Under the cover of night, a massive shape burst through the cover of ferns and cycads darting up the steep cliff trail trying to reach the exit.
Before the massive jawed moth could make it to the top she was stopped by a strange robotic Donphan.
The Iron Treads charged forward with an Iron Head which Slither Wing countered with a Superpower front legs glowing with an orange aura she easily overpowered the Iron Treads.
Slither Wing continued to run for the exit using her wings to glide over any of the gaps.
Just as the exit came into view she was confronted by Iron Moth.
"What's got you in such a rush my compound-eyed friend?" Iron Moth asked in a sickly sweet robotic voice.
"Don't you also have compound eyes?" Slither Wing replied.
"100 percent steel unlike yours"
"Can you just let me pass we want nothing to do with you"
"No can do my carboniferous acquaintance" Iron Moth laughed as he charged up a Feiry Dance.
From behind her Flutter Mane flew out of the darkness charging up a Moonblast.
Before either attack could be sent a strange-looking Salamence charged out of the darkness colliding into Flutter Mane with Throat Chop sending her crashing into Iron Moth.
"Quickly we need to get to the exit now!" Roaring Moon shouted flying ahead of Slither Wing.
The pair had almost made it to the exit the cave out of the crater was almost there.
Until an Espathra leaped in front of them sending them both back with Dazzling Gleam.
As Roaring Moon got back into the air Sandy Shocks sprang out of the sand paralyzing her with Zap Cannon.
"Slither Wing go!" Roaring Moon commanded.
"No, I can't leave you. You know what they do to the ones who don't comply!" Slither Wing pleaded as if there was anything she could do with how outnumbered they were.
"Find Great Tusk he went with that Inteleon before things got bad if they were lucky Iron Thorns and Iron Valiant will be with him too!" Roaring Moon ordered again as a group of strange people began tying some sort of strange collar around her neck.
"A promise all come back for you!" Slither Wing screamed with all her strength she went for Lunge flying over the group of humans and out of the cave.
Using her wings to glide through the cave Slither took one more look behind her, Roaring Moon's eyes were glowing bright red clearly under control from that weird collar.
The Roaring Moon she knew was gone as Slither Wing glided out into the wider world.
Goh's sitting at the table for some reason why he's there he doesn't know.
Faces strange faces looking at him.
"Isin't it nice to see you, sweetheart," the woman said her fave blacked out to Goh's mind. He knows something is wrong like he should know who he's talking to but he just can't tell who or why she seems so important.
"Goh my boy it's so good to see you" He feels the same thing with the man that he did with the woman.
Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed Goh and threw him into the sky.
Goh just soars through the sky to various places he had been Vermillion, the Wild Area, and Far Away Island.
He kept flying as the sky above him turned from blue to purple to black.
Goh's alarm woke him up shortly after that.
"Okay, what the hell was that?" Goh muttered as he got himself dressed for the day.
If his parent's texts were anything to go by they would be at the academy in a few minutes.
It's fine he just needed to take Hassal's advice he needed to discuss his feelings with his parents.
But what would he tell his parents "Hi Mom and Dad I think of my friend as my family more than you guys and I dream about him and not you guys well I'm in the hospital and I'm really fucking pissed that you guys didn't care about that more"
No, he was getting sidetracked they were coming for a week he had plenty of time to talk with them.
The knock on his dorm door made Goh's head start to ache.
Goh opened the door to be greeted by his parents.
"Oh my god Goh oh, sweety I missed you so much!" Goh's mother threw herself at him wrapping him in a big hug.
"I'm so excited to see you again I can't wait to try all this exotic Paldean food!"
"Me too it's very nice to get some time away from the office and spend it with my family" Goh's father added from behind.
Goh was defiantly going to need to take some aspirin before they left because his headache had only gotten worse.
Training Ash knew it was the most important part of creating a good Pokémon team.
And with how many Pokémon he had at his disposal why not use some of his old Pokémon to help train his new ones?
He decided that each of his new team members would train with one of his old Pokémon ones that would suit their personal strengths and personalities.
For Finizen the choice was obviously Lucario he had seen how Finizen admired him and enjoyed practicing battle with him.
For Wattrel he had multiple flying types to choose from but he went with the choice of Unfezant. Well, she was not his strongest flying type Unfezant had already helped other Pokémon with flight practice something that Wattrel probably needed with how easily she tired out.
For Primeape he needed to fight fire with water given how brash Primeape was so he decided on Kingler a Pokémon that he knew was a fiery and brash battler but was also generally calm and quiet and wouldn't get goated into fights by Primeapes boldness.
For Primeape training was easy he could let Primeape and Kingler battle and leave Chloe to watch over them. Since Primeape was the most experienced of the three so he felt comfortable only checking on him occasionally.
"Alright, Wattrel get ready to dodge Unfezants Sky Attack" Wattrel braised as Unfezant became cloaked in a light blue aura.
Unfezant flew downward aimed at Wattrel who was able to dive out of the way.
"Alright now use Volt Switch!" Wattrel attacked with a ball of electricity hitting Unfezant and replacing herself with Pikachu.
The next step was to practice Wattrels speed defiantly her strongest attribute.
Ash had set up a series of training dummies for Wattrel to hit letting Unfezant go first with Quick Attack as an example.
"Alright now you try Wattrel"
"Wat! Wat!" Wattrel chirped flying off and hitting each of the targets with Pluck.
"Okay now Wattrel now I'm going to throw you a pebble and you catch it and bring it back to me" Ash demonstrated with Unfezant.
"Alright go" Ash threw the pebble into the air which Wattrel was easily able to catch and return to Ash.
Ash continued with the pebble throwing it in different directionsWattrel was able to catch it each time.
The final part was testing how fast Wattrel actually was.
"Alright Wattrel I want you to go there and back with Quick Attack like Unfezant" Unfezant went first with Quick Attack getting to the finish line in around ten seconds. Wattrel went second reaching the finish slightly faster than Unfezant.
Before moving on to Finizen Ash went to check in on how Primeapes training was going.
"Well, Chloe hows is it going?"
"I think it's going good Kingler is doing a good job with the battling that's all they've really been doing" Chloe responded as Primeape tried to get around Kingler and hit him with Mega Kick, Kingler was able to pivot and block the Mega Kick with Vise-Grip.
"Alright then I'm going to go work with Finizen just keep an eye on them" Ash watched Primeape and Kingler clash with Close Combat and Crabhammer.
"Oh ya it's fine I need to learn how to battle if I want to use Gimmighoul properly" Chloe pointed to the chest beside her the ghost inside not currently out of its shell.
"Alright then all be back when I'm done with Finizen"
Finizen had already proven very eager to battle so the first step was to practice his batting skills with Lucario.
"Alright, Lucario I just want you to block Finizens hits" Lucario nodded.
Finizen threw himself at Lucario with all of his strength although even with all of his effort Lucario was still able to easily block his Aqua-Jets Water Guns and Double Hits.
Before Ash could move on to the next step Finizen swam over to the other side of the pound clearly angry about something.
On the other side of the pond, the wild Capsakid from yesterday was standing over Finizen.
The Capsakid stepped back from the pond sticking its tongue out as if to taunt Finizen about not being able to leave the pond.
Out of sheer determination, Finizen crawled out of the water hauling himself on his fins and tail Finizen "ran" forward and tackled the Capsakid to the ground.
Ash watched as the two Pokémon tussled around the pond.
Ash looked over to Lucario whose ear flaps were starting to lift and eyes were glowing a deep blue.
He recognized what was happening it was what happened when Lucario was sensing aura.
Ash tried to tap into his own aura closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
Opening his eyes he could easily make out his own aura and Lucarios around their bodies.
But he could also sense another aura at the pond where Finizen was now in the water thrashing with the Capsakid.
The light blue aura seemed to ebb and flow in strange ways.
Finizens tail became surrounded by swirling water he slammed it into the Capsakid.
As Finizen used Aqua Tail for the first time Ash could see the aura forming the shape of a strange-looking dolphin around Finizen.
The Capsakid had managed to escape from the pond running into the woods with its tail between its legs Finizen chirping at it in anger.
Ash made a mental note to keep an eye on Finizen clearly there was something special going on with the little dolphin.
Not even the Asprin was enough to cure Goh's headache, at least now it was just a throb in the back of his skull.
The day had been spent sightseeing some of Mesagoza's best landmarks first him giving them a tour of the academy second followed by them sightseeing the palace where the old royal family used to live in before the 1930s.
After being dragged around by his parents Goh was able to sit down at a restaurant well his mother went to order them some of the "spicy Paldean food" giving go a chance to check on what his friends were doing.
scrolling past a couple of posts from Gary Oak's field research with his Regidrago and Iris's battle training with Nemona and Rika he got to Ash's most recent post.
Ash was also in Mesagoza partaking in battles with his new Pokémon.
"Hey Mom do mind if I just take my food to go Ash is here battling right now and I want to go watch?"
"I don't see why not it is your vacation too" Goh's father pipped up taking a piece of meat from his Pealla.
"Walker, do you get the feeling he doesn't want to spend time with us?" Goh heard his mother ask when he walked out the door.
That little comment only made go leave the building faster.
Go sent out Cinderace and Grookey he needed somebody to complain to.
"Do you think he doesn't want to spend time with us? well, what do you think Mom" Goh huffed as he stuffed a shrimp into his mouth.
"You've been here for like a few hours and all you've done is make this about yourselves" Goh ranted to Cinderace well he padded Grookey on the back.
"I mean this is the first time they've seen me in like months and all they care about is food? they don't even care that their own son was attacked by a giant robotic athlete and was knocked out cold you think they would care a bit more about that right?" go knew Cinderace probably didn't understand what he was saying but he still padded him on the back to show his support.
Suddenly Goh didn't feel like eating he put the lid back on his container Ash shouldn't be far anyway.
Without warning Grookey leaped off Goh's shoulder making a run for the crowd of people gathered around the main square.
"Oh hey go there you are" Chloe called from the crowd holding Grookey in her arms.
"Grookey here gave me a pretty good wack"
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry about that he really does need to stop using Wood Hammer on everything"
"Oh it's fine you know how Pokémon can be, like my Gimmighoul every time I let it out of its ball it tries to steal people's money"
"Ya I know some Pokémon can be real handfuls like that"
"So anyways what brings you here"
"Just getting tired from being around my parents for so long I needed a break"
"Oh that's fine Ash was just about to start another battle"
At the arena Ash's opponent sent out a Krookodile and Dragonair well Ash sent out his Wattrel and Unfezant.
Unfezant went for Sky Attack flying up into the air Wattrel following after her letting them dodge the Foul Play and Dragon Tail letting Wattrel hit the Dragonair with Volt Switch swapping herself out for Primeape.
Watching Wattrel actually battle made Goh feel conflicted. He knew Wattrel got tired super easily was that all she was good for flying around and going for Volt Switch what was even the point of catching her for Ash?
Goh was so lost in his thoughts that he missed the cheering as Unfezant and Primeape knocked out Krookodile with Ice Punch and Sky Attack well Dragonair went for Dragon Tail swapping out Unfezant for Wattrel again.
"Goh you okay?" Chloe asked.
"Hey, Chloe can I ask you something?"
"Of course"
"Do you think that Ash actually likes Wattrel?"
"What of course Goh why would you think he didn't want her?"
"Well she just gets so tired so fast and Ash already has Pikachu and I wouldn't want to interfere in their relationship sometimes I just wish I never bothered to capture her"
"Goh your rambling again Ash is great with understanding Pokémon if he really didn't vibe with Wattrel then he would have released her"
"Well ya maybe if it was a Pokémon he caught but what if he's just being nice to spare my feelings" Goh could feel a lump catching in his throat god this was pathetic.
"Goh would he have gone through the effort to get Iris's Emolga to teach her Volt Switch"
"Wait that's why she knows Volt Switch?" Goh watched Wattrel duck under the newly sent-out Dusknoir's Shadow Punch with Quick Attack Well Dragonair's Dragon Tail swapped out Primeape for Kingler.
"Ya Ash wanted her to learn it to help her work around here running out of energy so quickly"
Goh couldn't believe that but why couldn't he believe that? Of course, Ash would do something like that because he was the kind of person that would go the extra mile for his Pokémon.
Kingler and Wattrel knocked out the Dragonair and Dusknoir with Crabhammer and Spark giving Ash the 6-3 lead.
As his opponent sent out a Simisear and Venomoth Ash and Goh locked eyes for a moment.
"Hey um I got to get going my parents probably want me back"
"Okay, then all see you later than" Chloe clearly didn't by Goh's excuse.
As Goh stormed back down the streets of Mesagoza he had a million thoughts spinning through his head.
Goh felt his heart flutter what did he do to have a friend like Ash? A friend so kind so loving so caring and compassionate like Ash Ketchum when he had done nothing in return to deserve someone like him.
He clearly needed to follow through on Hassel's suggestion and talk to Ash and his parents about how he was feeling because he knew this was not healthy and this was tearing him up inside.
Maybe that's why his headache had gotten worse again.
End Credit Song-Riptide by Vance Joy.
A shorter chapter again before the running of the Tauros which is defiantly going to be a two-parter because of how much I have planned for it so look forward to that.