The Year of Rocket's Revenge
Story Written by Freedom Fighter

Finally, we start the second session... August!  Look for two storylines 
in this session.  The 'other world' arc, which is continuing from 
Session July, and an arc featuring a tournament... saying more would 
spoil, so keep tuned in for that later in this session!

Disclaimer:  The characters and places from the Pokémon anime and other 
Pokémon products all belong to Nintendo and 4Kids Entertainment.  
Original characters Cassie Banks, Arius McFly, and many others too 
numerous to list here, were created by me, and no other writer may use 
them without written consent from myself.

This fanfic is only posted at two places: my place, which contains the 
full-length chapters in one piece, and Fanfiction.net, which has the 
same story, but split up into smaller pieces.  It should not be posted 
anywhere else without my permission.

******

The Year of Rocket's Revenge
Session: August (08.31.06)

******

Returning home to Pallet Town after their wild adventure in the Orange 
Islands, Ash and his friends didn't have long to rest before they were 
sent off on another adventure by Professor Oak.  Heading to the Seafoam 
Islands, they made their way to the laboratory of the eccentric 
Professor Schtickly.  Though he was creating a machine that would 
revolutionize Pokémon transportation, something went horribly wrong 
during the test session.

As a result, Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were sent to some parallel 
dimension, where they met Griff and Marina, dead-ringers for Gary and 
Misty.  It seems Marina has been diagnosed with a deadly disease that 
will certainly kill her in a month's time.  Our heroes offer to help in 
any way they can as they try to figure out how to get back to their own 
dimension.

Unfortunately, a gang of Rapidash riders rolled into town, and 
apparently, they have a past with Marina.  One that involved her somehow 
killing all of their gang's former members!  Just what kind of disease 
does Marina have and is it curable?

Meanwhile, Team Rocket makes plans for a dark future, Cassie and Arius 
began their own future away from the Pokémon Trainers' Association, and 
Gary and his girls were still wandering around the tropical Orange Island 
Archipelago.

But this part of our story starts with the plant-loving gym leader of 
Celadon City, Erika.  Why?  Read on and find out...

******

It's the morning of August 2nd in Celadon City as we look in on Pokémon 
Gym.  A group of girls were gathered around the entrance, in the midst 
of crowd control as several dozen Pokémon trainers had lined up there.  
They were taking names and giving out tickets as they fielded questions 
from the curious and rapidly growing impatient crowd.  On the door behind 
them, the entrance to the gym building was closed, but a sign was 
hanging on the doorknob.

It read 'Gym reopens Thursday, August 2nd at 12 noon.  Preliminary 
challenger screening sign-ups begin at 8 am, testing at 11 am.'

One of the girls, dressed in a leaf green kimono, was using a megaphone 
to broadcast directives to the prospective challengers.

"Good morning, Rainbow Badge challengers!  All of those wishing to 
challenge Miss Erika must check-in at the sign-up desk, located to my 
right!  Once signed up, make sure you get a ticket!  This ticket is your 
entrance to the gym badge preliminary fights!

"As per current Pokémon League rules, you must defeat two gym leader 
apprentices before being able to challenge the gym leader herself!  These 
are one-on-one, single elimination battles.  Because of the expected 
demand of challengers, we ask in advanced that you be ready to battle and 
that you leave the area upon victory or defeat.  We will not be allowing 
same-day rematches for the foreseeable future, as to give as many 
trainers as possible a chance to challenge Miss Erika.

"Note that if we call your ticket number and you do not arrive for your 
battle with an apprentice or Miss Erika herself, you forfeit the battle 
automatically!  No exceptions... you miss your call, see ya, come see us 
tomorrow!  We will do our best to make sure all trainers who make it 
pass the preliminary apprentice fights do get a battle with Miss Erika 
today, so we ask that you please be patient and bear with us as she 
returns from her vacation today!  Thank you!"

======

You'd think Erika would be inside the gym, preparing for the long day 
ahead.  But instead, she was over at the Public Library, in a private 
reading room all by herself.  Stacks upon stacks of books littered the 
room, both on the table and on the floor surrounding her seat.  With a 
pen in one hand and a fresh book in the other, Erika was reading and 
making notes in a leaflet pad... one of now seven stacked to her right.

The usual prim and proper gym leader was wearing nothing but a green 
short sleeve blouse and a matching-colored, ankle-length skirt.  Her hair 
was a mess... she was even missing her trademark hairband.  And her pace 
looked worn and pale... expected given the stress she's under and the 
lack of makeup.

Erika was so focused on her work that she didn't hear the door leading 
into the room open, nor someone step through it.  A green-haired girl 
with glasses, the library's full-time receptionist, stumbled in, 
exasperated at the gym leader's work ethic.

"You're still here, Miss Erika?" she asked.

"Uh huh," Erika mumbled, not looking up from her work.

"You've already rescheduled the reopening of your gym once this week.  I 
don't think many people will be pleased if you delay it again."

Erika sighed, put her pen down and turned to look at the receptionist.

"I know, I know... but I've been here nearly three weeks and I've barely 
made any progress in my research!"

"But... what about all of those notes you've already taken?"

"Hearsay and conjecture, unfortunately... no solid theories on this 
phenomenon.  You'd think I'd find something in the Kanto Region's largest 
library... I'm getting overtly frustrated, like I wasted all of this time 
on a fruitless search..."

"But aren't most 'Ancient Pokémon Legends' like that?  Too many 
questions, almost all of them without answers?"

"I guess.  But for some reason... I'd think this would be different."

The grass Pokémon Master glanced up at the clock on the wall.  It read 
10:37.  Sighing again, Erika went to work packing her things to leave.

"Thanks for all of your help, Bridget!  You've been a real asset to me 
these past few days."

Bridget blushed and bowed in respect.  "Th... thank you!"

"I've gotta go and get ready!" Erika exclaimed, running out the door with 
all of her notes.

Bridget was about to wave goodbye when she gasped at the hundreds of 
unfiled books left scattered around the reading room.

"B-b-b-b-b-b-b-but..."

"I'll send some of my assistants later to clean up the mess!" Erika 
yelled as she bolted out the library front entrance.

"Ye... yeah..." Bridget drooped, once again peering into the room of 
endless books.  She then broke down and began to cry.  "Waahhh... it'll 
take days to refile all of this stuff!"

"There's gotta be an answer to this mystery," Erika thought to herself 
as she ran through the streets of Celadon and back to the gym.  "There's 
gotta be..."

======

Back in the town of Chiva, in a parallel dimension...

"I can't believe this is the day," Misty said, softly.

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu, still stuck in an unknown place with no 
knowledgeable way of getting back home, were standing alongside Griff as 
they watched Marina being wheeled into an ambulance headed for the 
hospital.

"They say in the last ten days, she's just as contagious as in the first 
ten," Griff told the gang.  "It's hazardous to everyone's health to have 
her out in the open."

"I still can't believe we couldn't do anything for her!" Brock cried.

"After all of the methods and remedies we tried..." Misty stated 
dejectedly.

"No... there's just gotta be something!" Ash exclaimed.  "Something we 
haven't tried!"

"We don't have the expertise of real doctors, Ash.  There's only so much 
we can do without making her condition worse than it already is."

Griff clenched his fist in anger.  "I wanna believe... I wanna 
believe... I wanna believe she'll get better!  But... but..."

Misty looked at Griff as he collapsed in front of her.  She knew exactly 
how he felt.  After all, she felt like Marina was a part of her.  They 
were virtually twins, save for the fact Misty herself was a few years 
older.  To lose Marina now would be like breaking her in half.  She 
didn't know, now that she and Marina were best friends, if she could 
live without her.

Not after hearing about Marina's past...

======

Twenty days ago...

"Thank you!  Thank you!"

"You've rescued our town from an unnecessary evil!"

"How can we ever repay you?"

"Are you kids rich or somethin'?  How'd you get dem Pokémon?"

"Where can I find a Pikachu just like yours?"

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were being pushed and pulled in every 
direction imaginable, as the townsfolk of Chiva were showing an 
outpouring of love towards their saviors.

"I've always want to be popular," Misty cried, "but this is ridiculous!"

"Out of the way!" Ash shouted, trying to push through crowd... with 
little avail.  "We've got to find Griff and Marina!"

"Pika!  Pika pika, pikachu!" Pikachu yelped, hopping to and fro to keep 
from being squashed by the adults or being cuddled by the little kids.

The crowd continued yelling praises, each more jubilant than the last.

"You're my hero!"

"Can I treat you all to a drink?  My treat!"

"I want you to bear my children!"

Upon hearing the last remark, Brock looked around to see who had made it.

"That's the best compliment I've heard all day!" gleamed Brock.

"Hey, old man!" shouted the same voice.  "I'm not talking about you!  I 
want the kid!"

Brock looked down and saw a nine-year old brunette standing in front of 
him.

"Gah!" Brock stepped back in shock.  "You're just a kid!"

"YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO BE BEARING ANYTHING!" yelled Misty from 100 feet 
away, who had heard her comment despite the overbearing crowd noise.

"Everyone calm down!" a loud, yet soothing voice exclaimed.  "Give them 
some room, give them some room!"

The crowd did as they were told, and our heroes finally found themselves 
with some breathing room.  Walking through the gathering, a red-haired 
man in his late 20s and wearing a red and blue military-like uniform of 
sorts broke through and approached Ash and the gang.  Instantly, Ash 
recognized the guy.

"Are you... you're Lance!" Ash gasped, pointing him out.

"Lance of the Elite Four?" questioned Misty, also in shock.

"Hmmm?" 'Lance' responded.  "You must have me confused with someone 
else.  I am the Mayor of Chiva.  My name is Lionel.  Lionel Waifer.

"I see..." observed Brock.  "Another look-alike, just like Griff was of 
Gary and Misty of Marina."

"You know of my daughter, Marina?"

Ash nodded.  "Yes... we just met her a few minutes ago, right before 
those Rapidash trainers came through here."

"Amazing..." the mayor stated, gazing upon Misty.  "Did anyone tell you 
how much you resemble her?  You look just like her, only a bit older!"

"I get that a lot!" Misty lied, playing along though she hadn't seen 
Marina in person first.

"I don't know who you teens are, but you've saved our town from being 
trashed by those rebels!  But now I must quickly ask of another favor... 
we must find my Marina!  She's gravely ill, and missing!  I can't imagine 
how much worse she could get being out of bed... I need to find her!"

"We'll help you, sir," Brock smiled.  "After all, those guys seemed to 
have quite an interest in her."

"Aye, and what a sad tale of woe that is.  I'll be glad to tell you of 
it, but first, we must find her!"

"I'm right here, father."

Everyone turned to see Marina, with her head lowered in shame, walking 
towards them, with Griff right beside her.

The mayor immediately turned his attention to Griff and snapped at him.  
"For shame... you of all people should know better than to put Marina in 
harm's way!  And making her get out of bed... what is wrong with you, 
boy?"

"Daddy," defended Marina, "it was my decision to..."

But Griff raised his arm to stop her.  "I wasn't thinking, sir, and I 
apologize for that."

"Humph... run along home... don't let me see your face again today!"

"Yes, sir," Griff solemnly obeyed, then turned to head back to his house.

"Griff, wait!" Marina shouted, but Griff ignored her.  Ash and the others 
just watched silently, not interfering.

"Now, young lady, time for you to get back to bed!" ordered the mayor.

"But pa!"

"No buts!  You know your condition, Marina!  We don't want a relapse of 
the Rapid Dashery fiasco here in town, do we?"

Ash, Brock, and Pikachu were stunned, to say the least, at Mayor Lionel's 
resistance to the truth.  Misty, on the other hand, was tired of standing 
by and letting this go.  She ran over and jumped in between father and 
daughter.

"Sir, if I may..." Misty cut in.

Marina gasped as Misty, a near-mirror image of her own self, was standing 
next to her and standing up to her father.  She couldn't believe it... 
who was she?

"She looks older than me..." Marina thought.  "Is she... my future self?"

"I know it's none of our business," Misty continued, "but if it weren't 
for Griff being with her, those ruffians might have taken her away!"

"Maybe so, but he shouldn't have brought her outside to begin with!  
Besides, if you're worried about me reprimanding the boy... well, I'll 
leave that for his parents to decide.  They're good folk... they'll pick 
a just punishment, if needed.  He may mean well, and I harbor no ill 
feelings towards him.  But he needs to understand that he put the 
livelihood of the entire town in jeopardy by bringing my daughter out of 
quarantine!"

"I understand, but..."

"As a visitor to our fair town, I ask that you please respect our 
customs, young lady!  No visitors are immune, even if you're a dead 
ringer for Marina!"

Before Misty could shout back, Brock grabbed her by the wrist and 
whispered something into her ear.

"Let it go.  We still have no idea where we are, and we don't want to 
sabotage any chance they might help us figure that out!"

"Fine," Misty gave in, pulling out of Brock's grasp.

Marina started walking back towards the house.  Mayor Lionel followed 
her, but then he stopped and turned to look back at our heroes.

"I'm sure you have questions about those guys and about my daughter.  
Come with me, and I'll explain as much as I can."

Having very little choice as to where to go from here, Ash and the gang 
had no choice but to follow and hear the mayor out.

======

Minutes later, the group was gathered back inside Marina's... uh, the 
mayor's house.  But for a city leader, the residence didn't look any 
better inside or out than the other houses in the town.

"Everything looks so... uh..." Misty began, fumbling for words.

"You can say it, my dear," Mayor Lionel smiled.  "It's cheap.  I admit 
it.  Then again, we are a poor town of sorts.  Too expensive to deck 
this place out with extravagant things and seldom-used knickknacks.  But 
that's okay... I'm used to the simple life."

"I see," Brock agreed.

"So, tell me young strangers, who are you and where do you hail from?"

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!  And this is my best friend, Pikachu!"

"Pika!"

"My name's Misty!  My family runs the Pokémon gym in Cerulean City!"

"And I'm Brock, from Pewter City!  I'm a gym leader too!"

The mayor scratched his head, confused.  "I've never heard of these 
places that you're from.  Nor have I seen Pokémon as rare as yours.  Or 
of your gyms, given the only gym within 500 miles closed up shop years 
ago!"

"You're serious?" Ash asked, a little freaked.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you teens get here to begin with?"

"It was that nutty professor!" Misty exclaimed, clenching her right fist 
with anger.  "If we ever get back, I swear I'm gonna..."

"Uh..." Brock cut her off, covering her mouth with his hands.  "What 
Misty meant to say is, this guy named Professor Schtickly was testing 
out a Pokémon transporter prototype.  We, unfortunately, became 
unexpected test subjects."

Misty knocked Brock's hand away from her face.

"You see," she spoke up, "We don't know why we ended up here, or how 
we're going to get back home."

"My, my," the mayor thought out loud.  "That is a peculiar predicament."

"Anyway you can help us?" asked Ash.

"I'm afraid not.  Technology's very scarce around here.  Even if we had 
the technology around to build a device capable of returning you to your 
rightful place, we don't have anyone nearly ingenious enough to put such 
a thing together."

"Then we're stuck here?"

Misty growled.  "My sisters are going to go bananas if I don't get back 
home in a week!  That stupid mad scientist!"

"I'm sorry for your predicament.  I'm not sure there's anything I can do 
to help... but if it's any consolation, you can spend the night here.  
We can figure out what arrangements, if any, need to be made in the 
morning."

"Guess that's the only thing we can do," Brock stated aloud.

The gang sat silently for a minute or two, still in disbelief about 
being stuck in an unknown place, far from home.

"Hey, Mayor?" Ash said, breaking up the silence.  "What about Marina?"

"Yeah," Misty added.  "Who are those guys, and why are they so 
interested in her?"

The mayor sighed, got up out of his seat, and started pacing about.  
"That, my young ones, is a sorrowful tale that started back in March..."

======

Flashback to said month, where Marina was walking about the desert 
plains a few miles outside of Chiva.  There, she was roaming around a 
small patch of berry bushes.  Basket in hand, she began to pick them 
one by one.

"It was a normal day, like any other," Mayor Lionel narrated.  "As she 
tended to do once a week, Marina was out picking Pecha Berries.

"Pecha Berries?" Ash wondered.  "What are those?"

"A sweet and soft fruit that heals poisoned Pokémon.  It's very 
delicious."

"So I've heard," commented Brock.

"Anyway, Marina has never told me everything that happened from that 
point on, but what I do know is that she was kidnapped by some members 
of that Rapidash gang.  She had disappeared for ten days.  The whole 
town spent hours upon hours searching for her."

"That must've been horrible!" wailed Misty.

"We were all starting to give up hope that we'd never ever see her alive 
again.  And then..."

"And then?  And then what?"

"We found her.  But..."

======

"Marina... what happened to you?"

The townspeople gasped as they gazed upon the stunned Marina, emerging 
from the cave where she was being held hostage.  That's because her 
clothes and face were caked in several places with dry blood.

======

The entire gang was stunned with disbelief.  They couldn't believe what 
they had just heard... that Marina was found in such a horrid condition.

"Wha... what did they do to her?" Misty cried.

Brock clenched his fists in anger.  "Those fiends... how dare they hurt 
an innocent girl like that!"

Ash growled.  "How come no one made those guys pay for what they did?"

Mayor Lionel sighed.  "Well... the reason for that is... well..."

======

"Marina... what in tarnation did those dastardly blokes do to you?" her 
father asked, wrapping his arms around his injured daughter.

"Where are they?" the townspeople yelled in defiance, prepared to dish 
out revenge for this act of wrongdoing on her behalf.

"Say something, dear!" the Mayor shouted, releasing his grip on Marina.

Marina opened her mouth as if to speak... but no sound parted from her 
lips.

Lionel gasped.  "No... is it that unspeakable?"

One of the townspeople placed a hand on his shoulder.  "Sir... she needs 
medical attention.  I think you should take her to see Dr. Credi.  We'll 
accompany you back."

"But... what about those guys responsible for doing... whatever they did 
to her?"

"Don't worry, sir!  A small group of us will forge ahead and try to find 
that band's cave.  We'll teach 'em not to mess with one of our own!"

As some of the men continued onward to find the Rapid Dashery's hideout, 
others helped carry the mute, yet otherwise alert Marina back to town.

======

"Once we got back to Chiva," narrated the Mayor, "Dr. Credi immediately 
checked her out.  But the results were far from what we expected..."

Mayor Lionel and the men that had carried Marina back to town were 
sitting in the waiting quarters of Chiva's small clinic when Dr. Credi 
stepped out of the operation room.

"Well?" Lionel asked, immediately jumping out of his seat.

"The good news is that she's got no broken bones and there's no evidence 
that they did anything morally apprehensive to her... so to speak."

Some of the men seemed overjoyed by that diagnosis.  Not the mayor, 
though...

"But wait... all of that caked blood on her!  You can't tell me that 
doesn't mean anything!"

Dr. Credi looked down at the ground for a few seconds, then redirected 
his gaze back at the Mayor.  Instantly, those aforementioned cries of 
joys had ceased.

"What... what is it, doc?"

"I'm not 100 percent sure, as I don't have the knowledge or the tools 
to make an appropriate diagnosis, but..."

"But?  But what?"

"Somehow, over the past ten days, she picked up a very rare and powerful 
disease.  I cannot tell whether she's had the disease for some time or 
she picked it up recently, possibly from those kidnappers.  But all the 
signs I'm seeing point to the Grechola Virus."

The Mayor was afraid to ask, but... "Just... just how powerful?"

"To the point where there's no known cure.  And this disease is fatal.  
If Marina's lucky... she's got six months to live."

All of the faces in the room turned blue with doom and distraught.

"You've gotta be kidding me, doc!  No way, no how... and you said you're 
not sure, right?"

"I'm sure enough, Mayor.  Though there's a chance I may be wrong... as 
much as it pains me to say it, sir, we must assume the worst-case 
scenario."

"I couldn't believe what he had told me," Mayor Lionel stated, narrating 
again.  "All I knew is that these ruffians would pay for that 
unspeakable act.  I had no idea what they had done to my Marina, but I 
was going to make sure I would reciprocate their actions tenfold!

"But never did I expect to get retribution so quickly afterwards, in an 
unforeseen twist of fate..."

The Mayor and the men in the waiting room were still getting over the 
shock over Dr. Credi's briefing of Marina's situation that they had yet 
to notice one of the guys who had continued on to the cave had just 
busted in, panting with shortness of breath.

"Huh?" Dr. Credi spoke up.  "Mr. Anderson... is there a problem?"

"We..." he started, "we... found those guys' hideout!  But..."

"What's wrong?  Speak up, man!"

"They all look just like Marina!  And even worse... they're all dead!"

======

Running as fast as we possibly could, all of us including the good doctor 
returned to the area where we had found my daughter.  Less than a quarter 
of a mile away was the cave in question, and the rest of the group that 
had gone there was standing outside.  All of their faces were a pale 
white, and it was evident some of them had been puking for some reason.  
Amongst them, lying on the ground, was Anthony, gasping for air and his 
face and clothes covered with splattered fresh and dry blood.

"What happened here?" the Mayor asked.

Mr. Anderson answered, pointing at Anthony.  "There's seven or eight of 
them, just like this guy here.  He's... he's the only one still alive."

Mayor Lionel went to grab Anthony, but...

"Wait!" exclaimed Dr. Credi.  "If this is the Grechola Virus, then in 
his state he may be highly contagious!"

The men who had been at the cave began murmuring amongst themselves with 
worry and panic.

"Oh God... we're going to die!" one of them yelled, having already seen 
the deceased in the cave.

"Quiet down!" Mayor Lionel exclaimed, quickly establishing order.  "How 
many of you went inside?"

The group glanced at each other, then slowly... all six of them, 
including Mr. Anderson, raised their hands.

"We might have ourselves an epidemic here," Dr. Credi noted, reaching 
into his pocket to pull out a surgeon's paper mask.

He then turned to one of the unaffected men.  "Mr. Rasheed... go back to 
my office and search my rolodex for a doctor named Mirabelle Watson.  
She's the only person I know within 200 miles of here who has dealt with 
this virus before.  Implore her that she needs to come here at once, 
with whatever help she can bring us.  Hurry... we're on borrowed time 
here!"

Mr. Rasheed nodded, then ran back to Chiva.  Dr. Credi then turned 
towards the cave entrance and started to walk in.

"Nobody follow me in for whatever reason!  This virus may be airborne, 
and we must minimize any further risk of infecting the town!"

As the good doctor walked inside, the worried men started pounding the 
Mayor with questions.

"Mayor Lionel... we aren't all really infected with a deadly virus... 
are we?"

The Mayor sighed.  "There's a very good chance you are.  That we all 
are.  Including myself, if this thing is airborne, if Dr. Credi's 
assumptions are correct."

"I tried to hope for the best, but until we could get a full prognosis 
on the situation, we really had no idea how good... or bad off we were."

======

"So what did you end up doing next?" Misty asked.

"Well from there, we had to get that lone survivor... Anthony, I think 
his name was, to the clinic.  Then we had to figure out a way to bury 
the dead.  Though we still didn't have a clue why they had kidnapped 
Marina in the first place or how they came to get the disease in their 
systems, we couldn't just leave them there to rot.  We had to give them 
a proper burial.  Which was hard considering the circumstances, but we 
had to wait a few days to make sure the disease wasn't still spreading 
from them after death.

"Meanwhile, both my daughter Marina and that lowlife Anthony were alert 
the whole time while staying in the clinic.  For some reason, neither of 
them were willing to talk at all.  Dr. Credi suspected that whatever had 
happened in that cave was too traumatic for either of them to want to 
relive again.  It would be a few days before either Marina or Anthony 
wanted to talk about anything, much less how they ended up in the 
conditions they did.

"It was Anthony who finally gathered up the courage to talk, about a 
week after we had found him..."

======

Anthony was sitting upright in his clinic bed, with Mayor Lionel and Dr. 
Credi standing to his left, curious as to what had happened that day.

"Well, from what I can remember..." began the young boy, "it kinda 
started shortly after Marina arrived at our home base.  You see, we 
didn't kidnap her... we were trying to help her."

"Help her?" the Mayor yelled in an uproar.  "By holding her hostage for 
a week and a half?"

"We didn't hold her hostage!  She was sick, sir!"

"Sick?"

Anthony nodded.  "You see... when Patrick and the boys found her by that 
Pecha Berry patch, she was unconscious.  When they had seen her lying on 
the ground with a partially-eaten Pecha Berry beside her, they knew 
something was wrong.  So, they brought her to the cave.

"Naturally, one or two of our guys began to get the wrong idea.  But 
Dominic, the leader... and my older brother, was having none of that.  
He said that 'We have a duty to nurse this poor girl back to health.  
That, and it's unfair to take advantage of people who are in dire 
straights.'

"Anyway, Dominic did the best he could, trying to think of remedies that 
he could try.  Though he didn't know what exactly that girl had.  He 
wasn't exactly a doctor, to be sure.  And then... something horrific 
happened!"

"What?  What?"

"Well, you see, on the third day, he was watching her all alone.  At the 
time, we were debating if we really should take her to town to see a 
real doctor.  But then, out of the blue, she woke up.  I remember being 
outside the room, hearing my brother screaming with joy.  Then, 
suddenly, I heard a harsh coughing sound.  In fact, several harsh coughs 
in a row.  Curious, I decided to enter the room.

"And that's when I saw it...

"She had coughed up blood.  There was some dripping from her mouth, with 
a puddle slowly forming in her lap as she sat upright.  Next to her was 
my brother, who had some blood on his face and his shirt sleeves.  I 
asked him what happened, and he said he thought she might have anemia.  
He tried to ask her if she was on medication, but she suddenly fainted 
again."

"Did you try to get a doctor at that point?" Dr. Credi asked.

"Yes.  My brother ordered a few of our guys to go get one.  But for some 
reason... they didn't come back.  My guess is what happened to them is 
the same thing that happened to us."

"You mean the cave?"

Anthony nodded once more.  "Yes.  You see, soon after those guys left, 
Dominic started to show the same symptoms as she did.  Coughing up 
blood, frequent fainting spells... in hours he could barely move.  It 
didn't take long for the rest of us to be doomed to the same fate.  Some 
of us started thinking that she was some witch, that she had cast a 
spell on us.  A fatal one, one that would kill us all if we didn't kill 
her first.

"But by the time anyone gathered the courage to actually try to kill 
her, we were all immobilized, too sick to even keep ourselves upright.  
It... it was less than 24 hours after my brother Dominic started showing 
symptoms that he... passed on.  I remember crawling over to him and 
giving him one last hug before he left me... forever.

"It didn't take long before the rest of the gang also started 
perishing.  Some died that very same day.  Others persevered in agony 
for days.  For some reason, though, after getting all the early symptoms 
like them, I didn't get any worse.  Nor any better.  I couldn't figure 
out why, out of all people, I was suffering the most, stuck in limbo 
between life and death.  And though I was too weak to check on Marina 
and thought that she had passed away too, for some reason I felt she was 
in the same position as me... just laying there, wondering when the 
suffering would stop.  If it would ever... stop.

"Soon after, I passed out.  Next thing I knew, I was here.  I thought 
for sure I was done for."

"My word!" Dr. Credi exclaimed.

"That's preposterous!" Mayor Lionel added.

"Believe whatever you want... but as for me, I believe that your 
daughter is responsible for the death of my comrades.  And I swear, if 
I ever fully recover from this, I will get my revenge!"

"Responsible?  You brought this upon yourselves, you and your ruffians!"

Anthony was about to object to that remark, but he started feeling 
woozy and promptly lied back down on his bed, wheezing with shortness 
of breath.  Dr. Credi went to work trying to hook up a defibrillator.  
But Mayor Lionel stuck his hand out to try and stop her.  Suddenly, 
Dr. Mirabelle Watson bolted into the room and took observation of the 
situation.

"I suggest you let Dr. Credi do his job, Mayor!" she ordered.

"But why?" he objected.  "This guy is a criminal!  And he's accusing 
my daughter of being responsible for the deaths of his gang, even though 
they brought it upon themselves to kidnap her!  Why do you insist on 
continuing to treat him?"

"Because," Dr. Watson answered.  "we have to find out why he and Marina 
didn't die immediately like the others.  If they can help us find a cure 
for this darn ol' disease, then the whole world will benefit as a 
result.  Besides, regardless of whether this hombre's telling the truth 
or not, it's not a doctor's job to judge people."

"What?"

"Our job is to help those that need medical assistance, regardless of 
what they might have done to get into that situation.  We leave all that 
judgment junk to the courts and stuff, like it should be!"

Mayor Lionel accepted Dr. Watson's statement, though regrettably.

"But there better not be any preferential treatment!" he added.  "I want 
my daughter to receive the exact same care as him, at the very least!"

"Don't worry, Mayor," reassured Dr. Watson.  "Your girl's in good hands 
with me!"

The mayor then marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him.  
The two doctors winced, then smiled nervously at each other before 
getting back to work.

======

"I didn't want to believe him," the Mayor told Ash and the gang.  "No 
one did after I told everyone else his story.  But two days later, 
Marina conveyed the exact same, horrific tale..."

======

This time around, Mayor Lionel was comforting his daughter, Marina, 
stroking her right hand with his own.  Dr. Credi was also present, and 
this time Dr. Watson was also available to hear it first-hand.  Marina 
began to tell her tale.

"Well, I remember going out to pick Pecha Berries when I suddenly began 
feeling ill.  I recall feeling faint after taking a bite out of one, and 
then nothing..."

"Nothing?" Dr. Watson repeated, as if to help jog Marina's memory.

"Uh... I do remember feeling being carried off somewhere, though at the 
time I didn't know it was by that gang.  I was out for a pretty long 
time, and though I was too weak to open my eyes, I was awake at times.  
And I could hear many of the conversations around me in regards to what 
to do with me.

"There was this one guy... I think they called him Dominic... who 
insisted that I be left in his care, as he thought that I was gravely 
ill and that he wanted to do anything to keep me alive.  He did many 
things to soothe and reassure me that I would be alright, but I couldn't 
give him my thanks.  I just didn't have the strength.

"Then, suddenly, after what had seemed like weeks, I managed to not open 
my eyes, but gather enough strength to sit up.  It was then I realized 
that I wasn't any place familiar.  There was a guy sitting in a chair 
next to my bed, asleep... though he had been woken up by the creaking of 
the bed I was lying in.  Needless to say, he was overjoyed to see me 
awake.  I was happy to see the guy who helped me out, though I had no 
idea who he was.  Then, something happened."

"You started coughing up blood?" guessed Dr. Watson.

"Yes," Marina nodded in affirmation.  "I couldn't control myself, as I 
started to cough blood.  Onto myself, onto him.  Suddenly, some guy 
burst in the room.  The guy who had been taking care of me called him 
his brother, and told him to get a doctor.  Next thing I knew, I 
fainted, as my burst of strength had left me just as quickly as it had 
come.

"I... was in and out for the next week.  Shortly thereafter, the man that 
was watching over me disappeared.  Every day, I heard somebody new 
coming to feed me, to try and keep me alive.  One day I managed to get 
enough strength to try and ask one what was going on.  But for some 
reason, he didn't respond.  I had no idea if he didn't hear me or if he 
was ignoring me.

"Eventually, the food stopped coming.  I figured something was wrong, 
that something had happened to them.  And it had to do with whatever my 
condition was.  At that point, I deduced that if this disease didn't 
kill me, well, I was going to die of starvation.  I though... well, 
daddy, I thought I was never going to see you again..."

"And suddenly this morning you're awake, almost fully recovered, as if 
you never contracted the disease in the first place!" Dr. Watson said, 
reading over the charts on the clipboard she was holding.

"But they didn't harm you in a way?" Marina's father asked.

"No.  Other than being starved for the last few days... speaking of 
which, my stomach's hurting real bad.  Can I get something to eat?"

"I'll get something from the cafeteria, dear.  I'm just glad I still 
have you."

He leaned over and gave Marina a hug.  He then exited the room with Dr. 
Watson, leaving Dr. Credi to watch over her.

"How can she be almost back to normal?" the Mayor asked Dr. Watson.  
"Just a few hours ago, we weren't even sure she would survive through 
the night!"

"Well, apparently she has a rare sub-condition of the disease.  She has 
a partial immunity against it in her system."

"A partial immunity?  What does that mean?"

"It means that although she contracted and showed severe symptoms of the 
Grechola Virus, her body was able to gain control of it before it 
overran her immune system.  Very few cases turn out this way... this is 
the first time I've experienced it myself.  Well, I guess first two 
times, since that boy in the other room seems to be in the same boat."

"So does that mean she... uh, they, will be alright?"

"For awhile, yes.  But this is a powerful disease.  Remember when I told 
you before that she had six months to live at most?  That's where this 
comes in.  Normally, this disease kills anywhere within 24 to 72 hours 
after initial infection.  That's proven by most of the victims we saw 
back in thar cave, as well as the guys of our town that went in there.  
One or two got lucky and lasted another day or two.

"But Marina and the other guy, Anthony?  Well, their antibodies were 
able to fight off the rest of the virus and put it at bay.  There's no 
proof as to why only a select few are able to do so.  Unfortunately, it 
seems that their immune systems cannot destroy the Grechola strains... 
only hold them off.  Over time, those two's white blood cells will be 
consumed by the viruses' cells, which will slowly multiply with time.  
Once they break through, they'll pick up right where they started."

"You mean?"

"Yes," Dr. Watson nodded.  "In less than six months... both of them will 
start showing symptoms again... and then they will both die!"

======

"So, what happened after that?" Ash asked the mayor.

"Well, shortly thereafter," Mayor Lionel told them, "Anthony escaped from 
the hospital.  He knew we were going to arrest him, so on the day he was 
scheduled to be discharged, he fled town.  We assumed he went back to 
reunite with his gang mates... or what was left with them.  But we never 
did find them."

"They just disappeared?  Like that?" wondered Misty.

The mayor nodded.  "Yes.  Up until about two weeks ago, when they 
reappeared and started terrorizing the town for some strange reason.  For 
some reason, they were after my girl!"

"Dear sweet Marina?" Brock gasped.

"That's horrible!" added Misty.

"We managed to keep them from getting to her, but they kept coming 
back... practically everyday!  Anthony was leading them, and they're 
pretty mad at all of us.  Why, I don't know!  If anything, we should be 
mad at them for scaring visitors away and ruining our town's good name!"

"Do they still blame Marina for all of their friends becoming ill and 
dying while she survived?"

"Of course!  It wasn't her fault they all got ill!  The berry bush she 
ate from was poisoned by some unknown source.  Plus, the Grechola Virus 
that she picked up is highly contagious.  For taking her, they deserved 
what happened!"

"Isn't that a bit harsh?" asked Brock.

"Maybe... but they'd all be alive and kicking if they had just left her 
alone!"

"But then what?" Misty yelled.  "Your daughter would've been left out 
there to die!"

"Huh?"

"If they didn't find her, you and your townspeople might've!  But then 
that would've doomed all of you to fall prey to the virus!  We could've 
potentially landed in a ghost town!  You should consider yourself 
fortunate that they made an unknowing and unwilling sacrifice to save 
Marina!"

"Save?  The virus will kill her in a matter of weeks!"

"Through no fault of their own!  It was never proven that the berry bush 
was poisoned by them, was it?  And why would they go to such great 
lengths to do that at the risk of their own lives?"

"Misty's right," agreed Brock.  "You need to realize that though this 
virus is a terrible thing, no one on either side is to blame for it 
being introduced into the plant life in the first place!"

"So why don't you give them the benefit of the doubt and explain it to 
them so they'll stop asking for retribution when they roll into town 
everyday?"

"I agree with Misty!" Ash spoke up.  "You need to put a stop to this!"

Mayor Lionel was taken aback by being reprimanded for his beliefs by 
three teenagers... but inside, he knew they were justified in doing so.  
He was letting his anger cloud his better judgment all this time.

"Okay... you three are all right.  When they come tomorrow, I'll clear 
up this misunderstanding and make amends.  After all, I am the mayor of 
Chiva!"

======

Present time, August 2nd, at Professor Schtickly's Lab, Seafoam Islands

Duplica yawned as she walked down the hallway towards the wooden door 
that led into the main laboratory, her Ditto perched on her left 
shoulder.  Opening it, she noticed it was as much a mess as she had 
left it in when she had gone to bed the previous night.  Tools were 
strewn everywhere, some of the formerly brand-new machines looked as if 
they were in disrepair, and Professor Schtickly was fooling with a wide 
assortment of bolts and wires sticking out of his Pokémon Transporter.  
Which seemed more like a Dimension Hopper given Ash and the others' 
current dilemma, and why Duplica was still hanging around the place.

"How many more times are you going to go over those?" Duplica rubbed 
her eyes sheepishly.

"I do not understand!" Professor Schtickly uttered.  "I've gone over 
every circuit and switchback in this machine many times over!  And yet 
this darn blasted thing still won't start up!"

"Ditto..." Ditto sighed sadly.

"First, I don't know how calling the thing 'darn blasted' is going to 
do anything for us.  Second... what's the point of making an invention 
that only works once?"

"It's not supposed to work once, it's supposed to work every time I 
tell it to!  But your friends had to go and mess it up!"

"You're the one who wanted them as test subjects, so don't go and 
badmouth my Ashy-boy!"

"Your Ashy-boy?" the professor wondered.  "I thought the red-haired girl 
who kept screaming at me..."

Before he could fully correct Duplica's claim to Ash, the phone started 
ringing.  Professor Schtickly turned around and went back to work 
examining the same bunch of wires again.

"Uh... aren't you gonna answer that?"

"Just telemarketers.  I don't have time for them."

Duplica shrugged her shoulders and walked over to answer it anyway.  
Especially since she didn't know what a telemarketer was, given that the 
Imite House was in the middle of nowhere in the countryside.

"Professor Schtickly's too busy to talk to you, telemarketer!"

"Like, I'm not a telema... wait a minute, is that you, Duplica?"

"THAT'S RIGHT!" Duplica exclaimed, smiling and pointing at herself.

"Oh my God, it is you!  It's like, me, Daisy, from Cerulean City!"

"Right, the eldest one!"

"You make me sound as if I'm fifty," Daisy deadpanned.  "Anyway... do 
you know what me and the girls have been through trying to find you and 
Misty?  And, like, turn on your video screen or something!"

After searching the keypad for the right button, Duplica managed to do 
as Daisy instructed.  Just like that, Daisy was on the video screen in 
front of Duplica, wearing nothing but a two-piece beehive yellow 
bikini... and the daisy in her blonde hair, naturally.

"That's better!  As I was saying... you won't believe what we had to go 
through to find out you were at some laboratory on the Seafoam Islands!  
That reminds me... there was, like, no deal for a vacation clause in 
your contract with the gym!"

Duplica rubbed the back of her head.  "Yeah... about that..."

"And where's Misty?  She's, like, so gonna get it when I get through 
talking to her..."

"There's something about that too..."

Daisy rolled her eyes.  "Whatever.  Look, now that we found you, you 
two need to get back here in a hurry!  Do you know how much money we 
invested to get you to perform instead of us for a month?  We had to 
advertise for a new clientele!"

Duplica saddened to look apologetic.  "I'm sorry..."

"The same people who wanted to see your traveling Ditto-palooza aren't 
the same ones who like Misty's mermaid show or our synchronized 
swimming act!  Can you imagine... no one wants to see Violet, Lily, and 
I swim?  Can you, like, believe that?"

"I just can't imagine," Duplica rolled her eyes.

"Worst yet, with Violet and Lily out looking for you two, I, sadly 
don't get the same draw with a solo act.  And I've had to handle all 
of the gym leader duties by myself.  I repeat, BY MYSELF!  You, like, 
know how hard that is?  I haven't had time the last week to go 
shopping, go out on dates, meet cute boys... is that asking for so 
much?"

Duplica sweatdropped in disbelief.  She thought, "How did the Pokémon 
gym survive until Misty grew of age?  Or when she was journeying with 
Ashy-boy and Pikachu and Brock?"

"Now I've got to find out where they are and get them back here while 
waiting for you two to return, schedule one more solo act for tomorrow, 
ask the League for a temporary hold on gym battles, start putting 
together make-ups for all the dates I had to put on the backburner..."

"Uh, Daisy..." interjected the Ditto trainer.  "About Misty..."

"I don't care if she's runaway with some secret love, even if it's 
you!  Like, just tell her I want you two back by tonight!"

With that, Daisy hung up the phone.  Duplica just stood there, a bit 
stunned.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" she said, then shook her 
head.  "Never mind..."

She then turned her attention back to Professor Schtickly.

"That was Misty's oldest sister, and she's not happy Misty and I aren't 
doing our jobs in Cerulean!  You'd better get that thing running, and 
I mean now!"

"These kinks don't work themselves out!" he shouted back.  "What's she 
gonna do to me if I don't, anyway?"

"Well... Misty has three sisters.  All of them are older than her, and 
that means all of them have more experience yelling at people for no 
reason."

The professor's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets.  "Eeeeya!  
Come on, you piece of junk, start working!"

As he moved double-time to check over the entire machine, Duplica 
developed a smirk on her face.  But Ditto shook its head shamefully at 
her.

"Ditto, ditto."

"What?  So I exaggerated a bit... it got him going, didn't it?"

She and Ditto watched as Professor Schtickly did something unscientific.  
He... kicked the machine... and hurt his foot in the process, hopping 
around comically as he groaned in pain.

"I feel like I'm in a kids' story," Duplica muttered.

If Duplica was right, then she easily saw the next part coming... the 
Pokémon Transporter springing to life, good as new!

"I am a genius!" he exclaimed.

Duplica wanted to do her best impression of Misty yelling at that point, 
but she thought better of it and just told him to...

"Okay... let's find Ashy-boy and the others, then."

"We just have to locate their energy signals.  If only we had a..."

"Let me guess..." Duplica smiled, pulling out... a red strand of hair.

"A DNA sample... of that girl?"

"What?  I strive for authenticity in my wigs!"

Professor Schtickly shot Duplica a 'you're not fooling me' look.

"Okay... she had a hair trimmed last week and she let me use what she 
cut off.  No, I'm not kidding, so stop looking at me like that."

Accepting Duplica's explanation, truthful or not, he put Misty's hair 
strand onto the scanner and let the machine do its work.

"Now we just wait for it to find her..."

"If we're lucky, it won't take us more than one act..."

======

Back in Chiva...

The ambulance doors were being closed as it prepared to pull away with 
Marina inside, ready to spend her last few days in quarantine.  With 
Griff accompanying her there, Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu could only 
watch as it drove towards the hospital.

"It's been almost three weeks since those Rapid Dashery riders were last 
in town," commented Ash.  "What do you think happened to them?"

"I don't know," Brock replied.  "But the Mayor's guilt seems to grow 
with every day.  He truly does want to reconcile with them... but no one 
seems to know where they ran off to."

"Meanwhile... we still haven't been able to find a way back home," Misty 
sighed.  "My sisters are probably all in a panic trying to find me."

"Don't worry," Ash comforted her, "we'll get back.  I know we will."

Suddenly, a portal opened up behind the quartet, surprising them all.  
As they turned around, a familiar figure and her Pokémon emerged from 
the freak anomaly.

"Da da da na da naaaaa!" she announced proudly, wearing a Supergirl 
costume, but with an orange blouse and a dark green skirt and a 'D' 
inside the shield design on her chest.  "It's Super Duplica to the 
rescue!"

"Dit dit, Ditto!" proclaimed her Ditto, posing proudly on her left 
shoulder while wearing a blue bandanna with eyeholes punched out in them.

"Duplica!" Ash, Misty, and Brock exclaimed.

"Pika pichu!" added Pikachu, overjoyed as well.

"Are we glad to see you!" Brock smiled.  "And in a such a beautiful 
outfit."

"Sorry it took so long to find you guys," Duplica apologized.  
"Apparently, our friend the 'good doctor' struggled to get the thing 
running again, much less being able to figure out how to use it to find 
where you guys were."

Misty cracked her knuckles in anticipation.  "I SO can't wait to get 
back and give that mad scientist a piece of my mind for stranding us in 
the middle of nowhere for three weeks!"

Suddenly, the gang heard a scream coming from the ambulance, followed by 
the sound of Rapidash neighing.

"What was that?" Brock asked.

They turned about and saw the Rapid Dashery gang had the ambulance 
surrounded.

"We've got to help them!" cried Misty.

Ash nodded in agreement.  "Right!  Let's go, Pikachu!"

"Pika!"

"I'll help too!" Duplica said to them.  "We've got to hurry, though... 
the professor said he can only keep the portal open for five minutes!"

The group bolted over to the ambulance, where three of the Rapidash and 
their riders had blocked the front of the vehicle to keep the driver 
from moving, and three more were approaching the back doors.  One of 
them was Anthony, and he didn't look happy at all.

"It's time to give that girl what she deserves once and for all!" 
Anthony told his fellow riders.  "Let's do it!"

"Stop right there!" Ash yelled.

"Yeah!" added Misty.  "You leave that ambulance alone!"

"It's those rich kids!" one of Anthony's comrades shouted.  "They're 
still around?"

"You ain't in tarnation gonna beat us this time!" screamed a second.

"Dismount and get ready for battle!" Anthony ordered.

His teammates did as they were told, and Ash and the gang skidded to a 
stop as they saw they were staring at six battle-tested Rapidash.

"Didn't you guys learn any better the last time?" Misty smirked.

"Whatever's going on, we won't let you hurt poor Marina!" Brock cried.

"So you'd better stop it right now!" Ash exclaimed.

"That's right... uh, whomever they're protecting, Duplica will too!" 
proclaimed the Ditto trainer.

"You kids aren't stopping us from getting what we want!" Anthony told 
them.  "Rapidash, fire spin!"

The six fire Pokémon launched their attack in tandem, instantaneously 
surrounding Ash and the gang in a ring of fire.

"Squirtle, use water gun to put out the fire!" Ash yelled as he threw 
out Squirtle's Pokéball.

"You help out too, Starmie!" Misty added, doing likewise.

"Ditto can help as well!" Duplica said, tossing Ditto into the air, 
and apparently back in her normal clothes after finding the time to 
change while no one was looking.  "Transform into a Staryu!"

Just as Ditto had completed its transformation, Squirtle and Starmie 
had emerged from their Pokéballs.

"Squirtle squirtle!"

"Ya!"

"Hai-dit!"

The three then quickly proceeded to extinguish the fire using a 
combined water gun attack.  Meanwhile, Brock pulled out one of his 
Pokéballs and threw it out... to reveal Onix.

"Onix!  Use Bind to smother what's left of the flames!"

"Grrrrooooaarrrrr!" growled Onix.

Following his trainer's instructions, Onix quickly snuffed the rest of 
the fire with his rock hard body.  Anthony and the rest of the Rapid 
Dashery gang looked a bit fearful over the kids' powerful Pokémon.

"Uh... now what, boss?" asked one of Anthony's henchmen as Onix uncoiled 
himself to give our heroes a clear view of them.

Anthony thought for a second and then glanced sternly at their Rapidash.  
He then pulled out a Pokéball from his pocket, much to Ash and the gang's 
surprise, and used it to recall Rapidash.

"Rapidash, return!"

Once his Rapidash was back in his Pokéball, Anthony turned to his team 
and motioned for them to do the same.

"Recall your Rapidash!  Now!"

"Now?" they asked all in unison.

"Did I stutter?  Now means NOW!"

Grumbling unhappily, the other team members did as their boss had said.  
Once that had been done, Anthony turned his attention to Ash.

"I'm guessing you're the leader of this motley crew, so..."

"Ash, a leader?" Misty scoffed.  "He couldn't lead his way out of a 
paper bag!"

"Now's not the time for petty arguments," giggled Duplica nervously.

She was intentionally blocking Ash's view of Misty as he fumed in the 
background... and reaching down to pick up Staryu-dit from the ground, 
who quickly changed back to Ditto.  The others followed her lead and 
recalled their Pokémon.  Doing so gave Ash time to cool down and focus 
on Anthony, whom he began to move towards in order to get an explanation 
from him as to everything that had happened.

"Why do you keep scaring these poor people?  And why do you want to get 
Marina?  She never did anything to you!"

"She cursed our entire gang to months of suffering, that's why!" yelled 
one of Anthony's men.  He was going to say more, but Anthony raised his 
hand as a gesture for him to decease talking.

"I'd just like to have a word with the young lady."

"Really?" Misty asked.  "How come?"

"Well... over these last few weeks, I've come to realize the truth.  
That it's been a matter of circumstance that we've befallen the terrible 
fate of being cursed by this deadly virus.  This is by no means Marina's 
fault, or the fault of her father, or anyone else who lives here in this 
town."

Inside the ambulance, Marina and Griff were listening intently, trying 
to figure out if Anthony was being honest with his feelings.

"This is a girl whom my brother, Dominic, took into our abode, and tried 
desperately to nurse her then-unknown condition back to health.  We had 
no idea of the ordeals Marina would bring our motley crew, but through 
no fault of her own!  I guess I'm so hardheaded that now, with only days 
to live, do I finally realize that anger has clouded my... no, our 
better judgment."

The other members of Anthony's crew began to break out in sobs and tears.

"But boss..." they all cried.

"I've accepted my fate, however cruel it may be.  I'm here because I want 
to make peace with the people I've hurt with my misunderstandings.  I 
know I probably won't be able to reconcile with everyone before my time 
comes, but from this day forward, I'll make sure the Rapid Dashery gang 
fights for the good of the people and no longer for our own needs of 
attention!"

"Here here!" the crew cheered.

Misty smiled.  "That's the spirit!"

Anthony smiled back.  "I know now... I must make up for all of my 
mistakes.  No matter how long it takes, even if my mates must finish 
what I start."

"We'll do whatever you wants us to, boss!" one of the guys exclaimed.

Anthony gave him a thumbs up in response.  "I know you will, Christian... 
as my successor when I move on."

Christian was taken aback by Anthony's declaration, but he quickly got 
over it and ran over to gave his boss a hug.

"I swear... I'll do the best job ever!"

"I know you will," Anthony told him, patting him on the back.

Suddenly, the ambulance door swung open.  Marina stood there, with Griff 
next to her.  With his help, Marina stepped out and slowly walked over to 
Anthony, the brother of the guy who did his best to keep her alive in the 
cave.  Anthony broke away from Christian so he could meet her 
face-to-face.

"Marina... I take it?"

"Yes," she nodded.  "So... after all this time..."

"Look... I'm pretty sure you'll never completely forgive me for 
expressing such hate for you and what I thought you did.  But now I know 
that Dominic did the right thing by helping you, even for what happened 
to him.  I'm sure he's smiling down on us now, and that he'll be 
smiling when we eventually go to meet him again."

"Don't talk that way, please," Marina pleaded.  "I know it seems bleak, 
but Dr. Watson believes they're close to a breakthrough.  We only have a 
few days at most, I know... but they'll find a cure for me!  And for you 
too!"

Anthony lowered his head.  "You really think after everything I've done 
that they'd willingly cure me if the occasion were to come up?"

"Well, for someone who wants the people he's terrorized for weeks to 
trust him, you sure aren't installing a lot of trust in us.  Look... you 
can't ask for trust without giving some.  So... trust in us!  Trust in 
me!  It's no guarantee they'll find the cure in time, but... isn't some 
chance better than none at all?"

"You're right!  I'm willing to help in anyway I can!" Anthony said as he 
reached over to give Marina a hug as well.

"You can start by keeping your hands off my girl," Griff said, batting 
Anthony away.

"Sorry, I didn't know," Anthony responded sheepishly, pulling away.

"Still... any friend of Marina's is a friend of mine," Griff stated as 
he reached his hand out to shake Anthony's.  The current Rapid Dashery 
leader complied and reached out to share the gesture.

"It's nice to finally see things all settled," Brock noted.

"I really hope they do find that cure," Misty added, "so they truly can 
have the time to make up for everything that's happened."

"Marina!  Marina!" a voice screamed from afar.

The entire group turned about to see Mayor Lionel running towards them.

"Keep him there, Marina!" he shouted.  "I want to talk that young 
gentleman!"

"If it's about everything that's happened, we've already reconciled 
that!"

"Oh... but I had finally gotten my speech just perfect."

Anthony walked over with a friendly face and said, "That's okay, sir... 
I'm pretty sure they'll be time to patch things up at the hospital."

"Speaking of time," Duplica cut in as she turned to Ash and the 
gang.  "Our window of opportunity to get back is about to expire!  We 
have to go now!"

"Pika pikachu, pika pika!" Pikachu cried, trying to get them to hurry.

"Thanks for the hospitality," Misty told the Mayor as the others started 
to bolt for the portal.  "I wish there was some way we could repay you 
for all you've done for us in our time of need."

"No need," Mayor Lionel laughed.  "All of the help you've provided the 
town of Chiva is repayment enough."

"Misty," Ash shouted, running back and grabbing her by the arm.  "When 
Duplica says now, she meant NOW!"

"Thanks again!" she said as she allowed Ash to pull her away.

Brock reached the portal just ahead of Duplica, and was the first to 
step through.  Duplica, with Ditto perched on her shoulder again, 
quickly followed him.  Pikachu was next, running just ahead of Ash and 
Misty, the last two to jump in.  Misty waved one last farewell before 
disappearing into the void, getting through just as the portal closed 
completely.

======

Back on the other side, Professor Schtickly was relaxing comfortably in 
a rocking chair stationed right next to the so-called Pokémon 
teleportation machine, which was glowing green with power.  He was 
observing the dials and meters on it when he watched as Duplica and the 
gang came plummeting into the room.  Gasping in amazement, he ran over 
to help them untangle themselves from the pile they had gotten into.

"Thank goodness, you all made it back!" Professor Schtickly cawed 
happily.  "My machine is a success!  Well... sort of.  Just a few minor 
tweaks and it'll actually do what it's supposed to and transport 
Pokémon without having to be inside Pokéballs.  It'll be a smash hit!"

"Oh yeah?" a tweaked Misty screamed as she was the first to be untangled.  
"I'll give you a smash hit you'll never forget!"

"Oh goodness me... ahhhhhhhhh!"

Ash, Brock, Duplica, Pikachu, and Ditto watched, speechless as Misty 
angrily chased the professor all across the laboratory.

"Uh... shouldn't we do something about this?" Ash asked, clueless.

"Just let Misty work out her aggression," Duplica said, patting him on 
the back.  "After all, you'll be thankful for it later, Ashy-boy!"

The entire gang laughed heartily as Misty continue to chase the poor 
doctor... uh, mad scientist all over the place.

======

After bidding Professor Schtickly farewell, thankfully before Misty 
could strangle the poor guy to death for the trouble he put them 
through, the gang headed down to the docks.  Misty and Duplica got 
tickets for a separate ride to Vermillion City, where Daisy had already 
arranged for a cab for them to Cerulean.  That left Ash and Brock for 
a lonely guys-only travel back to Pallet Town.  But it couldn't be 
helped.

======

Soon after their return to Pallet, Brock had to head back to his own 
gym in Pewter.  Ash, Pikachu, and Mrs. Ketchum saw him off.

"Hey, Ash!  Call me whenever you decide to head back to Johto!  I'll 
be happy to come along!"

Ash laughed.  "Don't worry, Brock, I will!"

"Pika pika!"

And just like that, Ash was back at home and by himself, training until 
the next chance to continue his journey towards becoming a Pokémon 
Master presented itself.

======

While Ash spent the next few weeks training, Misty and Duplica were 
pretty busy holding things down at the Cerulean Gym.  In order to make 
up for lost time and revenue, Duplica was forced to do two and three 
shows a day with her transforming Ditto.  And when Duplica wasn't 
on-stage, Misty was busy battling a whole mess of challengers.  It was 
safe to say that Daisy, Violet, and Lily were enjoying themselves as 
they watched the two younger teens become overwhelmed with work.

======

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Kanto, Gary and Stephanie were in the 
audience as Amber performed in her first ever Pokémon Contest.  Her 
Poliwag pranced around her wildly as she gave it commands.

"Use Bubble and then Water Gun!" ordered Amber.

Poliwag did as he was told, first unleashing a stream of perfectly 
shaped bubbles that wowed the crowd.  But then came the blast of water 
gun, which quickly destroyed the aforementioned bubbles.

"Now... Bubble, followed by Hypnosis!"

In came another stream of bubbles, but this time, Amber was determined 
to not let these go to waste.  Unfortunately, Poliwag's Hypnosis had no 
effect on the bubbles, and they just went and popped of their own 
accord.

"Uh... what do I do now?" Amber wondered with fright.

"She's completely embarrassing herself, isn't she?" Stephanie asked, 
covering her eyes as she didn't want to see Amber's foolish antics.

"You don't want to know..." Gary said, not wanting to tell her the 
truth.

Amber quickly wrapped things up as she tried to get Poliwag to do one 
more Water Gun attack.  And he did... right into Amber's face.

"Ugghhh..." she muttered, all wet and bothered.

"Let's give a big hand for first-timer, Amber!" Lillian, the Contest 
announcer, spoke through her microphone.  "Pretty much as expected for 
a first-timer, I guess... let's see what the judges think..."

After the judges announced their scores, the total appeared on the big 
screen above them.

"Those scores give Amber a total of 7.7!"

Finally moving her hands from where they were covering her eyes, 
Stephanie glanced just in time to see Amber's score.

"A 7.7?  Pretty gracious of them, especially if it's out of 10!"

Gary shook his head.  "Steph... the scores are out of 30."

Stephanie's mouth just hung wide open in shock as Amber and Poliwag 
slinked off-stage, heads lowered in defeat.  Gary sighed.

"Looks like that's another potential 'calling' down the drain..."

======

A few weeks had passed since the incident on the Seafoam Islands.  It 
was August 30th, and Ash and Pikachu were in the midst of training on 
the outskirts of Pallet Town, running up and down the grassy hills.  It 
was as if they were preparing for something important.  Which, 
technically, they really were.

"It's just me and you again, huh Pikachu?" Ash asked his loyal companion.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu chirped.

"Misty's back in Cerulean, getting her final lessons in being a good gym 
leader.  Duplica returned to her tour, but she promised to keep in touch 
with both Misty and I... surprisingly, she hasn't been too good keeping 
it, with her spending much of her down time trekking between towns.  As 
for Brock, well, he just said he has something to take care of, but to 
let him know when we were heading back to Johto so he can come along.

"That's right, Pikachu... just one more day of training and we'll hit the 
road again!"

"Pi pikachu!  Cha!"

Suddenly, they both begin hearing ringing noises.  Ash started to look 
around him, as he tried to discern where it was coming from.  Pikachu, 
though, had already figured it out, as he pointed at Ash's right pants 
pocket.

"Pika?"

"Oh, you mean my Pokédex?" Ash thought, pulling it out.  Sure enough, it 
was ringing... ringing like a telephone.  He opened it up and saw that 
the words 'Poké-Com 4.1' were on the bottom of the screen and in the 
center were two words... 'Answer' and 'Ignore.'  To be honest, he was 
thinking about pressing 'Ignore' so he and Pikachu could get back to 
training.  But curiosity got the better of him, and he selected 'Answer.'

After doing so, an image of Professor Oak appeared holographically before 
Ash.

"Wha!" Ash freaked out.  "Professor Oak... I mean, dad?"

"Hello, Ash?  Good... looks like the new holographic projector chip for 
the Poké-Com is working perfectly!"

"Is that what this thing is?"

"Anyway, I need you to come to my lab at once!  There's something very 
important I have to tell you!"

"Well, okay.  I'm on my way!"

Pikachu huffed, hating to be ignored.  "Pikachu!"

Ash laughed.  "Sorry... Pikachu and I are on our way!"

"Pi-ka!"

======

A few minutes later, Ash and Pikachu were sitting in the reading room of 
Professor Oak's laboratory.  The professor and Tracey, who had since 
become a full-time assistant, were sitting right across.  The foursome 
were drinking a cup of hot tea as they conversed about the professor's 
'important news.'

"A Pokémon Junior Master Tournament?" Ash gasped, shocked.

"Yes," Professor Oak confirmed.  "The Pokémon League is in search of new 
ways to infuse fun and excitement in today's youth, so they're throwing 
this tournament in order to test some new rules."

"There are rumors going around that the League is getting so large that 
they are trying to see if they can split it in half by age.  The current 
League will retain all active trainers that are 18 years or older, while 
the new, proposed sister League will be for everyone under 18."

"I don't see the point," Ash thought out aloud.  "After all, age isn't 
that much of a factor in Pokémon battles."

"True, Ash, but it's also the easiest way to split everyone up without 
complications."

"Anyway," the professor cut back in, "For now, they're just rumors.  As I 
said, the League wants to test the waters to see if it can work.  And no 
matter what, it doesn't mean the level of competition will go down.  They 
are making sure to invite only the best and brightest."

Ash laughed heartily.  "Well, if that's the case, then I'm up for it!  
My goal's to become a Pokémon Master, and this will show how close I am!"

"Very well... you leave for Evergrande City in twenty minutes."

"Wait... TWENTY MINUTES?  But, I'm not even packed yet!  Or what Pokémon 
I want to bring with me!"

Professor Oak laughed.  "No worries... your mom's taking care of your 
packing for you.  As for what Pokémon, you'll have plenty of time to 
decide that on your way there, as I can send you anyone you need or want.  
Remember?"

"But why do I have to leave so soon?"

"Well, Ash..." Tracey replied.  "The registration deadline is 5 pm 
tomorrow, but since the League is providing transportation, this is the 
only window of opportunity they could give us.  Besides, Evergrande City 
is quite a ways from here, in the Hoenn Region."

"I've never been to Evergrande City before," the professor said, "but I 
hear the place is beautiful this time of year.  You should have a great 
time there!"

"I guess... but I feel down that Misty and Brock won't be coming along.  
Ever since the Orange Islands, I don't feel complete without them."

"Well," smiled Tracey, "have we got a surprise for you!"

Ash and Pikachu blinked in confusion.

======

The foursome were walking back to the Ketchum house when Pikachu was the 
first to spot a white limousine parked out front.  Ash's jaw dropped when 
he saw it.  Even more so when he saw who was standing next to it, 
chatting with his mom.

Misty, who was wearing a sparkling, strapless, cerulean blue dress.  Her 
hair was also down, out of its usual side ponytail arrangement.  Ash was 
simply stunned at how beautiful she looked.  So, apparently, were both 
Pikachu and Tracey.

"Chaaaa!" gleamed the electric rodent.

"Wow, Mist..." Ash drooled, "you look... good."

Misty nearly doubled over in disgust.  "Only... good?"

"Don't mind Ash," Tracey said, who was busy doodling in his sketchbook.  
"He doesn't appreciate the finer things in life."

Ash and Misty both peered in and saw that Tracey, predictably, was 
drawing a picture of the Cerulean gym leader in her stunning dress.

Also predictably, Tracey found himself stunned for a different reason, 
as he received a beating from Misty by his own sketchbook.

"Keep your secret fantasies to yourself!" she yelled.

"Ow!" Tracey uttered, rubbing the bump on his head as he turned to Ash.  
"I'm glad she's not my girlfriend.  You must be pretty tolerant to stand 
her constant beatings, huh Ash?"

"Uh..." Ash hesitated, already aware of what was coming next.

"You never learn, DO YOU?" Misty shouted angrily, grabbing Tracey's 
sketchbook and beating him with it once again.

"What a joy it is to be young," chirped Mrs. Ketchum, with Professor Oak 
standing beside her.

"You two have a great time in Evergrande City!" he exclaimed.  "Don't 
worry... we'll be watching and cheering you on!"

"Don't worry," Misty said.  "With me by his side, I'll make sure Ash wins 
the tournament this time around!  No more settling for anything but first 
for my man!"

Ash clenched his fist with jubilation, inspired by his girl's declaration.  
"That's right... this time, Ash Ketchum's going all the way!"

Misty, Tracey, and Pikachu sweatdropped in embarrassment.

"Ugh!  You are such a boy, Ash Ketchum!"

Tracey shook his head, despite being in pain over the two bumps now on 
his head.  "Bad choice of words."

"Pika pika," Pikachu solemnly agreed.

"What?" Ash asked, not getting it.  "What did I say?"

"You're just lucky I took out all of my anger on Tracey," Misty said.

The limousine driver hopped out from the front and walked back to open 
the back door for them.  As he did, Mrs. Ketchum presented Ash with a 
new backpack.  As well as a new change of clothes.

"It's not as fancy as Misty's new outfit," she admitted sheepishly, "but 
I think you're overdue for a makeover as well.  Call it a belated bonus 
birthday present."

Ash reveled in delight as his new cap, sleeveless sweater, and pair of 
blue jeans as he took it in his hands.  Without delay, he ran into the 
house and, only a minute later, came back out with his new threads on.

"Oh, my boy is growing up before our very eyes," Mrs. Ketchum cried.

"He certainly is, dear," agreed Professor Oak.

"You look great!" exclaimed Misty.  "Like a Pokémon Junior Master!"

That disappointed Ash a little.  "Only a Junior Master?"

"Well, you are going to a tournament to find the first Junior Master 
after all."

Ash grinned from ear to ear.  "I guess you've got a point."

"I think you guys better get going," Tracey said, pointing at the limo.  
"They won't hold that plane in Viridian forever."

"For once, the 'leech' has got a point," smirked Misty.

"Hey!"

Misty then let out a chuckle.  "I'm just kidding... I'm sure Professor 
Oak wouldn't have let you be his assistant if he didn't trust you.  If 
he approves of you, well, then so do I!"  She then reached a hand out 
towards him.  "Friends?"

"Okay... friends!"

Misty expected Tracey to reach out and shake hands... but instead, he 
wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug.  She blushed a furious 
red as she quickly pushed him away.

"I said friends, FRIENDS!"

Ash and his family laughed hilariously as Tracey braced himself for 
another beating from Misty... though he felt this one was worth it as 
she began to pound him again.

"At least... ouch... no one can... ow... say that I... eep... never got 
to hug a... cute girl!"

"Be lucky I don't beat you to the point that it'll never happen again!"

======

Not too long afterwards, the limousine pulled away from the Ketchum 
house.  Ash, Misty, and Pikachu waved farewell as they stuck their heads 
out the window.  Professor Oak, Mrs. Ketchum, Tracey, and his 
too-numerous-to-count head protrusions waved back, wishing the two 
lovebirds luck in Evergrande.

"Next stop... Evergrande City!" Misty exclaimed, the first to pull 
herself back into the limo.

"Pikachu, pika pikachu!" gleamed Pikachu enthusiastically!

"So," Ash said, the last to get back in, "how come you're dressed up?  I 
mean... aren't we going on a plane ride?"

"As the sponsoring representative of Cerulean City, I have to look my 
best!  My sisters are counting on me to be the beacon of light for our 
beautiful gym!"

Ash was a little surprised.  "You mean... you're not competing?"

"I thought about it, but I decided I would be better served supporting 
you rather than being a rival.  Well, at least this one time, anyway."

Ash was surprised even more.  "Wow.  You sure have changed over the past 
year.  Not wanting to compete anymore."

"I thought I told you, Ash!  As the official gym leader in Cerulean, I'm 
no longer able to compete in League-related tournaments.  They wouldn't 
even let me get an exemption for this one, since technically it's not 
even an official tournament."

"I... I didn't know."

Misty sighed.  "It's alright.  Like I said, I don't mind being by your 
side.  You know, standing by my man and all that."

"Oh.  Well... too bad Brock isn't coming with us."

Misty shot Ash a strange look.  "Your dad didn't tell you anything, did 
he?"

Ash smiled.  "You mean he is?"

"Yeah.  But not with us.  He's on a different flight by himself... he's 
going to meet us there."

"Well, alright then!" Ash pumped his fist with excitement.  "The gang's 
back together again!"

======

Ash, Misty, and Pikachu were seen boarding a plane headed for Evergrande 
City, and were excited when they are given first-class seats.  Traveling 
in the lap of luxury for once, they enjoyed the extra leg space, great 
meals, and in Misty and Pikachu's cases (Ash didn't understand the 
purpose of it), complimentary back massages.  They were so relaxed that 
they were dismayed when the plane touched down in Evergrande several 
hours later.

Coming off the plane, Ash and Misty were greeted by a lot of paparazzi, 
all sorts of reporters who were there to take record on the first ever 
Pokémon Junior Master Tournament.  Misty seemed to feed off the flashing 
lightbulbs as she was surrounded by journalists wanting to ask her 
questions.  On the other hand, Ash and Pikachu motioned to want to stay 
out of the spotlight... though you couldn't blame Ash for being somewhat 
jealous for the lack of attention.

"I'm here with one of the youngest gym leaders in the entire league, 
Misty Waterflower of Cerulean City!" gabbed one of the reporters.  
"Misty, what's it like to be part of such a revolutionary event for the 
Pokémon League?"

"It's great, Luanne," Misty replied, sounding off the reporter's name.  
"There's so much talent... there's plenty of future Pokémon Masters and 
Gym Leaders here that it even makes me uneasy about my job security."

"And where is your gym's tournament entry tonight?"

"Right here," motioned Misty, pointing to Ash.  "Ash Ketchum.  Perhaps 
you've heard of him?"

Upon hearing his name, Ash lunged forward and immediately thrust 
himself into the crowd to shoot off his own praises.

"That's me!  I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, and one day I will become 
a Pokémon Master!"

"I assure you, though full of himself sometimes, Ash is a very 
competent trainer!  If we were picking favorites, he'd be at the top of 
my list!"

"He's that good?" Luanne wondered.

Misty was about to answer with a modest response, but Ash beat her to 
it... with one not so quaint...

"I'm gonna prove I'm the best by winning this tournament!  I won't 
back down to anyone!  I will WIN!"

Ash shouted 'WIN' so loudly, he could be heard for miles and miles.  
Much to Misty's chagrin, who just buried her face with her hands in 
sheer embarrassment.

======

"Why'd you have to go and embarrass me like that?"

Misty was yelling at Ash as they got off the elevator at the hotel that 
all of the delegations were staying at.

"But I was serious!  I really am I going to win!  Just you wait!"

"I just don't want you to get overconfident, that's all.  Who knows how 
tough the trainers you're going up against are?"

"That's even better!  The tougher the challenge, the better!"

Misty just gave up at that point, seeing as she wasn't going to get 
through Ash's thick skull.

"Let's just get some rest and hope this all blows over by morning," 
Misty said as she pulled out the keycard for their room.

After gaining access to the room, Misty and Ash quickly stepped in and 
closed the door behind them.

======

The next morning, Misty awoke to the sight of sunlight gleaming in her 
eyes.  Immediately she turned to the accompanying bed beside her, 
expecting Ash to be under the covers, still fast asleep.  But he wasn't.

"Ash?"

======

A quick ten minutes later, Misty emerged from the hotel.  Her hair back 
in its normal fashion and she decked out in the new outfit Duplica had 
helped her pick out back on the Orange Islands, Misty began searching 
the grounds for Ash.

But her search was going to be like looking for a 'needle in a haystack,' 
as there were trainers all about getting in some last-minute prep.  
Misty wondered if Ash was doing the same, though she didn't see him or 
Pikachu or any of his other Pokémon about.

"Oh, where did he run off to now?"

======

Where indeed?  Well, the Evergrande City Pokémon Center, of course.  It, 
too, was also full of trainers and their sponsors, undergoing final 
preparations for the tournament by having all of their Pokémon checked 
out... and by going through the registration process too.  Among them 
was Ash, already dressed in the new outfit his mom had gotten him.

"I hope Misty wakes up soon," Ash said, tapping his feet impatiently.  
"I wanna get registered so I know what my first challenge is."

He then spotted Pikachu leaping onto the counter, waving at him.  Ash 
got up to meet him as Nurse Joy approached, holding a tray of Pokéballs 
with her hands.

"Your Pokémon are healthy and ready to go, Ash!" Joy announced.

"That's great, thanks!"

"Pika pi!" Pikachu greeted as Ash picked him up off the counter.

"Ready to win ourselves a tournament, Pikachu?"

"Pika!"

"Once your sponsor arrives," Joy said as Ash started to attach the 
other Pokéballs to his belt, "I can go ahead and register you."

"She should be here any..."

"ASH KETCHUM!"

Ash winced as he heard Misty call his name.  Sure enough, he turned 
around and there she was, hands on her hips and stomping over to him, 
very irate.

"HOW DARE YOU DISAPPEAR LIKE THAT?" she exclaimed, before calming down 
a little.  "You had me worried that something had happened to you."

"Sorry about that, Misty," apologized Ash.  "I was just so excited 
that I could barely sleep last night!  I had to make sure I was down 
here early so I could register."

"I see."

"Problem is, they need both of us here since you're my sponsor.  I 
can't register without you."

Misty smiled.  "Well... let's take care of that little snafu right now!"

"Very good then," Nurse Joy chimed in.  "I need to see both of your 
Pokédexes, please."

The two trainers complied and handed them over to Joy.  As she went 
through the process of authenticating them, she handed them in return a 
few pamphlets to look over.

"Here's some things that you'll need while here in Evergrande.  A 
tourist's guide to the city and all the surrounding attractions, a list 
of some activities you can partake in during downtime, and of course, 
a rule book for the tournament."

"I thought this was an unofficial tournament," remarked Misty.

"Well, there still has to be some rules.  After all, no rules just 
means a whole lot of chaos!"

"I suppose..."

"Hey..." Ash blurted out, as he had quickly skimmed through the rule 
book.  "There doesn't seem to be much on the tournament itself.  Like 
how matches are set up and stuff."

Nurse Joy giggled.  "It's all part of the experimentation.  All you 
need to know is that preliminaries start immediately after registration 
closes at five.  You have to be here then for transportation to where 
that portion of the tournament will be held.  You will need your 
Pokédex and one Pokémon."

"Well, we might as well start off on a high note... ready to shock 
the competition, Pikachu?"

"Pikachu!"

"Looks like somebody's ready to win," commented Misty.

"Just wait... we'll get through those preliminaries, no problem!"

Having finished informing Ash and Misty of everything they needed to 
know, Nurse Joy handed them their Pokédexes back.

"Good luck in the tournament!"

"Thanks!" Ash and Misty shouted as they walked off.

As the two headed out to explore the city, a tall guy with blue hair 
observed them from the far corner of the Center, grinning as they 
departed.

"Looks like I lucked out," he muttered.  "I have two of my 'equals' 
here.  Too bad that after tonight, I will have surpassed both of them."

======

After a day of seeing some of the sights of Evergrande and spending a 
little time aside for training, Ash and Misty returned to the Pokémon 
Center just shortly after five o'clock.  They saw one large van and a 
small crowd of people gathered around it.  There was an official outside 
of it, checking the trainers' IDs before letting them get in.

"Looks like we're just in time," Misty said to Ash.

Approaching the official, he prompted them for ID.  Ash pulled out his 
Pokédex to show it to him.

"Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, representing Cerulean City," he verified 
out loud.  "Okay... you can get on."

Ash started walking towards the van, with Pikachu perched on his 
shoulder.  Misty went to follow him, but the official stopped her.

"What are you doing?  I'm his sponsor!"

"Sponsors are not accompanying the participants to the preliminaries.  
They are to remain here in Evergrande to take care of some obligations 
before tonight's Opening Ceremonies."

Misty sighed in defeat, then turned to Ash.  "Looks like I won't be 
tagging along.  Oh well... you just go and make me proud!"

Ash nodded, then jumped into the van.  The official closed the door 
behind him, then motioned the driver to go.  Misty watched as the van 
peeled off, taking Ash away from her for a few hours.

"I shouldn't be worried, right?" Misty asked herself.  "Ash can make 
it through the preliminaries.  After all, would Daisy and the others 
have let me pick him as our representative if they didn't think he 
could win it all?"

======

A short time later, the van carrying Ash and a number of his fellow 
competitors skidded to a stop at its destination.  They gawked in 
confusion as they had stopped in a clearing just outside a small forest.

"Where are we?" one of the trainers asked as the group started to 
disembark from the van.

"That's what I want to know," uttered another.

"This is a strange place to have preliminaries," Ash commented.

"Gather around, please," the official who had made the trip with them 
beckoned.

The trainers did as they were told, curious for an explanation.

"As some of you may have realized, there was an abundance of entries for 
this tournament.  In fact, there are 35 entrants in total.  12 of you 
are here in this group, the others are split among two other groups 
that are located nearby and are getting the exact same explanation I am 
about to give you.

"We are about to whittle the field down to just 16.  Only those 16 will 
attend the Opening Ceremonies tonight and actually compete in the 
tournament.  The rest of you will be going home.  To determine who 
stays and goes, you will all be participating in the first-ever battle 
royale in Pokémon League history.

"In five minutes, you will be let loose onto the 'battlefield,' which 
has a radius of roughly a mile and a half.  You'll be given the first 
15 minutes to get used to the surroundings and separate from the other 
trainers, after which the battles will begin.  Your objective... to 
survive.

"You should all each have only one Pokémon with you.  Your job is to 
avoid having your Pokémon faint.  If it does, you are out.  The battles 
can be of any nature... in fact, you may team-up with others to take 
out a solitary opponent, if you so wish.  The battles will continue 
until either we are left with 16 competitors, or the time limit expires 
in two hours.  In case the latter shall come to pass, a judging panel 
will decide who stays and who goes based on the performance of all the 
remaining trainers."

"How will we know when there's only 16 trainers left?" another random 
trainer asked.

"Each of your Pokédexes has been programmed to go off thrice during the 
preliminaries.  Once at the start, again after the first 15 minutes to 
signal the beginning of actual battles, and a third time to signify 
that the preliminaries have ended via one of the two exit conditions."

"How can we be sure that certain trainers won't abuse the system and try 
to cause extremely bodily harm to other trainers or Pokémon?"

"We have numerous officials strewn throughout the battlefield to keep 
track of everyone.  If we feel a trainer or a Pokémon is operation 
outside the League's established basic rules, they will be disqualified, 
no questions asked.  Safety remains our number one concern throughout 
all of the experimental battles we are using for this tournament."

The trainers all seemed to be somewhat apprehensive, but none so much 
as to want to give up right at that moment.

"If there are no more questions," the official stated as he pointed to 
a line of posts that were roped off, save for a fifty-foot entrance gap, 
"then proceed to the starting line with your selected Pokémon out.  
When your Pokédexes beep, the preliminaries begin and you may set out.  
Good luck to all of you!"

Ash's group of trainers started to let out their chosen Pokémon 
companion out, and before any battles had officially begun, he instantly 
noted that everyone was already checking out the competition.  Ash 
decided to follow suit... after all, he and Pikachu might have to battle 
several of them to get through this qualifying round.

Some of the opposing Pokémon were ones he recognized since he had seen 
them many times during his travels.  Others were completely new to 
him and he hadn't a clue as to what they were capable of.  He didn't 
know how good his chances were of getting through to the next round.  
But he didn't care... he was sure going to do everything he could to 
make sure he did.

"Be ready for anything, Pikachu!  We're going to have to battle smart if 
we're to stay in the tournament!"

"Pika, pika pikachu!"

"Besides... I just can't let Misty down.  She'll never let me hear the 
end of it."

Suddenly, the air filled with the sound of Pokédexes ringing.  All of 
the trainers instantly knew what that meant.  But in case they had 
already forgotten, the League official was about to remind them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced, "the preliminary round of the 
first ever Pokémon Junior Master Tournament... has begun!"

======

Ninety seconds ago...

Gary was among a group of 11 trainers getting the same explanation as 
Ash's group a few miles away at another starting point.  Most of them 
shared similar looks of confusion, but Gary just flashed his confident 
smirk.

"It doesn't matter what the rules are," Gary told himself.  "All I 
need to know is that I can't lose today.  That's all I need to know!"

He then glanced to his left and saw some blue-haired guy staring right 
back at him.  Gary took notice as the man seemed to have a funny feeling 
about him, though he couldn't place why.

"What's with this guy?  Something tells me I'd better stay clear until 
I get a feel for him."

Gary then turned his attention back to the League official, who had 
just finished explaining all of the new rules.

"Okay, at this point, you must bring out the Pokémon you are going to 
use for this test.  They must remain outside of their Pokéballs at 
all times.  The only time it should be in one is if you've lost and 
are making your way out of the battlefield."

As the others around him selected their choices, Gary's was pretty 
simple.  Reaching into his pocket, he threw out the Pokéball containing 
his Eevee.  Only it was no longer an Eevee... it had recently evolved 
into an Umbreon!

"Bre!" the dark-type chirped as it emerged from the containment device.

"What's up, Umbreon?  Ready for a new challenge?"

Umbreon nodded with jubilation.

"Then let's go!" Gary exclaimed.

Seconds later, all of the trainers' Pokédexes started ringing, and they 
started bolting into the forest to act out their strategies... or lack 
there of, in some cases.

"We'd better choose our battles carefully, Umbreon!" Gary told his 
Pokémon.  "Remember, this isn't just about us... we're fighting for 
someone else today!  And he's counting on us!"

"Umbre!"

======

Throughout the so-called 'battlefield,' trainers were enacting all sorts 
of different plans and tactics.  There were some hiding in trees and 
bushes, some working on providing natural camouflage, and some who went 
to great lengths of trickery to get the drop on their competition.

Ash, on the other hand, was content on just walking straight down the 
path in the middle of the forest.

"So... just where is everybody, anyway?" he asked himself out loud.

"Pika pika?" Pikachu replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Up in the trees above, a ninja dressed in orange was watching him from 
above.  He chuckled as Ash passed underneath him.

"This guy must be an idiot, walking out in the open like that!" he 
murmured.  "Whomever picked him to represent their gym must be a ditz!"

======

"Achoo!"

While in the midst of filling out paperwork inside a trailer located 
on the southern side of Evergrande City, Misty sneezed.

"That's funny," she noted, "it's not cold in here..."

======

"Oh well..." the ninja said to himself, "that just means this guy's 
gonna be a cinch to take down.  Isn't that right, pal?"

He glanced over his shoulder to look at his partner, a Weezing.

"Weezing weez!" it managed to choke out.

The ninja and his Weezing started leaping from tree to tree, keeping a 
close eye on Ash and Pikachu from above.

======

Elsewhere, Gary and Umbreon were walking about in the open, too... only 
doing so more discretely by hunching down behind and around tress when 
necessary.  They had been moving at a leisurely pace, but now they were 
moving much slower since they began to suspect that someone was tailing 
them.

Eventually, they came to a complete stop, lying low in some tall grass 
as they heard the footsteps draw ever closer.  They watched and waited 
for their potential adversary to appear.

"I'd better make sure this guy isn't of a high-level.  I can't afford 
to be knocked out this early."

Peering through the grass blades, the duo observed as an Eevee emerged 
into the open space.  Gary gasped as he recognized the cute fox Pokémon, 
even from afar.

"Could it... be?"

The Eevee then growled as it pointed in Gary and Umbreon's direction.  
Right after she did, her trainer appeared.  And it was someone Gary 
knew.

"I'd recognize those golden locks and country-girl blue dress anywhere!"

Umbreon looked up in surprise as he saw his trainer stand up, revealing 
himself to the girl and the Eevee staring in their direction.

"Well, well, isn't it Little Miss Secret Agent!" chided Gary.  "Or 
should I say... Cassie?"

"Gary Oak?" she asked in mild shock.  "You were the one I was following?"

Gary quickly motioned for Umbreon to get off of the ground and reveal 
itself.  Eevee was taken aback at seeing one of its possible evolutions 
standing in front of her.  Umbreon then leaped over Eevee and started 
running off in the direction she and Cassie had come from.

"Uh..." Cassie gaped, confused.

"I'm on to you, with your secret agents watching your back and all!  Tell 
me, Cassie... what's the mission this time?  Or is it one of those 'Oh, 
I can't tell you because then I'd have to kill you' things?"

Noticing Gary was openly mocking her, Cassie swung back in defense.

"FYI, I quit the PTA more than a month ago!  I couldn't stand all of the 
secretive stuff they were doing and how they were ruining my life, so 
Arius and I just up and left!  We've kinda been wandering around 
aimlessly since then, and things have been very hard for me... so stop 
trying to give off the whole 'holier than thou' attitude!  It's very 
annoying!"

"Um... okay.  So... you quit?"

Cassie huffed and cross her arms over her chest.  "Yes, I did, and now 
I'm asking you to refrain from bringing up anymore about the PTA.  It's 
a part of my life that I didn't enjoy and I want to move past it."

At that second, Umbreon returned, this time running past Cassie's Eevee 
and coming to a stop right next to Gary.  Gary smiled and petted him on 
the head, to his barking delight.

"Well... uh..."

"Look," Cassie apologized, walking over to Gary.  "I didn't mean to 
snap.  I just..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of her Pokédex ringing 
filled the air.  So did Gary's, as he looked down and saw the light on 
it flashing.  Both of them then turned to each other, knowing very 
well what that signal meant.

"So you're in this tournament for yourself, huh?" Gary asked.

"I'm still a Pokémon trainer, you know," Cassie replied.  "Besides, 
remember in Trovitopolis, you promised that we'd battle the next time 
we met."

Gary smirked.  "So... if that's the way you want it..."

Suddenly, Gary's Umbreon and Cassie's Eevee found themselves under 
attack by a Solrock and a Lunatone, both of whom had seemingly come out 
of nowhere.

"Solrock, Fire Spin!" exclaimed a young man.

"Lunatone, Confusion!" shouted a young woman.

Gary and Cassie gasped in shock as their Pokémon were quickly surrounded 
by a ring of flames and then knocked dizzy for a loop.

"What's this, a sneak attack?" Cassie asked, stating the obvious.

Two teenagers leapt down from the trees above: one male, one female.  
The male was dressed in a blue petticoat over a white dress shirt and 
dark black pants.  The female was adorned with a yellow strapless 
evening gown.  Cassie just gawked with stunned shock, while Gary looked 
like he really didn't care about them.

"My name is Andy!" he stated, flashing a smile.

"And I'm Mandy!" she exclaimed with a wink.

"We fight for the power of love, and we're here to test your love!" they 
shouted in unison.

"L-l-l-love?" stuttered Cassie.

"Don't be ridiculous," Gary said in reply.  "Me in love with Little Miss 
Ex-Secret Agent over here?"

"Hey!"

"Be prepared for a duel of romantic proportions!" they yelled together.

Andy and Mandy, with happy smiles, then rushed forward towards the two 
trainers.

======

Meanwhile, a little distance away, Ash and Pikachu were still wandering 
about.  They were getting a bit bored, since surprisingly, they hadn't 
been attacked by anyone yet.

"Just where is everyone, anyway?" Ash shouted at the top of his lungs.

Up above them in the trees, the orange-suited ninja and Weezing that 
were following them smiled with confidence.

"The fool," he said to himself.  "He doesn't even know I'm here!  He's 
so going down!"

He then turned to his Pokémon and pointed right at Pikachu below.

"Okay, Weezing... Smokescreen!"

"Weezing!" coughed the rotund Pokémon, bellowing out smoke by the 
mouthful.

Down below, Ash and Pikachu looked up in surprise as they were suddenly 
surrounded by smoke.  They both started coughing profusely as it seeped 
into their bodies.  Distracted, the duo didn't see their attackers 
jump down from over them.

"You're gonna get it now!"

"Pika-CHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

"WHAT?"

The ninja looked over his shadow and saw the smoke change colors to a 
bright yellow... before a bolt of electricity screamed towards him.

"I thought I had them off-guard!" he thought to himself.  "At best, they 
should be firing blindly, just hoping to hit something!  That attack 
looks as if he knows exactly where I am!  But... how is that possible?"

He closed his eyes and braced himself for impact, waiting for the 
inevitable pain that would follow.  But it never came.  He opened his 
eyes to see what was going on, and then he noticed an explosion of light 
coming from behind.  Apparently, the bolt had hit whatever it was aimed 
at.

"Maybe I was wrong... maybe he was firing blindly, just his luck that he 
happened to shoot where I was!  Heh... how this guy managed to become 
a candidate to become a Pokémon Junior Master is beyond me!"

The smoke started to clear from the area.  As it did, he began to notice 
a sizable round mass lying face up on the ground.  A purple round mass, 
to be precise.

"Ack!  Is that you, Weezing?"

Sure enough, Weezing was on the ground in front of him.  The poison-type 
was conscious, and smiling delusionally, but he had been knocked down 
thanks to Pikachu's thunderbolt attack.  Matter of fact, some remnants 
of the electricity's sparks were still appearing around his body.

"Weezing weez!" he coughed.

"No way!" the ninja murmured.  "So he does know what he's doing!  I 
can't believe this joke of trainer gave off the sense that he was an 
amateur!"

At this point, the entire Smokescreen had disappeared.  The ninja and 
his injured Weezing faced forward as Ash and Pikachu stood about 35 feet 
away, both leaning back in a fighting stance.

"What's the big idea, dropping in on us like that?" Ash yelled.

"Pikachu!" added Pikachu, peeved as well.

"Truth be told," the strange ninja said, "I was thinking that you were a 
weakling, someone that got in just because you were very close to the 
gym leader!  Like he or she picked just because they owed you a favor.  
You know, the ones who have no business being in this tournament."

Ash growled at that insult... which was not only directed at him, but at 
Misty as well.

"But apparently, you must have some level of skill if you were able to 
directly target my Weezing.  'If' being the keyword here.  If I didn't 
know any better... I say it was stroke of luck."

"Luck?  Don't you ever insult me or Misty like that!"

Ash's opponent raised an eyebrow with interest.  "Misty?  You mean the 
youngest of the Waterflower sisters?"

"Yeah?  What about them?"

He laughed.  "Everyone knows the Waterflowers are the laughing stocks of 
the Kanto League!  Given that information, you must be the weakest of 
the Kanto representatives!  You should be a breeze to knock out!"

"Don't talk about Misty or her sisters like that!"

"Hey, don't kill the messenger... I'm just telling you the truth.  Then 
again, the truth is subjective.  At least, that's what my master told 
me."

"Your... master?"

"You see, I'm representing Koga of the Fuschia City Gym.  He taught me 
that the truth is what one believes it to be.  For you, maybe Misty is 
a great trainer and gym leader.  But to me... she's nothing!  And by 
consequence, so are you!"

"Enough talk!" Ash yelled in defiance.  "Are we gonna battle or not?"

"Well," the ninja said, snapping his fingers and ordering Weezing to get 
upright.  "If you're so eager to go crying back home, then why didn't 
you say so?"

Ash turned his attention to Pikachu.  "You ready for battle, buddy?"

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded, before redirecting his attention towards Weezing.

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

"Alright, Weezing... Tackle!"

Obeying their masters' commands, the two Pokémon charged towards each 
other with blinding speed.

======

In another spot of the large battlefield, a Magmar, a Noctowl, and a 
Nosepass had all just fainted thanks to the attacks of an Absol.  The 
trainers of the three fallen Pokémon were in shock despite having the 
advantage against a lone opponent.

"Ha!" the Absol's trainer said.  "I told you three-on-one wasn't a 
challenge for me!  You guys are pathetic!  Cinnabar, Violet, Rustboro... 
this is the best that the world's young elite trainers have?  Get 
yourselves and your Pokémon out of my sight before I decide to destroy 
you all!"

Without hesitation, the three mystery trainers complied, recalled 
their Pokémon, and then bolted for the nearest safe zone.  Once they 
were gone, Absol turned about to face his trainer.  He noticed the 
wicked smirk on his face and proceeded to imitate his master.  The 
young teen, with blue hair, reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag 
full of Pokémon food.  As he started to feed Absol, he glanced around 
the area, already planning his next move.

"I guess it's time to show my 'equals' who's the better half.  Or, to be 
more accurate... the best of the whole bunch!"

======

"Now, with the power of love on our side, pound them with Double 
Psywave!"

A double-wide beam of psychic energy barreled towards Umbreon and Eevee, 
whom both dodged by jumping out of the fray in opposite directions.

"Eevee, use Take Down on that Lunatone!" ordered Cassie.

"Vee!" the little fox chirped as she charged at the moon-shaped Pokémon.

"That won't work if you can't hit my Lunatone," Mandy remarked.

"It will if I get Umbreon to use Mean Look on it!" Gary shouted.

As if on cue, Umbreon did just that.  The attack succeeds in temporarily 
paralyzing Lunatone, making it unable to dodge the incoming Eevee.  But 
Solrock had no intention of letting its battling partner get hurt.  It 
flashed a bright yellow as it jumped in front of Lunatone in time to 
intercept Eevee's attack.  Having being repelled, Eevee landed on the 
ground and rolled backwards, all the way back to Cassie.

"Eevee, oh my God... are you okay?" she asked her Pokémon.

"Vee..." it uttered, badly bruised and trying to stand back up.

Gary gritted his teeth in dismay.  "Figures that Solrock was going to 
use Harden to protect Lunatone!  I should've seen that coming!"

Andy and Mandy laughed with glee.  "The team that battles together, 
stays together for all eternity!"

Gary turned to Cassie.  "Hey... can Eevee continue?"

"I think so..." she answered, though not entirely confident.

"Umbreon," he said, turning towards his Pokémon.  "Though we must win 
this battle, our first objective must be to protect Eevee!  Got it?"

"Bre!" Umbreon agreed, nodding his head.

Cassie glanced at Gary, a bit perplexed by his chivalrous intent.

"Now don't be getting any ideas," he quickly cut her thoughts off.  "I'm 
only protecting you so that I can keep my promise to have that battle 
with you!"

"Isn't that sweet?" cooed Mandy.

Andy smirked.  "It won't save either of you from defeat, though!"

"Solrock and Lunatone!" the couple yelled.  "Time to use your most 
powerful attacks!"

Cassie and Eevee could only watch as Gary and Umbreon stood in front of 
them, preparing to defend them from whatever was about to come their 
way.

======

"Slow him down, Weezing!  Use your Sludge!"

"Weezing, Weezing!"

The poison-type coughed up a blast of mud from its belly and spewed it 
in Pikachu's direction.

"Pikachu, Use Agility to dodge!"

"Ka!"

Using his speed to his advantage, Pikachu easily avoided Weezing's 
attack.

"You can get 'em!  Use Sludge until that Pikachu's got nowhere to run!"

"Weezing!"

Weezing complied, shooting sludge all around him.  Sludge landed on ever 
spot within twenty feet of where he was floating within seconds.  And 
Pikachu was very well in that range.  He had tried to jump up and out of 
the way, but he was met with mud in the face, knocking him back down and 
leaving him sprawled on his backside.

"Cha!" Pikachu cried, struggling to get out of the muck.

"No!  Pikachu!"

"I have to admit, the fact that your Pikachu was able to put up a fight 
against my high-ranking Weezing is admirable.  Much so that I've decided 
to tell you my name... so you can remember who eliminated you from this 
competition!"

Ash clenched his fist in anger.  He knew it couldn't be over, just like 
that.

"The name's Nagato."

"Na... gato?"

"Now that I've told you my name... it's time to take out your Pikachu.  
Weezing, Toxic!"

"Weezing!"

"Dodge it, Pikachu!"

"Pika pika!" the little mouse panicked, trying to pull his tail out.  
Pikachu... pika pi!"

"PIKACHU!" Ash yelled, running to protect his best friend.

Diving right into the line of fire just as Weezing spewed out his toxic 
poison, Ash had just enough time to pull Pikachu off the ground and roll 
out of the way.  The toxic blast landed in the spot Pikachu had just 
been in.  Ash had managed to get Pikachu out of harm's way, but now his 
feet were stuck in the sludge, just a foot or so from the edge of the 
giant puddle.  But most importantly, Pikachu was safely cradled in his 
arms.

"You okay, Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pika pika!" he confirmed, raising two fingers up in a 'V' sign.

"Weezing weez!" gasped Weezing.

"How did you do that?" Nagato asked.  "That stuff's so sticky only a 
ninja could get out of it!  Here, I'll show you!"

Nagato ran right into the sludge puddle, and just like that, his feet 
were stuck in the mud just like Ash.  He desperately tried to lift them 
up, but nothing was happening.  Flabbergasted, he quickly turned towards 
Weezing and grabbed him.  But Weezing had no intention of trying to get 
his master unstuck... or risk getting himself stuck as well.

"Now this battle's over!" Ash smiled before throwing Pikachu up in the 
air.  "Okay... finish this with Thunder!"

"Pika... CHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

A large amount of electrical energy was expelled from Pikachu and 
directed right at Nagato and Weezing.  They moved every which way to 
avoid getting hit, but eventually, they realized that their fate was 
sealed thanks to a blinding light...

======

Two minutes later, the sludge had dissolved enough for the two battlers 
to free themselves from their muddy prison.  Once outside the remnants 
of the puddle, Nagato, who had already recalled his fainted Weezing, 
walked over to Ash and Pikachu to congratulate them.

"I graciously accept my defeat," he said, bowing before them.  "The fact 
that I underestimated the strength of you and your Pikachu cost me a 
victory today."

"I just do what I do best," Ash responded sheepishly.  "But don't be so 
down... you fought well too!"

"Pika pika!" Pikachu shouted, also trying to perk Nagato up.

"I realize now that judging an opponent before you've even battled him 
is a mistake.  Nor is doubting the knowledge of an experienced gym 
leader family.  Please give my regards to the Waterflowers... I see now 
that they made a wise choice in picking you to represent them."

"Aw, shucks," Ash blushed.

"Good luck in the rest of the tournament!" Nagato exclaimed as he walked 
off, waving goodbye.

With his head held up high, Nagato departed from the battlefield, 
leaving Ash and Pikachu to breathe a deep sigh of relief.

"Whew... he really was good, wasn't he?"

"Pika."

"Hmmm... I wonder how many trainers have been eliminated so far.  I hope 
this'll be over soon.  I'm not sure if we can handle another tough 
trainer like Nagato right now... not without some rest."

"Hey!" Ash heard someone yell behind him.  "Boy with the Pikachu!"

Curious to see who was calling him, Ash and Pikachu turned around to see 
a blue-haired teen and a strange four-legged silver Pokémon neither of 
them had ever seen before.

"Who are you?"

"Allow me to introduce myself... my name is Marco, representing the gym 
of Viridian City!  And this here is my Pokémon, Absol!"

Absol nodded silently in recognition.

"An Absol?" Ash wondered out loud as he took out his Pokédex and aimed it 
at the Pokémon.

"Absol.  The Disaster Pokémon.  Absol has the ability to foresee the 
arrival of natural disasters.  It normally resides in harsh, rugged 
mountains, and rarely ventures down from them."

"Disasters?"

"Those are old fairy tales... no one sees Absol as doom-bringers any 
more.  But the part about them staying up in the mountains?  Very true.  
That's why it's rare to even lay glimpse on one, much less catch it."

"Okay," accepted Ash, with his energy for battle seemingly returning to 
him.  "I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, but today I'm representing Misty 
and the Cerulean City gym!  And this is my partner, Pikachu!"

"Pika!" greeted the yellow mouse.

"So... now that introductions are out of the way... how 'bout a battle?"

"A battle?  But Pikachu and I just got through one!"

"So did I, my new friend.  Besides, you seemed really enthusiastic 
about getting a new opponent a second ago..."

"It's just... I don't want Pikachu tiring out, that's all."

"No need to worry.  The number of entrants remaining shouldn't be that 
much higher that the needed 16 by now.  This fight'll probably be 
stopped before we finish... so no need to get worried about not making 
it to the Opening Ceremonies tonight!"

"If it's only going to be a few minutes... Pikachu, you can hold out, 
right?"

"Pika!  Pika, pikachu!"

Marco smiled evilly off to the side.  "This is just great," he thought.  
"Ash has no idea what he's in for!  This will be only a few minutes, 
alright... after Absol has pounded Pikachu six feet underground!"

======

"Ready for a pick-me-up?" Gary shouted at Cassie.

"What do you mean?" she blinked.

"Umbreon, time to give Eevee a Helping Hand!"

Umbreon pressed his forehead against Eevee's in order to pass on some 
his attack strength to her temporarily.  Suddenly, Eevee was able to get 
up on all fours.

"Wow... that's awesome!" Cassie exclaimed.

"Dwah... you mean you never had your Eevee use Helping Hand before?"

"My Eevee never learned how to do that," she said, sweatdropping.

"Heh..." Gary smirked.  "You're lucky I'm here saving your ass."

"Hey!"

"The more energy you spend fighting with each other," spouted Andy and 
Mandy, "the less energy you'll have to fight us!"

"I'll show who's saving whose ass here!" Cassie yelled.  "Eevee, time 
for your super-secret special move!"

Andy, Mandy, Gary, and their Pokémon watched as Eevee's tail changed 
colors... from brown to bright yellow.  Cassie grinned from ear-to-ear.

"Eevee just learned this Technical Machine the other day, so this is 
the first time she's using in battle!  Eevee... use Iron Tail on that 
Lunatone!"

"Veeeeeeeee!" Eevee yelled, charging right for Lunatone.

"Solrock, use Harden to protect Lunatone!" ordered Andy.

"Once Eevee's attack is knocked back, use Rock Throw!" Mandy told 
Lunatone.

"Not so fast!" Gary cut in.  "Umbreon, Faint Attack on Solrock, followed 
up by a Quick Attack!"

Using Faint Attack, Umbreon drew Solrock away from Lunatone, leaving 
the moon-shaped Pokémon wide open to Eevee's Iron Tail.

"Don't forget I ordered Lunatone to use Rock Throw!" reminded Mandy as 
Lunatone threw out rocks to block Eevee's attack.

Eevee jumped up into position and reared back to bring her tail down 
on the rocks.  With ease, Eevee smashed through the four sizable rocks 
blocking her path and then bore down on an unprotected Lunatone.  
Connecting with the top of the head, Lunatone fell straight down to the 
ground, landing face first and knocking itself unconscious in the 
process.

Meanwhile, with no attack set up to protect itself, Solrock was being 
struck multiple times thanks to Umbreon's quick speed.  Even so, it 
didn't look as if Umbreon was hurting Solrock at all.

Then Gary got an idea.

"Umbreon, use your Screech attack!"

Umbreon started screeching, catching Solrock off-guard and leaving him 
vulnerable to attack... just what Cassie and Eevee were waiting for.

"Eevee, Iron Tail on Solrock!"

"Veeeeeeeeee!"

Eevee this time connects with Solrock's back.  Not seeing the attack 
coming, Solrock falls in the same manner as Lunatone did, being knocked 
out upon hitting the ground.

"Looks the power of love is on your side!" Andy and Mandy wailed in 
defeat.

"WE ARE NOT IN LOVE!" Gary and Cassie yelled back angrily.

With swirls in their Pokémon's eyes, Andy and Mandy recall Solrock and 
Lunatone and then take their leave.  With the intruders gone, Gary and 
Cassie then turn their attention towards each other.

"Now," Cassie smirked, "about that promise of yours..."

"You might as well save it for the tournament, Cass.  No way your Eevee, 
in her condition, will beat my Umbreon!"

Umbreon and Eevee stared at each other, ready to fight for their 
masters, and Gary and Cassie seemed anxious to get it on.  Suddenly, 
the sky lights up and a huge bolt of thunder comes down from the sky, 
landing in the forest about two miles away.

"What was that?" Cassie wondered out loud.  "A rogue thunderbolt?"

Gary thought about it for a second and then instantly knew what was 
going on.

"Umbreon, let's go!"

Umbreon nodded, then followed Gary as he bolted in the direction of 
where the lightning struck the ground.  Cassie stomped her foot, 
enraged.

"Hey!  You promised me a Pokémon battle!  Oooh... darn you, Gary Oak!"

======

Pikachu and Absol had been circling each other for the last few minutes, 
glancing the other over as if they were searching for weak spots.  Ash 
and Marco seemed to be sharing a similar look, with both apprehensive to 
make the first move.  That is, until...

"Pikachu, start it up with Quick Attack!"

"Very well then... Absol, use Quick Attack too!"

Pikachu and Absol started bolting towards each other at high speed.  As 
they started to trade blows, it became obvious rather quickly to both of 
them that one of them was faster than the other.  It occurred to Ash 
when he saw Pikachu get knocked backwards out of the fray.

"Pikachu!" cried Ash.

"I know your Pikachu is tired," stated Marco, "but if he doesn't pick up 
the pace, you won't make it out of this forest in one piece."

"Oh yeah?  Well, there's more than one way to outrun an opponent!  
Pikachu... use Agility, then go back in for Quick Attack!"

"Pika... pika... pika!" Pikachu exclaimed, jumping from side-to-side to 
confuse Absol while speeding up at the same time.

Pikachu started making some leeway, drawing even with Absol as the two of 
them were blocking each other's attacks.  Nothing was going through.

"I'm surprised that Pikachu's already matching the speed of Absol!  That 
means that I'm gonna have to step things up a notch!"

"Huh?"

"Future Sight!"

Absol jumped back out of harm's way, then glared right back at Pikachu.  
The yellow electric Pokémon just watched and shook with fright as he 
felt Absol seemingly peer right through him.

"Just what is Future Sight?"

Marco laughed.  "Oh... you'll see.  You'll see it when you least expect 
it!"

Ash scowled as he thought about what Marco could mean by that remark.  
"Something fishy's going on here."

"While we're waiting for the fun to begin... Absol, use Bite!"

Absol leaped in to Bite Pikachu, but the mouse had more than enough sense 
to know to dodge without being told.

"That was close!  But Pikachu can't keep up this pace for long.  We've 
gotta slow 'em down!"

"That won't happen, but you're more than happy to try!"

"Okay, then... Pikachu, use Thunder Wave!"

Pikachu's attack was successful, paralyzing Absol and slowing it down 
considerably.  In fact, Absol had not only lost the speed advantage, he 
was actually now slower than Pikachu by a great deal.

"Let's go with a Thundershock!"

"Pika-CHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUU!"

"Not so fast... Absol, use Double Team!"

"Absol!" agreed the Pokémon, creating illusionary couples of himself.

One Absol had suddenly become four, right before Pikachu's eyes.

"Even so, he's probably too slow to dodge," Ash thought before turning 
to give Pikachu an order.  "Thunderbolt them all!"

Pikachu complied, striking all the Absol with a thunderbolt.  But to his 
surprise, all of the Absol disappear upon being hit.

"What?"

"Pika?"

Absol was standing right behind Pikachu, smiling snidely.  Absol then 
proceeded to headbutt Pikachu in the stomach.  Pikachu gasped as the air 
was knocked out of him and then he fall onto the ground.

Marco smiled as he gave Absol a new command.  "Now... Razor Wind!"

Absol took his position in front of Pikachu as his horn started to glow 
white.  Seeing that Absol was charging up for an attack, Pikachu 
scrambled to his feet and tried to make it to a safe distance.

"Run, Pikachu!"

"You're too late... with this blow, your tournament hopes go down the 
drain!  Absol, fire that Razor Wind!"

"Absolllllll!" complied the dark-type, as he fired two horn-shaped blasts 
of energy at Pikachu.

"Is this it?" Ash thought to himself.  "C'mon, Pikachu, I know you can 
get through this... I just know you can!"

Just as the Razor Wind was about to hit Pikachu, something jumped in the 
way, taking the blow for him.  Ash, Marco, Pikachu, and Absol were in 
shock as they looked up and saw a Pokémon absorb both hits and then get 
propelled into a nearby tree, back first.

"What is that Pokémon?" Ash asked.

Marco panted in dismay.  "That's... an Umbreon?"

"Wow, you really know your Pokémon," complimented Gary as he walked up 
from behind Ash... before turning towards his rival.  "Unlike some 
people."

"That Umbreon is yours?  Huh, wait... you mean you just sacrificed your 
Umbreon for Pikachu?"

Gary snickered.  "Don't be silly, Ash.  I wouldn't do such a thing for 
you."

He then pointed to Umbreon, who was already back on his feet and shaking 
off the loose pieces of bark that had gathered on him.

"I'm guessing you're trying to get into this tournament?"

Gary pushed back a lock of his hair that had drifted over his face.  "I'm 
already strong enough to get in.  Honestly, I thought you were too."

"What are you talking about?  Of course I'm strong enough!"

"You know... it's been awhile since we had a battle.  I'd like that to be 
in the tournament, in front of thousands of people.  Naturally, that 
can't happen if you don't actually make the tournament."

Ash smiled with glee.  "You mean you're going to help me?"

"Let's just say that I wouldn't have any fun winning this thing if you're 
not there for me to beat."

"Hey!" Marco butted in.  "This fight's between me and my 'equal!'  
There's no place for amateurs in this showdown!"

"Amateurs?  I'm just as good as Ash, if not better!  You better watch 
who you're talking to!"

Marco grrrrrred.  "Oh yeah?  I'll show you..."

But just as Marco was going to order Absol to attack, all three of the 
trainers Pokédexes abruptly began to ring.  They opened them and saw a 
message waiting to be read.

"The preliminary round has ended," Ash read aloud.  "All fighting is to 
cease at this time.  A Pokémon official will meet up with the remaining 
trainers shortly to guide them to the meeting area, where you will be 
driven to Evergrande Stadium for tonight's Opening Ceremonies.  
Congratulations!"

"I guess that's that," Gary smirked, glancing over at Marco.

Marco, who was miffed at not being able to beat Ash, scowled.  "You'll 
pay for your interference!  Just wait until the real battling starts!"

He then motioned for Absol to follow him as they walked off.

"What his problem?" Gary asked Ash.  "And why's he so interested in 
battling you?"

Ash shrugged his shoulders.  "Don't know... he just knows how good I 
am, that's all."

Gary smiled and let out a hearty laugh.  "Is that so?  Well, I'm gonna 
have to prove him wrong... by beating you in the tournament!"

"It'll be me who'll be doing the beating!" Ash smiled back as the two 
trainers shook hands.

======

Ash and Gary were led by a Pokémon official to a bus that was waiting 
for them at one edge of the forest.

"Are these two the last ones?" an official waiting at the door asked.

The one that had been guiding the duo nodded.  He then ushered them onto 
the bus.  Gary went on first... and saw a couple of familiar faces.  
First was Marco, the guy who was battling Ash in the forest.  He just 
shot Gary and Ash glaring stares.  And then, a few seats further back...

"So... you managed to survive after running out on me?"

Ash was nearly taken aback when he saw Cassie on the bus.  And she 
seemed to be really mad at Gary... in the process ignoring Ash.

"You promised me a battle, Gary!" Cassie shouted as she hopped out of 
her seat and stomped over to him.  "What's with chickening out on me?"

"I didn't.  I was helping someone... after all, you think you're the 
only one that needs help?"

Gary stepped aside to reveal Ash standing beside him, with Pikachu 
riding on his shoulder.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu waved hello.

"So... you're here too?" Ash queried.

Cassie smiled.  "I should've figured that you'd be here, too... Ash."

"You're in this tournament?"

"I figure... since I have all of this free time, I might as well get 
into these League Tournaments.  After all, who wouldn't relish the 
chance to become the first official Pokémon Junior Master?"

Ash grinned.  "Well, you'll have to beat me first!"

"You're kidding, right?" Gary wondered, pushing Ash aside.  "The road 
goes through me, you two!"

The trio gazed upon each other, each of them confident that they would 
be the one to win the title.

======

That night, Evergrande Stadium was nearly packed to the brim for the 
Opening Ceremonies of the Pokémon Junior Master Tournament.  Fans of 
all sorts from all over had come to see this special exhibition of young 
talent.  A large group of gym leaders had come as well, even those who 
didn't have representatives that made it to the actual tournament.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer boomed over the loudspeaker, "it's 
now time to introduce the 16 trainers who will be competing to become 
the first-ever Pokémon Junior Master!"

The 16 young kids and teens entered the stadium.  Among them were Ash, 
Gary, and Cassie, who were all waving happily at the crowd.  Ash looked 
up and saw Misty waving back.  But then she noticed that both Gary and 
Cassie were on either side of him, and she just froze in surprise.

A little while later, the trainers and the audience applauded as 
President Goodshow made an appearance on the stage.  He was about to 
give the official welcoming speech for the tournament.

"I'd like to welcome the 16 talented individuals who have made it to 
the greatest competition for young trainers ever assembled!  At the end 
of this tournament, one of you 16 will claim the title of 'Pokémon 
Junior Master!'  Good luck to you all!"

Suddenly, a young man came running into the stadium with the Flame of 
Moltres in hand.  Everyone cheered as he went up and lit the fire in the 
cauldron at the top of the stairs.

"It's time for a battle!" Ash, Gary, Cassie, and Marco all thought.


******


End Session: August
Storyline to be continued in Session: September!


******


Author's Notes for 'Session: August':
A long four months later, the second session is at long last complete!  
Hey, it still took less time than the first.  More time-cutting with 
number three, hopefully!  Now... onto the notes for Session Two...

You noticed that I kinda 'cheated' and went back to July via flashback 
for most of the first three chapters of August.  Well, there were still a 
lot of details left to fill in, and this was the best way to present 
them.

Chapter 1 introduced Mayor Lionel, Marina's father.  I promised more 
doubles in last session's notes, so here's one of Elite Four member 
Lance!  No appearance of a Dragonite, though... he runs a poor town which 
is pretty much devoid of Pokémon (which also explains why the townspeople 
think Ash and the gang are rich).

A Pecha Berry being introduced as what poisoned Marina was definitely an 
add-on... originally, I was just gonna make something up in that regard.  
To my knowledge, I don't think a Pokéworld Berry can be poisonous... 
unless it's like normal fruit, and someone tries to eat one that's 
overripe.  That reminds me... didn't Ash have a bad reaction to a berry 
sometime during the Johto TV series?

The doctor with experience dealing with the Grechola Virus, Mirabelle 
Watson, is named and fashioned speech-wise for Mirabelle of 4Kids' 
"Magical DoReMi" dub.  Though I don't think I accented the 'Southern 
twang' Mirabelle has as much as I wanted to.  The last name refers to 
an in-joke in the episode "Believing Belinda," where a girl named Belinda 
idolizes Mira and casts her as a detective in a story she's writing 
(and the girls eventually find out about).  I went hysterical over her 
casting Dorei (the show's lead) as a yappy little pup.  (Oh, and until 
'Naruto' got to the Chunin Exam arc this past spring, "DoReMi" was my 
favorite anime on TV last season.  I know I'm gonna get chided for that 
by someone.)

The whole SuperDuplica/Supergirl bit?  Totally spur of the moment...

The ending of the Chiva storyline was supposed to take an entirely 
different twist and affect the plot for many months to come.  Originally, 
Marina was going to dress up as Misty and find a way to go through the 
portal while the real Misty, distracted by a talk with some of the 
townspeople, is left behind and mistaken for the dying Marina.  The Mayor 
would find out almost immediately thanks to strange results on a medical 
test, but Misty was left stranded with no way to get back to her world.

Meanwhile, Marina posed as Misty without a hitch, and seemingly the 
different dimension mysteriously did a way with her 'fatal' disease... 
not that Ash or the others were able to figure out she wasn't Misty.  
It would take a year, but the Grechola Virus would work its way back 
and force her to be hospitalized.  On her deathbed, it's finally 
revealed that Marina has been with Ash this entire time, not Misty!  
Ash then goes about the task of trying to find a way to get Misty back, 
and eventually succeeds in doing so.

Now that I think about it, the idea does seem farfetched, especially 
with Ash being oblivious to 'Misty' not being Misty.  Maybe it's a good 
thing I decided to change the story outline after all.

Ah, the Poké-Com, established at the start in Episode 1 of the 
"Adventures Series."  Enables trainers to communicate via their 
Pokédexes, albeit with a certain radius of miles.  I had almost 
forgotten about the thing...

More changes from the original plotline... Tracey was already supposed to 
be gone and back home on the Orange Islands at this point.  Instead, I 
decided to follow the TV series and have him as Professor Oak's assistant 
full-time.  Also, the tournament was originally going to be held at the 
Indigo Plateau, but I decided instead to change the location to 
Evergrande City... site of the Hoenn League championships in the TV 
series.  It's a much grander place, and it fits more into what I have 
planned for the final (which you'll see in the September session).  The 
change also allows me free reign to use Hoenn Pokémon, something not 
planned for in the previous version.  The same goes for Ash's new Hoenn 
outfit being used.  Boy, I'm borrowing a lot from the TV series now, 
aren't I?  (Besides, it saves me the trouble of thinking up a new teenage 
outfit for Ash... I cheated and borrowed from an official source, just 
like I did for Misty.)

The experimentation of the Pokémon Junior Master is just that.  Expect a 
lot of untraditional battles... well, from a Kanto/Johto standpoint, 
anyway.  To start things off...

A preliminary round battle royale in the middle of a forest?  Sound 
familiar?  (Yes, here I'm making up for sandbagging 'Naruto' earlier in 
the notes.)  Inspired by the Forest of the Death, the second part of the 
Chunin Exams in "Naruto"... which had just appeared in Shonen Jump in 
America when the writing for "The Year of Rocket's Revenge" began.  I 
just loved the idea that I had to put a facsimile of it in the story.  
Granted, my version doesn't end up anywhere near as long, or probably 
anywhere as good... but hey, it serves it's purpose.

Hmmm... I do not remember if I showed Gary having an Eevee before, but 
this is certainly Umbreon's first appearance.  (Truth be told, it ends 
up complimenting Cassie's Eevee... but in turn makes her weak.  She 
probably would've had a stronger performance if she used Bulbasaur.)

More 'borrowing concepts from the TV show.'  The reference of the 
Battle Couple professing they fight for love (here, battling Gary and 
Cassie) is based off a similar couple that appeared in the Hoenn 
episode "The Bicker the Better" (which has Ash and May as the couple 
who may-or-may-not be in love).  The names Andy and Mandy, though, are 
based off a former celebrity couple... I'm not telling you this one.  
Can you figure it out?

Back to "Naruto" references again... if you hadn't guessed by this point, 
Nagato, the ninja in the orange jumpsuit, is a Naruto clone.  Though I'm 
not so sure he'd pick a Weezing as his Pokémon partner (Weezing was 
picked because of a ninja-like attack in Smokescreen).  Finding the name 
Nagato to use for him was coincidence in terms of similarity to Naruto's 
name... just happened to find it while looking for names of famous 
ninjas.  The character here is based off of Nagato Fujibayashi, a 
real-life ninja who did most of his work back in the 1570s in the North 
Iga province.

And to wrap things up... it's not a Pokémon tournament unless President 
Goodshow is there to welcome the competitors!

See you in the 'September Session!'

******

'Session: September' Trailer:
16 of the world's best trainers under the age of 18 have gathered in 
Evergrande City to coronate the first-ever Pokémon Junior Master!  Who 
will be the one to grab the gold?  Our hero, Ash?  His main rival, Gary?  
Gary's other rival, Cassie?  Or the mysterious Marco?  Also in store... 
back story time!  What happened when Cassie met Arius?  And were they 
the five-star PTA recruits they claimed to be?

Set your reading eyes for 'Session: September' and get ready to battle!