Disclaimer: I'm running out ideas for these things…sigh.

Chapter 14: A Day Well Cared For

The night was coming to an end, and the sun was beginning to flood the sky with colors. Some of the wild Pokémon were beginning to scurry through the woods, trying to get some food. Brock was the first of the group to wake up, and he immediately began to prepare breakfast. As he was making the food, the smell had woken up Pikachu, who hopped off of Ash and made his way over to Brock, hoping for some breakfast of his own. Brock just smiled at the yellow mouse, and put some food in a bowl for him. Soon after this, Ash also began to stir. After a quick stretch and a change of clothes Ash sat down next to Brock for the breakfast that had been made. After Ash had finished, he let out all of his Pokémon to be fed. Awakened by the commotion, Espeon also joined in breakfast. Ash took the initiative and let out the rest of Anabel's Pokémon to be fed. Needless to say, at this point, the little clearing in the woods was filled to the brim with Pokémon.

With all the Pokémon fed, Ash made his way over to Brock to sit and wait for the Pokémon to finish. Eventually, even Anabel woke up and was given breakfast to eat. Once everyone had been filled to contentment, all the Pokémon were recalled, sans Pikachu and Espeon. At this time, Anabel thought it best to bring up the issue of her newest capture. "Hey Brock, you're like a Pokémon doctor, right?"

"Well, I am well versed in Pokémon first aid, if that's what you're asking."

"Good, do you think you could have a look at a Pokémon for me," Anabel asked and brought out a pokéball and handed it over to Brock.

"Well I don't see why not," Brock said and took the ball from Anabel. He released the Pokémon onto the table they had used to eat breakfast. The Swablu came out but was still sleeping from the night before. Brock examined the Pokémon for a few moments before returning with his diagnosis. "Well it seems that its major problem in fatigue, although one of its wings seems a bit stiff, probably a cramp or a mild sprain. All it needs is some rest and it'll be just fine."

"That's a relief. I worried that it may have been seriously injured."

"Why's that," Brock asked passively.

"We found that Swablu locked in a cage last night in the middle of the woods. We were able to free it but it passed out in the process," Ash said, deciding to speak for the first time on the matter.

"Hmm, I see," said Brock. "Well, my decision stands. You need to give it some time to rest. I suggest keeping it in its pokéball till later, at least until it wakes up." Anabel complied and returned the Pokémon and placed the b

all back into her bag. Now, with everything seemingly in order, the group headed off, hoping to make it to the edge of the forest soon. Saffron City couldn't come soon enough.

Meanwhile, a short ways off, a certain trio was sitting with their backs to each other, clearly depressed. Finally one of them spoke up. "The plan was simple," said the short cat-like creature. "All we had to do was lure the twerps into our trap and then capture Pikachu and make a run for the boss before the creepy cloaked guy caught up with us."

"It sounds simple, but," said the blue haired one.

Then, all together, they hung their heads and said, "We fell asleep."

"Well I said we should just keep the Swablu," said the red haired member. "But no, we had to use it as bait for the twerps." She growled and stood up, walking a few feet before turning back around facing her two companions. "Well what are we going to do now?"

"I guess we could go on with the plan, just without the trap," said the cat.

"Do you have the robot all ready to go, Meowth," asked James, the blue haired male of the group. Meowth nodded and the group headed off into the woods where Meowth had the robot parked.

Ash and company had been walking for a good while, and the sun was finally penetrating into the forest. According to the map that Brock was looking at, they were just a short ways from the edge of the forest, and then it would only be a few miles to Saffron. After a few more minutes of walking, the group came to a large clearing in the woods. But what was odd about this clearing is that there was a house there. As the group was walking in front of the house, the door opened and out came an old man. The old man was carrying a large bag that read Pokémon Food on the front. The man was having a bit of trouble carrying the sack, and he eventually dropped it on the ground, soon followed by the man falling on the ground. "Hey, mister," Ash called out to the old man. "Do you need a hand?"

The old man looked up to see the group staring at him. Embarrassed that his moment of weakness was witnessed by a bunch of kids, he called out to them, "I suppose I could use a few extra. I'm getting too old for this." The group walked over to the man and Ash picked up the bag as if it were nothing, and putting it over his shoulder. "If you could take that over to the barn for me I would be very grateful." Ash nodded and walked over to said barn and set the sack down inside. When Ash returned, the old man was standing again. "Thank you lad."

"It wasn't a problem," said Ash, wearing his trademark grin. "But why would you need so much Pokémon food?"

"Well you see this is a Pokémon Day-Care. I need all that food to feed the clients Pokémon."

"A Day-Care," Brock said slowly. "I do remember a Day-Care around here, but I thought it was run by a couple and their daughter," said Brock, remembering the time they had been here previously, and their friend May received an egg from the family.

The old man chuckled," Well yes. That's my son, who inherited the place from me when I retired. But everyone needs a vacation once in a while, so I promised to look after the place while they went on a trip."

"Well I'm glad we could be of help," said Ash.

"So am I," the old man said, chuckling again. "I feel like I need to repay you somehow. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Ash thought about it for a little while. After looking around quickly, he said, "You have a lot of room around here, lots of open spaces." The old man nodded, not quite understanding what Ash was getting at. "Well, if you don't mind, could you let us train our Pokémon here for a little while?"

"You guys are Pokémon Trainers," the old man said. "Ah, the sure does bring back memories. Back when this place was in its prime. You may not believe it when you look at me now, but I used to be renowned as a Trainer. I didn't do any of the completion stuff, I lived for raising Pokémon. People would come from all over Kanto to let me raise their Pokémon. Then I would give them back and take on another. Hmm, oh pardon me. I was lost in my ramblings. I would be glad to have you use the property; I only ask to let me watch."

"That's fine with me," said Ash, turning to Anabel who nodded her head. They walked past the barn to get a look at the field. It was big enough to fit all the Pokémon comfortably. Ash went first, releasing his four Pokémon from their balls, as Pikachu jumped off his shoulder to bring the number up to five. Primeape began to stretch its muscles while taking in its surroundings. It tried to ignore Nincada, who was standing next to him. Nincada didn't really move, he just sat there staring forward. Eevee was still sleeping, so all anyone could see was a ball of brown fluff laying on the ground. Gible dug a hole in the ground, disappearing from sight. Pikachu just sat among the ranks.

Anabel released two of her Pokémon from their balls, with Espeon slinking up to them and laying down in the grass. Ralts let out a small yawn and began to take in its surroundings. Seedot took a few looks around, concluded that the area was safe, and sat down. With everyone gathered, it was time to train. "Alright Anabel, just watch and follow my lead," Ash said, then he turned to his Pokémon and continued, "Alright everyone, time for some training, so no slacking off. Now Pikachu, I want you and Nincada to work together. Electricity won't hurt him and Nincada still needs to work on his speed so you and him will work well together. Primeape, you'll be working with Gible. You're both strong so you two will do well sparring with each other. After all, iron sharpens iron." Ash looked over to Anabel, signaling her to give similar orders to her Pokémon.

"Uh, well," Anabel wasn't really sure where to start. "I guess Ralts and Seedot, you guess can spar with each other. And, uh, Espeon you can, uh—"

'Take a nap? What a wonderful idea,' said the purple cat as he remained laying on the ground.

"I guess that's everything," said Anabel.

"Alright then, everyone, let's go," Ash said and everyone broke up into their groups. Pikachu grabbed by the antenna and dragged him across the field. Gible burst from under the ground and prepared itself for its training against the Pig Monkey. The two of them walked off to a different area of the field than Pikachu and Nincada. Seedot and Ralts just looked at each other, not really what to do. Ash noticed this, and walked over to the two and asked, "Is there a problem?" The two of them just stared at him. "Hmm, well from what I've seen, I would say Seedot's prevailing strategy at this point relies on his defense. So Ralts, what you need to do is help him with that by attacking him. This way, you attack get stronger at the same time as his defense. Just don't go overboard, this is just training," the boy finished his short motivational speech and the two Pokémon nodded, walking off to follow the orders they were given.

"Wow Ash," Anabel said. "That was impressive. I guess I'm not very good at this concentrated training session stuff."

"How did your other Pokémon get so strong if you never trained them," asked Ash.

"Well, it isn't very difficult to train Psychic-type Pokémon," Anabel said, rubbing the back of her head. "Alakazam has an I.Q. of over 5000. Metagross has four brains, giving it capabilities that surpass supercomputers. It's hard to train Pokémon that can outsmart even you. I normally just let them do what they wanted and then later they would tell me the different strategies they had formulated. It may seem like I never really did any of the work, but I did do a fair amount of work. Just because they thought of the strategy didn't mean it always worked against every opponent. I had to discern which one was best fit for the situation."

"What about Espeon," Ash asked, getting a questioning look from Anabel. "How did Espeon train, is what I mean."

"Espeon and I would always work together. Espeon as a species are capable of predicting its opponent's moves. So training would normally be battling Alakazam or Metagross. If we could predict their movements, we knew we could out strategize anyone. I guess that how he got so lazy out of battle," Anabel said, laughing a bit at the revelation. Then she noticed some motion out of the corner of her. "Well, it looks like Eevee is finally waking up." It was true, Ash's Eevee had woken up, and it was stretching itself at the moment. "Why don't you train Eevee?"

"Heh, Eevee currently has a small problem," Ash said. "Eevee doesn't have any moves that can attack, and I haven't thought of any way to train it without brutally attacking it."

"Can't attack you say," said a voice from behind the two. Surprised, Ash and Anabel turned to see the old man standing behind them. "Sorry for eavesdropping but I couldn't help over hearing you dilemma. Now, I may have a solution to your little problem."

"Really," said Ash. "And what would that be?"

"Bring Eevee with you, and come into my barn," the old man turned and headed into his barn. Ash just looked at Anabel and shrugged.

"I guess it couldn't hurt," he said to her. "Hey Eevee, come over here," he said to the tiny fox. When its name was called, Eevee looked over toward Ash and, happy to see him, ran over to him. Climbing up Ash, Eevee eventually came to rest atop the trainer's head. Ash began to make his way over to the barn where the old man was. Once inside, Ash took note of what was inside. There was a pile of food sacks, one of which he had carried in earlier. There were lots of different stalls, probably for keeping the younger Pokémon. Then Ash noticed the old man at the back of the barn and walked up to him.

"Ah, good to see you could make it," the old man said. He was holding what looked like a CD case. "Now, here I have a solution to your attacking problem."

"What is it?"

"I'm glad you asked, lad," the old man said. "These here are Technical Machines, or TMs as the kids call them these days. Anyway, using these you can teach Pokémon moves depending on what disc it is. Now, do you know what you want to evolve your Eevee into?" Ash shook his head. "Hmm, then I suggest this one." The old man pulled out a disc that was purple and had a number thirty printed on it. "Now this here will teach your Pokémon the move Shadow Ball, a ghost type move. It might not be the best move but it'll do until you can get some better techniques. Now are you sure you want to do this?"

"Well, Eevee, what do you think," Ash asked the small being that was lying on top of his head. Eevee gave a small mew and climbed down onto Ash's shoulder. She then proceeded to give him a small lick on the cheek and then smiled and rubbed her head against his. "I guess that means yes."

"Alright then, if you would permit me," the old man took the disc and placed it back into the case. He then placed a pair of earphones over the small Pokémon's ears and hit the play button. A few moments later, Eevee fell asleep and there was a small cracking sound. The old man opened the case and dumped the shrapnel into a near-by garbage can. "I really wish there was a way to use these things without them breaking. I hear that some region has perfected the technology but it hasn't made its way here. Oh, and don't worry about the little guy, he just needs some rest."

"How do we know if it worked?"

"Well, these things haven't failed me yet; don't see why they would this time." The two of them walked out of the barn to see that everyone had finished training. Pikachu was sitting next to Espeon while and Nincada was sitting by himself a little ways away. Primeape and Gible had passed out on the ground from fatigue. Seedot and Ralts were sitting near Pikachu and Espeon.

"I guess training is over," Ash said to no one in particular.

"I think they gave it their all," the old man said. "Pokémon always train their hardest when trying to impress their trainer." The old man laughed. Ash walked over to Anabel, who was sitting next to Brock who had been reading a book on Breeding. Ash sat down with his friends and looked up into the sky. The sun was just about to reach the top of the sky, meaning that it was almost noon. Ash lay down on the soft grass and got ready to take a short nap before they hit the road again.

"Well if this is all training is, I think I can handle it," Anabel said.

Ash propped his head up and said, "Well this isn't all there is to training. But we can get into that some other time." Ash then laid his head back down and pulled his cap over his eyes. Anabel just gigged a little at the sight.

Over with the Pokémon, Pikachu and Espeon were playing a little game. 'Alright, this is it, double or nothing. Now, I'm thinking of a number, between one and one thousand.'

Espeon just sighed, 'Four-hundred and thirty-nine.'

'Arg, how do you do that,' Pikachu exclaimed, completely forgetting what Psychic meant. But then, Pikachu heard a noise in the woods. 'Hey, did you hear that.'

'Hear what,' Espeon said, slightly bored. But before Pikachu could answer, a large mechanical hand shot out of the forest and grabbed Pikachu, pulling it into the forest. '…Didn't see that coming,' Espeon said, as Ash and the others ran over to where all the commotion was taking place, wondering what was happening.

Suddenly, a large robot emerged from the forest, piloted by Jessie, James, and Meowth. Out of the top of the machine, the trio rose laughing maniacally. "Team Rocket," Ash grumbled under his breath.

"Listen, is the a voice I hear," Jessie began their motto.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear," James said, filling in the next line.

"On the wind!"

"Past the stars!"

"In your ear," Meowth spoke up.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace."

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place."

"A rose by any other name is just a sweet."

"When everything's worse, our work is complete."

"Jessie!"

"And it's James!"

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!"

"Putting do-gooders in their place."

"We're Team Rocket."

"In your face," the trio finished in unison.

"Wobbuffet."

"What do you guys want," Ash yelled to the three.

"We already have what we want," Jessie said as the robot lifted its arm, showing the captured Pikachu.

"Pikachu," Ash called out. Pikachu was struggling in the grip of the robot, even trying a few electric attacks, but nothing was working.

"Ha, you think you wouldn't have learned our lesson yet," Meowth taunted. "This thing is one hundred percent electricity proof."

"That's right, now, go Yanmega, show these twerps a thing or two," Jessie said.

"Go Carnivine," James called out. His large Venus flytrap like creature came out, and chomped down on his head. After struggling for a bit he was able to wrestle it off.

"Alright, if that's how you want it, go…huh," Ash was about to call out to one of his Pokémon, when Eevee ran in front of Ash. "You want do battle Eevee," Ash asked the Evolution Pokémon, who nodded in affirmation. "Alright then, use Shadow Ball."

"Yanmega, use Sonicboom ."

"Carnivine, use Bullet Seed." The three attacks all met in the center, causing a small explosion.

Soon after the smoke cleared, Ash called out to Eevee, "Use another Shadow Ball." Not expecting the attack, Team Rocket wasn't able to issue an attack fast enough, and their two Pokémon were sent flying backwards, crashing into their robot. The sudden movement caused the robot's grip on Pikachu to loosen, allowing it to free itself and run back to Ash. "Alright Pikachu send them flying, Thunderbolt." Pikachu shot out the large electric attack at the robot. The electricity consumed the robot and caused it to explode, sending the trio flying off into the air.

"Meowth I thought you said that robot was electricity proof," Jessie yelled as they flew through the air.

"Well, the hands were the only thing we could afford to insulate," Meowth confessed.

"Some things never change," James said.

"Just like this,"Meowth said.

"We're blasting off again," they yelled as they disappeared into a twinkle in the sky.

"Good job guys," Ash said to Eevee and Pikachu.

Over on the sides, Anabel, Brock and the old man were watching everything that had unfolded. "Wow, Ash sure does know how to handle himself," Anabel said.

"Well, after dealing with them for so long, I guess Ash just knows what he's doing," Brock said chuckling.

"Heh, well I am certainly impressed," the old man said. "The boy is a truly talented Pokémon Trainer. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go all the way."

"Yeah well enough of that, who wants lunch," Brock said, receiving nods from both parties. "Alright then," Brock said, then turned to Ash, "Ash time for lunch. You're cooking." Everyone began to laugh, except Ash that is. They all headed into the old man's house and Ash began to prepare some stew for lunch, under Brock's supervision. After lunch, and compliments on Ash's cooking, the group got ready to leave. They left the Day-Care waving back to the old man, and they were once again on the road. It wasn't long before the group made it out of the woods. They could see Saffron city in the distance.

While on the road, Anabel decided to check something, pulling out a Pokeball and releasing her Swablu. The bird was awake but it wasn't able fly quite yet so it just landed on the ground. "Hey there Swablu," she said to it. "I know I kind of just captured you without any kind of battle, but I hope you and I can work together. What do you say, will you join me," Anabel said smiling to Swablu. Swablu stared at Anabel for a short while. Ash and Brock were also watching, waiting for Swablu's response. Eventually Swablu chirped happily and hopped up onto Anabel's head and remaining perched there, sleeping again.

Ash and Brock were restraining themselves from laughing. Anabel did look a little silly with the cotton hat. "I guess I can take that as a yes," Anabel said, giggling a bit. So, after a slight distraction, the group continued toward Saffron. They entered the Security Booth, planning on just walking right through to the city. However, they hit a small problem.

"Excuse me sir," said the man behind the desk.

"Huh, me," Ash asked, pointing to himself.

"Yes," the guard answered. "I'm sorry to say this but I'm afraid I can't allow you to enter Saffron."

"Huh, why not," Ash said loudly, shocked that he was prohibited from entering.

"Sorry, I don't make the rules, I just follow them," the guard answered.

"Ah man, this is just great. How am I supposed to battle the Gym Leader if I can't enter the city," Ash asked no one in particular.

"Well if it's Gym Badges you're after you could always go to Vermillion. There's an Underground Path just outside of here that you can take. It will lead you right to Vermillion City," the guard told them. The group left in slightly lower spirits than they had entered. They really had been eager to get to Saffron, but they supposed that Vermillion was their next destination after Saffron anyway; it couldn't hurt to double back later. The Underground Path the guard spoke of was a large tunnel that went under Saffron, and didn't really have anything of note in it. So they just kept walking. Ash, with Pikachu on his shoulder, Brock on Ash's left, and Anabel on his right, with Swablu sleeping on her head, made it out of the Path in only a matter of two hours of silent travel. Ash was still a bit bummed about Saffron, but with the prospects of Vermillion, he soon forgot all about what had happened. After only a few more hours of travel, they had made it to the border of Vermillion. The Pokémon Center was just inside the city, and it was too late for a Gym match, so they decided to stay for the night and challenge the Gym the next day. They gave Nurse Joy their Pokémon, ate dinner, and got a room for the night. Before they went to bed, they were sitting in the lobby talking, when Nurse Joy came up to them.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, there is a phone call for a Brock," she said to them.

"Oh, Nurse Joy, for you I would take anything. A phone, a bullet, even a grenade. Please allow me to escort you to, erhg," Brock was cut out by a Poison Jab to his gut. Croagunk stood passively staring at Brock, before he started to drag him by the leg towards the phone section of the center. Ash and Anabel laughed lightly as Brock was dragged off.

"So, Ash, what can you say about this Gym," Anabel asked Ash.

"Hmm, well, Lt. Surge uses Electric-Type Pokémon. Last time I battled him, I fought his Raichu with Pikachu and was able to pull off a win even with the odds against me," Ash answered.

"Electric-Type huh, well I guess Swablu won't be entering this match," Anabel said. After a short while Brock returned from the phone, but he had a slightly nervous look on his face. "Hey, Brock, is there something wrong?"

"Uh, well, I need to return to home for a little while. Something has come up," Brock said to them. "Don't worry I'll be back, but I'm needed at home." Anabel was sensing a bit of discomfort from Brock but decided not speak up.

"Well if it's that important I guess we could—" Ash started to say.

"No Ash, I need to go alone," Brock said cutting him off. Ash was a bit shocked at Brock's harshness so Brock softened his voice and said, "Alright Ash, this isn't a big deal. I just need to get home quickly and then I can come right back with you guys. I even have it planned out. We can meet back up in Lavender Town. Sound good," Brock said smiling to his friends. Ash nodded. "Good, now I think it's time for bed so let's go." They all got up and went to the bedroom and got ready for bed, but Anabel was still worried about Brock. Something about him seemed off. She just pushed it aside, thinking he was just worried about what was going on at his home. They all got into bed, and went to sleep, ready for the day ahead.

Meanwhile, in the woods near Pewter City, the cloaked man was standing in a phone booth off the side of the road. He hung up the phone and stepped out of the booth, then turned to three other individuals, the Team Rocket Trio. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? A group of insubordinates, that's what," the cloaked man said calmly.

"Please sir we'll do anything, just don't have us fired," Jessie pleaded.

"You won't be fired. No, you'll have a much worse punishment than that. For your failure to capture Pikachu all these years, you will be forced to work at desk jobs, until you earn back double what your schemes cost Team Rocket," the man told them. He then walked away, as the trio was left glued to their spots, unable to move after the news they had been given. Excellent, everything is going according to plan. Soon all I'll have left to do is sit back and watch the domino's fall. The cloaked man let out a light chuckle as he continued toward Pewter City. What are these man's intentions? Will Ash and company be able to thwart them? Stay tuned and find out.

To Be Continued

And…Cut. Print, that's a wrap for today boys.

Well that's that. Yep, sure is…Oh okay I'll get to the news. Anyway, someone with half a brain may have noticed something missing like maybe cutting the events of episode eight through twelve (maybe thirteen if you think too much into it). Anyway, I know everyone only really cared about one of the original episodes being revisited but I'll give my exc—I mean my reason for why I cut them. One, for the life of me, I could think of reasons to visit most of the places. For the episode with AJ and Sandshrew, they left so…no point in going there. Damian, left the Pokémon Center that they stayed at with Charmander. The hidden village…well they could do the whole, hi-bye thing with Melody, but really what's the point. The Squirtle Squad isn't in the town anymore so, yeah. Oh and the School episode…Joe left but Giselle is still there…I couldn't think of anything OKAY. Second, anyone with encyclopedic knowledge of the original episodes may remember what route Ash said to take to get to Vermillion. The answer is Route 24, the route north of Cerulean, which doesn't lead to Vermillion (this is E-dub only, but still). And if you remember from last chapter, they left via the southern exit. I planned this so I could skip them. Third…I think I've made you wait long enough. I want to get to the shipping chapter as much as you guys. And yes it is the next chapter. Here's a little teaser for you: Chapter 15: Date Expectations. What do you think, to cliché? Meh.

Anyway, I would like to thank all of you who review last time. I know it was shorter than normal but I hope this makes up for it. Also, props go to, Lightningking532, for finding the Weekenders quote from last chapter. I'll be doing this form time to time when I feel like throwing in so obscure quotes. So try to find them (no quote this chapter sorry).

My final word, wish me luck. I'm going to my college orientation this weekend (you know, tours and placement tests and scholarship info). I'm sure that'll be fun. (gag me with a spoon)

So please review this chapter. Last time was good, but we can have better (not that I'm complaining, but the more the merrier as Ash always says). I promise to read each and every one of them. (I am staring at you).

Sincerely yours,

Twitch E. One