Meanwhile Brock had arrived above Cerulean City & came in to land outside the Pokémon Centre. Brocks landing caused a commotion, as there are few trainers who fly on their Pokémon's back in the Kanto region, and a crowd started to gather around him. One of the citizens in the crowd asked "is that your Pidgeot?;" another one asked "did you train it up, or catch it in the wild?;" someone else called out "did you come here to challenge the gym leader?"

Brock, stunned by the rambunctious greeting that he was getting could only stammer out "uhm, ahh..." luckily for Brock Misty broke through the crowd and asked "what's going on here?" seeing Brock and Pidgeot looking stunned she said "alright, break it up and get going." Hearing the orders from their gym leader the crowd moved off and continued what they were doing before Brock landed. Misty, after turning back to face Brock almost shouted "and you, what exactly are you doing here, and when did you catch a Pidgeot? I read all of the Pokémon League journals and none of them have reported that you have any flying Pokémon, other than Crobat, let alone one as powerful as Pidgeot... wait a minute. Is that Ash's?"

Brock informed Misty "yeah, it is. He loaned it to me so we could fly over here from Pewter City.."

"Is that so?" Misty's eyes took on a sideways squint and then she asked Brock "so where is he then?"

"Uh, he should be getting here any minute now."

"So, is he on Charizard then?"

"No, Charizard is still with Liza in the Charcific Valley, Ash's on one of the Pokémon that he caught in the Sinnoh region."

"Really, what is it?"

"Well, why don't you ask him yourself, he's right over there" Brock said looking over Misty's shoulder.

When Ash landed he got off of Garchomp and put him back in his pokeball & tried to hurry to the vid-phones in the Pokémon Centre, however he was stopped by Misty calling out to him saying "hiya Ash, how've you been?"

"Better than ever."

"So, you took care of it then?"

In reply Ash brought out Fearows pokeball and said "more or less."

Misty asked "what exactly did you 'take care of'?" Ash, for his part, scratched the back of his head and said "well, you know that flock of Spearow that attacked us all those years ago?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well, the Fearow that was the leader of them was terrorizing more Pokémon and, seeing as I was probably at least partly responsible for it turning out like that..."

"What do you mean 'partly'?" Misty interrupted.

Ash then, ignoring Misty's barb, continued on "well, I decided that it was my responsibility to put an end to it."

"You didn't..."

"Kill it? Of course not, I caught it."

Brock at this point, concernedly said "uh, I hate to be a killjoy, but, you aren't going to release it here, are you?"

"Of course not. I was about to send it over to Professor Oak. I figured, if anyone would know how to calm it down, it would be him" Ash replied.

Misty, getting kind of depressed with the topic at hand took the opportunity to ask Ash "so, you're challenging the Kanto gyms again then?"

"Yeah, that's the plan anyway."

"Well then come on, I'll have you challenge my sisters."

"Uh, are you sure about that? I mean, the last time I challenged your gym they wanted to just give me the badge."

"Yeah," Misty sighed "my sisters have gotten lax in their Pokémon training and are more interested in how they look and their blasted synchronized swimming show."

"So, they haven't changed at all in six years?"

"Oh no, they've changed alright, unfortunately it was for the worse. Now that I've returned full time, they leave running the gym entirely to me."

"O see, so you're suggesting that they need some 'motivation' as it were."

Misty smiled and, in a chipper tone, said "yep, that's about the gist of it."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do.

"Thanks a lot Ash."

"Now, to make that call." Ash, Misty and Brock then went into the Pokémon Centre and to the
vid-phones that were inside. Ash then dialled Professor Oak. When Professor Oak's face appeared on the screen Ash said "hey professor."

Professor Oak, in a shocked tone said "why Ash, I wasn't expecting you to call me so soon."

"Yeah, I wasn't either. It seems that I just caught that Fearow that was terrorizing the Pidgey and Pidgeotto, just before I competed in the Orange League."

Professor Oak's voice turned serious "Ash, I don't want you to oped that Fearow's pokeball there, people could get hurt."

"Yeah, I was worried about it going berserk as well. I was thinking of sending it to you, to see if you can calm it down."

"I'll see what I can do, I can't promise anything right now though."

Ash suggested "you might want to consider calling Liza at the Charcific Valley, after all, I did have some trouble with Charizard for quite some time."

"I might just do that Ash, thanks for the suggestion" Professor Oak said, still in his professional manner.

Ash then told the professor "I'm going to need Floatzel, Feraligatr & Crawdaunt."

"Three water Pokémon! But you're going up against a water type gym aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I've been asked to 'motivate' the gym leader & this is the best way of doing it that I can think of."

"So, beat them at their own game, I guess that that's quintessentially you Ash."

"Yeah, well, I'll take that as a sideways compliment."

"Alright, I'll send them to you now. Oh, by the way, the Pokémon transfer machine has been improved and you can now send your entire team, minus one, between two locations now. So all you have to do is put the pokeballs that you want to send back to me in the slots and they'll be transported here."

"Thanks professor." A few moments later the transfer had been completed and Ash picked the pokeballs up from the receiving end of the machine and threw them a short distance. Floatzel, Feraligatr & Crawdaunt came out of the pokeballs and greeted Ash in their usual manner. Floatzel, seeing misty standing behind Ash questioned Ash as to her identity. Ash replied "oh right, Floatzel, you haven't met Misty yet, have you?" Floatzel shook his head and Ash said "right, Floatzel, this is Misty, Misty, this' Floatzel." Ash, turning saw that Misty's eyes had turned into large hearts and said to himself "apparently you haven't changed much either."

Misty got a dangerous glint in her eye and said to Ash, annunciating every syllable with intense anger, "what did you say!?"

"Uh, nothing" Ash squeaked out.

"Good" Misty said in a sickly-sweet tone. Ash wiped a hand across his forehead and thought to himself "whew, thank god I dodged that bullet." Ash then turned back to Floatzel, Feraligatr & Crawdaunt and said "well, it looks like I'll be using you guys to challenge another gym. This gym's leaders use water types. What do you say to that? You ready to win?" Ash's Pokémon exclaimed their glee in the prospect. Ash then recalled them, turned to Misty and Brock and then almost shouted "alright, let's go."

"Still as energetic as always I see" Misty said to herself.

Brock interjected "why don't you two go on without me, there's something that I have to do while I'm here...actually, Ash, could you lend me your Pidgeot?"

"Pidgeot, why?" Ash asked.

"Well, that way I can get back in time to see, at least some of, your battle with Misty's sisters."

"Sure, I guess so. What're you doing?"

"It's a surprise."

"Alright then, if you say so. Here you go" Ash then handed Pidgeot's pokeball to Brock. Misty and Ash then left for Cerulean City's Gym whilst Brock took off on Pidgeot's back, away from Cerulean City.