Welcome back! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?

Next stop, Slowpoke Well!

The new cover was made by my friend, Josh-S26, on DeviantArt. Check it out!


Gold stumbled out of the Union Cave's southern exit, swatting a Zubat off his shoulders in an annoyed fashion before looking up and groaning once he saw the storm clouds. Pulling an umbrella out of his bag, Gold opened it just as it began to rain, and he walked through what little there was of Route 33 before ending up on the outskirts of Azalea Town, where he heard a commotion going on between two people. Hiding behind a tree, Gold listened to the conversation from a distance.

"Hey! What have you done with Kurt, Team Rocket?!"

That question in particular caught Gold's attention, as the last time he had heard of Team Rocket, it was about their disbanding three years ago. Hiding behind a cluster of trees, he slowly inched closer to hear the conversation better.

A gruff voice responded, "None of your damn business, now leave us alone!"

Gold saw that the person, who was indeed a Team Rocket grunt, punch the other man in the face before chasing him away by sending out a Raticate, who snarled and leapt at the man with Super Fang.

Gold then attempted to walk into Azalea Town, only for the grunt to yell, "Hey, kid! What're you doing here?!"

Gold yelped in surprise and hastily answered, "Just passing through!"

The grunt, after a bit of deliberation, then said, "Okay, you can pass."

Gold walked into the town, which was deathly quiet, much to his discomfort. Walking down south, Gold saw that the Azalea Gym appeared to be closed, with a note stuck on the front that read:

"Closed for business at Route 34. Will be back soon."

-Bugsy

Walking up north to the Pokémon Center, Gold noticed that there was a group of townspeople convening to his left, which he tried his best to ignore as he approached the counter, bringing Snaggletooth's Poké Ball out of his bag and returning Frostbite to her Moon Ball. Putting the two capsules onto the tray, Gold walked into one of the bathrooms to shake the water off of his umbrella before walking out and thanking Nurse Joy for healing his Pokémon. Before he could leave, however, Nurse Joy asked, "Oh, I'm sorry if this is a bother, but have we registered you in the Pokémon Center's database yet?"

Looking back as he sent Frostbite out of her Moon Ball, Gold replied, "Well, none of the previous Pokémon Centers I visited told me about a database, so... I guess that means it's a no."

"They didn't?" Putting a hand to her head, Joy muttered, "I'm going to have to give my cousins one hell of a talking to tonight..." Looking back at Gold, she said, "Well, recently, the International Pokémon Committee, or IPC for short, which consists of officials from all around the world, decided to implement a system that makes sure every single Trainer is documented for regardless of region. It's been kind of important as of late here in Johto because of rumors of Team Rocket trying to make a comeback..." Watching as the teenager bit his lip at that last point, Joy asked, "May I see your Trainer Card?"

"O-oh, of course!" Gold began rummaging through his pocket for his wallet and pulled it out before passing the Trainer Card inside to Nurse Joy, who, after taking it, went to a computer to get it scanned.

Once she had scanned the card, Nurse Joy asked, "Hmm... you're fourteen and you're doing the Johto League challenge? That's quite a surprise, you're probably the youngest challenger in the last thirty years."

Unknown to Gold, the group of townspeople had overheard Nurse Joy's question, and they began frantically conversing among themselves.

"He's doing the Johto League challenge?"

"He could be our solution for facing Team Rocket and rescuing Kurt!"

"Did you not hear Nurse Joy? He's fourteen! We can't be dragging a teenager into a fight against a crime syndicate!"

Gold retrieved his Trainer Card from Nurse Joy when she finished registering him, and, after putting his wallet away, he took Frostbite and Snaggletooth's Poké Balls and sent out the Ice-type. Just as he was about to walk out of the Pokémon Center, though, someone called out, "Hey, kid!" Turning around, Gold saw that the townspeople were all looking at him.

"Yeah?"

Clasping his hands together, the man said, "We've... sort of had a problem with the Slowpoke Well as of late. As you may have seen, Team Rocket's had control of the well for about a day. Our famed Poké Ball maker, Kurt, also vanished just last night, and we think Team Rocket has something to do with it. Can you please help us?"

After some thought, Gold answered, "Yeah." After a quiet cheer from some of the townspeople, he absently took out his Pokédex to check some information on some of the wildlife, as he had heard rumors of there being Heracross lurking both in the town and the Ilex Forest to the west.

Noticing, the man from earlier asked, "You're trying to complete the Pokédex?" As the teenager casually nodded, the man continued, "Kurt is a renowned Poké Ball maker from across the world, and he's capable of making specialized Poké Balls that can make catching certain types of Pokémon much easier! All he needs are raw Apricorns!"

Gold's eyes grew wide at that, and he rummaged through his bag for his Apricorn Basket. Looking at the rather significant amount of Apricorns of various colors that he had, he quickly ran out of the Pokémon Center and towards the Slowpoke Well, hurriedly cramming the basket back into his bag.


Having arrived at the well, Gold looked around to make sure that there was no one around before he grabbed onto the ladder and climbed down. Once he reached the bottom, he saw that there was a broken lantern that was in the shape of a Lanturn. Walking past it, he was about to continue into the deeper part of the well when he heard a soft groan of pain behind him.

Whirling around, Gold looked around for the source of the sound, worried that it was something like a Duskull or a Yamask that had somehow found its way into Johto, but further inspection yielded him what he was looking for; Kurt, who was sprawled out on the ground, taking labored breaths due to the pain in his back.

Looking up, Kurt asked, "Who are you?"

"The name's Gold, and I'm gonna get you out of here." Gold then proceeded to carefully help Kurt up and walk him towards the ladder, which upon reaching, he propped Kurt against the wall while sending out Snaggletooth and Frostbite and commanding, "Watch over him while I get someone to help, got it?" The two Pokémon nodded, and Gold climbed up out of the well, running towards the town. Hurrying towards the Pokémon Center, Gold ran over to the adults and gasped, "He's in the well... it looks like he took a fall that messed up his back. My Pokémon are watching over him right now, but I don't think they're going to last against the ridiculous amount of Zubat that are basically everywhere in Johto. I need one of you to help me carry him out." Putting on the most convincing expression he could, Gold asked, "Please?"

A gruff voice said, "Alright, I'll do it." The source of the voice, a burly woodcutter, stepped towards Gold and said, "Name's Myron. Bring me to the well and I'll haul him out."

Gold, with Myron following him, ran out of the Pokémon Center and towards the well, where he heard some sort of commotion going on down below. Urgently gesturing for Myron to come where he was, Gold scaled down the ladder quickly, only to slip upon reaching the ground, landing on his front with a resounding thud. Pushing his hands down on the ground, they soon gave way once Gold realized that what he was on was actually a patch of ice. Cautiously moving his body away from the frozen part of the ground, Gold brought himself back to his feet and yelled, "You might want to watch out, there's some ice right underneath the ladder!"

Looking for Kurt and his two Pokémon, Gold was relieved to see that they were fine, if a little startled. Kurt then said to him, "Your Pokémon are quite well trained, young man. A Team Rocket grunt came looking for me, but these two scared him off-"

"Wait, wait wait." Gold made a 'time-out' sign with his hands before asking, "Team Rocket's down here?!"

It was at that point Myron had made his way down into the well, and he asked, "Am I hearin' this right? Yer lot's got a crime syndicate still active?" Turning towards Kurt, he said, "Mister Kurt, we'd better get you out of this well before something worse happens to you!"

"We need to stop Team Rocket though! They're cutting off Slowpoke tails to sell on the black market!"

Looking at Gold, Myron said, "You're comin' with me, kid. But first..." Myron hauled Kurt onto his shoulders and climbed out of the well, leaving Gold with his two Pokémon.

Looking at Frostbite and Snaggletooth, Gold pointed at the iced ground in front of him and asked, "You two did this?"

Snaggletooth nodded in earnest, which earned him a light dope slap from Frostbite.

Laughing, Gold lightly ruffled their heads as he waited for Myron to return, which the latter did not long after the fact. Unclipping an Ultra Ball from his belt, Myron said, "I'm not sure whether bringing you along is a good idea, but as a challenger to the Johto League, you should be reasonably competent." As Gold returned both of his Pokémon, Myron continued, "Come on, kid," before walking into the heart of the cave, Gold following close behind.

Upon entering, Gold saw a Slowpoke who was obliviously meandering near a pond... completely unaware of the fact that its tail had been severed clean off. As he followed Myron, he saw that even more Slowpoke were missing their tails, which distracted him long enough that he bumped right into the woodcutter's back. Rubbing his head, Gold muttered, "Ow..." before peering from the side to look at what Myron had stopped in front of.

Two Team Rocket grunts stood in front of him, Poké Balls at the ready. One of the grunts said, "That dumb old coot scared me off from the well, and Proton gave me a hell of a talking-to!"

His partner sarcastically replied, "Oh, boo-hoo, man up, now we've got more trespassers in here! This day just gets better and better..." before sending out a Rattata, while his partner did the same.

Myron's eyes had narrowed in anger, and he said, "Go, Falinks!" The Formation Pokémon, upon emerging from the Ultra Ball, formed itself into a three-by-two phalanx, letting out a gaggle of chatter as it did so.

Gold quickly whipped out his Pokédex and scanned the new Pokémon, and the Pokédex registered the data of the Falinks in its database. Putting the device back in his pocket, Gold watched as the two Rattata were overwhelmed by the six individual units that composed the Falinks, the one with the largest crest expertly coordinating an aggressive maelstrom of moves.

Without missing a beat, the two grunts recalled their Rattata and sent out a Zubat and a Gastly. The Gastly let out a wobbly laugh as it turned invisible, while the Zubat flew in and out of the range of the Falinks' attacks while attempting to confuse it with Supersonic.

Gold covered his ears as the harsh, ear-splitting noise bounced around the walls of the cave, with it getting louder and harsher the more it ricocheted off a surface.

Myron, who was also covering his ears, turned to Gold and bellowed, "GET THEIR BOSS OVER THERE!" pointing to the Team Rocket member with blue hair and a badge on his uniform to denote him to the teenager. Nodding, the boy jumped down a slope and ran towards where he had pointed, while he brought his attention back to the battle going on in front of him, trying his best to support his Falinks.

Gold ran up a small slope, uncovering his ears as the noise from the Zubat's Supersonic faded away, only to be accosted by a third Team Rocket grunt, who snarled, "We've got ways to deal with trespassers like you, kid," before pulling out a stun whip and flicking the switch on its handle, causing a jolt of electricity to course through the whip.

Caught off guard, Gold mouthed, "The hell?" before jumping to the side as the grunt swung the lash over his head and into the ground, causing small chunks of rubble to unearth themselves as electricity discharged from the whip. Just before Gold's instincts told him to run, as he was not willing to let his Pokémon get hurt or even killed by that thing, he heard someone snap their fingers, and the grunt almost immediately became docile. Slightly slack-jawed, Gold watched as the grunt walked towards where the sound had come from and looked in the direction that he was walking.

There, Proton, the blue-haired Team Rocket member, was harshly admonishing the grunt with the whip with, "Benny, next time, you act on MY orders! Not anyone else's! Is that clear?" The grunt, Benny, nodded without saying a word, and Proton was about to dismiss him before noticing a teenager who was staring at him in shock. A cruel glint appearing in his eyes, Proton exclaimed, "Well, isn't this a surprise! Some kid's trying to play hero again like that kid from three years ago!" Pulling out one of his Poké Balls, with a flourish, Proton continued, "We'll show you why no one should interfere in Team Rocket's business!" before sending out his Zubat.

Gold reached for Snaggletooth's Poké Ball and sent him out, the Big Jaw Pokémon sliding across the ground before tripping over a small rock and falling onto his face. Quickly righting himself, he looked at the Zubat and said, "You're going down!"

Proton's Zubat dryly responded, "Yep. Haven't heard that one before-"

"Bite!"

Spurred by Gold's command, Snaggletooth jumped up to clamp onto the Zubat, but it simply flew out of Snaggletooth's range, causing him to bite down on nothing and fall onto the floor. Pushing himself back up, Snaggletooth rubbed his snout before shooting a spout of water at the Zubat, who zipped out of the way before attempting to chomp down with Leech Life, which Snaggletooth dodged by using Dragon Dance to vault over the Zubat. When the smoky veil from Dragon Dance began to fade, Snaggletooth charged out of it with Aqua Jet, ramming headlong into the Zubat and catapulting it into the wall of the cave, which made Proton look back in shock as his Zubat spent the last of its energy prying itself out of the wall before collapsing.

Adjusting his hat as he recalled his Zubat, Proton muttered, "Maybe I underestimated you..." before sending out his Koffing, who let out a deep laugh before emitting some smog. Snapping his fingers, Proton commanded, "Sludge Bomb!"

The Koffing shot a glob of brown sludge from one of its pores which hit Snaggletooth right in the chest, managing to poison him. After a cough, Snaggletooth rasped, "Bring it!" before firing a Water Gun at the Koffing, who appeared to be no worse for wear when the stream of water stopped. A tiny bit of frustration having worked its way onto his face, Snaggletooth smashed right into Koffing with a desperation Aqua Jet in order to try and knock it out quick, but Koffing began rapidly spinning, and the ensuing Gyro Ball ran him over, his Trainer letting out an exclamation of horror once the Gyro Ball connected.

Snaggletooth clawed himself out of the crater that had been made and righted himself up, his footwork being slightly wobbly. Before he could do anything more, however, the poison finally took its toll on his strength and he collapsed to the floor, out for the count.

Gold winced as he recalled his Pokémon, muttering to himself, "You did well, Snaggletooth." Clipping his starter's Poké Ball back onto his belt, he took Frostbite's Moon Ball and clicked it, saying, "Frostbite, finish the job!"

Proton gawked at the fact that a Sandshrew that looked like it was an Ice-type emerged from the Moon Ball, but he quickly recollected himself, changing his objective from 'silence' to 'capture.' Looking at his Koffing, he commanded, "Flamethrower!"

"Wha- Frostbite, get out of the way!"

Frostbite rolled away from the streams of fire that came from the Koffing's pores and retaliated with Ice Shard, the sharp chunks of ice battering the Koffing's body and plugging up one of its holes. Clutching one of his hands into a fist, Gold punched forward and commanded, "Follow through with Metal Claw!" Frostbite jumped up and clawed at the Koffing, inadvertently breaking the ice that plugged up the hole. Once said ice was broken, Koffing retreated upwards and hurriedly vented out some of the excess gas it had generated inside of itself.

Noticing, Gold took out his Pokédex and scanned Proton's Koffing, reading the entry that the digital database had recorded, muttering to himself, "Overinflation can cause it to explode rather violently..." Putting away his Pokédex, Gold tightened the strap on his bag and said, "Frostbite, Powder Snow!"

Inhaling, Frostbite then exhaled a stinging gust of powdery snow, which created a thin layer of ice over the Koffing's skin. She then followed up with Ice Shard, intending to hit the pores of the Koffing. Several shards managed to hit true, and Koffing's gaseous output considerably lessened, while its body grew slightly larger. Koffing looked to be in extreme discomfort from the amount of gas that was building up within it, with tiny parts of its fragile skin bursting to try and vent the excess gas.

Proton noticed, and after diving behind a large rock, he commanded, "Koffing, Explosion!"

Koffing began to glow white, and Gold hurriedly recalled Frostbite, frantically scrambling away from what would become ground zero as the Koffing violently exploded, knocking Gold off of his feet and caving in a portion of a nearby wall.


When Gold rose to his feet once more, he saw that the location where the Koffing had exploded was reduced to a gigantic crater, with the Pokémon nowhere to be seen. Looking at the rock Proton was hiding behind, Gold saw that a shaky hand which was holding a Poké Ball slowly retreat from his line of sight.

Proton frantically retreated into the tunnel system that he and his grunts had made from the Union Cave when he saw the Trainer look away from the rock he was hiding behind. Once he was sure that he had made it out safely, he pulled out a flashlight and began the trek back to the Union Cave.

Dusting off his jacket and sending out Frostbite to check for any injuries, Gold walked over to Myron, who was recalling his own Pokémon, and muttered, "He got away," before continuing to walk towards the ladder that he had taken to get into the well, recalling Frostbite as he did so. Once he had climbed out, he took off his hat and looked towards the afternoon sky, the sun beating down on his face, while next to him, Myron climbed out of the well and wiped his brow.

"Hey, nice job down there, kid. You got guts."

With a light chuckle, Gold responded, "Thanks." Looking at Myron, he then asked, "What is that Pokémon, anyways?"

"Falinks." Upon seeing the teenager's puzzled expression, Myron continued, "It's a Pokémon native to the Galar region, which is where I'm from. It's actually a hivemind much like the Exeggcute family, but there's one leader unit that commands the others to perform tasks. A well-experienced Falinks is capable of using all six of its units, including itself, to do different tasks."

Gold nodded, before yawning and asking, "Should we head back to the town?"

"Yeah."

The two of them began walking back to the Azalea Town Pokémon Center, and once they entered, Gold walked to the counter to get Snaggletooth and Frostbite healed up, while Myron walked back to the crowd of townspeople that, while considerably smaller, was still of an above-average size. Once Gold got his Pokémon back from Nurse Joy, he was right about to walk out of the facility when one member of the crowd called out for him with a, "Hey, kid!"

The same man who had asked him to go down into the well earlier had approached Gold, and then proceeded to grab his right hand with both hands and vigorously shake it, saying, "Thank you for helping rescue Kurt!"

Gold extricated his hand from the man's grip and said, "Thank you, but I remember you said that Kurt could make me some Poké Balls that would help me capture Pokémon?"

"Ah, yes! I'm sure that Kurt will be more than happy to make some of his famous Apricorn Balls! Just make a right once you exit the Pokémon Center and then you'll find Kurt's house to your right after walking a short distance."

Gold thanked the man and exited the Pokémon Center, following his directions to the letter. Seeing the simple house at the north end of the town, Gold walked towards its door and knocked. After a bit, Kurt, using a cane to support himself, opened the door, greeting him with, "Ah... Gold, was it?" Gold nodded, and Kurt continued, "Come in," gesturing to the inside of the house.

Unknown to Gold, something was watching him from the trees...

Once Gold stepped inside, Kurt closed his door and began, "I take it that you knew about Team Rocket disbanding?"

"Yeah, my brother broke the news to my mom over dinner when I was eleven."

"Well, they were defeated by a fourteen-year old boy named Red, and their leader, Giovanni vanished without a trace."

Tilting his head in confusion, Gold asked, "Wait, why are you telling me all of this?"

"The fact that Team Rocket was sighted at the well is a cause for concern. If it's true that you've defeated one of their executives, I think that you'll need to be careful from here on out on your journey across Johto."

Nodding, Gold then began digging through his bag for his Apricorn Basket, and once he found it, he fished through the inside of the basket for an Apricorn. Pulling out a pink one, Gold then put away his basket and said, "The townspeople said you were capable of making Poké Balls that could help me catch certain types of Pokémon. Is that true?"

Kurt took the Apricorn from Gold's hand and inspected it thoroughly before nodding and saying, "It'll take me half an hour for me to finish this special Poké Ball, why don't you take a good look around the Ilex Forest first?"

Gold nodded, and walked out of the house while Kurt got to work. Before he could walk through the checkpoint, however, he accidentally bumped into a lavender-haired teenager who was holding a net, knocking him to the floor. Gold extended a hand, asking, "Are you okay? I'm really sorry about that-"

"Ah, it's no problem. I need to sort some things out because I got word from one of the townspeople that Team Rocket was cutting off the tails of Slowpoke in the Slowpoke Well."

Remembering what Myron had told him on their way back to the Pokémon Center, namely that he would send some people into the well to take care of the Slowpoke, Gold said, "There's some townspeople in the well taking care of them."

"Wait, how did you know about the Slowpoke?" After taking a look at the younger teenager in front of him, the purple-haired boy realized, "Oh, you're that 'Gold' person Myron was talking about!" Extending a hand, he said, "Name's Bugsy, I'm Azalea Town's Gym Leader. Nice to meet you! I take it that you're here for the Johto Gym challenge?" Gold nodded, and Bugsy continued, "Great! I'll open the Gym in an hour, 'cause I'm pooped from having to do all that paperwork with Whitney at Goldenrod... she's a handful, I'll tell you that. When I open the Gym again, you can challenge me whenever you're ready!" before sitting down on a nearby tree stump and pulling out a rather thick encyclopedia on Bug-types across the world.

As he looked at Bugsy perusing through his book, Gold asked, "Since you're one of the region's experts on Bug-types, do you know where I can find a Heracross?"

"A Heracross?" Nodding, Bugsy continued, "They're native to Azalea Town, surprisingly enough. I must tell you, though, they're quite rare... in my eight years as a Gym Leader, I've only seen what, five Heracross in the town?"

Gold did a double take and said, "Wait, wait, wait. How long did you say you were Gym Leader for?"

"Eight years."

"How old are you?"

Bugsy nonchalantly responded, "Nineteen, why?"

"You've been Gym Leader since you were eleven! How the heck does that work?"

"It's quite the story... so, to keep it short, the prospective Gym Leader for this town disappeared for some reason, and since the locations for the eight Gyms of the Johto region cannot be changed according to League rules, which I personally think is a bit silly, I was selected as Gym Leader because the League Committee thought I was the best Trainer in the town." Pausing for a second, Bugsy continued, "Say, have you heard of Ash Ketchum?"

"Wasn't he the winner of the Lumiose Conference a few years back?"

"Yep! He was actually one of my first challengers when I first became the town's Gym Leader."

Some excitement was present in Gold's voice as he asked, "Was he as good of a Trainer as he is now?"

Laughing, Bugsy shook his head, answering, "He was way more inexperienced when he came to challenge me."

After while of Bugsy sharing stories of his career, Gold noticed that half an hour had passed after checking his Pokégear, and he said, "I gotta go pick something up, I'll be right back," running over to Kurt's house.

Once he got there, Gold saw that Kurt was waiting by the outside of his house, holding a pink Poké Ball that had a heart decoration on the top half. When Kurt passed it to Gold, he said, "The Love Ball increases your chances of catching Pokémon of the opposite gender. Make sure you've got your own Pokémon's gender taken into account, and that you're able to distinguish the difference between certain species' genders!" Gold pocketed the Love Ball and thanked Kurt before stepping out of the house and walking back to Bugsy, who was training his Scyther by having her cut surplus bundles of sticks that he was having his own Pinsir hurl up into the air. Gold then took a seat on a nearby stump to watch the Azalea Gym Leader for the remainder of the hour.

Once the hour had passed, Bugsy, upon looking down at his Pokétch, said, "The Gym's open! You can challenge when you're ready." before opening the doors of the Gym and walking inside.

Gold watched as the doors closed behind Bugsy before standing up and walking into the Gym himself. Upon entering, Gold saw that the official that was present at the Violet City Gym was not there, and that there were no other Trainers present. Figuring that it was just a result of the Gym having just reopened, Gold walked towards the podium where Bugsy was, only to stop just as the ground ran out. In front of him, there were three large, mechanical Spinarak replicas, all of them resting on a track that resembled a String Shot, but with multiple branching paths instead of being a single straight line. Stepping onto the one that was right in front of him, the Spinarak replica began to make its way down the track, and all seemed to be going smoothly for Gold until he was taken onto a different path that led to a dead end.

Stepping back onto the Spinarak robot, Gold looked down at the track in order to keep track of where each of the paths were. Once he was back at the beginning, he stepped off and looked at the track to try and see which route he would need to take. After tracing a path with his finger, Gold deduced that the left Spinarak was the correct option, and sure enough, when he stepped on it, it moved in the exact opposite direction that he had backtracked, bringing him further into the Gym.

Meanwhile, the same being from earlier was watching Gold with great interest from one of the trees inside the Gym, having snuck in in order to finally get a good, close look at a Trainer's battle.

When he reached the middle, Gold took the time to look at the web track in order to properly map out a solution, taking the red and blue paths into account. Once he had done so, Gold stepped onto the middle Spinarak, and was taken to a dead end that had a blue switch. Flicking the switch, Gold stepped back onto the Spinarak and was taken to another dead end that instead had a red switch. After flipping that switch, he stepped back onto the Spinarak and was taken all the way to the back of the Gym, where Bugsy stood at one end of a field.

As Gold stepped onto the end that was directly opposite of where Bugsy was, he heard the Azalea Gym Leader call out, "Should we just skip the formalities and get the battle started?"

"Yeah! Let's do this!"

With a laugh, Bugsy reached for a Fast Ball and yelled, "Go, Yanma!"

"Frostbite, you're up!"


Didn't see that coming, now did you?

Yeah, I'm really sorry about the long hiatus, I'll try and get my upload schedule back on track.

Also, as a side note, I'll be altering some learnsets for... somewhat logical reasons in the future. I hope you understand (I'm not adhering to Pokémon only knowing four moves, by the way, I think that's just a silly way to enforce balance in the games).