In this chapter, Lucy and Jake are going to visit the Pokemon Daycare. It's full of cute baby Pokemon. Goldenrod City isn't far from where they are. Maybe our protagonists will catch baby Pokémon someday. Clefairy isn't a baby Pokemon anymore though. She grew up a while ago.

Also, Goldenrod City is going to make its first appearance. There's a reason why I decided to call this chapter "Goldenrod Rule". Well, that and it was a pun.

Chapter 20: Goldenrod Rule

Lucy and Jake approached the Pokémon Daycare. For some strange reason, it always seemed to be open, even at night. Maybe they should check the schedule.

Well, if they ever needed someone to look after their Pokémon, this was the place that they wanted to go. They didn't want to keep sending them to Professor Oak's PC. Could he really look after them all?

The daycare in question was being run by a friendly old couple. Apparently, they could also breed their Pokémon there. But which Pokémon should they breed? That was something they wondered. They had caught several Pokemon at this point.

"Didn't I adopt a Psyduck from a place like this?" questioned Lucy. He was in the care of Mr. Fuji when they first met. You wouldn't find a nicer man on the planet.

"Yeah...I think he became a Golduck..." noted Jake. That put an end to his headaches. It also allowed him to better utilize his psychic abilities, even though technically speaking he wasn't a psychic Pokemon.

Sure enough, there were many Pokemon inside...however, there was a twist. It seemed that most of them were babies. It seems that they were all getting ready to challenging other Pokemon. Their stats were a bit low for fighting others at the moment, though they might have a chance if they had a type advantage.

"Pichu! Pichu!" exclaimed one of the baby Pokémon at the daycare center.

One of them happened to look like Clefairy, though it was certainly younger than hers. It was waiting for the full moon that was supposedly going to happen tonight.

"Cleffa!" exclaimed the baby fairy Pokemon.

Lucy scanned it with her Pokedex. Perhaps the two Pokemon were related somehow.

"Cleffa, the Star Shape Pokemon. It resembles a star, and tends to be spotted during meteor showers." read Lucy's Pokedex.

Cleffa stuck her tongue out.

"This Pokemon happens to look a lot like you, Clefairy..." noted Lucy.

"Cleffa!" exclaimed the young Pokémon.

Fortunately, this Pokémon didn't seem to be a kleptomaniac...though it was eyeing an Igglybuff's toy blocks curiously. When you put them together they spelled out "MOON", much like the Moon Stones both of them could use to evolve into their final forms once they weren't babies anymore.

"Clefairy." said Lucy's Clefairy. That wasn't just a coincidence.

"Wait, you used to be one of these?" inquired the girl.

Clefairy nodded. Back then, she was living in a spaceship instead of driving them. She also was receiving things instead of taking them from others. She enjoyed drinking milk. She had been looking forward to being a pilot when she grew up...though when she actually started piloting a spaceship she eventually crashed on Earth.

One day she evolved while she was feeling particularly cheerful. Her Clefable parents were rather happy about the occasion. Now she was all grown up.

Hopefully when that Cleffa grew up she would be more careful when she drove a spaceship than she was. On the other hand, she would have never met Lucy if she didn't crash that spaceship. It was kind of funny.

"Igglybuff! Igglybuff!" exclaimed an Igglybuff. She was bouncing up and down. It was fun.

"This one looks like Chris's Jigglypuff..." noted Jake. Perhaps Jigglypuff was originally one of these.

Jake scanned it with his Pokedex.

"Igglybuff, the Balloon Pokemon. Once it starts bouncing, it won't be able to stop. Also, its vocal chords aren't fully developed, so it won't be able to sing for too long." said Jake's Pokedex.

Apparently, this was the preevolution of Jigglypuff.

"You think when she grows up she'll become a famous singer?" asked Jake.

"She'll probably end up putting her audience to sleep." noted Lucy. She knew how sleepy Chris's Jigglypuff's singing made her feel. Although, Wigglytuff weren't known for putting people to sleep, now were they?

"Iggly?" inquired the Igglybuff. Personally she preferred bouncing to singing. It was really fun. However, she had to be careful not to bump into any of the other baby Pokemon. She wanted to be respectful.

Another Pokemon at the daycare happened to resemble Pikachu. However, it had black fur as well as yellow fur.

"Pichu!" exclaimed the young electric mouse Pokémon. He was happily munching on a tomato.

Some sparks came out of his cheeks. They were red just like a Pikachu's.

Lucy scanned him with her Pokedex.

"Pichu, the Tiny Mouse Pokemon. Unlike its evolution, it is not skilled at storing electricity and may let out an electric discharge when startled." said Lucy.

It would probably be best not to scare the baby Pokemon. Fortunately, none of the Pokemon at the daycare looked particularly scary. It seemed that there weren't ghost Pokemon at the daycare today.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Pichu is the preevolution of Pikachu." noted Jake.

Pichu nodded. Once he grew up to be a Pikachu, he would search for a Thunderstone so he could become a Raichu. Then he would have some mighty electric power.

Would they have happened to have heard of the Pichu Brothers by any chance? They happened to be quite popular. They made a lot of friends.

The next Pokemon in the daycare was a Magby.

"Magby! Magby Magby!" exclaimed Magby. It was hanging out near the fireplace. As a fire Pokemon it appreciated the heat.

Jake scanned it with his Pokedex.

"Magby, the Live Coal Pokemon. Typically found in volcanic craters, Magby can breathe fire at temperatures up to 1100 Celsius." explained Jake's Pokedex.

It looked this was the preevolution of Magmar.

"That's impressive. I bet its evolution can make hotter flames though." answered Jake.

"Magby!" exclaimed Magby. Evolution was something that he was looking forward to.

The next Pokemon they encountered was Elekid.

"Ele ele kid!" exclaimed the baby electric Pokemon. It was producing sparks.

"Anither baby electric Pokemon, eh?" questioned Jake.

Jake scanned Elekid with his Pokedex.

"Elekid, the Electric Pokémon. It can generate electricity by rotating its arms, but it doesn't tend to do this for long in order to avoid tuckering itself out." explained Jake's Pokedex.

Sure enough, Elekid was doing just that.

"I guess this is the preevolution of Electabuzz..." noted Lucy.

The next baby Pokémon looked a little girl. She seemed to enjoy kissing things.

"Smoochum! Smooch!" exclaimed the ice and psychic Pokemon, puckering her lips.

"I wonder why she loves kissing other Pokémon?" inquired Lucy.

Lucy decided to find out. The Pokedex could shed some light into that.

"Smoochum, the Kiss Pokémon. It uses its lips for examination. It also has a tendency to run about, but it ends up tripping." noted Lucy's Pokedex.

Sure enough, Smoochum ran around the daycare and tripped and fell on her face. Perhaps she should slow down a bit more. There was no need to be in a rush.

"Reminds me of Sarah..." remarked Jake. Maybe Sarah would catch an ice Pokémon someday. Of course, he wasn't sure at the moment where he could find ice Pokémon in Johto. Was there some sort of cold cavern somewhere?

It looked as if this Pokemon was the preevolution of Jynx. Didn't Chris have one of those? It would be useful against grass types.

The last Pokémon they encountered was a Tyrogue. There were also Togepi, like the one that Sarah was carrying with her. However, they were currently sleeping inside their eggshells.

Jake scanned him with his Pokedex.

"Tyrogue, the Scuffle Pokémon. It is small in size, but it has the tendency to pick fights." stated Jake's Pokedex.

It looked as if this baby Pokemon was fighting type.

Sure enough, Tyrogue was punching a punching bag. Apparently, the pokemon daycare people had told Tyrogue that picking fights with other baby Pokémon was wrong.

Still, Tyrogue WAS looking forward to being big and strong someday. Luckily, he was getting plenty of experience at the daycare while his Pokémon trainer was away.

Apparently, there were three Pokemon that Tyrogue could evolve into. One of them was Hitmonlee while another was Hitmonchan. The last one was Hitmontop. Surprisingly, the karate master didn't have one of those.

Now that they checked out the Pokémon daycare, it was time to head to Goldenrod City. There was probably a lot that they could do there.

As it turned out, Chris and Ned were already on their way there.

"You sure got through that forest quickly..." noted Ned.

"I sure did. I heard there's a game corner there..." answered Chris. Maybe if they were lucky they would be able to win some prizes. There were some technical machines that their Pokémon could most likely use.

"Didn't the last game corner we went to have a criminal organization running it?" inquired the boy. He sure hoped that he wasn't funding them.

"I'm sure if there is, we'll be able to handle them." stated the teenage girl.

"OK..." answered Ned.

Ned and Chris decided to head to the game corner to see if that was true.

However, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. It looked as if this business was perfectly legal. It was a refreshing change of pace after they uncovered the Team Rocket Hideout.

"Huh. I guess there isn't a criminal organization running this casino..." answered Ned. Still, he was pretty sure that Team Shadow had a hideout somewhere. The only question was where.

"Although...who is running this casino?" inquired Chris.

"Just a friendly man named Mr. Luckypenny." answered one of the workers at the game corner. It seemed that someone had a thing for games.

"OK then..." answered the teenage girl. It looked like they would be able to get TMs and whatnot there.

Curious, Ned noticed a lady that bore some resemblance to Sarah. Was she her mother?

"Hello?" asked Ned.

"What? I'm busy collecting coins!" exclaimed the lady. She was saving up for a fantastic prize.

"She's a gambling addict..." noted Chris.

"You wouldn't happen to be Mrs. Ishikawa, would you?" asked Ned. They were well acquainted with her daughter at this point.

"Yes, I am." nodded Mrs. Ishikawa.

"Sheesh, this lady seems to spend more time at the slots than she does with her own child..." remarked Chris.

"She needs to get her priorities straight." noted Ned.

Speaking of Sarah, the two of them wondered where she was now. Hopefully she wasn't causing any trouble.

At the Pokemon Radio Tower...

As it turned out, Sarah was not far from Chris and Ned. She was inside the Pokemon Radio Tower.

"So, this is where all the programs in Johto are broadcast?" inquired Sarah.

"Yes." nodded the clerk at the desk.

"Togepi!" exclaimed Sarah's Togepi. She wanted to listen to "Rock-A-Bye Baby Pokemon".

However, she could only go so far before she reached a dead end.

There was a black belt standing close to the stairs. He had received instructions not to let people visit the director in his office. Considering how buff the black belt was, it seemed that he was serious.

Apparently, the director wasn't the nicest man in the world.

"My apologies. For some strange reason the director hasn't been acting like himself lately. I'm not sure why. Although, I heard that he is a friend of Morgiana. Every now and then he goes to visit her at her mansion." stated the black belt.

"Interesting..." answered Sarah. How many friends did Morgiana have?

Apparently, the Pokemon Radio Tower was currently playing Pokemon Lullaby. Of course, if she wanted a lullaby she could always listen to Chris's Jigglypuff. Then again, chances are she would draw on her face if she fell asleep.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to try playing that song to her Togepi.

The day after that, they were going to play Pokemon March. Apparently, Pokemon really liked that song.

Not far from the Goldenrod Radio Tower was the Goldenrod Train Station.

Apparently, they could use it to go between Goldenrod City and Saffron City.

"All aboard!" exclaimed the engineer.

Several passengers were lining up to do just that. Apparently they were looking forward to paying Kanto a visit.

"Totodile!" exclaimed Sarah's Totodile. Riding on that train sure seemed awfully fun. Did they have enough to buy a ticket?

However, Sarah decided that she should save venturing into Saffron City for later. She still had a distance to go before she reached the Team Shadow Hideout.

Besides, she heard rumors that the Saffron City Gym Leader liked trapping people inside a toy box. Apparently it was more fun turning Pokemon trainers into toys than it was battling them. Then again, that was probably a long time ago.

Now that she thought of it, did the Pokemon League ever find out that Sabrina was turning people into dolls?

That was something they would like to know about.

After visiting the Pokemon Radio Tower, she decided to go visit the bike shop. Hopefully it didn't cost $1,000,000 dollars because her mother had not won that kind of money from the Game Corner, though she had gotten quite a few coins over the years.

Fortunately, it turned out that they wanted to give one of their bikes a test run. Apparently, it could make their bike shop more popular.

"Hey there! Would you like a bike? Since our shop in Cerulean City was a success we decided to open up another bike shop in Goldenrod City. It's the biggest city in Johto so we figured it would be the perfect place." noted the bike shop owner.

Sarah nodded. That would be a good place to set up shop. Hopefully the bike store would be as popular in Johto as it was in Kanto.

There was also a Pokemon Gym, but she wasn't up for collecting a gym badge. Apparently, the Gym Leader was known for being pretty.

She decided to check out the flower shop. Then again, Totodile would probably eat the flowers.

Eh, he could probably control himself. Besides, Totodile seemed to prefer meat over vegetables.

"Let's go check out the pretty flowers, shall we?" asked Sarah.

Totodile nodded.

I hope you liked this chapter. I know that someone wants me to continue writing for this fanfic, so I suppose I shall. In unrelated news, they apparently decided to bring back Jigglypuff from the anime. It's nice to have her back. Although, I justified her disappearance by explaining that she was caught by Chris. Then again, maybe thst's not the same Jigglypuff. I don't know anymore.