The sun was setting over the ocean. As the midday transitioned into the evening, the limitless and glimmering water mirrored the sky as it reflected the brilliant warm hues of a distant flame. Soon they would dull as the night crept into place, shadows stretching over the seascape as a raven blanket settled over the sky.

The majesty of the S.S. Anne was already on display. The lights that were on the outside of the ship were already illuminated, spread across the exterior to accentuate its grandeur. Once the night fully settled in it would be akin to a floating jewel adrift on the brilliant curtain of calm waves.

Leaning on the railing of the deck of the ship, Gina found herself smiling as she watched Wartortle gaze out into the vast sea. As her trainer, she felt it would be good for her to be able to walk around and take in the various pokémon and scenery around her before the competition started in earnest. "You like the view?"

The Turtle Pokémon turned her gaze from the boundless sea to Gina. Then her head bobbed as she let out a small, "War."

"I'm glad." She slouched forward a little, letting her arms rest on the railing. With all the other trainers showing off their Starters, she was actually somewhat glad that cases like with Ash's Charmander and the Squirtle Squad were isolated incidents. But it still boiled her blood to think that others could so easily toss away pokémon that were practically raised domesticated and wouldn't have an easy time surviving out in the wild.

Taking Wartortle out was as much for her sake as it was Gina's own sake. Seeing her own Starter enamored by the pristine sea was something that soothed her in its own way. It calmed her down so she could approach the tournament with a clear head. And even if they didn't win it'd still get them close enough to Fuchsia that they could go to the Gym there next.

Who else should I use? Gina mused silently while staring out to the sea. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts Gina didn't notice she was being approached until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her head whipped around, strands of her short brown hair shifting in the process, but she tempered her response when she noticed that it was Brock. "Yeah?"

"They're about to get started, so I thought I'd come out to get you," he said.

"Already, huh?" She straightened up her back and let the tension out with a soft breath. "Have you decided whether or not you're going to enter?"

He shook his head. "Misty might, given the prize, but I'm not exactly interested. I've mostly been going around and talking to the different trainers to get to know how they've been taking care of their pokémon. A lot of the more experienced trainers onboard have some interesting methods due to the varying types they carry and their individual pokémon's temperament. For example, one Doduo has a complex where one head prefers dustbathing and would use its own Sand-Attack to do so while the other preferred being cleaned by water, meaning the trainer had to compromise."

"That sounds like a handful," Gina noted. Then again, the trainer cared enough to work out something. She could only hazard a guess at how long that took—especially if they weren't a specialist or had more than a few pokémon.

When you were a specialist who focused on a specific Type or a hobbyist that raised a single kind of pokémon, the scope of knowledge you had available could be limited to just that one area of expertise. Likewise, Starter Pokémon were essentially domesticated and brought up so that they were easy enough to care for unless you were a negligent trainer. But it was a different story when you took on a variety of different pokémon and if they were wild.

You had to be more aware of their traits, behavioral patterns, and so on. It was a necessity since they influenced the team composition, which had to be in sync for everyone to be at their best. The payoff for that was a diverse team that could cover each other's weaknesses and a trainer who probably knew more about pokémon than the average one.

Ash and Gina's Pokédexes complied all of her Grandfather's collective knowledge and so they had a vast database built up over years at their fingertips. If there was something that they didn't know they could just look it up, so very rarely could they use ignorance as an excuse as far as she was concerned. But normal trainers don't have that and so they were forced to learn as they go, but it was usually worth it in her opinion.

Now that I think about it, some avian pokémon preferring dust bathing might explain why Spearow isn't particularly fond of when I clean him with water. Gina crossed her arms when she considered the Tiny Bird Pokémon. But it could also just be his bad temperament.

Spearow was easily the least amicable out of all the pokémon she'd caught for the sake of training personally. His species was territorial and aggressive by nature, but it was just as likely his temperament was especially bad. That meant she had to often be stricter with him or bribe him with food while working on taming him.

Either way, I'll need work on that before he evolves and becomes more than a handful, she decided. Then there was the matter of eventually getting her Geodude to evolve since he'd work well against some of the other Gyms they had to get through in Kanto. And there was also working on shoring up Rattata's strength before she evolved as well. I'm going to be busy for a while.

"Besides," Brock continued, "I don't think that whoever sponsored this gave it all the consideration that it needed."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I asked around and found out there's no real official guidelines that would be in place during events like this. It's not an officially sanctioned tournament so I didn't expect them to have official judges and referees, but they didn't even set a limitation on the type of pokémon that could be used or the techniques that would be permitted."

"Is that really a problem?" Gina asked.

"Imagine if I decided to participate and used Onix," he said. "And keep in mind that my Onix is relatively young as far as their species go, and on the smaller side since I was given him as a gift for my birthday years ago. There's no size restriction, no weight restriction, and we're on a cruise ship meant for people and maybe smaller pokémon."

Onix by nature weighed a lot. And while they could curl up like serpents, they were still among the largest pokémon in Kanto. The platform used during the practice match was small enough that a larger pokémon would easily take up most of the space.

"I'm pretty sure they expect the trainers to have common sense," Gina said, before sighing after taking a moment to think on it further. "Ah, but if there's no rule against it then there's no reason why someone won't exploit something like that to obtain a prize."

He nodded. "It might just be something they didn't consider prior to the event because the people onboard were mostly hobbyist or amateur trainers. But it still rubs me the wrong way as a Gym Leader when I consider that the lack of guidelines means that the matches might be very lopsided. Given I know some of the competition's pokémon, I'll tell you what I told Ash a minute ago—don't hesitate to call the match if the difference is pretty clear."

"We'll keep that in mind," she said respectfully, out of consideration for his time as a Gym Leader. He was only a few years older than them, but that position carried a lot of experience. Then she made her way inside.

The railings were rimmed with spectators that started down at the competitors below. It seemed like the majority of the ship's passengers had gathered to view the upcoming battles from above. It gave off the feeling of being in a stadium with hundreds of eyes watching as the evening sun filtered through the chandelier above.

Gina wove through the assembled crowd of trainers until she spotted the hat that Ash always wore and Misty next to him. The Water-Specialist was holding Pikachu against her chest as the Electric Mouse Pokémon's ears and tail twitched while he kept looking up to the glass ceiling. She approached them as the speakers crackled to life as a male voice rang out.

"Attention trainers. We are about to begin the tournament. All participants please return your Pokémon into their Poké Balls. Any Pokémon not inside of its ball will not be eligible for participation. Likewise, we ask that all spectators put away their pokémon as to avoid any outside interference. Thank you."

As the other trainers began recalling their pokémon, Gina looked down to her Wartortle. The Turtle Pokémon bobbed her head before being returned into her ball. Gina then looked over to see Pikachu in Misty's arms and then to Ash. "You're not putting him in his ball?"

Ash shook his head. "Pikachu doesn't like going in his ball. Besides, I wasn't planning on using him for this. He's been tense for a little while now and I'm not sure why."

"Maybe he's still feeling a bit off from the battle yesterday?" Misty suggested, before looking around. "Oh… that's strange…"

"What?" Ash asked.

"Look near the entrances," Misty said.

Gina looked at the same time as Ash. She spotted that a large number of the staff had gathered into the area as they took positions near the entrances on the different levels. "It's just members of the staff, right?"

"The uniforms," Misty clarified. "Some of the uniforms belong to members of the staff that work in different sections of the ship which require constant attention. So why are they here?"

"That happens to be a rather good question," a voice chimed in from next to them. They turned to see the well-dressed gentleman from the earlier battle with Gina. "Given the abruptness of how this event was organized, I presume that they were meant to oversee it. Shortly before we departed a large number of the staff came down with food poisoning. These replacements were brought in by the sponsor of the event, but it is strange that none of the veteran staff are here overseeing the event instead."

"I can't imagine that a chef who works in a place like this would allow something like that to happen." Brock held his hand to his chin in thought. "Something feels off."

But before he could mull it over or connect the threads, two things happened. The first was that Pikachu's entire body went rigid as the Electric Mouse Pokémon turned its gaze above and began to fidget in Misty's grasp. The second was that every Poké Ball within the gathering of trainers began to let out a low hum, the button in the center blinking red in the process.

"What's going on?" Gina murmured as she raised her Wartortle's ball up to see that it was much the same. She pressed the button in order to trigger the opening mechanism, which would normally cause the ball to burst open and then reverse the energy-state conversion to restore her pokémon. But the ball didn't respond, leaving her to frown. "Wartortle, come out if you can."

The ball shook in her grasp immediately. Since the Poké Ball was enlarged and set into an active state, her pokémon could hear through it and tried to obey. But it wouldn't budge as the speakers crackled to life once more.

"Thank you for your compliance," a feminine voice said this time. "Team Rocket will now take ownership of all of your pokémon!"

No sooner than those words were said was the trap sprung.

Flashes of light signaled the emergence of pokémon from the confinement of their balls. But none of them came from the trainers or the passengers that had been playing the role of spectators. They all came from the staff members who seemed out of place as, with a single swift tug, they tore away their disguises and revealed their Team Rocket uniforms.

As a wave of surprise swept through the passengers and trainers, Gina gritted her teeth as her mind ran through what was happening until she felt a slight push on her shoulder. It was Ash this time, holding a finger to his mouth as he crouched lower to the ground. She followed him, joined by Misty, Brock, and Pikachu as he was lowered to the floor. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Ash said, looking down to one of his own balls. "I think they did something to all the Poké Balls but their own."

"But we never let anyone tamper with ours," Misty said. "It has to be something else that's doing it."

"Either way, at this rate they're going to steal everyone's pokémon unless we fix it," Brock finished. "If we had some kind of clue where to start—"

"Pikapi! Pikapi!" Pikachu clutched Ash's pants leg and tugged with his tiny paws until he had their attention. Then he pointed towards the glass ceiling above. The chandelier, specifically. "Pika!"

"Hmm—" A low hum caught their attention as they spotted the well-dressed gentleman next to them, looking up at the same thing. "—I suppose that might explain it. Your Pikachu is quite astute."

Ash didn't get it. "What?"

"I recall some of the staff supposedly reinforcing it when they added in the platform for the battles around the same time that the old staff became ill," he explained. "That chandelier likely has a device that's sending out an electrical signal tampering with our Poké Balls. Being an Electric-Type, it's probably more sensitive to such things and noticed when they turned it on just now."

"If that's the case—" Ash looked down to his partner. "Pikachu, think you can shut it down?"

The Electric Mouse Pokémon nodded. "Pi!"

"Hold on," Gina said. "Team Rocket won't hesitate to attack Pikachu if they spot him trying to shoot it. Not to mention how high it is."

Even if Pikachu knew where it was, he still had to reach it. Any long-distance attacks could be easily intercepted and Pikachu alone against all of Team Rocket's pokémon were odds that Gina didn't want to guess. And that was assuming Pikachu had fully recovered from his battle with Raichu.

"If it's just getting to the top-level, Pikachu could probably get up through the small elevator used to move trays from the kitchen to the lounges," Misty said, gesturing over towards the wall where one of the elevators were. It was open, revealing a tray with a silver platter and bell-shaped cover on it. "They're small enough that only a light pokémon like him could use it."

"That might work," Brock mused. "But how do we get Pikachu over to it without getting caught?"

"You can leave that to me," the Gentleman said. "I'll draw their attention. Use that time to slip your Pikachu into it. But be quick about it."

Before anyone could say anything else or ask him why he offered, he wove through the crowd with his hat tilted over his head before breaking through the group of trainers and standing in front of them. Then he tapped his cane on the ground loud enough that it grabbed the attention of every single person. "I have to say, I don't believe any of this was part of the festivities. Which of you is in charge of this ruckus?"

That guy's braver than I gave him credit for, Gina thought to herself as he proceeded to start complaining to the various thieves about their demands.

It served to start getting the others to vocally complain, even with their pokémon sealed away. Given they were all trainers who'd faced their share of encounters along their journey, they weren't easily cowed. If they had access to their own pokémon it would have resulted in a fight by now.

"Now's our chance!" Ash said as he scooped up Pikachu. The others huddled around him as they moved to the back of the crowd that was getting agitated., buying him just enough time to shove Pikachu into the elevator. He then shut the entrance before hitting the button. "Good luck, Pikachu."

[-oOo-]

Pikachu poked his head through the entrance of the tray elevator as it finished its ascension, ears raised to catch any stray sounds. It had brought him all the way to the top floor like planned. Now it was up to him to help out his Trainer and the others.

A low hum bubbled up in the Electric Mouse Pokémon's throat as he slipped out from the elevator. He kept low and out of sight, careful to avoid being caught as he went around the curving shape of the upper level. He needed to get closer if he was going to do something about whatever was releasing the electrical signals that he could feel. So he scurried along until a sound caught his ear right before he passed by the mouth of a corridor—

"EKANS!"

—and narrowly avoided the fangs of a lunging Snake Pokémon as it lashed out from the side, maw opened with the intent of driving its fangs into his smaller body. Pikachu twisted on his forepaw as the jaws snapped down just past his tail, swinging it around to strike it with the appendage hard enough that its head whipped to the side. Then he lunged off his forepaws in order to avoid the ball of maleficent Sludge as it splashed across the floor and a pair of nets.

Landing on all fours, Pikachu's fur bristled as he found himself staring down at Jessie, James, Meowth, and their pokémon. "Pipi-Kachu!"

"That's right!" Meowth said, the all-too-familiar smile stretched across his face. "Don't think we forgot about cha!"

"We know the twerp likes to keep you out and about, but we can't risk someone else giving you to the boss," James claimed, brandishing his net while dressed in a shiny suit. Same with the other two. "So we're going to capture you while the others are preoccupied."

"CHUUU!" Pikachu's cheeks sparked as tendrils of electricity escaped, lashing out towards them. It wasn't nearly as strong as it would be under normal circumstances, given he hadn't fully recovered from stressing his electric pouches against Raichu. But even if it were, the voltage just washed off their insulated covering. "Pika?"

"Hahahahaha!" Jessie laughed. "Rubber suits, just for the occasion! Now, you're ours!"

Confident in their ability to mitigate his primary means of attack, the trio lunged with their nets. Pikachu easily avoided them while slipping past to continue around the curving pathway towards the distant chandelier. But their pokémon were far less clumsy in their attacks, with the Snake Pokémon letting loose a spray of Poison Sting and the Koffing releasing clumps of Sludge that forced him to be more careful as they splattered across the floor.

Then his ears twitched. Pikachu picked up the sounds coming from below and the commotion as the other members of Team Rocket were getting ready to try and cow the rest into obedience with force. He was running out of time—

"Use Smog!"

—and the distraction cost him even more as the Poison Gas Pokémon bellowed a plume of Smog out. The gas surged forward, a dense rolling wave that washed over the walkway and swallowed Pikachu whole. The acrid gas stung at his fur and gnawed away at his eyes while he ran forward holding his breath.

"Don't let him escape, Ekans!" Jessie commanded.

The order was followed by a volley of venomous needles from Ekans, the poisonous Snake Pokémon that had been hidden within the Smog letting loose Poison Sting. With his line of vision blocked, Pikachu couldn't avoid all the needles as they slammed into his tiny body. The points of his yellowish fur that were struck became tinged by a sickening hue of purple as a burning sensation began to spread throughout his body—poison.

"Piii…" Sucking a sharp breath as he felt like he was starting to melt on the inside out, Pikachu darted around the corner as his eyes traced the path until he came to a stop directly across from the source of the electrical signal. There, on the center chandelier, was a device that was hooked into it that had a red light on it.

The only problem was the distance between the walkway and chandelier. There was maybe twenty feet or more, a single smaller chandelier between the walkway and the center one. The jump wasn't something that could be made even if he ran with all his might.

"End of the line," Meowth said. "Won't be long now before that poison takes you outta commission and there's nowhere to go!"

True enough, Pikachu's pants came out heavier and he felt slightly dizzy. The poison had spread from his racing heart throughout his smaller body until the contaminants mixed with his saliva and bubbles began to escape his mouth. But to say there was nowhere to go was a different story.

As they lunged to capture him, Pikachu wreathed himself in a shroud of energy and turned it into propulsion. The Quick Attack launched him forward as he bound off the railing, closing the gap between the pathway and the smaller chandelier, causing it to rattle and shake as the crystals bumped into one another. Bracing himself as it swayed, a wave of dizziness made it feel like the entire ship was being rocked by waves.

"Pikachu, look out!"

Hearing Ash's shout, Pikachu looked down to see that a number of non-friendly Zubats and Spearow were swarming towards him. The other members of Team Rocket had spotted him from the noise and were trying to stop him before he could reach the device. Biting down on the nausea from the poison flowing through his body, Pikachu used Quick Attack a second time and landed on the larger chandelier with his cheeks sparking as the flying pokémon closed in.

Then lightning blossomed he let loose all the electricity he could muster in a single attack. "CHUUUUUUUU!"

[-oOo-]

In that moment, everyone was deprived of their eyes and ears. The bright glare of the electricity was blinding. The shrieks of the Bat and Tiny Bird Pokémon as it electrocuted them was deafening.

And by the time the glare had died down, Ash opened his eyes to see that all of the pokémon that had been flying above to swarm Pikachu were on the ground, twitching and spasming from the stray voltage still threading their unconscious forms. As for Pikachu himself, he was swaying on the edge of the chandelier with his eyes clenched shut. Regardless of whatever happened before, he clearly devoted everything into that attack and so his tiny limbs gave out.

Pikachu fell right over the edge.

Ash's body moved on its own as he shoved past one of the Team Rocket members and leaped onto the platform to gain enough air so that he could dive to catch his Starter with outstretched hands. The moment he felt Pikachu's weight in his arms, he turned as he fell and let his back slam into the hard floor. A sharp pain ran through his body and he let out a pained grunt, but that was secondary compared hearing the whimper escape Pikachu's mouth and signs of poison settling in.

I need to get him to Brock, Ash thought. Brock always kept medical supplies, so he probably had an Antidote. But as he got onto his feet, a flash of light signaled the emergence of a pokémon and a sickening smell filled the air as he found himself facing down what looked to be a living mass of sludge with eyes and hands.

"Alright, we're done playing nice with all of you!" said the Team Rocket member that Ash shoved aside, now back on his feet. "We'll show you what happens when you defy us. Grimer, use—mmurgeguh!"

Whatever he was going to order his pokémon to do was drowned out the moment he was crashed into by a Bubblebeam. The rushing stream of tightly woven bubbles was so dense it may as well have been a solid mass, sweeping him off his feet and slamming him into the opposing wall across the room. The impact ripped away his consciousness and left him buried under the froth as he slumped onto the ground.

At the same time, an Ice Beam speared forth and struck the Grimer. The air around it became as cold as a winter's night and mist shrouded its entire body while the ear-splitting sound of quickly forming ice rang out until the frigid ray of condensed cold itself ceased. By the time the mist thinned, the rotten smell and its source were both sealed in a layer of ice.

Ash turned to see that the attacks came from Wartortle and Starmie, Gina and Misty standing next to their respective pokémon. Whatever was stopping their balls from opening before wasn't stopping them now. Pikachu had done it.

"What are you idiots waiting for!?" someone shouted from the highest level of the ship. Ash turned to see that Jessie was there, leaning over the railing. "Show them what happens when they mess with Team Rocket and capture all of their pokémon!"

At the same time, Gina turned back to the other trainers on the ground floor and said, "Are you just going to sit there and let them take your pokémon? Or are you going to fight back!?"

The answer was obvious. Trainers were those who spent their time and effort to forge bonds with their pokémon. They would never willingly give them up without a fight. So when faced with thieves who tried to take them there was only one response: Fight back.

Ash jumped to his feet with Pikachu in his arms. Then darted out of the way as light speared forth and several more pokémon emerged from their balls. He was halfway there when a woman in Team Rocket's black uniform came into view from the side with what looked to be a living flower next to her.

"Get them, Bellsprout!" she ordered. The Flower Pokémon sprouted a set of vines from a pair of pods nestled where shoulders would be if it had any. Then it sent them flying through the air towards Ash, intent on whipping him into submission.

"Nidorina, block it!" Gina commanded as she tossed out another pair of Poké Balls. "Spearow, no mercy!"

The Poison Pin Pokémon emerged between Ash and the attack, blocking the vines with her body as Spearow shot forward with light wreathing his beak as he immediately launched into a Peck attack. It hit the Bellsprout head-on and knocked it some distance away onto the ground before Spearow proceeded to deliver a second strike without mercy to make sure it was down. Then, as the woman recalled his downed foe, he let out a defiant crow and flew after her as she ran away while Nidorina nudged Ash to urge him to keep making his way back to the group.

Taking the cue, Ash sprinted back towards Brock when the familiar sound of buzzing wings reached his ears. He had enough time to turn back to see that a Beedrill was already on his back, long and pointed needles aiming to spear him from behind. Then there was an orange blur as something massive intercepted it.

"Don't underestimate us, Team Rocket!" Pete Pebbleman said in a defiant voice, mounted atop a canine that was even taller than Ash was. Covered in a pelt of orange and with a wild mane, it snarled viciously at the enemy pokémon while pining an unconscious Poison Bee Pokémon beneath its paw. "Roar, Arcanine!"

What followed was a bellow so loud it may as well had shaken Ash's bones. A group of pokémon that Team Rocket had called out, including the Beedrill, all shuddered violently. Then their bodies converted into an energy state and abruptly retreated into the trainer's balls.

"Coward!" one of the Team Rocket members shouted towards the ball in his grasp. "Get back out here and—"

The villain was cut off as what looked to be a living palm tree landed in front of him, with six sets of eyes across three hard-shelled fruits all with differing expression. Those same eyes shone with a cerulean hue as psychic waves began to flow freely while they worked in tandem, until several of the Team Rocket members slipped into a soundly deep slumber.

"Good work, Exeggutor," Mandi said as he stepped forward next to it and set his hand against its trunk. "Those ruffians were being so rude. They can stay asleep until they're placed into police custody."

The tide had turned completely at that point. The trainers who'd dedicated themselves to training their pokémon began routing Team Rocket, forcing them into the defensive as their own ranks slowly began to falter. It would only be a matter of time before they were completely taken down.

"Brock," Ash said as they finally reunited. "Pikachu's been poisoned."

"Hang on, I've got an Antidote on me." He fished around in his backpack until he found the bottle and then used it on Pikachu. "He'll need a bit to recover but that should neutralize the poison."

"Look after him for me then." Ash handed off Pikachu over to the former Gym Trainer and then ran off towards a set of stairs. "I'll be back when I'm done!"

"Where are you going?" Brock asked.

"To get the three who did that to him!"