To Cerulean City

The next morning began with me being ridden by Brock's siblings. Apparently, Forrest had painted a larger than life image of me on their minds and they were looking at me like a superhero or something. It was quite difficult for me as I'm definitely not a superhero, but I mistakenly used telekinesis for something, and I really became a superhero to them. Anyway, I could be a superhero to them, but still, Brock had a higher standing for them. I didn't mind it one bit. The morning was a bit difficult as all of Brock's siblings were having their share of getting spoiled by him before he left with us.

But still, goodbye with his family was a joyous one. Everyone knew that Brock was leaving on a journey for his dreams and cheered for him. Apparently Brock became a bit emotional but, we just departed before he'd shed any tears or show his sadness to his family. Flint took over his role as the Gym leader and even he was surprised at the strength shown by Steelix. But, he was happy that the Gym was stronger and he had no trouble in letting Brock take away Onix and Geodude.

Brock's Onix had been like mine, he had raised Onix from an egg so had a very deep emotional attachment to him. Maybe that's why he entrusted Forrest to Onix later in the anime. And his Onix was really strong. If my Steelix didn't have the support of the time chamber, he would have lost against Onix.

Well, we left Pewter City and I took out my bike.

Brock-"Hey! You've got a cool one! Can I ride it?"

Ash-"Ok!"

Brock rode the bike................and fell.

He didn't know how to ride one!

Brock-"I thought it would be the same as a bicycle! Too bad! I wanted to look cool!"

Ash-"Don't worry! I can teach you to ride once we reach Cerulean City."

Brock was a bit flustered-"I want to learn it before we reach Cerulean City."

I was a bit confused and then I realized that I had forgotten one most important feature of Brock's Character- a chaser of beautiful girls.

Ash-"Could it be that you want to impress the Cerulean City Gym leaders?"

I could see a dangerous expression on Misty's face and a goofy expression on Brock's face.

Brock-"Ohohohoho...........You caught me there! I've heard that the Water Flowers of Cerulean City are all beauties and I wondered if I could get along with anyone of......... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

There you go! Misty pulling Brock by the ear scene.

It was quite hilarious to watch as Brock hadn't realized that he was talking about Misty's sisters in front of her.

I thought that it was better for him not to know.

Why?

I freaking enjoyed seeing Brock pulled by the ear by Misty. Even Robin was having a laugh at this.

Robin-"I've read that Mt Moon, the place we'll be passing through, has deposits of Fossils of ancient Pokemon."

Ash-"Yeah! There are fossils there....... Hey Brock! Does the Pewter City Pokemon museum has the machinery to revive Pokemon from Fossils?"

Brock was a bit surprised about the revival..... Ok! maybe not. He was surprised about Pewter City having anything like that.

Brock-"I don't think any place except Cinnabar Island has the technology to revive Pokemon from fossils. Maybe the Pewter City museum is working on it, but I haven't heard of anything like that so if we do find fossils at Mt Moon by any chance, we'd better go to Cinnabar Island as it is easier to go there from Cerulean City."

Though I didn't need any ancient Pokemon for myself right now, I wanted to have Robin, Misty, and Brock to have ancient Pokemon for them. Kabuto for Robin, Omanyte for Misty, and Aerodactyl for Brock.

As we drew towards the entrance of the cave, we saw a guy in a lab coat and wearing glasses getting attacked by a herd of Zubat. Pikachu charged a thunderbolt, dispersing the herd with Brock catching one of the Zubats. The guy then thanked us, "Thank you for saving me! I'm Seymour, a scientist."

We gave our introductions and inquired about the reason for the attack and found out that the Pokemon inside the cave had been attacked by someone and were now in chaos. I remembered the episode and asked him,

Ash-"Is it about moonstone and Clefairy?"

Seymour was wide-eyed at my revelation and took my hands.

Seymour-"Do you know about it? What are your views about it?"

Robin chimed in, "About what exactly?"

Seymour-"I believe that there's a Moonstone core in Mt Moon and it helps power up the pokemon. I've got some more points but that's the gist of it."

Robin-"Interesting! So how did you relate the two? I mean, did you see any pokemon getting a notable strength increase? if you did, what was the nature of the increase, I mean did they become powerful all over suddenly, or that the strength rise is gradual but faster than others? Does it affect all pokemon or only a few species........."

And Robin got into research mode.

Misty and Brock were amazed to see Robin, who was a girl of few words, speaking on and on.

Ash-"That's what happens when she encounters something like that! A researcher at her heart's core!"

Seymour was excited about the conversation too and both of them discussed a lot of things about the theory as we entered the cave. We walked some distance and discovered apparatus lighting up the cave. No wonder the Pokemon were frantic.

But! The superb design of the apparatus and the fact that such a large setup was built up inside the cave meant only one thing-

.

.

.

.

Team Rocket trio was at work.

I didn't want to waste time on Team Rocket shenanigans and I took out Spookeon for the job.

Ash-"Now Spookeon, find the idiotic trio of a lady, a man, and a Meowth. They'd be somewhere along with the wirings of this machinery."

He entered the ground, or rather a phantom dimension, and went away. Pikachu and Growlithe messed up the entire machinery and the cave was blacked out. It was an effective step as all the Pokemon cries we had been listening to from the time we entered the cave ceased in a few seconds.

After about 10 minutes Spokeaon emerged with Team Rocket tied by shadow bind and sleeping. I think they were either having the time of their life or were suffering from tickle torture in their dreams, the possibility of the latter being higher. Although Spookeon was a prankster, he had his care for others as well and would get annoyed at someone disturbing the others' life just out of their interests.

There was a moment when Spookeon had a mob guy have nightmares in the middle of a park when he had tried to insult mom. That's why I didn't mind Spookeon's pranks much.

I asked Spookeon about the duration of his dream eaters effect and he told me that we were good for about a day.

I tied up Team Rocket and threw them outside the cave. Why not get them arrested?

They'd probably be bailed out by Giovanni and secondly, sometimes, it's fun to watch their antics.

If one day I'm a bit free and they happen to show up, I'd love for them to complete their intro live, as although their plans were often the most stupid, their intro was indeed the best amongst all the Team Rocket duos/trios (I only know of the Cassidy-Butch duo) and their talent in theatrics could be considered to challenge Hollywood.

We found a Clefairy with a moonstone traversing the cave and followed it to reach the core of moonstone. As there was still a long part of the day left, I decided to hunt for fossils and use my previous life knowledge as well.

I had been an avid admirer of fossil hunting in my previous life. I couldn't be a professional Paleontologist, but I did go for fossil hunting trips to Mongolia, Argentina, and particularly South Dakota, USA, the place famous for finding Sue, the most complete and largest T-Rex fossil discovered. So yeah, I knew the basics of fossil hunting which weren't that common in Pokemon world.

I left Seymour at the site of Moonstone and went for fossil hunting.

Ash-"Hey Brock, we need your Zubat's help."

Brock was confused and released hid Zubat.

I asked Brock to command him to use echolocation, and then I linked my Pokedex to the input Zubat was getting.

I got a map of the Cave network and the rock type in each cave branch. I identified the caves with softer walls and asked everyone to not make a loud noise or big movements. I even had to recall Arcanine in the Pokeball as his huge stature could cause the walls to collapse.

Ash-" Now observe the ground as we walk. If you see anything of a different color or shape from the surrounding ones, look on to the wall next to it, as they may be eroded fossil. Secondly, remember these pictures. These fossils take priority." I showed them the photos of Dome Fossil, Helix Fossil, and Old Amber.

Robin-"Why these ones are prioritized?"

Ash-"Simply because these ones are the only ones which can be revived right now. Others may be revived one day, but right now these are the limit!"

Misty-"These are fossils, right? That means that they're dead! How can the dead be revived?"

Ash-"Ummm... Ok! Let me rephrase the term, a Pokemon will be cloned from the DNA extracted from the fossil. They can be revived because their DNA information is completely known by scientists. The fossil is needed to get the base on which the entire cloning is done. Somehow, the scientific community has been unable to clone the ancient Pokemon without fossils, but that's the gist of it."

Brock-"So you mean that there may be a lot of other ancient Pokemon that we know nothing about!"

Ash-"Actually we may know something about them, but Pokemon revived from these fossils have been observed while living and have their data stored in the Pokedex. You can check mine or Robin's"

They checked the Pokedex for Dome, Helix and Old Amber fossils and they were amazed to see the information for Kabuto, Omanyte, and Aerodactyl.

Misty-"So which one are you getting Ash?"

Ash-"None of them!"

All of them, including Pikachu, tripped and fell down comically on my revelation.

Misty-"So why are we collecting them?"

Ash-"Firstly, for you three. And secondly, I love fossils. So just for the fun of it. Oh yeah, if we collect different fossils, we may actually help in reviving some other Pokemon later as well."

Misty/Robin/Brock-"For us?"

Ash-"Yeah! I want Robin to get Kabuto, Misty to get Omanyte and Brock to get Aerodactyl. Kabuto to act as a bodyguard for Robin, Omanyte as a new water type for Misty, and Aerodactyl, simply because it looks cool for Brock."

I must say I was amazed at their reactions.

No, I apologize.

I was amazed at Brock's reaction.

He had gone to dreamland. Probably he was imagining himself like a knight riding an Aerodactyl and rescuing Princess or something.

That's why you need companions while traveling. It's like a walking television with its own original content.

Well, Brock was going too far ahead as we hadn't even found any fossils yet.

Ash-"Earth to Brock! Snap out bro!"

And Misty did the best thing-----------pulled him by the ear, which really woke up Brock.

Brock-"Captain Ash! I request you to command our unit to prioritize Old Amber! My life depends on it, Sir!"

And I facepalmed.

Good thing he had motivation, but his priority was something way off.

Ash-"No! But if you want to find only Old Amber, You're free to do so. Also, if you find any fossil jutted into the rock, just mark that place and tell me to dig them out. The use of power can destroy them and also cause the cave to collapse. I'll help you dig it out later."

And then we went hunting for fossils. I must say that my previous life experiences helped me a lot.

While the others were able to find only a few fossils, I took my time and found quite a lot of them. I was able to demarcate areas where fossils with water type pokemon occurred more than the others.

Robin and Misty were searching for where fossils of the rock type occurred. They were able to discover more than one Dome and Helix fossils. They were also able to discover an almost complete fossil of a Lapras, which surprised them, but I just told them that maybe Lapras is just an old species. We took the Lapras fossil anyway.

I found a few skull and shield fossils. Too bad they were broken. I would have loved getting a Cranidos early, but I was glad I found something. Still, I kept searching in hopes of discovering something new.

Brock was too much focused on Old Ambers and he found 5 of them. Not only that, but he also found an almost complete Aerodactyl fossil, missing it's lower left arm. He was quite lucky.

We also found some fossils of Pokemon which were still common, like Venusaur and Charizard, which made sense as they resemble dinosaurs a bit and their race having long lineage did make sense. We did extract all of them from the rocks. We did so relying on Skyreon and Spookeon. Skyreon using small wind blades and Spookeon just getting into the rock and beaking the connections using dark energy.

I did discover quite a good number of fossils, but none of them had me interested. My excitement was starting to die down until I spied upon a fossil imprint that looked like a deadly claw, almost like blades in a claw. I searched around and I found nothing. Then, I decided to take my chances and called Brock's Zubat and used echolocation inside the wall. I was too excited on seeing the results.

I had discovered a fossilized colony inside. Probably a colony of Pokemon was attacked by a predator Pokemon and got covered by sand amidst the battle and got fossilized. There was a bipedal Pokemon looking like mini-Tyrantrum but with longer front limbs and a colony of quadruped armored Pokemon.

The entire fossil could be revived but it would take some time to do it. I excavated the entire colony and was actually quite lucky that the wall at the end was hard rock, or the cave could have collapsed, owing to my rash behavior.

Finally, I found a jaw fossil as well. I searched for the information available and was a bit disappointed to know that there was no lab anywhere that could revive a Tyrunt or any other Pokemon except Kabuto, Omanyte, Aerodactyl, Cranidos, and Shieldon. Too bad the fossil would have to wait.

Except that I couldn't wait to revive the cool looking Pokemon whose fossil I had excavated. I passed it into space and had my clones work their way to revitalize the pokemon.

We regrouped after our hunt and boy we had a good hunt. We would have leftovers even after reviving the fossils, except Brock wanted to revive all of the Old Ambers for himself.

I think he took the statement that it looked cool a bit too literally. I made a note to myself that if he did end up reviving all of them, he'd only get to keep one and I'd send all of the rest to Forrest, who seemed to like a trainer.

Well, we headed back to the cave with the Moonstone core and we waited for the night.

As night fell, an opening above the moonstone was revealed and a whole lot of Clefairies arrived with rock pieces, which were most likely pieces of moonstone.

After moonlight fell on the moonstone, I felt something similar to Bodhi, which was probably strengthened the fairy types.

Ash-"Robin! Take out Sylveon!"

Robin was amazed by my outcry, but she took out her Sylveon. As the Clefairys began dancing around the stone, I could feel a build-up of power inside the moonstone, which seemed to collect the moonlight falling on it.

After a few moments, pieces broke off the Moonstone and flew up to collect more moonlight I think and fell down over a few Clefairys who glowed and evolved into Clefables.

An amazing event happened as a fragment landed on Sylveon who also glowed. I was a bit confused as Sylveon has a stable genetic makeup and should not evolve anymore.

Sylveon glowed for a few seconds until the glow died down to reveal that she had become a tad bit taller and looked more beautiful. She probably learned a few new moves as well.

Phew!

I was a bit scared that if Sylveon evolved that meant that our Eevee evolution theory had big gaps left uncovered, but fortunately, all worked out well.

Sylveon had learned moon blast, disarming voice, and draining kiss. Shee had also developed a new ability-sing, which was similar to Jigglypuff but more versatile. Perhaps, Jigglypuff also had different kinds of songs, but only knew how to sing to make others fall asleep.

I shared my idea with Robin who thought that it would probably be a good research idea.

Anyway, with the ordeal over, we decided to stay the night with the Clefairy and Clefable family.

As usual, after dinner, I took out my flute, which amazed Brock who had never seen me sing before. But his amazed look lasted only a few seconds as he knew about my music-pokemon relation research as well.

I started playing music, and this time I was joined by Sylveon, Clefairys, and Clefables. It felt like a beautiful concert that raised the spirits of everyone. We spent quite some time enjoying that feeling and even Zubats came to enjoy it. In the end, everyone saw Ho-oh passing over us, flying into the horizon. Everyone was mesmerized by the scene except me.

Why?

Because I found a paper in my hand.

"How dare you blame me for the storm? Brat! You won't be seeing the next fight with your Pokemon as well!"

Curse You!

You were the one playing dirty the first time!

Ash-"Damn You! Ho-oh!"

I shouted out with all my strength.

Brock and Misty looked at me with a questioning gaze.

Ash-"Ummmm..... I'll tell you guys later."

But Robin saw the paper and was laughing quite hard. That created an air of mystery about me and Ho-oh. Then Misty realized something.

Misty-"Is it about the time you put the blame on Ho-oh about the thunderstorm? But how did he know?"

Robin had an even bigger laugh now. She was rolling on the ground and holding her stomach.

What the hell!

Even Pikachu joined her!

Most of all, even Arcanine joined her!

He had always been the cool elder brother in my team.

Even he was laughing.

As the cat was out of the bag now, I told Misty, "My mom told him."

Misty-"Your mom knows Ho-oh????"

Brock and Misty were wide-eyed and then Brock asked me, "What does that have to do with you? He could only scold you a bit. You look like he stole your ice-cream."

Ash-"Ummmm... How do I say this?....... OK! I and Ho-oh are actually friends since I was 6 years old."

Misty/Brock-"WHAT?"

Ash-"Yeah! Don't ask too much about how we became friends! He owes me a promise to battle my Pokemon team once every year. He didn't allow me to watch him battle my Pokemon. So I took revenge by blaming him for the destruction caused by Pikachu's battle with Raikou."

Brock-"Hold your horses right there! You fought a freaking Raikou?"

Misty-"Actually, he caught one."

As if to cement her statement Raikou came out of his Pokeball.

Seymour just passed out. Good for me.

Brock broke down.

Brock-"Why is the world so unfair? Why? Someone younger than me has both legendary Pokemon and Legendary beauties in his team! Why?"

Legendary Beauties? True, the girls are beautiful, but they're 10-year-olds. And that's a point of your concern?

He doesn't give a damn about the fact that I befriended a Legendary Pokemon, but he's concerned that I'm in the company of girls.

Truly! A womanizer at heart!

You have my respect, Brock!

For being so shameless!

Anyway, Misty and Robin first became embarrassed and then gave Brock a thrashing.

Does anyone remember Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online in their first boss fight? That's how they thrashed Brock

The night passed peacefully after that and in the morning, we passed of Seymour's claims of seeing a legendary as a mere hallucination.

Seymour decided to stay with the Clefairy family to study more about the Moonstone and exchanged contacts with Robin as she wanted to know more about the research work he was doing.

We left for Cerulean City and after about 2 hours reached Cerulean City. It did give a vibe that it had a water-based theme. I mean water parks, fountains, pools, and most notably, a dedicated road to a pier with all kinds of water attractions.

As we entered the city, I saw the signboard of Cerulean City. Something was written on it.

"Gary was here! Ash is a loser!"

This time Robin laughed too loud.

Robin-"pfffft! He's too funny! Ha ha ...haaaaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaahaaaaaa!"

Even I had to hold my mouth to not burst out laughing.

I just wiped everything off and we went off into the city.

I heard cheers going on as we got close to the Gym and Misty facepalmed.

Misty-"Those 3 are at it again."

Robin-"Who?"

Brock-"The mermaid beauties! Water Flowers of Cerulean City!.... Wait! What do you mean again?"

Ash-"She's the youngest of the Water Flowers you speak of!"

Brock fell down! Defeated!

Brock-"I ruined my chance to get into the good graces of the Flowers! Damn it!"

Misty knocked him out.

Ash-"Hey Misty! Can you make sure that your sisters fight strongly? I think it would be better for Feebas as she needs to evolve and a good battle at your gym would be good."

Misty-"I don't think you can get that decent battle you want! You've got a legendary and others have strength equal to them."

Ash-"I won't be using Raikou or Pikachu. Hmmmmm, How many Gyarados does your Gym have?"

Misty-"Two, First one belongs to the Gym and the second one has been raised by my mom."

Ash-"How about a 3 on 3 battle? 2 Gyarados and one pokemon of your sister's choice. I bet the Gyarados raised by your mom is powerful."

Misty-"He is! But he doesn't obey my sisters and I'm afraid of Gyarados."

Ash-"Why though?"

Misty-"I almost drowned once because of a Gyarados!"

Ash-"Are you sure you drowned because of him? I don't want to say this but Gyarados have a scary appearance in general and are often misunderstood."

Misty-"I don't know. I saw him when I was swimming and he glared at me which caused me to freeze and I almost drowned."

Ash-"Maybe he was just concerned about you! Let's see about that later."

We reached the Gym as the water show came to a finish and I entered the Gym to challenge the sisters.

But!

Daisy-"Sorry Boy, but our Pokemon are all tired from the show. You can just have your badge."

Ash-"Are you serious?"

Misty-"No one's getting a badge for free from the Cerulean City Gym!"

Violet-"Oh! So you're back runt!"

Ash-"I'd you're more of a runt compared to her!"

Daisy/Violet/Lily-"What did you say?"

Unknown Lady-"I don't like his tone, but he's correct!"

Daisy, Violet, and Lily started cowering in fear on seeing the lady, who looked like she was a bit older than my mom.

Misty-"MOM!" and she clung onto the lady.

Misty didn't get her mom's looks, but her orange hair is definitely a legacy from her mom.

Misty's Mom-"So! I heard that you were giving away a Gym badge? Care to explain!"

whoa! Scary....... Mom's Scary.......

I mean every Mom can be scarier than hell.

Daisy, Violet, Lily! May your soul rest in peace!

Misty's Mom-"You're the one with a huge Arcanine who's traveling with Misty aren't you?"

Pikachu's ears flopped down a bit. He fought a Raikou and people recognize Arcanine. He looked into my eyes and I couldn't say anything to him except pat his head.

Ash-"Yes I am. Also, Pikachu also travels with me, so please don't ignore him."

Misty's Mom-"And why should I not ignore a tiny Pikachu?"

Misty came to my rescue-"Cause Pikachu had a double knockout with Raikou!"

Misty's Mom-"Haaaaaaaaah! At least come up with presenta.."

Raikou burst out of his Pokeball again.

"Raikouuuuuuu"

Misty's sisters fainted and Misty's mom was shocked.

A bit of silence as she digested the facts.

Misty's Mom-"Ok brat! I acknowledge that your Pikachu can't be ignored. Btw I'm Scarlet, Misty's mother, and the Gym Leader of Cerulean City Gym."

Ash-"I'm Ash, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Tow.."

Brock-"Oh Beautiful lady! Your beauty soothes my heart, mends my souls. Will you come togeth....Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Misty (pulling Brock's ear)- "That's my mother idiot!"

Robin had a laugh again on seeing Brock's condition and introduced herself, "I'm Robin Nico from Pallet Town, a Pokemon Researcher."

Scarlet-"Robin? I've heard of this name before...... Hey! You two! You are the genius duo of Pallet Town, aren't you? The ones to come up with theories on food-pokemon type relation, Music-training relation, and the Eevee evolution theory!"

We just nodded.

Scarlet-"I was gonna reprimand you for calling my daughters runt, but I guess you have something to back you up. Anyway, we can't have a battle today as I rushed up to Cerulean City after Misty told me about a strong trainer coming to the Gym. So I'm tired. How about a battle tomorrow?"

Ash-"Works for me. Thanks!"

As I turned to go out, Misty held my hand and I turned to her.

Misty-"Why don't you stay here tonight? He can, right mom?"

Scarlet ruffled up Misty's hair, "I can't deny my little mermaid's desire now, can I? Sure he can! You can use the pool to train if you want as well. Ok! A heads up! I'll be using a Golduck, Blastoise and Gyarados. I don't want to bully so there's my info."

Ash-"Since you sold yourself out, I'm gonna fight with Feebas, Skyreon, and Arcanine. A heads up from me as well. Feebas is probably going to evolve tomorrow. Be prepared for that. And Skyreon is a wind type. Keep in mind that wind type is different from flying."

Scarlet-"Don't get overconfident brat!"

Ash-"I've got the strength to back it up!"

And thus the stage was set for a powerful battle at Cerulean City.

Next Time-

The Hots at the Water Gym