Chapter 3

The afternoon sun beat down on the three fiercely. Ash had traveled through a dry heat, but it wasn't very often he got to experience tropical weather; and when he had there was a beach nearby. So he was stuck sweating through his clothes and having the energy being drained out of him with each new drop of hydration that leaked out of his body. "Ugh, it sure is hot..." Not even the salty ocean breeze that seemed to be all around them did nothing to cool him down. But at least the scene was set with beautiful palm trees swaying in said breeze above them.

"Do you always whine this much?" Gary asked with one of his eyes closed. If anyone had any right to complain, it was Gary. The Pallet Town Trainer was wearing a long sleeve purple shirt, and long pants that were tucked into a pair of brown boots. And though he wasn't saying anything, his face was covered in sweat as well.

"Maybe we should take a little swim!" Ash suggested meekly, looking at Brock as though he were the mediator of the group.

"We can have fun after we get that Poké Ball," the Pokémon Breeder pointed out. Ash let out a groan, but ultimately knew that Brock was right, and his head hung in defeat.

"Okay..."

The path leading into the main residential area looked down into it, giving them a good bird's eye view of the island. But then, a thought crossed all of their minds, and a silence fell over them like a blanket. Gary was the bravest to speak up. "Does anyone know where Professor Ivy's lab even is?" The silence rang heavily as Ash and Brock both looked at each other.

"Don't... you know where it is?" the two boys said at the same time, and all three of them sighed.

"Well, this island isn't too big. I guess we'll just have to find it," Gary uttered, though the frown on his face hinted that he wasn't exactly thrilled about this new development. He looked around to try and find a direction to start looking, and then he spoke up again. "Hey, what's that?"

The other two looked up to look in the direction the youngest Oak was pointing to. It was a hut building with tiki-like decorations around it. How they missed it the first time, Ash wouldn't know, because on top of the bright red and white Poké Balls both on the straw roof above the entryway and the tikis on either side of the path leading up onto the deck, the building itself was brightly colored with reds and greens, and straw mats for the outside. Ash blinked as he took it all in, and cocked his head slightly. "Looks like a Pokémon Center..." he guessed.

There was only one way to find out. They headed down the path that led to the building, and entered through the door-less entryway. While the lack of a door didn't exactly lead to a complete cool-down, the inside was much more bearable than being directly out in the sun's rays, and an electric fan spun on the ceiling. "Hello!" Gary called as they entered the strange building.

"I wonder if there are Nurse Joys in the Orange Islands," Brock wondered aloud, and as soon as he said this, a familiar-looking nurse with her pink hair tied in two looped pigtails on the back of her head stepped out. While she looked a little more tan than her Kanto counterparts and wore a green apron, she looked almost identical to them. Accompanying her was a Chansey, a round pink egg-shaped Pokémon who was also wearing a nurse's cap.

"Welcome to the Pokémon Center," Nurse Joy greeted.

"Some things never change," Ash giggled, and suddenly, Brock let out a startling yell, surprising them all.

Leaping up to the counter, he reached forward and cupped her hands in his own while she looked at him in utter shock. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Are you related to any of the other Nurse Joys?"

"I'm the second cousin of the sister-in-law of the Joy in Saffron City," she replied, albeit not as nervously as she should have been. "Have you ever been to Saffron City?"

"Oh yes! It's beautiful – like you are!" Brock responded with an excited nod, but Ash pushed him out of the way and looked back at the young nurse.

"Could you tell us how to get to Professor Ivy's laboratory?"

"Oh, it's very easy," she replied, and now that Brock was out of the way, she was completely at ease. Both her and Chansey pointed out the door simultaneously. "You go straight out of the Pokémon Center, make the first left, and it's the big white building at the end of Bay View Road."

Ash and Gary thanked the Pokémon nurse and pulled Brock away from her before he could cause any more harm, and exited the tiki-themed Pokémon Center.

o 0 o

Nurse Joy's directions were spot on, and they eventually found Professor Ivy's lab in half of the time it would have taken without them. The white lab didn't quite stand out much, but it was at the edge of the island that dropped down into the ocean below. It was a couple stories with large glass windows that reflected the sun's powerful rays and seemed to make it shine like a pearl. Overall, it wasn't quite as large as Professor Oak's lab, but still impressive nevertheless.

"Professor Ivy!" Ash called as they entered the automated doors. Air conditioning hit them straight away, and they all let out a quiet sigh of relief from the temporary rest from the heavy tropical heat, but they were mostly concerned at the fact that no one had greeted them.

"Hello! Is anybody here?" Gary shouted, walking ahead of the group. The lobby – spacious and decorated with various plants – had shining green linoleum floors, but no signs of human life.

"The place looks empty," the black-haired Trainer commented. Suddenly, a part of the floor by their feet swung open, and all three boys just about jumped out of their skin, and looking up at them coming from a hidden staircase that led to the basement, three girls with curly brown hair tied up in different ways all peered up at them. They all looked very similar, and even their large glasses were the same, but the shirts they wore and their hairstyles set them apart.

"Hi," one of the girls stated in a nasally voice.

"What are you doing here?"

"Who are you?"

"Uhhh, hello there," Brock managed to stutter out once he got his heart rate down to a normal pace. "Um, we came here to see Professor Ivy."

"Yeah, Professor Oak from Pallet Town sent us to pick up something," Ash chimed in.

The girls all smiled, seemingly satisfied with the explanation. "If you want the professor-"

"-she's in the bay."

"Working with the Pokémon!"

The three girls then folded their hands together in unison and said, "We'll take you to her right now." It was almost off-putting the way they all finished each other's sentences, but not wanting to insult their hosts, the three simply chuckled nervously and waited as they climbed out of the exit they appeared from.

The three girls – who introduced themselves as Hope, Charity, and Faith – brought them out through the side entrance, and led them down a long, winding pathway down the cliff the lab overlooked. Down at the bottom was a private beach that was assumingly owned by the laboratory. Already feeling sand particles jumping into his shoes and digging into his socks, Ash followed the three girls along the land, taking in all the sights. The sound of the waves crashing against the beach and the water slowly receding back into the ocean brought a calming sense over Ash.

But soon, the waves became louder, and all three Trainers turned their heads just in time to see a large blue sea serpent Pokémon rise out of the water, and it released a bone-chilling hiss with an intimidating look. Ash instantly recoiled back at the unexpected sight, and let out a scream of fright. "A Gyarados!" Gary realized, but Brock let out a moan and jumped in front of them to get a closer look. But what he was looking at wasn't the Gyarados, but the woman that surfaced beside it.

It was then that they realized the Gyarados hadn't even noticed them, and it sunk back down into the water and let the woman embrace and rub its face. "Very good, Gyarados," she complimented. As she did, two more figures emerged from the water – a Cloyster and a Poliwhirl. "I think you're all looking better and stronger every single day!"

"You see that?" Ash blinked, hardly able to believe his eyes. It wasn't every day he saw someone interact so calmly with a Gyarados and it doing the same back. "Look at the way she trained her Gyarados..."

"I wish she would train me..." Brock moaned under his breath, his whole body quaking as he hid his blushing face.

"Professor!"

"Three friends of Professor Oak are here to-"

"See 'ya!"

The triplets all yelled in the woman's direction, and when they did, her heavy-lidded eyes fell upon them at the beach and she smiled warmly, even from the distance she was at. Brock's face reddened upon seeing this, but then all of them gasped in shock as she climbed up on her Gyarados's head, and the Water and Flying Pokémon sped to the shore. Before it could crash against the sand, the woman leapt from Gyarados's head, and one of the triplets threw a white lab coat to her. In one swift movement, she snatched it and swung it over her shoulder, though it barely covered her dark blue bathing suit. When she landed on the surface, they folded her hands behind her back and smiled at them with her shoulder-length plum hair still dripping salt water.

"Pleased to meet you; I'm Professor Ivy." Whatever they were expecting, it certainly wasn't the attractive woman in front of them, and the three all stared dumbfounded in surprise. Her brown eyes fell upon Gary, and she sized him up and down. "You must be Professor Oak's grandson. You're just as he described. Congratulations on winning the Pokémon League, by the way. That's no easy feat."

"I am Gary, ma'am," he introduced with a bow. "Thank you very much." She nodded in response, and looked at the other two.

"The professor did say that you two would be accompanying him as well."

"It's nice to meet you, Professor," Ash said. "I'm Ash, and this is Brock." Brock was too red in the face to even speak, and he only sputtered quiet gibberish.

Professor Ivy grinned at them, and then turned to Gary. "I apologize, you caught me in the middle of checking on the Water Pokémon. Please, come back up to the lab with me, and after I change, I'll take you to what you came here for." They all agreed, and this time with Professor Ivy in the lead, they headed back up to the lab.

o 0 o

Inside the lab, she took them to a room toward the back that featured a lot of electronic gadgets. Much like the ones in Professor Oak's lab, Ash could only imagine what each one of them did, and some of the more high-powered ones hummed with electricity. It also seemed as though there were Pokémon stored in here as well, as against the wall from which they entered had cabinets with lines of red and white Poké Balls protected by locked cases.

But it was what was beside the large computer monitor was the real attraction. Not having any time to focus on the other equipment or even speculate on what they did, Professor Ivy and her assistants took Gary, Ash, and Brock to the transporter beside the computer. "Well, there's the Poké Ball," she said, and all three of them marveled at it. The ball was encased in a glass lid like a lab experiment, but even the clear glass couldn't contain its beauty. Unlike a normal Poké Ball of white and red, this Poké Ball had a gold cap, and a silver bottom.

"Wow! Sure is different..." Ash commented.

"I've never seen a Poké Ball like that before..." Gary agreed.

"Why is it all gold and silver?" Brock asked, but Professor Ivy let out a sigh behind them.

"We haven't been able to discover the reason for that or very much else about the Poké Ball, I'm afraid."

Ash felt as though he couldn't take his brown eyes off it, and he soon discovered there were strange markings embedded above the control button on the front. "Uh, Professor Ivy, it looks like there's some kind of writing on it."

She nodded. "If you look closely, you can see the letters 'GS'." As soon as she said it, he could instantly see what she meant.

"I see it..."

"So, we decided to call it a GS Ball," she explained.

"A GS Ball..."

"We heard you can't transport it," Brock said, turning back to the plum-haired professor.

"True." She turned and looked at Hope. "Would you demonstrate?" Without responding, Hope walked forward and pressed the red button on the front panel of the machine to activate it. A white light shone brightly on the device above, and white beams of plasma much like the inside of a Poké Ball came down in jagged beams. It passed through the glass and made a sizzling sound as it engulfed the GS Ball in the bright light. The light stayed on longer than normal, presumably trying to convert the ball into energy as it would any other normal Poké Ball. Finally, when the light receded back into the machine hanging over it, the GS Ball stayed unmoved, though unnatural red sparks danced around its circular shape. The three opened their mouth and let out a breath of surprise.

"Naturally we've tried to open it," Professor Ivy continued, crossing her arms in front of her body. Her three assistants nodded in agreement as she went on. "We've tried buzz saws, hammers, crowbars, hacksaws, power drills, and lasers. We've tried everything, but this Poké Ball has us stumped." Once again, the three assistants nodded.

The female professor let out a defeated sigh and pressed a small button on the underside of the machine, and the glass opened in the middle and disappeared into the machine. Delicately, as if it were a precious egg, she reached out and took the Poké Ball in her hand and looked at it longingly. "I wish I could have uncovered the secrets of this Poké Ball myself, but if anyone can solve its mysteries, your grandfather Professor Oak can."

Bending down slightly, she extended the hand cradling the GS Ball to Gary. "Here it is, Gary. Make sure you get it to him safely." Ash felt a ping of jealousy as Gary looked down at the ball, and nodded at the professor before taking it into his own hands.

"Do you mind if I call my grandpa?" he asked. "I want to make sure he knows I have it and I got here."

"I don't see why not," Professor Ivy replied, and gestured to the large computer monitor to their left. "You can use this phone right here."

Gary gave a small thanks and him, Ash, and Brock all approached. Putting the phone's receiver to his ear, he dialed in the professor's phone number and waited a few moments. After a few moments, Professor Oak's face appeared on the screen. "Hello. Professor Oak speaking."

"Hiya, Gramps," Gary greeted, and waved briefly at the camera.

"Hi, Professor Oak! Remember me?" Ash butted in, leaning into the screen. Professor Oak's eyes lit up when he saw the pair.

"Oh! Boys! Are you there already?"

"Yes, sir. And we're just calling to let you know we have the Poké Ball," Gary told him, and held up the gold and silver Poké Ball to the camera as proof. The man's dark eyebrows furrowed together as he gazed upon it.

"Is that it?"

"It's the GS Ball!" Ash piped up, and Professor Oak blinked.

"A GS Ball?" he repeated.

"I chose the name, Professor," Professor Ivy explained, walking into the screen, and Gary handed the receiver to her.

"Ah! Professor Ivy!"

"It's good to talk to you, Professor Oak," she greeted with a bow.

"Well, I recently read your preliminary report in Pokémon Researchers Monthly, on Pokémon adaptive variation as a function of regional distribution, and I found it quite persuasive."

"Oh, thank you! And I think your article on challenges facing anthro-Pokémon global cohabitation was absolutely fascinating-"

"Uh, is this gonna take much longer?" Ash interrupted with a nervous giggle. All of these big words were making his brain hurt.

"Oh, sorry; I get carried away sometimes," she admitted, then looked back at the camera. "I certainly hope you can solve of this Poké Ball, Professor."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," he promised, though the way he rubbed the top of his head showed he wasn't quite confident.

"We'll see you soon, Professor Oak!" Ash called, waving at the monitor.

"Bye, Gramps," Gary added.

"All right, boys. Take care, and thank you!" And with that, the screen went black as Professor Oak hung up.

o 0 o

Since Professor Ivy was in the middle of tending to her daily duties when they had arrived, she offered to give them a tour of the lab while she completed her tasks. Wanting to know more about the Orange Archipelago, all three were easily persuaded, and she took them out of the lab and to a large area of woods starting to the left and trailed out behind the lab going in the same direction of the beach.

There was a fairly large path that had been worn down from constant travel to and fro, but Professor Ivy led the three while her assistants went off to go prepare. "So this is all part of your laboratory?" Brock asked in awe. It seemed like they had been walking forever.

"Yes. We need all this space for all the Pokémon," Professor Ivy answered, then threw a small glance over her shoulder. "We breed and study so many of them."

Straying from the path a bit, Gary walked up to a bush that had a mess of beautiful orange flowers, and next to it was a giant orange flower that had petals almost as big as Ash was. "I've never seen a flower like this before..." he muttered. As he leaned in further to investigate, the flower petals quivered as if sensing his movement, and then leaned forward. Gary flinched back, not expecting the movement, and he soon saw the flower petals follow him. But attached to the orange petals was a blue Pokémon.

"Vileplume!" it said as it walked out from the bushes and trotted past Gary. Both Gary and Brock sucked in a gulp of air.

"It's a Vileplume!" Brock realized. Ash brought his eyebrows together and opened his Pokédex to scan the Pokémon.

"Vileplume, the Flower Pokémon. Using the largest flower petals in the world, it spreads large clouds of pollen that cause allergic reactions."

"That's weird. It looks a little different from the Vileplume in my Pokédex," Ash commented, looking between the picture and the actual Vileplume in front of him. On the screen, it had a light blue body with red petals that were spotted white. However, before him, the Vileplume's petals were orange with cinnamon-colored circular patterns splattered throughout them.

"Plume, Vileplume!"

"It's time for dinner!" Hope and Charity called at the same time, and they both came running down the path that the group had just walked down, but they were bringing a cart that had many bowls of Pokémon food. Each bowl was a different color and size, Ash noticed.

"Hey, I guess you make the food yourself," Brock said with a small smile.

"Yes, we've created recipes for each type of Pokémon," Professor Ivy answered nonchalantly, tucking her hands in the pockets of her lab coat.

Hearing the cart and the call of the two girls, Pokémon started to pour out of the woodwork. Most of them were Pokémon that Ash had seen at one point or another, but it seemed like they all had a subtle difference much like the Vileplume. A pair of Paras came scuttling out from some bushes, but their exoskeleton was scarlet and the mushrooms on its back were a deep red. Two Nidoran, both male and female, jumped excitedly out of the other side, and their fur was a much deeper tone. A Weepinbell that hopped happily past a tree had a golden sunset complexion, and a Raticate had red clay-colored fur.

"Hey, look! All of these Pokémon look a little bit different than they usually do!" Ash observed excitedly.

"Why is that, Professor?" Brock questioned.

"If you stop and think about it, it's not that surprising, really," she answered, and Brock gave her a questioning look.

"It isn't?"

"It has to do with the tropical weather," Gary deduced, watching as the Pokémon all ate at the food that was put down for them.

Professor Ivy walked toward the cart and knelt down, while at the same time placing down a food and giving it to the pair of happy-looking Nidoran. The blue and pink Pokémon barked excitedly before munching down on the food. "You really are your grandfather's grandson. This island's tropical climate is very different from the one where you live. Naturally, the different environment creates differences in the Pokémon that we've raised here. I'm now collecting data and studying how environment causes variation in all our Pokémon."

"You don't mean you bred and raised all the Pokémon on this island, do you?" Brock asked with surprise coloring his voice.

"Yes," Professor Ivy answered, and turned and smiled widely at him. "I've dedicated myself to them, and I couldn't be happier." Brock stared at Ivy, seeming like his breath was taken away.

"Professor, I'd love to see all the other different kinds of Pokémon you have here," Gary stated, smiling softly in a way that almost surprised Ash.

"Hey! I wonder if there's a tropical island-type Blastoise!" Ash joked.

"Professor Ivy, look," Hope said, looking up in a nearby tree with a frown on her face. The plum-haired professor stood and followed her gaze. Hanging from a tree, a Butterfree with cream-colored wings that had red spots splattered on them chirped, but it didn't exactly have the happy look on its face the other Pokémon had.

"We've got to think of something..." the older woman muttered, and Brock ran up closer to her, with the other two following close behind.

"What's the matter?" the Pokémon Breeder asked.

"Oh... that little Butterfree hasn't eaten a thing in days," she answered sadly, then looked at Hope. "The different nutrients haven't worked?"

"No, and we've tried five combinations," her assistant responded, looking down at the clipboard in her hand before handing it and the Pokémon food that was presumably for the Butterfree to the professor. She took one in each hand, and let her brown eyes glaze over the information with furrowed eyebrows.

"Hmm... The ingredients include all five essential nutrients..." she thought aloud, and Brock peered over her shoulder to look at the clipboard, then bent down slightly and sniffed the Pokémon kibble in her hand. But she was just so lost in thought that she didn't notice. "I just don't understand it." Much to the professor and her two assistants' surprise – and Gary for that matter – Brock took one of the pellets and popped it into his mouth.

He chewed it for a moment, letting the food roll back and forth on his tongue before swallowing it. Then, suddenly, his face lit up. "I've got it!" he cried, and ran off into the forest.

"Brock!" Ash called after him, and began to take a step to go after him, but Brock threw a look over his shoulder.

"I'll be right back!" True to his word, he came back after just a few minutes with a handful of some brown berries. Everyone watched with silent curiosity as he sat down, took a mortar and pestle out of his backpack, and began to grind the inside of the berries into dust.

"What are you doing?" Charity finally asked, scratching her cheek with a single finger.

"I found out that when a Pokémon decides to eat something, the most important thing isn't how nutritious the food is. They care about the taste. Pokémon like food that tastes good to them."

"Well, flavor is a factor..." Ivy murmured in thought. "But how can you determine what flavors each Pokémon likes?"

"Only from experience," Brock replied mindlessly as he finalized crushing the berries. Picking up the ceramic bowl, he took a bit of the dust and scooped it into his hands. "Okay, ready? Let's see what happens..." He sprinkled some of the pink dust onto the food beside him, and took a step back.

Instantly, the Butterfree perked up, and as soon as Brock stepped backward, it flew from the tree, landed on the ground beside the food bowl, and began to devour the food with loud snorting noises. All three of the females in the group gasped loudly, and their eyebrows shot to the sky.

"Wow!" Charity and Hope exclaimed, and Professor Ivy touched her hand to her cheek.

"That's simply amazing..."

"I noticed that Butterfree like sweet things. So if you just add some mashed-up berries to their food, they'll eat it up every time," Brock elaborated.

"I'm embarrassed to call myself a Pokémon researcher when you're the one who seems a lot more about Pokémon feeding habits," Ivy said, moving her hand to the top of her head.

"Brock knows tons of stuff about Pokémon, Professor," Ash complimented with a bright grin. "He's gonna be the world's greatest Breeder!"

"Ah, a Breeder." Suddenly, Hope and Charity flanked Brock on either side and jumped up and down excitedly.

"Will you teach us all about the different flavors the Pokémon like in their food?!" Hope asked with glee.

"Please, Brock, will you, please?!" her sister begged, completed by folding her fingers together.

The third sister, Faith, appeared down the path and approached the group. "Hey, come on, you guys. We have to decide who gets stuck cooking dinner tonight."

Once again, Brock's face perked in their direction. "Huh? Cooking?"

o 0 o

The sun was just starting to go down, so Professor Ivy invited them to stay for dinner, and a place to sleep until their departure the next morning. The group happily agreed, as trying to find a blimp ride home in the dark wouldn't be thrilling.

The second floor of the lab was the living quarters of the four women who resided at the lab. And while the first floor was pristine and clean as a whistle, the second floor was... the exact opposite. In order to get into the door, it had to be shoved open, as there was too much stuff in front of it. The sink and counter-tops were filled to the brim with dirty dishes, pots, pans, and leftover food, the dining room table had bags upon bags of tied-up garbage and laundry bags, and what didn't have that on its surface had more dirty dishes. Empty bottles and cups littered the floor, as well as cardboard boxes filled with rolled up papers or paperwork that wasn't organized in any way.

"Uh... does everyone have their shots?" Gary asked nervously as they stood in the only part of the house that didn't have anything on it – a small path that led from one end of the room to the other.

"Oh, we just got so wrapped up in our Pokémon research that we stopped cleaning the house," Professor Ivy admitted bashfully. "And started calling it..."

"Our little dump!" the three triplets all chimed at the same time.

"Dumps are a lot cleaner!" Ash said cautiously, but then began to hear Brock groaning beside him. When he turned to look at the Pokémon Breeder, the older boy was quivering as though frightful. "Hey, Brock-" he began, but then Brock's head whipped up and he began to yell.

"Floors to be swept! Clothes to be washed! Cooking, mopping, polishing, cleaning!" In one swift movement, he grabbed an apron out of his backpack and a sponge with the other hand, as well as a vacuum from the side of the house. "This is just like home! Leave it to Super-Brock!"

Working like a maniac, everyone stood and watched in awe as the Pokémon Breeder bounced around all over the place. Dishes were washed, floors were vacuumed, food was beginning to be chopped and cooked, and furniture was being polished all in a matter of minutes. He dashed from one point to the next, not wasting any steps at all and timing each one perfectly to be able to jump to the next step. In no time at all, you could start to see the floors, and soon after, the kitchen sink, then the dining room table. It was absolutely incredible.

"Brock is a great cleaner!" Ivy smiled.

"Polisher..."

"Vacuumer..."

"Duster..."

"Food certainly smells good," Gary murmured.

"And he works for free!" Ash concluded with a nervous chuckle.

The group all watched Brock run back and forth tirelessly for the next half an hour. It was like watching an entertaining TV show, or a race of sorts – they just couldn't take their eyes off him. And then, no longer than a half an hour later, Brock was done, and only sweating a little bit. All of the dishes were cleaned, the counter tops were polished and washed. All of the laundry had been put in the washer, and underneath all the junk, there was revealed to be a living room! Finally, on the dining room table, a wonderful feast of all sorts of food was spread out across the newly-ironed white tablecloth, where they were all currently sitting.

"Let's thank Brock!" Professor Ivy said excitedly, holding a fork and knife in hand and a napkin tucked into the front of her salmon blouse.

"Later; let's eat!" the three assistants cried at the same time, and all four of them began to devour the food in front of them. It was very reminiscent of the Butterfree they encountered in the forest that hadn't eaten for days, but unlike the Bug-type Pokémon, they were much louder when it came to their chewing.

On the other side of the table, Ash and Gary exchanged glances. While they too were also eating the spread, they were thrown off at how loud the girls were being. "The Pokémon eat quieter than they do..." the black-haired Trainer whispered to his childhood rival. But while the two Pallet Town Trainers observed the scene with contempt, Brock watched over the four with his chin resting on a curled finger, and a complacent smile resting on his face.

"Just like... my family..."

o 0 o

Exhaustion had taken over Ash and Gary now that their stomachs were full of food. From the blimp crash to meeting Professor Ivy, it had been quite a long day. Barely able to keep their eyes open, Professor Ivy showed them to a guest bedroom with a pair of beds inside. Brock opted to sleep on the couch in the living room, but told them he wasn't going to go to bed until he cleaned up from dinner. So the pair of Pallet Town Trainers said their goodnights to everyone, and as soon as their heads hit the pillows, they were drawn into darkness and fell into steady unconsciousness.

But because they were sleeping, they didn't know how much time had passed before the light came on, and Brock's panic-filled voice pulled them out of sleep. "Guys! Guys! Wake up!"

Ash and Gary quickly jolted out of sleep on the opposite sides of the room. From tossing and turning for most of the night, their hair – which was usually messy to begin with – was even more messy than normal. "What's going on, Brock?!" Ash asked, anxiety running through his veins and making his heart pound against his chest. Had Team Rocket followed them here and taken their Pokémon?!

"Professor Ivy is being treated by Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center! She breathed in a Vileplume's pollen and is very sick!" Brock replied hurriedly, and rushed out of the room after gathering a few things from outside, leaving Ash and Gary sitting in silence as they sat up in their beds. They blinked the sleep out of their eyes before swinging their legs over and hurrying out of the guest bedroom and after Brock.

The sky was still pitch black and dotted with twinkling skies, and though they weren't sure what time it was, the whole island seemed to be asleep. Running with Brock in the lead, they made their way to the Pokémon Center that they had been in earlier that day. It wasn't very big, but Brock seemed to have been here earlier in that night. Taking them back, he brought them to the emergency room where two stretchers were laid out in the middle.

In one bed lay Professor Ivy, and she was pale as could be. Beside her lay a Raticate. It lay on its stomach and was sleeping, though its breathing was a bit ragged. Hope, Charity, and Faith were off to the side, their fingers interlocked together in worry. "Professor-" Ash began, but Nurse Joy shushed him when they entered, and a pair of Chansey went to work on each of the patients with a first aid kit.

They weren't allowed to talk, and so the three sat on the other side of the room. Brock seemed extremely worried – just as much as the professor's three assistants – but now that the adrenaline was wearing off from the panicked awakening they had and realizing that all the action had happened while they were sleeping, Ash and Gary stood with their clothes and hair ruffled, and fatigue pulling their eyelids down.

"I'm glad they came and woke us up..." Ash muttered sarcastically, scratching his chest underneath the black shirt he wore. In all the haste, he never put on his hat or jacket, which was still having the soup stains washed out of it at the lab.

"Yeah, good thing we didn't sleep through this..." Gary moaned, staring into space. The Chansey had finished their procedure, and now Nurse Joy was covering both her and the Raticate that had also been affected by Vileplume's spores with blankets.

"Professor Ivy, you should know how dangerous it is to jump out in front of Vileplume when they're spraying their pollen like that," the pink-haired nurse scolded lightly.

Professor Ivy ignored her, only keeping her heavy-lidded eyes on the brown Raticate and painfully propped herself up on her elbow. But doing so seemed to use all of her strength. "How is the Raticate?" she asked. The Pokémon nurse's face lightened immediately, and she smiled back at the Pokémon professor.

"Because you got it away from the pollen so fast, it'll be just fine," she assured her. The words soothed Ivy immediately, and she fell onto her back and threw the back of her hand over her forehead. The relief seemed to visibly wash over her body, and Ash realized just how much she cared about Pokémon.

"Oh, good..."

Her three assistants, seeing this change over her as well, went running up to her bedside. "We were so worried about you!"

"I didn't mean to scare you girls."

"Please, don't do something like that again."

"Oh, I won't."

"That's what you said last time."

"I'll try to mean it this time."

o 0 o

By the time that everyone had gotten back from the Pokémon Center, and Professor Ivy and the wild Raticate made a full recovery, the sun was starting to rise, giving way to a new day. Since sleep wasn't an option any longer, Ash and Gary packed up their belongings and readied themselves to begin their journey back to Pallet Town with the GS Ball safely tucked away in Gary's backpack.

"Well, we gotta go, Professor!" Ash said cheerily, his face as bright as the sun despite only having gotten just a few hours of sleep.

"My grandfather is really eager to study that GS Ball," Gary told her.

"Well, come and visit any time," Professor Ivy stated.

They were standing in the polished lobby of the lab, but while the three of them stood there, there was one figure that was missing. "Hey, where's Brock?" Gary questioned.

"I haven't seen him, Gary," Ash realized aloud. Last he tknew, Brock was supposed to be sleeping in the living room on the couch, but now that he thought about it, him and Gary were too busy getting their things together that he didn't notice that the Pokémon Breeder wasn't even in the living quarters.

The doors behind them opened as if on cue, and the floor beneath them began to shake. A happy-go-lucky roar filled their eardrums, and Brock's Onix came barreling by with some long planks sticking out of its mouth. The three watched as Onix continued on its way, and Ash blinked in surprise. "Onix?"

"Let's move it, guys!" Brock said, hurrying outside. Both him and Geodude were carrying more wooden planks over their shoulders, and he was still wearing his pink apron from the night before. It seemed like he hadn't even slept a wink, still burrowing into that well of energy that burst in him the night before.

Close behind was his Psyduck. The Water Pokémon was carrying a paint bucket with great strain, and it fell over with a mighty heave, and the paint can – though luckily sealed – rolled across the polished green linoleum. Psyduck watched it with blank beady eyes before mimicking it and rolling after it.

"Brock, you're gonna make us late," Gary called after the former Gym Leader, but the brown-haired older teen didn't seem to hear him.

"What's he doing?" Ash asked. Noticing that him and his Pokémon were making their way onto the roof, Ash, Gary, and Professor Ivy stepped out on the front terrace, where her three assistants were sitting and watching in amazement. It was easy to find Brock, as they just had to follow the noise of the hammering on the roof. He had taken the wooden planks up to the roof of the lab and seemed to be... repairing Professor Ivy's roof.

"It seems... it seems Brock has decided to stay with us!" Professor Ivy noticed with her hands resting on her hips and a small smile resting on her face. Both Pallet Town Trainers gasped, but Ash was the loudest of the two.

Brock twisted his head around and curled his index finger and thumb back at them. "Okay! That roof shouldn't leak anymore, now."

"That's wonderful, Brock!" Professor Ivy responded.

"He's great!" Hope complimented happily, and the four girls all smiled amongst one another.

"It's like we were adrift at sea until Brock came along," Faith added.

"That's true."

Ash watched the four girls and blinked in disbelief, and then looked back up at his friend on the roof. "Hey, Brock!" he yelled up with his hands curled around his mouth. "Are you really staying here?"

A warm salt-filled breeze rushed by, and Brock posed with his chin resting between his fingers. "This ship needs a captain..." His Zubat sailed by, giving a chitter and riding the wind upward. Ash once again blinked, not sure what he meant, but the Pokémon Breeder climbed down a ladder to reach them so he didn't have to yell. "If I stay here, I'll get to learn more and more about Pokémon every day." The Butterfree from the day before seemed to have taken a liking to Brock, as it fluttered out from a tree, and sensing its arrival, Brock held out his arm for the Bug and Flying Pokémon to land on it. The Butterfree chirped happily, and the Pokémon Breeder smiled at it and scratched its chin. "And I think these guys may need me a lot more than you guys do."

While Ash's eyebrows fell sadly atop his forehead, he couldn't help but smile at what he saw. Brock really did seem to be truly happy here. Brock had been with him from the beginning of his journey, so he couldn't help but be sad, but he swallowed this and let out a breath of air before opening his eyes at Brock. "Well then, I guess... this is... good-bye." Ash smiled and held his hand out to his friend. The Pokémon Breeder clasped his hand with his own, and they gripped their fingers together tightly.

"Friends to the end; right Ash?"

"Right." And with nothing left to say, Ash and Gary turned to leave the lab, but not without one last wave to Professor Ivy, her assistants, and most of all, Brock.

"Bye, Brock!" Gary called.

"Thank you, guys! And just make sure you don't forget me, will 'ya?!" Brock yelled with his arm raised high over his head. Butterfree fluttered away, and he undid his apron and replaced it with his vest. On either side of his legs, Vulpix and Psyduck both called out to them.

"Vul!"

"Psyduck!"

"Geodude!" Geodude called, rising high in the air and flexing its arms. And just behind it, Onix threw its head back and gave a mournful roar while Zubat fluttered around it.

"Bye, Brock-o!" Ash shouted as they began to walk away and back toward the airport that they arrived and crash landed on.

"And just when I was starting to become accustomed to him," Gary murmured with the smallest hint of a smile on his face.

"Yeah, Brock's a good guy," the black-haired Trainer muttered thoughtfully. It was definitely going to be very strange not having his friend around. "I wish he was coming back with us."

"Hey, now that you mention it, how are we gonna get back?" Gary asked.

"No problem! I have our blimp tickets right here!" Ash fished through his pocket and produced the three tickets that he had won back in the Kanto region. Of course, now they would only need two.

"But we can't go back on that blimp."

"Yeah..." Ash sighed. "The food was bad and they didn't show a movie." Now it was Gary's turn to let out a sigh, this time of annoyance, and the topic was dropped.

Back at the airport, the two explained the situation to one of the workers. The pilot apologized for the terrible ordeal that they went through, and promised that it wouldn't happen again. Since they had round-trip tickets, he would be more than happy to take them back to Commerce City by blimp.

Still, they couldn't help but check if the pilot had either blue or red hair under his cap. Thankfully, he did not.


Ash:

Party:

Blastoise (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: Skull Bash, Dig, Hydro Pump, Withdraw

Pidgeotto (Poké Ball) (f)

Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Double-Edge

Bulbasaur (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Leech Seed

Charmeleon (Poké Ball)

Moves: Flamethrower, Fire Spin, Skull Bash, Slash

Primeape (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick, Scratch, Seismic Toss

At Professor Oak's Lab:

Tauros (Safari Ball) x2 (m)

Moves: Fissure, Horn Attack, Take Down

Kingler (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: Water Gun, Bubble, Crabhammer, Hyper Beam

Muk (Poké Ball)

Moves: Poison Gas, Sludge Bomb

Badges:

Boulder Badge

Cascade Badge

Thunder Badge

Marsh Badge

Rainbow Badge

Soul Badge

Volcano Badge

Earth Badge

Indigo League Rank: Top 4

Gary:

Party:

Venusaur (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Mega Drain

Arcanine (Poké Ball)

Moves: Take Down, Fire Spin, Fire Blast, Flamethrower

Nidoqueen (Poké Ball) (f)

Moves: Strength, Hyper Beam, Mega Punch, Double Kick

Nidoking (Poké Ball) (m)

Moves: Horn Attack, Earthquake, Tackle

Fearow (Poké Ball)

Moves:

At Professor Oak's Lab:

200 Pokémon

Badges:

Boulder Badge

Cascade Badge

Rainbow Badge

Seven unknown Badges

Indigo League Rank: Winner