressing silence of the mountain solid on all sides. The scuff of his boots against the rocks seemed overly loud.

At least until an explosion rocked him to his knees.

He gasped, air pushed from his lungs, forehead brushing the ground. Apep shot toward him, curling against his legs and tensing up to hiss threateningly at the darkness all around the pair of them.

Breath sucked its way back into his lungs and he slowly stood, eyes wide and unblinking. Dust fell from the ceiling and fluttered onto his shoulders, thick and heavy. The echoing sound of crashing rocks danced around him.

A cave-in had happened somewhere. Maybe a pokemon triggered it, maybe a trainer had tried to battle, maybe the mountain just decided to give up. Either way, he was turning out to have terrible luck.

He gathered Apep back up onto his shoulders, the snake tensed and ready. Inching backward, he found his way to the last lamp and immmediately ducked into a small niche, pressing his back against the wall. He was almost hidden from the path here in case it was a wild angry pokemon. Sighing, he stroked Apep and let his eyes adjust to the dim light.

Forcing himself to wait for ten minutes, he listened carefully to all the sounds around him. No other cave-ins sounded, just the chilly silence of the mountain. A singular event then, which meant it was probably human or pokemon triggered.

It had sounded from behind him, although he couldn't really be sure. That meant if he continued forward, he could still probably get out and then tell the Pokecenter on the other side of what happened, if new trainers coming in from the Pewter City side didn't already notice it and alert someone. The League would probably come later that day and clear it all up, though it might be a while before anyone noticed.

There hadn't been a lot of trainers on the path that day.

Apep snapped to attention, and his ears picked up footsteps. Maybe another trainer-

Before he could leave his hunched position in the niche, two people walked in front of him.

Two people wearing dark black clothing with a crimson blotch on their chest, one that glinted when it caught the light. He saw a glimpse of what it was.

A giant R was emblazoned across their chest.

Blood roared in his ears, blocking out everything that the Team Rocket members in front of him were saying. They pulled a sort of strange minecart with wheels instead of track on the bottom, full of oddly shaped rocks. His breath burned its way up his throat.

And then they were gone, disappearing out of his line of sight. Their footsteps echoed in his ears for far too long a time before that slipped away too, leaving silence.

Apep tilted his head at him, confused. He could barely find the words.

"That's Team Rocket, Apep. They want to capture pokemon. They take them from trainers and torture them and make them obey them and oh god they're here-" He could hardly breathe.

The ekans stiffened instantly and just when Ash thought he'd have to restrain him from darting after the two members, he leaned down and poked his pokedex with his snout. He leaned back up and stared deeply into Ash's eyes.

He understand after a moment. Pulling it out, he winced at the bright light before turning it down to the lowest setting, immediately pulling up contacts. He pressed Brock.

A much too cheerful ringtone bounced off of the walls, and he slammed his fist on the volume button, panting with fear. Could they have heard that did they hear that

Brock didn't pick up on the first call. He punched the redial, eyes wide.

After two rings, the screen opened up to Brock's smiling face, head tilted to the side. The gym shone behind him, much too bright.

"Hey, Ash - woah. It's really dark over there, give me a second to adjust - are you in Mount Moon?"

He gasped for a second, trying to force up the words, and Brock noticed something was wrong. "Are you okay-"

"Cave-in. At Mount Moon. I don't know what caused it-" or maybe he did? What if it was Team Rocket?

"Oh! Well, that's certainly strange. Hang on, I'll call the League-"

"And Team Rocket's here."

Brock stiffened, eyes flying wide. His jaw tensed with a steel Ash hadn't expected, eyebrows narrowing in abject fury.

"I just saw two of them pass my spot. I was hiding in case it was a wild pokemon that caused the cave-in and then they walked by me. I don't think they saw me but I don't know how I'll get out of here. They were wearing black but they had that red R on their chest and I think they might have caused the cave-in."

Brock honest to god growled when he finished, growing more and more tense with each word Ash said. His voice was sharp and hard, though the anger wasn't directed at him. "Ash. You can't hide in that hole. It was just luck that stopped you from being seen the first time. How far along are you in there?"

"About an hour and a half, which means I've got another three hours left. Brock, I haven't seen any other trainers yet, do you think-"

Brock cut him off. "Don't think about that. Focus on you. I want you to try and get out of Mount Moon, come back the way you came. Ro can help dig your way out of the cave-in if it's that way, but I'll be there by that time and the League will be right behind me. Whatever you do, don't let them see you. If they're staging this big of a mission, they're going to have someone higher up overseeing the thing. If one of them sees you, you run before they can get to you."

Ash sucked in a deep breath. "I have some black clothes. Do you think I should put them on? Maybe they'll think I'm one of them from a distance or something."

He nodded grimly. "Do that, but don't count on it. You can't fight them, Ash. I know the grunts might seem easy to attack but there are a lot more of them then there are of you. Be a hero to your pokemon first."

Brock straightened up, turning his head to the side. "I'll call the League and then head out there immediately. Onix can get past the cave-in and I'll find you."

And then he hung up, and Ash was left alone in darkness once again. It seemed malevolent, like a predator stalking its prey, but he shoved it away and focused on the plan Brock had given him.

Change into black clothes, try to disguise as one of the Team Rocket members. A last ditch effort.

Head back toward where he had come, even though that was the way the members had gone.

Break through the cave-in either with Ro or with Brock's onix.

Go back to the Pokecenter, laugh about it with his mom, and then wait for the League to arrest every single one of them and get their pokemon help.

Carefully, he released Ro in the space in front of him. He immediately shushed the nidoran as he rumbled at the darkness of the tunnel. Ro stared at him curiously, head tilted to one side.

"There's some bad people in this cave, Ro," he whispered as quietly as he could. "Their name is Team Rocket. They want to capture pokemon and make them obey their commands, even by torture. They'll… do bad things if they catch us."

Ro narrowed his eyes at every new word, blowing out air angrily. He stomped his feet, though immediately stopped when Ash gestured for him to be quiet.

"So we're going to go back to Pewter City. But there's been a cave-in, and I might need you to dig through the rock, okay? I'll bring you out once we reach the cave-in."

He waited until Ro nodded before recalling him, chest tight. It was just him and Apep now, and even that was about to change. He turned to his starter, who stared back with reflective golden eyes.

"I have to recall you, too. They'll be suspicious if they see a pokemon out, and they might recognize that I'm a trainer. I swear, I'll call you out the second we're safe. But I don't want you getting hurt."

Apep looked almost betrayed as he watched the pokemon disappear in a burst of scarlet light that blinked out of existence all-too-quickly and left him clutching a pokeball. But he couldn't watch Apep or Ro get hurt. Not when he could prevent it.

Slowly, he pulled off his backpack and used the light from his pokedex to find his black clothes. The pants were everyday pants while the shirt was a long sleeve undershirt meant for heavily cold days. It felt strange stripping down in the middle of the tunnel, cold air kissing his back. But then he was suited up and ready. His backpack, thankfully, was a dark navy blue, and so it blended in well. But his skin, while tan, almost glowed in the dark when compared to the black clothes. He shoved his hands in his pockets and ducked his head to hide his face. It was the best he could get.

Heart hammering a mile ahead of his body, he stepped out of the niche and into the tunnel.

Each step was hurried as he did a strange form of inching forward and rushing at the same time. He'd move quickly, pause, listen for noises, and then rush on. Every tap of stone against stone had him freezing and the barest rustle of strange pokemon ahead had him panicking.

But he was making it, moving along and along. At the thirty minute mark, when nothing happened, he started to relax, just a little bit. Not nearly enough to pull out Ro or Apep, but he moved quicker, nearly up to the same pace he had had coming in. Brock was coming, the League was coming, Team Rocket was going. He was going to leave here fine.

He promptly rounded the corner and saw two blurry shapes on the other side.

Freezing wasn't quite the apt term. Ash nearly ceased to exist.

It was two people, black clothing faded into the darkness around them. There was a light in between the two of them, chasing away a miniscule amount of shadows on the stretch of tunnel between them. The pair of Team Rocket members - Brock had called them grunts - were talking in low tones, but he couldn't hear it over his heart pounding in his ears. It was the two from before, still pushing the minecart between them. This time, though, it was empty, which meant they had put their pile of rocks somewhere behind them. He had been walking towards their base the entire time.

He had barely entertained the thought of running when both of them froze, noticing him for the first time. They stared at each other for a second.

Last ditch resort.

"Hey!" One of them shouted, voice gruff. Masculine, older than him. "What are you doing?"

He felt his chest squeeze as his mind raced. "I'm patrolling this side for any trainers who come in." He forced his voice as low as he could, trying to stand up straighter. They had to fall for it.

The grunts kept coming forward, jerking the minecart with them. He briefly considered fleeing again, but they kept coming closer until they were only ten feet away. One was taller with broad shoulders and thick arms. The other was thinner, but their hand was already resting on the pokeball on their waist.

"But there aren't any patrols for this mission. We caved in both sides of the tunnel to stop anyone from getting in. We were all there when that happened." The man spoke again, crossing his arms.

The other person, a female, stepped forward, two dark spots that were her eyes narrowing. "Also, where is your partner? We never travel alone. That's a pretty high rule on the list."

Everything was shattering around him and he felt his panic rise, high and breathy, up his throat. "He's just a little back there, wanted to check on something-"

"And you've got two pokeballs on your waist," the female added, voice colored with suspicion. "Unless you're very high up - which I rather doubt it, considering how you're acting - you'd only have one pokemon."

"Oh, this thing?" He touched Ro's pokeball. "It's empty, grabbed one off a trainer, you know how it goes-"

The male stepped forward, pulling a pokeball off his waist. The female copied him. "You're only wearing all black. There's no symbol on your chest."

They threw their pokeballs just as he started to run.

There were two shrieks of rage but he didn't care, too busying running. He couldn't trip he had to get out of there

A streak of black flashed in front of him and he screeched to a stop, hands flying up to protect his face. The pokemon screamed in front of him, flying on two blue-purple wings. A gaping black mouth edged in four glistening fangs yawned in front of him, topped with two furious eyes.

The golbat hissed again, flapping slowly. The wind from its wings couldn't match the bone-numbing chill settling over him.

Something hit his foot and he looked down to see a tan rodent a little above his thigh grinning fiercely at his side. Its teeth glinted brightly in the light, and its claws gleamed like swords. He could see orange sparks dancing between its teeth, a Hyper Fang growing in the back of its throat.

Team Rocket was here. They wanted his pokemon. They couldn't get them.

The grunts weren't there yet. With a burst of strength he didn't think he had, he kicked the raticate over and smacked the golbat out of the air. He sprinted down the tunnel, arms pumping, mind racing, legs pounding-

"Quick Attack, raticate!" The female voice bellowed.

Something slammed into the back of his knees and he crumpled, banging down onto the stone floor. He scrabbled, desperate for purchase, but the raticate casually walked over and stood on his back, claws resting on the back of his neck.

He froze.

The grunts walked over to either side of him, the golbat perched on the male's arm. There was a cold smirk on their faces he could hear in their voice as the female ordered the raticate off his back.

They each grabbed one of his arms, hauling him up into the air. He stumbled to his feet as they pulled him toward their minecart. They let go of him for just a second, grabbing his pokedex and his pokeballs.

The female noticed the instant he tensed as she mockingly held up the two pokeballs. "Only two? And yet you thought you could challenge the power of Team Rocket. I guess trainers get more and more stupid as the years go on."

With a ease that was almost insulting, the man grabbed him and dropped him into the minecart. A few rocks they had already collected dug painfully into his back, and as he grappled to sit up they shifted under his hand.

"Proton will want to see the last trainer left in this damn mine," the female joked as she grabbed the front of minecart. The man snorted as he gripped the back, and after a second, they both began to push.

The cart rumbled over the uneven stone as he curled up inside, trying to get his bearings. The rocks shook under his body and he grabbed one, feeling the hefty weight. If he could lunge up he could throw it at their faces, and mabe distract them long enough to grab his pokeballs.

Golbat landed sharply on his raised knees, teeth glittering with the darkness of Bite. "Drop it, kid," the man warned. "Or golbat will make you."

The rock clattered to the bottom of the minecart.

Brock had said that grunts were easy to defeat, that their only strength was in numbers. But two of them were able to steal his pokemon and then get him a one-way ticket to Proton, whoever that was. He was too weak to even protect his pokemon.

Golbat hissed at him as he shifted, but it just moved slightly as he straightened his legs out as far as he could. By pressed his feet and back against the walls, it helped the shaking a little bit.

He still had his backpack, but there wasn't anything he could use inside of it. But they had said that other trainers had been in here, and Proton had wanted to see him. He didn't think they wanted to kill him, at least not yet. Moving as subtle as he could, he slipped two rocks into his bag. He'd be thankful for any sort of weapon later, if he had to fight. And he would fight.

The ride seemed much too short. Within only a few moments they took a sharp turn, crunching over a thin layer of rock. More and more light shone over the top of the cart until it was almost as bright as outside and he was blinking rapidly to try and adjust his eyes to see what was going on.

The grunts kept pushing the cart, rumbling over the ground. He stared up, seeing a rock ceiling impossibly high up. It seemed like they were in some sort of cavern, if the size meant anything. The cart started to slow until they eventually came to a complete stop. A shout echoed over the seemingly large room.

"Hey! The rule was don't come back until you've got a full cart of fossils!" The voice was low, male, and tinged in a very recognizable form of anger.

"We know, sir," the female explained. "But-" she gestured to the male, who reached in and snatched up Ash's arms, pulling him out of the minecart.

He blinked once, struggling as he was dragged out. It took him a second to regain his balance but then he was on cold ground, being stared down by someone in another Team Rocket outfit.

It was altered slightly, though. His shirt was white, though the sleeves were still black. The crimson R glimmered in the middle of his chest. Blue-green hair spilled from the sides of his head above bright green eyes, and below that rested a furious scowl that flashed into a smile.

"Ah! A newcomer!" His voice was filled with something Ash couldn't place, tinged in dark anger. "Are you a trainer?"

He managed a short head bob, not willing to take his eyes off who he guessed was Proton. The man had five pokeballs gleaming on his waist.

"My name is Executive Proton, a leader of the great Team Rocket. I'm going to guess you have no interest in joining?" He was positioned in such a casual stance that it threw Ash for a second - this man was an executive of one of the most dangerous criminal groups in the region as well as talking to a restrained trainer whose captured he had ordered.

There was a second as he tried to string the words together in his mind. He shook his head, still mute.

Proton shrugged. He accepted the two pokeballs from the female, grinning wickedly. Ash let himself get a quick glance around the room.

It was much taller than it was large, and he could easily see all sides. Lights blared from every wall, and more grunts were just as common. There was an enormous table absolutely stuffed full with pokeballs, each being inspected by a few Team Rocket members. There were also piles upon piles of the strange rocks, though in the light he could see small white designs in them.

And worst of all was the last corner, in which over fifteen trainers were huddled together, wide-eyed and surrounded by wicked looking pokemon. Golbat, raticate, weezing, koffing, arbok, and one lone ekans, hissing softly while its tail rattled. More grunts were surrounding them as well, though Proton had a clear path to watch them.

But he wasn't going to be killed. He just had to wait until Brock came, and then he could get his pokemon back.

The female froze in her act of handing Proton his pokedex, eyes flicking over the small screen. Proton scowled thunderously at her, hand outstretched, and she coughed lightly before speaking up.

"Sir, this is showing signs of him having called someone less than an hour ago, though we don't know now who or when. But it was definitely recently and while he was in Mount Moon," She said rather hesitantly.

And hesitantly seemed like the right course of action. His expression dropped all pretense of calmness and the sneer that spread across his face could have stopped a raging gyarados. He snatched the pokedex from her hand, glaring at the screen. His eyes snapped up to meet Ash's.

"Who did you call, boy?" He said softly, almost gently. It was drenched in a fury to destroy mountains.

Ash couldn't force words up. He shook his head.

Proton carefully held his pokeballs up to eye level, tightening his fist around them. "I'd suggest you choose your words very carefully."

Apep. Ro. "Brock. I called Brock."

Proton swore furiously under his breath for a single second, fists clenched and shoulders hunched. Then he popped back up, a vicious smile burned on his face. "Well then." He checked the pokedex for a second, eyes flicking over the name on top. He turned to the trainers with his arms spread.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to change our plans a bit. You see, your little hero Ash here has decided to call a gym leader, who has most likely decided to contact the League. That means that instead of letting you all run free after we finish our operation, we're going to have to hold you as prisoners until the League decides not to attack us. But don't worry! Our first showcase to the League that we mean business has already chosen himself."

With a grin, he pulled a pokeball from his waist and tossed it on the ground. In a flash of crimson, a hypno appeared.

It was large, at least as tall as Ash himself. Its pendulum swung gently between its pinched fingers, and its sharp beak carried no expression except for dull blankness. It stared up at Proton, head tilted slightly to the side.

He nodded to the two grunts on either side of Ash, who released him and stepped back. He jerked, about to run, when Proton barked out, "Psychic!"

His vision gained a peculiar bluish tinge, shading everything a light cyan. He tried to run his eyes, tried to blink, tried to move.

He couldn't so much as twitch.

His mind immediately began to burn, pounding viciously behind his eyes. Human minds weren't meant to handle psychic-type moves, especially the more powerful ones like Psychic.

Hypno tilted its head again, eyes shining the same blue. Its pendulum clicked softly back and forth.

There was no noise from any of the trainers, not that he could see them anymore. But he still had full view of Proton, who hummed to himself a soft tune as he opened up his pokedex. With a few deft taps, he pulled up contacts and pressed Brock's number.

The same cheerful ringtone rang throughout the cavern. It picked up after the second ring, and Proton held it close enough to Ash's face to look like he was the one holding the pokedex.

"Ash?" Brock asked, but this time his screen was the one that was dark and Ash was in the light. The gym leader frowned and flicked the screen once, but nothing changed. "Did you get out?"

He couldn't move, couldn't even blink to try and signal that something was wrong. Useless again.

"Hello, gym leader!" Proton crowed, faux happiness dripping over his voice. "I believe I found your wayward trainer."

Brock stiffened, eyes finally catching onto the blue outline around Ash. "Executive Proton, I presume," he said almost evenly.

"Rock type master, I'm honored," Proton said flatly. There was something gleaming in his eyes as he gestured a grunt over to hold the pokedex, staring at Brock the entire time.

Brock narrowed his already thin eyes, the light from the pokedex washing out his face. There was only darkness behind him, the rough stone of the tunnel. He appeared to be moving, running even as he talked to Proton.

"I have a deal for you, Brock." Proton grinned, slowly moving the pokedex over until it showed the dozen and a half trainers crowded in a small corner. Several sucked in deep breaths, eyes widening, at the sight of Brock but they didn't otherwise react. "Twenty little trainers will be left in this room, safe and unharmed. We'll be gone of course, and you'll have to spend such a terribly long time making sure they aren't too traumatized."

Ash still couldn't move as the pokedex swung back over to him, Proton stepping closer. Hypno came into view of Brock, eyes glimmering the same faint cyan.

"Of course, if you continue to come here at much too fast a pace, I can't promise that all of the trainers will come out unharmed. It can be so difficult to tell when a stalactite could fall from the ceiling. Mount Moon is quite unstable."

Brock was silent, the pokedex shaking slightly as he switched hands. There was a pause that seemed to stretch on forever.

"I don't think you understand," Brock finally started, but Proton snapped him off, eyes grim and breaking.

"No, I don't think you understand!"

But Brock held up a hand once again, tapping a finger over the edge of his pokedex. The screen flickered once and Proton broke off, eyes narrowed furiously.

"This is my town, Proton, my city, my place. I protect it with me and my pokemon's lives and something as simple as Team Rocket will not be the thing to break it."

Maybe it was because he was frozen with both feet pressed against the ground and unable to focus on anything else, but he felt the slight rumble through the mountain before anyone else. It started softly but quickly picked up speed, shaking the piles of rocks on the other side of the room.

Proton trailed off a furious retort, frowning. His eyes narrowed.

A boom echoed through the cavern.

He whirled, facing the front of the cave. His hand flew to the other four pokeballs on his waist.

An onix barreled through the wall and burst into the room.

It bellowed, slamming its tail into the ground even as Brock ran in behind it, eyes narrowed and powerful legs flinging him into the room. Dozens of Ace trainers poured in behind them, hands ready on pokeballs and eyes narrowed.

The two teams stared at each other, the only sound the scrape of the onix's rocks against the ground. He could barely see the edge of the League members, eyes unwillingly focused forward on Proton.

"Well then," the executive said with a voice that could have froze ice. "You certainly didn't take your sweet time getting here."

Brock cut to the chase. "Let them go, Proton," he rumbled, voice sounding like an avalanche. "And maybe you'll get a nice pillow in your cell."

"I still have the advantage here, Brock, in case you've forgotten," he snarled. His fingers curled like claws, teeth bared like a savage pokemon. This was the Executive Proton, one of the leaders of Team Rocket.

At his words, grunts everywhere tensed up and gestured to their pokemon. Trainers stiffened as golbats landed on their heads, arbok wrapped tails around bodies, and raticates bared orange-spotted fangs.

Brock stomped his foot on the ground, seemingly in anger, eyes narrowed. An ACE trainer placed a hand on his shoulder, staring in his eyes. But once both of them straightened, there was a hard gleam in Brock's eyes and the ACE trainer stepped back.

The ground rumbled again, softer this time. But it wasn't the onix that was moving, as it was still frozen over the Team Rocket grunts, scarred rocks shining. Ash recognized it as the onix he had faced in his gym battle. Neither Brock or the Ace trainers had called out any other pokemon yet.

Proton didn't notice, eyes flicking down to Brock's pokeballs, gleaming on his waist. He took one step forward and Hypno's attention snapped to him, awaiting a command. Ash tried to twitch, tried to even blink his eyes, but Hypno's eyes gleamed slightly brighter and now it was almost painful to be frozen, muscles tensed but unable to be released.

"You are going to step out of this room. Brock is going to recall his onix. You are going to wait until every single one of us has teleported out, and only then can you come back in to gather your trainers."

He turned to Ash. "And just in case you don't follow our instructions, I'll leave a reminder. Hypno-"

The ground beneath his feet shook again, the stone quivering. He frowned, just for a moment, and promptly began to sink into the ground.

There were shrieks as the Team Rocket grunts began to do the same thing, the previously hard stone turning to quicksand beneath their feet. It happened instantaneously, and where standing opponents had been there was only screaming grunts sunk up to their shoulders in dirt.

Proton stayed quiet, listening as his members shrieked bloody murder, and opened his mouth.

Brock threw out two more of his pokeballs.

An enormous golem, the likes of which he had never seen before even on TV, burst to existence in a blaze of scarlet light. It roared, landing on the ground with an earthshaking boom. An equally large rhydon bellowed as it slammed its feet into the ground, earth shaking beneath it.

Ace trainers hurled pokeballs and out came more and more powerful pokemon. He couldn't keep track of them as they immediately began to attack the grunts' pokemon. Several tried to shout commands from their spot in the ground but a powerful electabuzz burst out with the move Screech, electricity flashing over its body.

Proton thrashed once, getting Hypno's attention. "Teleport!" He bellowed, and the pokemon touched his shoulder and they both disappeared.

To his horror, the Psychic didn't fade immediately. For a few, terrified seconds he stayed there, frozen, before he slumped like a puppet without its strings and took a shuddering breath.

A chameleon with its mouth full of broiling flames darted at him, only to lunge to the side at the last second and keep running. He shuddered, catching sight of the other trainers where they were being herded out of the room by Ace trainers.

But his mind burned and ached from the Psychic and he lost his battle with consciousness. The mountain shook beneath him as he collapsed.


Ash blinked once, eyes hazy and clouded. His movements rough, he tried to reach forward and wipe the sleep from his eyes.

Something pinned his arms to his sides.

He lunged up, glowing eyes flashing in his mind. Twisting and writhing, he fought until cloths fluttered away from their confined restraints over his limbs. They were cool and slick and he felt much too hot, forehead burning. The world swirled, white on white, as his eyes slowly adjusted.

The ceiling above him was white tile, stretching down to white walls and white floors. It gave a thoroughly sterile look, though the soft brown of the wooden desk cut into that slightly. There was a bedside table to his right, where a glass of water and a small lamp rested, though it was off.

There was also a man in the room.

He had light blue robes held loosely against his body, cut loosely around his elbows and ending at his ankles. A gold marker was embroidered on his left breast, a strange swirling shape that he couldn't pick out no matter how hard he looked. The man was tall, with a narrow figure that seemed to stretch him up to the ceiling. There was a quiet calmness about the man, one that reached out and soothed everything in the room.

"Peace, child," the man said. Even his voice was smooth, almost lilting. He took a step forward, raising his hands in surrender.

"I am a psychic, sent by the gym leader of Saffron City, Sabrina. My apologies for waking you. I am here to check the possible outcomes of having the move Psychic used on you. Because you were recently subjected to a psychic move, you were able to sense me delving into your mind."

He blinked once. This psychic had been sent by Sabrina, one of the most powerful psychic-type masters in the world. But there was something else he focused on- "What outcomes could I have?"

"Nothing damaging, I hope. Psychic is a rather powerful psychic move, but we're hoping that because it was used in a non-damaging way, there may be no consequences. The way the hypno used it more affected the muscles of your body than it did your brain. There was some finesse used - by controlling nerve impulses, it stopped you from being able to send commands to move certain parts, while still leaving unconscious movements open such as breathing, heart beating, and blinking."

Ash frowned. "But I tried to blink, and I couldn't."

The psychic nodded. "The key word there is tried. When you attempt to order your brain to blink, you cannot, but when you weren't focusing on it you still blinked. Let me put it this way - we have estimated that you were under Psychic for around five to seven minute. Your eyes would have suffered severe damage from being open for that long without blinking, but they have not."

He hadn't ever really studied psychic moves, given as he hadn't spent that long of studying at all. Poison types were weak to it, he knew that, but still, hearing the way the man talked about how they worked was strange and creepy, if he was being honest.

"I will go into you mind again, if that is acceptable? You will most likely feel a slight pressure behind your eyes, though it will not hurt. At the maximum, it will last for several minutes before fading completely."

Ash nodded, staring up at the man.

The psychic raised a single hand, lowering his eyebrows. A light blue flashed over his eyes, almost cyan.

He flinched and looked away.

But the man was right - after a few seconds there was some sort of soft feeling in his head. It was more of an itch than the burn Hypno had caused, though he guessed there was a reason for that. Hypno was used to doing that move on pokemon, which had stronger mental shields and abilities than humans.

The psychic frowned and his eyes flashed again, staining the brown coloring with the blue. His eyebrows lowered and he raised a second hand, twisting his fingers in a curious manner.

Ash couldn't meet his eyes but he stared at what he was doing, blinking his eyes. The itch was growing stronger but it still didn't hurt, just a gentle pressure. It didn't throb like a headache or a brain-freeze.

The psychic suddenly drew back, slipping his power carefully out of Ash's mind. His eyes returned to normal and his arms fell to his side. "Well, that is agreeable. You have no damages done to your mind - actually, you appear to have created very thin mental shields. They won't hold up to much, I'm afraid, and it only took me a couple more seconds to slide through, but a beginning of a defense is better than nothing. If you wish, you could came to Saffron City and seek Sabrina's help. But in the meantime, I will inform Nurse Joy of your clean mental health." He nodded once before slipping out of the room, robes rustling at his feet.

Ash blinked again as the man left, propping himself up on the pillows. He eventually started to recognize the desk and the instruments on it. It was the same he had seen in the Pokecenter when he had gotten his secondary poison antidote shock.

His hand fell to his waist. There were no pokeballs there. His mind lurched and he remembered Proton's hand tightening around them, a dark gleam in his eyes, threats snapping from his mouth-

A soft beeping reached him and he looked over to see a sort of machine standing next to him, a sensor pointed at his chest. It beeped gently, but as he stared at it and his heartbeat calmed, it grew quieter and then stopped.

The door clicked open and Nurse Joy popped her head in, pink ponytails swinging by the side of her face. Her eyes brightened upon seeing him awake, and she finished walking into the room. "Hello, Ash. Are you feeling okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I guess. Am I in Pewter? The Pokecenter, I mean?"

"You're in the Pewter City Pokecenter, specifically in the recovery ward. We didn't have very many injured trainers, many only from bumps and bruises from being jostled around while they were captured. They have all already healed. You've been sleeping for about ten hours, Ash."

He blinked. "What time is it?"

"Around 9 pm. Are you sure you are feeling okay? I have a few visitors who would like to see you."

His hand fell to his waist again. "Where's my pokemon? Proton took my pokeballs. Wait- he teleported out, did he still have my-"

Nurse Joy raised a hand, a sympathetic expression on your face. "We found your ekans and nidoran with the other trainers' pokemon. They are perfectly fine, but we did not keep them in here without in case they disrupted any last healing you had to do. Your pokedex, however, was lost in the attack. We don't believe Proton was holding it - you said he teleported out? - but he might have been. It may have also been crushed by the falling rock."

"When can my pokemon come here? I want them here," he demanded, though he instantly shook his head and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, dear. I'll bring your pokemon to you as soon as you talk to these visitors. They need to get your side of the story in order to figure out what happened, as well as ask you some questions." She walked over to his side and prodded at the machine, electing several soft beeps as she pressed buttons. The scanner lit up and gave her a list of something on its screen, and she nodded happily.

"Who are the visitors? Do I know them?" He asked, fully pulling himself up to a sitting position.

"I believe you do," she said with a smile, walking back out of the room. "I'll grab them as soon as I can - they might still be talking to someone else."

And then she left, the door swinging shut with a click behind her. The machine hummed softly in the quiet left behind.

Who could try and visit him? The only person he could think of would be his mother, or Professor Oak, but they were weeks away. The professor had his alakazam but he only used her in times of real need.

It did take her a while to find his visitors. He spent his time twiddling his thumbs, staring around the room. His pokedex was gonen, which would be severely detrimental to his journey. It was not only his number one source on getting information on pokemon and how to train his, but it was also his trainer identification and the thing that let him be able to stay in Pokecenters for free.

Apep and Ro were okay. He consoled himself of that, bumping his head against the wall behind him. They hadn't even gotten in the fight, which Apep would be furious at, but that also meant that they hadn't been hurt.

The door swung open.

He sprang to attention as two people walked in, each bearing a different item in their hands.

The first was Officer Jenny, armed with a notepad and a pen. She inclined her head with a gentle smile as she immediately walked over to perch to the side of his bed, her blue hair bouncing.

Brock ducked his head as he came through, two pokeballs clenched in tight fists. There was something raw etched on his face, shoulders hunched, though he managed a grin at Ash.

The gym leader nodded his thanks to Nurse Joy, who closed the door behind the two of them. Brock settled onto the chair in the corner of the room, pokeballs set to the side and a thin black device balanced on his knees.

"Hello, Ash," Officer started. Her voice was deeper than the one he had met before and she had far more muscles on her shoulders, though there was only warmth in her voice. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Um. Yeah. A psychic came and checked me out, and I'm doing just fine."

She chuckled. "There's no need to be scared. You did the League and I a great service today, Ash. You managed to get the League there to capture a large portion of Team Rocket's forces before they had time to run away or steal anything. Without you, we might have been alerted to the cave-in tomorrow, and by that time Team Rocket would have already been gone."

A tinge of frustration and annoyance entering her voice. "But because of us, you were also attacked by an executive's pokemon. There is no way I can apologize enough for that, and for that I am sorry. If Brock had not gotten there just in time, you could have been seriously injured."

Ash tried to say "It's no problem," but Jenny cut him off. "This is a greater problem then you realize. Executive Proton did escape from Mount Moon and he is now on the loose once again. But now he knows that you have connections to the League, and could possibly be used as either bait or a trap. That is something I don't want to risk, so I am asking to use you as a… sort of cover story."

He blinked. That hadn't been what he was expecting. To be honest, he was worried about the revoking of his trainer's license, especially with his pokedex gone. "What do you mean? Like in a news article, or something?"

Jenny shook her head. "Not quite. You see, I have - as a police officer - connections to the League and their crime fighting section. I may not be the most important Officer Jenny in the world but my word holds some weight to it. There is a bounty on all of the executive's heads. They are - not to brag - rather large sums of money, but so far I haven't had anyone even trying to hunt them down. So what I'd like to do is use you as a kind of poster boy, detailing what Proton does to trainers. I won't use your name, but a detailed description of what happened and a few words from you would be greatly appreciated. The League will be able to post this across most forums and get it a lot of attention."

Ash didn't have to think about it very long. "Sure. I'm not quite sure what I'd say, but I'll do it."

Jenny grinned widely. "Perfect! I've collected a basic story from the other trainers I talked to, but would you mind telling me how you got caught? Brock's using my device to record everything to more formalize it and write a report down, so don't worry about speaking too fast."

Brock fumbled a bit as she looked over at him, but nodded and pointed to a slim recording device sat on his knee.

So he started to talk, from the very beginning. The second he heard the break in until he passed out. Jenny winced heavily when he described what Proton did to him, and Brock's head sank lower and lower until it was nearly sitting between his legs. He shot up as he remembered something, eyes wide.

Ignoring Jenny's confused look, he lunged over the side of the bed and grabbed onto his backpack. Pulling it back up onto the bed, he opened it up and stuck his hand inside.

Sure enough, there were two of the strange rocks. He pulled them out and set them in front of of Jenny. "I grabbed these two when I was in the minecart. I really don't know what they are."

Jenny frowned for a moment before her eyes cleared and she perked up. Even Brock raised his head. "Ah! Those are fossils. Using incredible technology that has only been discovered recently, we are able to revive pokemon that lived millions of years ago. It's a very shaky process, and we've have limited success, but we're getting better. I believe Brock here has reserved something or other." She scowled. "Team Rocket's had their eye on fossils for a while but this is the first time they've made a move toward them, bastards."

Jenny held up the fossils, examining them quickly for cracks or mars in their lumpy surface. "I'll take these back with me. Could be used as evidence. Continue, please."

So he slipped back into the story, feeling almost strangely detached. There wasn't much left but he still described being frozen by the Psychic and how Proton had teleported out of Mount Moon with Hypno. There was definitely not a bit of sheepishness as he told them he passed out because of the strain Psychic had put on his mind.

Jenny coughed, digging through a side pocket and pulling out a pad of paper. She flipped to the third page, eyes flicking over a few questions written down before she came in the room. "Did you happen to see, hear about, and/or learn the identities of any of his other pokemon?"

Ash shook his head.

"Any idea as to the location he teleported to?"

Another shake.

She clipped her pen to the top of the pad, slipping it into a pocket. "Well then. I'm finished up." At a motion from her, Brock switched off the recording device and handed it over to her, where she slipped it into another pocket.

"We don't have too much of a reward for you, Ash, but there is something."

He perked up as Jenny withdrew a slim black case from where she had set it on the ground, holding it out. He took it gently, marveling over the shiny surface. There was a small button, and he hesitantly pressed it.

A screen snapped to life, proudly displaying a trainer identification. Ash Ketchum.

"I know we aren't supposed to replace pokedexs after they've been lost, but hell, it wasn't your fault. Kid, if we meet again, it better be under more pleasant circumstances. Brock, I'd like to meet with you once you've finished talking, but don't worry about time."

And then she turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.

He turned to face Brock, who looked more depressed than he had thought the gym leader could look.

"What's wrong?" He asked, eyebrows lowering. "Did you get hurt? What about Onix? I didn't see her - did Team Rocket get her-"

Brock held up a hand. "No. Onix was underground long before we came in the room - she was the one to use Sand Tomb below the Team Rocket grunts. I would have done it sooner but she was still figuring out where the grunts were, as to not get trainers trapped as well. She did it perfectly," he finished. There was a slight smile on his face.

"But then what's wrong?"

Brock sighed. "Ash, I was the one to tell you to try and get out of there. If you had stayed where you were, we could have gotten in and out without anyone getting threatened by Executive Proton, which is something I could go my whole life without happening. Hell, if I had even told you to head towards Cerulean instead of Pewter, you could have used gotten a little blip in your news that said a dangerous group of criminals had been caught in Mount Moon. None of this would have happened."

"But Brock, I'm fine! Sure, I slept for a few hours-"

"Ten hours," the teen muttered sourly.

"-but I feel fine! My pokemon are okay and we got all of the trainers out. All of Team Rocket's pokemon can be rehabilitated and sent to a good trainer or the wild. We'll catch Proton next time, don't worry!"

"It's not that, Ash!" Brock nearly shouted. "A trainer died in Mount Moon!"

Ash stiffened.

"Joey Marvil. Just an eleven-year-old minding his own business when he was attacked by Team Rocket grunts. They demanded his pokemon. He said no. So they unleashed their pokemon and beat the living shit out of him. In the end, he was captured and his pokemon was taken. His injuries were so bad he bled out before he even made it to Proton. He had six pokemon on him, but only five were taken. He had his sixth, a vulpix, out to light the way through the tunnel. Even when he was being attacked by pokemon, he managed to break its ball so the vulpix could escape. But it still seems like the grunts found it. We found several vulpix tails in the tunnel, but couldn't find it in the pokeballs the grunts collected."

Ash couldn't say anything, let alone try and comfort Brock.

"So all I can think is what about if I was five minutes later, how much of that would have happened to you? To all of the other trainers? To all of their pokemon?"

"Sure, we saved most of them. But someone out there, two parents grieve over their lost child and a vulpix is slowly bleeding out in the deepest cavern of Mount Moon. And the man who did it is still out there."

Brock stopped, voice raw. Ash found words flying up his throat.

"I'll find that vulpix, Brock." The words were filled with more steel than he thought he had. "I'll find the vulpix and give it the home it deserves, and then I'll hunt down Proton and give him the home he deserves."

Eyebrows furrowing, Brock tried to speak. But Ash was on a roll.

"I'm going through Mount Moon tomorrow, the second I get a clean sheet from Nurse Joy. Then I'll save that vulpix and help it, Brock. I can do it."

There was a pause, before Brock let a small smile slide through. "I don't doubt that you could. But don't go after Proton, Ash. He's too dangerous. Leave it to the League, who can get him locked up without risking lives."

Slowly, the gym leader stood. He extended his hands, offering Ash two pokeballs. "Here they are. From what I understand, they've been briefed on what happened so you don't have to try and explain what happened to them."

Ash thanked him profusely as he took his pokeballs.

"Come see me tomorrow before you leave, okay?" Brock said, before leaving the room. His shoulders stayed hunched the entire time.

Ash started to promise but the door swung shut, snapping closed with a soft click. He was alone in the room once again. But not for much longer, as he readied the two pokeballs.

Apep and Ro appeared in a burst of scarlet sparks on the ground, immediately tensing and looking all around them. The second they looked up the bed and saw him, tucked between the blankets, they lunged.

Ro clambered onto the chair and made a leap onto the bed, his weight lifting Ash an inch into the air as he landed. Apep shot up the side of the bed, using the post to snap forward and press against Ash's cheek.

He stroked each of their heads, tears building in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, guys."

"I'm so sorry."


Ash woke up far too early to be normal. Bright blue flashed behind his eyes as he forced his breath to slow, heart beating powerfully in his chest. There was no light from the hidden overhead bulb, and the window to the outside was pitch black. He looked over to the bedside table, where someone had refilled his glass of water. Grinning, he grabbed it and drank it all down. It was slightly warm from having been sitting in his room overnight, but it still soothed his throat.

His pokedex was sitting right next to it. He grabbed it and checked the time, eyes narrowed.

3:47 am.

He normally woke up at six-ish.

Apep stirred slightly, yawning from his position curled over Ash's chest. His head was tucked inside of his coil, tail slipped on the outside in order to be able to warn off predators by rattling it. He stopped moving, still holding the pokedex, and eventually the ekans settled back down.

Ro's eyes had shot open the second he had moved, though he didn't get up. Red eyes glowed slightly in the darkened room, though his barbs stayed below his skin and his posture was relaxed. He was slowly calming down more and more in the mornings, though he still woke up at the first movement.

"Go back to sleep, Ro," he whispered, reaching for to stroke the head of his nidoran, who was curled up by his feet. "I'm just checking the pokedex for some things."

He closed his eyes, ears falling back down from their perked position. The nidoran eventually fell back into a slumber.

Ash sighed softly, brushing his fingertips against Apep's scales. They were warm, though that was probably because the snake had stolen his body heat. He bet that the snake would love to have a vulpix on the team to keep him warm.

The vulpix.

It was lost in Mount Moon, possibly heavily injured. There was no telling where it could be, and now that he was thinking about it there was a very small chance he would actually be able to find it in the deep caverns of Mount Moon. His only way of finding it would be to comb through every area.

But he had promised Brock, and he would find that vulpix. An innocent pokemon like that didn't deserve to suffer.

He pulled up the pokedex, going back to his individual pages for Apep and Ro. There was basic knowledge on there, and he smiled as he noticed a few extra notes. Professor Oak took new trainers under his wing every month and tried to give every single trainer a pokedex because of one amazing feature - their ability to collect data. By just owning an ekans and a nidoran, his pokedex collected data on them and tried to learn more about their species. Of course, for the most common species like pidgey, rattata, and spearow there wasn't much else to learn, but most trainers got at least a few notes on every pokemon they collected. And Professor Oak used all of it.

He still remembered the moment that Professor Oak had realized that one of his trainers had caught a dratini and his pokedex was taking notes on one of the rarest pokemon in Kanto. The man's celebration had been heard all throughout town and continued on for several years as the dratini grew and evolved.

Ekans, of course, were common, but simple little things he learned could help take down Team Rocket. He still remembered the arbok and ekans the grunts had used, and if he learned a technique to stop them easily, he would be able to fight back against the criminal organization that had hurt so many trainers and pokemon.

He scanned over the page, but nothing new had been added. Just a few facts about sluggishness when cold, nocturnal eyes, and slow growth. Ro was much the same, though he had checked their page only two days ago. There really hadn't been enough time to discover another fact on them.

So instead, he settled deeper into his bed and pulled up the search bar. He'd find out all he could about Mount Moon once again, and maybe even find a map. He wouldn't jump in unprepared again.

By the time he glanced up at the time again, it was six. Yawning softly but fully awake, he nudged Ro with his foot. The nidoran popped awake, glaring softly at him while he lumbered to his feet. His barbs extended in a sort of stretch, though they retreated the next second. He inched closer to the side of the bed, searching for the best place to jump down on.

Apep ignored the first few pokes, so Ash pushed him off of his chest. The snake hissed, annoyed, but shook himself a few times and slithered off the bed.

Ash got up as well, giving his legs a few moments to catch up. He had slept for nearly sixteen hours yesterday when he was used to about seven hours, and he felt almost rubbery as he slowly walked around.

But he smiled at the thin beams of light escaping over the edge of the horizon as he checked the contents of his bag, noticing nothing missing. There were a few shards of rock from where the fossils had chipped, but he kept them inside. A sort of souvenir, he guessed. Although it was from a pretty crappy experience. He grabbed a change of clothes and put them on quickly.

The door was unlocked, so he let Apep crawl up his side and latch himself firmly around the waist. Honestly, the snake was pampered.

He pushed the door open and was greeted with a hallway just as sterile as the room he had been in, all white tiles. There were two more doors on either side, presumably more recovery rooms for trainers and pokemon alike. Each door was marked with a green paper that read 'unoccupied'. He had a yellow one on his that said 'nearly recovered'.

Walking down the hallway, he took a sharp turn right and found himself at another door, which he pushed open. It emerged behind Nurse Joy's desk.

He squeaked as she spun around to face him, eyes narrowed. But her expression cleared and brightened as she recognized who he was, scowl melting into a warm smile. "Ash! I didn't expect you up for a bit. What are you doing here?"

"I was coming to find you, actually. Am I clear to go? I mean, like back on the route as a trainer?"

Her lips were pursed, but she nodded. "Technically, yes. You have a clean bill of both psychic and physical health, and your pokemon are in tip-top shape. But I was hoping you might be convinced to stay another day just to be absolutely sure that you are recovering mentally from what happened, Ash. Is there any way I could get you to stay - baring locking you in your room, of course?"

He winced. "No, Nurse Joy. I have to leave. Brock said there's an injured vulpix in Mount Moon and I want to go save it. I don't want it to die in there."

"I guessed you would say that." She sighed. "Is there anything else I can do for you then, dear?"

He nearly shook his head before a thought sprung to him. "Actually, can I have a Mount Moon flashlight? The one the League created?"

She nodded, walking out from around her desk and carefully leading him toward a small gate that released him back into the main portion of the Pokecenter. Nurse Joy headed toward another desk on the other side of the room, one with helpful things in boxes all around. Ash saw potions, revives, rope, pokeballs, and even three max revives protected under a glass case. Gym leaders got them for free in order to be able to heal their pokemon up for the next gym battle, but they were ridiculously expensive for regular trainers to buy, nearly the price of eight regular potions.

Nurse Joy leaned under the counter and pulled out a thin black flashlight, one with a cheerful 'League approved and made!' stick on the front. She peeled it off and offered it to him. "That'll be thirty dollars, though extra batteries are five for two."

He dug through his bag until he had thirty-five dollars, handing it over to her. There was a hook on the edge of the flashlight that allowed it to be hooked on a trainer belt, which he did so. The batteries were dumped in his bag.

"Well, dear. I hope you have a much better experience going through Mount Moon, and do try and stay out of trouble." She walked back over to her desk, smiling gently at him and waving goodbye.

"I'll try, Nurse Joy." And then he left the Pokecenter, the morning breeze glancing off his clothes.

Brock had wanted him to visit him before he left and he was definitely going to check in with the gym leader. He walked quickly toward the gym, having easily memorized the path after spending a week heading straight there every morning. Only a few people were out and he distantly remembered that it was a Monday, and most people were at their work. That explained the silence settling over the town.

He paused right before the door, checking the time on his pokedex. It was only 6:30, and Brock's gym opened at around nine. Was there a chance he had left it open for Ash to visit, or would he have to wait.

Luck was on his side as he knocked on the door, and after a moment the electronics kicked in and it swung open. The lights were on inside, showcasing the still incredibly impressive arena. He walked inside, jumping forward to avoid the door catching on his heels. Ro grumbled at it.

Ash walked in, looking around. It took him a second but he spotted Brock sitting in his usual position rather close to the door, near where the referee stood and commanded over the matches.

As he got closer, Brock heard his footsteps and stood up. He seemed to have gotten a full night of sleep, though light bags still circled under his eyes. "Hello, Ash. Are you going to Mount Moon after this?"

He smiled. "Yes. I'm going to find that vulpix."

Brock sighed, but there was a light grin playing over his lips. "I knew you were going to say that, so I'm going to tell you everything we know." There was a pokedex in his hand, a light grey one that looked made of much, much higher tech than the one Ash had around his waist. Probably a fancy League sanctioned one that hadn't been released to the public yet, and he found he was slightly jealous.

"She's female and a juvenile. Definitely not a baby but not an adult either, though Joey's pokedex said that she was pretty powerful. Her known moves are Ember, Quick Attack, Tail Whip, and Will-O-Wisp. She was working on Flamethrower, though she hadn't mastered it yet. Joey gave her a TM, Energy Ball, which is a grass-type move. He noted that she's pretty headstrong normally, but gets a bit skittish in battles against larger pokemon. Apparently, he caught her pretty early on in his journey and they had bonded well." Brock frowned, scrolling down. "We found several patches of blood as well as-" he sucked in a deep breath "-several vulpix tails. They appeared to be bitten off by a raticate using Hyper Fang, though we aren't positive."

There was no offer for pictures, and Ash was very glad. "Is there any way you know where she went?"

Brock shook his head. "No. Our only guess is that she stayed off of the main path as she probably heard us or Team Rocket grunts walking along there, so she might have gone in the lower cave system. She'd probably be trying to find a way to the outside but we don't know where she might be other than that."

"Okay." He nodded his head. "I've got the whole day to find her. I'll make sure she's safe, Brock."

There was a rueful smile on his face. "You've already promised me that, Ash. I don't doubt it. But still be careful when you find her - she's going to be very scared and might attack out of fear. Try your hardest not to fight back too had, or else she might never trust you."

Ash nodded. He shook the gym leader's hand and turned to have, but something niggled in his mind. "Hey Brock? I just have one question."

Brock gestured for him to go on.

"I couldn't see that well, but I could have sworn there were a few pokemon from the abra line in the fight, from the Ace trainers. Why did you guys just teleport in inside of running all the way through Mount Moon? Would it have been so much faster, even though it would have taken a few trips?"

"See, well." Brock frowned, hunting for the right words. "Teleporting is a tricky business. Take, for instance, you're trying to land a paper ball in a trash can, okay? If it makes it in, you teleported correctly."

"For pokemon, there is one major factor of teleporting correctly; if they have been there before. If, say, you asked a kadabra to teleport you to a Pokecenter from a previous town that it had already seen, it had already been at, and it had already sensed the psychic energy there, that would be like dropping the paper ball directly into the trash can. The only way it could miss would be because of outside circumstances, like attacking pokemon or incredible fagitute. But let's say the pokemon hadn't been there before. That's like throwing the ball from several feet away. Yes, there's a chance you could hit it, but there's also a very high chance you would miss."

"Now, several of our Ace trainers had powerful enough psychic pokemon to transport a fair chunk of our forces directly into Mount Moon. But their pokemon hadn't ever been there before, as psychic types are found in the more far away reaches of Kanto. So already it was going to be difficult to try and teleport there. Now realize that the tunnels of Mount Moon are rather small. That shrinks the size of the trashcan down to a cup. A single error could have us teleport inside of the mountain, in the rock, where things would have gotten bad fast. Teleportation is only a truly safe option when the pokemon has been there before."

Ash blinked. Well, that definitely made sense. He had really not done enough research on psychic pokemon. "Thanks."

Brock scratched Ro's head gently, who rumbled happily and pressed his nose into the man's palm. Apep hissed softly but Ash just flicked his nose, a grin on his face. Prideful little bugger.

They said their goodbyes and then Ash left, letting the electronic doors swing shut behind him. The sun was almost halfway over the horizon now, casting a warm golden glow over the buildings of Pewter City. The stones of the cobbled street seemed to shine under his feet as he walked toward Route 4.

It was time to do this once again. He could almost guarantee he wouldn't run into any trainers on his journey through it, except for maybe when he got out on the other side. Even rumors of Team Rocket were enough to keep people away, and when Jenny released her report and the new bounty papers, trainers would definitely keep their distance from Mount Moon for a couple of days. While it would be annoying to have a lack of people to train against, it would be nice to be able to train his pokemon all the harder.

He didn't quite know what Nurse Joy had told the two of them, but there had been a steely glint in both of their eyes. To be honest, he couldn't wait to see what they threw into their training sessions now.

Once again, he stepped onto the graveled path of Route 4, feeling the crunch under his boots. The shrubs still gleamed on the side of the road.

He took Apep off from around him almost immediately, ignoring the snake's annoyed hiss. "Keep me from crashing, okay guys? I want to check over something." Ro stepped closer to his legs, subtly pushing him a little farther away from the side of the route.

Ash pulled out his pokedex, flicking up the news section. His mom would probably have a fit as he hadn't checked it in over a week, but he wanted to know now whether the League had released the report. He couldn't lie - he was very curious to see how they released Proton's new bounty.

There wasn't anything up except for two pokemon sightings - a large swarm of ariados had been spotted around Fuschia City and the League warned people away from Route 25, as a rhyhorn had evolved recently by itself and had been hunting down the rest of its herd. Possible violence could occur if trainers tried to battle it before it could figure out its strength with the other members of its herd.

But nothing else. He sighed but slipped it back on his belt, patting Ro on the head and earning a happy thrum in response.

The forty-five minute route faded away quickly and once again he stared up at the imposing colossus of Mount Moon, solid grey stone stretching up to the sky. There was a small smile on his face.

Here he goes again.

The gaping opening of the tunnel was pitch black but once he pulled out his flashlight and flicked it on, it switched to a gentle grey. The League had designed the flashlight to be similar to the lights they had already put in the mountain, the same dim and blue shade, though the flashlight was a bit stronger.

He walked in, trying to push confidence into his stance. To his surprise, both Apep and Ro rushed in, Apep going ahead of his and Ro keep the area behind. A chuckle sprang to his lips. Now he had two bodyguards who seemed quite determined to keep him safe within the mountain.

The darkness crept in on either side and behind him, but the path in front was reasonably lit up by the flashlight. It was so much better this time around - he cursed his yesterday self for convincing himself that no, he didn't need a flashlight! That's what novice trainers did after all!

He was still a novice trainer, and by Arceus, he was going to use the damn flashlight.

Within the first couple of minutes, he could see evidence from the cave-in. There were scattered piles of rocks and the walls were heavily scarred and broken. But it seemed stable enough and he walked through quickly.

The wild pokemon were back. Paras openly walked across the path instead of hiding in the walls, though they scuttled back when his flashlight fell over them. Geodude glared at him from their position on the ground, though they didn't bother him if he didn't bother them. He could hear the high-pitched click of echolocation as dozens of zubat rustled together up on the ceiling. There was one sandshrew he was sorely tempted to catch, but it immediately dug itself into the ground when he got too close.

About an hour in, his flashlight caught sight of something slumped on the side of the path. He jerked forward, landing on his knees. It was purple-black, and as he turned it over he could see that it was a zubat.

But a terribly burnt zubat.

All of its fur was either singed or burnt off, its wings covered in a thick coat of ash. One of its fangs was blackened, and its feet were peeling.

He grabbed a potion from his bag and dumped it over the pokemon, watching burns stitch themselves back together before his eyes. The fur would take up to a week to grow back and its fang might fall out, but it would survive. He hurriedly stood and backed away, not wanting to be that close when it woke up.

It slowly raised its head, screeching softly to use echolocation. After a second, it must have sensed Ash, because it flapped its wings and took off. It flew back up to the ceiling to nest with its family, though the movement obviously pained it. The pokemon was resilient, if nothing else.

But he didn't know of any pokemon in Mount Moon that could use fire-type moves. There were clefairy of course that could use Metronome, but stereotypes aside, fairy type pokemon were very docile and only attacked when threatened. To have only one zubat attack the most powerful pokemon in the mountain didn't make any sense.

So left only one pokemon that was currently wandering the caverns with fire type energy burning beneath her skin.

The vulpix was close.

The zubat had been injured, perhaps not recently, but it certainly had been less than two hours ago. After attacking the pokemon, the vulpix would probably have fled deeper in the mountain to avoid attracting the rest of the zubat to attack her.

So he readied his flashlight and walked on, keeping Apep and Ro close to him. The vulpix was powerful and scared.

Fifteen minutes later, he found a crack in the stone. It had widened over the years, forming a side path that probably led to the lower caverns of Mount Moon. Trainers were warned from going on these paths as the chance of getting lost was very real, and the League didn't yet have a surefire way of finding lost trainers.

But that was the most likely route that the vulpix would have gone on, so he determinedly shined his flashlight into the path and moved forward.

It was a rather tight fit, and he had to turn sideways and squeeze through in order to be able to get through. Apep had no problem and though Ro grumbled in annoyance, he was able to get through with minimal effort.

They walked on, stepping carefully. The humidity rose startlingly high the deep they walked, the walls slicked with water. He had heard stories of underground lakes holding strange pokemon and wondered if they were getting close to finding one.

There were more signs of wild pokemon here, small craters from geodude and slashes in the stone from sandshrew claws. A few mushrooms planted by paras showed up and even a handprint in the wall from a graveler showed up, which Ash was relieved to find very old. He had heard rumors of a monster golem that wandered the halls of Mount Moon, preying on hapless trainers. He didn't really believe it, but the story had kept him up at night when he was much younger.

There were also no lamps, so they only had to rely on his flashlight to be able to see what was in front of him. Apep nudged him when he almost stepped into a wall, his nocturnal eyes gleaming in the dark.

But it came as a bit of a surprise to all of them when the path in front of them started to light up.

Ash frowned, stepping forward. Apep titled his head to the side, sticking his tongue out. Ro grumbled, a few of his barbs sliding out. The glow was coming from around a corner in the path, shaded a light yellow and orange. Almost like fire.

Hope rising impossibly high, he walked the last few steps and peeked his head around the stone.

Standing in the middle of the path, head whipping back and forth, was a vulpix.

Ash barely hid his gasp in, scanning over the pokemon.

She had the lustrous red fur vulpix were known for, neatly brushed back over her body. Her eyes were a light grey, the pupils huge and adorable. Inside of her mouth gleamed a thin ball of fire, lighting the path up with flickering yellow light.

But that was where the good things ended.

Vulpix had one tail when they were born. Within the first week it doubled, then doubled again in a couple of days. By the time they were a month old, they had six thick, beautiful tails that they used to release excess heat.

This vulpix had three tails.

Her back was covered in scars, including three terrible ones where her tails should have been. He could see the fang marks from the raticate carved over her fur, the marks white. But the strangest thing was that the wounds seemed to be almost cauterized, though they should have still been bleeding or maybe scabbed at this point. There was another cut along her front leg, curving up to her shoulder. But he couldn't pull his eyes away from the three missing tails, the scars bright.

At least until she caught sight of him.

Her eyes widened for a second before they narrowed furiously. She settled into a battle stance, teeth bared.

He stepped fully out into the path, raising his hands in the sign of peace. There was an empty pokeball on his belt but he didn't reach for it, moving slowly and sitting down. "Hey, girl," he said soothingly, keeping his voice low.

She didn't move, but she also didn't attack him.

"I'm here to help. You've been really hurt by Team Rocket and I want you to get healed, okay? I know you're scared and you don't know what to do, but let me help you. I swear, I'll do everything I can do get you help."

She snarled deep in her chest, shaking her head. The fire in her mouth died slightly as she sucked in an enormous breath, staring at him with narrowed eyes.

Ro jumped in front of him just as she spat a wall of fire at him.

The flames roared, slamming into Ro's back as the nidoran grunted with pain. Ash could feel the heat rising to burning temperatures even as the fire slowly died, leaving him and Ro in a darkened tunnel.

He stroked Ro, wincing at the blackened marks on his back, the purple skin hidden beneath thick layers of soot and burns. Digging through his backpack, he pulled out another potion from his rapidly dwindling stash and dumped all of it on Ro, who rumbled contentedly as the burns retreated beneath his skin. Ash brushed away the soot, eyes wide.

Brock had said that the vulpix hadn't mastered Flamethrower yet. But the amount of fire he had seen could only be compared to a full power Inferno, one of the strongest fire-type moves pokemon could learn.

He stood back up, staring wide-eyed at the direction the vulpix had fled to. It was deeper into the tunnel but he could still see a gleam of light, from where she had gone to, the only way he could find her.

"Come on guys! We have to go!" He urged, starting to run down the tunnel. Apep and Ro raced on both sides of him.

They ran through the stone, his flashlight's beam jerking wildly with his lumping arms. But the glow from the vulpix grew stronger and stronger as he raced on, and he prayed he was getting closer.

She had been so scared, and using that amount of power - no matter how she got it, he was still puzzling that out - would have exhausted her quickly. If she passed out, there was no telling what the wild pokemon would do to her.

His ears perked up as a quiet shriek of pain raced through the tunnel of him. It had to be the vulpix. Was she being attacked? He gritted his teeth and picked up speed, forcing his legs to move faster. The light grew stronger, flickering wildly.

He exploded around another corner and found the vulpix once again, but this time she was scared.

She had run into a niche, thinking it was another corner. But now he frowned - why didn't she just run out? Her eyes had flicked up to him as he had rounded the corner, so she knew he was there - so then why didn't she leave and kept running?

The answer came quickly.

With the humidity so high, water had condensed on the ceiling of the niche, slowly dripping down. A drop fell in front of the vulpix, and she hissed at it, backing up as far as she could go with her back pressed against the wall.

She was scared of water. It made sense - she was a fire type and had an inherent weakness to it. But a few drops would, at most, make her uncomfortable. It shouldn't trigger this response of fear.

A drop of water landed on her back.

The vulpix shrieked again, collapsing on the ground. Steam hissed from her back and though she struggled to her feet the next second, she looked ready to pass out.

Ash immediately leapt forward and stood over her, covering her body with his back. Water splashed onto his back, freezing and horribly soaking through his clothes, but it didn't land on her. She trembled violently as more drops landed around the two of them, curling into the tiniest ball that she could. After a long moment, she looked up at him with an unreadable expression, eyes wide with fear.

"Please let me help you," he said, pushing forward as much compassion as he could. "I want to help you."

There was a terribly long pause, before the vulpix shakily nodded. He carefully withdrew his empty pokeball, moving painstakingly slow to keep the water off of her. He made sure to show her the ball before he gently touched her back with it.

She disappeared in a burst of scarlet light that lit up the tunnel for a brief second before swirling out of existence. The pokeball shook once, seemingly out of instinct, before falling still against the ground. It clicked.

Ash let out a long breath, eyes wide. He had caught another pokemon, one that had something seriously wrong with it. Not only did she have three of her tails bitten off, but she had incredible power that he had no idea where she had gotten it from. A single drop of water and sent her to her knees and she had barely been able to stand.

He slowly walked out of the niche, shaking himself. His back was much too cold and wet and he could feel a thin trail of water slipping down his spine.

Apep reared up, poking his nose at the pokeball in Ash's hand. His tongue flicked out, head tilted. Ro walked forward as well, rumbling softly.

Ash let them smell the ball, before standing fully back up. "Guys, can you lead me back to the path? We need to get out of here and check out what's wrong with her. She could be really hurt."

Apep nodded, turning back around. Ash clipped the pokeball to his waist, running his fingers over the surface, before picking his flashlight up from where he had dropped it and pointing it at the snake. At his signal, they started to move once again.

It took Apep no time at all to lead them back the way they had come, using his incredible sense of smell to take them through the lower caverns and back up to the main path. By Ash's guess, they had about two hours left before they reached the other side of Mount Moon. All he could do during that time was think.

The vulpix hadn't seemed aggressive, it had seemed scared. The Flamethrower had been aimed slightly above his head and she had given him ample time to let Ro come in and take the hit for him. At the thought, he reached down and stroked over Ro's spines, brushing away any last hints of miscoloring.

The nidoran rumbled up at him.

Eventually, he had thought about everything he knew of the vulpix and he just walked along, starting to come up with strategies. With her reaction to water, there was no way he was putting her anywhere near the Cerulean City gym, even if he could figure out what had caused her to react that way. She had been terrified.

But the kind of power she had would be incredible in any fight. Flamethrower hadn't hurt Ro that much, but she hadn't actually been aiming for them, and she had run away right after she used it. The fact that the flames lasted for longer than she had used them spoke enough for the strength of the move.

Either Brock didn't know enough about what Joey Marvil had thought her, or something else was going on.

But she was going to be-

Ro bumped him as he nearly slammed into the stone wall. He jerked, blinking rapidly as sunlight streamed into his eyes. Just twenty feet away stood the exit to Mount Moon, his flashlight nonexistent as compared to the brilliance of the light. He switched it off, clipping it back to his belt.

They walked quickly until they emerged out of the darkness of the tunnel, the sunlight kissing his skin with warmth that felt fantastic. With the humidity of the cave, his shirt had only barely started drying, but he could already feel it warming up under the sun.

The other side of Mount Moon was a thin stone platform with a sign on a stick near the entrance. He eyed it curiously, reading over the slightly weathered words written on its plastic surface.

Mount Moon lies ahead. Trainers, make sure to keep plenty of food and water on you - the tunnel within is longer than you think!

For those exiting, Cerulean City is about a day's travel away.

Well. The sign was nice, though he wondered why they didn't have one like that on the Pewter City side.

From where he was, he starred over the area in front of him. It was heavily cloaked in forest, but he could see breaks where ponds and rivers raced between the trees. A blip on the horizon showed a gleaming silver city, and beyond that was another shining expanse of forest green.

He checked his pokedex. It was around two. He'd travel until six today and then work on some training, before getting the major part of the traveling done tomorrow. But first, he had to talk to the vulpix.

Quickly jogging down the path, he found a reasonably clear clearing within viewing distance of the path, only a few minutes from Mount Moon. He sat down on a small rock, pulling out his bag.

The last two of his potions were sat on the rock next to him, and he pulled out several small bags of food. He offered three to his pokemon, one to Apep and two to Ro. They were the League portions for small pokemon, but he (stupidly) hadn't decided to upgrade to medium sized pokemon for Ro. With him being kingsize, he had to eat a whole size larger than he was, or two of the smaller ones. He had brought enough for about five pokemon on this short trip just in case he found another pokemon instead of just the vulpix.

Apep hissed happily with the food, digging in. Ro grunted as he wolfed down his two bags faster than Apep finished one. Ash pulled out a simple high-protein bar and a bag of nuts, munching on them quickly and stuffing the package back into his bag.

"Okay, guys. I'm going to call the vulpix back out? No matter what happens, you don't attack her or try to trap her."

They both nodded at him, Ro blowing a puff of air through his nostrils. Apep stretched out in the sun, warming his scales on the ground. Ro settled himself into a more relaxed position, ears perked up and twitching.

Ash gently tossed out the pokeball.

In a flash of red, the vulpix appeared. She was standing but her legs were shaking, eyes almost half lidded. If Ash hadn't been there, he would have thought that she had been beaten done by Lance's dragonite, not a drop of water.

But she immediately looked up, staring at the warm sun. Her fur almost seemed to glow and Ash distantly remembered in all of his studying for charmander that warm days made fire-type moves stronger.

"Hey, girl," he said softly, getting her attention. She narrowed her eyes at him, but stayed standing tall. The only hint of her uneasiness was the tenseness of her legs. "I've got some potions here. Do you want me to put them on you?"

Her ears perked up and she hesitantly took a few steps closer, grey eyes flicking up to his. She sniffed the potions suspiciously before nodding at him.

He uncapped one of them and poured it over her back, being careful to put a fair amount over the spot where her tails should be. The scars closed up even more, fading from a bright white to a gentle pink, though they didn't go away. Her legs straightened and she stood up taller, seeming to feel much better.

But he gaped as he witnessed a small amount of steam to trickle into the atmosphere. Potions were designed to be able to withstand incredible temperatures to heal pokemon, and this vulpix had just evaporated some of it.

Ash quickly pulled out a jar from his bag, pulling out an oran berry from within. He placed it on his palm and offered it to her, and she narrowed her eyes but grabbed it from him. He could feel the heat from her fur.

"May I scan you, please?" He asked softly, touching his pokedex. She looked up and nodded, shaking herself. Her three tails stood up, and he could see knots and tangles over their surface. He'd have to get a brush in Cerulean.

Pulling out his pokedex, he aimed the scanner at her and clicked it on. Within a second, a screen popped up.

Vulpix, the fox pokemon. Vulpix have six long tails that they use to release excess heat from their inner flame, which is in their chest and never goes out. They are occasionally skittish pokemon who are known for playing dead when faced with a dangerous enemy.

This pokemon is female with no held item. She knows the moves Ember, Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Will-O-Wisp, and Flamethrower. Her ability is Flash Fire, which causes all fire-type moves that hit her to boost her attack.

He frowned at the Flamethrower listed. The power she had put into her attack should have taught her Inferno-

Another screen popped up, this one bolded and containing a link straight to Professor Oak.

Attention! Your vulpix has another ability, Flame Body, which burns all pokemon who come in contact with her. This ability is impossible for vulpix to have. Please contact Professor Samuel Oak at the earliest possible moment.

His eyebrows shot up. Flame Body.

"You have two abilities," he said almost weakly. It was heard of for pokemon to unlock their secret ability, but that was only champion-level pokemon that ever managed to get to that level. And she had gotten an ability that wasn't even possible for her species to get - something important enough the League wanted him to call Professor Oak.

She looked at him with a very confused expression, head tilted.

He shook his head. "Vulpix, I need to make you a deal. If you join my team, I will help you learn to control your fire powers. And I will help you get revenge on Team Rocket."

There was an instant baring of her teeth and more fire flickered around her tails, fury bubbling into her eyes. The next second, she stared up at him, something bright and raw. After a moment, she nodded.

Ash jumped to his feet and cheered, nearly shocking her out of her skin. She hissed and as she leaped back, he noticed four burnt marks in the grass, right in the places where her paws had been.

He leaned back down. "I'm sorry I scared you. Would you like a nickname?"

Vulpix froze and he suddenly remembered that he wasn't her first trainer. She had had someone before him, someone who had taken her from the wild and raised her up from her weaker stages. She might have already had a nickname that Joey had called her everyday as she woke up and battled.

He was less than surprised when she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Vulpix. Would you like some food?"

She perked right back up, and he remembered she probably hadn't eaten in two days. He immediately dug through his bag, pulling out two bags of food. She scarfed it down like she was dying.

He knelt next to her, shifting into a cross-legged position. She peered at him, blinking her grey eyes.

"I'm going to call Professor Oak, okay? Do you know him?"

There was a pause before she nodded, tails flicking.

"We're going to talk and try to figure out how to help you, girl. It shouldn't take that long." With that, he pulled up his pokedex and flicked to his contacts. The screen with Professor Oak's contact on it had faded, but every trainer started with two number for emergencies - the League Helpline and Professor Oak's.

He pressed the button and watched as the screen faded to black, the same cheerful ringtone dancing through the clearing. It was quickly becoming his least favourite sound in the entire world.

Vulpix sniffed at his pokedex. Apep slithered forward slightly and she glared darkly at the ekans, who seemed challenged. Ash snapped his fingers in front of his nose, stopping the snake from coming any farther forward. Ro stayed where he was, sitting on the ground with his ears perked.

After a few seconds, the screen snapped from black to the professor's face, who smiled genially at Ash. "Hello, my boy! What brings you to call me? I'll admit, it's has been quite a while since any one has called me on my pokedex."

Ash smiled back at him, shifting his pokedex to one hand. "Well, Professor, I caught a new pokemon and I'd like some help with her."

Professor Oak nodded, eyes looking to the side. "I've got your Trainer ID pulled up her. This says you have a vulpix? Where on earth did you find one near Mount Moon? I thought they were found later in Kanto."

He paused for a moment too long. "Professor, do you know what happened on Mount Moon yesterday?"

The man's expression darkened. "Yes, I do. I'm very proud of you, Ash, but you never should of had to be in that position."

He shook his head. "There's nothing we can do about that now. But did you hear about Joey Marvil?"

Professor Oak's face darkened farther into sorrow. "I knew him. He was a very caring boy - he called me every single time his pokemon had something wrong with them just to see whether he could help them. His ivysaur was tremendously powerful, even when it was still a bulbasaur."

"Well, one of his pokemon managed to escape. A vulpix. And I managed to catch it in the lower caverns, but there's a problem."

Professor Oak stopped in his celebrating of him. "What sort of problem? Vulpix are more docile breeds, I can't see any after-battle aggression lasting longer than a couple of days, and with some loving care it should fade much faster than that."

"No, it's-" he stopped his explanation and simply lifted the pokedex to show Vulpix to the professor.

The man stopped short at the sight of her tails, or more specifically the missing ones. His eyes narrowed. "How did this happen?"

"A raticate bit them off with Hyper Fang, but she managed to get away and Joey broke her pokeball. She ran away and I managed to find his this morning. But here's the problem - she has two abilities."

Professor Oak frowned. "Did the stress of the fight unlock her hidden ability? I would take her to a Pokecenter pretty soon. Not only is Drought a difficult ability to handle, but there might be problems from getting her ability so young and under attack. Do you have an experience with Sunny Day? That might help her to be able to control her ability even when she's not in battle to lessen the effects-"

"Professor!" Ash shouted for the third time. The man startled, smiling sheepishly as he realized Ash had been trying to get his attention.

"My apologies, Ash. But what seems to be the problem? I would have thought you'd have jumped for the opportunity to get such a powerful pokemon."

"Her second ability is Flame Body. I don't know how she got it, and the League even notified by to talk to you about it. Brock had said she hadn't mastered Flamethrower yet but she attacked me in the caverns and it was powerful enough to be an Inferno. Her fire moves are incredible, but when she was in the caves, a drop of water landed on her back and she was nearly knocked out. I just don't know what's wrong."

Professor Oak frowned again, pursing his lips. "Ash, there's not much I can do right now without being there to test some things. How about this - you keep going on to Cerulean City and then immediately head up to Route 24 and 25. There's an old friend on mine on the coast - his name is Bill, and he's a pokemon researcher like me. I'll send him data beforehand so you don't have to explain anything to him. The routes are very short, so if you get to Cerulean City at around four-ish, you should be able to get to Bill's house by about six. He'll tell you what you need to do to try and help control her fire power, okay? But up until then, just try and get her to control her inner fire."

"Thank you, Professor. But can I ask one thing from you?"

The man nodded. "Of course, Ash. What do you need?"

"Can you explain what happened at Mount Moon to mom? I don't really want to have to be the one to tell her." He averted his gaze as Professor Oak smiled sadly.

"I will, Ash. You'll still have to call her at Cerulean, though."

He smiled. "Don't worry. She'll probably start calling up the Pokecenter the second after you tell her anyway - I'll just have to pick up the phone."

Professor Oak matched his smile. "Okay, Ash. Remember - Bil lives near the coast,, and his house is only a little past the end of Route 25. I'm sure you've heard of the wild rhydon there, but from what I've heard it has already met up with its herd and shouldn't bother you or anyone else. Stay safe."

"I will. Have a nice day, Professor!"

And then he hung up, slipping his pokedex back onto his belt. Vulpix sat down in front of him, her tails twitching on the ground. He extended his hands slightly, moving slowly to not frighten her.

"May I pet you?"

She nodded after only a moment's hesitation. He felt a bubble of hope grow in his chest as he reached out and stroked her back.

It was warm, uncomfortably so. Heat trickled up through his fingers, almost steaming in the air. He couldn't hold it there for much longer than a couple of seconds before pulling away, shaking his hand.

"I'm sorry, girl. But once we get to Bill's house, I'll teach you how to control it. You won't have to worry about being too hot. I'll also get you a brush at Cerulean City. Those tangles can't be comfortable."

Vulpix nodded her head once.

He turned to face the rest of his pokemon. "We're going to the next gym, which is all about water pokemon, okay? So Vulpix won't be fighting, no matter whether or not we learn what caused your second ability. Girl, I'll let you rest for a bit while I talk to Apep-" he pointed at the snake "-and Ro." He aimed his finger at the nidoran, who snorted softly.

She looked very relieved, stepping away from where she had been sitting and heading toward a circle in the clearing where the grass had been swept away. She curled up on it, letting her tails cover her nose. Her eyes stayed open, watching them carefully, but she seemed to relax into the ground.

He gestured Apep and Ro over. "Okay guys. Now we've got something important to focus on. Neither of you have had any formal training in the water. I've seen a few pictures and what the gym floor looks like is a giant pool of water with several floating platforms on it. The platforms are pretty stable but powerful moves can knock them over."

Ro looked uncertain as he pictured the arena, crimson eyes narrowing. Ash was worried too - Ro's bulk meant that he couldn't really jump from platform to platform, which meant he'd have to stay on one and just pray that the water pokemon wouldn't hit him too hard.

Apep, though, had a chance. His body was remarkably similar to that of a dratini's, and it still bared a reminder to gyarados and milotic, who all lived their life in water and survived well in it. So if he could find some sort of pond, he could test Apep's ability to swim and maybe find a way to have Ro survive in the water.

But in the meantime, he had to travel fast. "We're going to to travel until eight today, and the maybe fit in a little training at the end. But we need to get to Bill's house really soon in order to be able to help Vulpix. So Apep, you're going to do endurance to maybe help out with your swimming. Ro, you'll go into your pokeball for a pretty big portion - we'll have some sprinting for you before we go to sleep."

The nidoran grumbled but didn't fight back. He knew he had to get faster in order to be able to fight.

"Vulpix, you can walk by me or go into your pokeball. What do you want?" He offered, causing her to raise her head and peer at him.

After a second, she pointed toward the pokeball. He hid his sigh - she had just come from an extremely traumatic experience and he had no right to push her to immediately trust him, but some part still hoped that she would start to like him soon. At least she had accepted being on his team.

He clicked the button and watched as she disappeared in a burst of red. Clipping it back to his belt, he slipped his backpack back on and stood up, stretching his arms above his head. His neck popped.

"Off we go." And go they did, heading back onto the route. Apep would complain about halfway through and that was when he would recall Ro to let him regain his strength for the sprinting.

As he had predicted, there weren't a lot of trainers on the route. There was one, a girl nearing fourteen years old with a steely gleam in her eyes that nodded tersely to him as they crossed paths. But there were no others on Route 5, just a calm quietness.

The pokemon were out, too. Pidgey and rattata jumped and sprang in the bushes right by the path. Most beginning trainers, the ones who still caught pidgey and rattata without even checking whether they were battlers or not, didn't come near any route near Mount Moon for at least a couple of weeks, and by that time they were able to understand quality over quantity for pokemon. But a few more rare pokemon dotted the path. A pidgeotto, its feathers gleaming with the bright red of nearing evolution stared at him with a gleam in its eyes, sitting on a branch and nearly bending it under its weight. A mankey shrieked at him from where it swung through the trees, slamming fists into branches as it shot through the leaves. A bellsprout glared furiously from its hidden position in a shrub, the leaves by its side twitching with anger not normally found in its species.

But he had already captured a brand new pokemon, and he didn't feel the need to capture another so soon. He wanted to bond with Vulpix before he added another member to his team.

Though the pidgeotto was thoroughly tempting. It had looked very powerful, as wild pokemon only got confident enough to be perfectly visible from the path with lots of experience beating the trainers that tried to capture them.

But they walked on. Apep began to slow slightly and at that point, Ro was a decent distance behind Ash that was only growing. He recalled the nidoran to his obviously relieved expression and encouraged Apep to keep going. Swimming with a difficult task for non water type pokemon, as they didn't have the natural air pockets within their body that allowed them their natural buoyancy. But he believed that Apep could at least be able to get pretty good at swimming in the couple of days he would be training before he tackled the gym.

Most gyms were more spread out, giving trainers plenty of time to be able to tain their pokemon up to be able to get their next badge. But Pewter City and Cerulean City had already been well-defined by the time they began the League, and there wasn't much of a way that they wouldn't allow each city to have their own gym.

But that just meant he'd have to spend a few more days training up his pokemon to be able to focus on water-type moves.

The sky slowly darkened, the sun sinking below the edges of the trees that he could see. Apep was suggisly sliding over the ground at this point, his head drooping and tail slipping over stones.

He checked his pokedex as the path got almost completely black wincing as he noticed the time on the upper corner. 9:13. A full hour past when he had wanted to stop, and Apep was definitely showing it.

Immediately, he turned off the path and found a thin clearing that he could barely stretch out across, but it was wide enough to fit him and all of his pokemon.

Quickly, he released Ro and let Apep flop down on the ground. He grabbed his bag and withdrew his blanket, spreading it out on the ground. Apep immediately slithered forward and laid down on it, head landing heavily on the ground.

He was exhausted, and Ash felt bad. He stroked along the ekans' back. "I'm sorry for pushing you so hard, buddy. I didn't mean to."

Apep snapped his head up, frowning. He shook his head back adnf orht, a steely glint in his eyes.

"Don't be sorry?" He guessed, trying to see what the snake was telling him. He was getting better at it, but it was still hard.

Apep nodded his head. He curled back up on the blanket, but the message was clear - he wanted to get stronger, and a couple of hours of slithering where he could get stronger was well worth it.

Ro perked up, looking ready to run, but Ash just patted his head. "No running today, bud. It's a bit too late for that. We'll do it tomorrow morning."

He touched Vulpix's pokeball, but he didn't call her out. Pokemon sometimes lost control of their powers while they slept, though it didn't happen very commonly. And with the new powers that Vulpix had recently gotten, he didn't want her to burn down the forest. So he let her sleep in the pokeball for the night.

Ash laid down next to his pokemon, letting Apep slump over his chest and Ro lean against his legs. He looked up at the break in the leaves, where he could see the last rays of bright purple and red of the sunset gleaming across the sky. In another couple of minutes, they were gone and everything turned a deep navy blue. Stars glittered a bright silver overhead, casting gentle light over the forest.

He fell asleep to Ro's gentle rumbled snores and Apep's heavy breathing making his chest rise. His hand rested on Vulpix's pokeball around his waist.

The next morning, he woke up at his regular time - around seven. The sun was just peeking above the horizon, shooting golden rays right into his eyes. He winced and brought a hand up to block them, jerking both Apep and Ro into wakefulness.

Apep hissed at him while Ro stood, stretching out his limbs and barbs. His ears twitched, claws digging light furrows into the ground.

"Come on guys, up and at 'em. We traveled for about three hours longer than usual yesterday, so that puts us at Cerulean City at about eleven, but we still need to get moving. I'd like to reach Bill's house a little bit before two so we have time to explore around Cerulean before we starting training."

Apep shook his head in annoyance but uncoiled, stretching out in the small beams of light. Ro was already ready and peacefully waited by the side of the route while Ash rolled up his blanket, brushing specks of dirt and a few crumpled leaves off. The trainer blankets were a lifesaver, and they were even rumored to have survived a meowth attacking it with Fury Swipes, which would have ripped a regular blanket to shreds.

He slipped it back into his ba and started to walk toward the path, pulling out more food. He distributed three bags, as normal, to Apep and Ro, hiding the last of his yawns behind his hand.

Pulling out Vulpix's pokeball, he gently tossed it out onto the route. In a burst of light, she appeared, still standing strong and proud. Joey had described her as headstrong on most occasions and he could see it in the way she stood, even as only three tails flicked behidn her. The scar over her front leg glinted in the light, not able to hide beneath her rather short fur. It didn't seem to cause her any sort of discomfort, though, or at least she didn't show it as she shook herself and looked up at him.

"Hey Vulpix. Here's some food," he said, setting her bag down on the route. She sniffed it once before digging in. He kept talking to her, filling up the air as she ate her food.

"We're going to visit Bill today. It'll take a couple of hours to get to Cerulean and then his house, but I think that we should get there before too much of the day is gone. After that, we're going back to Cerulean and start preparing for the gym battle. We'll probably spend a couple of days to prepare for the gym battle, perfecting the rest of our moves as we don't really have time to teach any new ones."

To his surprise, she perked up and stared at him, listening to what he was saying. Encouraged, he kept talking.

"I know you're going to be really strong, you know? The strength you had in your Flamethrower, even when you hadn't perfected it, really showed how powerful you're going to be. I'll help teach you control but there will be moments that you can just erupt on a field and bathe it in flames. They won't hurt you and then you can destroy the enemy without them even seeing you, can you imagine? It's going to be the most brilliant thing that people have ever seen."

She nodded at him, sitting down on the route. Small flames flickered out of her mouth even while she was just sitting there, warming up the air around them. It was like sitting next to a fireplace as he got close to her and he quickly realized he was going to have to invest in a seriously high-duty fireproof blanket if she started to sleep with him at night, which he hoped she would.

"We're going to start moving. Do you want to go in your pokeball?" He offered, holding it up. She stared at it for a long time, before moving her eyes up to his face. She shook her head and stood up.

He barely held in his cheer.

Progress was being made.

They started to walk down the route, Apep in the front, Ro in the back, and Vulpix right next to him. His ankles started to get hot but he never complained as she tucked herself close to him, tails flicking around and mouth open to release a few bursts of fire. He had started to guess that something was wrong with her inner flame, as no vulpix should have to release heat that often from their mouths. There was a near constant trickle of heat from the tips of her tails, causing the air above her to wave like a mirage. He idly wondered whether he could cook marshmallows off of her.

The snicker escaped his lips despite his best efforts to hold it in.

They traveled quickly, the sun rising above them as they walked down the route. Ro started to slip behind but he shook his head as Ash tried to recall him, determinedly forcing his legs to move faster. The kingsize pokemon seemed oddly rared to go, though it didn't seem like a bad thing.

Apep did, of course, and tried to increase his pace. Ash whistled sharply and the snake slowed with a disappointed hiss.

There were three trainers that passed him. Two boys traveling together with bright eyes and two pokeballs on their waists each, chattering excitedly about something. They seemed almost too young to be ten-years-old and were most definitely twins by their identical smiles gleaming on their face. One gasped at Vulpix, who visibly preened from the attention. That got a giggle from both of them.

The other was a girl with bright blue hair swinging by her shoulders. Her roots were a light brown though, and her eyebrows were the same color. She tossed an apple up and down in her hands, a positively enormous charmeleon marching at her heels. Vulpix nodded at it, another tongue of flame escaping from her mouth. The charmeleon grinned, inclining its head ever-so-slightly. Ash blinked as they passed each other.

He knew that fire type pokemon were well known for their inherent sense of pride and power, and currently it seemed that only non full fire types and growlithe didn't have the ego they were known for. Even Vulpix, the tiny fox that she was, had showed off with the fire from her mouth as she passed the charmeleon. Once she figured out how to control the fire inside her, he was both curious and scared of what would happen when she met a stronger fire type pokemon, though it would be a while before they saw anything other than charmanders and charmeleons. Fire types were rare.

But as the sun gleamed brightly ahead, the forest began to melt away. The path transitioned suddenly to smooth cobble and lights lined the sides. Another few minutes and he appeared inside the gates of Cerulean City.

It was bright and silver, the buildings stretching up to the sky in a way that Pewter City's hadn't. So much was crammed into a smaller space, and he could see why - on two sides of the city ran an enormous lake, the edge almost stretching out of side. He could see black spots, people out on boats exploring for pokemon or training their own. A grin shot onto his face. That would make it much easier to train his pokemon to battle water types. Though he'd have to buy a fishing rod.

He saw the glass dome of the Pokecenter behind a building top and headed there. His pokemon didn't really need much healing and so he wasn't going to check them in - it would suck valuable time away from when he needed to head toward Bill's house. But buying potions and a brush for Vulpix would be necessary.

Speaking of which, he turned to her and Ro. "Would you to like to be recalled? We're going into a more crowded space and I don't want you getting scared."

Ro immediately nodded his head and disappeared in a flash of scarlet, but Vulpix shook her head again. She stayed close to his side but didn't shy away from the crowds of people. He grinned at her, stroking between her ears.

Apep immediately came back and slithered up Ash's side, securing himself to his favourite spot. He grunted as the ekans pulled too tight around his waist but with a moment of readjustment they were ready.

They walked together, moving quickly to get to the Pokecenter. People were out and about but it was during work hours and most of them were children and trainers, enjoying the warm sun. A few pokemon trotted at people's heels.

The Pokecenter loomed in front and he pushed open the door, scooting inside and holding it open long enough for Vulpix to step through. She tucked herself back to his side and they walked up to the desk.

Nurse Joy smiled at him. "Hello, dear. How may I help you?"

"Can I have some potions and a vulpix brush, please?" Vulpix visibly perked up at his words.

"Sure, if you could just follow me over here for a quick second. How many potions would you like?" She walked over to the other desk, rummaging through a bin with several brushes in it, each for a different pokemon. Vulpix brushes were fireproof and pretty gentle, as to not yank their tails.

"Seven, please." He almost winced as he handed over a large roll of cash, but his mind flickered back to the prize he had won from Officer Jenny for helping catch that Team Rocket member.

He had forgotten about that. Right now, he planned on spending maybe three days training his pokemon to battle water type pokemon, because he didn't have enough time to teach them a new if he got a TM for both Ro and Apep, that might be enough time for them to get it down and then be able to really hit the gym where it hurt.

His mind raced as he accepted the seven potions from Nurse Joy, slipping them into his bag. The brush was placed on top, though Vulpix seemed a little upset that he hadn't started to brush her immediately.

"Later, bud," he said, stroking between her eyes. She purred up at him, the sound soft but surprisingly deep.

He thanked Nurse Joy before leaving the Pokecenter, heading towards the middle of Cerulean City. People buzzed and chattered around him, and he quickly realized that it was lunch break for those at work. An enormous fearow flapped overhead, eyes following a thin man chatting on his phone.

But there was a sign advertising Route 24 and he headed for it, Vulpix trotting at his side and staring around.

The route curved along the lake, blanketed on one side in heavy forest and the other in a glittering expanse of blue water. He could already see trainers, fishing rods bobbing in the water or battling water pokemon, and sped up his pace. He wanted to make it to Bill's house before he started to battle anyone.

Yet.

He walked on, pulling Apep off of him. The ekans shook himself and rattled his tail, but he was quickly distracted by the lake present only a dozen feet away. He raced closer, poking his nose into the water before slithering back toward Ash, who was holding back laughter as Apep flicked his tongue out at the water on his scales.

Ro was released as well, stretching before lumbering back onto the path. He seemed very calm with what was going on and Ash was very happy he had found him. Nidoran were one of the calmest poison types in Kanto, even after they evolved up to their final evolution. After contact with a Moon Stone they sometimes had uncharacteristic aggression that could last about a week but that was from a whole new typing added to them. It was highly suggested to keep them on land during that week of change so they could learn about the ground and how it worked.

Vulpix trotted at his heels. She seemed to bounce as she moved, energy levels as high as always. Every now and then he saw burnt grass beneath her paws and a steady trickle of smoke from her mouth. If he didn't know something was wrong, he'd have thought she was going to burst into flames.

The route was short, and before an hour had passed he moved from Route 24 to Route 25. The forest grew stronger and slowly swallowed the path back up, though he could see flashes of ponds and streams in the breaks between green leaves. Cerulean City seemed to be 50% city and 50% water.

After about thirty minutes, the trees began to crumble away, growing thinner and thinner before they turned to shrubs and bushes. The path changed from hard pressed dirt to a barely defined path twisting over the ground. Few trainers came to this part of Kanto, normally only if they wanted to go off the route and find their way to the ocean. But there were so many other spots to be able catch deepwater pokemon, and this coastline was not only full of rough waves and rock-filled beaches but also devoid of most pokemon life. Only incredibly strong pokemon came to the beach here.

He walked on, conscious of the rising humidity that came from being close to the sea. The air grew saltier, a cool breeze brushing against his face. It was calming but Vulpix stiffened as she sensed it, baring her fangs at the air.

She rejected him when he held up her pokeball though, seemingly determined to bare it out. Her tails straightened and the amount of fire spilling from her mouth seemed to triple, burning in the air.

After a while, smoke appeared over a hill. Ash perked up, going faster, and within a few minutes a roof appeared. Then a wall, then a door, and finally a quaint house was firmly nestled in a small valley between hills.

It didn't seem like a pokemon researcher's house at the first glance, but after a couple of seconds Ash began to pick things out. There was a strange metal machine attached to the side of the house, standing out starkly from the gentle green siding. It was stuffed full of levers and pipes that stretched up to the roof. A bunch of odd tools were scattered around the yard, thrown about like a child with its toys. A few of them looked like pokeballs attached to sticks, which was strange enough. There was even a pokeball sitting by a table by the door, pried open with a screwdriver. Whoever this Bill was, he liked to work both inside and out, if the tools were any indicator.

He stepped closer, stepping off the route and getting on the cobbled path leading up to the front door. There were a few lights powered by solar panels lining his way, though they were switched off. It was only two, and the sun gleamed brightly overhead, occasionally covered by a few rare clouds.

Stepping closer, he paused and looked down at Apep and Ro. "Do you guys want to be recalled? If you don't, you can't misbehave at all. This man is a friend of Professor Oak and he's helping Vulpix. The second you cause any problems - and no, I don't care who started it - you're being called out."

Ro looked reasonably charigned but Apep still had a steely look in his eyes. Ash glared at him. "Apep, if you try and show off, I'm letting Ro fight the first water pokemon we find for training."

The ekans immediately hissed but nodded his head, looking extremely disappointed. Ash hid a chuckle and put their pokeballs back on his waist. Raising a hand, he knocked sharply on the door and waited.

There was a moment's pause before the door swung open. A man stood there, standing tall in rather casual clothes. Shorts, shirt, belt, and a shock of white hair. He was nearly as old as Professor Oak.

Around his waist were two pokeballs as well as another array of tools, each one modified in some way with strange tips and leather-wrapped grips. The edges were polished, though there was a small stain on the man's shirt.

"Hello! Ash Ketchum, I presume?" Bill said, extending his hand with a brilliant smile. He seemed to have an extremely large amount of energy for his age, shaking Ash's hand strongly and easily kneeling down to be face to face Vulpix. "And you must be the vulpix I've heard so much about!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, tucking herself closer to Ash.

Bill seemed to understand, standing back up. "Please, come inside. I've got to grab a few things and then we'll outside again - I've got a more reasonably fireproof training area to figure out what might be wrong with Vulpix here."

Ash followed him inside, his pokemon dogging at his heels. Though Apep tried to get in front, Ash shot him a dark glance and the ekans fell in line behind him. He was still in front of Ro, though.

Vulpix sniffed at the light beige walls, lined with a manner of tables stacked high with more metallic machines. The front room was dominated by an enormous pokemon transfer system, similar to the one at Professor Oak's. All Pokecenter and a few other places had miniaturized versions of this, but they could only access League-certified places within Kanto. This massive machines could access anywhere in the world as long as the person on the other end gave them permission to remove or give a pokemon, and they had a hundred percent success rate.

Bill stepped forward and pressed a button, watching a thin panel slide open and pokeball slide out. "I had him pulled about two hours ago and I already briefed him on everything," he explained. "But I just left him in here instead of clipping him to my belt because if anyone was going to lose Professor Oak's pokemon, it would be me, wouldn't it?" He let out a rueful chuckle as he grabbed the pokeball and headed toward the back of the room.

They went through another hallway before emerging in a kitchen. The back wall had a large door in it and that was where they went out, Ash holding it open long enough for Ro to get through.

Bill's outside was beautiful. Over the edge of a hill was a brilliant view of crystal blue waters stretching as far as the eye can see, and he could hear in the distance the crash of waves against sharpened rocks. The sea breeze smelled wonderful and freeing and to be honest, he couldn't wait until he got to Vermillion City and could experience it more up close and personal.

There was a large stone platform, ad speckled everywhere were burn and electricity marks. A few pieces of grass were sprouting between the stones but Ash kind of doubted that they would survive long past Vulpix's Flamethrower.

Bill gestured for him to stand back and threw the pokeball, jumping back himself. In a burst of scarlet, a pokemon appeared.

It was easily five feet tall, putting it a notch above Ash's head. A quadruped coated in red and white fur, lined with black tiger stripes down the back. It let out a happy bark as soon as it appeared, wagging its long tail.

An arcanine, an extremely powerful one by the look of it. The pokemon's paws were nearly the size of his head and he could feel the temperature rise a single degree just by being close.

"This is Arcanine, and he's going to be helping me gauge your vulpix's fire power. He's got the ability Flash Fire, so anything she throws at him shouldn't hurt. When we do check out her Flame Body ability, though, don't worry about him. He's been the brunt of more experiments then I can count and he enjoys them, and I've got plenty of potions on hand to help him out. He's a great pokemon."

Arcanine barked happily as he said that, perking up. His eyes were a chocolate brown, warm and inviting. His fur was well brushed and he looked to have fallen into the lap of luxury, though there was no denying the sheer muscle beneath his pelt. He was powerful and had earned the right to enjoy himself.

"Can you ask your vulpix to use Flamethrower on him?" Bill asked, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen.

Ash frowned, and he watched as Apep and Ro quickly retreated backward. "Of course, but you might want to get back a bit. Her Flamethrower is… powerful, to say the least. Just for safety."

Bill waved him away. "I've been working with powerful fire types for several decades now. This isn't my first rodeo! Vulpix aren't that powerful, especially when they're still a juvenile. I'll be fine."

Ash saw Vulpix stiffen with anger and wisely retreated a few more steps. "It's your funeral. Vulpix, Flamethrower!"

An honest-to-god wall of flames exploded out of her mouth.

He ducked and stepped backward again, shielding his eyes. The fire smacked into Arcanine, though the pokemon didn't take a step backward. The air hissed as any water evaporated and the grass that had struggled so hard to survive burst into flames and promptly disintegrated.

Bill stood there, the edges of his notebook singed. "Ah. I see what you mean."

Arcanine barked happily and leaned down to nuzzle Vulpix, who purred up at him. He didn't pull back, but when he stood back up to shake himself of the last remaining embers from Vulpix's fire, Ash could see a few charred pieces of fur.

Bill scratched something down. "Okay, that's definitely more powerful than she has any way of being. And she does have the ability Flame Body as well, I guess we don't have to check that again. Let me give Arcanine some ideas to try and help her control it, and then we'll talk over what might have caused this."

He stepped closer, placing a hand on Arcanine's shoulder. The pokemon turned around and pushed his face into the man's chest, who laughed and scratched behind his ears. "Can you help Vulpix out? She needs to learn how to control her inner fire. Start with Ember and maybe do Flamethrower, but start small. If you can, do you think you could figure out how to keep her inner fire more inside of her? She's burning things she's touching even without trying to and that saps her strength."

Arcanine tilted his head, thinking. He nodded his head and barked again, turning back to the fox pokemon, who stared up at him. Arcanine pushed closer to her and spat out a single Ember, which fizzled out before it even hit the ground.

Vulpix's Ember sprang to life the second it hit the life, tongues of flames licking the air hungrily.

Arcanine shook his head and barked to her, and they jumped into their own discussion. Ash left Apep and Ro to watch the two of them, heading toward a small outside table with Bill to talk.

They both sat down, and Bill pulled out his notebook and flipped to a new page. He sketched out a very simple picture of a vulpix, making sure there were six tails visible. With a light hand, he drew a black blob in the center of its chest.

"You see that, Ash? That's her inner fire. All fire type pokemon have it, though it varies in size. For the most part, its size correlates to the size of the pokemon. When non fire type pokemon learn a fire type move, they often struggle greatly with it because they don't have an inner fire. Eventually, they learn to heat up the air in their mouth before it leaves them, but they won't ever be as fast or as strong as a fire type pokemon's move. All Vulpix has to do to use Flamethrower is take a deep breath and breath out, and her inner flame does the rest of the work for her."

Ash nodded. He knew about the inner flame, though the way that non fire types used fire type moves was interested.

"Each fire type pokemon has a way of regulating their flame. For instance, Arcanine uses his fur and breath. Every time he exhales, he breathes out warm air created by his inner flame. I know that all humans and pokemon, except for ice types, do that, but Arcanine's breath can reach up to 100 degrees. He also uses his fur to cool down by releasing heat through pores in his skin and then catching it in his fur and released it slowly, so he doesn't spontaneously burst into flames."

"Vulpix do that same breath trick, but they don't release extra heat through their fur because their fur is too short to be able to properly catch the heat, as they often live in more volcanic areas. So instead they use their tails. You see the curl on the end of her tails?" Bill asked, pointing to Vulpix.

Ash looked, though he already knew what he would find. On the end of her tail was a slight bend, curling up like a spiral. It was darker fur and was the part the pokemon used for moves such as Iron Tail, as it was the strongest.

"On the very end is a small collection of furs different from the rest of her body. They are absolutely fireproof and very thick, as well as hollow. Vulpix constantly release the majority of their heat through those hairs in order to not overheat. Putting them in too warm of places can cause that, and it could end up with them passing out. There have been causes of vulpix dying on Cinnabar Island because trainers brought them too close to the volcano. But back to the point - vulpix release most of their excess heat produced by their inner fire through their tails. But your vulpix has lost three of her tails, and that means she is releasing half as much heat as she needs to."

Bill paused here to point at the dark blob he had drawn in the chest of the vulpix. He started to shade more and more, making it darker and larger until it covered nearly her entire front half.

"I'm sure you've seen her breathing out flames in an effort to try and keep up, but it's not working. The excess heat is escaping through her skin but her fur isn't thick enough to release it slowly, so it has forced her to have a second ability of Flame Body. But the issue lies within the fact that her original ability is Flash Fire, which boosts her fire attacks when she's hit with fire."

"But with Flame Body, she is nearly constantly on fire or very close to it, so her skin - which has pores to let the fire attacks through to power her inner flame - is in a constant cycle of capturing heat and then releasing it the next second. This has, unofficially, made her fire attacks constantly growing stronger."

Ash blinked as he sucked all of the information in. "That's incredible."

Bill fixed him with a steely eye. "It may seem so at first, but there are very real consequences. Those pores on her skin are being used from both directions, both for sucking heat in and releasing it. That has caused them to widen exponentially. For most fire types, the danger with water is the fact it doesn't let them release heat because their fur is wet. But with Vulpix, water is a problem because it sinks through her pores and landed right on her inner flame."

Ash stiffened. He hadn't done a lot of research but even he knew what that meant - too much water and he could literately snuff out Vulpix's entire life. It wouldn't even take that much, if what Bill was saying was true. She could die with a well-placed Water Gun.

"What do you suggest I do?" He said almost weakly.

Bill frowned, scratching his chin. "Well, you have to teach her how to at least moderate the fire that comes through in her attacks. She won't get nearly as tired from her attacks because she's constantly getting stronger in battles, but try too many Flamethrowers and she's going to feel it. Start first with Ember, like she's doing now. By using a large amount of fire type attacks she does alleviate some stress from her inner flame, though not nearly enough. But when she uses Ember, she can work on creating just the small fire and not releasing her entire inner flame in the attack. Start small and move up, but through diligent training you should be able to get her to at least have some idea of how strong her attacks are going to be, but she's never going to be able to force them down to the level where a vulpix her age should be at. Eventually she'll peak, but for now just focus on trying to get her able to control her gift. And for the love of Arceus, do not put her in a fight against a water type pokemon. Especially against the Cerulean City gym."

Ash shook his head vehemently. "I wouldn't do that. Not to her."

Bill nodded, a small smile flickering onto his face. "Well, a few more tips. Have you tried to give her water yet?"

He frowned and tried to think back, but didn't remember doing it at all. He stiffened as he remembered letting his pokemon drink at any stream they came across while Vulpix was inside her pokemon. "No."

"That's good. She won't be able to drink water, as it might travel to her inner flame. Instead, she needs steam."

Ash blinked. Well, he wouldn't have thought of that.

Bill went on. "Get a fireproof bowl and whenever you find water or she needs some, scoop a bit inside and set it down. Let her use Ember on it until it evaporates and then she can drink it out of the air. The good thing is that she's a fire type so she doesn't need too much water, as it's kind of a very ineffective method, so it should be enough, though you might have to do it a couple times."

He tapped his chin, thinking hard. "If you can, start teaching her a different element. Vulpix can learn a pretty fair amount of dark and ghost type moves. That'll give her something to focus on other than her fire, and that might help her to control her inner flame as she has to control the new energies."

Bill slapped his hands against his thighs. "Well! I think that's it. You have any questions for me?"

Ash shook his head, standing up to shake the man's hand. "Thank you so much. I never would have figured any of this out in a year and you only had a day. Thank you so much for helping out me and Vulpix."

Bill laughed. "Kid, spend enough decades working on this and you'll be able to work a few things out. I have to say, thank you for giving me something entertaining to work on. Your vulpix is quite the enigma."

Ash chuckled before blinking, a thought shooting to his head. "Hey, do you think I could have your number? You've really helped me out and I'm a bit worried about Vulpix," he offered, patting his pokedex.

Bill shook his head. "I'm sorry Ash, but I don't have a pokedex. It's pretty rare for people other than trainers to have one as they're so high tech, and most people can only call off of home phones and Pokecenter calls. But if something does go wrong, don't hesitate to call me then from any city. My name's listed under League resources, third page. Bill the pokemon researcher."

They both stood up, Bill flipping to his old page of notes. Ash peered over his shoulder to see what was written

Vulpix, medium size, tangled coat. Missing three tails, violently removed. Scar over front foot - causing discomfort while walking?

Reacted nicely to Arcanine. No aggression or overconfidence. Acknowledged him as superior and listened to him.

Flamethrower is much too powerful. Couldn't control it. Flames lasted longer after she used the move. Appeared to use a lot of oxygen. Could be determiental with too much fire.

With large inner fire, oxygen intake must be increased to support it. Possible forced adaptation to take in oxygen through pores as well?

Ember is too strong. Must find a way to control it or she might burn herself out.

Ash blinked again. He had seen Bill taking notes for about two minutes before coming over to explain everything to him. The man must have a brain the size of an entire dragonite to come up to those conclusions that fast.

Vulpix was still spitting out Embers, rotating to shoot out a new one every time she finished. Arcanine walked next to her, squishing the still-active Embers under his paws and occasionally barking to her. Every time he spoke up, she lifted her head and listening to him, sometimes talking back but always using another Ember and looking up to him for approval. Arcanine always had something new to say and she appeared to be trying every piece of advice he offered her.

Ash just stood there, trying to figure out what they were saying. He didn't have the foggiest, but there were some quirks he picked up. When Vulpix held it in her mouth, the Ember grew stronger. When he shot it out immediately, the power was decreased slightly, some even breaking apart as they hit the ground.

Progress was progress, no matter how small. He felt so proud of her, listening to another pokemon and trying to help herself.

Apep and Ro had both moved forward, though they stayed out of the way of Vulpix's Embers. They too were listening intently to whatever Arcanine was barking to Vulpix, and he could even see Apep building up poison in his mouth, trying to get it more toxic.

Bill clapped his hands and Arcanine looked up, tilting his head. "I'll give you a little more time, bud, but you need to start giving her tips she can use later. I've got to send Ash back to Cerulean City so he can make it there before it gets dark."

Ash jerked, looking at his pokedex. It was nearly six, and that meant he'd be getting back to Cerulean at a little past eight, which was when he normally started to do the last training regiments and heading to bed.

Arcanine nodded, turning back to Vulpi and barking quickly. Apep spat out his batch of poison, which glinted a dark red. It wasn't the bright, bubbling orange of Acid, but it was much more progress than he'd made before. All of his poison up to this point had been a bright purple, which was one of the lowest toxicity. As he increased its power, that greatly increased the chance of heavily poisoned their target, which could seriously cut down the battle time and put their opponent on the defensive.

Ro stepped forward, head tilted to the side. Vulpix barely spared him a glance.

Ash was jerked back to reality by Bill's hand on his shoulder. "I'll finish up a few more notes and send them to you tomorrow morning, okay? I'll ask Nurse Joy to print them out and give them to you so you can study them. Maybe even get your pokedex to record it. Though I pray that no more injuries like this happen to vulpix, at least we'll know how to deal with them if it does happen."

Ash nodded. "I promise. And thank you again for helping me out with Vulpix. I swear I won't put her out to fight any sort of water type pokemon, though I definitely can't say the same about grass types."

Bill laughed. "Go get 'em, tiger."


Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I worked my butt off to get this entire thing out in time, and man was it difficult. These chapters are not easy to write overnight!

Also, it didn't help that I went back over the whole Proton scene to make sure I was punishing Ash enough while not making it super cliche.

But yeah guys! I know there are a lot of stories similar to this out there, and I'm not going to lie that I have read a lot of them and gotten inspiration for just about every one. But I really tried to make this scene stand out. Most of the time Ash is able to single handedly fight his way through hordes upon hordes of Team Rocket grunts until he is attacked by the executive and has to be saved by Lance. I felt like this was more realistic, as well as paving the way for a more intelligent Team Rocket. I mean, the highest criminal force in Kanto? They aren't all idiots, guys. And Lance is a pretty busy guy.

Also, I wonder how his pokemon will react to him being attacked by a pokemon without them there to defend it? Hmmmmmmmm

But did you guys like Proton? I kind of see him as the medium between Archer, who's kind of crazy and demented, and Petrel, who is that cold, calm and collected type. So I think he's going to be fun to play with during Ash's journey.

Also, I'm really really sorry. You guys gave me so many good ideas, but as the story played out I wasn't able to get any of them in. We're just going to jump straight into my original fourth pokemon, now my third. But I think you guys will like this one. Vulpix is pretty cool, and I think she'll be fun to play with. REVENGE

Anyway! Onto answering reviews!

MOKKEL

No other fanfic ever really focuses on Brock much.

The other authors either give less than quarter of a chapters worth of screen time or outright skip his gym battle altogether.

Heck they do this even in the manga!

so it was quite refreshing to see an all new take on Brocks character.

PS if you like tragic backstories then read the light novel. every character's got at least some sort of a sad backstory. like the fact that Jessie was so poor that she had to eat snow to survive as a child 'cause her mother abandoned her. or the about that time when Ash's mother lied to him for 10 years about his father being on a journey when she has no idea what happened to him...probably dead if I had to guess

also thanks for not wasting time on writing out each and every detail about Ash's training. it's so tedious and boring to read when other authors do this. like who the heck wants to read 5k words of nothing but a training routine?!

-I feel like Brock is kind of given the middle finger in most Ash rewrite stories, you know? He's given a chapter - if that - about his gym battle and then he stops existing, despite him being a very important character in the anime. I really hope I can quench your wanting to see Brock in this fic, though! He's one of my favourite characters.

Also, woah. I will admit, I did not expect that from a lighthearted child's show. Poor Jessie. I guess. Ash at least I can kind of understand his mother's decision, but poor Jessie.

I will admit that I fell victim to the all-too-present desire to write out full training on my third chapter but I'm hoping I can break free of it now. I swear it won't happen again! xD

BLUE IS THE SEA

I was surprised and excited to see this updated! To be honest I assumed this was one of those one and done fics, I'm glad I was mistaken.

I'm really liking Ekans usage. The only other fic i've seen a good Ekans portrayed in is a naruto/pokemon fic that hasn't updated in forever though hat I am hoping and praying gets picked back up. I'll see how Nidoran works out and how you develop him. Love the nido line but everyone always goes male when poor nidoqueen really needs some love sometimes.

You laid out how the gyms and leaders are set up and work out without overloading the readers and have put a lot Mel's world building into your AU. One thing that surprises me from your authors note is I assumed this was going to be a specialist fic where Ash specialized in poison type pokemon due to his first two being them. I know you want to use 'misfits' and even in your story you have Brock mention that poison types were not well liked in Kanto due to Team Rocket so I has been assuming this would go down the "prove poison types are awesome" Route. They are popular monotype teams on smogon but as much as I wrack my Brain I don't think I've ever come across a mono anything trainer focused story on here that surpassed a few chapters aside from dragon master type fics. The poison team route is just a suggestion. There's plenty of unloved pokemon with great potential out there in battle waiting to be chosen by you too;).

Your writing is easy to read and I don't find myself skipping ahead like in a lot of stories so you have done well to capture my attention! Keep up the great work and I look forward to your next update!

-Thanks! I'm not going to lie, so did I. I'm really happy I got back to writing this, and now I'm able to see your review!

Ekans is one of my favourite pokemon. The way they're portrayed in the anime annoys me, because you bet if Ash had caught one them would have went straight to sweet and cuddly. Nidoran are pretty awesome too, although I do really feel bad about not using a female nidoran.

I'm not going to lie, I spent like an entire day before I started writing this fic planning out the rules for my world. It took a lot longer than it should have Dx

I know I'm using a lot of poison types and while him specializing in those would be awesome, I don't think that that quite fits with what I want for him. I'm sorry to disappoint.

Thank you so much for the compliments! This review just makes me feel all bubbly inside.

ABZB13

That was INCREDIBLE.

I think *I* was inspired by Brock's advice!

If Ash bonds with a giant rock snake in addition to his adorable danger noodle, I might have to squee.

-Aw, thanks! I hope you're inspired enough to go and make pokemon real XD

And bonding with a giant rock snake? Hmmm… Ah, but that would be spoilers!

Thank you so much for your review!

Thank you so much for reading this story guys! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I can't wait 'til I get to see you on the next on!

Anyway! Please read and review!

Frost OUT!