A/N: I know this chapter is a bit shorter, but it mostly came about with my beta reader telling me that if I didn't want to be episodic, I had to condense down. So here is the key stuff you will need but I didn't want to delay just to lengthen out the chapter.
Charlie was on a high after finishing his task as the chosen one, for the Shamouti Island festival. Leaving brought with it a sense of purpose Skye had been a bit more distant though since he was picked. August had advised him to let her cool off, but he couldn't stand having the redhead not talking to him so he approached her while they were taken to Murcott Island. "Hey Skye." Charlie said.
"Oh, hey Charlie." Skye said as she looked at him before putting her eyes back to the ocean.
Coming beside her he looked out at the water before saying, "I missed having you with me on each of the islands."
Skye didn't say anything but kept her focus on the water, "I think I am too used to having you around on my adventures." Charlie said. When Skye didn't say anything he remembered something his father told him, and decided to try it, "I am sorry."
"Huh?" Skye said, focusing her attention on Charlie.
"I don't know what I did, but whatever it is I am sorry." Charlie said no sarcasm in his words.
Shaking her head Skye said, "You didn't do anything, not really, just…"
"A lot of information these past few weeks?" Charlie clarified.
"Well yes, and no." Skye said. "I think I am just already tired of hearing stories that indicate my mom liked Ash."
With a tone of confusion Charlie asked, "It's not helpful?"
"I think with everything we know about him, it's not leading us to finding him." Skye said. Taking a breath she said, "The only person who even kind of has something we need is Domino, everyone else just has stories about him and my mom."
Scrunching his face Charlie said, "Show your work, why is Domino what you are thinking about?"
"She was asking about a Pokemon that, as far as we know, only Ash has worked with." Skye said, "But, why go after Lawrence, why not my mom, or uncle Tracey?"
August stepped into the boat's quarters saying, "Because they are not confident they can reach your mom or Tracey, or they don't know they were there. But, I am glad to see you two are talking again." Smirking, he sat down to listen and meditate.
"Well did you find out anything from Carol?" Charlie asked August.
"You mean, did she offer anything Melody wouldn't or couldn't tell us?" August replied, "I didn't ask, I was caught up a bit in their traditions, trying to find common ground."
"Well, Melody didn't offer up much for me." Skye said, "All she did was further drive home the point that my mom liked Ash, at least when they were kids."
Finally telling August and Charlie what Melody revealed. The boys took it to heart that maybe they were going about this search all wrong. Charlie began to realize revealing what he heard without something concrete would just risk strain for Skye. Hopefully, it would be sooner rather than later. Arriving on Murcott proved a bit interesting. However, Skye quickly proved she wasn't afraid of bug Pokemon like her mother. She never had caught one before, she had only seen her Uncle Tracey's Scyther which he caught on Murcott. Skye was determined to catch one here.
August recommended trying to track Scyther as they were very hard to find. Going through the forest they found plenty of Caterpie, and Weedle. Thankfully no Beedrills.
Charlie asked, "How exactly did your uncle Tracey catch his Scyther?"
"To be honest I don't really know." Skye responded both August and Charlie flinched hearing that.
"You never bothered to ask?" August asked, looking around a bit more rapidly.
Then all of them heard the sound of buzzing. Looking around they expected to find Beedrill everywhere but as they drew closer they found it. A battle between two Scythers, each one going to different attacks of slash and quick attack by the looks of it. Although one appeared older with an x scar on its face, the younger looking one was having a hard time landing any attacks. Skye decided to act by throwing her Pokeball, releasing Milotic it emerged and she commanded it to use Hydro Pump to move all the other Scythers away from the younger one.
"What are you doing Skye?" Charlie exclaimed in awe.
"Saving this one, and proving to it I can make it stronger." Skye said.
The Scyther getting up looked at Skye and Milotic, a gleam in its eye before in anger it attacked.
"Milotic use aqua tail!" Skye said. Milotic attempted only for Scyther's speed to avoid it and lay a slash against Milotic. Awed by its speed, Skye waited until the Scyther attacked again, this time trying to use quick attack, till the last second Skye said, "NOW MILOTIC!" At point blank range hydro pump hit Scyther squarely pushing it back and landing squarely on the ground. Skye then threw a PokeBall that hit the Scyther as it disappeared in the ball. All three held their breath as the ball shook with the light still red, till finally the red light went away. Skye went and picked up the ball. Smirking slightly, while Charlie and August looked a little impressed at Skye.
"Let's get to the Pokemon Center." Skye said, looking at the boys.
Getting to the Pokemon Center, Skye handed over the Pokeballs for Milotic and Scyther. Nurse Joy was very happy to take them and see about healing them. While waiting for them to be healed Skye head to the phone to call her mom.
"Hi Mom." Skye said, waving through the screen.
"Hey Skye, I am assuming you are on a new Island." Misty said.
"Yeah we just got to Murcott Island." Skye said, at that Misty's face flinched like the name was haunted. "Is something wrong mom?"
"No, dear, just don't particularly enjoy islands with a bunch of bug Pokemon." Misty said as her sweat dropped.
"By the way, are you at Indigo or at home in Cerulean?" Skye asked.
"I am actually back in Cerulean, something weird happened at the Gym." Misty said.
"Hmm." Skye responded.
"It looked like someone tried to break in, but got caught before they could do much damage." Misty said.
"Is it just you or is Lance with you as well?" Skye clarified.
"Lance is here too…actually he is coming back. I got to go hun, stay safe." With that Misty hung up the call.
"What exactly did you find Lance?" Misty asked as he brought a tablet looking device showing the security cameras.
"I found this odd." Lance said playing the video. Just as you could see something about to come into focus, "There it looks like a Pokemon did an electrical attack." Then the screen turned to static. "Clearly the attack destroyed the camera, the electric attack also completely wrecked the audio, so we don't even know for sure who tried to break in." Lance finished.
Misty kind of nodded at his statements then said, "Just give me a minute I will try and see if I can find anything near that location, thanks for helping out Lance."
Walking slowly towards the area the camera was located. Misty leaned against the wall, it couldn't be him, if it was why didn't he stay and let me know he was ok at least. Getting to the area the only thing clear was that a scuffle did happen, but there was no hair or markings. Some evidence of an electric Pokemon attack. Definitely nothing that could identify the specific Pokemon it was. Could just as easily be a Magneton or a Voltorb. Sighing Misty kept looking for any sign then found it just behind a bush near the gym's back wall, a black tulip. Realizing she needed to tell Lance, so that he knew someone very skilled was involved.
Unbeknownst to Misty, a man in a long navy blue duster, with a black top, black pants, and black boots, long messy black hair and a scruffy beard was watching her. When he felt she was safely out of danger he left.
Meanwhile Skye was chatting with August about what her mom had told her. "It is definitely odd that your mom hung up like that." August said while they were waiting in the room for Charlie to bring back some food.
"Let me put it this way- Lance doesn't usually help investigate unless he is pretty sure it requires his attention." Skye said.
Coming into the room carrying a bag of food Charlie said, "Nurse Joy said these burgers are pretty good."
The trio began to dig into their food and they caught Charlie up on what Misty had told Skye. As they were finishing Nurse Joy brought Skye back her PokeBalls. Heading outside she threw Scyther's pokeball releasing it to see how it looked. As much as it looked healthier, when it layed eyes on Skye its face scrunched like it was angrier now then when it was fighting Milotic. When it looked like it was about to charge Skye she quickly returned it to its Pokeball.
"I don't think I've seen a Pokemon that upset after being captured." August said.
"Didn't your Uncle Tracey catch his own Scyther on this Island?" Charlie asked.
At that Skye perked up and walked towards the phones at the Pokemon Center. She paced as the phone rang, anxiously waiting forTracey to answer until finally, "Hi Skye, is everything ok?" Tracey asked.
"Not really, no." Skye said.
"Skye you don't have to worry, everyone here is fine–"
"Actually it's with a Scyther I just caught here on Murcott." Skye interrupted.
"Hmm." Tracey said, "What seems to be the problem?"
"Well I just caught it, and after it was healed by Nurse Joy, I tried to see how it looked and it looked at me like…"Skye hesitated, "Like it was angry and ready to charge me."
Looking up before responding Tracey said, "I'll bet it's because Scyther's sense of pride has been damaged."
"Huh?" Skye said.
Tracey chuckled to himself slightly remembering a similar conversation Professor Oak had with him years ago before saying, "Was the Scyther you caught older and alone?"
"Um…no if anything it was fighting an older looking Scyther when we found it." Skye said.
Tracey's eyes widened at that, "Well…in that case it probably is thinking you interfered with it trying to take a leadership position of its swarm."
"So I should let it battle that older Scyther?" Skye asked.
"Heavens no, a fight like that could be incredibly dangerous, sometimes deadly." Tracey said. "You will just have to prove to Scyther that you respect it."
"Any tips on how to do that?" Skye asked.
"It will depend on Scyther, just be ready for some growing pains together." Tracey said.
Skye was a bit frustrated internally, but smiled and said, "Thanks Uncle Tracey. Stay safe." Turning towards August and Charlie she asked, "Any tips in particular from you two?"
Both just shook their heads. "Well either way let's get some rest and try to figure out where we are heading next." Without noticing the boys looked outside and saw that the sun was already setting. Deciding to head north towards the Grapefruit Islands in hopes of seeing where Misty and her friends stopped a Snorlax from destroying the grapefruits. They met Ruby who regaled them of this adventure along with showing them the new trees that had grown from the Snorlax incident. Ruby also said Ash had captured the Snorlax that had figured out how to swim to each Island. Something that even today had not been recorded by another Snorlax. August was very intrigued about how the Snorlax caused new seedlings to spread especially when according to Ruby it made each Island look almost barren. Charlie just chalked up Snorlax as another reason Ash was one of the coolest trainers ever. What surprised Charlie was that Ruby was really the first person they had met, who saw Ash and Misty and didn't say there was something between them. Deciding to help them harvest the Grapefruit, Skye had brought out her Scyther in hopes of making it easy, but when it started hacking at the branches and a few trees she recalled it. Embarrassed by its actions Skye helped Ruby with pruning the trees correctly by hand. Despite the fiasco with Scyther, they were rewarded with candied grapefruit peels for helping out.
While staying on the Grapefruit Islands, they heard about this dance master who used it to make his Pokemon stronger on Trovita. Charlie desperately wanted to see if dancing could help him improve his Pokemon's abilities. Upon meeting Rudy, he double taked seeing Skye, before he could ask her, she immediately said, "I am Misty's daughter, my name is Skye." Rudy welcomed them and was surprised none of them wanted to challenge the Orange crew. Charlie and Skye shared how they mostly came to the Orange Islands to train before figuring out which regional tournament to try next. After attempting to train Scyther with some of the dance moves and he almost took out a chunk of August's hair it was recalled. Skye was frustrated again but had no idea why Scyther still wouldn't respect her, Rudy advised that it wasn't if Scyther respected her, it was her respecting Scyther. Charlie's Larvitar really enjoyed the dancing and even Charlie was trying to get into it. August really was shocked at how poor of a dancer Charlie was, even having some of the worst footwork he had seen. Skye decided to pull Charlie aside and told Rudy to do something slower so that they could work on Charlie's footwork. Before Charlie even knew what was happening one hand was on Skye's hip, the other was outstretched holding her hand.
Skye started leading him in the dance to a slower song directing Charlie, "Notice how my feet are not moving at the lyric, but at the beat of the song, in this case its 1,2,3."
August and Rudy just looked at this exchange shaking their heads seeing that it still looked like Charlie thought Skye was speaking a weird language. As the song slowly picked up pace, Charlie began to move faster with the beat following Skye's steps. Just as Rudy was about to switch the song into a more dance club feeling, Skye pushed Charlie back and said, "Maybe now you won't trip on yourself again." She said with a smirk and wink. When Charlie grew too tired he headed up to bed, while August, Rudy, and Skye had a little chat. Rudy though he asked how Misty was doing, he was happy that she was an elite 4 member. Instead of telling her a story he felt about Ash and Misty's relationship. Rudy instead asked, "Was your mother in touch with Ash when he went missing?"
"No, or at least, she didn't say." Skye said now realizing her mom hadn't said it one way or the other.
"It's a shame, your mom, when I called her after I heard, was in tears, she looked like she hadn't slept in days." Rudy seemed to not be looking at either August or Skye when he said, "I called in all favors, hoping to find any trace of him when he disappeared, no one had a clue, not even of the last place he was."
August chose to ask since Skye seemed to be just listening as they sat down under the stars, "I thought the last place he had been was in Galar?"
"Yes, there was evidence he left Galar. He just didn't tell anyone where he was going to, his phone last gave a signal somewhere over the water from Galar." Rudy shaking his head, "I even tried diving with Lance hoping we could find a remnant of his Charizard in the area his phone lost signal." Both waited for Rudy to continue saying, "We found nothing, it was like he really had just disappeared."
"Well for what it's worth, you and others did all you could." August said, "Thank you for the lessons, maybe as Skye said he will stop tripping over himself." At that all three laughed knowing Charlie wasn't there to defend himself.
Leaving for another Island before hoping to return to Kanto, the trio came upon a couple Mako and Kasumi. They wondered why they looked like they couldn't move, they said they had fallen into a Vileplum who stun spored them. Charlie and Skye took care of them while August went to look for Salveyo weed. While he was searching for the lake, he found a Poliwag that was carrying some and asked for it to show him where it was. After being shown by Poliwag where it was, it helped August carry it back for Mako and Kasumi. The trio brewed the tea to help them end the effects of stun spore. The couple gladly appreciated their help, and wished them on their way and hoped their journey was safe. Poliwag in its short time grew attached to August and didn't want to leave his side, leading to August now having a Poliwag.