Episode 16: The Social Net

Having just docked after an exhilarating adventure at sea, today we find our heroes just entering the grand metropolis that is Kanaveral City, the largest city in the Tenno Region.

Ash, Brock, and Brenda walk down a street of Kanaveral City. On either side of them, and stretching for as long as can be seen are towering skyscrapers. Most of the crowds of people they walk past are using some sort of device that appears to be a holographic screen projected from a small piece of technology. Brenda looks around in awe and says excitedly, "Wow! This is all so amazing! I've always dreamed of coming here, to the big city, but I never imagined it being this spectacular."

Brock remembers, "Oh yeah, you've never been off of Tenno Minor before, and there're next to no major cities there, right?"

Brenda nods. She looks around more. "I wonder what I should do first…"
She notices a nearby mall. "That's it, let's go shopping!" She begins to run towards the mall.

At the same time, Brock notices a group of three girls walking by. He declares in a dream-like voice, "I know what I'm doing!" and begins to prance towards the girls.

Ash grabs both Brock and Brenda by their backpacks and pulls them back. "In case you guys forgot, we're here for my gym battle."

Brenda nods, "Right, sorry. Gym battle first, shopping later."

Brock shouts with disappointment, "Goodbye ladies!"

Ash looks around. "Where do you think the gym is?"

Brock, back to being serious, pulls out a Kanaveral guidebook. "Hmm…we shouldn't be too far from it. Follow me." They walk off.

The group turns around a corner. Brock looks puzzled. "Huh, I don't get it. The gym should be right here."

Brenda moans, "That's what you've been saying for the past hour."

Ash adds, "Come on Brock, what's the matter?"

Brock shrugs. "I really don't know. This city has a very complex system to it, and I've never been in a city so big before."

Brenda suggests, "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we just ask someone? They're sure to know where the gym is in their own home city."

Ash looks around and taps the first person he sees on the back. Its man wearing a business suit. He is staring down at one of the holographic devices, which he seems to be reading off of and controlling via touch. Ash asks, "Excuse me sir, we're looking for the Kanaveral Gym, could you help us out?"

The man doesn't respond right away. After a moment he looks up and stumbles, "Oh…um…sorry about that. I was pretty engaged in what I was doing. What did you ask?"

"We're trying to get to the Kanaveral Gym. Would you happen to know where it is?"

The man happily responds, "Why don't we ask the Pokéssistant?"

Brock and Brenda walk over and the man starts to tap the holographic display of his device. Brock asks, "What's a Pokéssistant?"

The man looks at him with surprise, Brenda does as well. Brenda asks, "How could you not have heard of the Pokéssistant? It's the newest trend across the Tenno Region! I always wanted one, but Mom said they were too expensive."

Ash states, "Well I've never heard of them either."

The man explains, "The Pokéssistant is a marvel of modern technology. It can connect to a global network from anywhere in the world, allowing for all kinds of stuff, like information searches, or e-mail. You can download tons of different applications onto it that serve a wide verity of functions, such as tools or games. You can even make phone calls with it, and all in the palm of your hand. It's wondrous!" He shows the holographic screen to Ash and Brock. "See, it's found a map from here to the Kanaveral Gym." He looks at the map. "It's not far either, why don't I lead you there?"

Ash nods. "That would be great, thanks."

The man leads them right to the gym. It's a large building, quite possibly one of the largest gym buildings there is. Visible just beyond it is the Cape Space Center, including a rocket sitting on the launch pad. The man says, "Alright, here we are."

Ash says, "Thank sir, you were a big help."

"It was no problem at all." He waves and walks away, and turns back to his Pokéssistant.

Ash approaches the gym. He looks at Pikachu. "Are you ready for our second Tenno gym battle Pikachu?"

"Pik!"

"Alright, let's do this!" Ash runs the rest of the way, however he bumps into the automatic doors when they don't open. He quickly gets back up. "Hey, what gives?"

Brock points out a notice attached to the door. He says, "Hey, look at this. It says: A notice to all challengers: due to the rocket launch in the coming months, the Kanaveral City Gym will be closed until further notice. We apologize for any inconveniences, and please come back after the launch. For further updates, follow us on your Pokéssistant's newsfeed."

Ash is annoyed. "Why do they have to close the gym for some dumb old rocket ship?"

Brock, looking back in his guidebook, answers, "According to this, the Gym Leader here also serves as the director of the Cape Space Center. He's in charge of all the major rocket launches."

Brenda adds, "And the coming rocket launch has been all over the news lately, it will be the first major rocket with human passengers since the Moon trips decades ago. It's a pretty big deal. I can see why the Gym Leader would want to close the gym."

Ash sighs. "So what are we going to do now then?"

Who's that Pokémon!?

When this legendary Pokémon's wings and tail feathers spread wide and glow red, it absorbs the life force of living creatures.

The answer to Ash's question is apparently to go to the mall. He is begrudgingly sitting at a table in a food court. Brock sits across from him, but is only paying attention to all of the girls passing him. Ash complains, "I can't believe the gym is closed and I'm stuck here at a mall."

Brenda walks by, carrying a large tower of boxes and bags, and says, "Come on Ash, you could at least pretend to be enjoying yourself."

Brock, only half paying attention due to a passing girl says with a dazed voice, "Yeah Ash, there's so much to do here…"

A boy walks by. He, like many others here, is also absorbed in his Pokéssistant. He looks up for just long enough to notice Ash. He stops and asks, "Hey I saw your Pikachu, are you a trainer?"

Ash perks up. "You bet I am."

The boy nods. "Cool, how about a battle?"

Ash stands up. Yeah, let's do it!" He pulls a Pokéball off his belt.

The boy looks at Ash with confusion. "No, I didn't mean that type of battle." He beckons to his Pokéssistant. "I meant on these."

Ash is confused. "How do you plan to battle with that?"

The boy looks at Ash as if he is crazy. "How have you never heard of the Battle Simulator?"

"Battle what?"

The boy groans. "Come on, no one battles for real any more, it's so much more convenient to use the Battle Simulator App on your Pokéssistant. Here, look." The boy presses a Pokéball shaped icon on his display. The app starts up, showing a screen with two Pokémon, a Gengar on one side, and a Nidorino on the other. Both are static images with a status display of HP next to them. "See, it's just like a real battle."

Ash thinks otherwise. "If you say so…"

A menu listing four options pops up. "You see, you just tap the move you want your Pokémon to use, and it will." After an option is selected, the two Pokémon proceed to launch poorly animated attacks in a turn-based system. As each Pokémon is hit, the HP bar lowers. "A perfect representation of a Pokémon battle."

Ash seems unconvinced. He asks, "Why would do that, when you can go outside and have a real Pokémon battle? It seems far from perfect to me."

The boy laughs. "Whatever." He walks off.

Ash sits back down and asks, "What was up with that?"

Brock, too distracted to care, comments off-handedly, "I don't know…"

Ash sighs and looks to Pikachu for support. "You don't think that looked anything like real battling, do you?"

Pikachu shakes his head. "Pika."

Brenda comes running over to the table. She exclaims, "Hey guys, guess what!"

Neither Ash nor Brock are in the mood to answer, but both for completely different reasons.

Brenda stares at them for a few moments, expecting a response. When she doesn't get one, she goes on anyways, "I was just shopping in that store over there, and I overheard that there's a tour going on soon of the HQ of the company that makes the Pokéssistants. I say we should go check it out."

Ash mumbles, "I'm not really in the mood for that."

Brock, apparently not even listening, says to himself, "If only there was a way I could get her attention…"

As if on cue, Meteorfight appears and delivers an uppercut to Brock. He flies up into the air and then lands on the floor with a thud. "Meteorfight."

Everyone in the vicinity, which happens to be mostly girls, looks over. Brock moans, "That's not what I meant…"

Brenda sighs. "That settles it, we're going."

It's Yveltal!

Brenda leads Ash and Brock back through the streets of Kanaveral. She states, "Alright, we shouldn't be too far now." A little ahead of them, they notice a large crowd of people.

Ash states, "I wonder what's going on up there."

Brenda suggests, "Let's check it out."

They squeeze their way into the crowd. They find a group of three salespeople wearing business suits up on a stage. One, a woman with red hair, declares, "That's right people, we're giving them away for absolutely zilch, zero, nada!"

A blue-haired man adds, "That means free for those of you who don't speak gibberish."

One person in the crowd asks, "Exactly what are these apps?"

The third salesperson steps forward, he is very short. "Why they're only the most innovative game since…since…two games named after some colors."

Someone else asks, "How do we get the free app?"

The blue-haired one replies, "All you have to do is take one of these here code cards," he holds up a slip of paper, "and enter the code on your Pokéssistant, then voila! You have yourself your new free game!"

The crowd starts to get anxious. They move up towards the stage and various people shout things such as, "Give me one of those codes!" or "Move out of the way!" or "I was here first!"

They start to pass out slips of paper at a frantic rate. The red-haired one assures, "Easy people, there's plenty for everyone."

The blue-haired one notices Ash, Brock, and Brenda. After looking at them for a moment, he quickly calls out, "Hey, you twerp- I mean young folks, why don't you come over here and get a few codes for yourselves?"

Brock answers, "Thank you, but we don't have a Pokéssistant."

The short one shakes his head disapprovingly. "That's a crime shame."

The red-haired one shouts, "Well if you're not a customer then get out of here."

Ash, Brock, and Brenda look at each other and then walk away.

Brenda states, "That was rude."

Brock comments, "I guess we just didn't fit their demographic."

Brenda stops them. "Alright here we are, the Pokéssistant Company." They are now in front of a tall skyscraper.

They walk into a lobby area. There they see two people. One is a professional looking man wearing a suit, and the other is woman dressed in what seems to be the company uniform of the Pokéssistant Company. The man demands, "What do you mean it's gone!?"

The woman responds, "I don't know sir, it just is."

"How does an experimental piece of computer programming just go missing?"

"The only thing I could think of is that someone downloaded our copy of the file, leaving nothing behind."

The man looks concerned. "This is bad. Who knows what could happened if that program got into the wrong hands?"

Ash walks over to them and asks, "Excuse me, is something wrong?"

The man and woman turn to Ash. The man says, "I wish I could say no, but that wouldn't be true. It would seem that someone stole a top secret program for an app in development for the Pokéssistant."

Brenda asks, "Do you work here?"

As if forgetting his problems, the man laughs. "Do I work here!? Why I own this company! I'm Mr. Stevens, the president of the Pokéssistant Company."

Brock asks, "What was the app that was stolen?"

The woman answers, "It's an app that my team's been working on for a while now. It's supposed to be means of inducing self-hypnosis, using a technique similar to Hypno's Hypnosis. It was meant to help people do things like lose weight, or break bad habits."

Mr. Stevens chimes in, "You can imagine what might be done with it in the wrong hands; it could be used as some sort of mind control device."

Brock nods. "That is bad."

The woman says, "By the way, I'm Sarah. Does there happen to be a reason you came here today?"

Brenda nods. "We wanted to take the tour you were offering."

Mr. Stevens shakes his head. "Sadly, due to the break-in, I'll have to postpone all tours until further notice."

Ash asks, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Not anything more than reporting anything unusual or shady in the way of Pokéssistants."

Brock asks, "Would handing out free apps qualify as unusual?"

This interests Mr. Stevens. "Why yes, it actually would. The Pokéssistant Company has not authorized any application giveaways for today."

Sarah asks, "Where was this giveaway?"

Ash answers, "It was right down the block from here, come on we'll show you."

They arrive at the location of the app giveaway, but it's completely deserted. Mr. Stevens states, "Well, it would appear that we missed them."

Sarah asks, "What did these people say about their app?"

Brock answers, "They said it was some sort of game."

Mr. Stevens and Sarah look at each other and nod. Sarah explains, "The app works by first priming your mind for the hypnosis by having you complete a series of tasks. This could be advertised as a game, with the players not even knowing they're going into the first stage of hypnosis. Then, if the thieves wanted to, they could remotely issue commands using the programs hypnosis subroutines. This could be bad."

Ash asks, "Is there anything you can do to stop it?"

Sarah answers, "Nothing short of a recall of Pokéssistants that have downloaded the app, but there's no way of knowing if we'd gotten all of them."

Mr. Stevens adds, "Not to mention how bad it would look for the company."

Brock wonders, "There's got to be some way that you can shut down the program. Is there anything you could do at all?"

Sarah thinks for a moment. "Well…there are really only two things the thief could do. They could preprogram some sort of subliminal command to automatically play via the app. But, that would have to be a one-time use, one-size-fits-all approach. The best answer would actually be to set up a remote command center, via which messages can be broadcasted to all those with the app. If that is their chosen approach, we could very well track the broadcast to its source."

Mr. Stevens exclaims, "Sarah, I knew I was a genius for hiring you!"

She looks at him oddly. "Um…thank you sir?"

"You're welcome." He looks to Ash and friends. "Maybe you three would like to help us in our little stakeout, as you've been so helpful already."

Ash exclaims, "Yeah, we'll help you out!"

Pikachu agrees, "Pika!"

It's nighttime. Team Rocket is situated in a large alleyway of Kanaveral City. All around them is an assortment of equipment. Meowth states, "Whoever came up with this whole hypnosis plan must have been some kind of genius."

James comments, "But that would be you."

Meowth pretends a like he's just realizing that. "Oh yeah."

Jessie commands, "Alright you two, it's time to begin our broadcast, I'm sure plenty of trainers have downloaded and tried our app by now."

The boy from earlier at the mall is walking down a street, using his Pokéssistant. He says to himself, "Man, that game was incredibly lame. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for." He laughs. Suddenly the display on his Pokéssistant changes. It now shows the image of a Hypno swinging its pendulum back and forth. An odd staic-like sound can be heard. The boy begins to complain, "Hey, what gives…" but trails off as he falls into a trance-like state. He turns around and walks in the opposite direction.

Ash, Brock, Brenda, Mr. Stevens, and Sarah are in a room full of computers. Sarah is sitting at one, while everyone else is gathered around them. She is constantly typing something. She remarks, "I've been scanning frequencies for hours now, and still no result. It is possible that the thief won't even make his move tonight."

Mr. Stevens declares, "It does not matter. We have no way of knowing when this will happen, it could be any time, so we must keep looking."

Suddenly a static-like sound is heard. Ash asks, "What's that?"

Sarah exclaims, "I'd recognize that sound anywhere! It's the subliminal messaging sound. Let's see if I can make it audible, it might give us a clue who these people are."

She presses a few buttons, and the noise turns to voices. James' voice says, "That's right, if you're a Pokémon trainer, you're going to come over here and give us all of your rarest and best Pokémon." Ash, Brock, and Brenda look at each other with surprise.

Jessie suddenly declares, "Hey, get out of the way, you're being a microphone hog. It was my beautiful voice that was meant to be broadcasted to all my adoring fans anyways." She then proceeds to attempt to sing, however poorly, "Attention all trainers! We need your Pokémon, bring them to the large alleyway near the intersection of Blastoise Boulevard and Charizard Avenue!" After a moment she asks, "Do you want an encore? Okay-"

She is suddenly cut off by an invasive, "Wobbuffet!"

Sarah turns it off. Mr. Stevens declares, "Come on, I know exactly where that alley is!" They hurry off.

After running all the way there, the group makes it to Team Rocket. Jessie is singing some nonsense into a microphone while James and Meowth are collecting a Pokéball from a kid. Meowth says, "Thank you, come again," as the kid walks off. James puts the Pokéball in a bag full of Pokéballs.

Ash shouts, "Team Rocket, give back those Pokéballs!"

Team Rocket all look up in surprise.

Mr. Stevens declares, "Who do you think you are, stealing my technology and using it to steal Pokémon!?"

Jessie and James laugh. Jessie declares, "Prepare for trouble, you are getting very sleepy!"

James declares, "Make it double, hypnosis is actually quite creepy!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket induces mass hypnosis at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, our control is tight!"

"Meowth that's right!"

"Wobbuffet!"

"Mime mime!"

Ash shouts, "I should have known you were behind this from the start!"

James shouts back, "Well you didn't, because you're just a twerp!" He throws a Pokéball. "Show him what I mean Haking!" Haking appears.

Jessie shouts, "You too Repiv!" She lets out Repiv as well.

"Go Pikachu!" Pikachu leaps off of Ash's shoulder.

Brenda joins, "Glitterfly, go!"

"Repiv, Poison Fang!" Repiv slithers towards Pikachu.

"Counter with Iron Tail!" Pikachu attempts to knock Repiv away, but Repiv manages to slither around and bite down on Pikachu.

"Haking, use Sludge Bomb!" Haking launches several globules of muck at Glitterfly.

"Dodge, and use Signal Beam!" Glitterfly flies upwards, avoiding the attack, and then launches one of its own, hitting Haking.

"Pikachu, get out of there with Thunderbolt!"

"Pikaaaa chuuuuu!" Pikachu's electrical attack causes Repiv to lose its grip with its mouth, Pikachu is sent into the air.

"Follow it up with Electro Ball!"

"Pii pika chu!" The orb of electricity impacts its target.

Jessie shouts with anger, "Don't let a twerp do that to you! Use Poison Sting!" Repiv unleashes many pins of poisonous energy.

James shouts, "The same goes for you Haking! Fight back with Tackle!" Haking flings itself towards Glitterfly and hits.

"Send it back with Sparkling Flare!" Glitterfly unleashes a torrent of sparks, which send Haking flying away."

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!" Pikachu uses its speed to avoid the Poison Sting and then rams into Repiv, also sending it back. "And now, let's finish it off with Thunderbolt!"

"Pikaaaa chuuuuuuuu!" Pikachu sends an intense electrical attack at Team Rocket and their Pokémon, which launches them into the air.

As they're flying off, Jessie cries, "Why must the ones who are the most talented be the ones who are least recognized?"

Meowth laughs. "You think that was singing!? You must be the one who was hypnotized!"

James adds, "Forget hypnosis, we should torture people with your voice until they give us their Pokémon."

They all sing at once, "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Back on the ground, Sarah runs over to the bag of Pokéballs. "It looks like they're all here."

Mr. Stevens declares, "That's great! First thing tomorrow morning, we'll put out a bulletin on the recall of those apps and deliver these Pokéballs back to their owners." He turns to Ash and friends, "Thank you so much for your help, I don't know what we would have done without you."

Ash replies, "Don't worry about it, we're kind of like professionals at stopping those guys." They all laugh.

It's the next morning in the Pokéssistant Company building. There is a line of people out the door. In the front of the line is Mr. Stevens and Sarah handing out Pokéballs. Ash and friends stand with them. The next in line is the boy from before. Sarah hands him his Pokéball. The boy says, "Thank you so much, I don't know what I would've done without my Pokémon. I would have never been able to battle again."

Ash asks, "Hey, didn't you say that no one battles for real anymore?"

The boys laughs. "I guess I did. But being separated from my Pokémon reminded me of the times we used to have before I got the Pokéssistant. Maybe I will go back to real battles now."

Ash is happy with this statement. "That's great."

Brock comments, "Technology can be a wondrous thing, but too much of anything can be bad. It's best to find a point of balance."

The boy nods. "I realize that now." He waves goodbye and runs off.

Mr. Stevens turns to the group and says, "By the way, I have something I wanted to give to you as thanks for all you've done for me." He pulls out a brand new Pokéssistant."

Brenda exclaims, "Wow, that's a Model Five, isn't it!? Those aren't even on the market yet!"

Mr. Stevens nods. "Yes, it's one of the perks of being the guy who invented the Pokéssistant. I'm sorry that I only have one to give."

Brock takes it. "One is more than enough sir, thank you."

Ash and Brenda also thank him.

So it would seem that today it was our heroes who taught a lesson, rather than learned one. Still in the heart of Kanaveral City, what could be next for our heroes? Find out, next time, as the journey continues…

To Be Continued...