"So you're a biker gang, huh?" Ash asked.

"That's right!" The leader of the biker gang surrounding Ash, Clay, and Cyrus grinned and threw out a Golem. "My name's Chopper, and I'm gonna-"

"Ooh, a Pokemon battle!" Ash smiled. "Cool, I've been looking forward to trying out one of my newest catches! Go, Zygarde!"

Zygarde, newly released, stared down at the biker gang and let out a loud, low RUMBLE.

The biker gang looked up at the towering colossus that clearly outweighed all of them combined, and promptly made the collective decision that being in a biker gang was probably a poor career choice.

"I still have no idea what a Zygarde even is," Cyrus murmured. "Or how Ash managed to get three of them. But I no longer feel too worried about Ash sending Genesect to the lab. It seems his team is plenty strong enough even without an artificial Legendary."

"I looked it up," Clay announced, thumbing through his Pokedex. "Apparently it's some mythical 'protector of the ecosystem' from Kalos. Almost certainly another Legendary."

"Protector of the ecosystem," Cyrus mused. "I suppose biker gangs are rather bad for the environment…but another Legendary?"

"Three Legendaries." Clay chuckled. "And they're Ground-types. Suddenly I'm wishing I'd thrown one of those Pokeballs…I wouldn't mind a Zygarde."

"Well, I've got three or thirty of them," said Ash. "I could-"

RUMBLE.

"Never mind," said Ash, glancing up at the colossus walking beside the group. "I guess the Zygarde want to stay together. Sorry."

"It makes sense," Clay admitted. "It says here that Zygarde is supposed to be a legendary of balance."

"Balance." Cyrus frowned contemplatively. "That is certainly interesting. Would it serve as an obstacle or a boon to the creation of my perfect world?"

RUMBLE.

"Don't worry, Zygarde," said Ash reassuringly. "Cyrus always loves his jokes."

"It doesn't look like Zygarde's too fond of jokes," said Clay. "I can't help but wonder if all your Zygards are similarly serious."

"Ball?" "Ball!" "Ball?" "Where is the ball?" "I want the ball!" "Ball!" "Ball?"

"No!" Noctowl cried. "That's one of my sons, not a ball! Spit him out this instant!"

"But ball!" the Zygarde 10% mumbled around the screaming, flailing Hoothoot in his mouth.

The other Zygarde 10% quickly started shouting over him. "Want ball!" "Ball!" "Ball?"

"She said spit him out, you insolent cellular puppies!" Scizor snarled. "You're Legendaries of balance, not a pack of yapping baby Growlithe! So get that Hoothoot out of your mouth, or I'll find a ball for you and I'll shove it straight up your-"

"Scizor!" Noctowl cried. "There is a child nearby!"

"-butts," said Scizor lamely. "I was going to say butts."

"Sure you were," Noctowl grunted.

The group of twenty Zygarde 10% looked at Scizor. "New ball?" "Ball?" "Ball!"

"I will not play fetch for a gang of…" Scizor trailed off at the sight of Noctowl's pleading eyes. "Oh, fine…" The Bug/Steel-type picked up a stick from the ground. "Here's a stick. Go get it." Hauling back, Scizor flung the stick as hard as he could into the forest.

"Stick!" "Stick!" "Want stick!" "Yay stick!" The pack of Zygarde 10% whirled and ran off, dropping Hoothoot in the process.

"Oh, my baby!" Noctowl wasted no time in flying down to comfort her child. "Thank you, Scizor. I'm so sorry to have dragged you away from what you were doing."

"Don't mention it," said Scizor. "Especially not to any of my teammates. Actually, just don't mention it to anybody, please. I do not want to be known for playing fetch with a pack of Legendaries."

"I understand completely," Noctowl murmured, still putting most of her attention on her freshly freed child. "So, Scizor…have you seen Palpitoad recently?"

"Not really," said Scizor. "I know he's been at the lab pretty much since he evolved…how is he?"

Noctowl bowed her head. "Not too well, I'm afraid. I've tried to talk to him, but…" She shook her head. "I think it would be better if you did."

Scizor frowned. "Where is he?"

"Look by the pond," Noctowl advised. "That's where he usually is. Oh, and you might want to distract the Zygarde first. It sounds like they like your new game."

She and her child began to fly off as cries of "Fetch!" "Stick!" "Got stick!" "More fetch!" started becoming audible from the direction the Zygarde pack had gone.

Scizor rolled his eyes. "Go join a Trainer, I said. It'll be fun, I said…"

"Man, I can't believe that Ditto lady kicked us out of the house," Ash grumbled.

"I can," said Cyrus. "Pyroar set her house on fire."

"Well, what did she expect to happen when her Ditto copied Pyroar?"

"At least it's better than when that Ditto copied Genesect," Clay murmured. "Last I heard, they're still tryin' to raise the St. Anne from the bottom of the ocean…"

Ash's eyes widened. "Dang it! I should've asked that lady how to fight a Ditto!"

"That would have been useful," said Cyrus. "At least we do know Ditto have thoughts and emotions of their own. Perhaps we can use those against Team Rocket's Ditto."

"We ain't emotionally manipulatin' a Ditto," Clay chided.

"Hey, look, guys!" Ash pointed. "A helicopter!"

Indeed, there was a helicopter descending towards them. All three Trainers instantly braced for an attack from Team Rocket, but as it turned out, it was just a pair of very rich parents who wanted to know if any of the three had seen their son. Apparently they had accidentally thrown him out of the helicopter when he was just a toddler and had spent the past several years looking for him.

"Your son is likely dead," Cyrus concluded.

"Cyrus!" Clay admonished. "You can't just go and say things like that!"

"Besides," said the rich mother, "we received a picture of him leading a herd of Kangaskhan recently. And we know there's a lot of Kangakshan in the area."

"Oh, that's convenient!" said Ash.

"I wish you had led with that," Cyrus murmured. "Additionally, I am rather confused as to how a toddler could have survived a fall from a helicopter."

"He had a parachute," the rich father revealed.

"Once again," said Cyrus, "you seem to be quite proficient at revealing pertinent information at a time after it would be most useful."

"Hey, Zygarde?" Ash asked, releasing the behemoth. "Can you go find this kid?"

RUMBLE. Zygarde nodded in assent, then swiftly dissolved into ten Zygarde 10%, all of whom raced in different directions, barking loudly.

"His name is Tommy, by the way," the rich mother said after the Zygarde pack had gone. "That could aid in the search."

Cyrus put a hand to his face. "You two are morons."

"Cyrus!"

As it turned out, Tommy was fairly easily found. The hard part was convincing him to leave the Kangaskhan herd, since he was amnesiac and they had practically adopted him (and it didn't help that Tommy's father had the bright idea to cure his amnesia by whacking him over the head with a big piece of wood, which ended with him nearly getting trampled by the angry Kangaskhan herd before Clay, Ash, and Tommy's mother could stabilize the situation). Eventually, the parents just decided to move to a nearby house where they could be close to Tommy, allowing them and the Kangaskhan herd to share joint custody of the child. Also, Zygarde blew up their helicopter.

"Why did he do that?" Tommy's father asked.

Clay shrugged. "Zygarde are protectors of the natural ecosystem. I guess he didn't see helicopters as part of the natural ecosystem. And also he probably didn't want you dropping any more children out of the windows."

"Yeah, that one's fair," said Tommy's mother.

"This entire situation has just been strange," said Cyrus. "I would like to depart as quickly as possible, if that is alright with you."

Scizor was beginning to feel slightly worried.

Palpitoad hadn't been at the pond. None of Ash's other Pokemon at the ranch had seen him in the past hour. Scizor had even done a few cursory checks of various popular hangout spots, just in case Palpitoad had been at any of those. Nope.

He'd also had to throw a stick for the Zygarde pack half a dozen times in the process, which hadn't really done wonders for his mood.

So it was that, thirty minutes after he'd begun his search, Scizor approached the laboratory of Professor Archie, with Genesect walking behind him. He'd approached his fellow Steel/Bug-type to act as a translator, something Genesect seemed to be growing tired of, but once Scizor had alerted Genesect to the situation the artificial Legendary was quick to agree to help.

As Scizor and Genesect entered the lab, Professor Archie was tinkering with some kind of model pirate ship. The Professor jumped as the door opened. "Yarr! Shiver me timbers, ye be startlin' me! What can I be doin' for ye?"

"WE - ARE - SEAR-CHING - FOR - OUR - TEAM-MATE," Genesect reported.

"Palpitoad," Scizor clarified. "He's gone missing."

"What, Palpitoad?" In the corner, Professor Archie's Sharpedo peeked out of his personal pool. "Missing? When did this happen?"

"Half an hour ago," said Scizor, before proceeding to give an abbreviated rundown of the events that had taken place since Noctowl had first reported Tangrowth's bad mood.

"I'm just worried about him," he finished, with Genesect translating the whole thing for Professor Archie's benefit.

"Aye," the professor agreed. "This be troublesome."

"I really don't understand." Scizor's shoulders slumped. "I thought he was happy until Noctowl told me otherwise. I just don't get it. It's like-"

A loud crash sounded from the nearby door as the Zygarde pack plowed into Professor Archie's lab, one of them holding the stick in its mouth. "Fetch!" "Stick!" "More fetch!"

Scizor forced himself not to scream out of sheer frustration. Swiftly, he grabbed the stick from the mouth of the lead Zygarde 10%, stormed over to the window, hauled back, and flung the stick as hard as he could into the sky, a scowl on his face the entire time.

"Stick!" "Yay!" "Yay fetch stick!" The entire Zygarde pack raced out of the house, the trampling noise of their paws receding as they chased down the stick.

Scizor turned back to the group. "Anyway," he said, "I could really use your help."

As soon as Genesect was finished translating, Professor Archie's eyes lit up. "I always be happy to help a fellow Water-type!" the professor declared. "Sharpedo! Mightyena! Muk! Crobat! Avast, ye hearties!" Sharpedo stood at attention as Professor Archie released the other three from the Dive Balls upon his belt.

"Ye be having a new mission!" Professor Archie announced. "Go and locate Ash's Palpitoad! It be somewhere around this ranch! Go, and fair winds to all of ye!"

Mightyena, Muk, and Crobat at once surged out the door, swiftly splitting in various directions. Sharpedo took a little longer to get going, as he had to haul himself out of his pool first.

"Wait," said Scizor. "All that talk about Water-types…and only one of his four Pokemon is actually a Water-type?"

Professor Archie's Sharpedo shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really get it either, to be honest. You'd think he'd at least catch himself a Gyarados or something…"

"Well, that was nice," said Ash as he, Clay, and Cyrus emerged from a forest. "Pikachu are pretty cool Pokemon!"

"I don't think they liked me quite as much," Clay noted.

"I cannot imagine why," Cyrus remarked drily.

"I almost wish I had one of my own," Ash murmured. "I don't really have an Electric-type yet."

Clay chuckled. "No offense, Ash, but I can't really imagine you with a Pikachu. With your luck, you'd probably end up with Zekrom or somethin' instead."

"That is fair," Cyrus admitted. "Though Ash with a Pikachu would certainly be an interesting spectacle."

"Meh," said Clay. "I wouldn't watch it."

"I cannot imagine why."

"Now hang on a minute!" Clay cried. "Just 'cause I'm a Ground-type Trainer doesn't mean I'm diametrically opposed to Electric-types! Stunfisk is a perfectly good Pokemon that I'd happily take on my team in a heartbeat!"

"Is that not a Ground/Steel-type?" Cyrus queried. "What does that have to do with Electric-types?"

"No," said Clay, "that's Galarian Stunfisk. I'm talkin' about-"

"Hands up!"

Ash, Clay, and Cyrus all froze as Drake, Liza, and Aron stalked out of the nearby foliage. The latter two were holding guns, which were pointed at the former three. Hisuian Arcanine quickly stepped in front of Ash, snarling angrily at the threat.

"We know you don't have Genesect," Drake said nastily. "Overheard you mentioning it on the road earlier. Bit of a dumb move leaving your strongest Pokemon behind, if I'm being honest."

"Now let's not do anything hasty here," said Clay nervously.

"Where'd you get guns?" Ash asked.

"Garbage dump," said Liza.

Drake shrugged. "What? We got a full-blown samurai sword from there. You didn't think we'd be able to snatch a couple guns too?"

"I want a gun," Aron whined.

"We've been over this, Aron," Liza sighed. "You are a Pokemon. You have stubby little legs. You are incapable of holding a gun. If you want a gun, you should have Lunatone teach you Rock Throw. I'm sure you're capable of learning the move."

"No, I'm not!" Aron cried.

"Wait, seriously?" Drake asked.

"Yeah!" said Aron. "I can't learn Rock Throw! And believe me, I've tried!"

"Maybe you can learn Rock Tomb," Ash suggested. "It's a TM from the Celadon department store - I got it for Hisuian Arcanine! And hey, maybe Lunatone can learn it as well! That would be a great power-up!"

"Ash," Clay hissed, "quit helping the criminals pointing guns at us!"

"No, no, he's got a good point," said Liza. "Lunatone really does deserve an upgrade to Rock Throw anyway…yeah. Guess we're headed back to Celadon after this."

"And speaking of this," said Drake, "hand over all your Pokemon or no one gets hurt!"

Liza sighed. "And," she muttered. "You always do this, Drake! It's and, not or!"

"Oh, okay," said Drake. "Hand over all yand Pokemon or no one gets hurt!"

Liza rounded on Drake. "Are you serious? Are you this stupid or have you decided to be funny all of a sudden? In what world would that be what I want you to say?"

"I was going to replace 'or'," Drake defended, "but then you tried to clarify it and it just made it more confusing! I pronounce or like 'er' because otherwise you have to heavily enunciate it, so when you said it was 'or' I had to replace, I thought you meant the sound 'or' in 'your', not the word 'or'!"

"How does that make any sense whatsoever?!" Liza screamed.

"Uh, guys?" Aron piped up. "The kid released a Pokemon while you were shoutin' at one another."

The two turned, and then looked up.

Liza blinked, then blinked again. "What even is that?"

"Oh, this is Zygarde," said Ash. "He's a Legendary!"

"Another Legendary?" Aron asked incredulously.

"Right," Drake growled, releasing one of his Pokemon in response. "Ditto, copy it!"

"Ditto!" Drake's Ditto began to morph, rapidly growing in size as its body shifted to a more humanoid shape-

RUMBLE.

Ditto stopped. Its eyes widened, its body began to tremble, and then all at once it collapsed back into its base form, shivering madly.

"…what just happened?" Drake asked.

"I think," Liza said slowly, "that Zygarde thing somehow convinced Ditto to not copy it."

"Ugh," Aron moaned. "Why couldn't we have chosen to chase a normal Trainer?"

"So, are we going to fight now?" Ash asked.

Liza smiled sheepishly, lowering her gun. "Actually, can we just…leave? This obviously isn't going to work out too well for us."

Ash shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

"Great!" Liza quickly grabbed Aron and tried to make it look like she was confidently walking away instead of scurrying into the forest as fast as she could. Drake followed suit, recalling his Ditto as he did so.

"Well, that was easy," Clay murmured. "So, we're heading to Cinnabar Island next?"

"That is the location of the seventh Gym," said Cyrus. "Though it is quite a long way away. There are multiple routes and towns between us and there."

"So…" Clay scratched his head. "That means there's probably going to be a lot of random problems for us to solve along the way, eating up a ridiculous amount of time, right?"

"Judging by how our adventure has gone so far," said Cyrus, "yes."

"Great…"

Scizor felt immensely frustrated as he sat down on a rock by the ranch's pond. It had been almost an hour now, and it felt as if the search for Palpitoad had gone absolutely nowhere. Professor Archie's team were still scouring the ranch for the missing Water-type, but had come up empty so far - Scizor was beginning to wonder if Palpitoad had left the ranch entirely.

But why would he do that? Scizor shook his head. None of this made sense - Noctowl had mentioned Palpitoad wasn't doing too well, whatever that meant, but it wasn't like Palpitoad was just going to run off without telling anyone, right?

Right?

Scizor sighed. I should be looking too, he thought, but right now he just felt too drained to even stand. At least the Zygarde pack had stopped begging him to continue their game of fetch, though Scizor hoped that didn't mean they were back to harassing the Hoothoot flock.

Ugh, this is so frustrating! Scizor dropped his head into his claws. I really wish Palpitoad could just be found already, and then I'd be able to get back to doing normal things! Like practicing my negotiating skills. I really need to brush up on those-

A bubbling noise from behind Scizor cut through his thoughts. Scizor whipped around in time to see a familiar-looking blue/brown body emerging from the center of the pond. "Palpitoad?" he cried. "Is this where you've been all this time? Sitting underwater?"

Palpitoad jumped, guilty eyes turning towards Scizor. "Oh, sorry. I…didn't see you there."

"Palpitoad, everyone's been looking for you!" Scizor was trying to keep anger out of his voice, but it wasn't working. "Maybe tell everybody next time you decide to take an underwater nap!"

Palpitoad stepped out from the pond and onto dry land. "Okay, I will. Well, now you've found me, so you all can stop searching." He began to walk towards the surrounding forest.

"Palpitoad, are you okay?"

Palpitoad jerked to a halt. "Of course I'm okay," he said in a voice that made it obvious he wasn't.

Scizor sighed. "Look, I can tell something's off," he said. "And I'm not the only one - Noctowl noticed it too. What's going on?"

Palpitoad shook his head. "Forget it."

"I'm sorry, Palpitoad, but I need to know," said Scizor. "I'm starting to think you weren't taking a nap - you were hiding, weren't you? What were you hiding from?"

"Just forget it, Scizor," Palpitoad murmured.

"I can't do that, Palpitoad," said Scizor. "You know that. Please just tell me before I have to start trying to negotiate with you."

A low, humorless chuckle came from Palpitoad's throat. "If I tell you, you'll hate me. Everyone will hate me."

"Where did you get that idea?" Scizor asked. "Do any of us - well, aside from Aegislash - give off the vibe that we'd hate anybody else on this team? Ash certainly doesn't. I mean, for Arceus's sake, he can't even bring himself to hate Team Rocket, and they've been hounding us all over Kanto! And I'm pretty sure you're the only one on the team the Professor doesn't hate."

Palpitoad sighed. "You promise you won't hate me, Scizor?"

"Of course I won't hate you," Scizor replied.

Palpitoad shook his head. "You know, you're actually pretty good at negotiating even without the yelling. All right, fine. I'll tell you."

He hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. "When I evolved," he said, "that Houndoom's Thunder Fang suddenly didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before. And I thought that was just post-evolution adrenaline kicking in, but when I tried practicing my Mud Shot, it came out a lot stronger. Like, a lot stronger. I used to only be able to splatter mud across a rock - this time, I practically blew up the rock. So I did a few more experiments, and…"

Palpitoad looked up into Scizor's eyes. "Somehow, when I evolved, I transformed from a pure Water-type into a Water/Ground-type. And you know how I left Clay's team and joined Ash's because I felt like I didn't belong? You know, with…not being a Ground-type and all?"

Scizor felt a sinking feeling in his chest as he realized what Palpitoad was saying. "You want to go back."

Palpitoad looked away wretchedly. "Part of me doesn't. I'm Ash's Pokemon now. To leave him feels so wrong. But…" Palpitoad sniffled. "It felt wrong to leave Clay too. And he was my Trainer for so much longer…so yes. Part of me really, really does."

Scizor did not speak. It was true - it felt like Palpitoad had been on the team for so much longer than he actually had. Scizor fully considered Palpitoad his teammate, and to lose that…to lose him…Scizor could not deny he felt a certain resistance to the prospect.

Unfortunately, Palpitoad took his silence the complete wrong way. "I knew this was a bad idea," he whispered, his voice sounding hesitant, almost broken. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything. Now neither Clay nor Ash are going to want me. Then again, who was I kidding? Who would want a disloyal team member who will probably just want to change teams again the instant something else goes wrong?"

"Palpitoad-"

"You should go, Scizor." Palpitoad turned and began to walk away. "Forget I said anything. I'll be there the next time Ash needs me."

He stepped into the trees and was lost from sight, leaving Scizor standing alone by the side of the still, rippleless pond.

It's amazing what the lack of a constantly-interfering Team Rocket does to streamline these filler episodes. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised at this point if more than half the episodes in Pokemon are 'Ash and co. encounter Pokemon Of The Day, Team Rocket shows up with a plan to capture or utilize Pokemon Of The Day (and/or Ash's Pikachu), Pokemon Of The Day plays an important role in stopping Team Rocket, Ash and co. continue on their way (important life lesson optional)'.