(Opening Song: Pokémon World)
So you wanna be the Master of
Pokémon!
Do you have the skills to be
Number one!?
I wanna take the ultimate step
Find the courage to be bold (Pokémon)
To risk it all and not forget
The lessons that I hold
I wanna go where no one's been
Far beyond the crowd (Pokémon) Yeah!
Learn the way to take command
Use the power that's in my hand
Oh hey!
We all live in a Pokémon world
(Po-ké-mon)
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all!
(Greatest Master)
We all live in a Pokémon world
(Po-ké-mon)
Put myself to the test
To be better than all the rest
Ungh!
So you wanna be the Master of
Pokémon!
Do you have the skills to be
Number one!?
We all live in a Pokémon world
(Po-ké-mon)
I wanna be the greatest Master of them all!
Got the power right in your hands
Po-ké-mon!
After his successful victory over Cissy on Mikan Island, Ash and his friends have decided to make a stop at Mandarin Island. However, trouble is brewing…
Having arrived on Mandarin Island, the gang decided to head over to the Pokémon Center first. Ash was gazing at his Coral-Eye Badge. It feels strange, he's won badges when challenging the Indigo League, but there's something about Orange Island—something that's putting his mind at ease.
"Pikachu Pika, Pikapi (You've been staring at for a long time, Ash)." Pikachu said, watching his trainer stare at his new badge.
Ash smiled at his best friend, "I can't help it. This badge is just so creative looking and got me thinking about the other members of the Orange Crew. I'm looking forward to the next challenge." Some of the excitement he thought was left back home in Kanto was coming back.
Pikachu was happy to see his trainer get some of his energy back after what happened in Kanto.
Tracey then came over to them, "Hey, Ash, what are you thinking about?" He asked.
"Oh, nothing much, just that the Orange Islands really are different from Kanto." Ash noted.
Tracey takes a seat, "So what was it like to challenge the gyms in Kanto?" He couldn't contain his curiosity and had to know.
"Well, they were definitely strong. Actually, Misty is the Cerulean Gym leader believe it or not." Ash revealed.
"She is?! How did you get a gym leader to travel with you?" Tracey questioned.
Ash laughed nervously, "That's a long story actually, but it wasn't just her. Brock was the Pewter City Gym leader and traveled with us, too."
"Oh, so what's Brock like?" He asked.
For about a few minutes Ash was telling Tracey about his friend Brock and that he wanted to stay with Professor Ivy. Tracey seemed to take a liking to Brock despite having never met him before.
"Wow, Brock sounds like an interesting person." Tracey said.
Ash smiled, "Yeah, he really is a great person." He then sees the others coming over, "Hey, you guys all done?"
"Yep, Nurse Joy gave our pokemon a good examination." Serena said, holding Fennekin in her arms.
Misty hears something outside, "Do you guys hear that? It sounds like shouting."
"Yeah, and it's coming from outside." Ritchie said.
"Should we see what's wrong?" Tracey inquired.
"Yeah." Ash said.
But the moment they all stepped foot outside, all they saw around them was pure chaos. There were various different Pokémon and they were turning on their trainers.
"Wh-What the?! Why are the Pokémon acting like this?!" Ritchie couldn't believe what he was seeing right now, and neither could the others.
"We need to help them!" Serena said.
"No!"
Just as they were about to try and help, Molly's desperate shout made them all stop in their tracks. The little girl looked scared as she held Teddiursa firmly in her arms.
"Molly?" Ash wondered what was wrong and began to worry.
She gave him a frantic look, "We have to go back inside! Don't try to get any closer!"
"What? Why?" Ritchie questioned, obviously confused by her sudden behavior.
Ash meanwhile had a bad feeling and decided to trust his instincts and sister on this, "Guys, let's do what Molly says and go back inside. Besides, I've got a bad feeling all of a sudden."
Though they were still confused, no one argued with Ash and went back inside the Pokémon Center, and it was a good thing they did, too. As soon as they went back inside, an explosion went off and smoke began to gather outside.
"What was that?! An explosion?!" Serena exclaimed
"Fennekin (So loud)!" Fennekin said.
This only made Ash frown, "Now I know something's wrong." He just didn't know what was wrong yet.
"Pikachu Pika (What is going on)?" Pikachu didn't like this one bit.
The doors to the center open and Officer Jenny comes running in, "Oh, thank goodness you all were in here and not out there!"
"Officer Jenny!" Misty exclaimed, surprised.
"And she's not alone, either," Tomo points out as a Gastly hovers next to her, "She's got a Gastly with her."
Serena scanned the ghost Pokémon:
[Gastly, the Gas Pokémon. Although it can sneak in anywhere with its gaseous body, it can also be blown away by wind.]
"A little creepy, but still a pretty nice Pokémon." Serena comments.
Ash decided to get straight to the point, "Officer Jenny, what's going on out there?" Something wasn't right and he needed to know what.
Officer Jenny decides to tell them everything, "I'm not sure how this all started, but all of a sudden the Pokémon around just stopped listening to their trainers and started attacking them."
"Are you serious?" Ritchie couldn't the Pokémon around here were acting like this.
"And you don't know what or who is causing this to happen." Ash figured out.
She shook her head, "The only Pokémon unaffected is this Gastly here, and it protected me when some of the other Pokémon tried to attack me." A grateful smile was sent the Pokémon's way.
"Gastly (No need to thank me)." Gastly said with a smile.
Gathering up everything she just told them, Ash had a thought, "Pokémon suddenly acting hostile towards their trainers…Gastly is the only Pokémon unaffected…Molly's strange behavior…" He was thinking and if what he's thinking is right, then—
"Ash, are you okay?" Serena asked.
His eyes widened, "Hypnosis…that's it—the cause is Hypnosis!"
"Hypnosis? What do you mean?" Serena didn't quite understand.
Ritchie did though, "Of course! That makes sense! That's why Gastly, a ghost type pokemon, is still acting normal!"
"I'm still confused." Serena said.
"Same here." Misty was equally confused as Serena was.
Ash decided to explain, "Misty, do you remember the time you were hypnotized when we went to that one town and all the children went missing?"
Misty blinked before scowling at the memory, "How could I ever forget?" It was a moment she'd rather not remember at all.
Ritchie snickered, "We sure won't."
Serena and Tracey meanwhile were confused, "I'm sorry, what happened exactly?" Tracey asked out of curiosity.
"She was hypnotized into acting like a—"
"—Finish that sentence and you'll get a mallet to the face." Misty growled, eyes glowing red with hostility.
Fearing for his life he wisely kept his mouth shut.
Serena and Tracey were still very much confused. The reason Tomo wasn't that all confused was because they had already told him the story about what happened.
"Anyway, why are you even bringing that up now?" Misty questioned him.
"Think about it for a moment, when we confronted the source of the Sleep Wave, what did we find?" Ash continued on, "Who was the real culprit aside from the idiotic humans?"
Serena sweat dropped, "Idiotic humans…?"
"Fenne (He's an interesting one)." Fennekin said.
Misty thought about it before her eyes widened in realization, "Of course! The same thing that happened back then is happening now, only different!"
Tracey raised his hand, "Um, we still don't understand what you guys mean."
Ash decides to elaborate some more, "In other words, this is the work of a psychic pokémon. One with a powerful Hypnosis attack that can allow it to control its opponents mind, and that pokemon is—
"—Drowzee!" Ash, Ritchie, Misty, and Molly all said together.
Serena gasped.
"So a Drowzee is the reason all of the Pokémon here on this Island are acting so hostile towards their trainers!" Tracey finally understood.
"That's why Gastly is still acting normal, too." Tomo reminded them.
"But wait, why was Molly acting like that though?" Misty still wondered what that was about.
Molly looked down, "It just felt wrong. Something bad was out there and I didn't want to go near it."
"Ursa (Moll…)." Teddiursa said, worried about his trainer.
"Molly must've felt all the negative energy in the area, and reacted by wanting to get far away from it." Ash theorized. A sort of negative and positive energy sort of thing.
Officer Jenny was nodding her head, "I should have known that was the case myself. But why would a Drowzee suddenly decide to make all of the pokemon here hate their trainers?"
Ash had an idea why, "Someone has to be giving it orders to do this."
"But who would do such a cruel thing?" Serena questioned.
The raven haired teen scowled, "I've got an idea who. Making the pokemon on this Island hate their trainers, while using it as a way to steal them can only come from one organization."
"Team Rocket." They said in unison.
Officer Jenny frowned, "I should have known they were the ones behind this!" She growled.
You think Jessie, James, and Meowth are behind all this?" Misty wondered if the three of them were even capable of coming up with something this devious.
"Nah, those three don't seem that smart enough." Ritchie waved off.
Speaking of which…
"Will you all snap out of it, already?!" Jessie yelled.
James was nervous, "I don't think they're listening to you, Jessie…"
What made him so nervous you ask? Simple.
Their pokemon, including Meowth, had turned on them because of Drowzee. To be stared down with such hatred and malice unsettled them greatly.
"Of course not." A male voice scoffed.
"So long as we have Drowzee hooked up to this antenna that's broadcasting its hypnosis—all pokemon in this Island are under our control." A female voice bragged.
Jessie and James both gulped.
"What do we do? Gastly's the only pokemon on this Island that's not under Drowzee's control." Serena was worried about what was going to happen now.
Ash had an idea, "Then we fight back with Ghost type pokemon." He smirked at Ritchie, who had a smirk of his own.
"What are you guys talking about now?" Tracey was confused again, "None of us have Ghost type pokemon."
Misty smiled, "But Ash and Ritchie do!"
"Hey, yeah, that's right!" Serena remembered Ash's Gengar from the Indigo League.
Both boys didn't waste going over to the machine to send back one of their pokemon for their ghost types. Ash sent back Blastoise for a bit, while Ritchie sent back one of his own. Once the transfer was complete, they both held a pokeball with their ghost type pokemon inside of it.
"Gengar, I choose you!" Ash called out.
"Shadow, let's go!" Ritchie also called out.
The two Gengar's came out of their pokeballs, grinning down at their trainers.
"Gen, Gengar (Hey, Ash)." Gengar greeted the boy with a hug, which the teen returned.
"Good to see you, too," Ash pulled back, looking serious, "We need both of your help."
"Gengar (What's happened)?" Gengar knew Ash wouldn't have called him here if it wasn't an emergency.
"Team Rocket is using Drowzee to control the pokemon on this Island and we need to stop them," Ash began to explain, "The only pokemon unaffected is the Gastly you see by Officer Jenny over there."
"Gen, Gengar Gen Gen Gengar (I see, and you need me to take this Drowzee down)." Gengar understood the situation.
"That's right, so you'll help?" Ash asked.
Gengar grinned, "Gengar (Of course)!"
"Thanks buddy." Ash thanked the Ghost type.
Tracey blinked a couple of times during the exchange, "Wait a minute…you can understand pokemon?!" He exclaimed.
…
…
…
Ritchie face palmed, "…guess we forgot to mention that."
"We sure did." Misty agreed in a dry tone. This reminds her too much of the time when they forgot to tell Brock about it, and he brought out his notepad to ask Ash some questions.
Ash looked over at Tracey, "Yes, I can. Sorry about not telling you sooner. You too, Serena."
"Oh, no, it's okay!" Honestly, Serena believed it was amazing that Ash can understand pokemon.
It went quiet before Tracey took out a notebook, "I have so many questions! Please tell me everything!"
Ritchie and Misty fell down anime style, 'Yeah, this is exactly the same…' they both thought.
Shadow was laughing his ass off, while Gengar snickered.
Serena sweat-dropped, "Um, I don't think now is the time for that."
"Fennekin (I swear…)." Fennekin sighed.
Tracey snapped out of it, "Right, so what should we do?"
"First things first, we need to find their base. Once we do that—" Ash was cut off though.
CRASH!
"What was that?!" Ritchie exclaimed.
"An explosion?" Serena hoped it wasn't.
Ash decided to go out and take a look, "Pikachu, stay inside, okay?" He tells his best friend.
"Pika, Pikachu (Okay, be careful)." Pikachu tells him.
Nodding, Ash steps outside but stops dead in his tracks when he sees Jessie and James in front of the Pokémon Center, collapsed. They looked pretty bad, too. But there was one thing he noticed—Meowth wasn't with them.
Who's That Pokemon?
Its…Kangaskhan!
"Kangaskhan!"
Turns out that booth Jessie and James did know who the culprits were.
Their names are Cassidy and Butch—two members of Team Rocket, but better than Jessie and James. Since the four don't seem to care for each other, the two Team Rocket members had no problem in helping them take the two down.
Ash already decided that he, Ritchie, and Officer Jenny will go while the others stay in the Pokémon Center. Though they were reluctant to let them go, they did so without complaint.
Jessie and James led them to Cassidy and Butch's secret base and pretended wanting to make peace. While the other two agents were skeptical at first, they eventually let them in.
"Now, twerp!" Jessie yelled.
Ash and Ritchie sprung into action immediately, right along with Officer Jenny.
The cousins took down Butch easily with a double kick to the gut, while Officer Jenny chopped Cassidy in the back of the neck—knocking her out.
"Nicely done, twerps." Jessie said, sounding impressed.
"And Officer Jenny." James didn't forget about her.
Ash gives them a look before sending out Gengar, "Find your pokemon and Meowth while we deal with Drowzee." He ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!" The two saluted.
Jessie blinked, "Hey, wait! Don't give us orders, twerp!" But Ash and Ritchie were already gone.
Officer Jenny addressed them, "Let's go find the other pokemon while these two are incapacitated." She said to them.
"Fine by me." Jessie agreed.
"Same here." James also agreed.
Ash and Ritchie were running down the hall with their two Gengar's, only for Ash's to speed up a bit, "Gengar, what's wrong?" Ash called out, but the ghost type ignored him.
"What's going on?" Ritchie found Gengar's behavior to be strange.
Gengar leads them to where Drowzee is and sees the psychic pokemon was hooked up to a machine, with an antenna attached. This must be what's allowing it to broadcast its Hypnosis throughout the entire Island.
"Hey, look! There's something in the middle of the machine!" Ritchie pointed.
Embedded in the middle of the machine was a purple stone. It was nothing they'd ever seen before. Gengar looked anxious for some reason, was this stone responsible?
'Only one way to find out.' Ash mused, "You ready Ritchie?" He asked.
"Yeah!"
"Gengar—
"Shadow—
"—Use Shadow Ball!"
The two ghost type pokemon gathered black spheres in the middle of the palm of their hands before firing it off at the machine—destroying it easily and releasing all of the pokemon from Drowzee's control.
"We did it!" Ritchie cheered.
"Gengar (Yeah)!" Shadow cheered along with its trainer.
Ash meanwhile was staring at the stone. He walks up and grabs it, staring at the purple stone for a while before looking up at Gengar. He thinks back to what his master told him about Mega Evolution and wondered if this was it.
"Gengar, is this…" Ash trailed off.
Gengar nods.
He hands it over to the ghost pokemon, and Gengar holds it in the palm of its hand.
Ritchie was staring at the stone, too, "Ash, what is this?"
"I think…it's a Mega Stone." Ash said.
Before Ritchie could ask him about that, Cassidy and Butch decided that the two trainers won't be leaving—even Drowzee was with them.
"You brats aren't going anywhere!" Butch growled.
"Show these kids they messed with the wrong people, Drowzee!" Cassidy sneered.
So that's how they wanna play this, huh?
Fine.
Ash touches his Key Stone, "Gengar…Mega Evolve!" His stone shone brightly, as did Gengar's entire body. When the light faded away, Gengar's whole body had changed. A portion of Gengar's body sinks into the ground and its arms and tail lengthen. The lower portions turn a more reddish-purple, and a third eye appears on its forehead. This new unblinking eye is oval, yellow, and allows it to see into other dimensions. The spikes on Mega Gengar's back are more numerous and pointed, and additional spikes appear on its hands and tail. Its ears are now considerably longer and tilt backward.
"Whoa…" Ritchie looked at Mega Gengar in awe.
"Gen, Gengar (Dude, I'm so jealous…)." Shadow comments.
Mega Gengar smirked down at Cassidy and Butch, who understandably confused as to what the kid just did!
Ash decided to send these two flying, "Gengar, send these clowns flying away with Shadow Ball!"
Predictably, Gengar's Shadow Ball had more power than ever before as it sent the Team Rocket members and their Drowzee flying.
"Wow! Talk about some fire power!" Ritchie was impressed.
Mega Gengar went back to being Gengar. The stone was still in the palm of its hand before he handed it to Ash.
Ash took the stone, "So this is Mega Evolution…" This is what his master meant. If Gengar was strong in his Mega Evolved form—
—Just imagine what his other pokemon could do.
While Jessie, James, and Meowth escaped (Of course they did), all of the brainwashed pokemon returned to their trainers.
Ash and Ritchie told them what happened and that Gengar Mega Evolved. Of course they were surprised about a new evolution they've never heard of before, but were eager to hear more.
Ash had to wonder…what else was he going to discover on his journey through the Orange Islands? He now wanted to know.
Freeing the pokemon from the evil clutches of Team Rocket, our heroes discover Mega Evolution and what it can do. Stay tuned as the journey continues.
Next Time: The Crystal Onix & Its All About Pink!