Ash was walking around a ruined city with Pikachu on his shoulder. He couldn't get over how bad the environment was over here. Arceus did sent him here in order to help clean it up but he was just one kid and he wasn't sure how he was going to do it.
"How did the ocean end up like this?" Ash asked himself as he stared at the polluted water.
"Well, moping around won't do me any good. Let's keep looking and we are bound to find the answer." The trainer said as he pulled his cheeks in order to snap himself out of his funk. That was when he saw a power plant nearby. The duo then became curious until they found a sign that said,"Neo- Circuit Power Plant a Silph Co. Service but that is a lame name so I changed it to the Electro-Dazzle Happy Boom-Time House of Cheer." The duo sweat dropped and figured that it must be Julia.
"I don't understand how someone can be so cheerful in a place like this." The raven thought to himself. Pikachu wondered that as well while rubbing against his trainer's cheek as an attempt to cheer him up.
"Suggestion: Julia, if you want to do this rendezvous, try not to do it during one of your own power naps. Request: meet me outside the factory." Ash was a bit spooked at first thinking that he got caught. As it turned out, it was just an AI speaking through a speaker.
"So this was a factory?" The ten year old asked out loud. He then turned around and saw a boy there. "Excuse me but were there any factories here?"
"Yes but this one is abandoned. There is a new one if you walk west from here if you walk further up." The mysterious boy answered nervously.
"Thanks." The trainer said as he began to follow the boy. He continued to follow him until they found the new factory but it was locked. "I wonder if there is another way to get in. Hello, is anyone home?" He called out. It was a dumb idea but it was wroth a try.
"Hello." Said a new voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. As a result, the sudden hello spooked both Ash and Pikachu. When the duo saw who the voice belonged to, they saw that it was another boy who was their age.
"They have some nerve making me wait." The boy said impatiently.
"What are we looking at?" The trainer accidentally thought out loud. That was when he finally had a good look at the impatient kid. He was wearing glasses, a dark green sweater vest, brown trousers that were rolled up half way and to top it off he had white socks and brown boots.
"Are you going to answer my question?" He snapped.
"I wasn't looking at you." The raven said, defending himself while taking a step back. His left eye twitched indicating that he was clearly annoyed.
"You got some nerves making me wait. Since you work here, I demand that you let me in because if you don't, I want to see your manager so that you would get fired." The kid then threw a pokeball revealing a Bewdew.
"Hay kid, I don't work here! How about we teach you some manners! Pikachu, I choose you!" Pikachu then hopped off of Ash's shoulder and was ready to battle.
"Bewdew, use water spout!" Bewdew's little sprout then opened up and released an orb of water. The bubble then grew bigger until it burst open making it rain temporarily. Pikachu on the other hand had no time to dodge and was knocked down to the ground. The boy then smirked and ordered his Pokémon partner use a move called sleep powder. As a result Pikachu was beginning to become drowsy as he tried to get up while trying to fight the urge to sleep at the same time. The next move that Bewdew used was absorb knocking Pikachu out in a few short minutes.
"l told you that you shouldn't make me wait. My name is Fern, be sure to remember it." Said the boy now known as Fern as he walked away angrily.
"I wonder what that guy's problem is?" The Pokémon trainer thought to himself. After heading to the Pokémon center to heal Pikachu, Julia came rushing in and kicked the door open once she heard what happened.
"Are you ok Ash?"
"Yeah, I'm fine but there was this jerk named Fern who challenged me to a Pokémon battle and beat up my Pikachu."
"Yeah, that sounds like Fern. I find it so irritating that some people are so entitled that they feel as though they can do whatever they want when they they. Most of the time, the kids who mysteriously come here have troubled pasts and we usually have therapists ready for them but for Fern, we still haven't figured him out yet. Maybe you can talk some sense into him."
"Alright, you can count on me! After Pikachu is healed, let's battle." Said a now excited Ash.
"Of course but you might have to wait."
"How come?"
"Well, first off you only have your Pikachu and second I have my hands full trying to find the perpetrator who blew up a train. I was told that Ame already caught himself and it seemed that he wasn't working alone. I heard that the very people who the guy was working with were going to blow up my power plant, especially my things! Come on Ash, let's stop these guys!" Julia shouted angrily while the duo could only sweatdrop at her antics.
Julia then smirked makes Ash very nervous as a result. The next thing he knew was that Julia just blew something up. Julia was even proud of herself and even did a victory pose.
"Was that even necessary?"
"Yes, yes it was! Life is always more fun with more explosions in it!"
"Observation: explosion detected Julia's presence confirmed." A robotic voice said coming out of nowhere. That was when he saw two people: one was Fern and immediately the two glared at each other with hate. The other was a woman who had green hair just like Fern and looked like a female version of him.
"Hey there Rini!" Julia shouted with glee. "Ash, this is Florinia and we have been BFFs since middle school. She is also the gym leader at the Onyx Ward and a teacher at the school there." This surprised Ash since he has already met two gym leaders in one day.
"Gratitude: thank you for the introduction."
"And this is Fern but it looks like you two already know each other." All the trainer got from Fern was a pout and did everything in his power to not look at the ten year old.
"Suggestion: times a wastin, let us proceed."
"This is the base camp." Said Julia as they finally made it to their destination. "They call themselves Team Meteor. A weird name if you ask me." That was when the gang saw something shiny hidden underneath a bunch of rubble.
"Hey guys, check it out!" Ash said as he called his friends over.
"We'll, I don't believe it! It is a Terrain Stone! I just thought that they were only a fairy tale!" Julia said, a bit surprised. Fern was a bit surprised as well and even Florinia was showing a bit of emotion.
"What is a Terrain Stone?" Ash asked, now a bit curious.
"We'll, you know how the Reborn region is polluted right? Well, just when the Reborn region was just beginning to get off its feet, scientists found a more efficient and cheaper way to clean things up. They even built a machine to insert it in but the problem is that the labs scattered throughout Reborn are guarded by Delta Boss Pokemon."
"Yup, they are like the totem Pokémon in Alola except their typing is different from most variants in other regions. Not only that but they are stronger than regular Pokémon." Julia explained.
"I guess that is lucky that we found it." Ash said taking the stone and putting it in his pocket for safe keeping.
"Observation: the liquid indicates high levels of pollution. Estimated toxicity is around 90%" Florinia explained.
"And this stuff is being dumped in the lake. No wonder the water is so polluted." Julia said after finding barrels full of toxic radiation. Julia then realized why they wanted to hijack this train. It was a good place to stay under the radar so that Team Meteo could continue doing their dirty work.
"Next time, dumb it down a bit so the rest of us can understand." Fern impatiently. At this point, the raven felt the urge to punch his rival but decided not to since he didn't want to cause a scene. That was when they heard some footsteps. That was when the group knew that they had to hide.
"I can't believe that you dropped it." Said a Team Meteor grunt."
"I said I was sorry and I was panicking. Cut me some slack okay!" The other grunt whined.
"We need that stone in order to summon the legendary Pokémon Argile. Why do you think we are trying to make this land uninhabitable?" Grunt number one snapped.
"I still believe that we are still chasing fairy tales." Grunt number two complained. Julia could know longer stand by and watch so she charged at them as a result. Without a second thought, Julia punched one of the grunts but missed.
"Intruders!" Said Grunt Number one. "Come on Adrian, get a grip!"
"Sorry, Andromeda. I can't help it if I am slow to catch on to things." Complained the newly named Adrian. Immediately, Lilliputian and Rattats were summoned from their pokeballs.
"It is time to take out the trash!" Said Fern as he summoned Bewdew. Pikachu was also ready to battle as he hopped off of Ash's shoulder."
"Bewdew! Sleep power!"
"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" That was when Ash noticed that there were these weird machines inside the train. What surprised him even more was that these machines gave his and Fern's Pokémon extra strength. When Pikachu let out his thunderbolt at the two normal Pokémon were knocked out. The Pokémon were sent flying into their trainer's arms unconscious.
"So strong." The grunt said.
"Where are you from?" The other asked Ash.
"Why do you want to know?" The ten year old snapped."
"Have you seen the state of the region?" Fern said who was curious as well.
"Kanto." Ash replied.
"That is a bit of a difference. The only people who come here are trainers who are spirited away by the ghost train. I wonder what your story is." Ash was then spooked when Fern mentioned the ghost train.
"I wanted a challenge." Ash simply said.
"Fair enough." Fern said not really believing it. After a moment of awkwardness, they kept wandering around in the train. It wasn't until then until the gang realized that they were going around in circles. Then, out of nowhere, they saw several physic Pokémon using the move trick room. However, there was one that was really curious about Ash. It was an Espeon.
"So are you the one that was messing with us?" Said an angry Ash. The Espeon looked at the trainer in shame as if to say that it was sorry. Not too long after, a gastly appeared.
"Hey, I know that ghastly! It has been wondering all over Reborn playing pranks on people. This little guy must be the ringleader." Ame said, a bit annoyed.
"Hey no worries, it was actually a bit funny. How about this, why don't you come and travel with me. We are going to become the strongest in the world but you two have to promise me this: no more pranks." The ten year old said firmly and both Pokémon agreed. Ash then took out two pokeballs. As a result both Gastly and Espeon let them both inside.
Finally, after the short fiasco, they found the person they were looking for. Standing behind two grunts, was a man in his thirties. He had black hair just like Ash and even wore a black coat. What stood out the most however, was that he wore a red sensor over his left eye and a scar was running through it.
"Are you the one in charge?" Julia demanded.
"And what if I am?" The man challenged.
"Then you are going to pay for what you did to Grandview station!"
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"Answer: by ceasing you and your minions's activities." Florinia answered.
"Yeah and we should have a battle!" Ash demanded only to be smacked on the head by Fern.
"We are Team Meteor and we do not relent. I ordered the guards to slow you down and it was a plus when those pranksters decided to show up. However, your strength was unexpected, especially yours." The leader explained as he pointed to Ash. "I've seen a lot of people and killed even more but there's something about you. What's your name?"
"Ash and should I be the one asking you that?"
"Of course, how rude of me. My name is Sirius."
"Sir!" A male grunt said while saluting.
"Eclipse!"
"Yeah?" A female grunt replied.
"Take care of Ash and the boy. I'll handle the gym leaders.
"I'll handle this." Said Ash as he summoned both Gastly and Espeon from his pokeballs.
"You must be brave if you are handling this all by yourself." Said the female grunt.
"That is because I believe in my Pokémon! Gastly, Espeon, are you two ready for battle?" Ash asked his Pokémon as the duo let out a battle cry as if to say that they were ready.
"Rockruff, we choose you!" Said Aster and Eclipse the male grunt.
"Use thunder fang!
"Same but instead use fire fang." Both rockruffs ran towards their target. The first rockruff had lightning surrounding their jaw while the other had fire.
"Espeon, use extra sensory and Gastly use confusion!" Espeon then released a set of purple vibrations through its' gem. The rockruff that was using fire fang had its' defense lowered thanks to Gastly's confusion.
"Great job! Gastly use dark pulse and Espeon I want you to use swift!" The duo did what they were told and thanks to the status ailment confusion, the raven's team was able to win easily.
"Return." The grunts said, admitting defeat.
"Useless, I could have taken on the gym leaders but we'll leave. Don't think that you have won." Said Sirius sternly as he and the two grunts left.
"Explanation: Did you notice that the terrain in Reborn will affect your Pokémon's moves? If you want to beat us then you have to play smart." Florinia explained.
"If this weren't a challenge then it wouldn't be any fun."
"I am glad that you think so but we still have to report our findings to the committee because I think they will know where that crystal you found belongs to." Said Julia.
"Team Meteor." Ash said to himself clearly concerned.
