Ash was gone when Brock woke up. He's probably confused over what happened last night. The rock type gym leader thought, shaking his head. He set out to grab breakfast, Pikachu at his side. "We'll look for Ash after we eat, okay?" he asked the little electric type. Pikachu replied with a nod and a cry of "Chu- pikapi!" They hadn't made it ten yards before running into Misty, though. "Brock! Oh thank goodness!" She shouted, running up to them. Brock and Pikachu shared a look, and Brock turned to address her. "Hey Misty. Whoa, you're completely drenched! Have you been running all morning?" he asked the girl. Misty came to a stop before the pair and leaned over, panting. "I run most mornings to stay in shape." Misty explained between breathes. "Anyway" She said, rising to her full hight. "Where's Ash? I… well, I wanted to apologize for how I acted last night. I'm not sure what came over me." She said sheepishly. Brock raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and shifting his weight to one foot. "You have no idea? Really?" He asked. Misty's eyebrows shot up, and she waved her arms frantically in front of herself. "I have no idea what you're talking about Brock, really!" she quickly replied. "Uh–huh. Sure, Misty, whatever you say." Brock said, holding back a grin. " Do you know where he is or not!?" Misty demanded, her face flushing red as she stomped her feet, frustrated. Brock laughed, only to stop when an older, female voice interjected.
"Know where who is?" Brock, Misty, and Pikachu wheeled around, all thoroughly surprised to find Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four standing a few feet away, a Drakloak floating alongside her. "Agatha?" Misty stammered. "Why of course, child. Now tell me, what could possibly have two gym leaders in such a state?" She asked, leaning forward with both gnarled hands planted firmly atop her knotted wooden staff. "Misty and Brock stammered, glancing at each other. Misty may not have talked to him about it, but she had a feeling that Ash wanted to remain hidden for the time being. Thankfully for her, Brock spoke up first. "We were just looking for a friend, is all." Agatha raised an eyebrow, but to Brock's relief she didn't press the issue further. "How fortunate. We" she gestured to the ghost type beside her "are also searching for some friends of ours. Let us search together!" she said, smiling. Brock paled, trying to think of a way out of this. "Uh, well, we are not quite sure we'll find this friend of ours any time soon. You should go on ahead, Agatha." Misty chimed in, nodding. "Yes, we wouldn't want to waste your time!" Agatha chuckled, walking forward. "Nonsense. I believe that I would rather like to meet this friend of yours. Come." She said, walking north towards the bridge that lead to the beach. Misty and Brock shared a glance before turning to follow the elite four member.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for Brock and Misty, Agatha walked rather slowly, giving them plenty of time to talk. Misty broke the silence first. "What kind of pokemon is that?" she inquired. Agatha laughed again, turning to the younger woman. "This is a Drakloak, a ghost type native to the Galar region. It came with me for training." Brock raised an eyebrow before asking "So Drakloak isn't your pokemon, then?" Agatha shook her head. "Not quite. You see I recently traveled to the Galar region in order to look into a legend about a pokemon native to the region known as Polteageist. I was searching a forest in the northern part of the region when I came upon three diminutive Dreepy, which is the pre evolved form of Drakloak. They were being bullied by local pokemon known as Morgrem. One of the Dreepy evolved during the fight in an attempt to protect the other two, but it still couldn't fight the other pokemon off. So" she turned to look at the ghost type "I offered to train Drakloak, so that it may better protect it's friends." Brock and Misty listened in silent admiration. Soon they came upon a wooded area that lay thick with fog, unlike the surrounding areas which had cleared up as the morning gave way to day. Suddenly Drakloak let out a cry, and it vanished before anyone had time to do anything. Agatha merely chuckled. "Ready yourselves, children. I believe there's a fight ahead of us."
Ash turned away from the grotto and his pokemon gathered around him, leaning close so as to hear the plan. "Listen closely. We're going to use the training that we went through with Kagetomo. Our first objective is to free those Dreepy. Second, we need to learn who those people are, which means catching them. If even one of them escapes, they could get backup and come back, which would be a big problem. Gengar" he turned to the ghost type "I need you to go in and cause confusion. Use confuse ray or willowisp to incapacitate the Hypno and the Golbat, but keep your distance from the Drapion and Houndoom. Decidueye, I want you to stay in the shadows and use Spirit Shackle. Hamper the pokemon's movement if you can, but don't hit any of us. Ultimately, I need you to stop the poachers from getting away." Ash turned now to Serperior. "I want you to pick off any stragglers that get by us, so hang back outside the grotto, but remain hidden in the grass. Use Glare, Grass Knot, and Bind to stop any and all poachers that ge through." Now Ash turned to Greninja, Gliscor, and Zoey. "Zoey, you are going in there with Gengar. Stay in human form in order to confuse them. Use attract and psychic to immobilize the poachers, and use dig if you need to get out of there. Greninja, your objective is Houndoom. Once you are done with it, help the others capture the poachers. Gliscor, keep Drapion busy. Does everyone understand the plan?" The assembled pokemon nodded. "Alright. Let's go!"
Moments latter the grotto erupted in chaos. Gengar materialize in the midst of the poachers, startling human and pokemon alike. Before any of them could react, their Golbat was flying in confused circles and their Hypno was down for the count. The poacher's commander shouted orders to her Drapion: "Drapion, deal with that Gengar!" but it was too late. As soon as it had appeared the ghost type vanished, leaving the poachers and their two remaining pokemon on edge. "I don't like this, Commander." one of them whimpered. "Grow a backbone, grunt!" the violet haired woman ordered. Have your- what in the world?" Before the commander could finish, a young girl, no older than a teen, walked into the grotto. "Hello? Oh, excuse me! Am I interrupting something?" She asked innocently. The commander scowled. "Yes, yes, you are. Who are you?" The girl smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, my name is Zoey. I was searching for my Gengar. Have you seen him?" The commander frowned. "That was your pokemon? It attacked two of our pokemon. You need to keep it on a shorter leash!" Zoey sighed. "Sorry about that!" she said, winking at the three male grunts. The commander's eyebrows furrowed, and she realized something wasn't right. "Drapion, hit her with pin missile!" she demanded. The poison type fired a volley of green projectiles, but the moment before they hit the girl spectral arrows and ninja stars fashioned from ice flew from the nearby foliage, eliminating the projectiles. "You're smarter than you look, pinkie!" echoed a voice in the commander's head. "What are you?" She demanded. The girl merely laughed, all three of the nearby grunts swooning nonstop, seemingly addlebrained.
Then, Zoey's form blurred, until a pokemon stood in her place. "Too little, too late! Bye now!" And then it was gone, having burrowed into the earth like it was paper mache. Before the commander could so much as move, multiple pokemon rushed into the grotto. A Gliscor came barreling from the ground, slamming into her Drapion. As Houndoom moved to intercept, a blue and black flash darted in, striking at the fire type with glowing, immaterial blades. More arrows flew in from the treetops outside the grotto, landing at the feet of two of the grunts, who then seamed to be unable to move so much as an inch. The Gengar reappeared, hovering over the dreepy still stuck in the net protectively. Watching all this unfold, the commander knew she had only one option: run. She recalled her Drapion just as it took a massive hit from it's opponent, knocking it out. She turned to run, along with the only other grunt that had regained his senses, not even turning to check on the others. Bah! They're just grunts, after all! They hadn't made it five feet when something yanked the grunt into the tall grass nearby, his screams spurring her to run even harder. She was aware of something, or perhaps someone by the sound of it, giving chase, but she had a good lead, and she was confident she would outlast her pursuer. That was until an old woman's voice called out "Gengar, stop her with Psychic!". Suddenly the commander was floating, and the last thing she saw was a light blue and red pokemon as it's fist came crashing into her face.
Ash stumbled, leaning against a tree. He was thoroughly worn out from his pursuit of the poacher, winded and sore. "Is this the friend you were talking about? My my, the two of you have such an interesting friend!" Ash glanced up in surprise as Agatha cackled. Misty merely sighed while Brock shook his head. Pikachu padded up to Ash with a "Pika?". "Yeah, I'm okay, buddy." he said in response, grinning. Then he turned his attention to the poacher who was still floating in the air. "We need to find out whatever we can from her." he said, nodding towards her. Brock stroked his chin. "What happened here, Ash?" Ash glanced back at the grotto before turning back to Brock. "Poachers." he said in response, short and clipped. Misty scowled, and even Agatha frowned. "Did they catch anything? Perhaps two Dreepy?" Ash blinked, still surprised that the Elite Four member was here. "Yeah, that's right. Are they yours?" he asked. Agatha smiled. "Not mine, but his." she replied, sweeping a hand towards a pokemon floating just above them, beside Agatha's Gengar. The dragon pokemon flew up to Ash, stopping just in front of him and letting out a happy cry. Then it vanished into the grotto. A minute later Ash's pokemon emerged from the grotto alongside Drakloak and the Dreepy, dragging the still stunned poachers along. "We need to get in touch with Officer Jenny" Brock stated, drawing nods of agreement from all present.
"I'm already here!" shouted a voice. Seconds later police swarmed into the wooded area, guided by none other than Serena. Officer Jenny walked up to Ash and co, coming to stop before Misty. "This young woman informed me of particularly viscous fighting between potential poachers and a trainer. I didn't think it would be you, Gym Leader." Misty opened her mouth to respond, but before anyone could say anything Brock was kneeling before Officer Jenny, holding her hand and professing his never dying love for her. Then he was on the ground in pain, and Toxicroak was dragging him into the grotto.