Two days later, Ash and Misty were well on their way to the Hoenn region, with Misty bringing along Togepi, Staryu, Corsola and Gyarados, whilst Ash took Pikachu as his only Pokémon to start their new adventure. The journey on the large luxurious ferry transporting them there was a bit of a long one, so the two trainers, along with Pikachu and Togepi, took the opportunity to chill out by the large swimming pool on the main deck.

By this point, Misty's arm, whilst still feeling slightly sore, had healed enough that she could dispense with the sling she had to wear for the last few days. And so, having changed into a red one-piece bathing suit, she happily played in the shallow end of the pool with Togepi, who merrily bobbed up and down on the water with a small inflatable ring around its waist.

"Ah, this is fun," said Misty. "Are you enjoying yourself, Togepi?"

"Togi togi prrrrrrri!" replied Togepi cheerfully.

Meanwhile, at the deep end of the pool, Ash and Pikachu had climbed up a diving board, and were preparing to jump into the water.

"Ready?" asked Ash as he held onto Pikachu, who was perched on his head.

"Pi-ka!" confirmed Pikachu.

"All right!" cried Ash as they jumped off the end of the board and landed in the water with a loud splash!

"Hey, careful there, Ash!" laughed Misty as some of the water was sent flying on top of her and Togepi, while Ash and Pikachu came back up to the surface and began playfully splashing water at one another.

Eventually the friends had finished playing in the pool and were soon relaxing on a couple of sun loungers under an umbrella, enjoying the warmth of the sun beaming down on them.

"This is the life, isn't it, Ash?" said Misty blissfully, with Togepi lying down beside her.

"Yeah, it sure is," agreed Ash, with Pikachu by his side. "But I sure can't wait till we reach the Hoenn region. I'll bet ya, as soon as we get there, we're gonna meet tons of new Pokémon and lots of trainers too."

"Well, don't forget we're planning to visit Professor Birch first, Ash," said Misty. "I'm kinda keen to meet him after all Harrison and Tracey have said about him."

At that moment, the Captain of the ship happened to walk by them, accompanied by his first mate, a large muscular Pokémon with grey skin known as a Machoke.

"Excuse me, Captain. Could you tell us when this ship will get to Littleroot Town, Please?" asked Ash.

"Let's see," said the Captain as he ran through the ship's schedule in his mind. "If we're able to stay on schedule, we should get there by tomorrow night."

"Great! Thanks a lot, Captain," smiled Ash.

"Pika Pika!" added Pikachu.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see Hoenn for myself," smiled Misty.

"I take it this is the first time you youngsters are visiting the Hoenn region?" asked the Captain.

"That's right, sir," replied Misty.

"It must be quite an exciting and romantic journey for such a young couple like you two."

"Oh, we're not a couple," said Ash quickly.

"Yeah, we're just friends," added Misty, with a betraying blush on her face.


As Ash and Misty chatted with the Captain, they were unaware that they were being spied on by Team Rocket, who had stowed away on the ship and were currently hiding under the tarpaulin of one of the jolly boats on the side.

"Ha, like a couple of lovesick Psyducks," chortled Jessie, as she and her comrades spied on Ash and Misty through their electronic binoculars.

"With you-know-who just right for the plucking," remarked James as he shifted his gaze onto Pikachu.

"Those brats may have taken us by surprise back in Pallet," said Meowth, "but stealing Pikachu should still be super-easy now there's two twerps instead of three."

"Wobbuffet!" said Wobbuffet, as it again popped out of its Poké Ball without actually being summoned.

"And not only that, today we open a fresh new chapter of Team Rocket transgressions, remember?" said Jessie.

"Oh yeah!" concurred James.

"It's the new and improved us!" said Meowth.

"And the first step to further enhancement is to put Pikachu permanently in our possession," continued Jessie. "Do you read me?"

"10-4!" agreed James and Meowth in unison, as the evildoers began to work out their plan of attack...


Nighttime eventually fell, and as the ferry continued on its voyage, Ash and Misty had gotten out their sleeping bags in one of the passenger cabins and settled down for the night. Misty, Pikachu and Togepi had fallen asleep quite quickly, but Ash was still awake, as he was feeling too excited for their new Pokémon journey.

"It hasn't been just you, me and Misty since we started our first journey," Ash said quietly to Pikachu, who was sound asleep next to him. "And now here we all are starting a whole 'nother journey together."

Ash yawned, as the need for sleep finally caught up with him. "Well, good night."

Ash closed his eyes and went to dreamland with a smile on his face. As Ash started to gently snore, a still-slumbering Togepi managed somehow to roll off Misty's pillow and gently came to rest next to Pikachu. The electric mouse Pokémon twitched slightly, but did not wake up.

Hours passed, and as everyone in the cabin slept on, the main door quietly opened, following which a large metal hand, wearing a rubber glove and connected to a telescopic arm, entered the room. Moving silently into the room, the robot hand eventually hovered right over Pikachu and reached down to grab the Pokémon.

However, at that precise moment, the snoozing Pikachu shifted to the side, and the dormant Togepi ended up rolling onto the spot where Pikachu had been a second ago. As a result, the metal hand instead grabbed Togepi, who instantly woke up and cried out in terror!

"Uhh, what is it?" asked Ash sleepily, as he and others began to wake up from all the commotion, just too late to prevent the crying Togepi from being carried out of the room by the telescopic hand!

"Pipipi!" shouted Pikachu in alarm as they all suddenly realised that Togepi was missing.

"Togepi!" shrieked Misty, as she scrambled out of her sleeping bag, and darted out of the room and into the corridor, closely followed by Ash and Pikachu.

"Hey, where did Togepi go?" asked Ash as they looked this way and that.

"I don't know," said Misty fearfully. "But I think something just took it away! Togepi, where are you?"

Feeling on the verge of panic, Misty frantically rushed around the corner and practically bumped into the Captain and his Machoke!

"Whoa, easy there, young lady. Is there something wrong?" said the Captain as he realised at once that something had clearly upset Misty.

"Captain, my Togepi has just disappeared!" Misty blurted out tearfully.

"We think someone broke into our room and stole it!" added Ash, with an agreeing nod from Pikachu.

"You're kidding!" said the Captain seriously. "Did you happen to see which way they ran?"

"No, we didn't see a thing," said Misty, trying her best to remain calm.

"Well, we're going to find your Togepi," promised the Captain as he went over to a nearby computer terminal and began to press the buttons on the keypad, causing a schematic of the ferry to appear on the screen.

"What's that?" asked Ash.

"It scans the entire ship," explained the Captain as he began to check each deck of the ship, "and helps me to find the potential hiding places of any stowaways that might be onboard."

A second later, one particular section of the ship appeared on the schematics, highlighted in red.

"Ah, the food storage area on the lower deck," reported the Captain. "Right, let's get down there."