"Ash?!" A girls voice asked.
Ash, Pikachu, and Professor Elm turned to see a girl with blonde hair just past her shoulders at the entrance of the lab.
"Hold on, don't tell me." Ash said, trying to remember. "Molly! Molly Hale!"
"Haha! Yes! What are you doing here?" Molly asked.
"I'm here on an errand for Professor Oak, what are you doing here?" Ash asked.
"I'm getting my starter Pokemon, my dad finally said I could go on a journey!" Molly said excitedly.
"That's incredible!" Ash said happily.
"You two know each other?" Professor Elm said in surprise at their interaction.
"We're cousins. Well not really, my mom and her dad used to be students of Professor Oak, and even after my mom found her own path they stayed in contact with each other, so her dad I always called Uncle Spencer and she called my mom Auntie D." Ash explained.
"I call her Delia now, it's not my fault I couldn't pronounce her name." Molly said with a pout.
"Well Molly, you have two wonderful choices to pick from, either Cyndaquil the Fire type, or Totodile the Water Type." Professor Elm explained.
Ash took a step back, watching excitedly to see Molly and her first Pokemon meet for the first time.
"Hello there," Molly said, reaching out to touch Totodile, the water type suddenly waking up and snapping it's jaws a few times. "Eep!" Molly exclaimed.
The Totodile fell back asleep instantly, falling to the table top.
"Maybe not that one." Molly said in a small bit of fear. "How about you, Cyndaquil?"
"Cyn?" Cyndaquil said, sniffing Molly's hand.
Molly tentatively scratched the underside of Cyndaquil's snout, the fire type relaxing into her palm.
"I think this one is the Pokemon I'd like." Molly said, picking up Cyndaquil.
"Great choice." Professor Elm said. "Now here you are, your Pokedex, Cyndaquil's Pokeball, and a few empty Pokeballs."
"Thank you Professor." Molly said, returning Cyndaquil to it's Pokeball.
"So Molly, what's your plan for your journey?" Ash asked, catching up with her outside.
"Oh, there are a few ruins I'd like to look at, you know like how my dad does." Molly said. "What about you, what's this errand of yours?"
"I have a very important package to be delivered to Kurt in Azalea Town." Ash explained. "And if you're interested, you are welcome to join."
"Azalea Town is the closest location to Ilex Forest and it's shrine, that would be a great spot to research and learn more about, plus having someone along for the trip wouldn't make it nearly as lonely." Molly said, thinking.
"Plus if you run into trouble, I could help out." Ash said proudly.
"Like against a giant Meowth Balloon?" Molly asked.
"Yeah, of course. Wait, giant Meowth Balloon?" Ash asked, seeing a shadow approach over them.
"Prepare for trouble we're up in the sky." Jessie taunted.
"And make it double I've never been so high!" James called.
"To protect the world from devastation!" Jessie claimed.
"To unite all people within our nation." James said.
"Jessie!" Jessie exclaimed.
"And its James." James proclaimed.
"Team Rocket Blast Off at the speed of light." Jessie said proudly.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight fight fight!" James taunted.
"Meowth that's right!" Meowth chimed in.
"Team Rocket!" Ash called out.
"Friends of yours?" Molly asked.
"Is that a new twerpette I hear?" Jessie said excitedly.
"And look at that, a Pokeball on her belt, I bet it's something rare!" James squealed.
"Enough yapping, let's get to catching!" Meowth said, pushing a button to unleash a net.
"Pikachu use Thunderbolt!" Ash called out.
The bolt of electricity did nothing to stop the net as it grabbed both Ash and Molly.
"Really twerp, did you think we wouldn't have an electric proof trap by now?" Meowth laughed.
"Ash, what do we do?" Molly said.
"The net is too small, I can't send out Charizard." Ash said. "Cyndaquil!"
"But I've never battled with him." Molly said.
"Don't worry, just follow my lead." Ash said, grabbing two Pokeball. "Bulbasaur, Squirtle, come on out!"
"Cyndaquil I choose you!"
"Hey will you two knock it off! There's no point in trying to escape, look how high up we are!" Meowth taunted.
"He's got a point Ash." Molly said.
"There." Ash said quietly, pointing to a lake. "We need to break the net so we fall in there."
"So what's the plan then?" Molly asked.
"Rapidly heat and cool the top of the net, and then break it." Ash said.
"Alright, Cyndaquil use Ember!" Molly called out.
"Squirtle use Water Gun!" Ash exclaimed.
The two Pokemon sent Fire and Water back and forth at the top of the net.
"Now Bulbasaur use Razor Leaf!" Ash called out pointing at the top of the net.
A series of leaves struck the point that had been weakened, breaking the metal plate that held the net and freeing the group.
"Ash, now what!?" Molly exclaimed as they fell.
"Aim for water!" Ash called out, grabbing hold of his Pokemon as he fell towards the surface.
"Hold on Cyndaquil!" Molly exclaimed, holding her partner Pokemon tightly.
Molly's Current Team and their moves
Cyndaquil: Ember
Authors Notes
Molly Hale
For those of you not familiar with her, first off welcome to my stories, secondly there is a reason why you might not remember her, she is a movie only character, but oddly a movie only character with a history with Ash! Her father and Ash's mother canonically worked as students under Professor Oak at the same time and Ash even remembered Molly having had played with her, showing the two families were still at least somewhat close. She appeared in Pokemon The Third Movie: Spell of The Unknown, a movie I have talked about my great love for on multiple occasions. In this story she has been aged up to match Ash and is now a starting trainer, obviously following in her father's footsteps to learn about ancient mysteries. I felt giving her Cyndaquil made sense for someone who wants to explore dark underground caves, having a portable light source would be very helpful.
As for Linda from yesterday's chapter, yes she is Professor Elm's wife, something he has canonically in the games but she was never given a name, so her name comes from his German name Professor Lind or Linde, coming from the Linden genus of trees in Europe or Basswood for those of us in America.