"So what are we doing all the way out here?" Rosa asked, as the trio and Hugh made their way through the southern part of the city.
"We're hoping to investigate the Cold Storage south of the city, if Dewott first showed up there, maybe his Pokeball is there too." Ash said.
"You do realize that if what Nurse Joy said was accurate then it's been a month, possibly longer since Dewott washed up on shore, we have no guarantee that his Pokeball even made it this far." Elliot reminded.
"It also doesn't explain why we're investigating with Hugh." Rosa commented.
"Ash and I might be rivals, but Dewott is still Pignite's friend, and I owe it to him to try and help." Hugh responded.
"Pignite's friend didn't seem to care much about friendship yesterday when mopping the floor with him and Servine." Rosa pointed out.
"I asked around, apparently that's pretty standard for Dewott to do whenever a battle gets too intense in that park." Ash said.
"So how do we investigate a storage area looking for a single Pokeball that washed up nearly a month ago?" Elliot asked.
"It's a confined area, the cold storage is where they're putting all excess trash and anything washed up while they're assembling the stadium." Ash said.
"Ooh, big new stadium for the gym battle?" Elliot asked.
"That's what I thought too, but no, apparently it's for some huge tournament later this year." Ash admitted. "So for now we search this one warehouse."
"Great, just how I like to spend my weekends, in an oversized freezer." Rosa said sarcastically as the quartet entered the warehouse.
Inside
"Alright Elliot, any ideas on how to track down this?" Ash asked.
"Me? Why me?" Elliot asked.
"You memorized everything about the battle subway, I figured you could use Porygon2 and like hack the cameras or something again." Ash admitted.
"How would I even know how to do that? Memorizing those subway lines took time and interest, you can't just expect me to, oh they're dated." Elliot said, noticing the placard on one of the shipping containers.
"But we don't know how far back too look, we just know roughly a month." Rosa said.
"We can remove anything earlier than around when Hugh found Tepig, and more than three weeks ago." Ash said.
"So how much time does that give us?" Rosa asked.
"About two weeks, and considering these are by week, we just need to find those two containers." Hugh said.
"Did those two just?" Rosa asked as Ash and Hugh ran off.
"Yes, I think they actually did lower it down to two containers out of dozens on their own." Elliot said, before they chased after the spirited battlers.
Near the center of the warehouse
Quick Note
As someone who works with A LOT of containers like the ones in the Cold Storage, I can tell you they are big and storing takes A LOT of space, calling this just a warehouse is practically an understatement. Like you could get lost in some of the places they hold them.
"Pikachu use Iron Tail!"
"Pignite use Flame Charge!"
Rosa and Elliot rounded the corner to see Ash and Hugh in combat against ice cream?
"Any ideas?" Rosa asked.
"They're called Vanillite." Hugh said. "Ice types, mostly harmless, but they did attack first."
"Pikachu use Iron Tail again!" Ash called out.
Pikachu leapt into the air, slamming his tail into one of the two Vanillite, knocking them into each other.
The two ice types floated back up, unleashing a dual icy wind on the group.
"Pignite use Flame Charge!"
"Pikachu use Thunderbolt!"
Pignite rushed forward, slamming into one of the Vanillite knocking it out as the other was struck down by Pikachu's electricity.
In the far back of the warehouse
"Here they are, the two shipping containers that are from the possible weeks." Ash said. "Riolu, Darumaka, help us open this up!"
"Pignite you help too!" Hugh called out.
They managed to pry open the doors of the first shipping container, finding various debris and broken parts inside.
"It is way too cold for me to search through all of that." Rosa said plainly.
"How about we check the other container first." Ash offered, hoping the other to be in better condition.
A few minutes of opening later
"Okay, this is oddly organized." Ash said, as he and Hugh entered the shipping container.
"No kidding." Hugh admitted, seeing the stacked cages and rows of Pokeballs.
"Do you think any of these were Oshawott's?" Rosa asked.
"I doubt it, that Pokeball was likely broken in order for him to have gotten out." Elliot said.
"Yeah, but then that brings up the question, what is with all of this? And why is it so organized?" Ash asked, checking some papers, noticing a symbol. "We need to get out of here."
"After all this, you want to leave?" Hugh asked.
"Hugh, you don't get it, this container, it's contents, all of this, it's Team Plasmas." Ash said. "They're a group of people who…"
"I know who they are!" Hugh snapped. "And you can go if you want, but I'm staying to fight them, with or without you."
"Alright, let's wait for a bit and see if anyone shows up." Ash said, leaning against a wall.
Sorry for the shorter chapter, fighting a head cold so my energy is really down right now.