AUTHOR'S NOTE
This story takes place after the events of my previous tale, 'The Mystery Of Konga Island', which introduced my original character, Ruby, who is Misty's mother. The events of this adventure tell an alternate version of episodes from the 'Pokémon Chronicles' spin-off, namely 'Showdown At The Oak Corral', 'The Blue Badge of Courage', and 'Luvdisc Is A Many Splendored Thing'.
I take no credit for the original episode material used here. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes, with no copyright infringement intended.
Many thanks to jettmanas, who kindly did the cover-art for this story.
Pallet Town might seem a fairly ordinary and unremarkable place to a lot of people passing through, but to Ruby, the place looked absolutely beautiful and exciting. But then, every place she had passed through on the long journey back to Cerulean City looked beautiful and exciting, which was hardly surprising, since the former Gym Leader had spent the last nine to ten years marooned on a single island, cut off from all other civilisation and thus denied the sights of other places.
It had been just close to a couple of weeks since Ruby had been rescued from Konga Island by her youngest child, Misty, and it had also been just a few days since Ruby had had to then reluctantly say goodbye again to her daughter and begin the long journey home, in order to be reunited with her other three daughters, Daisy, Violet and Lily. The voyage had been a pleasant one, and along the way, Ruby had gotten busy chatting away with her fellow passengers. At first, she was worried that, after spending almost a decade without human companionship, her social skills might have become a bit rusty. But she quickly found herself in the middle of many cheerful conversations, enabling her to make new friends and enable her to catch up on all that had happened since she had gotten stranded all those years ago.
The voyage had proved so enjoyable, that Ruby was almost sorry when the ship finally came in to dock at Kanto. But she quickly perked up again upon boarding the coach that would take her on the final leg of her long journey home. The seat she had taken was very comfortable, and as Ruby peered through the window, she marvelled at the sights, such as the incredible Mount Moon, and the various Pokémon that passed by, such as a flock of Pidgey, a pair of Charmanders, and a family of Butterfree flying gracefully though the sky.
Ruby smiled to herself, thinking how much she had missed the natural wonders of Kanto, which made her all the more elated to be finally back in her home region. She was also glad to have been able to get rid of the now worn and tattered clothes she had to wear for the last decade, and replace them with a new smart looking, yet also casual, attire. This consisted of a teal-coloured button-up shirt with long sleeves, a loose buttonless and pocketless white waistcoat, white jeans, and smart white shoes. The overall new look made her feel quite refreshed and ready to commence her brand new start in life.
Ruby was still mulling over her incredible good fortune at being given a new chance, when she realised that the bus was coming into Pallet Town, the place where Misty's friend, Ash Ketchum, originally hailed from. Ruby grinned, as she was glad that her youngest daughter had made such good friends, though she was also convinced that Misty's feelings for Ash were rather deeper than she would admit, even to herself.
"Hmm, maybe after things have settled down at home, I ought to pay this place a visit," Ruby remarked to herself, having meant to visit Pallet back in her youth, but had never gotten around to it.
Just then, the bus gave a coughing and spluttering sound, and came to a slow grinding halt, right in the middle of the town. After quickly reassuring his passengers, the driver hurriedly hopped out of the vehicle to check what was wrong with the engine. A few minutes later, the passengers could hear him cursing to himself, before he got out his Pokégear to call someone to help deal with whatever the problem was. Finally, he re-entered the bus and addressed his passengers, an apologetic expression on his face.
"Sorry folks, but I'm afraid the bus has broken down. A replacement is on its way, but I'm afraid it won't get here for at least three hours, so you may as well have a look around the place if you wish."
There was a small murmur of disappointment and annoyance from some of the passengers, but everyone knew it was not the driver's fault, and it was a beautiful day, so they all clambered off the bus and began to look around the place. For her part, Ruby did not feel particularly bothered by this breakdown. She had waited almost ten years to get home, and she could easily cope with a few additional hours delay.
As everyone present began to explore, a slender woman, with fair skin and smooth brown hair in a ponytail, appeared down the path, accompanied by a Mr Mime and carrying a small basket of biscuits in her hand. Upon seeing the broken down bus, she came over to the driver.
"Hello Roger. Are you having a bit of difficulty?" asked the woman helpfully, whom Ruby guessed was roughly about the same age she was.
"Oh hi, Mrs Ketchum," said the driver with an embarrassed smile. "'Fraid we've had a bit of a breakdown, so we're just waiting for another bus to get here and take this lot home."
Ruby's ear suddenly pricked up at hearing the name of the woman, and she went over to introduce herself.
"Hello. Pardon me, but I could not help overhearing. You're not by any chance the mother of Ash Ketchum, the friend of my daughter, Misty?"
"My goodness, you must be Ruby!" realised Mrs Ketchum with a friendly smile. "Hello, I'm Delia. Ash called a few days ago and said you might be passing through this way. Nice to meet you."
"Thanks," said Ruby, returning the smile. "It's nice to meet you too. Yes, I'm just on my way back to Cerulean, though it looks like I've now got a chance to look around this lovely looking town of yours."
"Well, in that case, why don't I show you around a bit?" suggested Delia. "I'm just on my way to visit Professor Oak and Tracey at the lab, and I'm sure they'd be delighted to meet you."
"That would be wonderful!" said Ruby happily. "I've heard a lot about Professor Oak from Misty and her friends, and it would be great to meet new people."
So after checking with the bus driver to make sure this would not cause any problems, the two ladies, along with Mr Mime, began to make their way to the laboratory. But as Ruby and Delia began to chat away with each other, they both failed to notice a sleek, black helicopter flying past them, heading in the same direction, before landing discreetly in the woods, a short distance away from Professor Oak's lab. As the copter powered down, two figures emerged from the vehicle, both dressed in black and white coloured uniforms with a large red letter 'R' on the chests. One was a young woman with golden hair in pigtails, and the other was a man of about the same age, with short green hair with M-shaped bangs.
They were Cassidy and Butch of Team Rocket, and as usual, the two crooks were up to no good.
"That oughta do the trick," said Butch as they finished covering up the helicopter with a large camouflage tarpaulin and some branches, so that the vehicle would not be spotted by anyone snooping around.
"Right. Let's get going," added Cassidy, as they ran off and found a good vantage spot where they could spy on the surrounding area with the binoculars. After just a few seconds of searching, they settled their sights on one particular building with a wind turbine, sitting on top of a hill.
"Is that it? With the windmill?" asked Butch.
Cassidy nodded with a smug expression on her face. "That's it. Professor Oak's little laboratory. Just think about what's inside there! Almost every single trainer who started their journey in Pallet Town stores their extra Poké Balls here. There must be hundreds of them just lying around!"
"It'd be a shame if someone were to sneak in there and steal them all," said Butch with a wicked grin.
"Yes. A terrible shame," agreed Cassidy, as they both gave an evil chuckle. "According to our scouting reports, the only people around this place are that good for nothing do-gooder, Professor Oak, and that dimwitted assistant of his, Tracey."
"This'll be like taking candy from a Togepi," remarked Butch.
Cassidy smirked. "By the time they realize what's hit them, what's hit them will be long gone with their Poké Balls!"
Blissfully unaware of the villainous crooks lurking nearby, Ruby and Delia were still merrily chatting away as they reached Professor Oak's lab. As they headed for the front door with Mr Mime, they saw that there was some kind of commotion, as a rather scruffy and shifty looking man was trying to thrust a wiggling Magikarp into the hands of a somewhat annoyed young man with dark-green hair, who was standing in the open doorway.
"Whaddaya mean this Magikarp lays golden eggs? That's..." the young man tried to protest, but was cut off by his scruffy visitor.
"Why don't you buy it and find out?" said the scruffy man persistently, but it was clear that his 'customer' was not at all keen on this.
Ruby could not believe her ears and she stomped heatedly over to the salesman with the Magikarp. "What's this? Are you trying to sell this Magikarp? Why that's absolutely outrageous! It's no better than slavery!"
"Hey, take it easy, lady," said the Salesman nervously, trying not to flinch under Ruby's piecing glare.
Just then, an older man wearing a lab coat appeared in the main hallway and came over to see what all the commotion was about.
"What's going on, Tracey?" he asked the young man.
"This guy here's trying to sell me this Magikarp!" said Tracey, pointing an accusing finger at the Salesman.
Professor Samuel Oak's expression became furious at hearing this and he bared his fist angrily. "What?! Selling Pokémon?!"
"I know, it's abominable!" said Ruby, as she snatched the Magikarp out of the Saleman's arm, and stroked it, trying to sooth it. "There, there, you poor thing. Has this nasty man been abusing you?"
Tracey glowered at the Salesman. "This is a Pokémon laboratory, you know!"
"Yeah, I know that, I was just..." said the Salesman timidly, before he turned on his heels and fled, fearing that one of these people might call the cops on him.
"I can't believe that someone would treat Pokémon in such a manner. It's downright low!" said Ruby, still clutching the Magikarp that the Salesman had opted to abandon in his flight.
"I agree entirely, madam," said Professor Oak solemnly. "Pokémon are not to be bought and sold. Don't people know that?"
"We oughta call Officer Jenny and report him!" added Tracey crossly.
"Indeed. You were quite right to stand up to him like that, young man," said Ruby.
"Never mind, he's long gone now," said Delia, noting the speed with which the salesman had fled. "Cheer up everyone, I've brought some cookies, if you're not too busy."
"You can never be too busy for cookies, Mrs Ketchum," grinned Tracey. "Come on in!"
"Thanks," smiled Delia as they all stepped inside and shut the door behind them. "Oh, I almost forgot. Professor, Tracey, this is Misty's mother, Ruby."
"Ah yes, a pleasure to meet you, Ruby." said Professor Oak as he shook Ruby warmly by the hand.
"Likewise, Professor," said Ruby cheerfully, as Tracey took the Magikarp from her and went to put it in a nearby stream. "I've heard a lot about you from Misty and her friends. They say you're an absolute genius when it comes to Pokémon."
"That's very kind," said Professor Oak with a modest expression. "Incidentally, you wouldn't happen to know a word that rhymes with Tauros, would you? Just having a bit of trouble with writing my latest poetry."
Unfortunately, Professor Oak would soon have far more to trouble him than his poetry. At that very moment, Cassidy and Butch were sneaking their way to the lab, respectively disguised as Nidoqueen and a Golem, in order to blend in with the other Pokémon.
"I always dreamed of being a queen when I was a girl, but not a Nidoqueen. I feel absolutely ridiculous," complained Cassidy.
"Heh! I think I make a good Golem," bragged Butch, impressed by the quality of their disguises.
"And why is that?"
"We're very similar. We're both strong, tough, fierce, powerful, and we're both great fighters, we're both fearless, we're both..."
"Alright!" snapped Cassidy in exasperation. "Enough already. I get your point."
The two crooks continued on their way, but as they did so, they both found themselves getting blasted by a Water Gun attack!
"Gah! What...?!" spluttered Butch.
The source of the Water Guns was a Totodile that belonged to Ash Ketchum. The cheery crocodile-like Pokémon was dancing merrily on the spot next to the 'Nidoqueen' and 'Golem', and clearly wanted to play with them.
"What's with this Totodile?"said Cassidy in annoyance.
"Go play with somebody your own size!" snarled Butch, as he promptly kicked Totodile with his foot and sent the Water-Pokémon flying across and crashing to the ground. Quickly recovering, a now angry Totodile leapt to his feet and prepared to fire a more powerful water gun attack, but as he did so, Butch opened a hatch on his costume, from which emerged a large disc-shaped shield, which deflected the water blast right back into the unfortunate Totodile, knocking the surprised and stunned Pokémon into the bushes.
"Why did that little thing use Water Gun on us? What did we do?" grumbled Cassidy as she and Butch sat down on some rocks, opened up their costumes and tried to dry themselves off.
"There oughta be some sorta drain at the bottom of this thing," muttered Butch as he attempted to get rid of the water in his Golem disguise.
As the two villains tried to get rid of the water in their costumes, they were unaware that they had been spotted by a surprised Oddish, who could clearly see that the two figures were not real Pokémon! As the alarmed Oddish hopped off to warn Ash's Bulbasaur, Cassidy and Butch put their costumes back on and resumed their trek through the forest.
"I hate walking with soggy feet," whined Butch.
"I thought you were tough," said Cassidy mockingly.
"I am! But I like dry socks."
As they pressed on, neither Cassidy nor Butch noticed that another of Ash's Pokémon, Cyndaquil, was lying on the ground ahead, having a peaceful snooze. As Cassidy stepped forward, she stepped right on top of Cyndaquil, who winced in pain and promptly ignited its back flames in response.
"Gah! Do something!" shrieked Cassidy as she leapt back from the flames.
"This oughta put out that thing's fire," said Butch as he opened another hatch on his costume and held out a fire extinguisher, which promptly fired out a spray of foam all over poor Cyndaquil!
"That'll teach it to go around getting stepped on," said Cassidy cruelly, as she and Butch walked off, leaving the dazed Cyndaquil on the ground, just as Bulbasaur and Oddish arrived. Checking to make sure that Cyndaquil was not hurt, Bulbasaur glanced in the direction of the departing 'Nidoqueen' and 'Golem'.
"Bulba," said Bulbasaur seriously. It had seen this 'Nidoqueen' and 'Golem' walking past earlier and thought there was something odd about them. Now, after what Oddish had reported and what had happened to Cyndaquil, there was no further doubt that the 'Nidoqueen' and 'Golem' were not what they seemed to be, and were definitely up to no good...