"This place hasn't changed at all" Ash thought as he walked the streets of Celadon City - it had taken less than two days to reach the town, so Ash had plenty of time to spare as he wondered the streets of the city: Natalie had decided to go to the shopping center - luckily Ash had managed to avoid going, but Jason ended up being dragged along, much to the blond haired boys disapproval. Ash chuckled to himself as he imagined a tired looking Jason carrying many, MANY boxes full of stuff that Natalie bought - but didn't really need.

"Hey Ash, whats that place?" Ash looked up at Meloetta who had spoken, following her pointing hand towards a building, "Thats the Game Corner - Its a gambling place basically, people buy special tokens and try to win more so they can buy items and pokemon..." Ash growled out the last word - he had never approved of buying and selling pokemon, it wasn't the same as catching and becoming friends with your pokemon: "Can we go inside?" Ash hesitated at first, but upon seeing Meloetta's wide eyes made him sigh and nod, "Alright, we can have a quick look,"

Slowly approaching the brightly lit building, Ash sighed and pushed the door open, walking inside the building: his ears were almost immediately bombarded from the sounds of machine handles being pulled, shouts of anger and joy from the people playing as well as the sounds of coins being dispensed, "Man i hate this place..." Ash grumbled as the door swung closed behind him, quickly stepping to the side as a man stomped out the building grumbling about "Unfair" and "stupid" the machines were.

Ash shook his head. "Ooo! Can we play the machines? Please!" Ash sighed at Meloetta's excited force, nodding reluctantly as he slowly approached the counter, handing the woman behind the desk some money. After receiving 50 tokens, Ash slowly approached the machien, sitting down on the chair before looking up a Meloetta, "You want to put one in?" Meloetta floated of Ash's head and nodded her head excitedly, taking the token from Ash's hand and placing it into the slot before looking at Ash with confusion, making him smile, "You have to pull the lever to make the reels spin" Meloetta nodded, floating to leaver and pulling it down, letting go to watch the reels spin,

KER-CHING!"

Ash's eyes widened as the machine made the loud noise, the lights on the machine going crazy as hundreds of coins spilled out the bottom, "You won Meloetta! Thats incredible!" Ash gawked at his musical pokemon, who clapped her hands happily, sitting on the growing pile of coins as the people aorund the room stared in awe.

- In The Prize Room -

"Are you sure about this? I mean it was your coin..." Meloetta asked Ash as she looked over the different prizes behind the counter: Ash smiled and nodded as Pikachu jumped to the counter and looked at the prizes as well, "Of course, you won them so you get to spend them!" Ash insisted, watching as the Melody pokemon nodded, her eyes gazing aorund at all the different items.

Meloetta's eeys suddenly stopped on a cage slightly hidden, "Whats that?" Ash blinked, leaning over and asking the clerk to see the cadge: Ash, Pikachu and Meloetta grew horrified at what they saw: It was a baby Vulpix - no older than a few weeks - but her condition is what horrified the group - her ribs were visible to the eyes and her eyes looked tired and hungry. Before Ash could say anything, Meloetta picked up the cadge and flew out the shop. Ash blinked and slammed the coins down on the counter, glaring at the surprised man behind the counter as he ran after Meloetta, Pikachu hot on his trail.

Running out, Ash quickly found Meloetta trying to pry the lock of the cadge open: Ash quickly ran to her and knelled down besides her - wipping out his pocket nife, Ash quickly disassembled the lock, reaching inside and gently taking the baby pokemon out - who was too weak from hunger to fight back as Ash quickly stood up and raced to the pokemon center.

"NURSE JOY WE NEED HELP!" Ash shouted as he barged through the doors, rushing up to the counter and showing Joy the baby Pokemon, "She was at the game corner, please help her!" Nurse Joy's eyes widened at the poor pokemon, immediantly shouting for a stretcher which Ash gently placed the starving fire type on, watching with worry as she was whisked away into the operation room, Nuse Joy quickly following behind as the door slammed close at the red light above the door flashed.

- Hours Later -

Jason and Natalie had returned from shopping to find Ash and Pikachu pacing outside the operation room as well as Meloetta floating around the door with a worried look on her face, "Ash?" The worried raven-haired trainer stopped pacing to look at Jason and Natalie with a worried look, "What's wrong?" Ash shook his head, quickly explaining what had happened, making Jason and Natalie gasp in shock, "Is Vulpix okay?!" Natalie asked - to which Ash shook his head, "I-I don't know"

DING

The three trainers looked to the door as Nurse Joy walked out wiping her forehead, "Is she okay?" Ash quickly asked, sighing in relief when Joy nodded, "She will be okay - she was on the edge of death, if you hadn't brought her when you did she would have died - she will need to stay in intense care for a few days, maybe a week bfore she can leave" Joy explained, making Ash nod in understanding.

"You may go see her if you want, I need to go make a phone call - try and keep it brief, Vulpix needs her rest" Ash and the others nodded in understanding, walking into the operating room as Nurse Joy went over to her desk to make her phone call. Walking up to Vulpix's side, Ash kneeled down on one side whilst Natalie and Jason stood on the other, horrified looks on their faces at the state the poor fire type was in, "How could anyone do this?"

Ash shook his head in anger as he raised a hand to gently stroked the fur on the top of Vulpix's head, "The Game Corner is a horrid place - they don't care about pokemon, they only care about profit" Ash growled out, his other fist clenching as he took a deep breath to calm himself down, "Before we leave Celadon, I want to go to the police and report them" Jason and Natalie nodded in agreement at Ash's words - anyone who would treat a pokemon like this should be arrested! Just like the traitors were!

- Later That Evening -

"What did you guys buy?" Ash asked as the three walked into their room - trying to distract his worry, "Get anything cool?" Jason and Natalie nodded, showing Ash two small bags of shopping: they knew he was trying to distract himself, and they were all to happy to follow along.

"We got some Potions, some Antidotes and other healing items - we even found a place selling evolution stones, so we picked up a couple dozen of each - here, we got you some as well" Jason spoke up, handing Ash a small bag: Ash took the bag and looked inside surprise, blinking at the different evolution stones, "Wow, there's every stone you can think off, these must have cost a fortune!"

Natalie shrugged whilst setting her own bag down and sitting on her bed, "Not really - they were having a huge sale on them" Ash blinked but nodded, placing the small bag into his pocket as he looked out the window, staring at the quickly darkening sky, "Its starting to get late...we should get some sleep" The three trainers all yawned, changing into their pyjamas before climbing into their beds.