The sea ferry slowed to a stop at the Amalei East Side Port. Passengers filed out, all going to the arrival and check-out stations. Ash, Misty, Brock, and Tracey would be heading to Feron Grove to meet family members after leaving. As they walked down the bridge to the arrival port, Misty froze in her tracks.

"Something is wrong here," she whispered, looking up at the sky, then to the mountainside.

"What do you mean, Misty?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, the weather seems gloomy, but that's about it," added Ash.

"No, something seems off," Misty answered, continuing the walk. "Something is coming,"

"Like a storm? Or some Pokémon?" Tracy asked. "I didn't notice any Pokémon on the way here."

"That's the problem. I don't think any are here." said Misty. Before all four of the teens had left Pallet Town, Professor Oak told them that the Amalei Region, and Feron Grove in particular, was a rich and fertile place, but there were few Pokémon due to some environmental incident a long time back; a type of plague. The land had recovered, but the Pokémon population was lower than any other region in the world. The people of the Amalei region were very careful with their environment and did their best to not harm the land; because of this, they chose to leave the creatures to themselves and did their best not add or take away any species.

"At least, any that are okay."

"Well, you know what the professor said about the island," Tracey interjected. "But we don't really know where the all of the Pokémon are located in Feron Grove yet, so we can't say that yet."

"I know," Misty said as they walked inside the bustling intake building.

"Don't worry, we'll find out if something is going on," Ash said.

After verifying passports and identification, the four friends were going on their way to explore the city a bit before checking in with their folks. Approaching the double exit doors, they saw a variety of people handing out fliers about the local businesses and other town spots to the newcomers. Soon, the group were up to their elbows with ads for the Feron Grove Union (a hub consisting of a restaurant, in-house gym, and other amenities), sport clubs and teams looking for new members, and the high school science and engineering groups, as well as a map of the entire city.

"Maybe we should check out this Union place," Brock said, carefully checking the town map. It should be northeast of here. It'll take about ten minutes if we take one of the trolleys."

"Sounds great," Misty said, smiling a bit.

As they walked outside, the group saw that rain was beginning to pour down, but that wasn't what caught Ash's attention as he turned his head toward a big crowd gathering near the east side of the docks. A large cave stood a ways from there.

"What's going on, Ash?" Misty asked. She looked in the direction he was and saw the crowd and the wails of sobbing.

EMTs and police officers surrounded a few kids, tears in their eyes. The medical technicians brought six gurneys out, and three of them were occupied by what appeared to be animals. One held a small child, shivering and curling into a ball.

"Do you know what did this?" asked one of the officers. A little girl with pigtails wearing a blue jumper sniffled and tried to speak to him; her hands were covered with dried blood.

"I don't know…" she stammered. "My Eevee went to play around inside that cave and when he came out he was stumbling and fell and I saw the bite marks on his neck and…" the girl began to cry uncontrollably.

"I don't get it either," added a boy with sandy brown hair and a basketball jersey. His tone was hushed and quivery, like he had just been sick. "I was walking down by the water with my brother and those two Starly we always see and play with in the park were floating in the river, thrashing around. Their feathers were covered with some kind of green sticky stuff." The boy turned and coughed on the verge of vomiting.

"What do you get from this, Howard?" one of the medics asked?

"Some kind of poison with the Starly and the kid's brother. I have no idea what it is," Howard replied as he helped load the children onto the stretchers.

"The little girl said that there was something near that cave," an officer said, trying to usher the crowd of onlookers away. "We need to see if we can find what bit that Eevee."

"I'm not sure," another police official said. "Judging from what the kids said and where they came from, that poison junk is near there. We probably need to quarantine this area first!"

As the scene went on, Ash, Misty, Brock, and Tracey kept a safe distance while listening to what was going on.

"That's terrible…" Misty whispered, shuddering.

"You were right, but what do we do about it?" asked Tracey. Their group always flew into some kind of danger head on, but this seemed different.

"We have to go to that cave and see what caused those kids and those Pokémon to be hurt!" Ash cried. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"But we've got to be careful," Brock added. There's no telling what really made them sick."

"Right," Ash said. "Let's go."