Chapter 18: The Castellia Fishing Competition

"Human Speech"

"Pokemon Speech"

We joined our heroes as they arrived in Castellia City, the site of Ash's next gym battle.

"Man, I hope that Burgh came back from Pinnwheel Forest from what he was painting," Ash said to Misty and Brock while looking for the gym.

"Given that we were there for a long time, I'm sure he has to return by now," Brock said to Ash, knowing that Ash was looking forward to battling Burgh since the two had made a promise since Ash was younger. The group arrived at where the gym was, only to see a note on the gym door saying.

"To any challengers who are looking for a gym battle. I apologize, but I'm in Pinnwheel Forest painting and looking after the bug Pokemon there. I will be back in a month or a couple of weeks. Please, and thank you for understanding. Gym leader Burgh," The note said as Ash sighed at this.

"Seems like he'll be back at the end of the week, as it's been almost a month since we last saw him," Ash said to Misty and Brock. "Let's explore the city as we only have a few days left, and who knows, we might find something to do?" Ash suggested to Misty and Brock, who nodded at this.

Ash wanted to visit the art museum first, so they arrived and went inside.

"Wow, this place is amazing, and all of these were painted by Burgh," Misty was amazed by this. Ash looked around and found the painting he admired as a kid.

"This must be the painting Burgh mentioned when you were a kid, Ash?" Pikachu asked Ash, who nodded as Pikachu spotted a familiar Butterfree painting. "Ash, look, there is the painting that Burgh told us that we would find," Pikachu pointed to Ash, who turned to it and saw his Butterfree along with its mate and a bunch of Catterpie both regular and shiny and a Metapod as well.

"Wow, that's your Butterfree and his family, alright? They are even as beautiful as we imagined, Ash," Misty told Ash. They nodded at this with a tear in his eye. Snivy was amazed by this as she met one of Ash's first Pokemon via a painting and could tell Ash raised him right. Ash recognized the forest the painting was about. "It's a forest outside a city with a gym but not near where my relatives live as they live in the biggest city in Kalos," Ash said, trying to take things off his mind, which Snivy noticed.

"Come to one, Ash. I think we should still have more of a city to explore and I know this was why you came here. And I do see you raised him, right?" Snivy said to Ash after wiping a tear off Ash's face with her vine.

"Yeah, I hope I'll see him again one day, but until then, let's head off," Ash agreed with Snivy. Misty and Brock nodded at this as they headed outside and noticed a massive crowd lined up in what looked to be fishing gear. "Wait, is that now?" Ash said as he ran towards the group and noticed that it was indeed a fishing competition happening.

"I knew it was the city's annual fishing competition today. I was wondering if we would make it?" Ash said out loud as Misty and Brock looked excited at this. Well, more Misty, that is.

"Your right, Ash. Is it the city's annual Competition today?" A familiar voice called out. It was Cillian who was walking over to the group. "It's been a long time, you three," Cillian said.

"Cillian, what are you doing here? I thought you were at the gym?" Ash asked Cillian, who shook his head.

"You see, I'm a fishing Conessisour, not just a Pokemon one, and I always take part in this every year," Cillian told Ash while holding his fishing pole out.

"Is there anything you aren't a specialist on, Cillian?" Misty said unenthusiastically while having a sweatdrop. Cillian noticed this and sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Misty. At the same time, I do have four more ones. Most of them are probably what you aren't interested in, so don't worry about it," Cillian said in a sympathetic voice.

"Are there more trainers that would like to participate in this fishing competition before we start the competition," The announcer and host of the Competition asked?

"Might take part in this. You guys, as contestants regardless, can keep whatever Pokemon they catch, and the prize this year is a choice of either a new fishing pole or a Dragon scale, depending on what the winner's interest," Cillian told the group. Misty was interested in the Dragon's scale over the fishing pole.

Ash and his friends went to register, and Brock being Brock, of course, tried to smooth talk his way to one of the ladies at the reception desk of the Competition, only to be turned down again. While Ash wasn't interested in a new water type at the time wanted to help Misty take part in this. The Competition was ready to start.

"The rules of this Competition are that you are allowed to fish anywhere in the city that has water in it but only in the city that is nowhere else. No ruining other trainers' chances of catching Pokemon and no battles unless provoked or against the water Pokemon itself. You have until the day is over to bring what you believe is the best, and we'll evaluate it. The rarer, the better, so let the Competition begin," The announcer said.

Meanwhile, a familiar trio was on their mission to get the city's water Pokemon.

"You know that it'll be easier if Emolga would just help out with this," James said as Emolga was in a nearby tree nearby.

"Sorry, it's mine and Meowth's day off, James. You promised me after my mission about claiming Volcarona, and you already have someone else doing your work for this mission. I don't want to get my paws wet or involved with his doings on this mission commander or not," Emolga said while yawning at this. Emolga may have trained under this Pokemon, but she wanted to avoid going on a mission with him which made James unhappy.

"Emolga's right, James. She did an excellent job on her mission, and we do need to give them a break ever so often," Jessie told James, who sighed at this."But maybe you can scope out the Competition and point to your commander about what kind of Pokemon are there," Jessie asked Emolga, who laughed at this.

"Break every so often, hah, so no. Like the commander, I'm a free agent for the boss. Sorry, but I won't be doing anything today per his orders. He gave me the day off, so don't let the boss down," Emolga said with a snicker before gliding off, much to the dismay of Jessie and James.

"So how long until we can make her do what we want, James? That little Emolga is just as bad as me," Jessie said to James.

"Later on, Jessie, and remember, you were the one who made her like you in her reprogramming to make her more sadistic and more ruthless. She's your responsibility, not just ours," James said to Jessie, who sighed at this and nodded.

"Still, she just flat-out disobeyed our requests to help find more Pokemon. Yes, Buizel is the one who is in charge, and it is her day off, but," Jessie was interrupted by Buizel.

"Let her have her time off, Jessie. She isn't disobeying anything," Buizel jumped from the river nearby.

"Anything to report, Buizel?' Jessie asked, as he was the one who was under their command today. Buizel crossed his arms and humphed.

"Nothing of interest aside from some Bassculin and a few Magikarp, but I did find something of interest," Buizel told the group what he found.

"Good; until then, why don't you sabotage the competition so they don't try to ruin our operation," Jessie explained to Buizel, who nodded and smirked.

'I was planning on it, and causing problems is my specialty,' Buizel dove into the river.

Meanwhile, Misty, Ash, and Cillian went to another part of the city to fish.

"Ah, that must be the Snivy that I've heard about from Lenora," Cillian said while noticing Snivy.

"I guess many of the gym leaders heard about what happened to Snivy here in Unova, huh?" Ash said to Cillian.

"Yeah, but I respect her wishes, and we were asked to keep it under wraps as what happened aside from the ones who saw the battle only knows. Nice to meet you, Ms. Snivy," Cillian said while bowing, much to Snivy's annoyance.

"Tell him that if he says that again I won't hesitate to slap him with a Vine Whip. Only Pikachu is allowed to say that, and of course, you, Ash, if you want to," Snivy complains to Ash, preparing Vine whip. Ash sighed and told Cillian this without sounding threatening as Cillian backed off and nodded at this.

"Sorry about that, Snivy, but let's go and cover different parts of the river and meet up later," Cillian said before hurrying off.

"You didn't have to threaten him like that, Snivy. He was being nice and making you happy after what happened," Misty told Snivy.

"I understand, but I can see why he annoys you, Misty. I remember him that much during my days before joining you, Ash. He was just as annoying then," Snivy said with a sigh, to which Ash translated for Misty.

"No argument there, Snivy, but maybe you should apologize to him the next time we see him," Misty told Snivy, who nodded at this. She admits that she took it a bit too far.

"Changing the subject, you seem interested in the Dragons Scale Misty when Cillian mentioned it? I guess you aren't interested in the new Fishing pole, huh?" Ash asked Misty, who smiled at this.

"Because the Dragons scale is an item that will allow my Seadra to evolve into a Kingdra, and he would be much stronger on my team," Misty explains as Ash realizes something.

"I see Horsea evolved while you were gone from him, or was it during your leave with the team? If so, how many of your Pokemon evolved during that time?" Ash asked.

"When I started to be a gym leader full time is when Horsea evolved. As for the rest of my team, Psyduck evolved, so you'll see him later. He no longer wants to go out of his ball. And I brought Gyrados with me. She's calmer around humans than you think and has been my ace for a while," Misty told Ash.

"I remember Gyrados being the one you tamed when I was in Hoenn. I wasn't expecting you to master using her, given that they are hard to tame?" Ash said to Misty.

"We can talk about that later, Ash. We have a competition to do," Pikachu told Ash as Misty knew what Pikachu said by how he talked. The two started to fish as they heard Cillian hamming it up on the other side of the pound.

"Let's pretend that we aren't affiliated with him," Snivy said with a sigh and a sweatdrop. "Speaking of, I wanted to hit Brock for that stunt he pulled at the beginning of the competition as a female, even I don't like it when guys do that taken or not," Snivy retorted, which Ash and Pikachu didn't blame her for saying that. Little did the group know it, but they were being watched in the river tunnels that they were at. Misty noticed this and was curious about this and decided to fish there.

"Yeah, he did that back at the preservation that nearly got us kicked out. Brock is always like that. When it comes to women, it got to the point that he took part in a Pokemon contest for one," Pikachu explained to Snivy, who was interested in that Pikachu knew about that.

"Oooh, Pokemon contests. I heard of them when I was at the lab. They sounded like fun, and one day, I wish to participate in one even though Unova doesn't have one, sadly. So Brock did that for a girl, huh even that impressed me," Snivy said, interested in this.

"Yeah, he did make it to the finals with our other traveling companion May, known as the queen of Ho," Pikachu was interrupted by Snivy, who had a sparkle in her eyes more than Cillian had when it came to fishing.

"You traveled with May. Many of us starters had heard of her even though Unova here?" Snivy asked Pikachu, who was taken aback by this and nodded.

"Yeah, May travel with us when Misty wasn't with us for two regions," Pikachu said, only to get a kiss from Snivy, who blushed at this. "You know, Snivy, you scare me when you act like that and know things that I was about to say, similar to how Cillian is acting now," Pikachu said to Snivy for her to blush, realizing that she was indeed acting like him and knew once this is over that she will apologize to him.

Meanwhile, Ash and Misty struggled to catch something on the other end of her fishing line.

"Man, whatever Pokemon it is must be putting up a struggle," Misty said as Ash was helping her only reel up a new Pokemon, a Frillish but pink, not blue like Trip's was. Ash scanned it and found out that their coloring represented the gender. This was female.

"Ah, hello there, sweetie. I won't hurt you. Did you want to join my team?" Misty asked the Frillish, who shook her head politely but was interested in Misty though.

"Maybe later, but something is going on in the waters as many of the Pokemon here are being taken for no reason, and my dad went missing as well," Frillish asked for help as Ash translated this.

Suddenly they heard a girly scream from Cillian, as did many of the other contestants as Ash, Misty, Pikachu, Snivy, and Frillish ran over to see what was happening. Cillian had a broken line, but not from fishing from how it was cut.

"Man, that must be the other screams we heard just now?" Ash said to Cillian, who nodded at this.

"I just won this last year too. This isn't supposed to happen. Someone is sabotaging the Competition," Cillian told Ash and the others. "From the looks of it, it looks like it was cut with a sonic boom attack?" Cillian said, inspecting the line more closely.

"There isn't any Pokemon in these waters that knowns that move, and most of us want to be caught during this, knowing that we'll have a trainer regardless," Frillish told Ash, who translated this.

"Wow, a Frillish. They aren't normally from this area. More in lakes and oceans?" Cillian explained to Ash while admiring the Frillish, who didn't mind as he wasn't wrong about that.

"We can talk about that later. Let's go and see who is responsible for this," Misty said calmly while looking around. Ash and Cillian nodded as the group checked on everyone else, who said the same thing each time and asked what had happened.

"We were distracted by a shadow, and then suddenly the line was cut just shortly after when they turned to see their fishing poles," was what everyone said, not just Cillian.

"Man, it's not just you, Cillian, but everyone else. We just reeled in Frillish, and neither of us has a Pokemon that can do that," Ash told Cillian, who nodded at this as one human ran up to the gang.

"Hey, have you seen a Buizel? I just spotted one recently, shortly before the line was cut by something?" the boy said as Ash knew the way it was cut looked familiar.

"A Buizel here in Unova, that's a first. I think that it's responsible for all of this. I own one, actually, but he's back at the lab as I don't bring my older Pokemon on my new Journey to the region unless they ask me?" Ash said to Cillian and the young man who told them about this.

"Yeah, I can tell because this Buizel looks very different and looks like it wasn't interested in joining anyone?" The young man said before leaving to inform the other contestants that he might know what happened but knew that Ash and the others weren't responsible for it. Ash was about to say something but noticed a peculiar duo who still had their fishing line and wasn't targeted by Buizel.

"Hey, you might want to go fish somewhere else. There's a Buizel on the rampage that is causing trouble," Cillian said to them; however, Ash noticed Jessie's hair.

"I think they might be responsible for this, isn't that right, Team Rocket?" Ash said to the two.

"Not bad, Twerps, you saw through our dis," Ash interrupted James.

"More like Jessie's hair gave you two away. If you are going to be in disguise, you might want to do something better with your hairstyle Jessie," Ash said out loud. This took Jessie aback, as Pikachu and Snivy were laughing at this.

"Buizel comes on out. We have some twerps to beat," Jessie said as she and James removed their disguises. As the said Buizel came out, it looked different from Ash's and taller than Ash's Buizel, who glared angrily at Ash.

"Since when did Team Rocket have a Buizel? That wasn't even shown during our Journey in Shinnoh," Ash said, eyeing the Buizel. He looked like his Buizel almost.

"This Buizel is the boss's top operative twerp and has been on our side before yours joined your team," Jessie told Ash, making Buizel growl at both Ash and Jessie.

"Shut up, Jessie, no more from you about my life. This is between Ash and me here," Buizel shouted at Jessie.

"Pikachu, let's go," Ash told his first Pokemon, who hopped down.

"Pansage, come on out as well," Cillian let out his Pokemon, willing to help.

"Pikachu use Thunder," Ash commands Pikachu, who launches a thunder attack on the Buizel. "Pansage, use bullet seed," Cillian commands his Pokemon as the two moves manage to hit Buizel before he can do anything.

"So much for the lead operative of Team Rocket," Misty said to Team Rocket, who returned to Buizel as Ash noticed the Pokeball. Still, before they could send out their other Pokemon, the Police were coming via sirens. The trio was planning on getting away.

"Oh no, you don't. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt," "Pansage use solar beam," Ash and Cillian command their Pokemon, who launched the moves blasting Team Rocket off, but they had their jet packs ready and were going.

"Dang it, they wanted to be blasted off. But that Pokeball that Buizel was in. That was the Dark ball Jason mentioned before. I guess the rumors about them having them are true," Ash said as the Police showed up too late. It wasn't just the competitor's fishing poles that were ruined but also the spare ones.

"It seems like the competition is over, but I see your group has a Frillish on you that is indeed a rare Pokemon in these parts," The announcer who runs the Competition said to Misty.

"Well, I haven't caught her yet, but yes, she is," Misty said to the announcer, who nodded.

"If you don't mind, I want to join your team and get stronger and hopefully find my dad one day wherever he is," Frillish asked Misty, who nodded at this, pulled out a Pokeball, and caught the Frillish.

"And with that, I'd say the winner is you, young lady. I think that it is fair for you to help us out. So what do you want prize-wise?" The announcer said.

"I'll take the Dragons Scale as I do have a Pokemon for that item," Misty said as the guy handed her said item.

"I'll pass on it as I didn't take part in it, but I do think Cillian could use the new fishing pole after he was destroyed," Ash said as the announcer agreed and handed Cillian the new one that was part of the prize.

The Competition was closing as Ash, Misty Brock, and Cillian were ready to part ways.

"Sorry for before, Cillian, and hope I didn't offend you earlier," Snivy said, knowing that she had messed up earlier while not trying to say that she also acted similar to him when talking about May with Pikachu as Ash translated.

"I accept your apology and not to worry about it, Snivy. But I know that we'll meet again, you guys, pretty soon, but until then, I'll be taking my leave for now. Take care," Cillian said before leaving.

With the fishing competition over and Misty now having a new Pokemon on her team, the Journey is getting better as the Journey continues.

Elsewhere with Team Rocket at their base of operations.

Jessie lets out Buizel. "I have to agree with the twerps, some commander. You are Buizel losing to the twerps that easily," Jessie yelled at Buizel, who launched a Scald at her face causing a burning feeling to her face.

"And you want me to blow my cover as the operations about the "ark ball's power are still not ready. Don't lecture me, Jessie," Buizel said to Jessie, who was screaming in pain from the burn marks. "Get over it. That is barely enough to cause permanent burns, will you? If I wanted to do that, I would have no issue, and you are lucky that I held that back," Buizel said as Emolga arrived with a dark ball in hand.

"I managed to snag a good one before the competition started, but I just wanted to see you two suffer at the hands of the twerps," Emolga said while letting out the Pokemon, a Jellicent male. Frillish's father, now brainwashed and under team rocket's control, made Jessie and James even angry if Jessie's face wasn't red from the Scald from Buizel.

"I must admit he was harder to catch as it took two attracts to manipulate him to our cause, but I'm sure more of it will convince him that he is meant to be with us," Emolga snickered along with Buizel.

Stay tuned.