Ash, Elaine and Trace were walking through the land of Kanto, along with their new road companion, Sakura Kouda, as they weren't going anywhere in particular. They were just enjoying the scenery as they walked along the path they were on. That is, until Eevee detected something with his ears as he looked to the left near Sakura's feet.
"Eevee?"
"What's up Eevee?" Her owner asked. Instead of answering, Eevee just ran off. "Hey, wait up Eevee!" She and her friends ran after her Pokemon for a few seconds before they happened to find another Eevee whom was in a hole in a tree, tied to a stick in the ground and a bowl of food and water near it. It looked lonely as it cried out. "Aww, why is it tied up like that?!" Sakura stooped down to pick up the Eevee, hugging it close.
"Has it been abandoned?" Trace wondered. His own Eevee was very concerned about this.
"Vee vee."
"That's just cruel." Elaine did not like the sound of that. She then noticed something on it. "Hey, there's a tag on it."
"Huh?" Sakura took a closer look, and indeed there was a tag. "Stone Town. 3-14."
"Stone Town." Trace took out his phone, and looked the place up. "Ah, it isn't too far from here. We should be able to walk there in less than an hour."
"Then let's go help this Eevee!" Ash told everyone. Now having a goal, they went towards Stone Town. It was a nice little suburb at the foot of a mountain, and surrounded by stone cliffs. "Oh, I get it." Ash saw numbers on the houses. "The numbers are what houses they are."
"Well, that makes things easy." Trace shrugged. "That means, based on the numbers, the house we're looking for is the 14th house on the 3rd block." It didn't take long to find said house, since each block had 20 houses in five by five housed squares. However, this one wasn't like the others, since 3-14 turned out to be a huge mansion!
"Wow, it's gigantic!" Ash gasped. And there appeared to be some sort of party on the front lawn as many people, children and adult alike, chatted and ate food with jovial delight.
"Haha, talk about a party." Trace was intrigued by seeing such a grand party.
"Looks like a lot of fun!" Ash agreed. "Hey, look there!" Elaine pointed towards a Poliwhirl, whom was given a blue colored water stone to evolve into Polywrath, a much bigger, stronger version of itself. It hopped into a fountain where there was also a Cloyster, a Vileploom and a Starmie. And there were more, such as an Exxegutor, a Raichu, a Ninetails and three Eeveelutions.
"Wait, these are all stone based evolutions." Trace noted.
"Amazing. Is this some sort of evolution party?"
"Huh, Eevee?" One of three color specific boys recognized the Eevee that Sakura was holding, and ran to them, the middle of which with a yellow theme asked, "Where did you go to? We were worried about you!" The blue one took the Eevee.
"Thank you for finding it for us."
"This is great!" The red one cheered. "Now that we've got our star back, we can get on with the show!"
"Mikey! Hey Mikey! Eevee's come back!" The middle yellow one called to someone in the crowd. A small, young boy with curly, blonde/brown hair, wearing a green shirt and blue shorts arrived, and recognized Eevee.
"Oh!" He gasped as his Eevee cried out in joy as it jumped out of the blue clothed person's arms and ran to Mikey. Though he didn't seem pleased.
"How could you lose him?" The red haired one told off the kid. "You've got to be careful!"
"Did Eevee really escape?" Elaine wondered. "We found it tied to a tree."
"Why did you have to bring it back?!" Mikey complained, confusing them all.
"Mikey! You'll one day be a Pokemon trainer just like us!" The yellow colored themed teen told Mikey.
"Do you really think you can win with an unevolved Eevee?" The blue one asked in a rhetorical manner.
"All of us won our first battles because we evolved our Pokemon!" The red one bragged. "There's no other way to win! The key to a first victory is evolution!"
"But... I don't care about battling." Mikey told them, to which the three teens took umbridge.
"Don't care?!" They cried out, along with their respective Eeveelutions. Before things could get too heated, Sakura and Trace got in front of Mikey.
"Now what kind of logic is that?!" Sakura wasn't liking their attitude. "An Eevee doesn't need to evolve to win!"
"Yeah, and who are you to decide his future for him!" Trace reprimanded the teens. "He could be something else! Like a Pokemon Coordinator, or a breeder, or a scientist!" They all just scoffed.
"Please, those are just wimpy alternatives. Nothing special compared to being a Pokemon trainer. We're known in this town as the Evolution Brothers! I'm Sparky, and these are my brothers, Rainer and Pyro. And the little squirt is our little brother Mikey. Oh, I see you have a Pikachu. Need a stone? It'll be much better as a Raichu."
"And what about you guys?" Pyro asked Trace and Sakura. "Your Eevees look like they need stones too."
"Pika Pika!" Pikachu was angry from being implied she wasn't good enough.
"Vee vee!" The two Eevees of our heroes also took offense from being told they needed stones.
"Doesn't sound like they need stones." Ash stated to Sparky. "At least not for satisfying your unreasonable need for evolution. Pokemon should be comfortable as who they are."
"Oh really, then why don't you participate in our games?" Rainer invited them smugly. "Evolution is what Pokemon is all about! Besides, your friend there has a Clefable. Obviously she thought her Clefairy wasn't good enough to stay as such."
"Cle?!" Clefable took offense to that. And so did Elaine as she stomped towards them, scaring the brothers as they backed up. Even their Pokemon cowered from her wrath.
"Hey! We did it not do it because of some shallow, superficial need to improve something that was inferior! We did it so that we could get closer to our goal of winning the World Coronation Series! And it's not like the point was that evolution made her better due to something relating to her worth as a Pokemon, but it was for a dream to become the best we could be as a team! You don't get to speak for me about what I think is best for my Pokemon! Okay?!"
"Alright! Alright, just cool it! We're sorry!" Sparky pleaded as he and his brothers held their arms up in surrender. During that, Sakura asked Mikey,
"So, Mikey, was it? What's your story about all this? Why did you tie Eevee up back there?"
"I wasn't trying to abandon Eevee." He replied remorsefully. "I was just trying to hide him for the day. My brothers only care about battling Pokemon. I figure if Eevee wasn't around, nobody could force me to evolve it."
"But Eevee looked very lonely outside the town when we found it."
"I was going to go get it later." Mikey said as he patted his Pokemon.
"Vee!" It sounded happy just to be with him again, and he sadly smiled.
"I don't care if Eevee evolves or not. I just want it to be my best friend."
"I hear you." Ash grinned and nodded in agreement. "But, here's something to keep in mind. You shouldn't have to hide Eevee."
"That's right." Sakura agreed as she and Mikey sat down on a bench. "You need to stand up to your brothers. I can understand that standing up to three, older siblings can be scary since I have four older sisters, and especially since they come down hard on you for not wanting to evolve Eevee, but standing up for your Pokemon's rights is part of a Pokemon trainer's responsibility." She then giggled. "Of course, I'm not your mother or anything."
"Well, I guess you're right." Mikey nodded. However, the ground started to explode with tiny explosives, causing everyone to yell and scream as a hot air balloon came into view. A Meowth shaped hot air balloon.
"It's show time everybody!" Jessie called out from the hot air balloon above.
"Hey, who invited you?!" Sparky questioned. Team Rocket simply jumped out of their basket onto a table to recite their motto.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!"
"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 blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth, that's right!" Once that was done, they flipped off the tables to start gorging on the food. "Mmm, delicious!"
"Weezing, Smokescreen!" James sent out his Poison Gas Pokemon to fill the area with thick, noxious gas to make sure everyone was too distracted trying not to breath in the fumes.
"Clefable-cough! Use Psychic!" Elaine told her Pokemon. The Fairy Pokemon, while disoriented from the gas, managed to send a telekinetic wave which sent the gas away. Yet something was missing.
"Hey, the Pokemon!" Ash saw that the brother's Eeveelutions and all the rest were gone, along with all the food and stones! "How did they somehow take everything?!"
"There's the balloon!" Trace pointed to them in the sky. "Corvisquire, let's go!"
"Staravia, I choose you!" The boys sent out their two flying types as they took to the skies.
"Don't leave me out! Swablu, go!" Elaine sent out her own flying type to go along with them. The three birds went and both pecked and slashed at the balloon, making it crash back to the ground. Yet when they went to it, the basket was empty! "It was a diversion! Clefable, Swablu, let's go look for them!" Her Pokemon complied.
"Same for you two. Let's go!" Ash followed along as they went to find Team Rocket. Said villainous group meanwhile were getting away in a red jeep, laughing from their success.
"Hahahaha! That was easier than a piece of cake!" Jessie cheered, with James nodding.
"Just like taking candy from a baby."
"Candy, cold cuts and Pokemon!" Meowth chortled as he sat among the food and in front of all the Pokemon in cages.
"We surely outdone ourselves, haven't we James? Talk about a brilliant plan of switcharoo to outsmart those twerps."
"They never knew what hit them." He agreed. What they didn't realize was that Pikachu, hanging in the back, was using her tail to trail it along the ground, leaving a line for her human friends to find and follow. Which is exactly what Staravia soon spotted as his keen predatory eyes spotted the trail. It screeched to the others loudly to let them know a trail was spotted. Team Rocket meanwhile stopped by a lake to set up a picnic to eat the rest of the food. Their stomachs were full and the three were lying on their backs, fully satisfied.
"Ah, nothing better than a victory meal." Meowth sighed in content.
"To think those kids have beaten us so many times. Victory does taste extra sweet here." James burped after saying that. However, Jessie beamed him on the head, causing the blue haired man to cry out and wince.
"Don't you ever insinuate that we are losers! We are Team Rocket, champions of the world! We always get ours eventually!"
"Alright, pipe downs you twos!" Meowth shushed them. "Now, before we hands these Pokemon to the boss, how abouts we evolve the three Eevees so that they're even more valuable?" The Eevees of Trace, Sakura, and most of all Mikey, were afraid of what they were going to do.
"Let's make one of them into an Umbreon to make it evil looking." James suggested, but Meowth didn't looked too pleased.
"But we'd have to wait for night times! I don't wants to wait that long!"
"Yeah, Meowth has a point." Jessie sighed in agreement. "Let's just go with Flareon. Fire is rather destructive."
"But what about Vaporeon if we must evolve them quickly?" James pleaded, but Mewoth butted in again.
"No, that's too perty lookin'! We should make thems a Jolteon!" The Scratch Pokemon got punched in the face by Jessie as a result.
"Hey, I'm the one who calls the shots here! And if none of us can agree then we'll use all the stones! End of story!"
"Azumarill, use Aqua Tail!" Team Rocket wondered who said that until they were splashed away from the Eevees by a swirling mass of water, thanks to Elaine's Aqua Rabbit Pokemon.
"Huh?! How did you find us all the way out here?!" James questioned them as they recovered quickly, each one picking up a cage of Eevee.
"Our Pokemon left a trail leading right to you!" Ash told them.
"Well, even if you have all the rest of your Pokemon, we still have all your Eevee!" Jessie clutched Sakura's close to her in his cage. "You wouldn't want them hurt, right? Go, Arbok!"
"Weezing, let's go!"
"Arbok, Poison Sting!"
"Jolteon, counter with Pin Missile!" Both Pokemon fired a barrage of needles which bounced off each other, canceling their attack.
"Weezing, use Sludge on the Clefable!" The poison type tried to douse Elaine's Fairy Pokemon with toxic gunk, but Rainer was quick to respond and defend.
"Vaporeon, block it with Aurora Beam!" The Bubble Jet Pokemon leaped in between Clefable and the attack, and fired a blue and green beam of light which pierced through the sludge and pushed the Poison Gas Pokemon back painfully as they moaned from the hit. It even landed on James, causing him to drop his cage. Trace's Eevee was able to escape and ran to her trainer's arms, whom happily hugged her.
"I'm so glad you're safe Eevee!" He praised the return of his Pokemon.
"Retreat!" Jessie and the rest tried to run away, but Pyro wasn't having it. "
"Flareon, use Fire Spin to keep them from running!" The Flame Pokemon bellowed out a stream of fire so that it trapped Team Rocket.
"We're not finished yet!" Jessie declared as she threw out another Pokemon. "Seviper, Poison Tail!" Her second poisonous snake came out with a purple glowing tail which slammed into Jolteon, sending it flying, along with Flareon and Vaporeon getting doused with more sludge! The color coded teens were stricken with fear for their Pokemon as they were damaged badly. Jessie laughed at the tides turning.
"You thought you had us beat?" Meowth questioned them sarcastically.
"We're the infamous Team Rocket! We'll not lose to the likes of you!" James laughed.
"Oh yeah?!" Ash retorted. "Pikachu, Staravia, use Quick Attack!" Both of his Pokemon moved at such blitzing speeds, they rammed into Arbok and Weezing, sending the two poison types flying into Team Rocket. Jessie lost her grip of Sakura's Eevee, which Corvisquire caught with his claws.
"Alright Corvisquire!" Trace praised his flying type. "Give it to Sakura!" Handing the cage to the girl, she cried out in joy at the return of her Pokemon.
"Yes, you're safe now! Thanks Trace!" Mikey's Eevee was also able to escape its cage and ran back to Mikey, who was glad and relieved to have it back.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash then commanded.
"Pikaaaachuuuu!" She sent a blast of lightning at Team Rocket, whom cried out in agony from the lightning. However, they didn't blast off and despite the electrical burns, were still determined just as ever.
"We can't lose again! Not this time... to them!" Jessie refused to accept defeat.
"Not... when we're this close!" James stated in agreement.
"I won't let you hurt my brother's Pokemon anymore!" Mikey proclaimed as he got between Team Rocket and his brothers, surprising them and our heroes.
"Whoa, brave little guy." Elaine remarked.
"So what'll he do?" Trace wondered.
"Eevee, use your Take Down attack!"
"Vee!" It charged forward with a lot of momentum, though Jessie wasn't impressed.
"Going to attack with your stuffed animal? Seviper, Poison Tail!"
"Dodge it and attack!" Side stepping away from the Fang Snake Pokemon's purple glowing tail, it bashed itself into the poison type's side, causing it to hiss as it collapsed.
"What?! How could you fall like that Seviper?!" Jessie scolded her Pokemon. Sparky, Pyro and Rainer walked up next to Mikey, with their Pokemon.
"You did good Mikey. We'll wrap things up." Sparky told his little brother. "Jolteon, use Thunderbolt!"
"Vaporeon, Water Gun!"
"Flareon, Flamethrower!" The three Eeveelutions each produced their own types of attacks which overwhelmed Team Rocket with their triple attack, creating an explosion which sent them flying.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" They flew far towards the horizon with how much power they were dealt with.
"Vee!" Mikey's Eevee cheered as it ran to the triumphant Mikey who cried out in joy,
"Yeah, you're the best Eevee!" He snuggled his Pokemon close, laughing when Eevee started licking his cheek.
"You did it Mikey!" Sakura praised him.
"That was really cool!" Elaine complimented the boy as she was also impressed by his bravery and ingenuity.
"Impressive." Trace nodded with a grin, crossing his arms.
"Mikey, that was incredible how you've handle your first battle!" Sparky complimented his brother. "Even if we finished it, the way you handled that Seviper was top notch!"
"And you won without making Eevee evolve." Rainer noted. "Guess we were wrong."
"You always said you didn't want to battle, but you did great." Pyro chuckled.
"I just wanted to help everyone. You all were trying hard... so I wanted to do the same." Looking over to Sakura, she nodded, which made him nod. "Guys, I decided to be an Eevee trainer. I don't need to evolve Eevee."
"An Eevee trainer?" Sparky was confused, but then grinned as he nodded. "Well Mikey, if that's what you want to do then do it."
"Thanks guys." Mikey smiled.
"Hey, what about you guys? You don't need to evolve your Pokemon, but we still have the stones if you want them."
"Nah, evolving my Eevee would negate its use of his Eviolite." Trace reasoned. "We like hanging in there, and we already have a stellar move set."
"I don't think Pikachu evolving would change things all that much, so we don't need it." Ash declined while scratching his head.
"I don't need a stone." Sakura shook her head. "I think I'll have my Eevee be an Espeon."
"Well, if you say so. Now let's head back to hold a new party for Mikey and his Eevee!" Sparky declared. Everyone agreed with a rousing cheer.
A/N: Hmmm, that really felt like a filler episode. I get what the guest reviewer was trying to go with but nothing really progressed or anything in this. At least it didn't feel like it for me. I also don't know whether to do the episode "Wired for Battle". I like the battle at the end, but I really didn't like Shingo's attitude and his whole computer thing threw me off. Can one really be proficient in battle while on a laptop like him before Ash showed him the error of his ways? Plus, I think the claim that the teachers in season 3 & 4, Muramasa and Tokichi, might be Elite Four level might be overselling them. Nothing about them really said to me that was their thing explicitly. Anyway, I've already made this chapter for the specific guest reviewer so I'm not going to waste it, but let's refocus on something. Just so none of you forget, Sakura needs an Espeon, Beautifly, Bellossom, Castform, Solrock and Midday Lycanroc. I don't mind doing episodes that don't progress the WCS plot, but let's at least make it where our characters are visibly improving in either Pokemon or character so that it doesn't feel like pure, irrelevant fluff with no long term consequence.