AN: Hey there everyone!

P: So… what was the poll result?

K: You'll be seeing that in this chapter.

T: I'm sure that everyone would rather get onto that then, so these two don't own Pokemon, let's rock!

Chapter 27.

The ever-expanding group of trainers and Pokemon were currently walking down a road, just to the left of the massive forest they had came out of a few hours before. Bolt was walking alongside the group, talking with Crimson again about things that used to happen in his old group. The still currently unnamed Bulbasaur sat in Mia's arms, looking interestedly at the both of them. Oddish was sitting in Misty's arms as well, getting used to having a trainer. Mia and Ash were talking telepathically, trying to come up with a good name for Bulbasaur.

'Sol?'

'Good, but feels more like a Fire type name to me. What about Kusa?'

'Sounds girly. Firudo?'

'Again, Fire like.' Mia stared off into the trees for a moment, frowning. 'What about Fushin?'

'Sounds pretty cool, actually. We'll need to see what Bulbasaur thinks, but I like the name.'

'So do I. I'll check with him though.' Mia looked down at the starter in her arms. "Hey Bulbasaur?" He looked back at her.

'Yes Mia?' He cocked his head. 'What's up?'

"How do you like the name Fushin? I thought it sounded cool."

'Fushin…' He repeated it a few times, thinking. He nodded. 'Yeah, I like it.'

"You do?" Fushin nodded again, and her smile lit up. "Great! Now I think you're officially a team member."

'And like I said earlier, you'll then have a team training session and regret that decision to join us.' Bolt muttered again, breaking away from his conversation for a moment.

'They aren't that bad, Bolty.' Crimson reprimanded, tapping him with her tail. 'They're certainly helpful, at least.'

"Ash!" Misty shouted, turning around to them. She was much further ahead than the rest of the group, having run ahead slightly to the top of a nearby hill to take a look around at everything. Oddish was looking over her shoulder at something, having leapt from her arms to take a position much like Bolt did when walking with Ash. "There's something over here!"

"There is?" He questioned, jogging over. "What is it?"

"I don't know." She pointed towards a rock. "But I think it might be a Pokemon. I saw it crawl onto that rock there, coming out of those bushes," She pointed to the forest on their left, tracing the path the Pokemon had walked. "And it hasn't done anything since."

"Huh. Did you see what it looked like?"

"A bit. It was walking pretty slowly, but I didn't really pay attention to it." She admitted. "It was white, walked on four legs, and had a little puffy tail that looked kind of like a cloud."

"I don't know any Pokemon like that, at least not off the top of my head." He told her. "Mia?"

"Nothing comes to mind." She shook her head. "What about you, Brock?"

"I don't know either." The Rock type user added. "Should we go and take a look?"

"Sure." Holding out an arm for Bolt to jump to, Ash led the way over, telepathically conversing with his 'cousin'. 'You really don't know?'

'Seriously. I've created a little under eight hundred Pokemon, including Legendaries, so you can't expect me to remember all of them.'

'Actually, I kind of can.' He countered. 'It's kind of your job, I'm pretty sure.'

'Look, just shut up and go find out what it is, ok?' Mia replied, flustered. Bolt started subtly sniffing at the air.

'It smells sort of cold, like ice.' He noted, tilting his head in confusion.

"Ice?" Ash raised an eyebrow. "There aren't all that many Ice types in Kanto, and none of them fit the description."

"Yeah. There's Dewgong, which is part Water so that's not it, Jynx, which looks human-like and doesn't fit a single bit of the description Misty gave, and Articuno, which I seriously doubt we're looking at." Mia listed.

"So either the Pokemon's from another region, or it's one that no one's ever found before." Brock observed.

"Might as well find out." Ash circled around the rock, seeing the Pokemon Misty had mentioned curled up on the other side. The Pokemon was quadrupled, like she'd said, and had a little cloud-like patch of fur on it's head. It had blue eyes, and blue fur on the inside of it's ears as well. Other than that, it was a purely snow white, the entire coat being the same colour. 'Still don't recognise it?'

'Not off the top of my head. Give it a few minutes.' Mia scowled slightly, a movement that both of their team mates thankfully missed.

'Hello there.' Bolt greeted quietly, jumping down. The little white Pokemon jumped, shuffling away.

"Hey, there's no need to worry." Ash soothed. "We're not going to hurt you, I promise."

'Who're you?' It asked, in a feminine voice.

"My name's Ash, and this is my partner, Bolt. I'm a Pokemon trainer." He told her, after a moment to fake translate to himself.

'It's nice to meet you.' She said shyly. Behind the group, Mia gave up trying to puzzle out what the Pokemon was from knowledge, and took out the barely used Pokedex she'd been given by the Professor.

"Vulpix, Fox Pokemon. This Pokemon can exhale air colder than -58 degrees fahrenheit. Elderly people in Alola call this Pokemon by an older name- Keokeo. This Vulpix is female. Note: This Pokemon is in it's Alolan Form."

"Alolan Form?" Misty asked. "What's that?"

"I've never heard of it." Brock replied, glancing at both other trainers, who shook their heads.

"I feel like I should know what it means, but I can't think of it." Mia admitted, frowning. "Maybe we should call Professor Oak about it."

"That might work. He'd probably know." Ash nodded. "Say, do you have a trainer?"

'Yes, but he's not here at the moment.' She revealed. 'He needed to go and get something from town, and needed my to stay here and look after something for him.'

'And you're ok with that?' Crimson asked, incredulous.

'Of course! It's an honour for him to have me look after something important.' She smiled. 'He doesn't let us do many things, because we're not strong enough, so leaving me here alone shows that he thinks I'm strong and can handle myself! He's a great trainer.'

'I smell lies.' Mia growled.

'Nothing we can really do even so.' Ash noted sadly. "I suppose we should leave you alone, then. If your trainer came back now, he might get the wrong idea and think we're trying to steal you."

'I don't think you'd do that.' She commented. 'You seem nice as well.'

"But your trainer wouldn't know that." He told her. "So we'll leave you to your job. Maybe we'll see your trainer at some point and get to battle with you."

'I hope not. I don't like fighting all that much.' She shook her head, fluffing her cloud tail slightly. 'But if I need to, then I guess I will.'

'That's a good attitude to have.' Crimson beamed. 'Too many mons like fighting for my tastes. It's refreshing to see one that doesn't like to, but will if she needs to.'

'True.' Bolt agreed. 'Come on Crimson, let's leave her be. Ash is right about her trainer.'

'Sure.' The Fire type nodded, turning back to her trainer, and waved at the Vulpix. 'Hopefully we'll see you again. Keep safe.'

'I will.' She waved a paw back, smiling. Ash and his team began walking away, though the boy lingered at the back of the group for a few moments, looking worriedly at the small Pokemon, before Misty called for him and he ran forward. Vulpix watched them go, a sad look on her face. 'Bye bye nice trainer. Please keep treating your Pokemon well.' She lay back down and curled up, missing the way the Pikachu's ears pricked up at the statement.

A few minutes down the road, the entire group came to a halt.

"So, what do you think of that?" Ash asked, looking around. Since Mia had been whispering a translation of the entire conversation to the two humans, they knew what had been said.

"I'm worried, but I don't think we could do anything." Misty sighed. Brock frowned, nodding.

"A trainer is technically within their rights to leave their Pokemon unattended." He informed them. "Even if the Pokemon got hurt, they didn't do anything illegal leaving them alone for a while. If they're left for days, it would then count as abandoning the Pokemon and the trainer can be arrested for that, assuming the Pokemon wasn't released."

"I have never realised how complex the law is on Pokemon." Mia blinked. Maybe I should have just gotten caught by a nice trainer and worked with them.

'There's something else you might want to know.' Bolt piped up, causing everyone to look at him while Mia translated. 'When we walked off, the Vulpix said something else. It was kinda quiet, and I only barely heard it, but she said goodbye, and asked you to keep treating your Pokemon well.' Bolt tapped Ash on the side of the head. The group was silent for a minute, frowning.

"I want to go back there and get her." Ash growled.

"I'd agree, but we can't do anything without actual hard proof, and if we tried to take her anywhere we'd likely get accused of stealing." Brock reasoned. "We can't do anything about it." Mia growled slightly, sounding rather like the Beasts that she was good friends with, and Fushin looked up from her feet in surprise. Oddish hopped off her trainer's shoulder to stand by her friend, whispering something to him. He nodded, looking proudly at Oddish, before speaking.

'Here's an idea.' The group turned to him. 'We could leave a fast Pokemon with Vulpix to look after her, and have them run to get us if something happened.'

"I think Arch could do it." Mia volunteered. "He's pretty fast, and while Pidgeotto aren't exactly common, they're not a rare sight in the wild. Good idea Oddish." Taking a Pokeball from her belt, she released the bird Pokemon.

'Sup Mia?' He greeted, stretching.

"Hey Arch." She reached over, patting his head. "I need you to do something for me."

'Sure.'

"There's a Vulpix sitting on a rock over there. She says she has a trainer, but he's left her there to look after something while he's gone. All of us suspect foul play, so we thought we should leave a fast Pokemon with her. If her trainer comes, you can leave, but if something happens you come and get us."

'Sure, I can do that for you.' He spread his wings, getting ready for takeoff.

"Oh, and before you go, she's a special kind of Vulpix. The Pokedex called her an Alolan Form, but I don't know what that is. She's a snowy white, with a puff of fur on her head that looks like a cloud. Her tail's the same."

'Right, special Vulpix, find it and look after it, got it.' He nodded, sweeping his wings down to take off. 'I'll see you later.' Soaring over the forest, he circled a few times before heading towards Cerulean again.

"Now that's done, Brock, where are we?" Misty looked at the darker boy, who took out a map.

"There's a Pokemon Center about a mile away, so we can head to that." The group agreed, and started walking south again, the trainers picking up their respective Grass types as they did.

Vulpix had been dozing in the sun for a few minutes, thinking about the four trainers that had just left, when the sound of beating wings made her jump. Her first instinct was to run into the bushes, in case it was an attacker, but her trainer also had a Fearow, and it might be him returning. Just in case, however, she prepared an Icy Wind, ready to use it to buy herself time to get away. When a Pidgeotto landed next to her, she almost fired her attack and ran, but stopped, realising it hadn't moved to attack her, just look at her.

'You're an odd Pokemon.' He commented, looking over her. She blushed, hiding her face in her paws. 'That's not a bad thing, but what're you doing out here on your own?'

'My trainer needed to get some stuff, so he left me here to look after something while he was gone.' She said, relaxing slightly.

'Huh.' He scoffed. 'Sounds irresponsible to me. Then again, I suppose some people might say the same about my trainer. She lets me fly off whenever I want, so long as I'm back before sunset.'

'Who's your trainer? And how do you find them?' Vulpix cocked her head, curious.

'I find them by looking for good camping grounds from the air. Plus, there's normally quite a few Pokemon out and around them, so I just look for a massive group on or by the road.' He told her. 'And my trainer's name is Mia. I'm Arch, by the way. Do you have a name?'

'No. My trainer just calls me Vulpix. I don't remember if my family gave me a name.' Arch stretched out a wing, patting her on the back.

'That's a shame. Well, I've got nothing better to do and about three hours to spare. Mind if I hang about?'

'No, I don't mind.' Vulpix shook her head negative. 'Maybe you could tell me more about your trainer?'

*Two and a half hours later.*

"I hope Arch's ok…" Mia said, looking out the window. The group was sitting in the Pokemon Center, with Ash and Bolt looking at his Pokedex, Misty was using a laptop she'd borrowed from Brock to look at movesets for Oddish, since she didn't have a Pokedex and needed to know more, while Brock was reading quietly from an orange book in the corner. Crimson and Fushin were in their Pokeballs, while Oddish was sitting on Misty's lap to look at the computer screen.

"He'll be fine." Misty assured her, glancing up. "He's plenty powerful, and you let him do this all the time."

"But not normally on a mission to protect a Pokemon." She pointed out. "Plus, it looks like there's a storm coming. He won't be able to fly if he gets caught in that, and if something were to happen…" Inwardly, Mia was weighing the advantages of heading to the bathroom, transforming, going invisible, leaving through a window and using Sunny Day to clear the weather. Admittedly it would only last half an hour and she'd mess up the weather patterns slightly, but if it kept her Pokemon and the little Vulpix safe, then she'd do it in a heartbeat.

"Mia, have some faith in your Pokemon." Ash told her. "Arch'll be fine. Don't you trust him?"

"I do, it's just…" She trailed off in a frustrated groan. "Right, I'm going to the bathroom. If something comes up while I'm gone, tell me please." The Mew left her seat, slipping through the door just as a group of boys came walking in, talking loudly.

"Oh great." Misty almost face planted onto the table, but managed to restrain herself. "A group of really loud, slightly obnoxious boys."

"We can leave to our rooms in a minute." Ash offered. "If there's going to be a storm, there's no way I'm leaving. We'll wait for Mia and Arch to get back, then head upstairs and away."

"We could go up when Mia gets back and sit on the roof. It'll be easier for Arch to find us then." Brock recommended.

"I can deal with that." Before any of them could add anything else, one of the boys seated at the table two behind them laughed.

"Damn, Damian, that's one hell of a story!" He announced loudly. "How'd that even happen?"

"I told you already, that silly Pokemon got in the way." Another boy with blue hair and sunglasses, likely Damian, answered. "I don't even know why I bought that thing."

"Where'd you get it from?"

"An old friend of mine called me up one day and asked if I wanted this Vulpix." At this, Ash and his group stiffened slightly. However, all three continued looking at what they were previously doing, in order to avoid being caught eavesdropping on the group. "So I took it off his hands, since it's a weird type of Vulpix and I reckoned it might be pretty powerful. But no, it's practically useless."

"Where is it now?" A third boy asked.

"I gave it a crystal that I got with the Pokemon that doesn't do anything and told it that the crystal was really important, and I needed it to protect it while I went to get some things, then left it on a rock." He scoffed. "It's probably still there now." Ash froze for a moment, almost growling in rage, but typed quickly onto his Pokedex.

"Hey Brock, Misty," He said quietly, bringing their attention to him. "I'm gonna go get Arch. If Mia asks, say I went to go make sure he knew where we were, since he wouldn't know we were going to the Center."

"Sure thing." Both nodded, with Brock going back to his book. Misty went to look back at the computer, with Oddish sitting in her lap, but Ash gently took her wrist, making her look up.

"Feel free to scan Oddish with my Pokedex. I don't know if it'll say anything about her current abilities, but it'll at least do better with moves sets. I should have offered earlier, so sorry about that."

"No problem." She gladly took the Pokedex from the boy as he and Bolt stood to head outside. Looking down to figure out where the scan option was, having never used a Pokedex before, she noticed what was on the screen currently and gasped. "Brock." The dark trainer put his book face down and leaned over, looking over her shoulder.

"What's up…?" He read the screen as well. Don't tell Mia what Damian said. There will be blood if you do. I'll deal with it later/tomorrow. Seriously. When she gets back, head upstairs as soon as you can. Trust me on this one. I'll explain to you later on, maybe with Mia. Sorry. Both shared a worried look, and the door to the bathroom opened, Mia walked over to them with a faint smile. Hurriedly, Misty deleted the message and looked over the Pokedex, while Brock practically dove for his book and put it in his bag.

"Hey guys." She grinned. "Where'd Ash and Bolt go?"

"They went to go get Arch." Misty replied, returning the smile. "Ash realised that Arch didn't know we were in the Pokemon Center, and he didn't want him to get lost."

"He could have at least waited for me." She frowned. "Oh well. Should we just wait for him then?"

"Actually, I'd like you to give me a hand with this." The redhead held up the borrowed Pokedex, smiling sheepishly. "I don't know how it works, and I'd like to use it to take a look at Oddish. The computer's a little hard to work with."

"Sure." Sitting next to the other girl, she took the Pokedex from her hands.

"I'll take my laptop back then, since there's something I want to check out as well." Brock added, pulling the computer over. As they started their own projects, both Misty and Brock were silently chanting don't start talking, don't start talking, we don't want Mia to explode. Thankfully, the group in the corner remained quiet, milling about for a few minutes.

While Misty and Brock panicked about Mia overhearing something that would likely doom them all, though they didn't know it, Ash was sprinting for the trees with Bolt in tow.

'Why're we going this way?' The Pokemon called.

'Because I'm dropping my human form and flying, that's why!' He telepathed back, passing the treeline.

'Why?'

'It's faster.' He said simply, before changing form in a small tornado of bubbles. Picking up Bolt in his psychic grip, unsteady as it was, he went straight up until he was high enough that the two wouldn't be seen, then started flying in the direction of Arch and Vulpix. 'I don't get as tired flying like this, so it's better than running. I'll probably have to run back anyway, so I might as well fly.'

'What about Vulpix!?' He called back, over the rushing wind. 'She doesn't know, remember?!'

'Pretty much don't care, to be honest. I'll land away from them and transform again, but I wouldn't object too much to them seeing me in this form.'

'You are too reckless.' Bolt muttered, unheard over the wind. Within a few minutes, they landed near to the rock they'd seen Vulpix on earlier, and a second bubble tornado signalled Ash swapping back again. Bolt was let out of the grip and dropped to the floor, immediately running out into the clearing, heedless of the storm gathering above. 'Arch!'

'Hey Bolt.' The bird returned lazily, glancing over. 'What're you doing here?'

"We came to get you and Vulpix." Ash told him, walking out from the bushes.

'Why?' The little white Pokemon asked quietly. 'I need to wait for my trainer!'

"If you're trainer's as nice as you say he is, I doubt he'd want you out here in the rain. You might get sick." Ash argued, sitting down. "What's your trainer's name, anyway?"

'Damian.' She answered. 'And he is nice! Not always, and not really to me, but he's nice to us when we're strong! That's why I'm here! Because I'm strong and he wanted to reward me by showing he could trust me!'

"Vulpix…" Ash said sadly. "I'm sorry to say this, but Damian's a liar."

'What? How could you say that? You've never met him!' The little Pokemon was outraged, and the air around them chilled slightly.

"I…" Ash frowned, weighing the options he had. Sighing, he gave up. "Let me show you."

'What do you mean?' She tilted her head, confused.

"I'm not very good, but I can share memories telepathically." He explained. "We were in the Pokemon Center when we overheard a group of trainers coming in. One of them was called Damian, and he mentioned that he'd taken a weird kind of Vulpix from an old friend and when he'd found out that it was useless, he left it with a crystal he'd found that didn't do anything and told it to stay on a rock, then left. He didn't plan to come back."

'No… no, you're lying!' Vulpix leapt up, yelling. 'Damian's a nice person! He wouldn't do that!'

'He's telling the truth, Vulpix.' Bolt said sadly. 'Damian was lying to you.'

"Let me show you." Focusing carefully, Ash called up his memories of the events in the Pokemon Center, and attempted to show her telepathically what had happened. A few seconds later, Vulpix was staring at the rock she stood on, tearing up.

'He… really didn't want me…' She cried. 'I want to go home.'

"What do you mean?" Ash asked, confused.

'Damian bought me off a mean man that took me from home. Damian was nice to me, and I wanted to impress him, but I guess I wasn't good enough.' Ash's blood was boiling.

I really don't want to tell this to Mia. He gulped. She'd probably turn this guy to dust. Then bring him back and torture him in a Mew Game for all eternity. All three Pokemon looked worriedly at the Mew hybrid, who was shaking and pale.

"Right, let's go to the Pokemon Center." Vulpix curled up.

'No! We might run into Damian, and he'd think you're trying to steal me!'

"Then you could hide in my bag or wait outside." Then Ash blinked, reaching for his bag. "Hang on a tic. Do you know if he released you?"

'There was a red light when I was released earlier.' She admitted.

"Then you're no longer his Pokemon, and I can catch you instead." He offered. "He can't complain even if I don't and just take you to the Center, since officially he's not your trainer."

'I'd rather come with you.' She said quickly. 'Then I can hide from him.'

"Alright. First, where's that crystal you were given earlier?" He looked around. "You might not be able to take it with you if I catch you."

'It's right here.' Shifting her tails, Vulpix pulled a little crystal from underneath. It was mostly pale pink, with a little black mark in the centre. 'I don't know what it is.'

"Well, it looks cool. I'll put it in my bag, and we'll try and find out what it is for you." Ash carefully put it in a small pocket, taking out a Pokeball as he did. Offering it to Vulpix, she smiled, then tapped it with a paw. It didn't even struggle once before it clicked. Releasing her again, she shook herself, then looked confusedly at Ash. "We're walking back anyway, so I thought you might want to be outside."

'Thank you.' She bounced down next to him, smiling.

"Now you need a name, since all of my team has nicknames."

'So Arch, and Bolt, right?'

'Yeah, but like I said, Ash isn't my trainer. His cousin, Mia, has the same ideas though.' Arch told her.

"How about Snowdrop?" Ash asked. "You look kinda like an Ice type."

'Don't you have your Pokedex?' Arch questioned. 'Just scan her.'

'Misty's got the Pokedex at the moment. She's using it to look at Oddish.' Bolt replied.

'I like that name.' The newly named Snowdrop smiled. 'Thank you.'

"No problem. Now, should we get a move on?" He put his arm down, letting Bolt jump up, before picking up Snowdrop and standing. "Arch, I assume you'll be flying alongside us?"

'Yep. We'll need to make it fast, though. There's a storm coming, and I'd hate to get caught in it.' Arch shot a miserable look at the sky, already clouded over.

"You could just fly on a little ahead of us, if you'd like." Ash offered. "If the idea of being stuck in a storm annoys you that much."

'Nah, I'll hang about with you.' Arch shuffled his wings. 'Anyway, let's get a move on. I'd like to be back some time this century.'

'Yeah, we don't have the time to spare when it comes to centuries.' Bolt joked, nudging Ash with his tail.

"Ha ha. Very funny you two. I'm so glad Mom isn't here right now…" He murmured, trailing off with a sigh.

'Won't you need to explain to Mia what happened in the Pokemon Center when we get back, since we have Snowdrop here?' Arch asked.

"Yes. Then I'll need to restrain her from going and vaporizing Damian." He deadpanned.

'Why would she do that?'

"Because Mia's a mad woman when it comes to Pokemon."

'Well, she does have a good reason.' Bolt argued. 'After all, it was her job-'

'Bolt boy, hold it for later. We don't need to explain to Snowdrop when anyone could hear us.' Arch lightly slapped Bolt with his wing, having banked downwards slightly to do so, and almost knocked him down.

"Arch, calm down." Ash sighed. "Seriously, we'll deal with that stuff when we get back." The rest of the walk passed mostly in silence, with Arch occasionally flying ahead, before circling back to them and repeating the circuit. Snowdrop fidgeted in his arms a little, and he glanced down. "What's up?"

'Nothing.' She responded quickly. 'I'm just a little worried. What do you mean that you'll need to stop Mia from vaporizing Damian?'

"It's not all that important." Ash told her. "We'll deal with it when we get back."

'Speaking of which, let's head back a little faster, yeah?' Bolt asked. 'I know we can go faster than this.'

"Fine." Ash picked up his pace, moving almost at a run, but Arch still continued doing his loops around them. "I just don't want to run into Damian is all."

'Well, I guess that's fair.' Bolt gave, nodding. 'Still, the sooner we get back, the less likely Mia is to explode when she figures it out. Or reads Misty's mind, or Brocks.'

"That's also a good argument." The orange roof of the building came into sight, and he smiled. "So, let's head back to my 'cousin', shall we?" Arch nodded, hovering just over the building, and his eyes widened as the door opened and a blue haired boy walked out.

That's that kid! His eyes narrowed into a glare as the boys group walked out behind him, and Ash stopped at the top of the hill to listen in.

"...So you really don't want that thing back?"

"Course not." Damian scoffed, rolling his eyes. "It's useless, just like that crystal from before. I'll just leave it to itself. Why should I care what happens to it? I released it anyway, so no one could say I've done something illegal." He shrugged, leading the way as the group walked down the road. Three of the listeners were shaking in anger, while the last was looking down with tears in her eyes.

'It's true.' Snowdrop whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. 'I didn't doubt it, since you showed me that memory, but…' Ash hugged her close, walking down to the door to the Center. The doors opened, and Ash was greeted to the sight of Mia standing stock still right in front of him, looking out the door. Ash would have thought that she was simply waiting for him, if it weren't for the fact that he knew his parent Pokemon well, and could easily see her blue eyes. They were flickering red, literally ablaze with a flame.

Oooohhh sshhhooot. He put on a friendly grin, hoping to defuse the incoming storm of a situation. "Hey Mia! Sorry I just vanished, I went to go get Arch!"

"Why do you have Vulpix with you then?" All four gulped; her tone was more icy than the mountains in Sinnoh.

"Oh, I thought it would be better to have her come to the Pokemon Center, since it looks like a storm and I didn't want her to get sick." Behind the pink haired Pokemon in disguise, Misty and Brock were coming over to the door as well.

"Oh really?" She looked sceptical. "Are you sure it's not because that useless stain of a trainer Damian decided to abandon her, and you got wind of it?" Now there was acid in her tone as well, and she was glaring after the blue haired trainer.

"I might have done." Ash admitted, hoping to defuse her that way.

"Arch, return." The bird looked disgruntled as he vanished into the Pokeball. "Ash, you're coming with me, and we're hunting that kid down!"

"What're you going to do?" Ash sweatdropped, backing up ever so slightly.

"I'm going to kick his butt, then throw him to space, then call Rayquaza to send him back down, then liquidise him and throw him INTO THE SUN!" She looked slightly deranged, and both their travelling companions were backing away as well.

"Don't you think that's a little overkill?" Misty asked timidly, reminding the other girl that they were there. The pink haired volcano let out a slow, weary breath, and Ash watched the raging fire in her eyes calm slightly before she turned.

"Maybe, but I have a list of things that drive me mad. Very close to the top of that list are people who abandon Pokemon. Also on there are thieves, hunters, abusers, and poachers, not necessarily in that order, but poachers are at the top of the list."

'Still, that seems pretty harsh.' Snowdrop offered, before curling up slightly again.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I must have scared you." Mia, now acting more like a mom, crouched down to look at the smaller Pokemon. "My name's Mia. I'm Ash's cousin."

'Arch mentioned that his trainer was called Mia.' Snowdrop nodded. 'I guessed that was you when you returned him.'

"Yep. Sorry about just now, I guess it could have been a little upsetting."

'Not really.' She said sadly. 'Ash showed me what happened earlier, and we all heard what Damian said when he left. It's a little upsetting, but I'll deal with it.' She looked down, stuffing her face into Ash's arms. Mia raised an eyebrow at the boy, who carefully shrugged.

"I caught her when I offered to bring her with me. Damian officially released her so no one could press anything against him for neglecting his Pokemon."

"That's low." She spat, frowning. Ash quickly moved to defuse her again.

"True, but we won't get anything now. We should report this to Professor Oak in the morning, when we ask about Alolan Pokemon, and we'll likely get a chance to battle him anyway." Ash told her.

'Damian was doing that Pokemon League, so you might see him then if you are too.' Snowdrop mentioned.

"See? He'll get what he deserves." He promised.

"Fine. I can deal with that." Patting the Vulpix on the head gently, Mia asked another question. "So, how'd you end up with him?"

'Damian bought me from some guys. I think they were friends. Before that, I was wild, but got caught by that pair that sold me to Damian. I think they might have caught my Meema's before, but I never saw them.' Mia twitched. 'Is something wrong?'

"Remember I said I hate people who abandon Pokemon?" She checked. "Like I said, also on that list of people that tick me off are thieves, hunters, abusers, and poachers. While I've no way to prove the first three, those guys are almost definitely poachers." Mia scowled. "I really don't want to wait for the Pokemon League to beat this guy."

"Well, you're gonna have to." Ash told her firmly. "We don't have anything we can do to him now, but we can publically beat him in the League."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you, cousin." Mia winked. "I'm going to head to sleep. The sooner I do, the sooner we can talk to Oak and bust Damian." The pink haired girl spun, heading straight for the stairs. Misty and Brock hung about a moment, trading a glance.

"I now see why you didn't want to her find out." The older boy observed.

"Honestly, we're lucky I managed to talk her out of it." Ash shuddered. "I've never found out why she hates poachers so much more than the others in that list, and I don't intend to. I'm going to leave her to her hate list, and hope I can talk her out of doing something rash." With two Pokemon still outside, he headed up as well. "I'd recommend you come up as well." As the black-blue haired boy disappeared, both older trainers blinked.

"I'm staying on her good side." Both said together, worried.

"I hate to think what she'd do to poachers if that was her reaction to something 'lower' on her list." Misty noted.

"Well, no reason to keep standing about." Brock replied. "You might want to give Ash his Pokedex back."

"True." The final two trainers left as well, both extremely worried about their friend, and the state she was in.

Hopefully she didn't snap.

AN: Now, I would finish this with the talk to Oak, but I'm going to save that for next chapter. Now, if you're wondering about the delay, before anyone else gets here, I'll just tell you I got a little sidetracked with a 32,000 word personal project, and I procrastinated CoM for a while because I wanted to finish that. The good news is that I'm on holiday now, so you might get the next chapters a little earlier, depending on how much work I get done.

K: We'll do our best to keep her working.

P: I think you mean WE. *Motioning to herself and Trixie.* YOU just got her interested in Naruto and caused some of that procrastination.

K: Technically speaking, that was also Darky who did that.

T: Details. Anyway, there's actually an easter egg (Haha, how well timed) in this chapter, and about four people will get it. If you do, you may have a cookie if you leave a review with what the easter egg is.

P: Also, feel free to play a guessing game as to what the little crystal was. Hint; it's not what you'd expect. Probably.

SV: Pix, stop it. Anyway, have a good easter if you celebrate it, since that's this weekend, and we'll see you soon! Theoretically.