Chapter Twenty One: Lysandre and Steven

By the end of their first day through Viridian City, Ash had learned two things. First, some trainers apparently could manage to not grow at all over the course of six months; their encounter with the "Samurai" he'd faced the first time around was a testament to that. Luna and Cinder pulverized his Pinsir with seemingly little effort.

Second, Luna's newest addition to her team -a Mankey- was going to get on the last nerve of every member of his team before the night was up.

He felt his eyelid twitch involuntarily as the small, monkey-like Pokemon jumped around with its seemingly limitless energy, picking up rocks and pulling grass out by the roots before hurling them in any random direction. It had already smacked Douse twice with its projectiles and Pyro was struck in the face by a rock. Espeon stopped any projectiles coming her way with Psychic, but the rest of his team (barring Spectre, who had taken up residence in Ash's shadow for safety) were all at risk of being hit.

Cinder was more annoyed by his new partner than anything. The Litten growled at Mankey warningly, but it paid him no heed. Luna set her bags down on the ground when they set up camp and pulled her silver-blue Pokedex out.

Silver ducked as a rock went sailing over his head, causing him to eye the fighting type warily. "Why is it so…rambunctious?"

"No idea. Let's see…" Luna tapped on Mankey's profile in her Pokedex and the mechanical voice listed off the fighting type's data.

Mankey, the Pig Monkey Pokemon. It can spontaneously become enraged. Everything near it clears away when it rampages and the loneliness Mankey experiences after that makes it even angrier. When its raging tires it out and causes it to faint, it enters a state of near-sleep that enables it to rest without completely letting down its guard.

This Mankey is male and knows the moves: Scratch, Low Kick, Leer, Focus Energy, Fury Swipes, and Karate Chop. Its ability is Vital Spirit, which prevents Mankey from ever falling asleep.

Silver's eyebrows rose up until they were nearly hidden under his bangs. "Wait, you mean he doesn't sleep? Ever?"

"Nope," Ash muttered, eyeing the fighting type with a look that said he was resigned to their fate. "He literally can't fall asleep. If you knock him out, he gets close, but he never goes into true unconsciousness thanks to Vital Spirit."

Luna rolled her eyes at the exasperated tone of her cousin. "But that means we have a guard who never gets tired! Mankey can keep watch while we sleep."

"No, you're confusing tiredness with the ability to sleep," Ash retorted. "Mankey can still get tired, he just can't sleep. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if his inability to sleep makes him get angry."

The three trainers all stared as Mankey hung from a tree by his tail, seemingly oblivious to the problems he was already causing despite only being on Luna's team for a single day.

Ash sighed. "Well, if worst comes to worst, Luna can keep Mankey in his pokeball for the night. I'm not letting Rhydon out in this forest, either; he'll go nuts in this kind of area. My team can keep guard for us while we sleep. Let's just get camp set up for now, okay?"

Luna threw him a mock salute. "Sir, yes sir."

"Think we'll have time to train a bit?" Silver asked.

Ash considered the sun setting over the tree line. "We've probably got time for one or two quick spars, although I don't generally like fighting in the forest with my team. Pyro alone can light a forest fire as easily as he breathes."

Pyro puffed out his chest proudly at that, even though it wasn't exactly a compliment. Ash smiled at his starter with amusement. "But I don't think we'll have a problem if you two spar for a bit."

"You sure you don't want to? Not even with Arctus?" Luna asked curiously. "I thought he needed the most training right now."

Ash shook his head. "He does, but it's really hot right now and he's been walking with us most of the day. I want to give him time to cool off."

Arctus did look rather tired; his thick fur coat was not meant for traveling the humid and hot Viridian Forest in Summer. Ash hoped that the cub would become more comfortable as the seasons changed and brought Fall and Winter around.

Silver unclipped a pokeball from his belt -the only one he currently possessed- and walked away from the campfire they'd set up to a clearer area. "Well, I could use a battle."

Luna grinned. "Me too! I wanna see how Mankey fights."

Ash shrugged and took a position as referee. "Alright, we'll do a one-on-one. The battle ends when only one Pokemon is still standing. Deal?"

Silver nodded and Luna's grin widened. She looked at Mankey and called to the fighting type. "Mankey! Come down here for a battle!"

The pig monkey stopped his crazed movement and froze at the word "battle" before darting out of the trees and onto the ground. His eyes sought his opponent eagerly, obviously ready to work off some of his energy. Ash's team and Cinder watched keenly, though Espeon huffed at the fighting type in exasperation.

Silver enlarged the capture device in his hand and hurled it into the air. "This is my partner, Gawain!"

What emerged from the pokeball was something that both intrigued and perplexed Ash. The creature was about five feet long, with a pale brown body that was kind of segmented like an insect's. It had bulging green eyes and two horn-like antennae on its head. Four emerald, rhombus-shaped wings rested on its shoulders and fluttered rapidly, as if it was preparing to take off, and four small, twig-like legs with two simple grasping utensils on each one.

It looked, for all the world, like a dragonfly, yet Ash could see reptile-like scales covering its body. He was at a bit of a loss to accurately classify the Pokemon.

"What is it?" Luna asked curiously.

"He's a Vibrava. A ground and dragon type," Silver told them, kneeling to carefully stroke Gawain's back while avoiding his vibrating wings. Gawain leaned into the touch, his head tilting rapidly like a dragonfly's as he assessed his surroundings. "Father gave him to me when he was a Trapinch. I couldn't really train him then since all Trapinch like to do is eat and sleep; they're kind of like the pupae form of their evolutionary line. But he evolved a couple of months ago and I've gotten to work with him better since then."

"Vibrava, huh…" Ash murmured to himself. It made sense that Giovanni would grant his son a ground type to take care of, and seemingly a rare one at that. Ash didn't know of any other ground and dragon types aside from Garchomp. He made a mental note to read up on Vibrava's evolutionary line later on. "Well, let's see what he can do. Is this your first battle?"

"Pretty much," Silver admitted with a shrug. "I mean, father let us spar against his Pokemon sometimes, but…"

"They're all monsters," Ash finished. Yeah, there was no way Silver and the small dragon would be able to defeat one of Giovanni's beasts right now. This would be the first battle where he had a shot at winning. Well, a better shot.

Luna wasn't one to give up easily, after all.

"Alright, you two," he said. "Start!"

"Mankey, Low Kick!" Luna ordered immediately.

The monkey darted forward, moving into a slide as he closed in on Gawain and tried to kick out the dragon's thin legs. Gawain responded by flying straight up, though it was more of a hover than actual flight. Luna was undeterred, however. "Fury Swipes!"

Mankey easily changed course from a slide into a jump, swiping in a frenzy at Gawain's underbelly. The Vibrava hissed and moved up higher and to the side in an attempt to evade the attack, but Mankey just started jumping from the trees to attack Gawain in the air.

Silver's eyes narrowed. "Bug Bite!"

Gawain locked onto Mankey as the fighting type came in for another swipe, this time biting his opponent's hand. Mankey squealed and started smacking Gawain's head frantically with Karate Chop.

"Dragon Breath!" Silver commanded.

Still clamped onto Mankey's hand, Gawain let loose a jet of emerald fire, shooting Mankey straight to the ground.

Luna was unfazed. "Focus Energy, then Karate Chop!"

Mankey quickly flipped himself back onto his feet and took a moment to focus his power into his hands. As soon as that was done, he leapt into the trees again, darting about in blurs of speed. Ash couldn't help but grin at the display of speed. Mankey was a young fighter, that much was obvious, but he certainly knew how to use the terrain around him.

Gawain made a chittering hiss as Mankey came down and smashed the Karate Chop into his head, then delivered a second one to his wing. Gawain responded by once again biting Mankey's hand and tossing the monkey back to the ground.

"Earth Power!"

Gawain dove for the ground and his wings vibrated intensely for a second before the earth beneath Mankey's feet erupted in a burst of energy. The fighting type was repelled into a tree where he cringed from pain, giving Silver an opportunity to attack again. "Dragon Breath!"

Gawain blasted Mankey with the emerald fire again and this time, the fighting type stayed down. Mankey was trying to get back up, but it was obvious to Ash's eyes that he'd had it.

"That's enough!" Ash ordered. "Mankey can't keep battling anymore. Silver takes the round."

Luna nodded and walked over to the exhausted fighting type. "You did a good job, Mankey. Take a break now, okay?"

Mankey just huffed and leaned back against the tree, trying to catch his breath. Luna smiled at Silver, who had knelt beside Gawain to praise him. "He's pretty strong."

Silver smirked back. "Yeah, but I gotta give it to Mankey for taking advantage of the trees. It's hard for Gawain to hover around in this thick cover."

"If Mankey had a few extra weeks of training under his belt, I think the fight could've gone either way," Ash said honestly as he approached Luna and the tired fighting type. He fished an Oran berry out of his jacket and offered it to Mankey, who took it greedily. He tossed another one to Silver, who caught it and gave the treat to Gawain while Ash appraised the dragon. "Gawain is pretty strong though. I think he's probably about as powerful as Spectre or my Dratini, Jasmine. It's hard to tell though since he couldn't maneuver very well here in the forest."

"He's best with sound attacks," Silver revealed. "But I didn't think it'd be a good idea to start using stuff like Sonic Boom or Bug Buzz in the forest. Too many Beedrill."

"Good call," Ash agreed. "It'll be easier to spar once we're out in the open."

He gauged the light of the sun for a moment before making a decision. "I think that's actually enough battling for tonight. If you guys want to practice some moves, we can do that in moderation."

"I'm in!" Luna exclaimed. "Cinder!"

The fire type only huffed with all the excitement of a sleepy cat as he dragged himself to his feet, resigned to his fate.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Ash was yanked from his dreams by a scream that made him sit bolt-upright in his sleeping bag. From the looks of things, the entire camp had woken up due to the screech and whipped their heads around wildly to find the source.

Another shriek alerted them that the culprit was Luna, who was still in her sleeping bag. She too was sitting up and staring at something small on the dark blue fabric. Her eyes were wide as she pointed at it with a shaky hand.

Ash took a solid three seconds to observe what was on her sleeping bag before he blurted his first thought out. "Did you just scream at a Weedle?"

"YES!" She yelled, causing Pyro to huff in annoyance and bury his head beneath one of his large wings. The rest of Ash's team and Cinder looked entirely unimpressed by the display.

Silver rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes and stared at the tiny bug that was frozen in place on Luna's sleeping bag, right over her feet. "Are you scared of bug Pokemon or something? Weedle are usually pretty docile. Just go back to sleep. It's barely dawn…"

"No, no, no!" Luna gasped, still pointing at the bug type insistently. "Look at it!"

Ash did as she requested for another ten seconds before he shrugged. "Okay. What should I be seeing?"

"Isn't the color weird?" She demanded. "It looks brighter than the other Weedle we saw yesterday!"

Ash and Silver observed the insect for a little while, but neither really saw it. The latter of the two boys squinted half-heartedly at the bug. "Maybe, but it's hard to tell in this lighting. What, you think it's got the Shiny gene or something?"

"I'm sure of it!" Luna replied fervently. "I'm gonna catch it!"

"Knock yourself out," Ash sighed, falling back onto his sleeping bag. Nope, he wouldn't be sleeping now that he was awake. With a groan, the boy forced himself to his feet. "You've got a pokeball this time, right?"

"Of course I do," she said, slowly reaching for her backpack next to the bag. The Weedle in question didn't appear to be alarmed and just watched her. They weren't known for being especially keen as bug types went, but that was mostly because all Weedle were babies. Like Caterpie and certain other bug types, their time in their base form was incredibly short. Had this Weedle hatched today, it would be a Kakuna in just under two weeks, if not less depending on how much food it got.

Luna extracted an empty pokeball from her backpack and slowly leaned forward over her sleeping bag, extending the device in her hand towards Weedle. Again, the small insect just watched her curiously and in fact did nothing until she was right in its face. The only action it took was to press its face against the pokeball to see if it was edible. That, of course, triggered the device to activate and sucked the little bug into the pokeball. It hardly put up a fight and was captured after about three or four seconds of wriggling.

"Yay!" Luna cheered, pumping a fist. "I got it!"

"Yup, you caught a Weedle," Ash yawned, covering his mouth with a hand. "You'll be Champion tomorrow with that on your team."

The girl only grinned at him slyly. "You'll be envious later when you see that it really does have the Shiny gene! I'll make you eat those words!"

Since she'd gone and woken everyone up, they just got an early start that morning. Ash taught the new trainers how to go about getting things done in the morning; cleaning up the campsite, getting breakfast ready for them and their teams, and so forth. Of course, while their teams were eating, Luna released the Weedle she'd captured so it could eat as well and they could get a better look at it.

Ash had his Pokedex out and pulled up Weedle's page, then tapped on the "forms" tab. It pulled up an image of a normal Weedle and a Weedle with the Shiny gene.

"Well?" Luna asked anxiously.

He squinted at the images and then at Luna's Weedle. Now that he was awake and actually took more than a second to observe the bug, (who was stuffing its face in a can of Pokemon food) it…actually kind of looked like the Shiny gene Weedle in the Pokedex, but it was still hard to tell. Weedle's Shiny form was literally the same as its normal form, except the carapace was a slightly brighter yellow.

Luna's Weedle looked brighter than normal, but Ash wasn't sure if that was just the lighting here in the forest or if it actually had the Shiny gene.

"I can't tell," he muttered, scratching the back of his head. "I mean, yeah, its carapace is brighter than most other Weedle I've seen, but I can't tell if it's actually got the Shiny gene or not. It's not like there's no physical variation in Weedle, you know? Some are lighter or darker than others, even if it's just a little bit."

"I'm sure it is," Luna insisted. "You should've seen it when it fell onto my bag! Right before the sun came up and it was still dark out, I swear it was almost glowing, it was so light!"

Silver took Ash's Pokedex for a moment to give his own two cents. "I can see it, kind of. And actually, the odds of it having the Shiny gene aren't terrible. Beedrill breed in quantity; they literally lay thousands of eggs in a single sitting since most of the offspring get taken out by bird Pokemon. This forest has a number of Beedrill swarms and each one produces hundreds of thousands of eggs every year. The really big hives might even lay over a million. With those odds, there are probably a few Weedle with the Shiny gene crawling around in Viridian Forest. I bet most are picked off by bird Pokemon or other predators though since they're a little easier to spot."

Ash inclined his head, conceding the point. "I could buy that. If this one really does have the Shiny gene, it's lucky it fell onto Luna. A predator probably would have nabbed it this morning otherwise. It's in one of the more open areas of the forest."

Luna pulled out her Pokedex and pointed it at Weedle. "Let's see…"

Weedle, the Hairy Pokemon. It is often found in forests. It has a sharp, toxic barb of around two inches on the top of its head. Its brightly-colored body is intended to warn off enemies. Weedle has an extremely acute sense of smell thanks to its proboscis and uses it to identify its favorite kind of leaves.

This Weedle is female and knows the moves: Poison Sting, String Shot, and Bug Bite. Its ability is Shield Dust, which prevents certain attacks from leaving a status effect on Weedle.

"It's a good thing it's female," Ash remarked. When Luna gave him a questioning look, he emphasized. "Beedrill have different lifespans depending on their gender. Most males only live about five to ten years. Females live a lot longer than that- I think thirty to forty years. Maybe even older."

"They've evolved a hive system that changes the very biology between the genders," Silver added. "Males are usually soldiers or workers- they serve the females and they're a bit smaller as well. Females take up the role of Queens and lay eggs, but maybe because they don't fight as often as they males, they've got larger poison glands and the venom is more potent. Both genders are excellent battlers depending on how you train them."

Silver swiped from Weedle's page to its evolved form and grunted. "If it's a Shiny, you'll know when it evolves. A normal Kakuna has the same color scheme as Weedle, but it's Shiny form is bright green."

Luna grinned widely. "So we just gotta wait until it evolves! Piece of cake! All Weedle do is eat and sleep!"

"It looks like it's doing plenty of eating," Ash said dryly. Weedle's entire head was buried in the can of Pokemon food as it ate frantically. "It's making me hungry. Let's have breakfast and then we'll get a move on."

Traveling through Viridian Forest went smoothly. Most of the Pokemon in the area were at pretty low levels, anyways, providing Luna plenty of opportunities to train Cinder and Mankey. She didn't train Weedle since it was still quite young, instead opting to let the little bug eat her fill of Pokemon food and occasionally leaves Luna picked from random trees or bushes. Silver seemed keen on catching more Pokemon for his own team, but he didn't find any that interested him in the forest.

Before they knew it, they'd left the forest and found Pewter City waiting for them. It was late afternoon by then and the sun was about to set when they spotted the Pokemon Center.

"Yay~ Civilization!" Luna bounced on her heels. "I call first dibs on the shower!"

Silver let out a sigh of relief. "I can't wait to sleep on an actual bed. Sleeping bags are great, but nothing tops a real mattress."

Ash snorted in amusement. "If you guys think the forest was rough, I can't wait to drag you through the wilderness between Celadon and Fuchsia. It took me nearly two weeks to get through there."

Ignoring their wide eyes, like they couldn't decide if he was joking or not, Ash led the way to the Pokemon Center. Giovanni had sent him a message on his PokeNav the night after their battle with the time and place for Ash's meeting with Lysandre. It seemed as though the man in question was going to be at the Pewter Gym tomorrow in the morning.

Lysandre is a man with an eye for talent. He's agreed to meet you going on my recommendation, but you will still be tested. In this line of work, you must earn respect with your own strength and intellect. Expect the unexpected.

At least Giovanni had warned him about that much, though Ash still wasn't totally sure what he was getting himself into.

"Ash?" Luna tapped his shoulder, jerking him out of his thoughts. "You good?"

"Yeah, just thinking," he replied. "How do you feel about tackling the gym tomorrow?"

Luna grinned. "I think I've got a good shot at it with Cinder and Mankey! I mean, you did it with a Charmander and a Sandile, right? I can do that."

"Pyro knew Metal Claw, y'know," Ash pointed out. "Cinder doesn't have any moves that'll be very effective against rock types. You'll need a different strategy."

"I know. I'll win," she assured him.

He shrugged. "If you're sure. Training tonight, or do we want to sleep?"

"I'd like to train a bit," Silver said. "Gawain didn't really get to battle much in the forest."

"Speaking of which, what are you going to do about your Gym Battle, Silver?" Luna asked. "You've only got one Pokemon with you. I mean, Gawain's strong, but he can't solo a Gym Leader's team, can he?"

"I'd like to think he could, but I'm not sure how I stack up against Brock," he admitted. "I might have to skip this battle until I catch some more Pokemon and come back to Pewter at some other time to get the badge."

Ash nodded. "That might be a good idea. Anyhow, let's get a room and then we can get some training done."

Luna pumped a fist enthusiastically. "Yes!"

He smirked to himself. As eager as ever.

The next morning, Ash led the way to the Pewter Gym. It was just a little after ten o'clock, but Giovanni had said Lysandre wanted to meet early since he had other things to take care of throughout the day.

However, upon arriving at the gym, they found another kid guarding the entrance. Ash didn't recall seeing him before, but he looked vaguely familiar for some reason. He was just a bit taller than Ash, with wild red hair covering his head in spikes. His skin was tanned from traveling under the sun and his clothing, a simple white tank top and black shorts, were ragged and frayed at the edges. Around his torso was a sash of pokeballs, mostly the generic red and white ones, but Ash caught sight of an Ultra Ball and a mottled black and green pokeball he didn't recognize.

The kid watched them approach silently through light brown eyes, but he moved to block the door before they could reach it. "Sorry scrubs, no wannabe's at the gym today."

Ash raised an eyebrow. He could already tell this kid was going to irritate him before too long. "I'm here to meet with Lysandre."

"Are you?" The kid looked Ash up and down before smirking. "I don't think you are. You look like a total noob. How long have you been traveling, a week? Those clothes aren't even scratched up a little."

Yeah, he was definitely starting to feel irritated now. "The clothes are new, but that's besides the point. I'm supposed to meet Lysandre here at ten. Let me through or I'll be late."

The kid sneered, reaching up to pick off one of the pokeballs from the sash around his torso. "Beat me and I'll think about it."

Ash enlarged the pokeball containing Douse, offering the kid a glare. "I don't have time for this. Move."

"Make me."

"Alright, that's enough."

The trainers paused and looked back at the door to the gym, which had been cracked open slightly. Ash recognized Brock, who was leaning against the door frame, but not the other man who called to them. He was about average height, with silver hair and gray eyes. Everything about him spoke "high class" from the immaculate suit he wore to the jeweled pin in his left breast pocket.

The man gave Ash's would-be opponent a slightly annoyed look. "Benga, I told you to let in the trainer Lysandre was supposed to meet immediately. We've got work to do- save the fighting for later."

Benga rolled his eyes. "Whatever. What about the other scrubs?"

The man looked at Silver and Luna, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but the gym is closed for this morning."

"They're actually my friends," Ash interrupted. "They travel with me."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Well…ah, Silver. I thought I recognized you. What are you doing out here in Pewter City?"

He seemed surprised to see Silver, but the red-haired boy only nodded. "Father let me start traveling. I'm training with Ash for the time being."

"I see," the man said thoughtfully. He considered Luna in silence for another second before shrugging. "Very well. You two can come in as well, but you'll have to let myself and Lysandre speak with Ash alone when we need to."

Ash nodded. "Thank you."

Benga sneered at Ash on the way in, but he only glared back silently. Maybe he'd give this kid the fight he wanted later.

Brock held up a hand for a high-five as Ash entered the gym. "Hey, man. How's it going?"

Ash returned the gesture with a resounding clap. "Pretty good. I'm about ready to give the rest of the gyms in Kanto a run for their money."

"Good deal," Brock nodded approvingly. "How about a match once you finish up your chat with the big shots?"

He smiled and glanced over his shoulder at Silver and Luna. "Maybe after them. They've been thinking about challenging you to get their first badges."

"Oh yeah?" The Gym Leader considered the pair. "I hope Ash told you about my team."

Luna blinked in confusion. "Why? Doesn't that put you at a disadvantage."

"Of course it does," Brock grinned. "That's half the fun. I enjoy a challenge."

Ash paused briefly in his step as he caught sight of another man sitting in the stands, scrolling over something on what looked like a very high-tech tablet or something. Even sitting down, he was obviously quite tall, with flaming red hair and a well-trimmed beard. He wore an expensive looking black suit with a white fur collar, dark gloves, and dark dress shoes.

He was willing to bet his bottom dollar this was the man he'd been sent to meet.

The man glanced up sharply as they approached, casually slipping the tablet into one of his back pockets whilst rising to his feet. He was easily over six feet tall and from where Ash stood, his appearance was both authoritative and businesslike.

"You're Ash," he stated simply, addressing him without hesitation.

Ash nodded, holding out his hand once they reached the man a moment later. "You're Lysandre, right?"

"I am," Lysandre confirmed. He looked Ash up and down. "I should introduce myself properly. My name is Lysandre Fluer-de-lis. I am the C.E.O of Lysandre Labs and Industries as well as a partner with the Pokemon League in their science department."

How was he supposed to compare to that again?

"I'm Ash Ketchum," he replied. "I'm a trainer competing to win the Indigo League next year."

Lysandre's lips twitched up in a brief smile. He glanced at Brock, Silver, and Luna for a moment. "Gym challengers, yes? You can have a battle in the meantime, if you wish. Most of this conversation is going to be pretty dull adult technicalities and such."

Brock nodded, gesturing Luna and Silver towards the battlefield. "Alright, who's up first?"

"Me!" Luna declared with a wide grin. Silver smirked in amusement. Benga merely huffed and walked to the far end of the stands to get away from them all.

"Have a seat, Ash," Lysandre gestured to a spot beside him as he sat back down.

Ash nodded and took the offered seat, feeling slightly awkward about it. This was all a bit alien to him. Before he could even open his mouth, Lysandre was talking again.

"From what I saw of your battle with Giovanni, you'll certainly make it to the Indigo League," the man remarked. "I wouldn't be surprised if you made it to the Quarter-Finals."

He blinked in surprise. "You saw that?"

"When Giovanni recommended you to me, he sent me a tape of the battle between you two. You certainly got both his and my attention. A trainer for only six months going near-even with Kanto's strongest Gym Leader in a one-on-one? That's no easy feat for even veteran trainers."

Ash refused to let the surge of pride he felt get the better of him. He wasn't here for that. "Thank you. We still lost, though."

"A few more months of dedicated training and that Charizard of yours will be able to do it," Lysandre assured him. "If Giovanni didn't think you were capable of that, he wouldn't have suggested you meet with me. As it happens, your battle with him was enough to convince me of your strength as a trainer. That's not what I'm meeting you here for today."

The man who had let them into the gym moved to stand in front of them. "My name is Steven. I'm a member of the League working in coordination with Lysandre for scientific investigation and exploration studies. I'll be a sort of third-party for your interview. You've technically already been accepted into the same group as an asset trainer on Lysandre and Giovanni's recommendation, but trainers can only be cemented into that position with the recommendation of an unbiased source."

"Do I have to battle you?" Ash asked.

Steven smiled. "Not quite. I also saw your battle against Giovanni- I'm aware that you're talented for your age. No, my role is going to be keeping track of you on a job to see if you can handle the work we do in the field. Assuming that you do well, I can approve you for official League work. Most of your jobs will be done in Kanto since you're competing in the Indigo Tournament."

"Though at some point, I'd like for you to visit my labs in Kalos," Lysandre interjected. "I'm working on a scientific study with the Pokemon Professor there, Augustus Sycamore."

"Professor Sycamore?" He probably shouldn't have been surprised since Sycamore was a scientist in his own right. It made sense that he and Lysandre would be acquaintances at least, if not partners. "I was planning on meeting him again in Kalos at some point before the Indigo League."

"Oh, you've already met him?" Lysandre asked in surprise.

"I met him last month at Professor Oak's lab in Pallet Town," Ash explained. "Him and Professor Kukui from Alola."

"Well, that makes things much simpler for us," Lysandre nodded approvingly. "If you've already made the Professor's acquaintance, then things will move much more smoothly when you visit Kalos."

A loud bang got their attention for a moment and Ash blinked when he realized that Luna's Mankey had just smashed Brock's Geodude into the dirt. He winced at the crack on Geodude's rocky hide, but knew the blow wasn't serious. It would regenerate soon enough.

Steven seemed rather entertained by the battle, but it didn't stop him from talking. "You'll be doing a simple survey job for starters. I'll send you a briefing on your PokeNav, a map of the area, and an outline of what you're to do. As I said, it's a simple job- you'll be going through Mt. Moon to find the cause of some unusual events we've gotten wind of."

"Unusual events?" Ash echoed, wincing slightly as he watched Brock's Onix headbutt Mankey into the wall. Luna had just lost her first Pokemon.

"Yes. It's in one of the deeper caves of Mt. Moon. There have been reports from the trainers coming and going through the mountain- unusual noises in the deeper caverns that has the local Pokemon on edge. Your job is to investigate the sounds, stop them if you can, and report back to me on the situation."

"Since this is technically an official League request, you'll be allowed to operate with the same authority as a League operative- that is, your Pokemon carry capacity limit will be temporarily removed so you can bring more than six Pokemon with you if you wish it. Should you succeed in the survey to my satisfaction and you're brought onto the team officially, you'll be able to retain that privilege while you travel."

That sounded easy enough. It wasn't like Mt. Moon was known for crazy powerful Pokemon, but Ash wondered suspiciously if Team Rocket had something to do with this. It wouldn't be the first time they raided the mountain, though this seemed a bit too…tame for them. Well, he was more interested in the prospect of having more of his team along for this ride. He hadn't expected his carry capacity limit to be removed for this, but it was a nice bonus.

"Ah, it looks like it's over," Lysandre murmured.

He realized that Luna had called the fight off after seeing how ineffective Cinder's flames were against Brock's Onix. It was a smart call. Cinder didn't have access to the steel type moves Pyro had known when he fought the rock type way back when. There was no need for Cinder to take more damage if Luna realized the outcome was certain.

Lysandre and Steven stood up then, each taking a moment to shake Ash's hand.

"Good luck on your job, Ash," Lysandre nodded to the boy.

Steven smiled. "He'll do fine, but the best of luck to you, regardless."

"Thanks," Ash replied, feeling a little out-of-place with all the professionalism.

The two men left after Steven got Ash's PokeNav number, with Benga tagging along behind them. Ash felt like that had gone well. Mostly, he was glad that Benga was out of his hair. The other kid annoyed him a lot for some reason.

He made his way to the battlefield and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. Brock had recalled Onix and was now tossing a Luxury Ball up and down in his right hand. The Pewter Gym Leader grinned, tapping the button on the device to enlarge it. "One on one. You ready to go?"

Ash pulled the Ultra Ball from off his belt and enlarged it as well, mirroring Brock's grin with his own. "I'm always ready."

"Good!" Brock wound his arm back to throw the Luxury Ball. "I've been looking forward to this for a while! Sic 'em, Rampardos!"

Ash's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the fossil Pokemon, which he'd only seen in Professor Oak's laboratory. If he remembered right, Rampardos was a temperamental rock type with some serious power behind it's huge skull. Daisy had warned him about how powerful they were once before.

This one was definitely in its prime. It stood eight feet tall and had a body that was probably twenty feet if he was gauging it correctly. The skull was enormous, more than making up for its tiny hands, and the thick tail waved back and forth with deceptive ease. It grunted, studying Ash with dark red eyes, and pawed the ground like a bull preparing to charge.

He refused to be intimidated. Ash had kind of wanted to battle one of these, anyway. He hurled the Ultra Ball onto the field, releasing Rhydon.

Rhydon blinked at the sight of Rampardos and roared, flexing his huge arms and spinning his drill threateningly. Rampardos growled back, lowering its skull and lining it up with the enemy rock type.

"Stone Edge!" Ash ordered.

Rhydon's drill spun as it lifted one foot and stomped on the field, triggering a line of pointed rocks to jut out towards Rampardos.

Brock merely grinned. "Iron Head!"

Rampardos' skull glowed metallic silver in a flash as it rushed the Stone Edge attack with surprising speed, pulverizing it as though it wasn't even there. Ash couldn't believe how easily it managed to destroy the move and Rhydon looked equally surprised.

"Earthquake!" He countered.

Rhydon recovered quickly from his surprise and leapt up, landing on the ground with terrific force. A shock wave tore through the earth, shifting the field and making Rampardos' footing unstable. With a bellow, the beast tripped and landed harshly on its skull, though it didn't even looked dazed by the impact.

Ash jumped on the chance. "Drill Run!"

Rhydon didn't move.

His eyes widened as instead, Rhydon stomped on the ground, triggering another Stone Edge attack that smashed into Rampardos from below. The rock type roared in pain, as it was launched backwards, but scrambled back to its feet.

He was annoyed that Rhydon hadn't done as he asked, but didn't focus on it. "Rock Blast!"

Rhydon did listen this time. He opened his jaws, spitting a stream of small stones at Rampardos from afar. Rampardos easily ran to avoid them, using a few of the larger boulders on the field as cover.

Brock decided to pull a wild card. "Blizzard!"

Rampardos leapt onto one of the boulders and unleashed a gale of icy wind from its jaws, which quickly blew over Rhydon. It wasn't the strongest ice type move Ash had ever seen, but Rhydon didn't do well in cold temperatures and Brock knew it. If he could slow Rhydon down even a little, it would give Rampardos an advantage.

"Use Stone Edge to defend," Ash ordered.

Again, Rhydon refused. He just crossed his arms in front of him to ward off the blast of cold air, snarling in irritation. Ash felt his eyebrow twitch.

Brock changed back to full-on offense. "Iron Head!"

Rampardos charged again. Now Rhydon used Stone Edge to try and throw his opponent off again, but he was already a little more sluggish with his core temperature lowered. Rampardos easily wound around the stone blades and closed the distance.

"Hammer Arm!" Ash snapped.

Rhydon curled his arm back and met Rampardos' charge with the fighting type move, but Rampardos' rush was incredible. It blew aside the Hammer Arm as though it weren't there and crashed its skull into Rhydon's chest, lifting the rock type into the air and hurling him away onto his back with a mighty crash.

Rhydon roared in pain and fury, rolling onto his belly and pushing himself back onto his feet. He glared at the Rampardos furiously, nostrils flaring, and unleashed another round of Rock Blast at his enemy. This time, Rampardos kept up Iron Head and just lowered its skull, causing the Rock Blast to bounce harmlessly off the ridiculously powerful dome on its head.

Ash grit his teeth. Rhydon wouldn't last against Rampardos if he played defensively like that. That one Iron Head had cracked the stone armor on Rhydon's chest with ease. Another blow like that and it would be over.

"Bulldoze and Stone Edge!" Ash ordered.

Rhydon slammed his tail into the ground, triggering a series of shock waves. They didn't tear the earth apart like Earthquake did, but they made it hard for anything to move without losing its footing. Rampardos snorted uneasily at the tremors and spread its legs out, making it easier for it to balance. But before it could get used to the shaking, a blade of stone punched out of the ground from below it and smashed into its belly.

Rampardos was forced back several meters from the blow, letting out a wheezing growl as the breath was knocked from its lungs, but it retained its footing. It glared at Rhydon with annoyance and the same look was returned from the mutual party.

"Rock Blast!" Ash commanded.

Brock went on the defensive now. "Ancient Power, shield!"

Rampardos snorted again and its eyes glowed blue as Rhydon unleashed another barrage of stones upon it. Before the volley could reach it, the rock at its feet groaned and levitated into the air, forming a simple barrier between Rampardos and the attack. Rhydon's drill spun in irritation at how easily his attack was deflected.

"Zen Headbutt!"

Rampardos charged right through its own shield as it went on the offensive once again. Ash decided that it would be better to keep it at a distance and whittle away at its stamina for a bit. Rampardos was too strong for a direct confrontation, but it wasn't very durable itself.

"Bulldoze!" Ash ordered. "Keep it back with Stone Edge!"

Rhydon refused to move. Ash snapped as Rampardos closed the distance. "Rhydon, use Bulldoze!"

Rhydon ignored him completely and instead braced himself for the inevitable impact, which left a crack in the armor on his left arm and sent him skidding back several feet. The rock type roared, goading on Rampardos with all the aggression he had.

Rampardos was only too willing to smash him again.

Ash almost couldn't watch as Rampardos pulverized the armored hide of Rhydon's chest, arms, and shoulders several times. The wounds would regenerate with some food and rest he knew, but Rhydon's stone hide should not be taking damage like that. Not when it could be avoided.

What was Rhydon even thinking?

By the time Rampardos backed off a bit and lined itself up for a finishing charge, Rhydon's left arm was hanging loosely and he looked far too beaten up for the cockiness in his eyes. He roared again, daring Rampardos to attack again.

Brock looked rather perplexed on his side of the field. "Everything okay over there, Ash?"

He wasn't even sure how to answer that, he was so annoyed with Rhydon's behavior. But as irritated as he was, he didn't want to see Rhydon get totally pulverized before they went on their trip with Steven. He reached for the Ultra Ball on his belt to recall the disobedient rock type just as Rampardos began to rush Rhydon again.

Ash blinked at the sight of a silver orb gathering in Rhydon's right hand, growing in brightness and intensity. Was that Metal Burst?

The distraction made him hesitate too long to recall Rhydon. Rampardos made impact with an Iron Head just as Rhydon slammed the Metal Burst attack into Rampardos' skull.

He was surprised by how much force was packed behind Metal Burst. Ash recalled that its strength increased based on the amount of damage the user had taken while charging it, but he'd never actually seen Rhydon use it before. The power behind it was commendable, but Rhydon was just too hurt for a counter like that to matter at this point- especially when their opponent was ridiculously powerful.

Maybe if Rhydon had driven Metal Burst into Rampardos' chest or one of the softer spots it would have done more damage, but targeting the skull was the worst decision he could have made. That head was armored naturally to an absurd degree on top of being strengthened by momentum and Iron Head.

The concussive blast from Metal Burst did manage to disorient Rampardos, but its attack overwhelmed Rhydon and knocked it out with a decisive smash.

Ash recalled Rhydon before he could slump to the ground and took a deep breath to keep his irritation under control. They could have won that if Rhydon had done as he'd ordered. Rampardos wasn't that big of a threat unless it got close. If they had kept it at a distance with Bulldoze and Rock Blast, Rhydon could have easily worn it down to the point that they might have won.

Daring Rampardos to attack him over and over so that he could get in a single counterattack when he was too weak to fight was never going to work.

"You did well," Ash managed to sigh as he stared at the Ultra Ball in his hands, and he did mean that. Despite Rhydon's disobedience, he would grudgingly admit that it took an insane amount of fortitude to receive blows from an enemy like Rampardos over and over again. He was still more annoyed than he cared to admit by that battle, but it had happened and that was that. Rhydon would either learn from this lesson or he wouldn't be battling again until he did.

"New Pokemon of yours?"

Ash almost jumped. Brock had come over without him noticing. Rampardos stood beside him, leaning down to lick at one of the wounds on its stony chest. Ash nodded, letting out a long breath to alleviate more of his frustration.

"I've been working with him for just a few weeks, but I guess he doesn't respect me enough to listen to all my commands yet," Ash replied, shaking his head.

"Rock types are as stubborn as their name suggests," Brock reassured him. "I speak from experience, of course. Give Rhydon some time and it'll learn eventually."

Ash smiled wryly and held his hand out. "I hope so. Thanks, Brock. I'll give you a better battle next time."

"I'm holding you to that," Brock said, shaking his hand.

Silver took a bite out of the sandwich he'd gotten from the Pokemon Center cafeteria as he listened to Ash talk about the job he had. "Well that won't be too hard. We're going through Mt. Moon anyways."

Ash nodded. "It wasn't too difficult the first time I went through it. Lots of Zubat, a few Geodude and Paras, the occasional Sandshrew…honestly, this is a lot easier than I expected."

"It makes sense though, right?" Luna asked, sipping from her drink. "I mean, your trainer profile says you've only been at this for six months and that you've earned four badges. The League can't just throw some crazy mission at you. If it goes wrong, they'll get a lot of criticism for hiring someone who wasn't ready for the task they put him up to."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he replied sarcastically.

She smirked at him. "You know I'm right and that's why you're annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed," he denied. "The only reason I'm not more excited is because that Benga guy was irritating."

"He was rather condescending," Silver admitted.

"Oh, forget him," Luna waved their irritation away. "His hair looked stupid, anyways."

Ash tried and failed to hide a snort. "True."

Luna grinned. "So! On to Mt. Moon now, right?"

He nodded. "I don't see any reason why we should hang around Pewter any longer."

"Then let's get packed up and get moving!" She exclaimed.

"Go get your stuff ready," Ash told them. He'd finished eating lunch already. "I've gotta give Professor Oak a call before we go."

Ash took a seat at one of the phone booths and called the Professor. He hoped that Steven and Lysandre had already taken the carry capacity limit off of his trainer profile, or else this was going to be a little awkward.

He dialed in the number and pressed the call button, waiting just a few seconds before someone answered the phone. Professor Oak looked at him from the other side of the screen and smiled. "Ash! Fancy getting a call from you today."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Hey, Professor. Something happen?"

"You could say that," Oak nodded. "Actually, Jasmine just finished her shed this morning. Her scales are still soft, but if you want, you could bring her along with you again. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"Erm," Ash fidgeted in his seat. "I'd like to have Jasmine sent over and Sobek if you finished your study on him."

Oak gave him a curious stare and then switched his gaze to another screen to check something. Ash had a feeling he was looking at his trainer profile. The Professor blinked in surprise after a few moments and then glanced back at Ash. "You haven't gone and gotten yourself into more trouble, have you?"

Ash smiled. "I don't think so."

"That's reassuring," Oak chuckled. "But very well, I'll send Jasmine and Sobek to you. I'm actually rather grateful this happened. Sobek's gotten fed up with our study and I had the funniest feeling yesterday he was going to dig a hole and not come out."

The boy smirked. "That sounds like something Sobek would do. Mind sending them over to me? We're about to leave for Mt. Moon."

"Of course. Remember, Jasmine just shed, so only light training for the rest of the week and absolutely no battling. Sobek's neck is doing better, but keep an eye on it and tell me immediately if something seems out of place."

"I will," Ash promised. He hesitated for a moment. "How's Gyarados?"

Oak's smile softened. "She's doing much better. She ate a lot this morning. Her appetite is healthy and her muscles seem to be getting stronger. I still advise against training her for a good long while, but I think given another two months, she could start to travel with you."

He sighed in relief. "That's good. I'd like to meet her when she's awake again."

"I know. I'll keep you posted on her situation. Now, let me go find those reptiles of yours. Sobek's probably basking somewhere and I'm sure Jasmine is trying to break into my Yache berry supply."

Ash laughed. That sure sounded like them.

Just like the first time he'd come through this area, the trainers between Pewter City and Mt. Moon were all rookies. Luna took on most of them, giving Cinder and Mankey a chance to battle some more. All were easy prey for the two young Pokemon despite their inexperience.

Silver didn't battle anyone, but he let Gawain out so the ground type could get some exercise and keep an eye out for any wild Pokemon that might intrigue them. Ash himself had let Spectre out (though the ghost had immediately slipped into his shadow to hitch a ride) and Arctus so the cub could get some exercise.

Mostly everyone's attention was on Luna's Weedle, who was beginning to show the first signs of forming a chrysalis- she had gotten quite chunky from eating so much for the last several days and was starting to spew the silk she needed for evolution.

Luna was carrying Weedle in her arms at the moment, watching the insect curl herself over the girl's wrist. The fact that Weedle wasn't making much of an effort to eat or even move at this point just went to show how close she was to evolving.

On top of Weedle nearing evolution, Ash could tell that Cinder was getting bigger and more aggressive. He didn't know as much about the Litten evolutionary line, but he had a feeling that the cat was pretty close to evolving as well. That made sense- Pyro had evolved around here back when he was a Charmander.

Luna had had no trouble teaching the cat Fire Fang and Bite over the last couple of days. Frankly, Cinder made learning the moves look so easy, he almost seemed bored with them. He was just growing that quickly at this point. If Ash had to guess, he figured that Cinder would evolve before they reached Cerulean City. It was just one more thing to look forward to.

He had no idea about Mankey. They grew more slowly, (as most fighting types tended to) so Ash thought it might take a few months of hard training for him to evolve into a Primeape.

"Ah!"

Luna's exclamation grabbed the attention of both boys as well as their Pokemon. The girl had squeaked in surprise because Weedle had begun to spew silk over her body. She hurriedly set the bug type down and watched as the process of evolution began.

"Here we go!" Luna bounced on her heels excitedly.

After a few seconds, Weedle was completely encased by sticky silk. As soon as that stage was complete, her body glowed brightly with evolutionary energy. Her larval form thickened into a pupa and her carapace became hard and stiff. The process was quick and as fast as it began, the evolution was over, culminating in a burst of light that fled from the insect's body.

Ash had seen Kakuna before. Luna and Silver had also seen plenty of them in Viridian Forest, but this one was undeniably different from the others thanks to the lime green color of its carapace. It was a visible difference to the pale yellow shade of most Kakuna.

There was no more questioning it. The bug type had the Shiny gene.

"Yes!" Luna squealed, crouching down to pick up the cocoon Pokemon and hold her carefully.

"You were right," Ash admitted, thumping Luna's shoulder with his hand. "Lucky you."

"Of course I was right," she replied, grinning widely. "But now I've gotta make I train her right so that she'll be really extraordinary! Just you watch! She'll be the strongest Beedrill ever!"

Ash honestly wanted to see her do that. He'd kind of pegged Beedrill as one of the weaker species for a while until he heard from Leaf about Koga's apparent beast of a Beedrill. It just went to show that any Pokemon could surprise you if they were trained correctly.

Luna was smart and Ash was there to help her if she needed it. He had a feeling that Kakuna, once she evolved, would definitely become one of the cornerstones of Luna's team after she was trained.

"Right," Ash looked up at the looming rock wall ahead of them. "There's a Pokemon Center at the base of the mountain. We'll rest there for the night, then we'll hit the tunnels."

Mt. Moon's tunnels were just as Ash remembered them, except this time the Pokemon were just as active further in as they were at the entrance. Flocks of Zubat clung to the ceiling and flew about whenever they were disturbed. Cinder, Mankey, and Arctus got a fair amount of battles in with the bats, either driving them off or knocking out the really determined ones.

Ash had his PokeNav out to look at the map Steven had sent him. They were on-course, searching for the entrance to the deeper caves off the main tunnel.

It took several hours of walking, but eventually they found a large gap in the rock wall that led to the deeper caves. Ash checked his PokeNav, which marked their location via GPS, and nodded. They were right on top of it.

"This is it," he confirmed to his friends. "Down there."

Silver looked at Gawain, who was crawling along the ground beside him. "Hear anything?"

Gawain cocked his insect-like head and his antennae vibrated for a few seconds. The Vibrava's wings shuffled and he chittered something to Silver, who then glanced back at Ash. "He's definitely picking up some sound waves out of the ordinary."

Ash led the way into the deeper caves, using his flashlight to check that the path was safe. It was downhill, but looked stable enough, though the walls seemed more cramped than those of the main tunnel.

As it turned out, the new tunnel widened frequently into larger openings where they would see Pokemon hiding. Ash warily noted that their behavior was similar to the last time he'd been here, when the wild Pokemon were scared by Team Rocket's disturbances.

The further down they went, the more they began to hear some…odd noises. A deep, vibrating sound and then another, violent pounding noise. Whatever was making them didn't sound natural, at least not to Ash's ears.

They had reached a particularly large opening in the tunnel that was practically its own small cave when the sound became much louder. The echoes were starting to shake the trainers to their very bones, they were so strong. They ended up recalling all of their Pokemon (except for Spectre, who remained hidden in Ash's shadow) since their ears were so much more sensitive.

It was so loud, Silver and Luna didn't hear Ash shout at them to get down, so he tackled them instead.

The reason for said tackle swooped over them a moment later with a furious shriek. Ash lifted his head and glared up at the attacking Golbat, which didn't even bother landing and just spun around in the air to charge them again. He didn't blame the bat (it probably thought they were behind the ungodly noise in the cave) but he was also irritated by the constant shock of sound and really wanted to get this over with.

"Spectre!" Ash shouted over the blasts of sound. The ghost didn't have the same kind of hearing as the rest of his team, so he responded with ease to his trainer's command. Spectre flew out of Ash's shadow and launched a Ghost Flare at the Golbat, striking it clean in the body. The bat screamed angrily and retreated a ways, hissing, but Ash could already see it sizing them up for another attack.

Silver and Luna by now had scrambled back to their feet along with Ash and were watching their attack cautiously, but Silver reached for the pokeball containing Gawain and released the dragon type. Gawain's eyes immediately scrunched up in pain from the shock of sound coming from further inside the tunnel, but he focused on the Golbat above them as soon as Silver pointed it out to them.

"Dragon Breath!"

Gawain let loose a jet of green flame, but the Golbat dodged with ease and swooped towards him, mouth agape. The Vibrava pushed off the ground and fluttered out of the way. He wasn't nearly as fast as Golbat, but he could just shave away from the bites if he had to.

"Shadow Sneak!" Ash ordered.

Spectre was in his element in the dark cave, diving into the massive shadows around them and darting from one point of the rock to the other in the blink of an eye. He appeared above Golbat and slammed his mask into the bat's head, stunning the poison type for a moment.

Silver seized his chance. "Dragon Breath!"

Gawain blasted Golbat this time, rocketing the stunned poison type into the cave wall behind it with the force of the attack. Golbat remained pinned flat against the wall for a few moments, too stunned to move, and that gave Silver a chance to throw an empty pokeball at it.

Golbat was sucked into the pokeball, which clattered to the ground amidst the harsh noises in the cave and wriggled viciously for several seconds. Ash was almost positive the bat would break free, but then the device settled and clicked, showing that Golbat had been captured.

Silver recalled Gawain, then hurried over to retrieve the ball. It should have been a moment to celebrate, but there was no time. The ungodly sound was starting to drive them crazy and Ash very much wanted to shut down whatever the heck was making such a racket.

They ran down the tunnel and emerged into a massive cave- one even larger than the huge rest area for trainers where Ash had fought Team Rocket the last time he was here. They spotted the source of the terrible noise at the far wall and stopped in their tracks.

It was a single man with a large cart of equipment and a portable generator. He was currently using a jackhammer to pulverize part of the rock wall, the sound of which echoed painfully through the cave. Beside him was a power drill, a shovel, and a pickaxe, along with several other excavating tools. Lining the walls of the cave was a string of bright yellow lights so that they could see what was going on.

Ash marched over to the guy- there was no point in calling for him since it was terrible loud and the man had earmuffs over his head to protect his own hearing- and tapped his shoulder roughly. The man jerked away in surprise, spinning around and turning the jackhammer off.

He took the earmuffs off and stared at the three kids through thick glasses, looking exceptionally annoyed. "What do you want?"

"That's my line!" Ash snapped. He was beyond irritated with this guy because his ears felt like they'd exploded three times over the course of their journey down here. "What are you doing? You're disturbing the wild Pokemon so much they can't even stay down here!"

"So?"

Ash's eyelid did not twitch, he was sure of it. "What are you doing?"

"Not that it's any of your business," the man huffed. "But I'm excavating for fossils. and moon stones. I don't have time for kids. Shoo."

"Actually, no, you're not," Ash retorted. "I was sent here by a member of the League to find out what's been causing all this noise. A lot of trainers have been complaining about it and I was told to stop whatever it was. Sorry, but you've got to leave."

"Make me. Some bratty kid isn't going to stop me."

Silver's eyes narrowed. "If I remember right, Mt. Moon is a protected area. Digging here without a permit is definitely illegal. Even if you don't stop, we'll send the police out here to shut you down."

The man glared at Silver dangerously. "Careful, kid. You don't want to make adults angry. Stay out of my business or else."

That was the final straw as far as Ash was concerned. He sent out Pyro and Sobek.

The two enormous reptiles initially appeared to be curious as to why Ash had called them out, but they picked up on his anger and glared at the illegal miner, growls building up in their throats.

The miner fully turned to face them and reached for a pokeball on his own belt. "That's the way it's gonna be, huh? Fine, I'll play with you for a minute. After I beat you, you've got to leave and you don't say a word about what I'm doing down here."

Ash resisted the urge to ball his fist. "If I win, you leave and you don't come back. If you've got a problem with that, you can take it up with the League."

"Yeah, yeah," the man waved him off, not taking him seriously. Sure, the kid had some big, scary, Pokemon, but so what? He was just a kid.

The miner sent out a single Drillbur and pointed at Ash's Pokemon dismissively. "Knock them out. I don't care how."

The Drillbur looked at its trainer as though he were crazy, but it only sighed and charged the two reptiles. Ash wouldn't deny that his eyelid twitched this time out of annoyance for being dismissed so carelessly. "Pyro."

It was hardly even a fight. The Drillbur was in poor condition for battles- it was clear the miner didn't keep up with its nutritional needs to keep its muscles in top form. Ash felt bad that Drillbur had to take a beating for its negligent trainer and made a mental note to include that in the report he sent to Steven after this was over. Maybe Drillbur could be removed from the miner since the man obviously didn't give a damn about laws or his Pokemon's health.

Pyro slammed a Mega Punch into Drillbur's body, which struck the ground type in the gut with such force that it made an impact crater in the cave floor. That was the entire fight. Drillbur's small body went slack and it fell into unconsciousness.

The miner was stunned, but his face became enraged. "You cheated!"

"Did I?" Ash retorted. "How?"

"I don't know how, but you did!" The man shouted, shoving his jackhammer aside. "You're just a kid! You aren't allowed to be that strong!"

Ash stared at him steadily, unimpressed with his anger. "Even if I cheated somehow, you didn't say I couldn't when this started. The only thing we agreed on was that if one of us lost, we'd leave."

"I don't have to listen to you!" The miner snarled. "You're just a kid!"

"Yeah? How about the police?" Luna asked. She had her Pokedex in one hand and had the camera on to record the incident. "Even if you leave before they get here, I've got everything on camera. You're busted and you know it."

The miner's face turned red. "Give me that video."

Sobek got between them and the miner, baring his fangs in a savage snarl. Ash set a hand on the Krookodile's shoulder and gave the man a warning look. "I wouldn't aggravate him. If you attack us, he can retaliate in self-defense. Your choice."

The miner looked ready to explode, but he only made for his cart of tools and began to violently pile everything together. "Damn kids, getting in my way…"

Ash and the others backed off a bit to watch the man as he got his things together and left, cursing aggressively. He recalled his Drillbur and stared at the ball in disgust. To their surprise, he threw the ball at them and Silver barely caught it before it could hit him.

"I don't need something so useless. It can't even carry out my equipment the way it is now. Do whatever you want with it- I'll get a Pokemon that's better for excavating."

Ash didn't try to stop the man from leaving Drillbur with them. The man looked at his cart of equipment and snarled again, realizing that he couldn't carry it out on his own, and just grabbed his flashlight and took off.

Luna sighed in relief as she turned off the recording feature on her Pokedex camera. "Geez, that guy actually scared me for a bit there."

"Keep the video," Ash told her. "I'd like to send it to Steven and the police if we can. That guy doesn't need to have any Pokemon if he won't take care of them."

"What should we do with the Drillbur?" Silver asked, eyeing the pokeball.

"We'll turn it into the police," Ash said. "But let it out real quick so we can heal it and get it something to eat. Pyro, Sobek, keep an eye out in case that guy comes back."

The two reptiles nodded and did as he asked. Ash took his PokeNav out and took several photos of the man's equipment and the damage he'd done to the cave wall. He also had a small stash of fossils in a rucksack by the cart. Ash went through them, taking pictures as he went. Several Dome Fossils, a couple of Helix Fossils…not much else. None of them were in great condition because of the miner's terrible digging.

"We take the fossils to the police as evidence," Ash told the others. "That way he can't sneak back and try selling them."

Fortunately, all the fossils were small, so they were light even in bulk. Ash put them in his backpack and tossed the dirty rucksack away. He was about to stand up when a glint of light caught his eye. He peered closer and realized that a small, lavender-colored stone was hidden underneath the cart. Ash reached down and pull it out to examine it closer. The lavender color was pretty, but inside of it was an odd, double-helix shape that seemed to be silver-gray one half and a darker lavender the other.

Ash stood up and called Silver and Luna over. "Hey, come look at this."

Silver blinked at the small stone in his hand. "What is that? A Moon Stone?"

"I don't think so, they're a lot darker than this," Ash replied. "Plus they don't have this double-helix symbol in them. See?"

Luna leaned in to get a better look, but as she did, the stone attached to her earring suddenly flashed. She squeaked and recoiled in surprise as the stone in Ash's hand flashed in turn. Both stone began to glow faintly one after the other, as though they were reacting to each other.

Ash was more surprised by Luna's earring glowing than he was the stone in his hand. "What's that stone made of?"

"I don't know!" She carefully took the earring out and held it in her palm, moving it closer to the stone Ash had in his palm. As they got closer, they reacted more vibrantly, as though trying to sync up somehow. "Mom said she found this stone when she was a trainer, but she only thought it was pretty. Honestly, I thought the same, but…what's going on?"

Ash frowned at the two stones. "I think we need to get in touch with Steven and Lysandre."

When they finally exited Mt. Moon and reached Cerulean City, it was late into the night. Grateful that there was now a decent signal, Ash immediately sent the report he'd typed up for Steven and Lysandre on his PokeNav, as well as the photos he'd taken of the illegal mining site and the video Luna took. Thankfully, Steven had outlined what a report should consist of when he sent Ash the map and details of the survey job, so it hadn't been that difficult to write while they walked through the tunnels.

He'd also included at the end of the report a description of the stone they'd found in the mine and how Luna's earring had reacted to it. Ash figured that if anyone might know what was going on with that, it would be Steven and Lysandre- the latter of the two was a scientist, after all. Maybe he'd heard of this phenomenon and could explain it?

Ash sighed and stuffed the PokeNav into his pocket, then got up and left to find Luna and Silver, who were having a late dinner. He'd just wanted to get his stuff set up in the room they'd rented in the Pokemon Center before getting something to eat.

Most of his team had already eaten in the room and were now out cold. Espeon, Jasmine, and Arctus had claimed the foot of his bed, Pyro and Sobek were piled up on top of each other in the middle of the room, and Douse looked like he was about to fall asleep in the middle of a handstand against the wall. Rhydon was still in his Ultra Ball on the table next to Ash's bed and Spectre had, as usual, taken residence in his shadow.

Ash blinked as the little ghost popped out of the darkness and tapped him on the forehead. The boy smiled, took his cap off, and set it on the Duskull. "Better?"

Spectre made a hollow cackle, then floated up so he was on Ash's head and settled there, a ghostly sandwich between the boy and his hat. Ash only smirked in amusement and left like that to find his friends in the cafeteria. It was one in the morning, but he was hungry and he'd sleep better once he'd eaten.

He met up with Silver halfway- the other boy was picking up his Pokemon from Nurse Joy. They'd turned Drillbur in to her and explained what had happened, and Joy was more than happy to nurse the little ground type back to health. Ash called to the boy and stopped him, walking over to see how things had gone.

"How's everyone doing?"

Silver held up a pair of pokeballs, one in each hand. "Gawain and Golbat were just released from Joy's care. They're doing well- I'm told Drillbur is recovering as well."

"Nice catch back there, by the way," Ash complimented regarding Golbat. "Have you looked Golbat up on your Pokedex yet?"

"I'm about to," Silver said. "Let's go meet up with Luna first."

Said girl had saved them a table and looked like she was half-asleep as she slowly ate her dinner. Cinder was snoring in her lap, Mankey was eating like a pig, and Kakuna was as motionless as ever in Luna's open backpack beside her.

"Sup, guys," she mumbled out.

Silver smirked and took a seat across from her, with Ash sitting down next to Silver as the boy pulled his Pokedex out. "Now that we're all together again, let's find out just what I've gotten myself into."

He didn't let Golbat out- it was late, they were tired, and he was sure Golbat was probably still a bit out of it after the hectic day it'd had. Instead, Silver pulled up the profile his Pokedex had on record for his owned Pokemon and let the data play.

Golbat, the Bat Pokemon. It's fangs are hollow and fragile. They are designed to suck blood. They are greedy for food and often eat so much that it weighs them down and they become unable to fly. The male's fangs are bigger than the female's.

This Golbat is male and knows the moves: Leech Life, Bite, Wing Attack, Air Cutter, Swift, Acrobatics, Poison Fang, Confuse Ray, Supersonic, and Screech. Its ability is Inner Focus, which prevents opponents from making it flinch.

Ash whistled, tucking into a quick dinner he'd gotten from the cafeteria. "Not bad. There's a lot you can do with the move set he's got now."

"Yeah. He doesn't have as much power as Gawain does, but he's got a lot of hit-and-run moves that can weaken an opponent," Silver said thoughtfully. "I think I made a good call capturing him in the cave. If we can get some training in tomorrow, maybe we'll have a shot at challenging Cerulean Gym. What's the battle format there?"

"When I challenged them, it was two-on-two," Ash replied. "The Gym Leaders are all sisters, but I only fought one of them, so it's possible the others do things differently."

"I see…" Silver tapped his chin. "Luna, have any plans to take them on? Your team doesn't exactly have a type advantage against water Pokemon."

Luna sleepily waved him off. "I'll figure something out…maybe I'll go catch another Pokemon or something tomorrow…zzz…"

Ash cracked a smile. "Let me finish eating and we can all get to bed. You look ready to pass out."

"Gee, really?" She snarked humorously. He shook in head, still smiling. Even nearly asleep, her sarcasm was as good as ever. On top of his head, Spectre cackled hollowly with glee.

Ash took another bite of his dinner, but paused as his PokeNav vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the message he'd received. His eyes widened a bit.

It was from Steven and Lysandre.

Ash,

Excellent work on the survey of Mt. Moon. While it was a bit more hectic than we'd initially hoped for your first job, we're quite satisfied with the work you did. You did was what required efficiently and safely. Well done. The report has already been filed to the League and they'll be on the lookout for the illegal miner you informed us of. You've easily met my expectations and for that, you've been officially accepted as a member of the League. Congratulations.

On another, more important note, the stones you mentioned at the end of your report have caught my and Lysandre's interest. If possible, we'd like to meet with you in the Cerulean City Pokemon Center tomorrow morning at Eleven O' clock. Don't give or show those stones to anyone. Keep them close and safe. If they are what we think they are, it's very important that we see them.

Reply to this message as soon as possible.

Regards,

Steven

Ash began typing back as soon as he read the whole message. He hadn't been expecting a personal visit from the two men, but that was fine with him as long as they got some answers.

A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! God, it wasn't supposed to take this long for this update to come out, but geez. Here's what happened: I was planning on this arc taking a totally different path where they went to Rota and went through an alternative version of the Lucario movie events. But after several months of trying to plan it out and write it in different ways, I got fed up with it, scrapped the whole thing, and tried a different approach. This is a bit rougher than was initially intended, but I just want to get this chapter out there so I can get the ball rolling on this story once again. I'm so sorry you guys had to wait so long for this, but I'm back! Onto the review responses for chapter twenty!

BUT ONE QUICK THING!

I'm gonna leave this one up to my readers, so here's a question for the story: Would you like Silver to keep the Drillbur they got from the illegal miner in this chapter, or not and why? It's up to all of you! Now, onto the review responses!

Sperance: ...The Ash Daycare is open for business! Well, you really threw some curveballs in this chapter, that's for sure. I wasn't expecting Rhydon to come back so soon and Ash deciding to go after Sabrina before going for Koga again really threw me off. And the subversion of the traveling companions was nice. He got them, but I bet nobody saw this coming. On the other hand, I'm a bit uneasy about them. I know you can make it work, but I worry that, with two rookies tagging along with him, Ash's growth as a trainer may slow. Still, can't wait to see what you have in store for us!

-Lol I guess you could call it that, but Silver and Luna will be able to hold their own soon, believe me! Rhydon's situation is one that I'm still developing, so who knows how that could turn out? As for Sabrina being targeted first, I think it makes sense. Sabrina is strong, but Koga ended up being the one to join the Elite Four. I feel like Koga is just underrated too much tbh. Ash's growth will be just fine, don't worry!

WhosYuu: I'm so glad to see this story didn't get dropped. This is far and away my favorite story on and I can't get enough. Super stoked about Espeon by the way. Leafeon is my besteon but I was hoping you would consider a suggestion of Ash's team. Whimsicott is would be a fantastic add to Ash's team. I'm sure you already have 30 chapters from now planned out but I thought it couldn't hurt to mention. Whimsicott is such a fun pokémon to write and it's two types are types Ash doesn't have yet. Anyways keep doing what you do, love your story lots.

-I'm not going to drop this story until it's good and finished! Honestly it was really close for me between Espeon and Leafeon, but I felt like Espeon suited Eevee's personality better. Still trying to decide on which grass type Ash should catch! I've got a load of chapters planned out, but things change a lot, so you never know who Ash might catch! Just because he's caught a Pokemon of one type doesn't mean he won't catch more, or catch a new type of Pokemon that's unexpected.

fsizzel: you know, at some point you could have ash travel to mt silver because of a rumour about a powerful trainer living there, and that trainer is actually Traveler's version of Ash (but obviously under different name and with the same silent attitude as champion red) if anything thatll make a pretty nice filler :D

-Oh god, I would love to do that! Have to get this Ash stronger though and then have a chat with Elf...who knows? I won't immediately shut down the possibility ;) But like I said, a lot's gotta happen before that gets the OK!

TigerJacob: Oh god if the plot gets any thicker I will sink and never return! You gotta update this masterpiece. Your villians are actually good at being villians our heroes aren't 1 sided cardboard cutouts and the Pokemon oh the development! I'll admit binge reading this in a couple of days may not have been the best decision, but I just couldn't put it down your story and characters are wonderful and your world building is calculated. I can't wait to see what is in store for ash. I can't thank you enough for the read (goes without saying your faved and followed my friend)!

-Oh dear, you better get something to get you back to the surface, because this plot is pretty thin compared to what I've got in store later! I'm not sure I'd call this a masterpiece- yet. I've done a lot of work on it, but jeez, I've got so much left to do that makes this all seem rather tame in my mind. In any case, please hold on tight, because things are gonna start getting wild again!

That's all for now! As ever, please review and thanks for reading! Thank you again for your patience!