Part XXXIX: A Forgotten Ally's Upgrade
Ash groaned in pain as he sat up and got his bearings. One moment he had been walking out of the Celadon Gym with Misty on his arm and carrying a still groggy Pikachu ready to head back to the Pokémon Center to get his Pokémon healed up after his full battle with Erika and relax for the night with Misty. The next they had run into someone as that person was about to enter the gym and proceeded to fall down the stairs. Blinking Ash surveyed the situation.
Thankfully he had instinctively protected Pikachu and was holding him close to his chest and taking the brunt of the fall down the stairs for the sake of his best friend. Pikachu was still injured from the battle and in need of healing and a good night's sleep at the Pokémon Center but that was the worst that could be said about him. The same couldn't be said about Misty and Piplup.
Misty was several feet away slowly coming to and looking especially ruffled from the fall as she'd not had been the one to crash into the other person so had a more painful journey down the stairs. Likely she was bruised but nothing more, the fall thankfully wasn't enough to do any real damage to them. Piplup, by contrast, had flown off Misty's head and due to his lack of actually flying abilities had ended up beak first in the nearby grass and was still trying to extricate himself from it.
That wasn't a good sign. Piplup's pride and ego were legendary and they were as fragile as they were massive. They would be in for it for sure and after Piplup's tutelage under Sabrina's Haunter he'd gotten much better for it. Ash had a feeling the next few nights were going to be interrupted but a pissed off penguin getting his revenge.
Once he knew that his girlfriend and her Pokémon were ok, Ash's eyes fell on the person he had collided with. The person was male and was now sitting up looking around as if nothing had happened to him. As Ash studied him, a distant memory percolating in the back of his mind at the sight of him. After his recent run in with Anthony, Ash had made sure to try and recall all of his adventures from his first time in Kanto so that he wasn't surprised again.
The man was clearly a scientist or doctor of sorts as he wore a lab coat over an orange polo shirt. He was a slightly stocky man with a wide smile, a thatch of short blue/green hair shaved close on the sides, and odd glasses with obscured lenses and spirals on them that gave him a mad look, something Ash was had a feeling that the man slightly was. It was the glasses that snapped Ash's memory of an adventure that he had had a long time ago but given that it was odd beyond even his own high standards for oddness he had long since forgotten about it until now.
"Dr. Akihabara?" Ash asked in utter bewilderment that of all the people from his past that he would run into during his new Kanto adventure this man would be one. "Is that you?"
"Huh, you know my name dear boy?" The man asked in a slightly off voice confirming his identity before he stared intently at Ash for a moment, or at least Ash thought that as he couldn't actually see the man's eyes behind his glasses. "Ah yes you would wouldn't you, I know you don't I. I rarely meet new people these days so few outside the lab know me but you are one of them."
"We, er, met once before." Ash said standing up and offering a hand to the Dr. who refused the offer and stood on his own. "Me and my friends helped you out with a problem you had almost 7 years ago, or around then I believe."
"Really it was that long ago that my old house was destroyed and I couldn't enter the computer world again?" Dr. Akihabara asked scratching his head. "Wow time flies when you're busy I guess. Fells like it was only 4 years ago that all that went down."
"Um yeah that happened didn't it." Ash said as the memories of that particular incident flooded him again, it was so odd that until meeting Dr. Akihabara again he honestly thought it might have been a really vivid and extremely strange dream. "I remember it all now, it was an experience to say the least."
"Well I did send you and your friends, what were their names again Musty and Brick, right, into the computer world to stop those thieves so it wasn't a normal day." Dr. Akihabara said his smile returning at the memory. "And you did the right thing in the end even if I was distraught that my home had been destroyed at the time, along with a large amount of my research. I now realize that shouldn't have been playing with that kind a thing, well access to the computer world that is. Haven't even tried to enter that world since, no sir, not again, not after what happened last time. I still do my work on it and artificial Pokémon of course while helping to develop new technologies here in Celadon but that is in."
"That is good to know." Ash said trying to follow the slightly insane man's rambling speech. "It's not a place for humans I think so best to leave it alone."
During this time Misty had come to and groaned in pain. Of course being with Ash would lead to something like this happening, she should have seen it coming this time. At least it wasn't someone in love with him that devolved it a very unprofessional battle like in Cerulean City. This time it was a man who looked like the dictionary definition of a mad scientist that Ash had apparently crossed paths with before, because of course he had, that they had literally run into. Of course she supported the man calling Dawn Musty, it would annoy her and Misty fully supported annoying Dawn.
Getting up and looking around Misty saw Piplup and sighed at the unfortunate plight of her starter. He was still stuck in the ground and trying in vain to extricate his beak from the earth, wasn't going to be happy when he got free and she was going to get the blame. Pulling out her poffin case to appease him, Misty went over and helped her now pissed started out of the grass with a forceful tug that almost put her on her ass in the process.
"Piplup, pip, Piplup." He scolded her as soon as she was free though it was slightly muffled from the earth stuck to his beak that Misty removed so he could continue scolding her. "Pip, Piplup, pip, pip, Piplup."
"Hey, at least this time it wasn't my fault." Misty pleaded as she held up a poffin for him to eat. "Here, you can have this if you are brave and forget this."
"Pip, lup." Piplup said haughtily but he accepted the poffin and turned his head from her as Misty put the case away and held her starter close, Misty was still going to get if for this and that Thunderbolt spark he'd taken from earlier but she'd bought herself a slight reprieve. "Piplup."
Piplup was appeased for now but she knew he would plan something later when she was least expecting it. Misty really needed to just take a day and let him be the boss for the whole day, only then could she get him to forgive her for whatever slights were bothering him this time. Sighing and planning that day for some time during the coming week, Misty turned to see Ash and the mad scientist dude staring at her.
"Sorry, I had to sort out Piplup." Misty said holding the still unhappy but at least pacified Pokémon up. "He was stuck and in need of help."
"No problem, I see you are from Sinnoh then, or at least have been there long enough to acquire that region's water type starter." The mad scientist boomed in a voice that Misty felt was slightly louder than it should be as he adjusted his glassed and peered closely at a now confused Piplup. "I have some contacts out there who've helped and hindered my research in the past so I know the region relatively well."
"Yes, that is where I met Ash a few years back when he came to the region as part of his Pokémon Journey." Misty said with a small bow to the man. "I'm Misty from Twinleaf Town in Sinnoh and Ash's girlfriend."
"And I am the famous Dr. Akihabara, world renowned computer innovator, scientist and pioneer in the field of artificial Pokémon from Kanto." Dr. Akihabara said with a flourish as he bowed back at her. "I don't really have a fixed abode right now as my homes keep blowing up for some reason, been like that since my first place explode several years back. These days I mainly live in the bunker in my lab for my own, and my research's safety."
"I, er, see." Misty said looking at Ash who seemed as confused as her at the man's claims. "And I take it that you know Ash."
"Yes Ash that was his name and yes, we met once before when he helped me out of a bit of a jam I ended up in some years back though I remember it like it was 6 years ago." Dr. Akihabara said changing the year he remembered it for no apparent reason. "That was back when I lived in Matcha City of course where I am originally from but I have moved around a lot since then due to my aforementioned habit of blowing up my dwellings."
"Of course." Misty said with a nod. "So what happened when you met Ash?"
"Well it actually was a little over 6 years ago." Ash said coming over to stand with her as they talked to Dr. Akihabara. "So it was during my first ever Pokémon adventure when I was just a new trainer in Kanto. It was about a few weeks after my first match with Erika and sometime after I met Anthony and he took Primeape to train it and while we were on our way to Cinnabar Island for my 7th gym badge so I'd already gotten the Soul Badge from the Fuchsia Gym by that point. We had stopped off in Matcha City and learned that there was some problems with the Poke Ball transporters."
"Yes a trio of fiends had tampered with my baby." Dr. Akihabara said with a little too much drama than was strictly necessary for what Ash was describing. "They had infected it with a computer virus and stolen my prototype and run off into the computer world. So when Ash and his friends came to my mansion I had no choice but to get them to enter my Human Transporter, introduced them to my Porygon and send them into the computer world to defeat the thieves. Then they had to drag them out of the computer world so that I could fix my baby without killing any of them."
"Yeah after we initially refused if I recall." Ash pointed out but Dr. Akihabara just shrugged it off as if it was nothing. "But you know me, I can't resist helping someone even when it is in cyberspace. Turns out it was Team Rocket, no surprise there of course given the description of a trio of thieves, who were behind everything. They had set up the whole thing to steal Poke Balls as they were being transferred through cyberspace from one place to another and had stolen the Dr.'s prototype Porygon, Porygon Zero, in the process. We had the normal Porygon the doctor had created and fought them in the computer world."
"Alright let's backup because I'm getting a massive headache." Misty said rubbing her temple at everything she was hearing from Ash and this Dr. Akihabara person. "I know I should accept this without question because Arceus knows that I have seen some weird shit while traveling with you. I know that we have literally been transported to a pocket dimension by two ancient Pokémon deities fighting, been to the reverse world thanks to the third deity of that trio and even been sent back in time where we met and appeased Arceus himself and yet I can't get my head around this. You were in cyberspace? Like the place computer thingies are."
"Precisely." Dr. Akihabara said nodding vigorously raising a finger into the air. "See I knew you would get it right away. Perfectly normal am I right?"
"Yeah, I don't get it, like at all." Misty said looking at Ash. "Ash, what in Arceus's name is going on. Please, just explain this to me as simply as possible. This is an adventure that you have not told me about so I want to know about it but I also need to understand it. In fact are there any others I should know about that you don't talk about for whatever reason?"
"Er." Ash began looking sheepish, he'd had so many he honestly forgotten to count but over the last week he'd been trying to recall as many of them as possible. "I mean there was the time I had a gun pointed at me a few times while in the Safari Zone near Fuchsia City, the other time I went back in time thanks to a Pokémon, the time I think a Pokémon fell in love with me in Johto, the time I almost sacrificed myself in the Tree of Beginning, and a whole bunch of other weird things that happened before Sinnoh."
"Ok we are going to circle back to several of those things later in private." Misty said with a slight glare at Ash though in given her own adventures with Ash she knew he was a magnet for weird so should have expected it. "Mainly the gun incident, the almost dying again, and the fact that you noticed someone, Pokémon or otherwise, having feelings for you."
"Well wasn't until she kissed me and even now I am not certain if it was Bianca or Latias in human form who did it." Ash said not realizing that he was just digging his hole deeper. "It was in some place in Johto that had a water Pokémon race once a year in the city's canals that Dawn and I entered. The city was watched over by the Eon duo of Hoenn, Latias and Latios. We ended up having an adventure with them and their human friend Bianca during which time I saved Latias. Then, as we were about to leave, she kissed me on the cheek in front of Dawn and Brock and gave me a drawing of me and Pikachu. I figured that she probably liked me after that."
"Ok again we are unpacking all of this stuff later." Misty said breathing slowly to calm herself from what Ash had said. "Especially the fact that this legendary Pokémon, because of course it would be a legendary, may have fallen for you and got away with kissing you in front of Dawn of all people. The first time I tried that it took throwing her Gyarados 30 feet into the air and into a glass ceiling to calm her down."
"Um yeah didn't make the connection back then." Ash admitted. "I was just confused as to who it was though the drawing was very good."
"Of course you didn't." Misty said with a sigh at Ash's denseness but still pleased that he'd gotten over it enough to realized he liked her as much as she liked him. "Alright well we can deal with all of that later, and I mean all of. We have a week off here before we head to Hoenn and you are telling me all your stories whenever we have a free moment. For right now, just explain this particular adventure to me, tonight we can address another one."
"Ok well basically you know how you can transfer Poke Balls from Pokémon Center to Pokémon Center or from wherever you store them so long as there is a machine on both ends that can do it?" Ash asked and Misty nodded, she knew that system well even if she rarely used it until she had caught her Furret in Johto and had more than 6 Pokémon on hand but Ash used it a lot during their current adventure so she knew about it. "Well Dr. Akihabara here was its creator."
"Hello." The doctor waved happily at them as if they had just met. "Yes it is my greatest creation, my baby along with my Porygons, they are my children in a way as I have no real ones."
"Ok that makes sense, someone would have to invent the system for it to exist." Misty said with a slow nod of her head at something she'd never really thought about but was obvious when you did so. "And you said that the Poke Balls that are transferred through the system go through cyberspace then and that is why you were in it. Alright, that totally makes sense."
"Correct." Ash said with a sigh of relief. "See you get it, I ended up having an adventure in cyberspace thanks to Dr. Akihabara and Team Rocket."
"I get it because I know and love you Ash." Misty said with a smile at Ash. "I know what you've been through some weird things because I've been there with you for several of them back when we were in Sinnoh together. Even in Unova you were you with your friendship with Meloetta. This makes sense coming from you, and only you, so I have to believe it. Of course you ending up in it is a slightly different matter but then again I've been to two other dimensions and the distant past with you so this shouldn't really be a surprise to me."
"Thanks, I knew that you would understand." Ash said with a smile that always melted her heart. "Still, out of everything I've experienced, this is a top 5 for sheer weirdness of the whole thing."
"Alright, please continue your tale." Misty said. "What happened while you were in cyberspace?"
"Well we faced Team Rocket and beat them as always." Ash explained. "Then they tried to attack us with the prototype Porygon they'd stolen but the doctor's one beat it off. After that we found the barrier Team Rocket had set up to catch the Poke Balls and tried to destroy it. Of course that wasn't the end of the problems we had to face while in cyberspace."
"It never is." Misty muttered. "What was next up for you to deal with?"
"Oh this is where I returned to the story." Dr. Akihabara said happily as he joined back in the discussion. "I used my computer to access where they were in the computer world, appearing as a floating TV screen, and told them that the city's Nurse Joy had listened to Brick and hired another tech to install an antivirus to destroy the virus that that Team Rocket trio had set up. Of course because I was dealing with the problem on my own, as I should it is my baby after all, I didn't tell them that there were people in the computer who would die if that virus was installed."
"Because why would you make things easy." Misty said with a sigh that Dr. Akihabara just nodded at as if it was a good thing. "They never are. Though given the fact that Ash is here today and I know everyone involved is as well, well other than whatever a Porygon is, clearly everyone escaped what happened when the antivirus was installed?"
"Well basically the antivirus or vaccine or whatever it was called as that stuff is beyond my comprehension was introduced and helped destroy the barrier." Ash said simply. "Then it attacked us with missiles because it thought we were a virus as well. We evaded it for a while and defended ourselves against attacks."
"Come again?" Misty asked confused. "You defended yourself against missiles?"
"Well that is what they looked like yes." Ash said his face scrunching up in memory. "It's all a little hazy but I remember that Pikachu blew one up and it flashed red and blue rapidly for a while and caused a lot of problems but that was the worst of it. After that we managed to get out of the computer world but the last few missiles accidentally destroyed the doctor's home and his Human Transporter so no one could reenter cyberspace. We then gave Dr. Akihabara back his Porygon that he'd lent us and the prototype was left as well and that was the end of it."
"Well the system was back and running again." Dr. Akihabara pointed out. "Which was the point of the whole expedition so everything worked itself out in the end, even if I didn't like the end result."
"Yes we checked on it and decided not to tell Nurse Joy what had happened." Ash said. "It was too unbelievable to do so. That was my adventure into cyberspace. I honestly hadn't thought about it since then, it was so odd that it feels like a really strange dream. Seeing the doctor again brings it all back to me though and I know it was real."
"I think I'm more surprised that after hearing the story I am not surprised at any of it." Misty said with a sigh as she pulled out her pokedex to check something. "But I need to check this Porygon thing out just to have some visualization for what helped you."
"Porygon, the Virtual Pokémon." The pokedex chimed showing Misty the image of an odd looking red and blue Pokémon that looked like a badly pixilated bird if she had to guess at what it was supposed to represent. "A man-made Pokémon created using advanced scientific means. It can move freely in cyberspace."
"Huh so that is what one looks like." Misty said with a slight confused look at the odd Pokémon. "I can certainly see the computer part. I didn't think it was possible to make a Pokémon."
"Oh but it is through science." Dr. Akihabara said proudly raising a finger to the sky. "I should know, I did it."
"Wow science is so cool." Ash said smiling while Misty just shook her head at Ash's moment of geekiness. "Say Dr. how is your Porygon doing? Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen one since that day. It's not a common Pokémon to begin with but I can't imagine why no one would have one in all of my adventures since then."
"Well after the incident Porygon creation went out of fashion in the computer science community and they aren't an easy Pokémon to breed so there aren't that many of them out there." Dr. Akihabara said with a shrug. "They were blamed for the issue and maligned because of it. Few since then have wanted to create them, let alone use them."
"But the explosion that did all the damage to cyberspace was Pikachu's fault not Porygon's." Ash said confused. "And the whole blockage was caused by Team Rocket, they were at fault for it. Why blame Porygon?"
"Because it was in cyberspace and it was the only Pokémon capable of being there at the time." Dr. Akihabara answered. "But that hasn't stopped me from working on it in the years since. I have even figured out how to evolved it though I prefer the term upgrade to evolve given the Pokémon's nature."
"Porygon can evolve?" Ash asked amazed. "You can actually make an artificial Pokémon evolve?"
"It can, twice in fact." Dr. Akihabara said proudly. "Though the second evolution, something a disgraced colleague of mine out in Sinnoh made without proper authorization, is not exactly stable and we think a deliberate corruption because he was discovered before he finished perfecting it. He's never said how to correct it and we can't figure out his code so we're stuck with it."
"Disgraced?" Ash asked confused.
"Sinnoh?" Misty added. "Someone from my ready was involved?"
"The scientist in question was working undercover for some shady organization called Team Galactic." Dr. Akihabara said with a slight frown on his face. "And when he was found out and arrested we weren't fast enough to prevent him from uploading a corrupt disk, helpfully called a Dubious Disk, into a Porygon2 and it evolved. We call the evolution a Porygon-Z but it is erratic at best. We can replicate the disk but we can't correct it."
"Porygon-Z" Misty muttered as she pulled out her pokedex again to check the Pokémon that had been created in her home region out. "Though the whole Team Galactic thing doesn't surprise me, they were always involved in exploiting anything they could for their own goals, science included."
"Yeah we tangled with them back when I first met Misty and traveled through Sinnoh." Ash explained. "Their leader was a real nutjob who saw the current world as unsalvageable or something like that so he decided to create a new world that was a utopia. He forced Dialga and Palkia, the Pokémon of Time and Space, to create for him and then entered it alone and left this world. After that the organization crumbled and is no longer in existence."
"So that is what happened to them." Dr. Akihabara said idly. "I don't read the news much so I don't really keep abreast with the comings and goings of the world. These days it is work or coming here to see if I can get anything useful from Erika, her berries are great for my productivity."
"That explains why you were here at the gym." Ash said as Misty finally found the entry. "Though not why you are in Celadon City, we're pretty far from Matcha if my geography is correct."
"Porygon-Z, the Virtual Pokémon and the final evolved form of Porygon." The pokedex chimed interrupting Ash and Dr. Akihabara as it showed Misty the image of, well she wasn't entirely sure what it was as it was a birdish computer generated Pokémon with 3 blue limbs, a blue and red striped body, a floating red head with a small horn and blue bill, and yellow and black eyes. "Its programing was modified to enable it to work in alien dimensions. It did not work as planned."
"Yeah that sounds like something that Team Galactic might want to create." Ash said before turning to the doctor. "You said there was another one in between Porygon and Porygon-Z, right?"
"There is and I have it on me." The doctor said proudly pulling out a Poke Ball from the pocket of his lab coat and opening it. "Meet Porygon2."
Ash and Misty looked at the sleek Pokémon that was now hovering in the air in front of them. It looked like Porygon only smoother, sleeker, and better quality as if it had been made with better software. If Ash had to make a comparison, it was like a computerized version of those bobbing birds some people sold in gift shops. It was certainly an interesting Pokémon and Misty scanned it with her still out pokedex to learn more about it.
"Porygon2, the Virtual Pokémon and the evolved form of Porygon." The pokedex chimed. "It was upgraded to enable the exploration of other planets. However, it failed to measure up."
"Well I like it." Ash said smiling at it. "Certainly an improvement on Porygon's design and almost certainly more powerful."
"Actually it is an upgrade to all of Porygon." Dr. Akihabara corrected fishing out a peculiar transparent box form the other outer pocket of his lab coat. "Using this device you can evolve a Porygon. I call it Upgrade and when given to a Porygon before it is transferred through my machine in its Poke Ball it will upgrade Porygon's software while in transport and when it comes out of the ball again it will evolve at once. Pretty ingenious if I must say so myself. The Dubious Disk works the same way though that data on that is, as I have said, unstable."
As the doctor was talking Porygon2 was looking around curiously. It seldom got out these days unless it was in the lab and it was interested in meeting new people seeing as it hadn't met any in years. It analyzed the girl with the pokedex and her Pokémon, a Piplup its data core told it even though it was not a Pokémon that Porygon2 had ever seen before and moved on to the boy.
As soon as it say the boy its core instantly recognized him as the nice boy who had saved it from those horrible vaccine missiles so many years ago. Instantly and without warning, Porygon2 flew up and began to sing in an odd tone happily as it flew around Ash, it's eyes smiling as it greeted him.
"Wait, is this?" Ash asked looking at Dr. Akihabara as Porygon2 cut him off by snuggling up close to him and rubbing Ash's cheek with the side of its head so Ash reached up and petted it.
"Yup that is the very same Porygon that you borrowed to help me out." Dr. Akihabara said with a nod as he stroked his chin in thought. "It seems you made quite the impression on it. Porygon2 is effectively a computer in Pokémon form so it has an identic memory and wouldn't have forgotten you or what you did."
"Ash does that with a lot of people and Pokémon." Misty said with a smile as she watched Porygon2 continue to nuzzle Ash. "It's what makes him so special."
"I see." Dr. Akihabara said slowly. "I can tell that Porygon2 has already developed a strong bond with Ash from what happened in the computer world, such is the nature of computer cores, they don't forget. Perhaps there could be some benefit to this new development."
"What do you mean?" Ash asked confused as he put Pikachu in the crook of his arm so that he could pet Porygon2 better, unable to describe what it felt like. "What benefit?"
"You are a Pokémon trainer right?" Dr. Akihabara asked.
"I am, it is my dream to become a Pokémon master on day." Ash said with a nod. "This year I am reentering the Indigo Conference to try and win it the second time around."
"That is good, just what I think is needed." Dr. Akihabara said still nodding. "Yes this will do, it will do nicely."
"Care to explain?" Misty asked confused.
"Well you see, Porygon2 doesn't get out much these days except when it is in my lab." Dr. Akihabara said. "But as I am a scientist and not a trainer that is all that Porygon2 gets to do. Plus I've already done all the research on it I could wand, these days it is more to keep me company. I have the source code to make a new Porygon and have been wanting to for ages just to make sure I can do so. Plus I think that Porygon needs an image rehabilitation after the events in the computer world that I can't provide. Ash, if Porygon2 is willing, would you please take it with you as your Pokémon so that you can train it and use it in battle."
"Really?" Ash asked both amazed and confused at the Doctor's sudden offer. "If Porygon2 will have me then yes I would love to take it and use it. Misty and I are heading out to Hoenn at the end of the week to compete in the Wallace Cup that's being held there this year. It would be the perfect place to show off Porygon2 alongside my other new Pokémon in Gengar and Dragonair, so long as my Buizel can get me past the appeals round that is. If I get to the battles I will definitely use Porygon2 against the right opponent."
"Then it is settle." Dr. Akihabara said with a smile and clap of his hands. "Well Porygon2, do you want to join Ash as his newest Pokémon?"
Porygon2 looked at its creator, the closest thing it had to a father that the Virtual Pokémon could have and processed his information. It had only battled once before, with this Ash boy that it was fondly remembering in a way it was sure its programing wasn't meant to allow but it didn't care, it had enjoyed that battle and the kindness that Ash and his Pokémon had shown it in such strange surroundings for creatures of flesh and blood. Porygon2 would like to learn to battle properly and it would like to see the world with Ash as it hadn't seen the world. With a happy bob of its head Porygon2 confirmed its wishes to its creator.
It was time to move on and be a true Pokémon and not just a lab experiment that had been condemned for something that wasn't its fault. Porygon2 would show the world that it was more than just a failed experiment and it knew that it could do that as Ash's Pokémon.
"Excellent then it is confirmed, Porygon2 will go with you Ash." Dr. Akihabara said before he pulled out a transparent device from the inside of his coat. "This is a Dubious Disk. If you have Porygon2 hold it and then transfer it through my system it will consume the disk and evolve into Porygon-Z. Take it just in case you ever want to evolve it."
"Er thanks but that will be up to Porygon2 if it wants to evolve." Ash said graciously accepting the disk and putting it in a pocket. "Until then I will keep it as a Porygon2."
"True, Porygon-Z isn't exactly a reliable Pokémon to have so best to wait until Porygon2 to be ready." Dr. Akihabara said as he began to walk off. "Let us go to the Pokémon Center and confirm this. I am sure that you will need to free up space in your party for Poygon2 Ash so best not dally any longer. I have other business to attend to and a new Porygon to make."
"Um yeah I do need to do that." Ash said as he took Misty's hand, after she'd moved Piplup to her head, and shrugged following the slightly eccentric man that had just given him a Pokémon, well as soon as he had a spot for it that was. "We need to go there anyway to get my Pokémon healed up and transfer a few back home to make room for Porygon2 and bring back Buizel."
"Good good, then we can have dinner there and fully and catch up." Dr. Akihabara said as he led the way to the Pokémon Center completely forgetting why he had come to the Celadon Gym in the first place in all the excitement they'd had. "So many stories to tell, so many houses blown up since we last met. I seem to enjoy it these days."
Ash just looked at Misty and she smiled back at him as they followed the slightly insane doctor in silence, the man now rambling to himself about various things relating to his work, Porygon2 still floating just above Ash's shoulder. Misty had to admit, it was never a dull day with Ash Ketchum.
A week later Ash and Misty sat in their seats on the plane to Petalburg City holding hands with their starter on their laps as it taxied to the runway to take off. It had been an interesting week in Celadon City for sure. Between gardening and tea with Erika that turned into Misty and Erika having private Pokémon grooming and poffin making sessions as Ash was unable to make it due to his need to learn more about Porygon2, seeing Dr. Akihabara's lab on his insistence, blowing said lab up by accident, shopping for gifts for May and her family, and preparing for the Wallace Cup it had been more exhausting then they had imaged.
Now though they were about to take off for their brief detour to Hoenn to see several old friends and compete in the Wallace Cup again, a Contest Misty was set on winning for a record third time in a row. They couldn't wait for their adventure in Hoenn, it was going to be memorable for sure. Though as the plane took off, neither of the young couple could predict just how memorable it would be.
