Chapter 24

The sun had long since set beyond the horizon, but Ash and Brock wouldn't have any idea exactly what time it did. The fierce pollution in the air gave the clouds a constant dark look. Drawing in a deep breath was enough to make the lungs ache, as if they had breathed in fire itself. But just when they thought they were going to have to give up and camp once again, they stumbled across a town along the water. The town was equally as dirty as the air that surrounded it, and personally, Ash almost didn't want to stay here, but it was late and they needed somewhere to sleep and to rest not only their heads, but their Pokémon. Factories spanned the entire area that Ash could see, with large smoke stacks producing black smoke that even stuck out against the smokey gray backdrop.

"This is a really weird city," Ash commented with a frown as the ocean breeze coming from the harbor blew underneath his nostrils and made it crinkle. "Lots of factories, but no people."

"This place is called Gringey City," Brock read from the guidebook.

"Gringey? Never heard of it."

"That's because they went overboard with the factories, and pollution ruined the air and the water here," he explained as he pocketed the small handbook.

"I guess we won't find any Pokémon here," Ash deduced with his hands on his hips. "Is there at least a Pokémon Center here?"

"If we travel along the water, we should come across it eventually."

"Great. We better get there before curfew." Hurrying along so they would get there in time, Ash silently noted how creepy the town was once again. It seemed like despite the factories, the only human sound in the whole area was their footsteps echoing off the buildings.

Eventually, the pair made it to the Pokémon Center in what seemed like just in time. They didn't give themselves time to marvel at the odd-shaped Pokémon Center, which resembled a cluster of crystals with a circular base as the lobby, and simply rushed right in through the front doors, half expecting to be stopped by a gate from how late it was. However, while the gate wasn't lowered, the lobby was completely void of any human life. Instead, the front counter had a bell to get the nurse's attention, so when they approached, Ash tapped it twice.

"Hey, nurse!" he called. A few moments went by and they didn't hear any rustling. The pair traded a glance at each other, and Ash rang the bell again. "Hey, nurse?" Finally, movement could be heard coming from behind, and Nurse Joy walked out from the back room. There was sleep still apparent in her eyes, and she had no issues hiding this as she yawned and stretched high to the ceiling as she approached them.

"Do you kids have any idea just what time it is?" she asked them with a frown. "Don't you know that you should be sleeping now?"

"I'm sorry, but we just got here and we'd like to reserve a room, please," Ash apologized, and plucked his Poké Balls from his belt, but held out one last one and held it out as if cradling an egg. "And we'd also like to drop off our Pokémon as well. My Wartortle here also seems particularly drained – it isn't eating as much."

However, Nurse Joy barely gave the Poké Ball a glance and yawned loudly, which was odd considering she put her hand in front of her mouth as if to stifle it. "It's tired," she said shortly. The short answer drew Ash's eyebrows together in annoyance.

"Don't you even want to look at it first?" he argued. "Your sisters and cousins were a lot more helpful!" Nurse Joy didn't seem offended or even registered that what he said was insulting, and gave another yawn again.

"There's no need to get excited," she said dismissively with a wave of her hand. "If you leave it here overnight, I'm sure it'll be fine in the morning." Silence passed for a beat before Ash spoke up again.

"Miss?" The nurse opened her blue eyes and looked down at the black-haired boy. "Excuse me, but are you by any chance the oddball in your family?"

"Oh no," she replied back with a chuckle. "It's all my other relatives that are odd." Ash and Brock weren't expecting that answer, and let out a moan of annoyance, but before Nurse Joy could start inputting their information into the computer, the screen went black. She opened her mouth to question the event, but then suddenly, the lights in the lobby went out as well. The only light coming in was from the moonlight outside, but because of the smog, even that was limited. Ash blinked a few times to try and get his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but not even the backup generator was coming on.

"The power's out!" Brock commented, and looked out the window nearby. "There aren't any streetlamps on either; it looks like it's out all over the place."

Suddenly, Nurse Joy gasped and leapt up from her seat. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, and without another word, turned on her heel and hurried around the lobby and into the ER. Volunteering themselves in case she needed an extra hand, Ash and Brock hurried through the doorway, and followed her to the back of the center where they entered a room with rows of incubators, and each one was holding a different Pokémon.

"What happened to these Pokémon?!" Ash questioned, his eyes falling upon the incubator nearing him housing a sleeping Sandshrew.

"They're in intensive care," Joy responded sadly. "If we don't get the power back soon, well, I just don't want to think about what would happen."

"Don't just stand there; we have to save them!"

"I don't know what to do..." the pink-haired nurse muttered as she lowered her head.

"Hey! Stop giving Joy a hard time," Brock snapped at Ash. "There's nothing that she can do!"

"Let's go!" the black-haired Trainer suggested. If there was nothing that Joy could do, then it was up to them. Joy gasped and turned around, and the pair turned back to look at her and Ash gave her a reassuring smirk. "We'll be back when the power's back on."

"Good luck, everybody..." she mumbled, barely audible to him as they left the room and soon enough, the Pokémon Center.

o 0 o

Their first idea was to head to the police station. If they could find out the cause of the city-wide power outage, then they could head there. But it seemed that even Officer Jenny didn't know the answer to it. "I'm trying to find out," she told the pair with her cell phone glued to the side of her head. "But there's no answer at the power plant."

"We don't have much time," Ash urged, and Brock interjected.

"Where is the power plant?"

"You can't miss it," Jenny told them, and pointed to her left. "It's the big building with the smokestacks there."

"All right; let's go!" Ash declared. He didn't want to waste any time heading to the power plant. All he could see in his head was the Sandshrew in the incubation chamber, panting and barely holding onto life. He needed to get there for not only it, but for the countless other Pokémon that were in there.

The smokestack that Officer Jenny pointed out was striped red and white like a giant candy cane and stuck out in the night like a beacon. But that only made it easy to navigate to, and close to a half an hour went by before they finally got to the gated entrance. "There's the power plant," Ash murmured as they approached. With no power, the electrical gate had to be opened manually, and they crossed the front yard to enter the actual building through the front door.

Even the hallway inside was pitch-black, and they could only see just a few feet in front of them thanks to the glowing 'EXIT' sign hanging over the entrance. "Hello! Is anybody in here?" Ash called, and his voice echoed down the empty hallways stretching out in front of them and on their left and right. There wasn't even anyone posted at the front counter, and his calls were only answered with silence. "If no one's here, we might as well look around, huh?" They left the door open behind them so the minimal light from outside could help them look at the map posted at the front hallway. It was limited, but some light is better than none.

"Something's really weird," Brock commented with a frown. "Why isn't anybody working here?" The pair looked at the map and saw that the central control room was down the main hallway, so leaving behind the security of the front desk and the light coming in from inside, they ventured into the darkness.

Luckily, as they got further down, the cold metal hallways were dotted with red emergency lights. Unfortunately, this was the only thing keeping them company as they traveled in silence. Even the sound of them breathing seemed loud, and the chill sent a shiver up Ash's spine as he tried to chase away the thoughts of whatever could be watching them from the darkness and they would have no idea. Logically, Ash knew this place was abandoned, but fear had a way playing with your head. Not even Brock dared to say anything, and the Pallet Town Trainer wondered what could be going through his friend's head as well.

He was soon given the answer when Brock spoke up after giving a sharp intake of breath. "Do you smell that?"

"I do..." Ash replied instantly. It seemed almost as if the smell had hit them both at once, and while they had grown accustomed to the constant smell of pollution that seemed to linger in the air of Gringey City, this smell seemed to be a different kind of dirty, almost like a backed up sewage system. It was enough to wrinkle Ash's nose in disgust. Before anything else could be said, a clattering of metal against the floor behind them made both boys jump out of their skin, and they whipped around to see a grate from the ventilation system up top had dropped from the ceiling. They turned just in time to see what looked like globs of purple sludge dropping from the opening, but as quickly as they dropped, they rose and formed into creatures with eyes and mouths.

"Grimer! Grimer!" the creatures shrieked, and the disgusting smell intensified instantly, forcing them to slap their hands over their noses and mouths.

"It's those things!" Brock said with his voice muffled, realizing the smell was coming from them as they continued to drop down one after the other.

"What are they?" Ash questioned, retrieving his Pokédex and scanning the one in front.

"Grimer, a Sludge Pokémon. Born from sludge, these Pokémon specialize in sludge attacks."

"Do you think it's these things that caused the blackout?" Brock questioned as Dexter finished its Pokédex entry.

"Is this what sludge smells like?" Ash gagged, taking a step back and attempting to only breathe through his mouth, but even then, the smell was so intense that he could almost taste it. "It really stinks!"

"Grimer!" the Poison Pokémon yelled, and inched forward at Ash's words, and the pair slinked back out of reflex.

"Ash, don't say anything that might insult their Pokémon pride, or make them mad," Brock warned quietly.

"I'm sorry!" Ash apologized with a nervous smile, putting his hands together in front of him. "You have such a unique scent. I should have known it was the aroma of sludge!" Just then, a larger glob of sludge dropped from the ventilation system, larger than the smaller piles that had been dropping down, and when this one rose up and gained a form, it looked similar to the Grimer, but was definitely different.

"Muuuuuuukk..." it grumbled as it raised its hands in the air with intimidation.

"Oh! It's huge!" Ash exclaimed, his eyes bulging out of his sockets as he scanned the new Pokémon with the Pokédex that was still in his hands.

"Muk, Grimer's evolved form. Use extreme caution as its slimy form contains poison."

"Uh..."

"That's not good news..." Brock muttered. The smell was intensely more horrible with Muk around, but both of them feared saying it and instead stared at the Sludge Pokémon to see its next move. It was clearly the leader of the group.

Their hopes of mercy were dashed when Muk pointed forward and let out a groan, and Grimer in front of it charged forward. Raising their hands in fright, Ash and Brock screams echoed down the hallway as they turned tail and beat feet down the hallway. They could hear the Grimer slithering close behind, but their legs were longer so they were able to create some distance between them.

When Ash turned the corner of the hallway, he collided with something that threw him to the ground, and he also heard a grunt of both pain and surprise as something plastic clattered to the floor. Brock skidded to a stop as a light cut through the darkness, and a pair of young men wearing uniforms were in front of them, one of them holding a flashlight while the other was on the floor with Ash, who had collided into him. "What are you doing here?" the young man holding the flashlight asked the pair.

"I'm Brock, this is Ash, and, uh, we're trying to help fix the-" Brock began with a hand politely on his chest, but soon, the Grimer came around the corner, and the light from the flashlight danced from Brock to them, and the two power plant workers jumped into the air and let out a loud yell.

"The Grimer are here, too!" the one with darker hair exclaimed, and ran the other way that they had originally been going.

"Back to the control room!"

"H-hey, wait for us!" Ash called after them, and he quickly picked himself up as him and Brock hurried after the two, not wanting to lose them. The flashlight that had been knocked out of the man's hand that Ash ran into had long been forgotten, and the Pokémon Trainers followed the pair into the control room before Brock quickly slammed the door behind him as they piled into the room and threw his body against it to barricade it.

"Tell us what's going on! This blackout is a disaster for the city!" Ash demanded as he looked at the pair of workers, who were hunched over a chair and breathing with both relief and exhaustion. "Lots of Pokémon are gonna die at the Pokémon Center if the power doesn't come back soon!" The men exchanged saddened looks, but didn't say anything in response. "They need that power!"

"But... we can't," one of the workers finally said. "There are so many Grimer that they're clogging the sea water intake."

"We've got to bring the water to a boil, so it will turn the turbines or the generator won't work at all," the brown-haired man that Ash had run into continued.

"So do something!"

"I'm afraid that's easy to say. We've been trying to do-"

"Ash!" Brock interrupted, and a loud bash grabbed their attention and all eyes turned to Brock, who was clearly struggling keeping his footing. "The Grimer are... ramming the door! I can't hold it!" The ramming started to get faster as the Poison Pokémon on the other side were starting to lose patience, and Ash hurried over and pushed at the doorknob in an attempt to help Brock keep it shut, but they could feel the metal door buckling under the pressure.

"What can we do?!" Ash exclaimed, but suddenly, the door swung open, throwing the two boys onto the floor as the herd of Grimer came flooding inside. They quickly scrambled to their feet and pressed their back against the complicated computers towards the back end of the room with the pair of workers, and they all looked at the sea of Grimer all staring up at them and steadily getting closer.

"You two are Pokémon Trainers, aren't you?" the dark-haired power plant worker questioned as he peeled his eyes away from the Poison Pokémon and looked at Ash and Brock. "You've got to use your Pokémon to help us out!"

"That's right!" his co-worker agreed. "If you can get rid of the Grimer the generator will work!" Brock and Ash exchanged nervous glances though – they had left all of their Pokémon at the Pokémon Center with Nurse Joy, except for Wartortle who Ash had forgotten to hand over to Joy in his annoyance at her nonchalant attitude.

"What do you expect us to do?" Ash said back, and held out a Poké Ball. "All we have on us is my Wartortle. It won't be able to take on all of those Grimer at once!" But as they slowly inched their way towards the group of four, Ash bit his lip and knew he had no choice. Rearing his arm back, he threw the red and white Poké Ball forward. "Wartortle, I choose you!" The flash of light from the ball illuminated the dark room for just a moment, and Wartortle appeared. Though it looked at the mass of Pokémon in front of it, it looked on with nervous determination.

"Wartor..."

"Wartortle, you're the only one who can help," Ash told it.

"Wartor!" The Water-type stepped forward, trying to make itself seem bigger to intimidate the Grimer, but they didn't back down in the slightest.

"You... you're our last chance." Swallowing his fear, his lips peeled back from his teeth. "Give 'em your BubbleBeam!"

"Tor... TLE!" Drawing in a deep breath, Wartortle sent out a jet of bubbles from its mouth out at the Grimer directly in front of it. The blast knocked Grimer backward and it slumped to the ground, but this seemed to only make its teammates even more angry and they surrounded and stepped over the defeated Pokémon.

"It's no good! There are too many of 'em!" As the last of the Grimer herd came in, a huge dark shadow loomed at the tail end, and a low growl sounded as the Muk that led the pack had crawled its way inside as well. Ash and Brock looked on helplessly, and stepped backwards into the control panel, but they were backed against a wall – there was nothing they could do.

Just then, another grate fell open from the ceiling, and Ash – remembering that this was how the herd of Grimer traveled – feared the worst, and his eyes widened and heart skipped a beat as he looked up above them. However, instead of more Grimer coming out of the newly-made hole in the ceiling, a herd of two new Pokémon came floating out. The first one was smaller, and metallic-looking, and only had one eye on its floating body while two magnets stuck out on either side of it. The next Pokémon that floated out looked exactly like the first one, but was made up of three of them stuck together. The herd of floating Pokémon made robotic sounds as they floated down and hovered near Wartortle and in front of Ash, Brock, and the pair of workers like a barrier.

"What are they?" the Pokémon Trainer questioned.

"Magnemite and their evolved form, Magneton!" Brock answered with a smile of relief crossing his face.

"We've seen them once in a while feeding off the electricity the power plant produces," the dark-haired worker explained, his eyes darting to each of the Pokémon in front of him. "But I had no idea there were this many of them!"

A yellow glow slowly rose around each of their metallic bodies, and soon, sparks danced across them. In a blinding flash of light, the Magnemite and Magneton soon fired a powerful ThunderShock at the horde of Grimer. This time, there was enough of the Electric-type Pokémon to be able to hit them all, and each one of the Poison Pokémon let out cries of pain as the electricity coursed through their bodies. The attack stopped after some time, and with actual opposition, the Grimer quickly turned and hurried out of the room even more quickly than when they had come in, and the Magnemite and Magneton followed after them to chase them out, occasionally lighting up the room and the hallway as they fired ThunderShocks out at the intruders to get them out.

A few moments passed by, and suddenly, the lights began to flicker on, and as did the computer screens behind them. Though their eyes flinched at the sudden light, it was a welcomed sight nevertheless. "Yeah!" Brock cheered, his eyes to the ceiling with a big smile on his face.

"The lights are on!" Ash added.

"The turbine's moving again!" the brown-haired worker reported as his fingers flew across the keys with the computer booted back on.

"The Grimer have all cleared away from the sea water intake valve!"

"Yes!" Ash cheered, but his celebration was short-lived, as a growl stopped them in their tracks. Dark eyes looked up to see a Muk standing in the doorway with its arms outstretched, glaring at them with angry, beady eyes.

"Muuuuk!"

"It must be that adult Muk's child!" Ash deduced, as it was smaller than the first Muk that was leading the pack. Eyebrows drawing together, Ash looked down at the Pokémon at his feet. "Wartortle! Water Gun!"

"Wartor... TLE!" Wartortle cried, sending a blast of water from the back of its throat out at Muk. The Pokémon grimaced as the attack hit it, but it was resilient and attempted to break through it.

"Oh man, that's some pretty strong sludge..." Ash commented, but before he could call for Wartortle to stop, a lone Magnemite floated in front of him and its body began to glow in a yellow outline before firing a ThunderShock at Muk.

"Magnemite...!" it cried electronically.

The water spouting out of Wartortle intensified the Electric-type attack, and though Muk cried out in pain, the pair did not give up, and continued their combined attack. Finally, the Poison Pokémon slumped down in defeat, and it was then that the attacks faded.

Seeing his opportunity, Ash twisted back his cap and whipped out an empty Poké Ball from his pocket. "All right! Poké Ball, go!" Throwing it at Muk with all his might, the ball left his finger tips and slapped against the Muk's squishy body before converting it into red energy and drawing it inside. The ball closed itself and bounced against the floor, and all eyes were locked on it as it rocked back and forth with a flashing red button as the Pokémon inside struggled. The silence could have been cut with a knife, but before long, the Poké Ball stopped shaking and clicked shut with a ping.

A smile spread across his face as he approached the ball, and he held it up proudly with a smirk. "I did it!" Ash cried. "I captured a Muk! Ash Ketchum saves the day once again!" But when no one else congratulated him, his arm slumped and he looked back at the three older males, only to see they were slumped back against the computer and plugging their noses. "What's wrong?" Seeing this, he took in a deep breath, and immediately regretted it. Pushing his cap back forward, he threw his fingers over his nose and let out a moan. "The smell comes through the Poké Ball..." The others laughed at his misfortune.

Just then, the black outline of his Muk's Poké Ball began to glow red, and having never seen this before, Ash gave the red and white orb a confused look. Moments later, the glow turned white, and sparks flickered around the ball as if it were malfunctioning. This wasn't the case, however, as the whole ball began to glow white, and a blinding light followed suit before it disappeared from his grip. "What happened?!" Ash exclaimed, waving his hand in the air and blinking in disbelief. "Where'd my new Muk go?" His head turned this way and that, looking for it, and even looked under his shoe as if he could have accidentally stepped on it. Without sight of the Poké Ball, he let out a yell and began to panic. "I don't see it anywhere! Where'd it go?!"

"You must have six Pokémon with you, right?" one of the workers piped up, and Ash glanced back at him.

"Trainers can only have six Pokémon, and the rest are transported," his co-worker finished.

"Yeah, but you can switch one Pokémon for another by pressing the white button inside your Pokédex," Brock added with a finger high in the air. Ash gave them a confused look, and took out the hi-tech encyclopedia. He opened up the case, and saw a single white button on the inside of the cover.

"You mean this button?"

"Right. It sends a signal to activate the system that makes the exchange," the Pokémon Breeder explained.

"But I don't want to exchange my Pokémon – I just want to know where my Muk went."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," the dark-haired power plant worker interjected with a smile. "Your Muk got transported to a place for safe keeping."

"Where's it get transported to?"

"Your Pokémon gets transported to wherever you got your Pokédex from," Brock answered.

"Then that means that Muk must be with..." And Ash's head was filled with the image of the Pokémon Professor that had given Ash his Pokédex and starter Pokémon at the beginning of his journey. "It's with Professor Oak."

"That's right; Muk just got transported automatically to Professor Oak's Pokémon laboratory, so don't worry about it."

"So Muk's with Professor Oak, huh?" Ash muttered in thought, and rubbed his thumb against his chin. A nervous chuckle escaped the boy – Professor Oak wasn't going to be very happy with the smell coming from the Poké Ball. "Well, we sure do owe a big thank you to Magnemite here, don't we?" Magnemite gave a metallic shriek as a response and floated downward beside Wartortle, who gave the Electric-type a wave and a toothy grin.

"We learned to live with the Magnemite and Magneton cropping up every once in a while, but we'll be sure to give them a warm welcome every time we see them," one of the pair of workers agreed with a smile.

o 0 o

Back at the Pokémon Center, the lights and machines were back on, and all of the Pokémon were safe and sound once again. Nurse Joy was especially appreciative, and gave their Pokémon the best attention she could give them, while also allowing them to eat as much as they wanted for free. The two Pokémon Trainers humbly accepted, and devoured as much food as they could fit in their stomachs.

The next morning, as they gathered their things to depart, not only had Nurse Joy let out all of the Pokémon that had made a full recovery in the incubation chambers thanks to them to say good-bye to the pair, but Officer Jenny was also there to see them off as well.

"If all those Grimer proved anything, it's that we need to work harder on cleaning up the city," Officer Jenny told the pair. "We'll do everything we can to make sure that the ocean is really clean again."

"If you clean up the air, and the water, you may just bring this place back to life," Brock assured them with a smile as his eyes looked to the skies.

"Thanks, Ash," Nurse Joy said, stepping forward and smiling down at the younger boy. "You worked so hard to make sure all these Pokémon survived. You've inspired me to become a better nurse."

"We salute your fine work!" Jenny added, straightening her hand over her cap in a salute.

"Oh please, ladies! That's very nice of you!" Ash replied humbly, waving his hands dismissively in front of him. "Anyway, try to make your city clean."

"We will," Nurse Joy agreed. "And please come back and visit us. Bye!" The simultaneous cries of the various Pokémon behind her followed her words, and it brought warmth to Ash's heart as the two turned on their heels, and with big smiles and bigger hopes, they waved to the group outside of the Pokémon Center as they departed.

-end-

Ash:

Party:

Wartortle (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Dig, Water Gun, BubbleBeam

Pidgeotto (Poké Ball)

Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack

Bulbasaur (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf

Charmander (Poké Ball)

Moves: Flamethrower, Leer, Rage, Skull Bash

Krabby (Poké Ball)

Moves: ViceGrip

Mankey (Poké Ball)

Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick, Scratch

At Professor Oak's Lab:

Muk (Poké Ball)

Moves:

Badges:

Boulder Badge

Cascade Badge

Thunder Badge

Marsh Badge

Rainbow Badge

Brock:

Party:

Onix (Poké Ball)

Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig

Geodude (Poké Ball)

Moves: Seismic Toss, Tackle

Zubat (Poké Ball)

Moves: Whirlwind, Supersonic

Psyduck (Poké Ball)

Moves:

Vulpix (Poké Ball)

Moves: Fire Spin