Greetings, everyone; Mgunnels3 here, and welcome to A Promise Kept Ash's Johto Journey. I hope you enjoyed the week off as we are heading into the end of the first act soon, and I hope you all enjoyed the story so far. Let's get this chapter started, shall we?
Chapter 20: A new member and the Trip to the Pokemon Daycare
"Human Speech"
"Pokemon Speech"
We joined our heroes as they were having lunch. Ash's turn to take care of Cyndaquil as he gave her a bottle to drink from, which she was happily enjoying.
"Man, for a baby Cyndaquil, you require much of it?" Ash told Cyndaquil, who was finishing up her bottle. She usually goes to sleep after her feedings. Surprisingly she smiled at Ash.
"Thank Ash," Cyndaquil said to Ash as Charizard, who is training with Houndour on his fire-type moves, heard this and watched her, as did Murkrow, who knew her family.
"You spoke Cyndaquil, or are you still getting your words out?" Ash asked her, who nodded at this.
"Just a few words," Cyndaquil said to Ash. He knows that it'll be a bit before she can speak properly.
"Hey, kid, who don't you join Houndour and me for some fire-type moves training? I mean, you can't just stay off being babied by everyone?" Charizard asked Cyndaquil, who looked up to him as a father figure like Houndour does. She nodded, hopped off Ash, and walked over to where the two were.
Ash sighed as he saw his Pokemon training, relaxing, or eating. Heracross was training with the older brother Eevee, who wanted to join a gym battle soon. Murkrow resumed training with Pidgeot. Pidgeot was getting more impressed by Murkrow's skills, and at her pace, in this training, she still was skeptical about teaching her, but she was convincing. Croconaw and his sister were training as well. Even though Croconaw was in the next stage of their evolution, she was just as strong. Misty and Ash noticed this and wondered if Croconaw was the oldest, but he said he was. Totodile confirmed it. Meanwhile, Houndour improved with his Ember attacks and learned Flamethrower with the fire types. Cyndaquil barely managed an Ember attack, even with her flames having trouble going.
"Not bad, both of you, but I'm impressed with you, Houndour? I can see why your father is the pack leader, and you are already showing signs of evolving one day?" Charizard praised Houdour while Cyndaquil was wandering off while he wasn't looking.
"Thank Charizard. After that gym battle, I've been trying to get stronger for Ash's sake and my own after what happened to me before joining the team. I can't just let myself be vulnerable, not from that Chikorita and not to anyone else," Houndour said to Charizard, who crossed his claws and nodded at this before noticing that Cynaquil had gone missing.
"Oh, come on, Cyndaquil? Where did you go?" Charizard says while looking at this. Houndour was picking up her scent as Pidgeot and Murkrow noticed this.
"Wow, Charizard Quilava trusted both you and Ash with her. And now you lost her," Murkrow said to Charizard, who growled at her.
"Pidgeot, tell your apprentice not to go there, and I," Charizard noticed that Houndour brought Cyndaquil back with something in her arms. It looks like a brownish-green colored egg. Ash saw this and ran up to Cyndaquil with Houndour.
"Hey Cyndaquil, where did you find that egg?" Ash asked Cyndaquil, who pointed at what looked like a human running towards Ash and the others. He looked troubled and didn't look like a person who wanted to talk.
"Hey! That's mine, kid. Give that egg back to me. You know how much I was paid to take that egg?" The man said, not realizing what he had just said.
"What did you just say?" Ash said as he held the egg. The man was going to attack Ash, but Charizard and Houndour stood before him, readying their attacks, and he backed off.
"You are making a big mistake. I will get that egg no matter what; I'll be back. You haven't seen the last of me," he stormed off.
"That looks like a poacher to me, Ash? And that egg looks more vulnerable when taken in this stage," Murkrow said to Ash, who nodded.
"I need to know where he got that egg, as it's not every day you run into one, and we are in an area where Pokemon aren't around," Ash said as Brock looked into the guidebook.
"Maybe it was stolen from the Daycare nearby, Ash? As it is on the way to Goldenrod City," Brock said as Ash nodded at this and handed the egg to Cyndaquil. Before returning, everyone except Cyndaquil and Houndour keeps an eye on her.
"Let's return this egg, and maybe we can use this place to help you out, Brock, with the breeding understanding and possibly helping me with Cyndaquil," Ash said to Misty, Brock, Ursaring, and Slowbro as they headed to where the Daycare. However, they were being watched by the said PoacherPoacher from before. Now even madder than ever, he went to get help to get the egg back. Ash and the others arrived at the Pokemon Daycare, which looked small but ran correctly.
"Brock, are you sure that this is the place? I mean, it doesn't look like much?" Misty asked Brock, who was looking at the guidebook.
"Now, now, miss, you shouldn't judge a place by its looks," An older adult female said while walking towards the group with what looked to be her husband.
"Sorry about that. We haven't seen a Pokemon daycare in Kanto," Misty apologized as the couple nodded.
"Ah, you must be new to Johto, and we understand. My name is Angela, and this is my husband, Steven. What brings you to our little Daycare?" Angela asked the group.
"My name is Ash, and these are my friends Misty and Brock. We are here because we ran into a poacher who might have stolen one of your Pokemon eggs," Ash said while showing the Pokemon egg.
"That's strange. We might want to check on the Pokemon eggs before we do anything," Steven said, who went inside the Daycare along with Ash and the others, who were impressed as they saw a lot of young Pokemon, and they were many Pokemon eggs. Ash was scanning, and they ranged from Eevee, Elekid, Magby, and Smoochem as they rested. "I just checked our collection, and nothing is missing, sadly. But whoever stole this knew what he was doing," Steven said while returning to Ash and the others.
"I wonder if any of the preservations here in Johto had something missing because we were nowhere near where any Pokemon were at?" Ash told the couple, who nodded at this as Cyndaquil and Houndour went to see the Pokemon eggs as they had never seen one before. Angela took the group to show them the collection of Pokemon eggs.
"As you can see, the Pokemon eggs we store for the trainers who usually leave their Pokemon here. Until they return, mostly it's until after the eggs are close to hatching," Angela said to Ash and Co. as they were amazed by all this and saw all the different types of Pokemon eggs.
"We won't know where this egg came from until it hatches, as we do have connections to the league and the other preservations in Johto," Steve said to Ash and the group. Ash saw how much Cyndaquil was taking in all of this as she looked at one egg, particularly a bluish-red colored egg. She didn't know what it was, but it caught her attention. "Ah, I see your Cyndaquil is interested in that one, that egg was just recently brought to us but with no trainer in our books," Steve told Ash as Ash picked up Cyndaquil.
"I don't blame her. I mean, Cyndaquil is a baby as well. Houndour is also a puppy, so them here aside, looking after Cyndaquil was just for this," Ash said while petting Cyndaquils head and then Houndours. "One of the reasons why we also came here is to help me raise them as this little one tends to run off," Ash said as Cyndaquil giggled at this cutely.
"These two are well-groomed for their age Ash. It is best to be firm with Cyndaquil as she is curious about the world. As for Houndour, he doesn't need it as he is close to evolving just by how the bones on his back were shaping," Angela said to Ash. Ash was shocked as Charizard wasn't kidding when he said that. Ash looked at Houndour, wagging his tail at Ash, who smiled at this.
"Well, I'll take that to heart," Ash was interrupted as he heard a commotion in the room where the younglings were sleeping. The group ran into the room to see that many of them were rounded up by not one but three Poachers who now wanted the egg that Ash had taken from them.
"Give us back that egg; nothing bad will happen to these Pokemon. You may have scared me earlier, but you'll have to do more than that to get rid of us," The Poacher from before said.
Ash knew he couldn't let them take the Pokemon, but he couldn't take the egg they stole. Houndour, Cyndaquil, and Ursaring were growling at them. The poachers send out a Scizor, Ursaring, and a Machamp.
"We can't battle them while someone might get hurt in this place. We need an opening," Ash thought as he noticed that Cyndaquil being Cyndaquil, had gone missing. Now was the time for her to wander off only to see her giving an ember on one of the Poacher'sPoacher's backsides.
This was enough for them to run out as Ursaring and Houndour managed to push their Pokemon out with them with a reversal and a move that didn't look like a slash attack or a mega Punch. Freeing the younglings who ran into the back where the eggs were at.
"This isn't over, you brats," The leading Poacher said, only to be staring down by Ash's Pokemon again.
"Hey, we need to go and cut our losses, boss. It's not worth being thrown in jail," the other Poacher said, seeing that their Pokemon were knocked out, and the leader nodded as the group ran off.
"Why do I feel we'll see them again?" Ash said as he noticed that the Poacher's egg was glowing. Angela handed it to Ash, and it hatched into a greenish-colored Pokemon that looked like a rock type who saw Ash.
"Wow, a Larvitar that is rare?" Angela told Ash the Larvitar was scared of her and hid in Ash's arms.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. She won't hurt you, Larvitar. We are in a place for helping younglings like you. You can trust her," Ash told Larvitar, who peeked out of Ash's chest and was curious about what he meant.
"Friendly?" Larvitar said barely. It was shy, but it could trust Ash would be called trustworthy as Ash nodded at this. Larvitar calms down, but they can see Misty and Brock as trustworthy more than Angela and her husband. But let her evaluate it.
"Well, I must say Larvitar, for being a couple of months old, egg, is in good health. As for its gender, it's female," Angela told Ash as he was holding Larvitar, who was waving its arms cutely.
"I also know where she is from, Mt. Silver which is pretty far from here, and where the Johto league is," Steve informs Ash. "There's Preservation out there that is more protective than most others. I'll contact them and let them know what just happened. But you should raise her as she trusts you well, Ash."
"Yeah, you might want to do that before we leave. I don't want to get in trouble with them about something like this," Ash said to Steven, who went to call them. While they were waiting, Larvitar happily played with Cyndaquil, Pikachu, and Houndour as she acted very cute and loved making friends, minus being shy around humans.
"I don't think that it's shy, Ash? I think that it's scared of other humans. Those Poachers took her from that Preservation, so I can see why she would be scared," Misty said to Ash.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when she said friendly I think that might be the case, and yet she trusts you and," Ash was interrupted by Steven, who was just done with the phone call as Larvitar ran to Ash's leg.
"Hope that I'm not interrupting anything, but I just got done talking with the ranger over there, and they agreed to let you raise Larvitar as thanks for help saving it from those Poachers," Steve told Ash. Who looked at Larvitar, shaking from the word Poachers as Ash scratched her horn area to calm her, which did the trick.
"That's great, given that I don't think Larvitar would trust humans other than us. Did they tell you anything that happened over there?" Ash asked Steven, who nodded at this.
"Ash, would you look up Tyranitar before I tell you what I know?" Steve asked Ash, who looked that name up, a Dark/Rock type that Larvitar looked at and started to cry upon seeing the image.
"Hey, you okay, Larvitar? Why did you want me to look it up?" Ash asked Steve, who held his hand out to calm down though Ash wasn't angry towards him, just worried about Larvitar.
"Mommy?" Larvitar barely got out, which caught Ash off guard, and they looked at the Pokedex and back at Larvitar again.
"Wait, Mommy?" Ash questioned Larvitar, who nodded at this. "This is your final evolution, huh?" Ash asked Larvitar, who nodded, knowing that this was a lot to take in and that there was not much she could say.
"I'll take it from here, Larvitar," Steve said as Ash and the others looked at him. "You see, there was a recent attack on a Tyranitar at the preservation where a group of Poachers took her egg," Steve told Ash, who looked at Larvitar, who was shivering upon hearing this. "I won't torture her by continuing, but let's just say that she was left with a scar that can't be healed, but I think that the mental scares those Poachers left on Larvitar as an egg was enough," Steve told Ash, who was comforting Larvitar.
"So I can raise her even though she belongs to the Preservation? I'll do that, but wait until after my fourth gym battle to start trainer battles with her?" Ash said, to which Steven nodded.
"I think that is a good idea, Ash, as we don't know what moves she knows, and it could help her improve being around humans more," Angela told Ash. "One last thing, as thank you for helping us. You can have this egg that Cyndaquil was interested in earlier."
"Thank you, but I got a lot of younglings to take care of on my own hands," Ash politely turned down the offer of taking care of another egg.
"I'll take care of it, Angela. As a breeder, this will help me with it," Brock said to Angela, who happily gave him the egg.
Ash pulled out a Pokeball for Larvitar to be carried in, which Larvitar accepted and let Ash catch her. She was sucked in and was caught without hassle, as it trusted Ash enough to be her trainer.
"Take care of her and contact the league with any progression with her condition of growth or trust in trainers," Steve told Ash, who nodded at this.
"You got it. I'll keep Larvitar safe and help any way I can," Ash told the couple, who nodded at this.
After making their goodbyes, the group left the Daycare and headed to Goldenrod City.
With the Pokemon poachers taken care of for now. Ash and the others head to Goldenrod City with one egg and a new Pokemon for the group led to Goldenrod City as the journey continues.
Stay tuned.
We are done with this chapter. For a filler chapter, this has more to build up later. Yeah, I wanted more time with Cyndaquil for this one, along with Houndour. As for Larvitar? Admit it, we all wished that Ash would've at least caught it after it was reunited with its mother or later, like the Battle Frontier, since they were shown in the Japanese openings (then again, Lapras and Butterfree were in it too, but that's not the point). We are heading to the Goldenrod gym next chapter, and no, it's not a two-parter this time. See you next time.