To say that Professor Samuel Oak was offended that his On-Field trainer and researcher Asher Farron Ketchum didn't tell him about his new Pokemon and meeting with the champion – let alone the fact he was nearly kidnapped by a criminal organization – would be an understatement.

"Ash! I only learned of this from Tracey after he fetched lunch from Delia's restaurant!", complained the professor over the phone. "As one of my OFTR's, you need to communicate more with me. Especially if you develop new powers! Or get nearly kidnapped! Maybe I should give you tasks nearby?"

"Understood, professor.", replied Ash while watching Rowlet and Dreepy racing (it was clear Dreepy was winning, but Rowlet won't accept it) and Phantump and Snorunt just sparring a bit. "Now, how is Gary doing?"
"Let's just say, the only reason why he bothered with a gym the last two weeks ago was to impress girls.", replied Samuel, "Looks like his red cabrio is getting old for the ladies."
"And Yellow and Green?", asked Ash, "I know they aren't OFTR's, but I know you have access to their trainer profiles."
"Unlike you and Gary, they already evolved their starters.", said Oak, "On the other hand, unlike you two, they only have caught one Pokemon each, while you have – not counting Phantump – two and Gary has three. Well, one is an egg, but still."

"Any news on Phantump's trainer?"

"We figured out who it is, but he vanished.", said Oak, "To be fair, I have limited access to missing people's cases. Tracey and I have a bet running if he is a Mindless or not-"

"Professor!", said Ash loudly. "You can't bet on stuff like this!"
"It was Tracey's idea!"

Said assistant chimed in, in the background and said, "No! I just said you can't assume that every missing person turns up as a Mindless! Now stop bothering Asher!"

"You wanted to challenge the gym, right?"

"Yes. See ya, prof."

Ash made his way to the gym. Phantump volunteered again to battle. "My trainer would want me not to lazy around and that I thank you in a way for taking care of me.", said Phantump when asked about it, "And I am bored doing nothing."

Walking into the building, Asher was instantly hit by the smell of pool chlorine. It reminded him of public indoor pools. He walked into the foyer – decked out with photos of shiny Pokemon – were the information stand was. On the left was the gym area, on the right a pool for water performances. The sensational sisters of Cerulean are not just gym leaders, they are performers, albeit some people have been complaining they neglected their gym leader duties in favor of the performances for a while now.

Walking into the gym area, he found the sisters arguing. With Misty. Right, she was one of the sisters. The four argued quite loudly, loud enough for Ash to hear what they argue about. The tallest, purple haired sister said to Misty, "You can't just wait here for some guy who may not turn up."

"But Violet!"

The orange haired sister pointed to Ash, "Is that the guy you told us about? He has white hair."

The other three turned to Ash. Misty answered, "Yes, this is him!"

Ash got red, embarrassed that Misty apparently waited for him. "Mm, what is going on?"

"I wanted to thank you for helping me out.", explained Misty. "So I waited here. I thought you would at some point go here as you are a trainer. Albeit you could have opted for the minor gyms. Which I doubted, considering you're an On-Field Trainer and Researcher."

Violet then came closer, "What my sister said, thank you for helping her. I assume you're here for a battle?"

Ash nod and Misty said, "I'll fight him!"

"And I'll act as the referee. Now kid, what's your name, where do you come from and how many badges do you have?", said Violet, adding a questionnaire for Ash.

"My name is Asher Farron Ketchum, I'm from Pallet Town and I have one badge, the Boulder Badge."

"Gold, silver or bronze?", asked the orange haired sister. "Not that it is important, I am just collecting statistics for a report."

"Gold."

"Nice. Well, I hope you have swim wear, get changed, kid.", said Daisy.

When he was changed into swim shorts, he walked to the battle field. Their battle field was a pool, floaters being what signals the borders. Violet sat on a rescue swimmer's tower, the perfect spot to overview everything. Her sisters Daisy and Lily were watching from spectator's benches.

"This battle is between the co-gym leader of Cerulean City, Misty Waterflower and the challenger Asher Farron Ketchum from Pallet down. The battle follows the official league rules for solo format and will be a three v three battle.", said Violet. Ash was surprised, shouldn't it be a two v two? Looks like there was a reason for why Daisy asked about his badge. "Mega evolution and similar are not allowed, the same goes for potions, substitutions and similar. Trainers, call out your first Pokemon, go!"

Misty called out a small, round Pokemon, white and orange in color, a Goldeen, while Ash opted for Rowlet. Rowlet didn't loose any time and flew to Goldeen, grabbing it with her talons and dragging the fish out of the water. She used Leafage on Goldeen – in the talons, Goldeen couldn't exactly dodge – before dropping her into the pool. Ash shook his head slightly. Due to their rivalry, Rowlet copied Phantump's own initiative, at least she tries to. She is still experimenting what to do. Hitting the water, Goldeen fainted.

Misty recalled Goldeen and commented, "Your Rowlet is fiery."

"Not really, she just has a rivalry with a lost Pokemon I care for. It is admittedly somewhat annoying at times." - Rowlet hooted offended. - "But looks like her idea worked, despite her size." Rowlet then chirped at the praise, before hooting again when she realized she was called small. She circled over the pool, flying close to Violet.

"Well, she has a lot of character for such a small Pokemon.", said Misty. Rowlet hooted again and landed on Violet's chair, all puffed up.

"But she is still cute.", commented Violet, petting Rowlet. "From where is Rowlet?"

"She's from Alola, one of the Alola starters.", explained Ash.

"As an OFTR, did you request her directly?", asked Violet.

"Mm, not really. Professor Oak knew for a long time that I'm into ghost types, so he requested from the other regional professors if one has a ghost type to spare. Apparently he and mom were set on me becoming an OFTR. Mom's a bit worried about me, she nearly didn't allow me to become a trainer if it wasn't for the OFTR spot.", told them Asher, "Professor Oak told me the alolan Professor was eager to send her over. Something about shinies causing a lot of arguing between trainers, which he wanted to avoid."

"So, she is a shiny?", asked Violet. "Could I take a picture of her real quick?"

"Sure.", answered Ash before Violet made a photo of Rowlet with her phone.

Misty told him, "You probably saw the photos in the entrance area? Violet and Lily collect photos of Shinies that step into the gym."

"Good! Continue you two!", said Violet.

Rowlet flew into the air, waiting for a command. Misty called out her Staryu. Rowlet once again goes for the attack, when Ash sees her smirking. "Rowlet, stop!"

"Ice Beam!"

Staryu's center glowed and a beam came from it, hitting Rowlet into the face. With one hit, Rowlet was out like a light. Ash sighed and recalled her, he needs to get her temper under control. "Looks like I have to use Phantump already.", he muttered. "Rowlet won't be happy." He pressed the button on the Pokeball he held, only for Dreepy to materialize. Ash then facepalmed. "By Arceus, wrong Pokemon. Oh well, Dreepy, Astonish!" While Dreepy has moves useful against a psychic type, Ash didn't think the dragon was ready just yet.

"Light Screen!", yelled Misty to her Staryu. Said Light Screen appeared around Staryu as it was floating on the surface of the water. Dreepy just flew though the a screen and gave Staryu a scare with Astonish, before – to Asher's surprise – followed up with Bite when the Staryu was still shocked by the Astonish. Staryu fainted and Dreepy felt a sense of pride for – metaphorically – give someone a heart attack. Well, the dex entries for Dreepy's say they are little shits.

Ash felt good seeing just how useful Dreepy's ability is. He really hopes Lance lets him keep Dreepy. Misty then called out her Starmie. Ash was a bit surprised she has two Pokemon of the same evolution line. He knows for a fact that Staryu's don't have a split evolution. Similar to Rowlet, Dreepy was also knocked out in one go – Dazzling Gleam – a fairy type move. To be fair... Ash didn't want to use Dreepy to begin with as he was so small and untrained. In other words, Ash was not surprised Dreepy was taken out by one hit. Hard to say, but it is how it is. That Dreepy beat Staryu was already impressive enough for Asher.

Now Ash called out Phantump. Realizing he thinks of the Kalosan ghost as his ace, he decided he should catch more, even if it is just filler until he finds something. Maybe he should – like Giovanni does – just focus on the type opposed to straight up specialization he intended to. Filling out the ranks with other Pokemon, not ghost types but filling the ranks. Maybe a Ninetails?

Calling out Phantump, Ash wondered what he would do. There is no earth to use Dig. He is sure his trainer came up with something in case of anything but earth being the battle field. And he was right, Phantump turned invisible. Ash could see, after dipping into his powers, that Phantump was closing in on the Starmie, before smacking it with Shadow Claw, followed by Magical Leaf. Starmie tried to attack him, but Phantump just turned invisible again, dodging the attacks that way. Starmie may have no readable facial features, but Ash could sense it was annoyed by Phantump's antics. So was Misty, while Lily found it funny. "That ghost is such a little troll!", she commented.

After Starmie was drained from shooting attacks into nothing, Phantump finished it, earning the win for Ash. He now really thought, "I am so screwed when I find his trainer." He prays to Arceus that Dreepy should get strong. "If I get to keep him. Am I a bad trainer?" Ash was ripped out of his thoughts, when Violet announced him as the winner. Violet climbed off the tower and gave his second golden batch.

"Good job, kid! You won despite grabbing the wrong Pokemon. Albeit, he had good moves, why did you worry?", said Violet, adding a question.

"Dreepy is a pseudo-legendary. While they can become power houses, they start out super weak. I pretty much just got him, so I wasn't sure what he could do.", explained Asher to her.

Lily then chimed in and said, "Misty? Didn't you want to give something to him as a thanks?"

"Oh right!", replied her sister. She ran off and shouted, "Asher! Wait here!"

While Misty was fetching whatever she wanted to give to Ash, her sister Violet asked Ash, "Ash, how do you plan on becoming a ghost specialist considering how, well, rare this type is here on Kanto?"

"I don't think I will straight up specialize. I think I will just focus on the type like Giovanni Sakaki does. I'll fill out the ranks with thematic matching Pokemon.", answered Ash, "I am considering to catch a Vulpix, I would like to add a fire type."

"Mm, I suppose that is an option.", said Lily, "What about a water type? A core of water, fire and grass?"

"I... never considered to build a core.", admitted Ash, "But that is a great idea, Lily!"

Misty returned and gave Ash a Pokeball, a blue ball with black markings – a Net Ball – standard for water specialists and bug catchers (albeit the later tends to be too broke to use them). Ash let it out and saw a Pokemon – a rather big head with flat tendrils coming from it, as if they were frills – in a beautiful reddish pink color.

"I spend a week catching this little lady at a stream known for foreign water types migrating there. I was lucky to find this Unovan water type.", explained Misty, "After I caught her, I waited here for you – considering most OFTR's don't bother with minor gyms. I wanted to thank you for saving me and fixing my bicycle. And I wanted to apologize being scared of your powers, that probably offended you."
"Not really, but thank you as well, Misty.", answered Ash. He synced her ball with his dex. "She is so pretty."
"Yes... I was kinda considering to keep her for myself, but I didn't want to waste any more time.", admitted Misty.

Daisy came closer to Ash and looked at his badges. "Oh, he's sponsored by our colleague Giovanni! How cool."

"Mm, I am more impressed that he's an OFTR.", chimed Lily in.

After a while, he left the gym and introduced the Frillish to the team – after healing Rowlet and Dreepy of course – like he expected, Rowlet was pissed at Phantump winning for the team again.

"Rowlet! Instead of throwing a tantrum, you could train and be better that Phantump!", scolded her Ash, "Not to mention, he won't stay forever with us. I came to the realization that I can't lean on Phantump so much, so Rowlet, Dreepy, you two's training will become more intense. Rowlet, you want to compete with Phantump and Dreepy, you're a pseudo-legendary, you're simply more work. Now, let's see what Misty gave me."
He scanned the Unovan Pokemon and the dex spoke, "Frillish, the Floating Pokemon. A ghost and water type native to Unova. If its veil-like arms stun and wrap a foe, that foe will be dragged miles below the surface, never to return. Females have slightly longer stingers. Legend has it that the residents of a sunken ancient city changed into these Pokémon. This specimen is shiny, has the ability of Cursed Body and knows the moves Absorb, Water Gun, Poison String and Night Shade. Should I clarify something?"

"What is Cursed Body?"

"If hit by a move, the used move of the opponent may be disabled and can't be used for a while." And moves like this is why he was used for Rowlet, but she has Long Reach, so once again he is reminded how much of an idiot he was or still is. "Anything I should clarify?"

"No.", he answered and closed the dex. "Woah. Frillish, I think you'll do well in the team. You need to know, I can understand ghost types, so feel free to just speak to me."

"Really? That's so wicked!", she said. "Now, what now? Do you have food?"
"We'll all go eating, the rest of the day we just relax. Tomorrow, we continue to Vermilion City."

After fetching something to eat, Ash and his team just relaxed in a park in Cerulean. It was nice t just relax, especially after they got a second – golden – badge. But that peace didn't last forever as Professor Oak called him.

"Professor?"

"Ash! How are you doing?"
"Just relaxing. I won my second badge, gold again.", said Ash. "And I got a new Pokemon!" He told the professor of his reunion with Misty Waterflower and her gift.

"Wow! Gary will be so jealous when he discovers you have two shinies.", said Professor Oak. "But that is not why I called. I have an On-Field Trainer and Researcher job for you. I want that you go to the school Pokemon Tech and introduce the students to On-Field Trainers and Researchers as well as to ghost types. When I told their teacher about you, she was intrigued and asked if we could add a little presentation on ghost types. I'll be there as well."

"Sure, where is it?"

Ash decided to take a bus there, instead of walking. The school was in the outskirts of Cerulean City. When he approached the school, the teacher Oak mentioned greeted him over-excitingly.

"I am so glad you're here, Mr. Ketchum. You see, my students... they have a wrong impression of the world and what it means to be a trainer, they are quite sheltered.", she explained. Seeing that this school was probably more expensive than the whole of Pallet Town, Asher got a feeling that'll be the case. "They are rather unaware... not unaware, they think it is impossible for them to have anything bad happening to them. In addition to that, they think just because they are good at their battle simulators, they just can steamroll the League."

"Oh really?"
"Yes. When a student graduates from this school, they can partake without getting any badges. The problem is, they have no actual experience. I want that you talk about your experiences.", she said, "Have you ever faced a Mindless?"
"Yes, at my exam. Honestly, it was worse when I got nearly kidnapped by Team Rocket.", he told her.

"Another danger they don't think would happen to them.", she commented. "I hope you won't mind talking about it?"
"Not really. Now, the professor told me you want me to talk about ghost types?", he asked the teacher.

"Yes! You see, due to these damned simulators, they disregard some types. Ghosts because they are so rare in Kanto and because dark types have similar weaknesses and strengths. They don't see the point in one type if the other is so similar, but they aren't! Pokemon aren't so black and white and predictable like the simulators make it look like!", ranted the teacher. "And your Pokemon are foreign, I simply want that you introduce foreign Pokemon to them."

Ash felt a pattern emerging, "Let me guess, Mrs..." "Mrs. Zanophie." "Mrs. Zanophie, because of these simulators they don't consider the existence of foreign and exotic Pokemon?"

"They don't consider global migration or Pokemon simply crossing borders as this isn't programmed into the simulators.", said Mrs. Zanophie. "They only get a wake up call after graduating and being swept in the league, so I asked for an OFTR for this to happen earlier."

"Understood."

Started: 16th September 2023

Edited: 29th July 2024

Finished: 17th September

Uploaded: 29th October 2024