Jason, Michelle, and I had been continuing on our journey after leaving Trevor and Nikki last week. I walked across the field and faced Jason. We were going to have a battle.

"Haunter, go!" Jason cried.

"Haunt! Haunter!"

"Bulbasaur, let's show 'em!" I cried.

"Bulba!"

Michelle was sitting on the ground, watching with Pikachu and Pichu beside her. Thanks to the contests that I'd been watching Michelle compete in, I had picked up on ways to block an attack without having to dodge. I just hoped that it would work.

"Haunter, use Shadow Ball!" Jason cried.

"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf!" I yelled.

The leaves hit the Shadow Ball and then hit Haunter.

"Haunter, disappear and use Shadow Punch!"

"Bulbasaur, get ready for another Razor Leaf."

Haunter vanished and I waited. Bulbasaur was looking around the field.

"Stay calm, Bulbasaur." I said. Bulbasaur stopped looking around with panic and looked around on alert.

"Now!" Jason cried. Haunter appeared behind Bulbasaur.

"Behind you!" I cried. Bulbasaur went to turn, but got hit by the unavoidable Shadow Punch. Bulbasaur slid across the field. "Now, Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur released another Razor Leaf attack and Jason commanded Haunter to dodge. Haunter vanished and Razor Leaf missed the target.

"Shadow Ball!" Jason cried, bringing my mind back to the battle.

"Vine Whip!"

The purple sphere headed towards Bulbasaur and the vine cut straight through it.

"Dodge!" Jason cried, since the vine was heading towards Haunter. Haunter tried to vanish, but Vine Whip stopped it. "Haunter, use Shadow Ball!" Haunter recovered from the hit and sent a Shadow Ball towards Bulbasaur.

"Razor Leaf!"

"Haunter, Shadow Punch!"

Haunter vanished right as the Razor Leaf started. I then realized Jason had wanted this to happen. He sent the Shadow Ball to make me counter it with Razor Leaf while he planned to attack Bulbasaur with Shadow Punch! That Shadow Ball was just a diversion!

"Bulbasaur!" I cried, seeing Haunter appear in front of it. Shadow Punch connected and sent Bulbasaur into the air.

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur cried, spinning in the air.

I then remembered my gym battle with Misty. "Bulbasaur, think of the gym battle against Misty! Charge your Solarbeam!" I cried. Bulbasaur was able to spin in midair and started charging Solarbeam.

"Bulba...Bulba...Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur cried, firing the Solarbeam towards Haunter.

"Haunter!" Jason cried as Haunter got hit. Haunter cried out in pain and when the attack was done, Haunter was on the ground. Haunter weakly said its name before fainting.

"You did great, take a rest." Jason said, returning Haunter.

I ran over to Bulbasaur. "Great job, Bulbasaur! You did it!" I cried, rubbing its head.

"Bulba!"

"Bulbasaur has gotten a lot stronger, Adam." Jason said. "Those were Haunter's best attacks too."

"Yeah..." I said, looking at Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur was my first Pokemon and had helped me win my first two badges. A lot had happened to it since we left Pallet Town. I took notice to Bulbasaur's bulb. It was glowing blue.

"Adam, is Bulbasaur sick? Its bulb is glowing blue." Michelle said, running over.

I shook my head and said, "There shouldn't be anything wrong with Bulbasaur. It should be close to evolving. But just to make sure, we need to go to the Pokemon Center."

We headed to the Pokemon Center with Bulbasaur walking beside me. That way, if something was wrong with Bulbasaur, then I would notice. If Bulbasaur was in its Pokeball, I wouldn't know.

We walked into the Pokemon Center and to front desk. Nurse Joy looked up and smiled.

"Hi, how may I help you?" she asked.

"My Bulbasaur's bulb is glowing. I just want to make sure nothing is wrong." I said, picking Bulbasaur up and putting him on the counter.

Nurse Joy looked at the bulb, which was still glowing. "Well, from what I can tell, Bulbasaur is healthy. I'll run some tests to make sure, it shouldn't be long." she said as a gurney was rolled beside her.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy." I said.

We went and sat down in the lobby.

"Adam, why did you say that Bulbasaur is close to evolving by seeing its glowing bulb?" Jason asked.

"One of my dad's stories that he told me. When my dad was traveling, he had a Bulbasaur which is now Venusaur. Bulbasaur had been in a battle and won and that's when the bulb started to glow. My dad didn't know what was wrong with Bulbasaur, since it looked like he was in pain. So he rushed Bulbasaur to the Pokemon Center." I explained.

"He told Nurse Joy that the bulb was glowing and begged her to help Bulbasaur, so she went to run some tests. After the tests were finished, Nurse Joy walked out to tell my dad what was wrong with Bulbasaur. She told him Bulbasaur was perfectly fine and that he was close to evolving.

"Nurse Joy then told them the story about the Mysterious Garden. The Mysterious Garden is a place where Bulbasaur gather to evolve. Not many know of it and it's said to only be a myth.

"My dad's Bulbasaur left the Pokemon Center that night and went to the garden. My dad, Misty, and Brock followed. There were a lot of Bulbasaurs gathered and one Venusaur was there, too. My dad's Bulbasaur chose not to evolve and Venusaur and the newly evolved Ivysaurs didn't like that. But once Bulbasaur helped save the Ivysaurs from Team Rocket, Venusaur accepted Bulbasaur's decision." I said, finishing the story.

"So Bulbasaur chose not to evolve. Why?" Michelle asked.

"I guess Bulbasaur wasn't ready to evolve. Eventually, he did evolve, just not at the moment it was supposed to." I replied with a shrug.

Nurse Joy walked back out and walked over to us. "Bulbasaur is perfectly fine. The glowing of its bulb is showing that it will evolve soon. Maybe it will evolve at the Mysterious Garden?"

"Thank you," I said.

She nodded and walked back to the front desk.

"Pika!"

"Pichu!"

I felt electricity hit me and I cried out, waking up. I heard two other cries. I looked at Pikachu.

"Pikachu! What was that for? Why are you waking us up in the middle of the night?" I asked.

Michelle was sitting up and running her hands through her orange hair, smoothing it back down. Jason was looking annoyed, being woken up like that.

"Pi!" Pichu cried.

I then saw that Bulbasaur wasn't in the room. "Do you know where Bulbasaur went?" I asked.

Pikachu and Pichu nodded. I hopped off the bed and slid my feet into my shoes. Jason and Michelle slid their feet into their shoes as well.

"Lead the way." I said to Pikachu and Pichu. They nodded and ran off with us following. We walked outside and flower pollen was everywhere, making Jason sneeze.

"There's Bulbasaur." Michelle said, pointing up ahead.

We continued to follow Bulbasaur from a distance and came upon a clearing. We hid in the bushes while Bulbasaur went to join the dozens of other Bulbasaurs that were standing around.

"Wow...I've never seen so many Bulbasaurs before." Michelle said.

This was the Mysterious Garden that my dad had seen. We watched as one by one, the Bulbasaurs started to evolve into Ivysaurs. Would my Bulbasaur evolve or refuse like my dad's did?

I saw my Bulbasaur. It was towards the back. It looked around and saw all of the other Bulbasaurs evolving. I watched as a light covered him and when it faded, Ivysaur stood there.

"Bulbasaur evolved." Jason said.

"We should head back, before any of them notice we're here. People aren't supposed to see this since the Bulbasaurs always do it privately." I said quietly.

Michelle and Jason nodded and we walked back the way we had come. We laid back down and went back to sleep. Ivysaur would come back on his own.

The next morning, I woke up to see Ivysaur sleeping on the floor by my bed. I quietly pulled out my Pokedex and checked Ivysaur's data.

"Ivysaur, the Seed Pokemon and the evolved form of Bulbasaur. Ivysaur gains strength from sunlight, which makes the bud on its back grow larger. When this bud emits a sweet-smelling aroma, it is evidence that a large flower will soon bloom from it. When this happens, it will evolve once more into Venusaur."

"Hmm. I guess I'll have to keep my nose open for that smell that will let me know that Ivysaur's close to evolving again." I said to myself.

After we had all woken up, dressed, and eaten, we were ready to keep going.

"Where's the next gym?" I asked Nurse Joy.

"The nearest one would be on Cinnabar Island. There's also going to be a contest there." she replied.

"Then it looks like we're going to Cinnabar Island next." said Michelle. "How do we get there?"

"Head south from here and you'll reach a harbor. There are ships there which take you to and from the island."

"Thanks, Nurse Joy." said Jason.

"No problem, happy to help." she said, smiling.

Normal POV

The Elite Four were working, trying to find out more about Team Rocket and what they wanted with the Temple of Legends. Karen was typing away at the computer, searching for any information on the temple.

"Anything yet?" Lance asked Karen.

"No, and there's a lot of data, records, and historical information to go through." she replied. "It's a long, slow process, but I'll get it done."

"Lorelei, how's the job going with the police?"

"I've notified every precinct in the Kanto region. If they spot something suspicious or see Team Rocket, I've told them to inform us immediately." she replied. "But there is something that you might want to know."

"What's that?"

"Officer Jenny in Cerulean City says that several months ago, two kids told her that they had seen Team Rocket searching for Moon Stones on Mt. Moon, but she ignored it because she didn't believe that Team Rocket could be back."

"What? There are others who have already seen Team Rocket? We need to find them. Maybe they know something about this that could help our investigation." Koga suggested.

"Good idea. Bruno, you handle that." Lance instructed.

"I'm on it." he replied.

"Do you think that maybe Team Rocket had something to do with the sinking of the S.S. Ketchum a few months ago?" Lorelei asked.

"The ship that was mysteriously destroyed and all but three people were killed? It's possible, but why target a civilian ship?" Koga wondered.

"Terrorism." Lance said simply. "They must've done it to send a message to the world that announces their return after so many years. And they might try it again!"

"We've got to prevent another disaster like that from happening!" Lorelei exclaimed. "I'll inform the authorities at once."

"Tell them to shut down all ship travel and lock down all major ship ports until we find out what Team Rocket is planning." Lance ordered. "The only ships that are allowed to sail in Kanto are cargo ships under escort from police boats for protection."

"Looks like this just got a lot more serious." Koga said nervously.

Author's Note: Unlike his father's Bulbasaur, Adam's Bulbasaur chooses to evolve. Meanwhile, the Elite Four gain new information on Team Rocket and the stakes get a lot higher!

Something big is coming soon and the next few chapters are going to build it up! So stay tuned for the next chapter of Pokemon NG!