Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever, owned anything related to Nintendo's Pokémon franchise.

Legend:

"A human or a Pokémon is talking."

'A human or a Pokémon is thinking.'

"A machine is being used."

Chapter 10:

(Kanto—Route Three)

Ash Ketchum woke up to the chirping of some nearby Pidgey. Grumbling sleepily, he pulled his sleeping-bag over his head and tried to get back to sleep. He tossed and turned around in the bag for a few minutes before—defeated—he crawled out of his sleeping-bag.

Once he had stretched for a bit, Ash looked out to see that the small campfire he'd made last night was gone. His stomach growled then, causing Ash to blush slightly, before he carefully tip-toed towards his backpack.

Rummaging around in his backpack, Ash quickly removed his bag of PokéChow and his Pokémon's food bowls. He was just returning the PokéChow to his backpack after he had filled the bowls when he saw something: the special bags that Nurse Joy had given him.

Ash looked at the bags for a minute, wondering why he had them again, before he remembered. Nurse Joy had given him the bags as she said that Clefairy wouldn't be able to eat normal food for a while. The bags were supposed to contain a special slurry of different food-stuffs that Clefairy would need to eat/drink to get better.

No wonder Clefairy hadn't eaten any of her food last night; she knew that her stomach couldn't handle regular PokéChow.

Ash looked at the bags with a guilty expression. How could he have forgotten to give Clefairy some of this stuff, after what Nurse Joy had told him?

"… Clefairy, Cle-fairy?"

Turning around, Ash saw that Clefairy had just woken up. She looked around from her place on his sleeping-bag before she looked at him with a tired and curious expression on her face.

"… You must be hungry." Ash said after a moment. "I'll get you some food before waking up the others, okay?"

Clefairy nodded, yawning. "Fairy…"

Ash quickly retrieved Clefairy's bowl, opened up a package of slurry, and poured it into the bowl before he placed it on the ground in front of Clefairy. Clefairy sniffed the bowl for a moment, then began to start licking it up.

With that done, Ash got up before he went to wake up his other Pokémon. Once up, each looked at him grumpily before they spotted their food bowls and wandered over.

"Eat up, guys. We've got a long day ahead of us today." Ash said as he dug into his own breakfast—a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of water.

Clefairy was the first to finish. Picking up her empty bowl, she quietly walked over to Ash before she handed him the bowl. After Ash had taken the bowl from her, Clefairy crawled up into his lap. There, she closed her eyes, sighed contently, and began to snore.

'I won't forget again Clefairy.' Ash thought, clenching his hands. 'I'll remember everything that Nurse Joy said and help you get better. That is my promise to you.'

XXXXXX

Once everyone had finished their breakfast, Ash had dumped his Pokémon's leftovers into his PokéChow bag. He had put the bowls back into his backpack and then rolled up and tied his sleeping-bag to the top of his backpack.

Ash then recalled Kakuna, Rattata, and Pidgey back into their Poké Balls. He had thought about recalling Clefairy to her ball but some part of him rebelled against the idea. It was because of that he was carrying Clefairy in his arms while Eevee rode on top of his right shoulder.

At the moment, Ash was walking down an old, dirt path. He was excited because of how close Mt. Moon appeared as it meant that he was almost there.

Turning around a nearby corner, Ash caught sight of a Pokémon Battle going on between two Pokémon Trainers.

On one side of the makeshift battlefield was a young, brown-haired boy with black eyes. He was wearing a brown t-shirt, dark-blue shorts, white socks, and dark-blue sneakers. The Pokémon that this boy was using was a Rattata.

On the other side of the battlefield was a fair-skinned girl with shoulder-length purple hair and purple eyes. She was wearing white shirt with a black vest, a pair of black jeans, and black sneakers. Her purple-white backpack lay on the ground, next to her foot, five feet away from her Pokémon.

It was a bipedal, dark-yellow Pokémon that loosely resembled a fox. It had two short, foxlike ears on the top of its head while its two eyes were closed. It had two brown, pauldron-shaped pieces on its shoulders and a fauld-like piece around its chest.

This Pokémon also had three fingers on each of its hands and three toes, two in the front of either side, and one in the back near the ankle. Its tail, which was fairly thick, had a small brown band that was wrapped around it, near the top.

Ash moved Clefairy into one arm before he used his other to grab his Pokédex from his pocket, "Abra: The Psi Pokémon. Using their psychic powers is such a strain that an Abra needs to sleep 18 hours a day."

"You might have beaten Ekans but you stand no chance against my Rattata." The brown-haired boy shouted angrily. "Rattata, use Quick-Attack!"

The girl watched as Rattata rapidly approached her Abra, frowning. Hadn't that boy learned that direct assaults wouldn't work against her Pokémon? She sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment, before she said:

"Teleport, my friend."

With that, Abra vanished within a brief flash of yellow light, only to reappear ten feet away from his former location. Rattata raced past him not a second later—chattering excitedly—slowing down when it noticed he wasn't there anymore.

The girl smiled faintly, "Use Psyshock."

Abra nodded before he crossed his arms before himself and began to gather psychic energy in a blob before himself.

'Well done, my friend. Now use Teleport again.' The girl thought.

The boy hurriedly told his Rattata to dodge when Abra seemed like he would launch his attack, which it did. He grew surprised, however, when Abra teleported again. Just what was going on here?

"Ab—" Abra began as he reappeared directly above Rattata. "—RA!"

With that, Abra uncrossed his arms and sent his Psyshock rocketing towards Rattata. There was simply no time to dodge or do anything else as, only seconds later, Abra's Psyshock impacted against Rattata's back.

The force of the attack caused Rattata to be forced onto its stomach before Abra's Psyshock actually exploded in a flash of white light. Abra teleported again, moments before the resulting smoke could reach him, to the girl's side.

When the smoke finally dissipated, it revealed Rattata to be lying within a five-foot deep crater with numerous burns covering its back. It also revealed that Rattata had fallen unconscious, Abra's attack appearing to have been too much for the poor thing.

Frowning, the boy recalled his Pokémon before he walked up to the girl. He grumbled a bit before he handed her some money. Taking the money, she put it inside of her wallet and then put her wallet away.

"I would suggest that you learn not to try direct, frontal assaults when you know that your enemy can dodge them." The girl advised. "You have to be creative when facing an opponent that can dodge."

By this point, the boy was already walking away. "Blah, blah, blah…" He shrugged. "See you later, Anabel…"

Shaking her head, Anabel sighed before she turned away. It was there that she saw another Pokémon Trainer 50 feet away from her, carrying two Pokémon: a Clefairy in his arms and an Eevee on his shoulder.

The Trainer in question had short and spiky black hair, brown eyes, and what looked like zigzags on his cheeks. He was wearing a black shirt, a sleeveless blue jacket, blue jeans, white sneakers, and an Indigo League Expo hat.

Anabel's eyes narrowed in anger when she got a closer glimpse at the Clefairy—catching the fading bruises and the bones that jutted out of its fur. That Pokémon had obviously been abused.

In her anger, she would have marched over there and given the Trainer a severe tongue-lashing, maybe even have slapped him. She was stopped, however, when she felt the emotions that were radiating off of the Clefairy.

Clefairy was feeling happy. Though there was still some underlying fear and uncertainty, it was obvious that Clefairy didn't feel any of those emotions towards its Trainer.

'He can't have abused that Clefairy if it actually feels safe within his arms…' Anabel thought as she calmed down.

The black-haired Trainer reached her not a few seconds later, allowing her to feel his excitement and awe as well as see it in his eyes. From the way he stared, he must've seen the battle she had with Ben earlier.

"That battle was amazing!" The black-haired Trainer stated—confirming Anabel's thoughts—with a excited grin. "I never knew that a Pokémon could teleport with an attack before!"

It seemed that his grin was infectious, as Anabel couldn't help the smile that slowly appeared on her face. "Thanks. I have been working with Abra on that particular combination for a while." She spared a fond glance at Abra. "He's gotten so good at it that I'm considering trying to teach him something new."

"It is a really good combo… Uh…" The black-haired Trainer's cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Ash Ketchum."

Eevee glared at its Trainer, looking mildly insulted. "Eevee Eve Eevee, Ee-V-E?"

Anabel had to hold back a chuckle as she watched Ash shrink back from his Eevee's verbal assault. It was really funny to watch him hurriedly apologize to Eevee and Clefairy before he introduced them to her.

"It's nice to meet you three. My name is Anabel White and this—" Anabel patted her now-sleeping Pokémon on the head fondly. "—is my friend Abra."

Shifting Clefairy, Ash then reached out and shook Anabel's hand. "It's nice to meet you Anabel."

XXXXXX

Soon after they had introduced themselves to one another, Anabel had offered Ash help on navigating his way through Mt. Moon.

Then, seeing his confused expression, Anabel explained how 'troublesome' it was to travel through Mt. Moon's system of tunnels, even with a map of them. She had then gone on to explain how she also needed to cross Mt. Moon as well, so it wouldn't really be an inconvenience for her.

Smiling, Ash had thanked Anabel and accepted her offer. With that done, both Pokémon Trainers packed up their things before they started walking.

However, just when Ash and Anabel were about a few hundred feet away from one entrance into the mountain, a swarm of Zubat poured out of it. Seeing them, the swarm dived towards them, screeching as they did so.

Ash quickly placed Clefairy on the ground as Eevee jumped off of his shoulder. At the same time, Anabel released Abra before she hurriedly ordered him to use Psyshock.

It was only seconds later that the swarm of Zubat was upon them.

"Ab—" Abra began as he sent more psychic energy into the growing sphere in front of his crossed arms. "—RA!"

It was only moments later that Abra's attack hit the first 'layer' of the Zubat swarm before it exploded in white light. The Zubat that were caught in and around the explosion fell down, unconscious. However, this only seemed to enrage the Zubat even more than they were.

"Teleport and then follow up with another Psyshock, my friend" Anabel ordered.

"Eevee, use your Helping-Hand on Abra!"

With that, what appeared to be a blue lightning bolt flew from behind Anabel and hit Abra, who became outlined in a blue glow. Anabel looked at Ash with a startled expression, having forgotten she wasn't alone. He smiled at her then before they both turned back to the battle.

Abra had just reappeared directly underneath the remaining Zubat with a five-by-five large sphere of psychic energy in front of him. "—RA!"

The Psyshock hit the majority of the remaining Zubat before it exploded with a massive boom. Multiple burnt and semi-burnt Zubat were sent flying from within and around where the explosion was, unconscious before they hit the ground.

Fearful, the remaining Zubat quickly turned tail and flew back into the tunnel they had just come out from.

Once Anabel couldn't sense them anymore, she recalled Abra back to his Poké Ball for a well-deserved rest before she turned to Ash. Eevee had just jumped back onto his right shoulder while he kneeled to pick up Clefairy.

"I didn't have time to call out Pidgey or Rattata, Eevee isn't that good at fighting Flying Pokémon yet, and Clefairy isn't ready to fight." Ash said, answering Anabel's unspoken question. "I thought about it for a minute and realized I could have Eevee use Helping-Hand give Abra a boost."

"Thanks Ash." Anabel said.

Ash smiled.

XXXXXX

"So… why do you think those Zubat attacked us?" Ash asked as he and Anabel made walked through an unusually-lit tunnel. He frowned. "I thought that Zubat were nocturnal."

Anabel nodded, "Zubat are nocturnal. I think they attacked us because something is making them upset…" She bit her lip, thinking. "They probably haven't gotten any sleep sense whoever put those lights up put them up. Because Zubat rely on their hearing, they probably attacked us because we sounded like the ones that had set them up."

"Can't we do something about them, then? I mean, if these lights made those Zubat angry, wouldn't it be best if we take them down?" Ash asked.

Anabel stopped in her tracks, a thoughtful expression coming to her face. "You're right Ash. And the Zubat probably aren't the only nocturnal Pokémon in these tunnels. But how would we…" She bit her lip for a moment until her eyes widened. "Abra!"

Ash looked at Anabel for a moment, confused. Anabel appeared to not have noticed the look or to have ignored it, instead reaching for Abra's Poké Ball.

"Come on out, my friend."

There was a brief flash of light as Abra materialized before he looked around himself and then towards Anabel. "Abra Ra Abra?"

"I need you to teleport the lights hanging on the walls, my friend." Ash's eyes widened in understanding: he could see Anabel's plan now. "The lights are upsetting the nocturnal Pokémon that live in these tunnels."

Abra nodded before he vanished in a flash of yellow light. He then reappeared on the nearby wall—directly above the lights—before he placed both hands on the string of lights. It was only a few seconds later that the lights themselves vanished, teleported who-knows how far away by Abra's ability.

The tunnels were instantly plunged into darkness.

"Fairy! Clefairy Cle-Fairy Cle?" Clefairy called out as she struggled within Ash's grasp, completely terrified. "Clefairy!"

"It's okay, Clefairy… Calm down. I'm here. It's okay." Ash soothed.

Clefairy whimpered, "Fairy…"

A beam of light suddenly pierced through the inky black darkness. Looking at it with squinted eyes, Ash soon realized that it was a flashlight. Holding onto the flashlight was Anabel, who had an apologetic expression on her face.

"I'm sorry… I should have warned you before I had Abra teleport the lights away. That was really inconsiderate of me."

"Abra." Abra murmured sleepily.

Clefairy sniffled in Ash's arms, slightly calmer now that she could at least see him. Ash looked down at Clefairy and shushed her, bringing her closer to his chest, before turning to Anabel. His eyes weren't cold but, they held a warning; to not do something like that again without telling him.

"I wish you had told us too because we needed those lights!"

Ash's eyes widened even as Anabel quickly turned around and pointed at the owner of the voice just behind her. The flashlight's light exposed three familiar forms, casting eerie shadows on their all-to familiar forms.

It was those two people from Team Rocket that had attacked the Pokémon Center back in Viridian City: Jessie, James, and that weird Meowth of theirs.

Anabel frowned angrily, "You were the ones that set up those lights? Why would you do that?"

Jessie rolled her eyes with a scoff, crossing her arms. However, before she or her two 'friends' could answer the brat's question, someone else did.

"Those guys are from Team Rocket! I encountered them back in Viridian City when they tried to rob the Pokémon Center." Ash informed with a grim expression. "They're nothing but a group of criminals that want to steal Pokémon from their Trainers!"

Eevee growled, her ears flattening against her head.

"You make what we do seem bad." James said.

Ash's hands clenched into fists, "That's because it is! You have no right to steal Pokémon!"

"The time for talking is over! James, let's show these brats why they should respect Team Rocket." Jessie snapped as she pulled out her Ekans' Poké Ball.

James pulled out Koffing's Poké Ball, "But of course." Smirking, he threw Koffing's Poké Ball into the air. "It's time to battle, Koffing!"

Eevee quickly jumped to the ground as the two familiar, and hated, forms of Ekans and Koffing materialized in a flash of white light. Abra teleported in front of Anabel, his former sleepiness gone, and glared. Clefairy whimpered.

"You think that you can actually beat us?" Jessie scoffed incredulously. "You brats will barely even be a challenge!"

"We'll see." Anabel said.

Ash nodded, "Besides, we've gotten way stronger since the last time we met!"

Eevee growled, "Ve."

Without warning, Ekans suddenly lunged forward and struck out towards Abra. Ekans was momentarily surprised, however, when Abra simply teleported out of the way and Anabel sidestepped. Ekans crashed against the wall.

It was only seconds later that Abra appeared behind the temporarily stunned Pokémon. In front of crossed arms was another, completed sphere of psychic energy.

Jessie's eyes widened in slight alarm, "Get out of there, Ekans!"

"Ab—" Ekans' head snapped around towards Abra, who then proceeded to launch his attack with a, "—RA!"

Ekans quickly twisted out of the way of the attack, which hit the wall behind him and exploded not a second later. The tunnel wall shook as a fair amount of dust and earthen debris was sent flying in all directions.

Unharmed, Ekans quickly twisted around before he lunged towards Abra. He reached Abra before the other Pokémon could teleport and then begun an onslaught of offensive maneuvers.

While this was happening, Eevee jumped back and avoided another tackle from Koffing. While he turned around, Eevee took the opportunity to jump onto Koffing. There, she began to angrily beat her tail against Koffing's head, giving it a massive headache.

"Selfdestruct!" James ordered.

Hearing this, Koffing closed his eyes before his body began to glow.

"Jump into the air!" Ash shouted.

Eevee jumped into the air just as Koffing finally exploded. While she remained relatively unharmed by the explosion, it did manage to hurt Eevee's legs and singe the fur on them. So, when Eevee landed, it was with a wince of discomfort.

"Clefairy! Clefairy Cle Fairy!" Clefairy began to cry, frightened by the explosion and upset that Eevee had gotten hurt. "Clefairy! Cle-Fairy Fairy!"

Ash gave Clefairy a reassuring squeeze before he returned his attention to the battle. Somehow, Koffing had recovered from what should have knocked it unconscious, and was now releasing a thick, black smog.

He also noticed that, on Anabel's side of the battlefield, it appeared as Abra was going to be defeated by Ekans. Abra just didn't have enough time to teleport away from Ekans, who was unleashing a rapid series of attacks that were quickly weakening it.

"Jump to the left and then Teleport!" Anabel ordered. "Follow it up with a Confusion!"

Ash suddenly had an idea. He quickly ordered Eevee to use Helping-Hand on Abra—ignoring Team Rocket's jeers—just before Abra reappeared.
Eevee's Helping-Hand consumed Abra as Abra's eyes began to glow a sickeningly blood-red color. It was only milliseconds later that Ekans' massive, open jaw erupted out from Koffing's smog, threatening to consume Abra whole.

Ash's Pokémon Team:

Eevee (Female): Level 14.

Attacks: Growl (Normal), Helping Hand (Normal), Sand-Attack (Normal), Scratch (Normal) Tackle (Normal), Tail Whip (Normal).

Pidgey (Male): Level 11.

Attacks: Sand-Attack (Ground), Tackle (Normal), Gust (Flying), and Quick Attack (Normal).

Rattata (Male): Level 12.

Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Tail Whip (Normal), Quick Attack (Normal), and Bite (Dark).

Kakuna (Male): Level 12.

Attacks: String-Shot (Bug), Poison-Sting (Poison), Bug-Bite (Bug), and Harden (Normal).

Clefairy (Female): Level 7.

Attacks: Pound (Normal) and Sing (Normal).

Anabel's Pokémon Team:

Abra (Male): Level 15.

Attacks: Teleport (Psychic), Psyshock (Psychic), and Confusion (Psychic).

Ben's Pokémon Team:

Ekans (Female): Level 10.

Attacks: Wrap (Normal), Leer (Normal), Poison Sting (Poison), and Bite (Dark).

Rattata (Male): Level 14.

Attacks: Quick-Attack (Normal), Tackle (Normal), Tail Whip (Normal), and Bite (Dark).

Jessie's Pokémon Team:

Ekans (Male): Level 20.

Attacks: Wrap (Normal), Leer (Normal), and Poison Sting (Poison).

James' Pokémon Team:

Koffing (Male): Level 20.

Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Smog (Poison), and Selfdestruct (Normal).

A/N: Author's Note: This chapter was updated 06/06/2012.