In this chapter, our heroes will return to Sevii Islands! I figured I would feature them again.

It's be a nice call back, right?

I would imagine you probably remember them from the last fanfic.

This time, Sarah will be going with them as well.

Knowing how neglectful her mother is she probably won't mind if she leaves Johto.

I'll have her pay attention to her in this chapter though. Why not have her be a good mother for once?

Chapter 41: Vacation Plans

The next person to challenge Clair was Jake.

Unfortunately, Jake had no electric Pokemon to fight Gyarados, though he had a feeling Clair would use one. So he was at a bit of a disadvantage.

They were all the rage...at Lake of Rage.

Rock Pokemon would be super effective, but chances are Gyarados would retaliate by shooting water from her mouth in retaliation. And given Gyarados's power, chances are that would result in fainting.

Perhaps he should consider trying to catch an electric type.

It would give him an advantage against water and flying types.

He shrugged and sent out Vileplume.

Fortunately, while Gyarados were known for being ferocious, this did not mean that Sleep Powder would not work on them.

It was doubtful that an Oddish would have enough powder to put a raging Gyarados to sleep, but a Vileplume just might have enough.

Sure enough, Jake's plan worked.

Vileplume then used Petal Dance.

While she could not switch out while using it, she did not have to worry about reprisal while Gyarados was sleeping.

So it seemed like a good idea.

Foetunately, this caused Gyarados to faint.

"Gyarados..." murmured the water Pokemon.

However, Vileplume became confused afterwards.

As such, it would be a good idea to switch out.

So Jake switched out Vileplume and sent out Grimer.

Clair sent out Dragonair.

Clair's Dragonair attempted to wrap around Grimer...

...but this didn't exactly work.

He wasn't exactly solid.

In fact, doing so caused Dragonair to be poisoned.

Perhaps an Antidote would be useful.

"I...might have not thought things through." remarked Clair.

"I've done that." sympathized Chris.

Grimer tossed a Sludge Bomb at Dragonair.

The serpent Pokemon was down for the count.

"Dragonair…" murmured the water Pokemon.

Grimer cheered.

But it was a bit early to celebrating.

Clair still had one Pokemon left.

That being her Kingdra.

"Kingdra!" exclaimed the water Pokemon.

And yes, Kingdras could be female. Just as Seakings could be female as well. And so could Mr. Mimes. Sometimes, Pokemon genders could be confusing.

Unfortunately, though Grimer was able to poison Kingdra, he fell victim to a Hyper Beam attack.

"Grimer…" murmured the poison Pokemon.

Hyper Beam was one devastating attack.

However, it also wore out Kingdra.

She would have to rest for a moment.

To his knowledge, the only weakness Kingdra had was against other dragon types.

And he didn't have those.

So he decided to use Vileplume for the time being.

Fortunately, Vileplume was able to take down Kingdra.

But the battle wore her out.

Perhaps she should rest at the Pokemon Center as well.

Besides, it was hot in the Blackthorn Gym.

She didn't do well in those sorts of environments.

Now that she had trained her Pokemon, Chris decided to challenge Clair again.

She felt more prepared this time.

This time around, her Pokemon did better.

For example, her Jigglypuff was able to put Kingdra to sleep.

And her Electabuzz made short work of her Gyarados.

The water dragon Pokemon snored.

Jigglypuff had one strong singing voice…though it wouldn't put Chris to sleep without her consent.

"How do I wake her up?" asked Clair, putting her hand on her right cheek.

She seemed deep in slumber.

Fortunately, Chris managed to beat Clair so she could get her eighth badge.

Seemed she was indeed more prepared this time around.

Her Pokemon were all very proud of themselves.

Now they were going to the Silver Cup.

"We have some time before the Silver Cup begins." noted Lucy.

It would be a good idea to train their Pokemon until then.

Suddenly, she saw something interesting on TV.

It was an advertisement for Sevii Islands.

They had gone there once before.

But there were islands that they hadn't visited yet.

About four of them, to be precise.

Perhaps there was a reason they were known as the Sevii Islands.

It would be interesting to check them out.

Sarah decided to ask her mother for permission to leave Johto.

But she wasn't paying attention to her.

She was watching TV.

Fortunately, Murkrow took care of that.

She gently pecked Sarah's mother on the arm.

This got her mother's attention.

"Oh! Sarah! My apologies!" exclaimed Sarah's mother.

"I appreciate your help." remarked Sarah.

"It's the least I can do." answered Murkrow.

"Did that Murkrow just talk? I must be imagining things." noted Sarah's mother.

Perhaps she had stayed awake for too long. A nap every once in a while would be nice.

"I was wondering if I could go to Sevii Islands." said Sarah.

Her legal guardian was not averse to that idea.

"Sure, why not. By the way, since when did you decide to become a Pokemon trainer?" asked Sarah's mother.

Last time she checked, she did not have a Pokemon.

Now it seemed she had at least a dozen of them.

"Quite some time ago." explained the girl.

She still remembered what her first Pokemon was though.

He was standing right beside her.

"Really? I should probably pay more attention to you." noted the lady.

"A little bit more attention would be nice." remarked Sarah.

She assured her mother she would be back home soon.

Meanwhile, what was left of Team Rocket were discussing an evil plan.

However, one of the executives had bad news.

"Somebody already beat us to the punch." explained Ariana.

The Team Rocket Grunts groaned.

They all wondered who that was, but Proton asked first.

"Who did that?"

"It was a man named Horace..." noted Petrel.

Seemed he was the leader of Team Shadow.

Oh wait, turned out he actually wasn't. He was just making people believe that he was. It was all part of a clever ploy by the real leader, Morgiana.

It was just as well. Apparently, the signal had led to their hideout being discovered. Magikarp spontaneously evolving into Gyarados tended to draw people's attention. The team had to find a new hideout in Goldenrod City.

Perhaps they needed to come up with something different.

Something less likely to draw attention.

They could capture Pokemon from the icy caves on the island. That could work.

It might draw attention of former Elite Four member Lorelei...but that was preferable to having the Champion himself show up.

In case any meddling kids tried to break in and tried to thwart their plans like they always seemed to do, they had a defense system.

The defense system being two passwords.

For some reason, both of them were palindromes. They weren't sure why Petrel had made the passwords that way. Perhaps it was so they would be easier to remember.

They figured two passwords would be better than one, just in case one of the Team Rocket Grunts leaked one of the passwords. They knew from experience that they could be careless.

Anyways, perhaps one day they would be able to bust Giovanni out from prison.

But that wouldn't be simple.

People like him were guarded pretty heavily.

Seemed they were worried what would happen if they got out.

Still, it was something they could dream about.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Sarah stepped on the boat with her friends.

It was pretty impressive how fast the boat could travel.

Seemed technology had improved.

Still, it would be some time before they arrived.

So it was up to them to decide what to do in the meantime.

Sarah figured maybe she should try training Swinub.

He could evolve into a Piloswine.

Although, rumor had it that there was an evolution past Piloswine.

Sarah hadn't seen it, but she heard it was a big Pokemon...who had some similarities with Donphan. Not many people had seen it, but the rumors suggested it was strong as well.

On that note, perhaps she could try evolving Phanpy.

Then again, his habit of bumping with his trunk would be even worse if he evolved into Donphan. Phanpys didn't always age mentally when they evolved.

But on the other hand, she knew Phanpy wished to get stronger.

So she decided to take that chance.

If he did well, she would give him peanuts.

Oddly enough, he didn't seem to mind the Rattata that was resting on the boat.

Perhaps it was because he was easygoing.

Before he started training, Sarah warned Phanpy not to spring a leak on the ship.

The elephant nodded.

Water made him feel a bit woozy, anyway. He was a ground type. He was more resistant to it than most ground types though.

He used his trunk to push a punching bag.

It was effective.

"Phanpy!" exclaimed the ground Pokemon.

He was so proud of himself.

Maybe he would become a Donphan someday.

Then again, he could live without tusks.

His trunk was a good defense in itself.

Wild Pokemon knew better than to mess with him.

Though he didn't understand why at first until Sarah explained it to him.

Lucy was training her Dratini.

If he did well, he would receive cake as a reward.

It seemed the Dratini evolutionary line liked sweets.

Perhaps he would become a Dragonair if she trained him hard enough.

She had him for a while, so it seemed possible.

It would be best if she didn't train him too hard, just so he remained happy with his trainer.

It took a long time to make a Dratini become a Dragonite though.

Lance knew that all too well.

Still, he wouldn't be champ if he didn't persevere.

The Elite Four wouldn't be the Elite Four either.

Lucy noticed that there was a Teddiursa digging in the trash.

Oddly, she didn't seem to belong to anybody.

The teddy Pokemon were known for having sticky hands.

Literally.

Perhaps she was hungry.

"Teddiursa, the Little Bear Pokemon. If it finds honey, its crescent mark glows. It always licks honey." noted the Pokedex.

Being as compassionate as she is, she decided to help Teddiursa with her quest for food.

Perhaps her trainer was looking for her.

"Excuse me, do you belong to anybody?" asked Lucy.

Teddiursa shook her head.

She was a wild Pokemon. Though she was remarkably tame for one.

"You stowed away? My friend's Squirtle did that once...she's a Blastoise now though." remarked the girl.

Teddiursa listened intently.

"So, are you here for food? You don't need to search the trash can." noted Lucy.

There were other options. Healthier ones.

The teddy bear nodded. She had a point. Perhaps she should search elsewhere.

Though given her small size, it was easier for her to reach into the trash than onto a table.

"Oh. Well, the sailors might not react well if they discover there's a wild Pokemon onboard. Though I suppose it would be a bit hard to tell given how many trainers are on the ship." noted Lucy.

Teddiursa had a point.

It was a bit too late to get off the ship though.

She knew how to swim, but the currents were too fast for her to keep up with.

One could only hope nobody fell off the boat.

Fortunately, she had an idea.

She pointed to one of her Pokeballs.

"Huh? You want to be my Pokemon? Sure...isn't there usually a battle though?" asked Lucy.

She was familiar with the process of capturing Pokemon by now.

Teddiursa considered that, but her mother told her not to pick fights with other Pokemon. That could be dangerous…though there was only one type of Pokemon that was super effective against a normal type.

She would do so if her trainer requested it though.

Since having Teddiursa as her Pokemon would work for both of them, she decided to catch Teddiursa.

She sent her out a few seconds later.

Teddiursa was a big eater for her small size.

She met Sarah's Phanpy.

They seemed like kindred spirits. Teddiursa had strong claws and Phanpy had a strong trunk.

However, Teddiursa seemed more geared for offense and Phanpy more geared for defense.

They were both strong for their sizes though.

She also met Chris's Beedrill…and begged her for honey.

Beedrill was grateful that Teddiursa wasn't trying to steal it, so she gave her some.

Teddiursa hugged Beedrill in gratitude.

Beedrill warned her about her stingers, but Teddiursa told her not to worry, because a Teddiursa had thick fur that could protect her from bee stings.

It was still a good idea for a Teddiursa to have their mother collect honey instead though. Teddiursas could still be poisoned, though w Weedle's stinger would be largely incapable of piercing a Teddiursa's fur.

After arriving on Sevii Islands, Jake decided to do some fishing.

He happened to like the activity.

Namely from all the water Pokemon you could obtain from it.

Unfortunately, he was mostly catching Magikarp.

"Aww..." spoke Jake.

Suddenly, he saw a light.

"Hmm?" asked the boy.

Perhaps the light was representative of him finding hope.

As it turned out, it was actually a Chinchou. He wasn't seeing things.

Seemed he was right to continue fishing.

"I guess people never need light bulbs with one of you around." noted Jake.

Chinchou nodded.

Some people used them to save on electricity bills.

Sometimes they needed to rest though.

Jake scanned Chinchou with his Pokedex.

"Chinchou, the Angler Pokemon. On the dark ocean floor, lights are its only means of communication." noted the Pokedex.

"Huh. Reminds me how I managed to find hope even in the darkness of my life." remarked Jake.

"Chinchou." remarked the water Pokemon.

"Huh? You think we might be kindred spirits? Well, you're technically not a ghost Pokemon, but that might actually be true." noted the boy.

"Chinchou?" asked the electric Pokemon.

"You want to be my Pokemon? I just happen to have a Dive Ball." noted Jake.

Chinchou happened to like the sound of that.

She figured she would like it there.

And with that, Jake had his first electric type.

Which was also a water type.

It was an interesting combination. Normally electric Pokemon had to worry about ground types.

But with Chinchou, not so much.

She would still have to worry about grass types though.

Neither of her two types were particularly effective against grass.

She would do well against fire types though.

Speaking of which, maybe they should visit the mountain again.

It might be fun.

It looks like Team Rocket is here at Sevii Islands.

Well, perhaps now that Giovanni is locked up our heroes can persuade what's left of Team Rocket to disband.

Perhaps our heroes will catch new Pokemon there as well.

Were you expecting to see them again?