"There it is, Goldenrod City!" Ash said, as he and Casey made their way over the hill.

"Took us long enough, you should really get that looked at." Casey commented, seeing Ash's Pokegear. Despite it being newish, there were claw and teeth marks and a fair bit of water damage done to it.

"It's fine, just needs a little shake it all!" Ash said, shaking the Pokegear violently. "Okay, maybe it needs to be looked at."

"What did you expect after having half of your team using it as a chew toy?" Casey questioned.

"Only Houndour chewed it." Ash reminded.

"Didn't Totodile steal it?" Casey asked.

"No that was a Furret, Totodile stole the GS Ball." Ash reminded. "Anyways where could I even get this looked at? I didn't exactly buy it from a store."

"Wait… you weren't joking about that? You seriously just bought it from a random guy on the street?" Casey asked in shock.

"Is that not how you buy them?" Ash asked.

"No, no it is not." Casey said dumbfounded. "Come on the Pokemon Center probably knows if there's a place nearby."

At the Pokemon Center

"Hello and welcome to the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center, how can I help you today?" The Nurse Joy asked.

"Could you do a check up on our Pokemon?" Ash asked.

"Of course." Nurse Joy said, setting out two trays for their Pokeballs.

"Also we were wondering if there was any place we could get a damaged Pokegear at." Casey said.

"Upstairs." The Nurse Joy said. "We have a communications center up there, they should be able to take a look and see what's wrong with your Pokegear."

On the top floor

"Alright, let's see what we're looking at." A worker with glasses said as Ash and Casey approached. "Hoo boy, that is some serious damage."

"Can you get it working again?" Ash asked.

"I'm not sure, how long have you had this thing?" The worker asked.

"A few weeks." Ash admitted. "Why?"

"Because this is an original floor model." The worker said. "Honestly I'm surprised it even worked at all."

"It never had a great speaker." Casey said.

"So the guy ripped me off!?" Ash said in shock.

"Relax, I'll see what I can scrounge up, it won't be brand new but I can probably get you something within reason." The worker said.

A bit of waiting later

"Alright, this is what I was able to get for you, it's not much but it's at least newer than your old one." The worker said, handing Ash a deep blue Pokegear.

"Does it still have what the old one did?" Ash asked curiously.

"Yep, everything is still there, and the strap and case should help you from dropping or damaging it too much again." The worker said.

"Thanks again. I'll make sure to take better care of this one." Ash said gratefully.

'S.. we'.. succ…ful.. inf.ltr…d … .adi. tow.r, .en. mo.e t….s'

"Okay, did you get him a bad Pokegear?" Casey questioned.

"No, I promise I just tested the speakers, it's picking up a radio signal." The worker said. "We've never had this bad of a signal, our main tower is here in Goldenrod."

"Well we could go and let them know if the tower is nearby, they'd probably want to know about a bad signal." Ash said.

"Sure, why not have another side tracked objective while we're here for you." Casey commented.

"Again, relax a bit, it's just been an afternoon so far." Ash reminded before heading down to pick up his Pokemon.

"Late for a date?" The worker questioned.

"No, why does everyone think that. We're just supposed to be meeting up with a friend and I don't like that we're not working at getting closer.". Casey sighed.

"A journey is about every step along the way, not just the end of it, try to remember that a little." The worker said before Casey left to catch up with Ash.

Near the radio tower

"Ash, I figured I'd have to catch up with you inside, what's going on?" Casey asked.

"Something is off." Ash said.

"Off how?" Casey asked.

"Look around, doesn't something seem strange?" Ash asked.

"No, there's nothing going on." Casey pointed out.

"Exactly, how is it that in this big of a city, there is no one over here at all, no guards, no employees, nothing." Ash said.

"Maybe they're working on the problem already?" Casey offered.

"Then where are any people asking when it will be fixed." Ash pointed out. "This isn't a glitch, something else is going on here." Ash added, fiddling with his Pokegear's radio setting.

'Sir we've successfully infiltrated the radio tower, send more troops'

"It's a message." Casey said in shock.

"Yeah, and not a good one by the sounds of it." Ash said, grabbing a Pokeball. "Expect resistance once we get in there."

"Right." Casey agreed, grabbing a Pokeball of her own.

The two trainers made their way carefully up the radio tower's empty floors.

"This is weird, if someone has taken over the radio tower, where are they?" Casey whispered.

"They were requesting more troops, maybe there aren't a lot of them." Ash said, as he looked up the next set of stairs. "Everyone's up here, be ready." Ash said.

"Right." Casey replied.

"Pikachu let's go!"

"Bayleef come on out!"

Pikachu and Bayleef rushed in to see a group of very confused people.

"Woah, what's going on?" A guy asked.

"It's him, the voice from the radio!" Ash argued.

"Wait, why are you angry, did you not like the puzzle?" The man asked.

"Puzzle?" Casey asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I got approved for a radio mystery show, wait how did you two get all the way up here?" The man asked.

"No one is downstairs." Ash said.

"Okay, note to self, tell security to have tighter rotations." The man said. "There is no invasion of the radio tower, no one is in danger, its a mystery game show where you can follow along all around the region."

"But why was the message on repeat?" Ash asked. "And broken up when it was a little off."

"The broken up is because that's how radio transmissions work, the closer to the channel you get, the better signal you get. As for the repeating message, I must have messed up, my apologies for the confusion." The man said. "Look I appreciate you kids being concerned, but next time wait for security."

"Wait, that still doesn't explain why no one was outside." Ash realized.

"It's a radio tower, not a tourist attraction." The man pointed out.

"So our entire panic, it was for nothing." Casey sighed.

"Sorry, but yes it was." The man apologized.

"Alright, let's go Casey, this was just a misunderstanding." Ash sighed, walking off.

After they left

"Sorry sir, we had some unexpected visitors." The man said. "No, don't send anyone yet, I believe I've removed all suspicion for now." He said, opening a drawer to show a mask he had taken off just in time. "Yes, I'll begin tracking signals for any of our targets."