"Good battle," Ash said, shaking the hand of another trainer, "Pidgeotto, return." The trainer nodded.

"I had a good time," he said before returning his Sunkern. Ash smiled. The boy had been his third win in a row since entering North Cerulean. He met back up with Sabrina at a clearing they had found earlier for lunch. Brock had packed lunch before they had left. They sat down and ate while discussing their battles. Sabrina had already beaten seven opponents with only her Abra!

"Impressive," Ash said, "But I'm not letting you get ahead of me for long." he said. She smiled.

"You're on," she said. She reached for her final sandwich, but it was missing. They looked around the clearing for a few seconds, before seeing a small grey Pokémon with pink cheeks and a pink pearl on its forehead.

"It's a Spoink!" Ash said.

Ash pulled out his Pokénav and set it to Pokédex mode.

"Spoink doesn't appear in Kanto often. I'm going to record it." he said. He pointed it at Spoink and the screen lit up. "Spoink- the Bounce Pokémon. Spoink manipulates psychic power at will. It doesn't stop bouncing even when it is asleep. It loves eating mushrooms that grow underground." it reported. Sabrina grinned.

"That's a rare Psychic type to see around here," she said, pulling out a Pokèball, "I'm gonna catch it!"

"Wait," Ash said, noticing a large cut running down its paw, "It's hurt. Let's wait for Brock to get back". A few minutes later, Spoink was nervously munching on the stolen sandwich while Brock looked over the wound.

"It looks like the little guy was grabbed by a bird Pokèmon. The scratch is from a talon. I can patch it up, but then we should get it home," he said.

"Home?" Ash asked.

"Bill's ranch. I told you, he imported foreign Pokèmon for research. That's where this little guy most likely came from," Brock explained. Sabrina frowned. Ash could tell that she had had her heart set on catching Spoink. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"I know, but we can find some way to go to Hoenn and find one," he said, "what if it was your Abra. Wouldn't you want it back?" Sabrina nodded.

"All right," she said, "let's go."

Spoink hopped along with Brock, whom it had begun to trust after having its arm fixed. It was still unable to exert itself, but if it wanted to, it could use a small attack. Suddenly, Ash gasped as the ground fell out from beneath him and Brock, sending them falling into a pit trap.

Spoink jumped up and down urgently while Sabrina reached her arm into the pit. "Grab on!" she called. The two reached up but couldn't quite reach her hand. Suddenly, out of the trees, three figures emerged.

"Prepare for trouble,"

"Make it double,"

"To protect the world from devastation,"

"To unite all peoples within our nation,"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"

"To extend our reach to the stars above,"

"Jessie!"

"And James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender Now or prepare to fight"
"Meowth, that's right!"

"Team Rocket," Sabrina muttered angrily.

"Wait," Ash said from in the pit, "Meowth? He disappeared last time we met up!". Meowth laughed, "Don't ask me, twerp! I randomly woke up and three days had passed!" he said. Ash quietly noted that on the data on the mysterious move in Pokèdex.

"Go! Machoke!" James yelled, throwing out the Superpower Pokèmon.

"Don't lose that pig again, Spearow!" Jessie yelled, summoning the Tiny Bird. The two Pokèmon dove at Sabrina.

"Go, Abra!" Sabrina called.

"Go, Pidgeotto!" Ash yelled from the pit. The two bird Pokemon glared at each other. Pidgeotto was unable to get orders from Ash with him stuck in the pit, so it flew into the air on its own, using Double Team to create several copies of itself. Spearow flew into the sky in pursuit, then used Fury Attack to slice through the line of Pidgeottos, eventually hitting its target. Pidgeotto quickly adjusted its flight path by spinning in the air, wrapping its wings around itself and using Steel Wing to form a shield. Spearow stopped using the attack and let Pidgeotto tumble toward the ground, forcing it to spread its wings at the last minute or hit the ground. Spearow chose this moment to strike with a Peck, causing Pidgeotto to clip the ground, rolling to a standstill.

"Machoke, use Fire Punch!" James called.

"Counter with Thunderpunch!" Sabrina called. The two attacks met, sending both Pokémon flying. Abra slammed into Spoink, sending him tumbling to the end of a nearby cliff. Sabrina ran over and grabbed both of the Psychic types, but the ground crumbled, sending trainer and Pokémon down into the fast running river below.

"We've got to get that stupid pig back!" Jessie called. Spearow, about to deliver what would quite possibly be a finishing blow, gave a cry of anger as it was returned to its Pokèball. James looked into the pit at Ash and Brock.

"Wait, where's the Pikachu?" he asked.

"Pikachu isn't with me, you idiots!" Ash yelled from the hole, "now can you get me out?" James returned Machoke to his Pokéball and the two trainers ran back into the trees. A few seconds later, their Meowth shaped Balloon rose from the trees and into the air.

Sabrina held her breath and kept herself tucked into a ball. Her hands were kept wrapped around Abra and Spoink until they suddenly flashed onto land.

"Thanks, Abra," Sabrina said, patting the Pokémon on the head, "Now let's get back to Ash and Brock." Abra focused for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

"Oh, no," Sabrina gasped, "You've used up all your Teleport energy. Well then, we'll have to go on foot. The best location to go, though, would be Bill's home. Ash will think to meet us there. I know it," she said. Spoink was nervously bouncing in the shallow river, using Splash attack.

"Come on, Spoink," Sabrina called. Spoink hopped over to Sabrina, staying four feet or so behind her.

"You still don't trust me," Sabrina sighed. The three walked along the riverbank. Suddenly, a group of Goldeen jumped into the air, hitting them with a barrage of Peck attacks.

"Oh, great. We're in Goldeen territory!" Sabrina sighed.

"Abra! Use Thunderpunch!" she called. Abra nodded and launched itself into the air. Sadly, these Pokémon worked together in schools, attacking Abra in coordinated patterns that made it impossible to hit them all at once.

"Abra, quick, run!" Sabrina shouted, but Abra got hit. Sabrina cried out, scared for her partner. She tried to return it to its Pokéball, but Abra simply dodged the beam, refusing to abandon its trainer. Spoink looked at the friends and saw their connection. It closed its eyes, focusing on generating a ball of energy between its small arms. It ached slightly as its arm was still healing, but it managed to launch a Psywave at the group of Goldeen

The Goldeen launched a barrage of Supersonic attacks at Spoink, who closed its eyes and concentrated, creating a strange energy around it, shooting the Supersonic attacks back at Goldeen, confusing them all and causing them to attack each other and break formations, allowing Abra to quickly Thunderpunch them back into the water.

"Those are some impressive battling skills, Spoink," Sabrina said, "that looked like Magic Coat." Spoink nodded proudly.

"That was a pretty strong Magic Coat, but that Psywave looked pretty weak," she pointed out. Spoink somewhat put his head down.

"Hey, it's okay. Nobody gets better without practice," Sabrina said soothingly, "Here, try holding your arms like this." Sabrina moved Spoink's arms into a backward position. At first, Spoink shied away, then accepted Sabrina's help.

"Channel your psychic energy into that orb, instead," She instructed. Spoink focused and sent a small wave of pink light into a rock before dispersing.

"Focus again, Spoink. Try to focus on creating a connection between the target and the orb. Spoink closed its eyes and the orb glowed, then sent a blast of rainbow energy into the rock, blowing it into tiny shards- Psybeam.

"Great job!" Sabrina praised. Spoink jumped up and down happily.

"There you are!" A voice called. Team Rocket was standing in their balloon overhead.

The three figures jumped out of the balloon.

"Machoke! Go!" James called.

"Abra, get ready!" Sabrina yelled. Jessie smirked. "Go, Spearow!" She yelled.

"Two against one, huh? You can never play fair," Sabrina said. Suddenly, Spoink jumped into the battle.

"Spoink? Are you going to battle with me?" she asked. Spoink nodded.

"Alright, Machoke use Fire Punch!" James yelled. The Superpower Pokémon attacked Abra, but Spoink jumped in front. It took the attack without even flinching.

"Thick Fat, huh?" Sabrina said. Spoink smiled, before jumping into the air and using its new Psybeam attack on Machoke. Machoke flew into the wall. "Double Team!" James yelled. Spoink held his arms in front of him while Machoke duplicated itself. Its arms glowed, and Spoink suddenly replicated the move.

"Psych Up," Sabrina commented, "Impressive.". Spoink smiled.

"Now, finish this with another Psybeam!" Sabrina called. Spoink shot another beam of rainbow-colored light out of its pearl and knocked out Machoke.

Abra had already made quick work of Spearow and was fighting Jessie's Ekans, who kept dodging the attacks using Dig. Spoink bounced into the air and used Psybeam, creating a crater where the hole from Ekans' dig attack used to be. Ekans was lying at the bottom, unable to battle.

"Meowth! Go!" Jessie shouted desperately. Meowth jumped into battle.

"Hey, you don't order me around, Jess!" Meowth yelled. He jumped into the battle and used Fury Swipes. Spoink bounced above the attack using Splash. Abra used ThunderPunch to hit Meowth back into the two trainers, and Spoink used Psybeam, sending the three criminals flying into the air.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they shouted.

"Great job, you two," Sabrina said. She returned Abra to its Pokéball and walked along with Spoink. A few hours later, the two arrived at Bill's ranch. Ash and Brock had already arrived. They had gotten pulled out by Pidgeotto and taken an easy walk while she had been keeping Team Rocket busy.

"Thank you very much for finding this little guy," Bill said, serving the group sandwiches. "Now I need to get back to tracking down his native territories.

"Native territories?" Sabrina asked, "are you saying this guy's lost? He only tends to appear in Hoenn!"

"Well, you see, there was a glitch in the system we use to send Pokèmon back to their original habitats when a trainer releases them. He ended up here: the Pokèmon teleporter's base location." Sabrina gasped.

"So that means he's not one of your analysis specimens?" She asked excitedly. Bill nodded. "Nope, this here is an unowned wild Spoink," he said. Sabrina walked up to Spoink. Ash, seeing what she had in mind, tossed her a Pokèball from his bag and nodded.

"Spoink, would you like to travel with me?" she asked. Spoink nodded and tapped the button on the Pokèball, which clicked shut immediately after Spoink entered.

"Meet our new friend, guys!" Ash said, letting his whole team out of their Pokèballs. They each greeted Spoink happily. Bill admired his team.

You already have an impressive group," he said, "any thoughts on what else you want?" Ash shook his head.

"I've kinda just caught Pokemon I make friends with," he said.

"Well… based on how happy the rest of your Pokémon are... I want you to take care of this for me," Bill said, handing Ash an egg, "I have no idea what's inside of it; the transport system received a request to release an egg while I was fixing the bug that brought me Spoink, and it somehow let it through." Ash took the egg.

"I promise I'll take good care of it," he said.

After finishing their meal, healing their Pokèmon, and getting a quick tutorial on how to take care of an egg, Bill offered the trainers to stay the night at his house.

"You know, a really strong trainer stopped by yesterday. I think his name was AJ. He was headed west to his usual training spot. If you hurry tomorrow, you'll be able to reach there early enough that you should be able to battle him that day.

"Strong trainer, huh?" Ash thought, "Sounds like a good challenge for my team." Sabrina smiled.

"I'm guessing we're heading that way tomorrow?" she said.

"Sounds like a plan," Ash responded.