With Ash's newly caught Starly the three trainers started running at a better running pace, getting a better visual from higher up. It wasn't long before Starly finally spotted something.
"Brock, Harmony, you hear that?" Ash says as the three slowly come to a stop.
"Starly spotted something," Brock says.
"Which hopefully is a good sign?" Harmony says hopefully only to be interrupted by a huge electrical surge up ahead.
"Check it out," Ash says in awe.
"That was some electric attack," Brock says as Aipom jumps on Ash's shoulder.
"Pikachu!" Ash yells out quickly follow after Starly with Harmony and Brock on his heels.
In the distance, another trainer with an Elekid, which seemed to be the one letting off the electricity throws a Pokeball at Ash's Starly only failing to catch it.
"Starly over here!" Ash calls out to his pokemon, the Starly chirping and landing on his shoulder.
"I'll thank you and your Starly to stay out of my way," the other trainer says bitterly.
"I didn't know anyone was out here but us, really," Ash says as Harmony and Brock finally catch up.
"Aww, so not Pikachu, just an Elekid, a strong one at that," Harmony says eyeing the electric type.
"Anyway, I've got a question for you, uh you haven't seen a girl with a Pikachu around here have you?" Ash asks the teen.
"No. You really think that Starly's good enough?" the teen questions Ash making Harmony frown and Ash to let out a confused 'huh'
"I watched you catch it, don't you think you'd be far better off catching the best one you can?" the teen mutters.
"You can tell which one is the strongest?" Ash says almost with hostility.
"Of course, look." the teen says tossing three Pokeballs into the air releasing three Starly.
"You've got three of them?" Ash questions confused.
"You must know you can scan the Pokemon you catch with your Pokedex to check out what moves they know and that's just what I do." the other teen says and proceeds to scan all three Starly. "I figure if you do that from the beginning it save you a whole bunch of grief in the long run."
"Stat wise Ash's might not be the best, but sometimes bonds are far better than stats, it depends. I have a few hyper-trained Pokemon at home, but breeders looking for good IVs tend to be picky," she says with a shrug, "As for moves, well unless you're looking for egg moves the wild Starly tend to have the same, some might just be higher levels and know another move." she points out.
The teen seems to roll his eyes before focusing on the Pokedex once more, "Kay, let's check out, Ariel Ace, and the big winner is…" he says as he returns all three only pocketing one before releasing the other two with "Take a hike, I don't need you."
"That's a sure weird way to treat Pokemon," Ash says still confused why someone would do that.
"Hey the only attacks those two knew were tackle and sand attack, so they wouldn't be much use anyway."
"Know what I think? Any Pokemon can be strong if you train them." Ash says which seems to make the other teen scoff and laugh. "What are you laughing at?" Ash says getting angrier by the second.
"You'll find out. So wanna battle?" the teen asks.
"Sure let's do it!" Ash says not thinking about anything else making Harmony sweatdrop.
"We should really be finding Pikachu, not battling," Harmony says with a sigh, Chu her Pikachu agreeing with a 'Pika'
"We'll use three Pokemon," the teen says making Ash wince as he only had two at that time, withy Pikachu still missing.
"Three on three is the best way to see what type of pokemon a trainers good at working with and what kind of balance they've got."
"I know, but I've only got two," Ash says sadly causing Harmony to shake her head.
"You have three, one is missing at the moment, which is what we were doing before we met you," she says placing her hand on his shoulder trying to cheer Ash up a bit, something not settling right with seeing him sad.
"You've got to be kidding. Talk about pathetic. Unless you want to battle?" he says offering Harmony.
Harmony thinks for a second chewing her lower lip, "As much as I'd love to, I have way too strong pokemon on me right now, and haven't really settled into the region to start battling people just yet. Plus we're still looking for Ash's Pikachu, maybe another time." she says trying to be nicer only to get the teen to scoff.
"Elekid let's get going." the teen says to his partner as he turns around and they walk off.
"Well isn't he a pleasant person." Harmony says sarcastically, "Don't mind him Ash, we have to keep looking for Pikachu, maybe we'll run into him again when you do have Pikachu and you can challenge him then.
Ash lets out a groan of unhappiness "Man I wish Pikachu was here." he says only for a huge explosion of electricity to come up from aways away in the forest.
"Ash, Harmony, did you hear that too?" Brock says as everyone jumped at the sound.
"That's a volt tackle!" Harmony and Ash cry out, both o their Pikachu's must have known it and they quickly rush off.
They quickly got to the scene where Pikachu was in Team Rocket's grasp in some mecha machine of theirs, and a girl and her Piplup were trying to help.
"Aipom use swift, Starly use whirlwind!" Ash calls out.
"Chu try to ward it off with Electro-Ball!" Harmony calls out letting her Pikachu jump off her shoulder and helps with the attacks.
"Pikachu!" Ash calls out, as they come out from the bushes, Ash's Pikachu seems to be relieved and calls out to his trainer excitedly with a "Pika Pi!"
The girl and her Piplup glance behind them with a gasp.
Team Rocket from their mech try and shoot an arm at Ash only for Harmony to somehow quick enough grab him by his backpack and tug him back, only to fall down. "Ow! What was that for! You guys are horribly rude!" Harmony yells out with a bit more fury than before helping Ash a bit to get back up.
"Oh no, you don't!" Ash says with a growl as he charges at the machine.
"Ash don't do anything crazy!" Brock calls out.
"I think it's a little late for that Brock!" Harmony says as Team Rocket foolishly comes out from inside the mech.
"This is your lucky day after all." The woman with the pink hair curled and long says.
"You get to witness the true brilliance of the new Team Rocket motto." The guy with blue spikey hair says.
"Do we have to?" Ash says with a groan.
"Listen, is that a voice I hear?"
It's speaking to me loud and clear.
On the wind!
Past the stars!
In your ear!
Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace.
Dashing hope, putting fear in its place.
A rose by any other name is just as sweet.
When everything's worse, our work is complete.
Jessie!
And it's James!
And Meowth, now that's a name!
Putting the do-gooders in their place
we're Team Rocket in your face!
Ta-da
Team Rocket, their pokemon and the mech pose in sync.
"That Meowth can talk? Ooo can I catch it! My Perrserker, she would love him!" Harmony coos out earning an unhappy cry from Meowth.
"No! I will not be caught, not like you, Terpette could ever do that." Meowth calls out making Harmony narrow her eyes wanting to accept that challenge.
"Aw, man!" Ash says as he quickly races up towards them.
"Well, we left them speechless again," Meowth says proudly.
"Encore time!" James calls out pressing a button.
"Ash look out!" Harmony cries out, allowing for Ash to somehow dodge and jump against a tree only to grab hold of the mech's arm closest to Pikachu.
"I'm coming! Pikachu!" Ash calls out as he scoots up it making Team Rocket freak out while Pikachu cheers him on. While Ash did that James pressed more buttons causing Harmony to worry.
"Chu think you can cut some o those arms off with an Iron tail?" She asks her pokemon, "Or at least serve as a distraction?" she says earning a nod from her partner that called out something causing the Meowth to gasp.
"Hey! That's not very nice to say! You know what would be better two Pikachus!" he says grabbing the remote from James earning a gasp from him as he misdirects an arm straight into the stomach of the mech. "Uh-oh….shouldn't have done that." Meowth seems to mutter earning a laugh and teasing to come from Chu.
Ash has a conversation with Pikachu as he tries to free him, "Ash hurry I think the mech's gonna blow!" Harmony calls out, moving to grab Chu into her arms out of worry.
It started to smoke when Brock tugged her down covering his head, "GET DOWN!" the girl, Dawn quickly followed suit with her Piplup doing the same as it blows up sending Team Rocket flying.
"Ash!?" Harmony calls out worried as she quickly moves to the rubble, while Brock calls out for Pikachu, soon she hears a rustle as some of the debris is moved with Ash groaning only to spot Pikachu and the two hug. "Awww, you two are so adorable," she says softly, her own Pikachu moving to greet him with Aipom and Starly.
"Pikachu you're okay!" Ash says happily., "Right you haven't met these two, this is Harmony's Pikachu, Chu, and Starly who is my very first pokemon here in the Sinnoh and who helped me find you!" Ash says happily
"Pikachu we did it!" Dawn says happily with her Piplup cheering happily.
"You saved my Pikachu thanks so much my names Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and it's really great to meet you!" Ash greets Dawn.
"Hi I'm Brock!" Brock says.
"And I'm Harmony, from Postwick in the Galar region!" Harmony says, "Of course this is my buddy Chu a Pikachu." she says as Chu races to jump on her shoulder giving a peace sign to greet Dawn.
"Hi guys, my name is Dawn, this is my partner Piplup!" she says as Ash pulls out his dex having not gotten to since Harmony had yet to take her Piplup out from Professor Rowan, having not had time to do so.
"So that's a Piplup huh?"
Piplup the penguin Pokemon. It's very proud and it's thick tail protects it from the cold.
"I sure hope your Piplup's okay after that," Ash says apologetically.
"Thanks but Piplup's fine! You tell him Piplup!" Dawn says looking down at her partner who confirms it happily.
"Wow aren't you a tough guy?" Harmony coos at him, making him stand prouder. "And very proud, you're gonna have your hands full Dawn," she says as Piplup nods only to get woozy and faint.
"Ah! Piplup no!" Dawn cries out.
"Obviously somethings wrong big time," Brock says as he tugs his backpack off and moves to check on Piplup.
"Could be he got hit with an electric attack, he's not looking paralyzed, I've got some hyper potions in my bag if that will help Brock?" Harmony offers to move her own side satchel bag and grabbing one out. "I always have extra because the wild area in Galar is brutal," she explains.
Brock nods as he takes it spraying it on Piplup "It's always important for any trainer to always know the condition of their Pokemon." he slightly scolds Dawn, causing her to fall onto her knees being upset about Piplup.
"I'm sorry Piplup!" she says sadly as he seems to let her know it was okay.
"Now let's have a look at Pikachu." Brock says, earning a relieved 'Pika Pika' from Pikachu.
"I think a bit of a potion and an Oran berry would do the trick." Harmony says fishing out a berry from her bag.
"Thanks, Brock, Harmony you two are the best," he says as Pikachu happily munches down on the berry while Chu seems to want one as she looks up at Harmony with big eyes.
"Oh alright, you can have one too," She says.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Once everyone was fully ready to go they continued on Route 202 until they found a payphone when Harmony complained her Rotom phone didn't have a signal.
"Why are none of the Regions able to have my phone work outside of city limits." She says unhappily, "Using a payphone, really?" she bemoans unhappily only to shush when Ash elbows her alerting her that Professor Rowan was on the videophone.
"Well that's excellent, I can't tell you how happy I am for you. Everything worked out just perfectly." Rowan says through the phone.
"Thanks, Professor!" Dawn says happily.
"Of course, by the way, Ash, I just received a package for you from your mother." Rowans says, "As well as a Pokemon from your mother as well as Harmony.
"From my mom?" Ash asks confused.
"Mum sent over one of my pokemon? Oh, I hope it wasn't one that was getting into trouble, my Slyveon loves to cause trouble with Mum's Budews…." she says with a sigh knowing that was probably who it was, "She hates being apart from me and causes trouble knowing she'll send her to me."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
As the four trainers and their pokemon walked back towards Professor Rowan's lab they all got talking about what they had done.
"You've really competed in that many contests?" Dawn says with wide eyes, "And won them too? That must be you've got some cool Pokemon."
"Yeah, though it really is my Pokemon who deserve all the credit, they used to play in the wild area in Galar and figure out combo moves, plus I love combining things that don't make sense like electric moves with water, or fire and water to form things really well. My favorite pairing is Cinder, my Cinderace, and Melody, my Milotic, those two bring a punch." Harmony explains.
Eventually, they got talking about Brock, "Wow Brock that's so cool you're a breeder. I know this has got to be the first time I've ever met a real Pokemon breeder ever!"
"Really?" Brock says flattered, "As soon as we get back to the lab I'll make some special pokemon food that's perfect for water types," he says making Piplup cheer and Dawn to laugh.
"You're a lucky Pokemon Piplup," Dawn says happily, only to hear a motorcycle up ahead with Officer Jenny on it.
"Oh look it's Officer Jenny!" Harmony says happily.
"I heard the news!" Officer Jenny yells out.
"Hey, Jenny!" Ash says happily.
"That's so great! How's Pikachu?" Jenny asks.
"Fine, thanks again for your help," Ash says and goes on to say something else only for Brock to jump in all lovey-dovey again towards Jenny making Harmony and Ash sweatdrop.
"Is this going to happen every time there's a pretty woman?" she asks, "That is not healthy in the slightest, he's acting worse than Raihan is with girls." she mutters under her breath as she moves to pull Brock off of Jenny, "Okay Brock time to get going back to Professor Rowans! Thanks so much, Officer Jenny!" she calls out.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Wow! Check out the new clothes!" Ash says as he unboxes his package from his mom.
"She even put a new backpack in there too," Brock says.
"And here is my Pokemon, who was causing trouble!" Harmony says tossing it up revealing her Sylveon who jumped for joy when she saw her trainer her ribbons flying to tangle around her hugging her tightly. "I missed you too my darling but you can't hold so tight." Harmony winces when they got too tight.
Sylveon quickly let go in favor of greeting Chu while Ash went to call his mother. When he was done he called everyone in saying he needed to call Professor Oak.
"Oh I can't wait, I've never met him before, he's really amazing, he used to be champion when he was way younger, and his lectures are incredible." Harmony gushes, "I used to stay up trying to see them because they were on late at night in Galar when they aired them." she says hearing a chuckle and her cheeks flush when she noticed that Professor Oak was on the screen making her flinch and elbow Ash, "Why didn't you tell me before I went on a rant on him!" she whisper-yells at him.
"This is Harmony, she helped me look, and this is Dawn she's the one who saved Pikachu," Ash says gesturing to each of the girls when he said their names.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet both of you, and one of you being a brand new trainer."
"Right, I uh...I hope you don't mind. You love Pokemon Poetry don't you?" Dawn says causing Ash, Brock, and Harmony to gasp as if that was what she was excited about and not all his other important Pokemon Professor stuff.
"Yes, I do!" Professor Oak says almost excitedly while the other sweatdrop and Dawn cheers.
"Awesome, does that mean you know all the Pokemon Poets?"
"You don't get it. He's a real Pokemon Professor, just like Professor Rowan" Ash tries to explain but it doesn't get through to Dawn.
"But how come I always see him on TV reading Poems?" Dawn asks which causes Ash to laugh trying to figure out how to explain it.
"Well how come uh…" Ash says as he tries to figure out what to say to that.
"Say perhaps the good professor and I should have a little discussion" Professor Rowan says after coming into the room.
"Well well well, Professor! Say Ash may I speak with him for a moment?" Professor Oak asks Ash.
"Sure!" Ash says as he moves so Professor Rowan can get closer only to scold Professor Oak about his Poetry.
"Those two must go way back." Brock comments.
"Guess so," Ash says with a chuckle.
"So what are you three doing here anyway?" Dawn asks.
"I'm wanting to compete in the Sinnoh League and make it to the Grand Festival," Harmony says as Sylveon lets go of her wrist and heads to the other Pokemon to greet them.
"Hey that's why I came too, well the Sinnoh League, not the Grand Festival," Ash says with a chuckle.
"Okay it looks like the closest Gym to Sangam town is in Oreburgh City, Jubilife City is right on the way," Brock explains causing Dawn to gasp.
"That's awesome! Can I go too?" Dawn asks, "I want to be the number one contest coordinator and the first contest I want to compete in is in Jubilife City!" Dawn says excitedly.
"That's great then! I was going to research when the first contest was on the way to the gym, it looks like that makes us rivals Dawn." Harmony says with a wink.
"That's great! You both can come along then, plus it means I get to train more with Harmony if she'll battle me" Ash says excitedly earning a grin from her.
"Oh, you bet I'll help train with you, it'll help our pokemon grow to more than they are now," Harmony says happily, their pokemon all come over excitedly. "And everyone sees to get along great so that's a plus!"
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
It wasn't long before everyone was ready to go. Harmony returning Sylveon to her Pokeball while Chu jumped up on her shoulder nuzzling her.
"Hey we're all set, let's go!" Ash says enthusiastically causing Dawn to furrow her brows in confusion.
"Hold on, Harmony, Ash, aren't you two going to put your Pikachu's in their Pokeballs?" she asks.
Harmony and Ash shake their heads, "Mine doesn't prefer it, she'll go in if she desperately wants to which is rarely at all." she explains.
"Pikachu hates traveling that way when my shoulder's much more fun," Ash says as Pikachu cheers in agreement.
"Wow that's amazing," Dawn says intrigued.
"You'll learn that there are many different pokemon personalities as there are Pokemon." Professor Rowan says.
"We've got to get going now, but thanks for everything you've done for us Professor," Ash explains to the Professor.
"Of course," Rowan says to Ash and leads the group of four out the door only to be greeted by the teen they met earlier.
"Oh it's you, I didn't expect us to see you this quickly, figured we wouldn't see you until getting to the gym," Harmony says with a shrug.
"Yes, who are you?" Professor Rowan asks a bit wary of the teen.
"The names Paul and from the looks of things you must be Professor Rowan, I'm waiting for him," Paul says almost bitterly looking towards Ash.
"Well, at least we got his name now." Harmony mutters, "Still could use some manners." she murmurs.
"You've got three Pokemon now, wanna battle?" Paul says baiting Ash.
This fires up Pikachu who gets himself ready getting Ash to agree, "Sure, I'm ready, I'm gonna be a Pokemon Master, and to be that is to beat challengers like you!" Ash says as Pikachu jumps off his shoulder and into a battle stance.
Professor Rowan agrees and lets everyone go to his back garden where there was an open space big enough for a Pokemon battle.
The battle didn't go well for Ash, with Ash's Starly losing against Paul's rather quickly, but when it came to Aipom vs Chimchar the winner was clear with Aipom. The final round was Pikachu against Elekid which ended in a tie, but Paul did not seem too pleased and let out a small scoff like a laugh.
"Wow, I guess that means those two are equally as strong," Dawn says in awe at the tie.
"I thought Pikachu went down first though, Elekid was right behind it but still," Harmony says softly while Chu jumped off her shoulder to try and check on Ash's Pikachu with worry. As she sparked her cheeks a bit against his.
"We lost, isn't that right?" Ash calls out louder to Paul.
"It was called as a tie, so a tie it is," he says with little emotion before grabbing a Pokeball, the one containing Starly and releasing it into the wild, causing Ash to get upset. And Chu had to quickly jump on his shoulder to avoid being knocked down.
"What'd you do that for!" Ash says angrily.
"There's a million Starly's as strong as that one, soon as I run across a stronger one I'll just grab it," he says looking away as if disinterested in the conversation at all.
"You'll just what?" Ash says bearing his teeth.
"Professor, thanks for the use of the field, I appreciate it," he says not even bothering with Ash anymore and turns to leave which angers Ash even more.
"Come on wait! Let's battle again Paul!" Ash calls out, causing Harmony to grab his arm.
"He's not really worth it to get upset about Ash," she says softly trying to cool him down as Pikachu finally wakes up causing Chu to squeal a bit happier moving to sit in Ash's arms to give him an electric nuzzle.
"Well that was quick, usually she takes forever to warm up to other Pikachu, she hates the ones near Turfield if we ran into them, always was quick to shoot the males down and get feisty with females." Harmony muses, "I'll have to look into it…" she says pulling her Rotom phone out trying to find anything she could while the two Pikachu's seemed to distract Ash from Paul.
"Huh, I've never seen Pikachu act this way either…," Ash says confused at how his buddy was reacting cooing and acting almost anew after that quick spark from Chu.
"I'll see if Professor Magnolia knows anything. I can't find anything online." Harmony says with a groan as she taps away to send off. "And it's just our luck that it's late in Galar so she won't get the email until tomorrow or tonight at the earliest," she says. "Oh well for now at least Pikachu and Chu get along and seem to be happy, maybe it's a good thing?" she says.
"Yeah...it's just strange, we should head out, that way we get to the Pokemon Center to stay in tonight," Brock says earning a nod approval from everyone and they make their way away from the lab thanking Professor Rowan as they left.
Who knows what will lead the heroes next time!
I hope that chapter was okay! I'm not sure I can keep this up doing daily, I've got finals in 2 weeks so that is the priority and I've got two papers due soon that I need to finish!