Rustboro City and School?
Episode 15: Part 1

Recap on the last episode...

"It is strange." May said, looking at Absol. "It's not common to be all together like this right?" She asked.

"No, that is unless this place is a―"

They all looked up on top of a hill and heard something howl out loud. The pokemon jumps down off the hill and lands right in front of them.

"It's a Mightyena!" Max exclaimed.

Two more Mightyena appeared by the other one's side and they growled at them.

"They don't seem friendly either." Ash added.

"We can't run or they'll chase after us. Mightyena are fast pokemon, running will just get us caught." Aria said.

"Then we'll have to fight, Pikachu."

"Pika!"

...

"That's enough Poocheyna!" A voice told the small pokemon.

A young girl steps in front of the four pokemon, looking at Ash and the others. "What are you doing here? This entire area is a pokemon preserve." She demanded.

Aria mental sighs.

I figured much...

Ash and Aria stood up at the same time and frowns. "Really? We're sorry, we didn't know." Ash said.

"We're just cutting through on our way to Rustboro City." May said.

The girl looked confused. "Rustboro City?"

"Yeah, we're going there to have a gym battle." Aria explains, taking out her pokeball and returning Absol to it.

"Oh, I didn't mean to sound suspicious, but we get poachers here sometimes so I really have to be careful. I'm Katrina, I'm the ranger for this preserve." She greeted.

...

"Here at the preserve we care for sick and injured pokemon back to health." Katrina said.

"I can't believe how many pokemon your able to take care of Katrina." May said.

"It's my job," She said. "Pokemon out here are going to need some protection, that's why I have my pokemon with me to help me out with protecting this preserve."

"I can relate to that." Aria said. "I want to protect pokemon who can't defend themselves. That's why I wanted to become a Pokemon Trainer, so I can become friends with many different kinds of pokemon."

...

"Poocheyna should be evolving into Mighteyna soon right?" Max asked, looking over at the sleeping pokemon.

"I wouldn't be too sure. That Poocheyna was born at the same time as those other three, but they all evolved into Mighteyna together and that was a while ago." Katrina said.

"So this Poocheyna is way behind schedule. I wonder why."

"Well, my guess is that its habit of using tackle attack has kept it out of too many battles. But I wouldn't worry about it."

Max stood up. "Why not?" He asked.

"It's really not a problem, Max. You've see as many pokemon, you known that each one evolves at its own pace. When the time is right Poocheyna will evolve. Its also may be possible that it'll never evolve at all. And that's okay too." Katrina explains.

"Not it's not!" Max exclaimed, startling Poocheyna. "When a pokemon evolves it gets much stronger, it even has more of the advantage to take care of itself in battle! Right Poocheyna, don't you want to evolve and get stronger?" Max asked.

...

"Why hasn't Pikachu evolved yet though?" May asked.

"Yeah, shouldn't it become a Raichu a while ago?" Max said.

"Well if Pikachu hasn't evolved yet I guess neither will my Torchic." May said sadly.

"That's not it May, you can't compare Pikachu and Torchic because they both are different." Ash said.

"Right, each different pokemon has different ways of evolving." Aria added.

"Are you saying there are different kinds of evolutions?" May asked confused.

"Allow me to explain." Brock said. "When Poocheyna evolves into Mighteyna or Pineco evolves into Forrestress for both of them its all the matter of the level they reached. One such as Pikachu need a group of special stones to shape their evolution. Pikachu will only evolve into Raichu if a Thunder Stone is the one that is used."

"Wow, thank you Brock." May said.

"Yeah, I think I understand now." Max replied. "Evolving sounds even cooler! Come on May, lets do it!"

"But Max, didn't you hear what, Ash, Aria, and Brock just told us? You can't make a pokemon evolve just because you want it to." She said, shaking her head.

"Why do you always have to be like that...all we have to do is giving Poocheyna a little push and it should evolve!" He said.

...

"Hi Katrina, I'm just trying to help Max. What's going on at the preserve?" She asked.

"I found this in this forest." She opens her hand and shows Aria what she had found.

"Is that a net?" She asked.

"Right, so there are poachers in the forest. They're trying to capture the forest pokemon."

Aria looks back up at her. "Max went into the forest with Poocheyna, they could be in danger!" She exclaimed. "I'll go in there and get him, can you go tell the others what happened?"

Katrina nods, "Alright, but be careful, these poachers could be powerful." She warned.

Aria nods, "I will, don't worry. Come on Electrike."

...

"We're over here!" A voice sang.

Aria stood up, Electrike jumping on her shoulder once they heard that voice.

"Team Rocket!" They exclaimed in unison.

"Of course! Who else would capture the pokemon in the forest?" Jessie said sarcastically.

Aria gasped, "You were the ones who set up that net!"

"Yeah! We did, and we also caught this forest pokemon and Poocheyna!" Meowth said, gesturing to the pokemon in the net behind them, their hot air balloon attached to it.

Aria grits her teeth, trying to come up with a way to save the pokemon without getting them harmed by their attack.

We can't attack, we'll only hurt the pokemon that they have captured...what am I going to do?

Jessie then called out her pokemon and commanded it to launch its attack at them.

"Electrike, dodge it and...no, just dodge it for now!" She commanded, her face turns to anger.

...

"Poocheyna!" Max called, running a bit faster than the others, running beside the Mighteyna. "Use Bite Poocheyna to break through the net!"

Poocheyna wasn't sure, shaking its head worriedly.

"Don't be afraid! Just bite through the net! If you do you can save your friends!" Max assured the pokemon.

Poocheyna looks back at the pokemon behind it, noticing the worried looks on their face, sacred, terrified, anything that makes them very concerned about what was going to happen to them. Poocheyna shakes it head before grabbing a hold of the net with its teeth, biting it as hard as it could, at least until the net broke.

...

"Ash and Aria were right, you fine just the way you are, even if you don't evolve." He said. But before he could say more, Poocheyna glowed a bright white, everyone gasping in shock.

"What's going on? Why is it glowing like that?" May asked confused.

"It's evolving." Katrina said.

Poocheyna was getting much bigger than it originally was, its tail was longer, it was taller, its nails grew, and more fur grew on its back.

"Poocheyna is a Mighteyna. It evolved for you Max." Aria said.

Max chuckles before walking up to the tall pokemon, hugging it. "That's amazing, Poocheyna- I mean Mighteyna."

"The Rustboro Gym should be located over there." Brock said, holding up the small book and pointing in a direction.

"Great, the sooner we get there we can have a gym battle." Ash said.

"There's no rush Ash, we have all day long to do something fun." Aria said.

He sighs, "...fine."

A kid from pallet town with a brand new world to see

I don't know what's ahead but it won't get the best of me

There's so much to learn and battles to be won

I've advanced so far and still there's always more to come

Take a step and I'm on my way gonna start all over again

I want to be hero (hero!)

Pokemon advance

I wanna be a hero (hero!)

Give it just one chance

And the future will decide

If there's a hero buried deep inside

I wanna be a hero!

Pokemon!

Before Ash and the others left, Aria caught her eyes on something and stopped in one spot. She saw something cowering in a under a bench. It was a Poliwag.

"Hold up guys." Aria said, walking toward the scared pokemon.

Poliwag noticed her, backing up towards the wall. Aria kneels down, looking at the pokemon with a reassuring smile. "It's alright," She said. "I'm not going to hurt you. Maybe we can help you." She said.

Poliwag looks at her, unsure if it should come out from under the bench. But when it noticed the reassuring smile, it turned to her and walked out. Aria picks up the pokemon, noticing some kind of cloth wrapped around its tail that had a symbol on it.

"What is that?" She wondered.

"There you are Poliwag!" They all look up and saw a woman walk over to them, looking at Poliwag with a worried look. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

Poliwag looks at her before jumping into her arms. "I was so worried, did you find Poliwag?" She asked Aria.

"Uh, yeah." She answered.

"I can't thank you enough." She smiled.

"Miss Roxanne!" A young voice called.

Roxanne turns around, noticing a few children running over to them.

"You found Poliwag!" The kid exclaimed.

Aria noticed out all of the rest of them, one of them looked scared. Was he scared of pokemon?

"Now Kenny, I hope you've learned from all of this." Roxanne said to the boy.

"Yes." Kenny answered, looking down at the floor.

"There's no need to be afraid and don't be upset either because you've tried your hardest." She looks at the other students. "Alright class, its time to head back to the training academy." She said to them.

"Excuse me, but what's that?" Ash asked.

Roxanne looked over at the trainer. "It's officially known as Pokemon Trainer School, its an academy right here in town where students can learn all about pokemon." She explains.

"Wow." Max said amazed.

"These children are in my beginners class, we're on a field trip but its just about time for us to be heading back now." Roxanne said.

"That's so cool! I would love to go to that academy!" Max exclaimed happily.

"Don't forget, we still have our gym battle coming up." Ash said.

Roxanne's eyes widen slightly, looking over at Ash. "Are you here for a battle at the Rustboro Gym?" She asked.

"Yep, so is Aria and May." He said.

"Well that just works out just perfectly." Roxanne said. "The Rustboro Gym happens to be right next door to our training academy."

"Really?" Ash said surprised.

Roxanne nods, "So how about you all stop by and visit the school before you head off to your gym battle?"

"That would be great." Brock said.

"Alright!" Max smiles.

"But-"

"We have plenty of time Ash." Aria said cutting him off. "It's not like it's going anywhere."

Ash sighs, "Alright..."

When they reached the academy, a man gave them the tour while Roxanne went back to teaching the beginners class. When they enter a room, they noticed that this was a medical room filled with students.

"This room is for students to learn how to become Pokemon Doctors." The man said.

"Pokemon Doctors..." Brock smiles to himself.

Aria looks around a bit.

This place has everything a student needs to become what they want...

When they get to the next class, they saw people exercising with their pokemon, doing tricks and using moves into a pattern like style.

"This is a specialized class for pokemon contest."

"This is pretty interesting." Aria said to herself.

"This class is totally for me!" May exclaimed.

Aria then remembered that a couple of days ago that her and brother had a chance to help a coordinator out when there was a contest held a while ago. It was amazing for her since it was the first time she saw a pokemon contest.

When they reach another room, Aria and Ash were pretty excited about this one. Below them they saw a battlefield and two trainers battling it out with their pokemon.

"And this class is for students who want to become pokemon trainers."

"This is so cool." Ash said amazed.

"This is like a perfect place for the both of us to get some training done." Aria added.

Max looks at the man. "Excuse me but can we go to Roxanne's beginners class?" He asked.

"Oh yes, of course."

When they enter the last room, Ash and Aria heard a familiar voice when entering it. On a monitor they saw the familiar professor from Pallet Town.

"So in conclusion, there are many different types of pokemon in existence, is that clear?" He asked.

"Yes professor." The students answered.

Ash ran up to the monitor, a bright smile on his face. "Professor Oak!"

"Hey Ash." The professor greeted. "And Aria, Brock, and May. How are you?" He asked.

"Hi professor, we're going great." Aria answered.

The professor looks over at Max. "And you must be Max." He said.

"I, um...hello professor." He said shyly.

"You see everyone, here at the training academy we receive lectures from Professor Oak through a video phone." Roxanne explains.

"Since you are here Ash, I'm assuming that you and Aria have already finished your gym battle." The professor said.

"Umm, about that..." Ash didn't know how to tell him.

"So who went first? Did you both win?" he asked.

"Actually professor we haven't had our battle yet." Roxanne explains.

"Wait, you're the gym leader?!" Ash exclaimed.

"Yes." She said with a nod.

"Roxanne was one of the accomplished students that graduated from this academy. Her battles were always flawless and was promoted to gym leader." The man explains.

"Wow, that's pretty cool." Aria said.

Roxanne looks over at her. "Well thank you Aria, but I'll be teaching this class until tomorrow night, so do you mind if we put off our gym battle until the day after?"

"No problem." Ash replied.

"Good luck to the both of you and have a great battle." The professor said.

"Thanks." They said in unison.

The professor looks over at the students. "And you kids keep catching those pokemon, goodbye for now."

The video shuts off as the others looked at each other.

"Well it doesn't hurt to look around and try to get involve doesn't it?" Aria said. "And Ash, this might help out with our gym battle."

Ash nods. "Great idea, lets do it!"