What do you mean by Good Morning?
There were no more Team Rocket sightings over the next two days of travel. Apart from a few trainers and wild Pokemon, the rest of the trip to Celadon City wasn't much more exciting.
That didn't mean they didn't do anything during that time though. Ash and his team were preparing to take on the gym there! A grass-type gym, the leader's name was Erika. According to Karen she also had a perfume business on the side.
"She has her own greenhouse too," Karen noted.
Ash glanced at Sunny, currently training Flamethrower. "That seems like a poor decision."
"It is on brand for a grass-type gym leader though," Eevee noted. "But it does seem… incredibly flammable."
"Maybe she has a sprinkler system? Brock did and his gym was made of stone." Pidgeotto mentioned, flying in for a landing.
"Why did he need a sprinkler system then?" Eevee asked the flying-type.
"In his words, he had some 'very determined fire-types' come through." She recalled.
The evolution Pokemon's eyebrows rose. "I don't know whether to be impressed or terrified."
Her words had some merit. As Sunny had seemingly decided to prove, everything was flammable if you used enough fire. This mostly meant his teammates; Misty and her Pokemon had quickly learned how to be firefighters.
He wasn't the only one pushing his limits though, everyone had been training hard.
Pikachu had taken to trying Volt Tackle, but hadn't had much luck on that front yet though, so far it was just Quick Attack with a bit of lightning mixed in for flavor. It was pretty flashy though.
Eevee, apart from learning Dig, had been pushing herself to hit harder in general, forgoing training for new moves and instead focusing on mastering her old ones.
Selene had managed her bubble shield Protect and was looking over the other moves they'd discussed. Light Screen almost seemed to be there, maybe it just needed one final push to reach the finish line.
Pidgeotto had started practicing Aerial Ace. It was a bit hard to get down but also satisfyingly effective. It was basically a Quick Attack with a flying-type spin to it.
From what they figured it allowed Pidgeotto to home in on her target specifically, letting her move at them super fast and guarantee a hit. Having been on the receiving end while training Ash could firmly say it worked great.
Ash wasn't left out of it. Once Karen was satisfied with his Dig speed and ability she had set him to test a new idea for illusions, something Ash had never tried yet. Auditory illusions.
He had spent the last two days of travel trying to figure it out with no luck yet. He felt like the answer was right in front of him but he just couldn't see it. He still took every chance he had to give try it, experimenting with different techniques.
It led to the discovery that illusions separate from his own body did not have the same fragile solidity they had when being used to disguise him. They still popped the same but there was no substance to them. Waving a hand through would disperse it but the hand wouldn't feel anything.
This meant he couldn't cheat and just use the exterior illusions to snap a twig or something.
Back to the drawing board.
The dark-type still didn't have it down by the time they reached Celadon City. He was a little bit annoyed by it but not enough to drown out the excitement of the upcoming gym battle. Hopefully this time with a gym leader who wasn't crazy, or a jerk.
"Maybe this time it'll be another gym leader I can actually get along with." Misty fantasized as they walked down the street. "I haven't had much luck on that front."
"I'm a bit curious if you don't mind." Karen brought up. "How exactly do you become a gym leader?"
"Well," Misty began. "To start with you need a gym."
Pikachu rolled his eyes. "Really?" He snarked.
"There's a whole application process for getting a new gym started, I don't know how it works though. But you can also take over an existing gym, if it's your family running it or you're close enough to the people who do, you can try and get certified to be a gym leader yourself." Misty explained.
"Nepotism strikes again," Karen muttered but Misty didn't seem too annoyed by the comment.
"I can get why you might be annoyed by it, but it does need to come from somewhere. And besides, you still need to pass the certification to become an actual gym leader." She pointed out.
"What do you need to do to get certified?" Pidgeotto asked and Ash repeated the question, curious himself.
"The league has some officials that you need to test yourself against. Normally with either insanely powerful Pokemon or super refined teams," she remembered.
"Wait so how did you do it?" Karen asked, and then did a sharp intake of breath. "Shoot, sorry, I didn't mean it like that…"
The gym leader just sighed. "No, you're not wrong. Full story I guess, I started as a gym trainer when I turned ten, I had Staryu and that was it. I trained with him, then got Goldeen and Starmie. But we have Pokemon there that don't belong to any of us, instead, they belong to the gym itself." Misty continued.
"When I turned eleven I got to use some of them, as well as some rentals, to battle a league official. I don't remember their name. But they had this team that felt like it was made to defeat water Pokemon specifically. I barely managed to win that…" She remembered.
"Your sisters must have won too right?" Ash realized.
"Somehow." Misty agreed. "I bet they got lucky with who they were fighting." She muttered darkly.
Ash felt pretty tired as they arrived at the Pokemon Center, more than he expected to at least, but he normally felt tired when they arrived in a new city. The call of a comfortable bed was a hard one to resist.
After a brief checkup with Nurse Joy, who seemed a bit busy today, everyone filed into their rooms. Ash and his team decided to do some strategizing for the gym battle before turning in for the night.
"I'm not sure how this battle is going to work, it might be another 3v3 or she might use more Pokemon. We are further along now so I'm expecting it to be a bit harder." Ash mused as they all sat on the bed.
"This is supposed to be a grass-type gym." Eevee reminded everyone, perhaps unnecessarily. "That means Pidgeotto and Sunny will have the biggest advantage here."
"Grass-types…" Pikachu hummed as he searched his memories on type advantages and disadvantages. "They have a resistance to electric-types right?"
"If I remember correctly," Pidgeotto confirmed. "I think they resist ground and water too?" She glanced at Eevee and Ash for confirmation and both nodded.
"They resist other grass-types too," Ash added. "Which doesn't affect us much I guess."
"Doesn't that mean all of us except for Pikachu would be a good match for this gym?" Sunny double-checked.
Pikachu pouted but Selene agreed with the fire-type. "I think you're right, Eevee and I don't have much of an advantage but we're not at a disadvantage either."
Ash grimaced and looked at Pikachu. His best friend had participated in most of the gyms, only missing out on Sabrina. Although given how much of a mess that gym had been it might not have been a bad thing.
As he debated how to broach the idea of Pikachu getting left out of the battle tactfully, his friend sighed. "You're right. I don't know how much help I'd be here. Most of my strongest attacks are electric-type moves. I guess that's something we need to work on."
"Some greater range could do all of us some good I think." Pidgeotto agreed. "The more moves we know, the more situations we're prepared for."
"Very true!" Eevee agreed, her tail wagging behind her. "Dig probably won't be too much help for direct damage in this battle but it could still have its uses. The more moves we know, the more ways we can find to apply them."
"I mean we need to train them still." Sunny reminded her. "Knowing is half the battle."
"And the other half is the battle." Selene nodded sagely, perhaps missing the youngest member's point.
"Maybe we should spend an extra day training tomorrow." Ash mused, "see if there are any last-minute moves or techniques we can figure out."
"I would like to get Aerial Ace figured out first." Pidgeotto agreed. "One more day before we challenge the gym then?"
No one had any complaints about that decision. With that, they all turned in for the night.
Ash still felt pretty tired the next morning. He was mostly just annoyed by it. It was more of a lingering drowsiness than anything else.
While his teammates didn't say anything about feeling tired, he did notice that Sunny kept rubbing at his eyes and Eevee kept yawning. It left him slightly worried they might have picked something up on the road that was beginning to show itself.
Everyone except for him had been seen by Nurse Joy though and she hadn't mentioned any diseases or illnesses making themselves known. With nothing else to go on, Ash just decided to go about the day and hope that they would all wake up a bit more as it went on.
They went to the training field after breakfast. Ash elected to stay in disguise for the time being. It was time to focus on his team's training instead of his own.
Pikachu, Pidgeotto, and Selene went back to what they had already been working on, Volt Tackle, Aerial Ace, and Light Screen respectively. While they did that, he sat down with Eevee and Sunny to brainstorm.
Unfortunately, they weren't having much luck.
He searched through the move list for Eevee again, the words barely registering, the only fire-type move was Sunny Day and he was having trouble connecting the dots for how any of the others could be useful.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on with me." He shook his head in frustration and apologized to his friends and put the device down with a sigh.
Eevee stifled a yawn. "I'm feeling out of it too. I just feel so tired."
"It's not just me?" Sunny seemed relieved at that revelation. "I wasn't sure, I saw some of you guys yawning before but I thought it might be because we just woke up."
Ash frowned, something weird was going on. He looked around the training area of the Pokemon Center. His friends definitely seemed to be moving a bit sluggishly, and as he looked at the other trainers there he felt it seemed quieter.
He did spot something that helped him perk up a little, or rather someone. Misty and Karen hadn't made an appearance yet, possibly still sleeping or eating breakfast, but he did find another familiar face amongst the other trainers.
"Come on you two, we'll head to Nurse Joy in a few minutes, but I want to introduce you to someone." He helped Eevee and Sunny up, Sunny taking Selene's usual spot as opposed to hanging on his back.
The trainer didn't notice him at first, she was distracted, talking to a downcast-looking Butterfree. But Ash quickly got her attention, "Hey Leaf, how's it going?"
The girl perked up at her name and spun to look at him. It took a second but recognition flashed across her face. "Ash! Hi! Did you just get here? Oh and nice hat!"
"Thanks!" He grinned, glad the trend of people liking his hat continued. But seeing the opportunity for an easy joke, continued. "Do you mean the cap or Eevee?"
Leaf tapped her chin. "Well, I think both are pretty cool! Speaking of which…" Faster than Ash could react she scooped Eevee off his head and hugged her. "Oh look at you! You're adorable!"
"Ah!" Eevee yelped. "Unexpected hugging!"
"Are you okay Eevee?" Sunny asked, worry tinging his tone.
The other Pokemon didn't answer for a moment. "...actually this is kind of nice."
That got a raised eyebrow from Ash. He hadn't foreseen Leaf hugging Eevee, although he probably should have given her track record. But considering how Pikachu reacted to hugs he hadn't considered any of his other friends might like it.
Perhaps that was unsurprising. Maybe he should hand out more hugs if some of them wanted them. He certainly liked them but had learned to tone it down with Pikachu.
"Don't think I missed you Charmander! You're next!" Leaf told the fire-type as she continued holding Eevee. "You finally made some new friends! And I made more too! You remember Bugsworth right?"
"Top of the mornin'" The Butterfree greeted them, he sounded a bit out of it but still fairly chipper.
"Oh, he evolved right?" Perhaps he was just pointing out the obvious but it did seem like a fairly short time for a Pokemon to evolve. Then again, he remembered reading that bug-types evolved fairly quickly compared to most Pokemon. There were exceptions though.
"Yep! Around the time we got to Cerulean City!" Leaf nodded, "That was a fun battle!"
"Oh, you got to battle there too?" The conversation was helping Ash forget about his sleepiness.
"Yep! I fought the one with pink hair, I forget her name."
"That was Lily." Ash recalled. Leaf looked confused that he managed to remember and he felt the need to elaborate, "Misty is one of the Cerulean Gym leaders too, the others are her older sisters."
"I didn't know that! So you get to travel with a gym leader? Is she teaching you all sorts of gym leader secrets?" She leaned in conspiratorially.
He chuckled. "Not really, although she did tell us about how she became a gym leader, just yesterday actually. But there don't seem to be any real secrets to it."
"Hmph." Leaf seemed put out. "I was hoping it would be juicier than that. And before I forget!" Her arms darted forward and now she had both Eevee and Sunny in her grasp. "Hugs for Charmander too!"
"His name is Sunny." Ash helpfully pointed out as the fire-type squirmed for a moment before going limp.
"You were right, this is nice." He told Eevee.
Leaf looked excited by the prospect. "You started giving nicknames to your Pokemon? Does Pikachu have one now? He can't be Chewie though, Chewie is already Chewie."
The disguised Pokemon shook his head. "No, only Selene and Sunny have nicknames. No one else seemed interested." That was basically the truth without saying he had literally asked them.
"Selene?" Leaf wondered at the name. "Is that Pidgeotto? Or did you have someone else join your team?"
"Selene is a Clefairy." Ash clarified, "she's over there, training with Pikachu and Pidgeotto right now."
"Let's go meet her!" The girl declared, still hugging Eevee and Sunny, showing no signs of letting go. "Come on Bugsworth! I can introduce my new friends too!"
The next several minutes were a bit of a meet and greet for the Pokemon, and the trainers to a lesser extent.
Leaf had several new additions to her team, her total Pokemon now numbered more than six. Considering this had been a problem Ash had been worrying about himself he brought it up.
"It's hard!" She complained, sitting on the ground surrounded by a small pile of Pokemon. Sunny had decided he really liked being hugged and had snuggled in for a mid-morning nap. Ash's own drowsiness left him tinted with jealousy.
"I want to bring everyone with me! But if I bring everyone then I can't pay attention to everyone! So I have to send some back to the lab, I guess I should stop catching more but I can't help it! Every time I meet a new Pokemon and make friends with them I want them to come with us!" Her eyes watered and Fanghorn used his vines to give her a comforting pat on the back.
Chewie was the only Pokemon Ash knew who was missing from Leaf's current line-up. They had just missed the other Pikachu, she'd been sent back to Professor Oak earlier that morning.
Pidget was present and was in the midst of some conversation with Pidgeotto, Ash wasn't paying close attention but the word 'speed' and several synonyms got tossed around. Bugsworth was sticking close to Leaf but was talking to Selene a little bit. And of course, there was Fanghorn who was in the middle of talking about moves with Eevee.
Of the new additions present, there was a Growlithe, nicknamed Bork. As well as two Nidoran, one boy and one girl. They were named Eomer and Eowyn respectively.
Leaf's naming conventions left Ash befuddled. Some seemed simple and silly and others seemed to have more thought and meaning behind them. It was a little strange, but then again he was a little strange too so who was he to judge?
Eventually Karen and Misty joined them and Leaf insisted that she meet all their Pokemon as well! Ash quickly found himself struggling to keep up with the conversation.
As Misty was trapped by Leaf quizzing her for all sorts of 'gym leader secrets,' Karen noticed that the Pokemon seemed to be drooping, and addressed Ash in a low voice. "Are you alright? You look kind of tired, and not just you." Her gaze focused on the currently sleeping Sunny.
The dark-type struggled to stifle a yawn. "I don't know," he shook his head, hoping the motion would help. "I thought I felt more tired than usual last night but we all just seem exhausted today, even after a full night's sleep!"
With narrowed eyes, the older trainer looked at the other nearby Pokemon a bit more closely, including her own. "Your Pokemon seem more tired than mine do… but Umbreon looks a little out of it to me, and Houndour isn't as hyper as usual."
Ash saw Pikachu yawn and struggled to stop himself from following the contagious action. He failed and through the sleepy haze, worry began to stab him. "Something is going on, and I don't know what." It was probably time to check in with Nurse Joy and figure out what was going on.
The other two trainers picked up on what was being discussed and it didn't take much convincing for them to agree there was something amiss. Leaf had noticed it herself with Bugsworth earlier, but Ash and his Pokemon had served as a momentary distraction for her as well.
He was able to keep up his illusion as they returned indoors, Misty and Karen's Pokemon were returned to their Pokeballs, and through careful rhetoric, Ash managed to extract the sleeping Sunny from Leaf.
When they spoke to Nurse Joy though, it quickly became apparent this was a far larger issue than they first realized.
"Drowsiness and exhaustion?" She asked before they even had a chance to say anything, her eyes were on the sleeping Sunny, currently held by Ash.
"I'm guessing this is bigger than just us?" Misty asked.
"Unfortunately," Nurse Joy sighed and shook her head. "It's been popping up for the past few days, Pokemon just passing out or becoming completely exhausted with no explanation. Sometimes there are other side effects like fever or head pains, but the exhaustion stays the same."
Fighting off his desire for sleep, Ash straightened, "how bad is it?"
"Come on, it won't hurt to show you." Nurse Joy led them to another room. It looked like it was supposed to serve as some sort of multi-purpose room, likely for events or activities run by the Pokemon Center, but at the moment it was filled with Pokemon-sized beds and gurneys.
"This is awful." Leaf summed up looking around. "I was worried when Bugsworth was tired but this is too much!"
Ash said nothing, looking around at all the Pokemon, there were a few other trainers in the room, staying bedside with their teammates. He swallowed, a tinge of fear mixing with his frustration, annoyance, and sleepiness. There wasn't much he could do if he passed out too.
"Do you have any idea what's causing this?" Karen asked Nurse Joy as she started taking the temperature of one of the few conscious Pokemon, a Psyduck. The water-type was clutching at their head.
"None at all." She glowered at the thermostat as she read the reading. "I've run all sorts of tests, scans, and exams. Nothing. No viruses, no bacterial infections, and only the Ponyta over there has any allergies acting up." She gestured towards the other side of the room. "I can't stand it, all I can do is try and make them as comfortable as possible."
Misty stepped forward and began asking questions. "Is there anything we can do to keep our Pokemon safe? You've been keeping an eye on this right? Even if you can't find the cause you must have noticed other things?"
"I have, I was working on writing a bulletin when you four came over," Joy claimed and stood up, giving Psyduck a soft rub on the head. "It doesn't seem to affect Pokemon inside their Pokeballs, although the effects don't entirely disappear either."
That was more of a problem for Ash than anyone else. His Pokemon didn't use their balls very much but most of them would be okay with it. But Pikachu would refuse, and his own Pokeball was all the way in Pallet Town.
The nurse wasn't done though. "I would think it was something psychic, it has a slightly different effect on psychic-types or Pokemon with psychic potential, making them feverish on top of the tiredness. Except it's happening to dark-types too…"
"What about the police?" Misty asked. "Start the search for what could be causing this?"
Joy was already shaking her head. "Officer Jenny has her hands full right now. Things have been a huge mess. A bunch of the local children have been going missing. She's busy trying to figure that out. She knows about this but she already has a lot on her plate!"
"What about Erika then?" Misty pressed. "She's the gym leader, she has to have some kind of authority to help!"
"She knows about it, and she's working on it. She hasn't been able to find the cause herself so she's trying to work on a solution. I just got a call from her this morning, her perfume company has been refocusing their efforts on creating a special smelling perfume, like smelling salts, to try and help the Pokemon wake up on their own." She explained.
"That's something at least." The ginger gym leader muttered, likely pleased to finally hear about a gym leader trying to help out.
Karen ran a hand through her hair. "This is a fine mess we've wandered into. Again."
They did have a knack for wandering into problems, didn't they? Ash glanced at Leaf, the girl looked very upset by everything that had been dropped on them. He wondered what her own journey had been like up to this point. Based on his own, he already knew what they were going to do.
His mind made up, he spoke up. "How can we help?"
Misty wasn't exactly annoyed that Ash had volunteered them to help out, she had been about three seconds from doing the same thing.
What was annoying, was the fact that Ash was also subject to the weird 'Sleep Plague' as Leaf had decided to call it. Therefore, he was less helpful than he normally was.
This did not stop him from trying though.
Every Pokemon except for Ash himself and Pikachu had been returned to their balls. Her team and Karen's hadn't been forced to deal with the Sleep Plague for too long, but better safe than sorry. If they needed their help later it was better they be in as good a state as they could be.
This made things a bit more complicated. Misty wanted to tell Ash and Pikachu to stay behind and rest, but Ash would refuse and Pikachu would want to go with him. Not to mention they didn't have a good explanation for Leaf.
The other trainer from Pallet Town had wanted to help too, and they didn't have a reason to turn her away, except of course for Ash's secret.
She kept an eye on Ash as they walked, he seemed to be doing okay for the moment, and, thanks to his illusion, his exhaustion wasn't obvious just from looking at him.
Nurse Joy hadn't had much for them to do at the Pokemon Center. The sleeping Pokemon were not in immediate danger so apart from checking on them and taking temperatures every now and then, she was not overly swamped by the number. Instead, she had sent them to find Officer Jenny, and see if they could help her.
If one problem could be solved, then that would mean they could focus on the other one. Not to mention (in Misty's opinion at least) the two situations had to be related. A few days ago children start going missing and around the same time, Pokemon start collapsing from unexplained exhaustion. The connection wasn't obvious but it seemed like there was one, and she told the others that.
"It could just be a coincidence," Karen pointed out. "I mean, I don't think it is. There's such a thing as 'too much of a coincidence' after all. But I also can't figure out how they could be connected…"
Leaf had a theory, "Maybe the kids are collapsing from exhaustion too?"
Misty shook her head. "They'd find the kids then, they could have fallen asleep at home or school, or even the park. Falling asleep wouldn't make them disappear, and even if it was affecting them, wouldn't they go tell their parents they were feeling tired?"
"Hmm." Ash hummed and Misty looked at him, wondering if he had anything to add, but he left it at that.
They found Officer Jenny after a little while of looking. She had a pretty recognizable appearance, resembling her relatives almost to an impossible degree. It was a little strange but it also felt rude to come right out and question it. At the moment she was adding to a large collection of missing posters.
"Can I help you, kids?" She asked as she finished putting up the newest poster.
"Actually we were hoping we could help you out, our Pokemon started losing their energy and we talked to Nurse Joy about it. We wanted to help and she suggested we could see if we could help you at all."
A smile briefly turned Jenny's features but it didn't last long. "I appreciate the offer, but I can't see how much help you could be. Not unless you can figure out what 'sleep waves' are or how they relate to missing children."
"Sleep waves?" Ash muttered, his tired voice filled with confusion.
"That was my reaction." The officer agreed with a nod. "I've been looking into whether there was a connection between the missing children and the exhaustion the Pokemon are experiencing, but my best lead, a paper from a Unovan scientist, was just talking about sleep waves and dreams."
"I never heard the phrase before." Misty agreed and glanced at Karen, she had traveled around plenty, but the older girl shook her head.
"Yeah, something about how some Pokemon can amplify Hypnosis or other sleep-inducing effects over a large radius to weaker effects. Supposedly there's a way to track it but I don't have a way to do so and I doubt any scientist from Unova wants to take a trip around the world to help me understand their thesis." Jenny bemoaned. "So I do appreciate the offer, but I suggest you just keep your eyes peeled for any of the missing kids."
"Umm." Leaf had been staring at the posters and started looking between one of them and the group. "Ash, do you have any siblings? Specifically a twin?"
The disguised trained perked up a bit at his name. "Not that I know of?"
"How about cousins? Specifically, cousins named Arnold?" She pointed at one of the posters and the others looked.
A rather familiar face looked back at them. It wasn't wearing a hat, but the boy in the picture looked incredibly similar to Ash. Almost the same level that Jennys and Joys resembled each other.
"That's…" Ash stared at his doppelganger. "That's weird."
"Is it?" Karen asked him, a slight knowing in her tone.
"Yes, it is." Ash insisted. "I… I don't have any relatives here, I don't know why that kid looks like me. Besides, look at his eyes and hair, they're wrong!" The eyes were a slightly different shape, and the hair had a slight blue tinge to it.
"Not by much, and everything else looks the same." Leaf pointed out.
"Safe to say you're not Arnold then?" Officer Jenny checked.
"No, I'm not." Ash asserted with a huff. "My name is Ash Ketchum, I'm from Pallet Town."
"Just checking." Officer Jenny seemed slightly amused by his reaction. "But that's all I have. If you want to take a look at the 'sleep waves' stuff, it's not too hard to find online. Other than that, just keep your eyes open for the missing kids."
After they met with the local law enforcement, they stopped by a nearby park to brainstorm. Ash and Pikachu sat down on the bench (or rather Ash sat down with Pikachu on his shoulder), Leaf and Misty paced while Karen just stood there, tapping her foot and humming to herself.
"I doubt walking around looking for kids will be much good. Officer Jenny is probably already doing that, and their parents too I'd bet." Misty pointed out.
"Aren't we kids? Wouldn't we have a better idea of where kids would go?" Leaf suggested.
"Pokemon Journeys?" Ash tried to be helpful. Karen snorted and Misty rolled her eyes.
Leaf took his suggestion seriously though. "Maybe, is there anyone in Celadon who could sponsor trainers?"
"Erika, and she'd need the parents' permission to do it." Karen reminded her.
Misty didn't want to just throw in the towel though. They had to do something, maybe they wouldn't be able to solve whatever was going on. But it was better than doing nothing and hoping things solved themselves.
"We should try and look at those 'sleep waves' Officer Jenny mentioned." Misty decided, "it won't help find the missing kids, but it would help the Pokemon! Let's head back to the Pokemon Center and see what we can find."
Karen and Leaf went to the older girl's room to sit down at the desktop provided by the Pokemon Center. Not every center had them available but some of the nicer ones in big cities did. Saffron had the same commodity.
Ash had pulled Misty aside before they could join though. He looked concerned and perhaps slightly alarmed.
"I can't keep my illusion up anymore." He gasped, and Misty realized he was trembling, although it might have just been the illusion itself beginning to fail.
"Pika…" Pikachu rubbed at his eyes.
"Shoot, just drop it, don't try and force yourself to hold it up." She looked up and down the hallway to make sure the coast was clear.
Pikachu jumped from Ash's shoulder to her arms, slightly clumsily but she managed to catch him, then he dragged himself to her shoulder and made himself comfortable. Is this what Ash felt like?
As soon as Pikachu was clear, Ash's illusion collapsed in on itself and the fluffy dark-type collapsed onto the floor. "Oh, that feels better."
"Feeling a bit more awake now?" She asked him and picked him up, giving him a quick inspection. His eyes seemed clouded and his tail drooped.
"Not exactly, you know how it feels after you have to do a lot of running and then get to stop? It's kind of like that." Ash explained.
"At least you're not running anymore." She comforted him, "wanna ride with Pikachu for now?"
"Yes please." And now Misty had two Pokemon on her shoulder. Despite the situation, it did make her feel a certain kind of giddy deep down.
"This is nice." Ash decided now that he was balanced on Misty's shoulder. "I think I understand why you guys like riding on my illusion so much." He told Pikachu.
"Pi pichu." Pikachu nodded sagely.
"Glad you're comfortable. Now for the tricky bit, what do we say to Leaf?" Misty asked.
That was a good question. They did consider just letting her in on the secret, she seemed nice enough after all. It could have just been the Sleep Plague talking but Ash wasn't too keen on letting her know just yet though. She seemed nice enough and like a good person. But a secret long kept is hard to let go of.
So they had to come up with an alternative solution.
In the end, it was a group effort. Pikachu had a few contributions but he was probably the most out of it. Ash laid the groundwork and Misty helped fill in the details. She might have enjoyed that part a little too much but she was happy with what she came up with.
"Wow, Karen it's so nice of you to give one of your Pokemon away to Misty like that!" Leaf's eyes sparkled at the tear-jerking story Misty had just dropped on them.
"Yep," Karen spoke through gritted teeth in a poor rendition of a smile. "Just really nice of me."
Cinder the Zorua had been one of Karen's Pokemon but had become quite taken to Misty in the time they'd known each other. In fact, Cinder tended to prefer Misty's company to Karen's! They'd had a sit-down and talked about it, and Karen, being such a nice and wonderful trainer, had decided that since Cinder liked Misty so much more, he could become one of her Pokemon.
Misty, Ash, and Pikachu thought it was great fun, even if the older trainer didn't quite agree.
As for what had happened to Ash and why Pikachu was now with Misty? That harder yarn to spin. They had figured out the explanation for Ash/Cinder fairly quickly and spent most of their time in the hallway figuring out why Ash was not with them.
What they came up with in the end was perhaps not the best story, but acceptable given the amount of time they'd had to work with. So we shouldn't be too hard on them.
Ash had come up with an idea for where the missing kids might be and wanted to go check it out. However, it would look too suspicious if he went in with anyone else, even a Pokemon like Pikachu. Therefore he entrusted Pikachu to Misty's care and set off with the promise of being back as soon as he could.
Just in case he'd kept all his other Pokemon with him, still inside of their balls. That way if things went bad he had some help on hand.
While they had been in the hallway figuring all of this out Karen and Leaf had been busy researching Sleep Waves.
The so-called 'Sleep Waves' had been discovered while researching some Pokemon named Munna and Musharna, who had some effects on dreams and sleep in general. The studies helped explain a bit about how Hypnosis worked.
While Hypnosis was most famously used to induce sleep, it could be used in other ways. Including creation illusions, or rather hallucinations. It would basically create a sort of waking dream that the victim would be able to see and fill in the gaps for. Even if the Pokemon using the move was providing the concept.
It also detailed that Hypnosis in its simplest form only afflicted other Pokemon. For it to work on humans it needed to be modified. Indeed they had tested that a fair bit and made some discoveries. Sometimes people under its effects were unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.
A notable example was a test subject who woke up and believed they were a Meowth, even speaking like one for the duration of the experiment. Curiously, others who were affected in the same way were able to communicate with them. It was a little interesting.
This was what the actual paper went over. There were a lot of concepts and diagrams and references that none of them understood. This was probably why Officer Jenny had thrown in the towel and decided to focus on just finding the missing children.
But these young people had an idea. If there was an official document talking about something, there was probably someone out there commenting about it. So they dug a little deeper.
It took a bit of digging but they managed to find a lead.
"You want to take one of the Psychic-types here with you?" Nurse Joy seemed surprised by the request.
"It's the best lead we have right now," Karen claimed.
Misty nodded, "maybe it is a dead end. But we still think we should give it a try."
Nurse Joy sighed. "Can you at least explain why you want to bring one with you first?"
"We weren't sure how Sleep Waves worked," Leaf started. "And I still have no idea. But we found a discussion board where people were talking about it! I don't know what they were going on about but someone brought up how they work on psychic-types!"
"Psychic-types have a slightly different reaction to mental status effects." Misty picked up. "They still work on them, but they need to be more focused. And some psychics are powerful enough to resist the effect, although it doesn't feel great for them."
"That's interesting and explains a few things." Joy mulled the words over. "But how would taking a psychic-type with you help fix anything?"
"If one is still conscious then that means they're powerful enough to resist the effect." Misty continued. "And they might be able to point us where the effect is coming from."
This was a bit of a long shot. One poster on the discussion board had suggested it but no one had responded to that post. But it was the best lead they had.
Nurse Joy shook her head. "I can't say it sounds like a great idea, but I don't have any myself. I don't see any harm in letting you give it a try at least. But there is a slight problem."
"What's that?" Karen asked.
"While some of the psychic-type Pokemon we have here did resist the effects for the first couple days, eventually they passed out too. We only have one Pokemon here who's been conscious for all three days."
The group shared a worried look. "Well, who is it?"
"I don't know if this is going to work." Misty worried.
"Nonsense, this is perfec-" Ash whispered but was cut off by a yawn.
She gave her friend a skeptical look and then turned her gaze to the Pokemon in her arms.
"Psy?" The duck Pokemon looked up at her.
"Psyduck wants to know when dinner is." Ash translated and hummed. "Oh, dinner sounds nice actually. I'm kinda hungry too…"
Misty was walking at the front of the group. Holding Psyduck, the only conscious Pokemon Nurse Joy had for them. Karen and Leaf walked a little ways behind, Karen finding ways to distract Leaf from picking up on Ash whispering translations to Misty.
Psyduck did have psychic potential, so it made sense that he would be able to resist the effects. But doing so when full psychics had failed didn't seem possible. They had to work with what they had though.
Unfortunately, while Psyduck was resisting the effects of the Sleep Plague, he was also in a constant state of discomfort and had a terrible headache. So he wasn't quite all there in the head. Normally Ash would have been able to help sort that bit out, except he was exhausted, bordering on delirious, and wasn't much help himself right now.
"Alright, turn left here," Ash directed after Psyduck said something.
Misty looked to her left, and the body of water there. "Ash we can't go left. There's a pond."
"No, we need to go left!" He pointed right.
She sighed, "alright, we're going left." She turned right and kept going.
"See? I tooold you." He poked at her cheek and she restrained herself from shaking him off her shoulder.
If there was any consolation to this, it was the fact she could hold this over his head after all this was over. He'd never be able to bring up the bug-type thing again!
They walked around for almost an hour as Psyduck slowly homed in on the source of his headaches. She felt a little bad as she realized that was how he was tracking it. Whenever his headache got worse he knew they were going the right way. Silently she decided this water-type needed a reward when all this was over.
Pikachu finally dropped around the half-hour mark, thankfully Leaf was more than happy to scoop him up.
"Finally! All the Pikachu hugs I want! Oh, I wish Chewie was here too! Then I could hug two Pikachu!" She wasn't squeezing him too tight, or at least she didn't seem to be.
"Hugs are nice," Ash said something Misty couldn't understand.
"What did you say?" She whispered.
"I said 'Zorua.'" He snickered at his own joke and nearly fell off her shoulder.
This was how things went until they finally reached the place that seemed to be the source of their trouble. Ash translated for Psyduck and occasionally said something silly or incomprehensible, while Leaf babbled about Pokemon and Misty led the way. Karen didn't seem able to decide if she was annoyed or amused by the entire situation.
Their destination was a house, a big mansion building with hedges and pathways and gardens. It was a bit away from the busier parts of the city too.
"I half-expected the missing kids to be here," Karen noted as they approached the door.
"They could be inside." Leaf's hands went for her Pokeballs. "We'll bust some heads if we have to!"
How delightfully violent. Psyduck groaned in Misty's arms and rubbed his head. She shot a quick glance at Ash and he nodded. This was the place alright.
Karen wasted no more time and kicked the doors down. "What's going on in here?" She demanded as the group of children stormed into the threshold.
They were met with the confused stares of a bunch of elderly, well-dressed men. What got their attention, however, was the podium in the center of the room. Lazing there comfortably were two Pokemon, a Drowzee and a Hypno.
Looks like they had struck gold.
"Give up evildoers!" Ash started a declaration and tried his best to stand on Misty's shoulder. "We're here to protect the world from devastation!" Everyone else just heard 'Zor zorua zorua!' Then Ash lost his balance and fell off Misty's shoulder.
"Wheeeeee." He cheered, wiggling his legs before going still to just lie there. "This is a comfy floor."
"Oh dear, is that Pokemon quite alright?" One of the gentlemen asked in what was some sort of posh Galarian accent.
"He's exhausted." Karen picked Ash up much to his protest. Misty tensed for a moment but forced herself to relax. Karen wasn't going to run off with him. "And we have pretty good reason to believe it's your fault!"
"Our fault? Whatever do you mean?"
"Have you been living under a rock?" Misty asked. "The missing children? The Sleep Plague? Do you not have any idea what's going on in the rest of the city?"
Some confused glances were exchanged. "To tell the truth, no we don't. We've all been extremely busy! Between our jobs and the Pokemon Lover's Club, we've all found ourselves turned into insomniacs! Thankfully one of our Drowzee recently evolved into Hypno! He's been helping us all get exactly six hours of rest every day!"
"...are you serious?" Misty asked slowly.
"Whatever seems to be the matter young lady?"
"I just… I just need to get this straight. Because you all have trouble sleeping, you decided to get Hypno to use his powers to put you to sleep, even though Hypnosis doesn't normally work on humans so it needs to be altered a bit." She checked.
"It's that simple!" He smiled.
"How is that simple?" Misty demanded.
"Makes sense to me!" Ash claimed and Leaf looked around wildly.
"Was that Ash?" She asked, Karen and Misty shared a worried look but the gentleman they'd been speaking to spoke up again.
"Insomnia is frightful! Lying in bed unable to sleep even though you feel exhausted! City life is incredibly stressful! We had a solution and decided to make use of it and I've had some of the best sleep I've had since I was a strapping young lad! Now explain how this is causing any trouble?"
"Mmmm, yes." Another man spoke up. "What was that remark about a Sleep Plague? And missing children?"
The girls explained the full story. The Pokemon having their energy drained, the children going missing, how it started three days ago. Unsurprisingly, that coincided perfectly with when Hypno evolved. They also explained how 'Sleep Waves' could have a different effect on humans. Sometimes making them unable to distinguish dreams from reality.
"Good heavens." The man looked astonished. "We had no idea the effects could spread like that! Drowzee could probably help counteract Hypno's effects. But I'm still confused about what this has to do with the missing children?"
"My bet is the kids are being affected, I'm not sure why it's not adults and why it's not every kid in the city." Karen put forth her theory. "Maybe the Hypnosis you're using to cure your insomnia has a different effect on kids. But we could probably use Hypno to test it."
"We'd need a child though…" everyone looked at the man who had said that. "What?"
Leaf and Misty shared a look. They were the youngest, it was probably going to be one of them. Leaf was two years younger though, but that might not matter much, they were both firmly considered children still.
"You know what, I'll do it." Leaf stepped forward. "Maybe I'll get to think I'm a Pokemon! That could be fun."
Karen took Pikachu from her as she braced herself. Ash poked at his friend's sleeping face and giggled. "Sleepyhead."
"Hypno! Miracle Eye and Hypnosis!" The lead gentleman directed and that got Karen's attention.
"Miracle Eye?" She asked, "why are you using Miracle Eye?"
Hypno began following the command and his trainer explained. "It's quite simple, Miracle Eye allows the psychic-type to see with their third eye more clearly. This allows Hypno to tailor Hypnosis for usage on humans!"
"It also allows psychic moves to work on dark-types." Karen pointed out and glanced at Ash.
"I get it now." The Zorua nodded. "Eyes let people see me."
The gentleman quirked an eyebrow at the talking Pokemon but Hypno had finished using Miracle Eye and was now hypnotizing Leaf.
The trainer's normally happy expression became vacant. She stared blankly for a moment. "Meee~" She mewed.
"Does… does she think she's a Meowth?" Misty asked with wonder. Leaf did a little spin and held her hands like paws, giving one a little lick. She meowed again and then scampered off, almost skipping through the air.
"Follow her!" Karen was after her quickly.
"Oh right!" Misty was right behind her.
Some of the gentlemen came with them as they ran through the city for a bit. Eventually, they came to a secluded area of one of the local parks. It was away from any of the main trails. As they pushed their way through the underbrush they found quite a strange sight.
Leaf was now one among many other kids, all of them acting like various types of Pokemon. Misty heard a few familiar sounds, like "Char," and "Pidge," as well as others that she didn't recognize.
Some of them were playing, and some just ran around aimlessly. One girl was lying on the ground, splayed out and snoring. Another boy was standing completely still with his arms stuck straight out at his sides.
"We should probably tell Officer Jenny we found the missing children." Karen deduced.
"And I suppose we should begin writing apology letters." The lead gentleman who'd come with them decided and wiped his brow with a handkerchief. "Good heavens, this is not what we wanted at all."
Karen handed off the Pokemon to Misty again and ran off to find Officer Jenny. Some of the gentlemen returned to their clubhouse to see about reversing the effects of Hypno's hypnosis and Misty was left watching over a field full of children acting like Pokemon and Pokemon acting like children.
"I want to sleep," Ash claimed.
"Just close your eyes, Ash," Misty told him.
"But I don't wanna…" he whined petulantly.
"My head hurts, can you help?" Psyduck quacked.
"Psyduck says his head hurts." Ash helpfully translated.
"I know Ash." She'd try to get Psyduck an aspirin when they got back to the Pokemon Center. Or whatever the Pokemon equivalent of aspirin was.
"Wheeee." He rolled over and flopped off Misty's shoulder again.
"And now I have two children to care for." She sighed dramatically and looked at the sleeping Pikachu. "At least you're quiet.
As if to spite her, Pikachu chose now to start snoring.
Once the effects of Hypno's abilities had been reversed, it was a matter of cleanup.
The energy sapped from the Pokemon was gone so they would need time to rest and recover still, but it was no longer being constantly drained from them. They would probably start waking up and feeling right as rain within the next day or so.
Officer Jenny gathered up the parents of the missing children and there were many tearful reunions to be had. Leaf seemed to enjoy her experience thinking she was a Pokemon.
"I felt like I could do anything!" She claimed as they walked back to the center. "It was amazing! I want to do that again!"
"Maybe you could catch a Hypno," Karen suggested. "Try not to accidentally endanger a whole city though."
"No promises." Leaf stuck her tongue out at the teenager.
"Children." The blue-haired trainer shook her head.
"This was a fun adventure though! We should do this more often!" Leaf decided as they arrived back at the Pokemon Center.
"I feel like we could do with less of them." Misty decided. They could be fun sure, but it also meant something was going wrong and they had to fix it. Was it too much to ask for things to go right?
"We can trade then. Maybe tomorrow. I'm gonna let my Pokemon get some real sleep and then do some exploring around the city tomorrow! I heard there's a Game Corner I want to check out!" Leaf announced. "It was nice meeting you Karen! Bye Misty, bye Pikachu, bye Psyduck, bye Ash!" She pat the Zorua on the head as she said her final goodbye.
Misty's jaw dropped as Leaf walked away, whistling a cheerful tune. Ash waved a paw. "Bye Leaf!"
"Did she just…" Karen glanced at Misty.
"I think she did." The gym leader agreed and looked at Ash, who finally seemed ready to let his eyes drift shut. "We'll tell him about it tomorrow. I'll get him to his room and then bring Psyduck back to Nurse Joy."
When Misty went to return Psyduck she found out a few things. Firstly that Psyduck's trainer had left him there over a week ago and removed the water-types registration, and secondly that Psyduck's headache never stopped.
"So he's just in constant discomfort and pain?" Misty had set Psyduck down on the counter as she spoke to Nurse Joy.
"I'm afraid so," Joy confirmed. "Golduck are better at dealing with the psychic abilities they have, and there have been arguments and studies about whether they count as psychic-types. But Psyduck just can't handle the energy and it just builds up and hurts them. His old trainer was at his wit's end and left Psyduck here hoping I could do something."
"Can you?" Misty asked, Psyduck's head switched between each speaker as the conversation continued.
"I have some medicine that can provide some minor relief but nothing permanent. Psyduck is rather unfortunate I'm afraid."
"Terrible." The younger girl agreed. "He was a really big help today, we wouldn't have been able to fix things without him."
"I'm glad." Nurse Joy smiled. "I hope you know how great a job you did Psyduck." She told the water-type.
"Psy?" He just looked confused but stood up and walked to the edge of the counter and looked down, judging the distance. He jumped, awkwardly, hit Misty's belt, and knocked an empty Pokeball off it.
Psyduck hit the ground and the ball bounced off his head and sucked him in. The two humans stood watching with bemusement as the ball rocked back and forth before it made a clicking sound and dinged.
"...I think that might be the first time I've ever seen a Pokemon catch themself." Nurse Joy said with barely restrained laughter. "Oh, I do hope we got that on camera, my cousin in Pewter would love this!"
So it was that Misty ended their little adventure with a new member of her team.
The next day was more a day of recovery than anything else. Ash and his team worked themselves back into shape with a bit of training and Misty teased him about the silly things he did and said while he was sleep deprived.
"It's not funny!" He whined and covered his face, glowing with embarrassment.
"Yes, it was!" Karen inserted herself into the conversation.
He was a little surprised to hear that Leaf had seemingly worked things out on her own at some point, even though he was sure he'd been extra careful.
But they didn't see Leaf that morning and by the time afternoon rolled around and Ash wanted to make for Erika's gym they still hadn't seen her.
"I need to talk to her." He claimed as they walked towards the perfume shop that was connected to the gym proper.
"You can either spend the day looking for her or do your gym battle." Misty reminded him. "Your choice."
He frowned. "Gym battle first and then we look for her." This decision was popular among his team.
Erika welcomed them to the perfume shop and Misty couldn't help herself as she tested some of the different perfumes. Karen was more into it than she was but she could appreciate the pleasant smell of a good perfume.
Ash… did not seem to be having a good time though.
As soon as they'd walked in the door he had made a hacking sound and shut his mouth tight. He'd stood there, stiff as a board as Karen and Misty spent a few minutes talking to Erika about her work.
Her gym doubled as a greenhouse and all the perfumes they made were natural substances created using the plants and flowers they grew there. It was a bit interesting but the discussion was interrupted as Ash started coughing and hacking.
"Can't hold… my breath… any longer." He wheezed out. "Too… much!" He covered his nose and started coughing.
The local gym leader narrowed her eyes, apparently thinking that Ash was insulting her work, but Karen and Misty put together what was happening pretty quickly.
A Zorua's nose was far more sensitive to smells than a human nose. He was being bombarded with all the perfume smells all at once. It was probably too much for him.
Misty helped Ash out of the room as Karen explained a passable excuse to Erika. "My friend there has a really sensitive nose. It's come in handy a few times on the road. I'm guessing all the different smells are a bit too much for him all at once."
"Hm, I see." Erika's eyes were suspicious but she didn't dispute the claim. It was believable enough after all and Ash hadn't actually insulted any of her perfumes. "I've never met someone with such a sense of smell though."
"Me neither, I was pretty impressed by it when he first demonstrated," Karen told her. "He was able to tell exactly what was in a stew from smell alone." She inserted a parlor trick Ash had shown off one night around the fire.
"Really?" The traditionally dressed woman sounded impressed now. "That's quite interesting. Would it be presumptuous of me to assume he's the challenger?"
"He is, I'm taking a break from the circuit right now, where should we send him for the battle?"
Erika gave them directions to the front door of the greenhouse and told Karen to have them follow the main path to the battle area. She would meet them there shortly.
Ash wished he could appreciate the greenhouse more. It was nice as far as forests go. Likely a mix of the small size and the fact it was carefully tended and manicured by Erika, her gym trainers, and her assistants.
But he could do that after the battle. He now stood facing Erika, she stood on the opposite side of a grassy field near the center of the space. Most of the plants were a fair distance away from them, likely to protect them from the battle.
"This will be a four versus four battle. Substitutions are allowed but they count as a forfeit for the returned Pokemon. Do you have any questions?" Her tone was pleasant enough if a tad detached. He was glad she wasn't taking his quick departure from her perfume shop too harshly.
"Do you send out first or do I?" Ash asked. He already knew who he would be using but was wondering about Erika's choice.
"Together, I have my choice prepared, do you?"
"I'm ready." The trainer nodded.
"Three, two, one, go! Weepinbell!" Erika sent out her Pokemon.
"Let's go Eevee!" First up two gyms in a row, although Sabrina's gym had been a hot mess.
Eevee didn't have any particular advantage in this gym, in fact, her limited moves might put her at a bit of a disadvantage. But her goal was more to test the waters and see if she could make any headway.
Not that she minded, it had been her idea to go first. That way the Pokemon with better type matching would be better prepared for whatever else Erika might have up her kimono sleeve.
"Sunny Day." Erika sounded calm and collected. At her words, the already bright sunlight grew harsher. Ash squinted against the light and made a few guesses at the gym leader's plan.
"Eevee use Dig!" He directed, "make plenty of tunnels!"
The normal-type had barely managed to burrow underground before the grass-type was almost on top of her, much faster than Ash had expected. Thankfully the other Pokemon decided not to risk trapping themself underground with Eevee and stayed on the surface.
"Fill the hole with Poison Powder!" Erika ordered and Ash felt a tinge of worry.
As the purple substance began drifting into the hole, Eevee popped out behind Weepinbell, she looked as though she was about to start digging again, likely to keep up the tunnel idea but Ash warned her off.
"Eevee the hole is being filled with Poison Powder! Focus on Weepinbell, use Bite and Quick Attack!"
"Right!" She lunged forward and the manifested jaws snapped shut on her opponent making them flinch back. As they recovered she jumped forward again with Quick Attack and adding a spin to the command, used Baby-Doll Eyes as a follow-up to her barrage.
"Use Growth!" Weepinbell started glowing and grew slightly larger.
"Don't let up Eevee!" Ash ordered and let her use some of her own strategies.
The normal-type drummed up a familiar number that she'd used in the mock battle against Sunny. She used Quick Attack to maneuver herself around Weepinbell. Using it for positioning and flanking rather than direct attacks. Whenever she felt herself in a good position she would use Tackle.
She added a twist though, when in front of the other Pokemon she used Sand Attack, dusting their eyes.
Weepinbell was not idle, however.
The grass-type glowed again and grew even larger, then flashed brightly.
Eevee skidded to a halt and squeezed her eyes shut. "What's that smell?" She muttered, wrinkling her nose too.
"Let's begin in earnest, Double-Team!" Erika ordered and suddenly there seemed to be a lot more Pokemon on the battlefield.
To Ash's trained eye he could tell the duplicates weren't true illusions. Just images briefly existing in the air. Most trainers and Pokemon wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but he had an advantage in this case and was willing to use it.
Weepinbell wasn't stationary, it was moving between the different images, "Brace yourself Eevee!" Ash warned his friend. It would take him a moment to track Weepinbell's path and he doubted they'd be safe from attacks.
His warning proved prophetic as Erika ordered her Pokemon to start using Vine Whip.
The grassy vines lashed out, apparently from multiple sources, it was hard to tell where they originated from truly, but they were boosted by Growth and definitely hurt Eevee more than she was expecting.
Poor Eevee had to take one more of those super-powered Vine Whips before Ash finally managed to work out what Weepinbell's movement pattern was. "Quick Attack, left!"
In a blur of motion, Eevee moved left and slammed into the real Weepinbell, and for good measure followed up with a Bite.
For all of Weepinbell's preparations, they had already taken damage and this proved to be the final bell leading to knockout.
"Interesting," Erika noted as she returned her Pokemon. "I thought you might have been panicking when Weepinbell used Double-Team."
"Nope, just figuring it out," Ash explained.
"Ivysaur, your turn!" Erika sent out her next Pokemon.
Ash had seen more Bulbasaur and Venusaur, but he was familiar enough with the middle evolution.
"Growth and then Solar Beam," Erika ordered and it occurred to Ash that the bright sunlight had yet to fade.
"Dig!" Ash called and Eevee barely managed to burrow out of the way of the bright beam. He knew she wouldn't be able to take a hit like that.
A moment later she burst from the ground and crashed into Ivysaur like a rocket. The attack did some damage but not enough.
It quickly proved to be pointless though, when Erika gave her next direction. "Giga Drain!"
Glowing particles were drawn from Eevee and into Ivysaur and the normal-type collapsed, unable to resist the draining powers of the attack. Ash sighed, they managed to get Erika's first Pokemon too at least. He returned Eevee and sent Selene onto the battlefield.
"Ready- ah!" Selene was immediately met with a Solar Beam as soon as she landed on the field.
Ash winced, that must have hurt, a lot he bet. But Selene stayed standing, it was the first attack she'd taken, but he doubted she'd be able to take another one.
"Protect!" Ash called before the next Solar Beam could hit. The attack bounced off of Selene's shield and she charged forward.
"Defense Curl! Full speed!" Ash ordered, Disarming Voice wasn't much good against Ivysuar, with the dual grass and poison-type. So might as well crash hard and fast.
They wouldn't always be able to catch their opponent off guard with this technique, but they should take advantage of it while they could. Erika and Ivysaur were befuddled long enough for Selene to bowl into Ivysaur, full force!
The other Pokemon toppled to the ground. And Ash had Selene keep up her assault. "Use Pound! Get ready to use Protect at a moment's notice!" He warned.
"Get her off of you Ivysaur!" Erika called, leaving it up to Ivysaur's discretion.
Ivysaur coughed up a seed and Selene stopped using Pound and used Protect, just in the nick of time too. The Seed Bomb exploded and sent her and her bubble shield tumbling back, without further hurt thankfully.
"Let's take some precautions." Ash decided. "Use Light Screen and then Reflect!"
Light Screen went first since it was better against special-type moves, and Solar Beam was still a threat. Reflect was good to have in place as well of course, just in case.
A glowing wall appeared around Selene, then another. They came just in time too as another Solar Beam lanced towards her. It met the defensive barrier and came through greatly diminished.
But not diminished enough.
The weakened beam collided with Selene, who was taking a quick breath after throwing up the defensive barriers. With a cry, the fairy-type was knocked back and to the ground, she did not get back up.
That… really wasn't good.
Ash returned Selene to her ball and took a moment to think.
He had a difficult choice to make now, he had hoped Selene would be able to take out Ivysaur and do some damage to Erika's next Pokemon. She had managed to get a few good hits in, but not enough. Not to mention Giga Drain could undo all the progress she'd made…
Pikachu remained out of the running, which left Sunny and Pidgeotto. Who would be the better choice here? Which one was better at taking hits?
Maybe that was the wrong question, who was better at avoiding hits?
The choice made, he sent his next teammate into the battlefield. "Stay mobile Pidgeotto!"
"Not today!" She called, not in reaction to Ash, but directed toward Ivysaur and the Solar Beam she had narrowly avoided. The bird Pokemon stayed in motion, doing her best not to let her flight follow a trackable pattern.
"Steel Wing!" Ash directed her and she divebombed the grass-type with glowing wings that made the other Pokemon stagger.
Ivysaur immediately responded with Solar Beam, but the combined type disadvantage and the leftover Light Screen that Selene had put up for the team nullified the effects significantly. It still no doubt hurt, but it was far less than it could have.
Pidgeotto reeled back and Ash considered. "Aerial Ace!" He decided now was a good time to unleash the newest move in the arsenal.
In a blur of speed that made her almost appear like an arrow, Pidgeotto crashed into Ivysaur, then immediately came around and did the same thing again.
Ivysaur stumbled and looked like they were at their limit. Almost like clockwork, the Sunny Day finally faded and left Solar Beam an option that would take too long to fire off.
"Finish it with Gust!" Ash told Pidgeotto, not wanting her to get too close to the poison-type in case they still had one final send-off.
Thankfully there were no more surprises and Ivysaur went down without any more fuss. Erika nodded and returned her Pokemon, tapping her chin for a moment, likely considering her options.
"Tangela!" She decided after a moment and the ball of colorful vines practically rolled out of the Pokeball and onto the field.
"Vine Whip and Wrap!" The gym leader ordered her Pokemon and the vines surged toward Pidgeotto.
"Roll with Steel Wing!" Ash quickly replied and Pidgeotto spun as the vines reached her. Wings glowing with steel-type energy she cut through the attempted assault and took advantage of the opportunity to hit Tangela with another Aerial Ace.
"Ancient Power."
Ash raised an eyebrow at that, he hadn't even considered a rock-type move and felt like kicking himself. Of course, a Pokemon with a weakness against flying-types would know a move that could hurt them! He felt a bit silly.
His friend was nimble enough to dodge most of the glowing boulders that had appeared but the last one managed to clip her and she barely managed to right herself before crashing to the ground.
"Full-speed assault!" Ash called, leaving the exact moves up to Pidgeotto but leaving her enough context to know which ones she should focus on.
"Time to show off!" He could practically feel the joy in her voice as she glowed with Quick Attack and began darting around the sky.
Another Ancient Power filled the air but not a single boulder came close this time and she crashed into Tangela with another Aerial Ace.
The grass-type wasn't looking so hot and Erika opened her mouth to give another direction, but she was not quick enough. Pidgeotto came out of the sky again, this time right on top of Tangela, and with a few solid Pecks the grass-type was down for the count.
Ash grinned, the battle was turning in their favor and from the carefully neutral expression on Erika's face, she knew it too.
She had one more Pokemon, meanwhile, he still had Pidgeotto out and Sunny waiting in the works. He knew he shouldn't let his guard down though.
"Don't think it's over just yet," Erika warned him. "Vileplume, it's your turn!" She sent her final Pokemon out.
Pidgeotto hung back, not quite ready to make contact with another poison-type, understandably so. They'd been lucky Ivysaur hadn't managed to poison her in their battle.
"Gust!" Ash called and Erika spoke at the same time.
"Grassy Terrain!" The ground glowed and the grass seemed to glow longer and became a richer color of green, the scars the battle had left on the field were quickly covered over by new sprouts.
This did little to stop the flying-type attack though, which buffeted Vileplume around slightly and the poison-type glared up at Pidgeotto.
"You should wait your turn." She scolded the other Pokemon and a burst of golden powder was released from her flower.
Ash didn't have to warn Pidgeotto to avoid that as she immediately back peddled and flapped her wings to buffet the stuff away from her before it touched her.
As she was distracted though, Vileplume sent out a follow-up, a disgusting-looking purple liquid arced towards Pidgeotto and coated her. She squawked in clear dismay.
"Gross!" She complained and tried flapping her wings harder to get it off but suddenly spasmed with a wince that made her lose some altitude. "And it's poisonous too! Great…"
"I'm pretty sure that was Toxic!" Ash told her, he couldn't be sure but it seemed to match what he knew about the move. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better!"
"Lucky me, any ideas?" She asked and narrowly avoided a follow-up attack from Vileplume. A purple ball of foul-looking liquid that all but exploded when it hit the ground.
He ran a few ideas in his head before making his decision. "Hit her with an Aerial Ace then come back around for another attack!" He carefully didn't specify what attack it would be.
The first attack hit and Pidgeotto reeled around for another, but Erika called an attack of her own. "Use Petal Blizzard!"
A storm of flower petals surrounded Vileplume and Pidgeotto had to brace herself as she flew right toward it. Ash called out the attack just before she reached the flowers of death though.
"U-Turn!" Pidgeotto glowed a pale green as she plunged into the storm and collided with Vileplume, knocking the other Pokemon down and then she returned herself to her Pokeball at Ash's waist.
"How unexpected," Erika noted. "You remember that counts as a loss for Pidgeotto right?"
"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "But I wasn't gonna keep her out just for the poison to get worse and worse. I figured she could get a couple of last hits in though. Sunny, it's your turn."
He felt Pikachu shift a bit on his shoulder and he gave his best friend a comforting pat. Pikachu had known this was coming but he likely still didn't like feeling left out. Ash did appreciate that he wasn't complaining about it though.
Sunny ran onto the battlefield and narrowly avoided being the victim of another Toxic. "What's the plan?" He asked as he stayed on the move, weaving around in zig-zags to keep from being an easy target.
"Start with Smokescreen!" Ash decided, no reason to make it easier for another Toxic to land. "Then open fire to your heart's content!"
The fire-type cheered and coughed up a cloud of black smoke that covered his side of the battlefield. As Ash watched an orange fire burned at the center and then cut through the cloud toward the opposing Pokemon.
Vileplume tried to dodge the Flamethrower but her petals got toasted and she threw a glowing green ball into the cloud, possibly Energy Ball.
The only reply from the cloud was another Flamethrower, and then another! Around and around the grass-type moved, through Energy Balls, and Sludge Bombs into the cloud, trying to hit Sunny.
Perhaps it was the advantage of an outside perspective but Ash could see that Sunny was staying on the move, even inside the cloud. He could see the orange glow of the fire-type attacks start from different spots.
The Smokescreen didn't last much longer but by the time it finally dispersed the battle was all but over. Vileplume was trudging along, unable to even skip, and the now-revealed Sunny looked to be in good shape. A few splotches of purple goop and green leaves showed that he did take a couple of hits but not enough to bring him down.
The fire-type grinned and flames danced through his teeth making his smile literally light up. He shot off one last Flamethrower that completely covered Vileplume and the battle was over.
Ash pumped his fist and cheered, Pikachu joining in. "Great work Sunny!"
"Well done." Erika nodded serenely, choosing to be graceful in defeat. "Congratulations, you've earned the Rainbow Badge."
Ash heard some clapping off to the side and shot Misty and Karen a thumbs up. This had been a pretty interesting battle. He had to think a lot more instead of just brute forcing it. He said as much to Erika as he took her badge.
She nodded. "Not every battle can be won solely through the strength of arms, although that never hurts to have. Sometimes strategies must be employed, they may not always pay off but when they do they can be nigh unstoppable."
It was a good lesson and he decided to take it to heart. He and his team should probably sit down and think of more ideas and strategies. Selene's Light Screen had helped out Pidgeotto here, but could Eevee learning Sunny Day help out Sunny? Maybe Pikachu could paralyze opponents to make easier targets.
Questions they would discuss later, but first?
He needed to have a talk with Leaf.
So it's been a hot minute since the last update.
There are reasons.
I've been writing this story so much I wanted to take a little bit of a break from it. As some of you may have already noticed I started a new Pokemon story!
Legends of Ash is based in Legends Arceus with Ash as the main character that got teleported to Hisui instead of the regular player character. I know some of you have taken a look at it already but if you haven't yet I encourage you to do so! I'm quite happy with how it's going.
But there are only two chapters of that and it's been more than a month since my last update. On this. "So what else happened?" I hear you ask.
Well since you asked so nicely I'll tell you. I got my wisdom teeth pulled. Or at least three of them, gotta say, not fun. It took a couple of weeks to recover from that and also got hit with some rather not fun depression stuff. Can't say it's been fun.
I wanted to write though and I'm doing better so here we are!
Not sure what else to say, I got some stuff planned for the next few chapters. With stakes, physical and emotional! So look forward to that. I'd like to put another update out on something next weekend but I got a busy week ahead of me so we'll see. At the very least I'll get started.
Let's hop into the reviews!
Fantasy 92: I'm glad you love it!
Storyreader21: So uh… you may have touched on something I'd thought about there. I don't think I'm gonna go that route but it did occur to me. Might be worth an omake at least.
Shaonics6: *Coughs* That was not my intent for those two! Why does everyone keep shipping Eevee? August's story is more of my effort to make the world feel more alive, with stories and legends. We see a lot of things in the anime that are barely talked about after their episode. Ash hasn't quite figured out a solution yet, but it's not a problem yet either so he has some time. As for Team Rocket, wait and see!
Gwynx: Thank you.
LEGOBRICK13: Alola is a darker place apparently! To be fair to them giving them newer Pokemon, some of them didn't have enough types for a full team in the first place! The only ghost-types in gen1 were the Gengar line. Annihilape is pretty cool, I kinda want to include one. "Local monkey too angry to die." As for Erika, well that's covered here! No cross-dressing, although it could have been fun to mess with his illusions, I decided to take it down a different path.
Primus1661: Eevee brothers will show up eventually, I have ideas for them. And I'm glad you liked the story!
Greatazuredragon: Thanks!
Diatomic Rex: Pikachu acting as the trainer could be interesting, but he's not 10 yet! As for Team Rocket, they'll show up more, we'll see how well they get along.
Phaleon: I'm happy you liked the world-building!
The one who reads and writes: I'm gonna have to shoot you down I'm afraid. Eevee finds Pikachu's prejudice annoying but mostly she just finds him annoying. He's getting a lot better about it and while he may complain about it he'd still help a human in trouble. You're focusing a bit too much on it, and while it will be something he needs to confront, he's already slowly been changing and becoming more open throughout the story. Good theory on the story there, but not quite. Team Rocket is pretty black and white, but only because they make themselves that way. They literally call themselves the bad guys. Even when they do help out. They're silly.
Pokemonforever1994: Maybe a little? I haven't been doing it to Gary intentionally anyway. He mostly just gets comeuppance whenever he tries to start something. Just assume they retrieved Spearow.
Kitsuneforlife0: Why would you think that? I've taken long breaks in the past but I do keep coming back to it! I have a list of fics on my bio that I don't plan on coming back to.
R37uy: I'm happy to hear I gave you some ideas! And that you like how I portray Team Rocket! And yes that is a nod to that Nurse Joy and Latias, and maybe more than a nod…
PeguinBandit523: I thought about sending you a PM about the email thing and then realized you might not get it! Fanfiction made it so you need to opt into receiving emails. I had the same issue for a while and then found out I can turn them back on in my settings. It's turned off by default for some reason. Good to hear Misty and Karen are coming across well! Yes, you and your brain should be very sorry. Shame. Yes, Mewtwo is still a thing, nothing has happened to stop that yet.
ABZB13: Does he?
Lolistarkiller: That may have slipped my mind, and also Ash's. Maybe he'll remember to bring it up! It's good to hear you like the story so much too! Mewtwo is a thing yes. Spoilers there though.
Talesfanjmf: Wow! Thanks for all the reviews! I appreciate it! You got through it all pretty fast too! I'm not sure how to answer all of them since most aren't exactly questions, more observations, but I'm pleased to know you like the original plots I've been sprinkling in. And the lore dump was pretty fun to come up with!
That's all for now everyone! Stay comfy and take care of your teeth! Even if it's annoying, it's probably worth it!
Discord: discord gg kESdTfhAwG
~FriTik
R&R