An Electrifying New Teammate!

"Sobble use Water Pulse!"

"Sob!"

Sobble created a blue sphere of energy between his hands before firing it at his opponent, a Carkol. The sphere burst and splashed the Rock/Fire type as it let out a pained groan before collapsing onto it's side as swirls formed within his eyes.

"Carkol!" His trainer cried out before hanging his head and returning his Pokemon as a Rotom Drone declared the results.

"Carkol is unable to battle thus challenger Ash wins the match and gets a boost in his ranking! Ash Ketchum your rank is now 45,056!"

Ash stepped forward and held his hand out to his opponent. "That was a good battle, you and your Pokemon fought well. Hopefully we'll get to battle again when you get even stronger!"

The trainer formed a light smile as he raised his head and took Ash's hand before shaking it. "Count on it, once my Pokemon evolve and get stronger we'll be sure to track ya down!"

"Sobb..." The cry of his Pokemon caused Ash to immediately shoot around with concern.

"Sobble?!" Ash's eyes then widened as he realized a blue light had surrounded Sobble's body, engulfing him in a bright light as his body started changing. He began growing taller while the color of his skin changed to a darker shade of blue, his hands and feet changed into a light green color. His fin had retracted and three long strands of hair took it's place, covering up his right eye while his left had a rather lazy look to it. "Whoa, you evolved!" Ash's eyes lit up with excitement but his Pokemon merely glanced at him and shrugged it off as if it wasn't a big deal. Ash pulled out his Rotom Phone to quickly read up on the Pokemon as he'd never seen it before.

"Drizzile the Water Lizard Pokemon, highly intelligent but also very lazy. It keeps enemies out of its territory by laying traps everywhere."

"Drizzile, that's a cool name!" Ash smiled at Drizzile once again but the Water type gave him a blank stare, Ash stared back for a moment before deciding that perhaps Drizzile wanted some alone time. He had enough experience to know that sometimes evolutions had an effect on a Pokemon's personality, if Drizzile wanted to be alone then he'd let him have some alone time before trying out his potential new moves!

"Alright Pikachu, we've gotten Dreepy and Sobble both some decent training so how about the two of us go explore the Wild Area and enjoy the sights?" He didn't get to enjoy much of it last time as they spent most of the day lost in the woods before eventually coming across those strange wolf Pokemon.

"Pika!" Pikachu flicked his tail in agreement before the two set off to admire the sights and scenery. Rookidee and Corvisquire happily chirped about as they flew through the sky above and sat perched in nearby trees. A group of Orbeetle hovered about nearby while some Skwovet and Greedent could be seen gathering up and eating up berries as they found them! Ash even saw a stray Porygon happily flying through the air as it enjoyed it's newfound freedom!

"Arooo!" A sudden howl caused Ash and Pikachu to jerk their heads and notice the two wolf Pokemon from before standing at the edge of the woods. They appeared to be beckoning for him as they jerked their heads as if to ask him to follow them. Ash and Pikachu turned to one another and shrugged before deciding that it wouldn't hurt, if the Pokemon wanted to try something then they'd have done so last time rather than helping them. They followed the two wolves through the woods with the wolves slowing their pace as to avoid Ash losing sight of them. They'd soon bring Ash into a spot in the forest that felt oddly familiar.

"Wait a sec-This is where I saw you for the first time!" Ash shouted while pointing towards the female wolf, the wolf nodded her head in acknowledgement before pointing forward with her nose causing Ash to turn his head once more before spotting a purple egg with a white lightning bolt patterned onto it sitting a few feet away within the grass, looking to be abandoned as there was no sight of Pokemon nor trainer! Ash couldn't help but emit a light chuckle as he seemed to have a habit of finding stray eggs or baby Pokemon, first Togepi and Larvitar then Noibat and Nebby and now this!

Ash picked up the egg and turned to thank the wolf Pokemon for alerting him to the abandoned egg only for them to have disappeared and Ash soon found himself back where he was before he saw the wolves but the egg still remained within his hands!

"Arooo!"

"Thanks whoever you two are, I'll take good care of this egg I promise!" Ash stared down at the egg and formed a rather excitable smile. "I can't wait to meet you!"

"Obstagoon!" Obstagoon charged across the laboratory's field as he saw his trainer enter it and quickly pulled him into a tight hug, holding him in a tight grip while uttering out a happy sounding growl. Lucario and Scorbunny laughed at the sight while Zach let out a light gasp for air before wrapping his arms around the badger Pokemon the best he could.

"I-It's good to see you too, Obstagoon!" He gasped out. "I missed you!"

"Pory pory pory!" Porygon 2 excitedly flew circles around them with a delighted expression across it's face. It's cries alerting the people within the lab as a certain orange haired girl peeked out the window and let out a happy squeal before rushing on out.

"I see you've already met Porygon," Zach let out a laugh as Obstagoon released him from his grasp. "And you're looking a lot better, I've been focusing on trying to get you some company here since it's just the two of you!" He glanced around the lab as not a single other Pokemon was in sight other than Sonia's Yamper who was sunning close by. "Which reminds me, come on out everyone!"

Four balls were thrown forward and burst open as Corvisquire, Prinplup, Dratini and Raichu burst out. The Pokemon let out a happy cry upon seeing Obstagoon again before rushing forward to interact with him.

"I caught Raichu not long after you left, he took your space on the team until you recover."

"Obsta..." Obstagoon quietly stared down Raichu, causing the normally chill Raichu to begin sweating nervously as the Dark type towered over him. Obstagoon soon smiled and let out a happy roar before pulling Raichu into a tight hug, welcoming him to the family!

"Rai!" Raichu cried out while letting out a sigh of relief.

"You've sure been busy!" Sonia said, having snuck up on him before throwing her arms around Zach and leaning her head against his with a warm smile. "You caught a newly discovered Pokemon which will do wonders for my research, evolved half your team and caught some new additions too! Though I am disappointed you didn't keep Regice." Sonia fake pouted as Zach turned to her.

"Hey catching it wasn't even my decision, it's too hot here for a Pokemon like that. I wouldn't want to tear it away from it's home, especially when it spent most of it's life in solitude." He had no visible sign of wanting a legendary Pokemon, partly due to him thinking he wasn't good enough for something of that scale while the other half genuinely wanted the legendary Pokemon to remain free and happy in the wild! Sonia really found his nobility admirable as she planted a kiss on his cheek before giving him a teasing smirk.

"Now I know you've come here to train with your Pokemon so I'll let you be for a bit as I finish up some quick work for my grandma. Then I'll tag along to watch ya kick Nessa's butt, this is so exciting seeing my two closest friends getting to battle it out!" Sonia let out a light squeal before turning and hurrying back into the lab so that she wouldn't keep him waiting whenever he wrapped it up.

Zach smiled as he watched Sonia go before turning back to his Pokemon. "Alright, let's get this training underway!"

"So you've got an egg now too?" Marnie asked, tilting her head as she saw Ash approaching the station with a bright purple egg within his grasp.

"Yep, strange as it sounds Pikachu and I found it abandoned in the woods." Ash neglected to mention the wolves, Marnie didn't believe him last time.

"I see..." Marnie felt like Ash wasn't telling her the true story but didn't push, she knew Ash wasn't hiding anything immoral. He'd never steal. "Ya know ya could ask Scorbunny to touch it, I think she has an ability that helps with hatching eggs. The moment she touched Dratini's egg it hatched, I admit ta losing my patience and I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or not but upon asking her to touch my egg, it hatched into Deino!" She held up the ball belonging to the Dark/Dragon type.

Ash looked thoughtful for a brief moment before lightly nodding as if Scorbunny could do that, it'd honestly be for the better. With how often he came across Team Rocket or some other villainous foe lately him having an egg could be quite dangerous! He didn't want to risk Pokemon Hunter R or a Team Rocket member to show up again and risk the egg getting smashed!

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt. Besides the sooner we met you the sooner we get to start training!" Ash excitedly spoke to the egg, it shook within his grasp in response causing Ash to jump up from surprise before calming himself. Though the moment of calm didn't last long as a Grookey sprang through the air with a fierce cry!

"Grook!"

"Huh?" Ash turned towards the cry before grunting out as Grookey latched onto his face and began repeatedly striking Ash's forehead with his stick!

"Grook grook!" Grookey cried out.

"H-Hey cut it out!"

"Pika pi!"

"Huh, where the bloody heck did Grookey come from?" Marnie cast a quick look around in the hopes of obtaining an explanation. "They usually aren't in the wild like this!"

"We meet again you Galarian twerps!" Leroy shouted as he leaped down from the tree tops.

"And for the last time!" Cletus leaped down after him and landed directly on top of his brother, the two grunted out as they collapsed against the dirt.

"You two again?! What are ya doing here in Galar?!" Marnie shouted while Ash was busy trying to pry Grookey off his face but the monkey had too strong a grip, if Ash pulled too hard the monkey was likely to leave a mark!

"What do you think, girly? We're here to get revenge on you and that boyfriend of yours!" Leroy shouted as he pointed towards Ash. "First ya costed us an experimental Eevee then we stole a cartload of Dragon eggs and would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

"Boyfriend?!" Marnie's cheeks shot a dark shade of red as she cast a glance towards Ash who didn't appear to hear much of it as he was busy trying to get Grookey off of him! "But Ash never met-Oh... Oh! Gross! Yeah no, sorry but that 'boyfriend' you're referring to is like a brother ta me, it'd never work out between us!"

"But you're a girl and he's a boy, you two are close no? Therefore you must be boyfriend and girlfriend!" Leroy shouted accusingly.

Marnie facepalmed. "I'm guessing that you two don't have much experience with girls... besides this is clearly not Zach, him and Ash look completely different!" Marnie motioned towards Ash's skin and hair color before pointing towards Pikachu who was busy trying to help Ash pry Grookey loose!

"Don't try and play games with our head, girly!" Leroy growled out.

"Yeah we may be stupid but we're not gullible!" Cletus smirked before cowering lightly as Leroy shot his brother a harsh glare.

"Which brings us to the here and now, that boyfriend of yours beat us with a Galarian Buneary then you come along with that creature straight from nightmare land and beat us!"

"You mean Grimmsnarl? And wasn't it May who beat you?" Marnie questioned.

"Shut your mouth, girly!"

"Yeah, shut it!" Cletus laughed.

"We had enough of you causing us problems so we decided to catch ourselves a Galarian Mankey to even the odds! A Galarian problem requires a Galarian solution after all!" Leroy cackled out.

Cletus snickered before taking note of a crushed Pokeball beneath their feet. "Uh bro, isn't that Grookey's?"

"Huh?" Leroy glanced downwards and quickly began feeling his belt as a panicked expression filled his face. "Oh shoot..."

Marnie rolled her eyes as she began understanding why the pair were kicked out of Unova in the first place. She calmly grabbed an empty Pokeball from Ash's belt and gave Grookey's body a light tap with it, freeing Ash's face as Grookey disappeared in a beam of red light!

"H-Hey you tricked us, that ain't your boyfriend!" Leroy shouted as Ash's face came into view

"Boyfriend?" Ash questioned with a somewhat jealous expression.

Marnie facepalmed once more and uttered out a long drawn out sigh before pointing forward. "Morpeko use Aura Wheel!"

"Morpek!" A blue wheel of energy formed around Morpeko as she leaped into the air, the small rodent blasted her way towards Leroy and Cletus before striking through them and knocking them down as if they were a pair of bowling pins!

"Pikachu use Thunderbolt!" Ash shouted out.

"Pikachuuuu!" Pikachu's cheeks sparked shortly before he sent a powerful bolt of electricity towards the two Rocket members, the two rednecks screamed out as the electricity flowed through them before a sudden explosion sent them blasting off into the sky, sending them far away from there as they disappeared into the horizon!

"Whose the boy-?" Ash couldn't help but ask before his Rotom Phone interrupted him as Grookey's data was registered into his Pokedex.

"Grookey the Chimp Pokemon, it attacks with rapid beats of its stick. As it strikes with amazing speed, it gets more and more pumped!" Ash pulled his Rotom Phone out and gazed at it in a questioning manner before Marnie pushed the ball into his hand.

"Here, I believe this was yours."

"Y-You caught Grookey?!"

"For you, yes!" Usually she wouldn't do such a thing but it was to get Grookey off of him. "I remember Zach mentioning that you had a hard time choosing between him and Sobble before ya met Kubfu."

"That is true, I did take a liking to both..." Ash began to trail off as he recalled what Leroy said. "Are you and Zach...?"

"No!" Marnie couldn't help but growl out. She didn't understand why people kept thinking that was the case, a boy and a girl could be close without it being romantic! "Sorry but we're not... he's like a brother to me, I could never date him!"

"Oh." A smile began to cross Ash's face while Marnie formed a light blush.

"Yeah, the two of us are just best friends and nothin' more! Now how about we get to the train station? I'm sure that he's waiting for us." Ash nodded at her suggestion as the two turned to head towards the train station, Pikachu and Morpeko shared a knowing smirk with one another.

"Pika!"

"Morpek!" The two rodent Pokemon speculated with one another on how long it'd be before Ash and Marnie got together.

Zach and Sonia approached the train station with Scorbunny, Lucario, and Yamper right behind their trainers. Ash didn't even have to bother asking Zach about the egg situation cause as soon as Scorbunny saw the egg her eyes lit up and she raced across the walkway and leaped up before touching her paw against the egg's shell! The egg was soon engulfed in a bright white light and cracking noises could be heard as purple paws began punching their way out! A purple lizard-like head emerged from the top with the lightning bolt symbol present on the egg now atop his forehead. The rest of the egg cracked open as he shot out onto the ground and looked up at Ash from the ground, the lizard having a rather fond look in his eyes as he imprinted on Ash.

"Tox!"

"Wow a Toxel!" Zach and Sonia both shouted simultaneously with stars in their eyes at the sight of it.

"Toxel?" Ash never heard of this one. He pulled out his Rotom Phone in order to read up on his newly found catch.

"Toxel the Baby Pokemon, tt manipulates the chemical makeup of its poison to produce electricity. The voltage is weak, but it can cause a tingling paralysis!"

Ash and Pikachu both tensed up upon hearing that, their eyes immediately went towards the information half of the screen which confirmed what they'd just heard. Marnie seemed to understand what was going on but Zach and Sonia all looked confused as they didn't get what was going on here.

"W-We just got our first Electric capture... ever."

"P-Pika..." Both of them stood down in shock at Toxel as the baby Pokemon looked up at them and let out a happy cry! One thing was for sure this would definitely take Ash and Pikachu some getting used to as throughout their long career they'd never had another Electric type on their team!

"Ah!" Leroy and Cletus landed in one of the Wild Area's many ponds with a large splash, the two began coughing up water before taking notice of a mountain full of garbage as it walked past them.

"W-Was that a Garbodor?" Cletus questioned.

"Indeed and it's Gigantatron form from the looks of it!"

"Don't you mean Dynamaximize?"

"Oh what does it matter, let's just catch it! Our ma will be so pleased, she'll welcome us back with open arms!" Leroy exclaimed as he tossed Beartic's Pokeball into the air.