"Mount Moon time!" Shouted Draconix at full lungs, back in his cheerful demeanor. Raziel smiled. It seemed his friend was a different person at the light of day. Well, so to speak. They had entered the cave, well lit but still a far cry from the outside.

"Yeah!" He shouted in agreement, and the two laughed taking their first steps. "So how long will this take?"

"All the time we need. We are going to train until we are ready to take on not just Misty but the other Gym Leaders too." Draconix replied, opening his Poké Ball. Charmeleon and Spearow jumped out, the latter perching itself on his shoulder while the latter walked ahead, using his tail to make some extra in the cave.

"Well, sounds like a good plan." He thought and sent out Gastly. The Ghost-type seemed to like the cave a lot more than he had liked the Routes before, probably because it was completely dark except for the lights set up to mark the pathways. The thing that hit Raziel and Draconix first was the distant sounds of combat. They both smiled. That was going to be quite the experience.

Blue took a few deep breaths and then run on the bridge. The Nugget Bridge was where usually the Nugget Festival was held, but it had been postponed a bit that year, so the bridge was empty now. He smiled, glad to be allowed to experience some free time again now that he had completed his time in the hospital. He had told Draconix he would leave the city immediately after taking the badge but… "I never said anything about what I'd do before." He thought. He had a precise plan, and a single Pokémon to catch. It was maybe the only Pokémon he had set out to catch since the beginning, but he knew it was going to be a hard challenge at his level.

Abra. The bane of Psychic-type trainers that want to start their career by catching it, and of any other beginner that wants to compete in the League with an Alakazam. A wild Pokémon that spends its days sleeping and fleeing from combat. But also an excellent fighter once it evolves into a Kadabra and then an Alakazam.

The dex marked the location where Abra were more commonly found, the area north of the Nugget Bridge, known as Route 24 and 25. He couldn't figure why not marking it as a single Route, but he chose to not think too hard about it. What mattered was that on these routes he could find the ever-elusive Abra.

He opened two Poké Ball. Pidgeotto immediately soared in the sky, scouting the Route. The second Pokémon was his newest, and the one that puzzled him the most. The Rattata darted on the field, a purple arrow that moved in all directions. The third Poké Ball was there when he had checked his belt for the first time after waking up, so he could only assume the Rattata had captured himself after the whole situation. He had tried to figure out if it had been an accident, but it seemed the Pokémon wanted to come with him. 'Of course. I am awesome after all, who wouldn't want to come with me?'

Still, the Rattata was a good Pokémon. For one, he was fast, faster than most Pokémon he had fought so far. It didn't take a genius to figure the Pokémon was going to evolve in a strong Raticate, so overall Blue was more than happy to have him. He just wished he knew how it had ended up in his team.

Rattata kept running, jumping over an Oddish emerging from the grass and dodging the weak attempt at an attack of a Weedle. He smiled. When his clan had first asked him to go with the new trainer, he had considered it a weird request. Sure, he was thankful for his help, but to send one of them with him seemed excessive. Still, he had accepted: they had an enormous debt with him, and if all it took to repay it was for him to travel with this Blue, he was gladly going to. "It's not a bad situation either. I've not been this well fed in a long time."

In that moment, behind a bush, he noticed the shape of an Abra. The vulpine face, the body that looked humanoid, and the long tail would have been enough to tell him what he was looking at, but the fact they were sleeping in midair was the last hint he needed. He looked up and nodded to the Pidgeotto, who immediately flew back to call Blue. 'He'll be here in a couple minutes. Don't Teleport on me, now…'

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." A voice in his mind replied. Rattata yelped, jumping back. The Abra chuckled.

"You know what's coming and you aren't running away? That's rare of your kind." Rattata said after a moment.

"Now, see, I desire to train with a good trainer. And I already had a lot of clues yours is a good one." The Abra replied.

Rattata looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's quite easy if you think about it. First of all, I can tell your trainer is the kind that trusts its own Pokémon. I can clearly see you and the Pidgeotto were sent to look for my kind, since I am the rarest species in this area, meaning I'm the only one you would put this kind of effort into. This tells me your Trainer believes you two were up to the task of locating me, and that he also expected you to go back. This expectation means he is also good to his Pokémon, otherwise you would be running away using this chance, so he wouldn't give it to you to begin with. You appear well fed and treated, meaning he does not underestimate how important treating you well is. Finally, the Pidgeotto appears well trained, meaning he is at least a starting trainer of good hopes. A quick show in the next battle will confirm my impression, and if it's positive I'll allow myself to be caught." The Abra explained, with a slight bow.

Rattata was both amazed at how good the Pokémon's deduction was, and annoyed at how easy he made it sound. "Well you are going to be quite the addition to the team, aren't you?"

"Assuming I even do such a thing, yes, I trust I'll be of use."

Rattata sighed. "Yeah, I can see that." He said.

Blue followed Pidgeotto and smiled noticing Rattata pointing at an Abra. The Psychic-type appeared asleep, and Blue nodded to Rattata, who jumped in with a Bite. Abra yawned and teleported just a few steps to the left, dodging the hit. Rattata went on the offensive, unleashing more and more Bites to try and hit the mark, but every time Abra teleported just moments before being hit. The Pokémon at this point had completely woken up, now standing on the ground rather than using the telekinesis to keep itself floating while asleep. The trainer had heard that Abra couldn't act effectively if it had to multitask multiple psychic techniques, at least in the wild, so he was banking on that.

Blue smiled noting the plan could now start, and at the last second ordered a "Stronger Bite". Rattata smiled, and like they had agreed to jumped in with a Quick Attack. The Abra gasped in surprise and yelped as the impact of the blow sent it flying, landing above the River. The Pokémon gasped, as his powers had him fall down to the water. Blue smiled and sent in Pidgeotto to retrieve him, and the Pokémon spit out some water, coughing.

Blue smiled and threw a Poké Ball. The object bounced on the ground a few times, before stopping abruptly. With a smile, he picked it up and left out Abra, who immediately went back to sleep.

Blue nodded. 'Good, the plan worked as we wanted to.' He thought, with a nod to Rattata. The Pokémon had been able to follow his orders even with the little times he had to explain himself. He was going to be a good addition.

Abra read the Trainer's mind and nodded. "Seems you made a good impression. You are welcome."

Rattata looked at him puzzled "So you are coming with us. You should know, my Trainer is an enemy of an organization known as Team Rocket."

Abra nodded "Good, if it turned out he was a member of it I'd have run off."

"Oh, I'm surprised a wild Pokémon knows about them."

"Not all do, but in this Route we had some bad experiences. Many of my good friends have been caught and taken away by them. They seem to be after rare Pokémon like us, though I don't know why." The Psychic-type explained with a long sigh "But, if you are an enemy of them, I'm definitely glad to have joined in. Maybe we can figure out what happened. It's a mystery that has bugged me for a while now."

Rattata pondered what the Abra was saying, then put a paw on his back "Well, we are definitely going to be something else together. I'm sure Team Rocket will learn to fear the Rat and the… Humanoid Yellow Fox thing?" He tried, not sure what to call the Abra.

"Psychic would be sufficient. Psi is what humans call us." The Abra replied "But yes, I am sure we will be a good team."

Pidgeotto looked at them "Well, that was a quick friendship…"

None of them noticed the two Trainer nearby, two in many apparently training two Golbats. "So, we just let him go?" The girl asked, her Golbat attacking with a Poison Fang. She put a hand through her short, dark hair, to try and fix their line.

"No, the boss says is nothing worth bringing unwanted attention on us, since I already took care of it." The brown haired teen replied "I sent Proton to deal with the last touches we need in the city, and Petrel is getting extra turns at the watch, so we will have the time to follow the Boss' order to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't poke his nose in any more of our plans. But the mic I put in his phone picked up enough conversations to make me say he will likely leave after beating the Gym."

"As usual, Frère, you are well prepared."

"You know it sis."

The girl chuckled, looking at him with her purple eyes "So, any plan you wish to keep me updated with?"

"Nothing really. We are almost done here in the city with the big stuff, just have to wait for the Nugget Festival and after that most of the team will leave. Guard duty can easily be taken over by just a few recruits under someone else." The male replied, as his Golbat defeated the girl's one.

"Fair enough." She said, "Who would you live in charge, Frère?"

"Why, I was thinking of my dear sister."

She smiled "Merci, I'll make sure to deserve it." The Rocket Lieutenant smiled in return and recalled his Golbat once he noticed Blue was now leaving. "Let's go." He said. Kyoku nodded and the two followed him from a distance, making sure to not be spotted.

Darken had decided to spend a few days in the great city of Celadon. Very close to Saffron, so much in fact many called it "The Commercial District of Saffron City", the City was however a magnet for trainers. The great Mall alone sold more items than most Pokémon Market in the Region combined, including various TM and the expensive Evolution Stones. And of course, there was the Nature Festival.

Each city of Kanto run a different Festival in that part of the year, with a strict date organization to make sure two events would not overlap. And in this week, it was the turn of the Nature Festival. He walked through the stand, eating some chips shaped like Oddish's leaf and with the container shaped like an Oddish. A bit weird in his opinion, but they tasted good.

'Next, the Eevee challenge.' He looked up. One of the building in the town was owned by an elderly man that raised Eevee for young Trainers. Usually you had to pay or have been in the Top 20 of the Celadon City Trainer Academy, but the higher ranked of his yearly Eevee Challenge, only open to new trainers, could get an Eevee for free. Of course, for Darken that was an opportunity he was not going to miss.

He entered the building and took the Elevator to the roof. Here, surrounded by only the sky and the roofs of other buildings, was a large group of trainers surrounding a group of five makeshift battlegrounds. An elder man observed them, checking his clock. After about ten minutes, he stepped on the battleground in the center. Everyone went quite at once.

"Hello everyone." He said with a slow voice, his hand scratching his short, white beard "I am glad to see so many young trainers have decided to take the challenge this year as well. The challenge is a series o fights. Each of you will fight five people, and gain three points for every victory and one point for an eventual draw. Zero points for a defeat, of course. The ten people with most points will get an Eevee. If there are more than ten people with fifteen points, all of them will receive one. Please, write your names and Trainer ID on the form and specify what Pokémon you are going to use." He pointed to a small stand with a large form on it. "Remember only Normal, Water, Fire and Electric-type Pokémon are allowed." He added. A few people gulped nervously, probably people that didn't know about that last rule.

Darken waited in line for his turn and signed. He thought a second for which of his Pokémon he should have used, then made his choice and moved aside. He counted about thirty participants. After about half an hour, the list of fights came out. The first on the list was his fight with a person named Parie.

As he walked on the field, it turned out Parie was a blue-haired girl of his same age, that bowed nervously "Th-thank you for the challenge." She said, stuttering for a second, before sending out an Elekid. Darken's eyes widened noticing the Electric-type, a rare one in Kanto, then sent out in return Tuffball. The Jigglypuff prepared itself for the fight, and Darken smiled. After a moment, the fight begun.

"So Domino, what do we do?" The recruit asked "Ariana is angry, maybe she is right."

The Blonde Rocket member observed the helicopter leave, and smiled "Mondo, when I'll want your opinion, I will ask for it."

Mondo, a young man with brown short hairs, gulped, noticing the anger on the blonde's face. When she was like this, it was better to just shut up and do as she said. "Very well, I'll tell the others."

Domino nodded, but she was still fuming. "This is my operation, not hers. Mine!" She closed her eyes, then turned to Mondo "And make sure everyone is ready, I will not tolerate mistakes."

"Y-yes, Domino."

"And use my codename!"

Mondo gulped "Yes D... Black Tulip." The young man ran away, starting to shout orders.

Domino smiled "Good, respect." Domino was the youngest lieutenant. Well, second youngest now, but she had been the youngest to reach the title. And now, after a year, this was her first lead of a large operation.

"I'll do it."