Back At Pallet Town

After the incident with a Lapras pod and some pirates, Ashlyn and the gang were now on their way to Pallet Town.

"I can't wait to be home again and see mum again." Ashlyn smiled.

"I can't wait to meet Prof Oak at last." Tracey said.

"I wonder how Prof Oak is doing with the GS ball." Misty pondered.

"You know," Ashlyn said, "Something about that ball seemed weird to me. I mean no one could get it open, as if this ball has to have something happen to it to actually open."

"Do you mean like in those stories? The ones that show that a special magic item have to be in a special place to work or such?" Misty questioned.

"I do not know," Ashlyn answered, "The GS ball is a real mystery."

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That afternoon, the boat finally brought Ashlyn and the gang to the docks of Kanto.

"Finally we're here." Ashlyn said. After walking some forests, the gang made it into Pallet Town. "Home again." She said, looking at the landscape.

"Wow, Pallet Town looks lovely." Tracey complimented.

Ashlyn was eager to get home and see her mum again, so the first stop was Ashlyn's house. When they got into Ashlyn's house they were surprised at who was there to greet them.

The familiar person turned around, "Welcome back." He greeted.

"Brock?!" Ashlyn and Volkner gasped.

"What are you doing here?!" Misty exclaimed.

"Who's he?" Tracey asked, confused.

"Oh this is Brock. He's a former traveling companion of ours." Volkner introduced.

"Hey you must be Tracey." Brock said when he noticed Tracey.

"Yeah, that's me." Tracey smiled nervously.

"Last time we saw you, was back with Professor Ivy and her three assistants." Ashlyn stated.

Brock smile faded away immediately and laid on his side with a gloomy aura around himself, "Don't say that name..." He muttered, weakly.

"Um, Brock?" Volkner asked.

"... I don't want to talk about it..." Brock said, weakly.

The gang blinked at his behavior. Persian and Yamper walked into the hallway.

"Nya nya. (Prof. Ivy dumped him.)" Persian said.

"Arf arf arf arf. (When he arrived he was all doom and gloom when your mom asked him.)" Yamper added.

"Nya, nya nya. Nya, nya nya nya. (In order to cope, he's been helping clean the house and doing sewing. However, he and Mimey bicker over the chores.)" Persian explained.

"Oh boy." Ashlyn whispered as she rolled her eyes.

"What happened?" Volkner whispered.

"Persian and Yamper said that Prof. Ivy dumped him." Ashlyn whispered back.

Misty sighed, "Oh brother."

Tracey turned to the others, "Does this always happen?"

"Yes." Ashlyn, Volkner, and Misty said.

"Ashlyn, is that you?" A female voice called out.

The gang turned around and saw Delia standing there with Roserade beside her.

"Mom!" Ashlyn ran over to her mom and hugged her while Tesla hugged her neck, "It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, sweetie. You as well, Tesla." Delia smiled.

Ashlyn and Tesla smiled as they released her from the hug.

"Hi miss Ketchum." Misty greeted.

"Hello Misty, are you and Togepi doing okay?" Delia greeted back.

"We're doing well." Misty smiled.

"Togeprii!" Togepi smiled.

"Volkner, good to see you again." Delia smiled.

"Good to see you too, Delia." Volkner smiled.

"And Tracey, it's nice to finally meet you." Delia greeted.

"Nice to meet you too." Tracey greeted back.

"Mom, how long has Brock been here?" Ashlyn whispered to her mom.

Delia told them how she and Mimey had found Brock while walking back from their shopping trip a week ago. She told them how she managed to get Brock to tell her what was wrong and how he had been doing most of the house chores since.

Ashlyn, Volkner, and Misty sighed at this. Then Ashlyn went over the living room to a trophy case. She placed her Orange League trophy and four badges onto a shelf, where her eight badges and trophy from the Indigo League, were.

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After greeting Delia and Brock, the gang headed for Prof Oak's lab. Tracey was getting excited to meet Prof Oak at last.

"I'm going to show him all my sketches." he said.

Ashlyn wondered how many sketches Tracey had; after all Tracey did say that he has sketched quite a lot of Pokémon in the past. When they got to the lab and entered it, they saw Prof Oak standing beside Ashlyn's Clefable who seem to be scolding Ashlyn's Muk.

"Hey Prof. Oak, Clefable, Muk. How are you doing?" Ashlyn asked.

"Ashlyn, good to see you," Prof. Oak greeted, "Muk just loves to smother humans in a hug and Clefable was able to get it off me."

Muk held its arms out to Ashlyn and she gave Muk a hug, "Good to see you too, Muk. Have you been behaving?"

Muk rubbed its hands together nervously. Ashlyn patted it on the head, "Next time you want to hug someone, don't jump out at them. Let them hug you first, okay?"

Muk smiled and nodded happily. Clefable came over to Ashlyn and held her arms out.

Ashlyn smiled and gave her a hug as well, "Good to see you as well, Clefable. Have you been helping the Professor?"

Clefable nodded, "Clefable. Clef Clefable Clef. (I have. I like helping him.)"

"Clefable and your other Pokémon have helped me a lot, Ashlyn. They seem to like helping me for some reason. But I'm glad that they're helping." Prof. Oak complimented.

"I'm glad." Ashlyn smiled.

"He's really real!" Tracey smiled with excitement, "It's certainly an honor to finally meet you, Prof. Oak."

"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Tracey." Prof. Oak greeted, "Oh and by the way Brock, Prof. Ivy sends her best regards."

Brock instantly got depressed and crouched down while hugging his knees with depression lines over him.

"What's wrong?" Prof. Oak asked, confused.

"You really don't want to go there." Volkner warned with a sweat drop on his forehead.

Tesla jumped onto Prof. Oak's shoulder and he petted her head, "Why hello there, Tesla. How are you?"

Tesla smiled, "Rai!"

"Prof. Oak, would you be interested in looking through my sketches?" Tracey asked.

"Of course Tracey, I'll check them out later, but first, Ashlyn, I would like you to meet someone." Prof. Oak said.

"Who?" Ashlyn blinked as Tesla jumped back onto her shoulder.

"Follow me." Prof. Oak led the group to another room. There they saw a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes. Ashlyn recognized this woman.

"This is Lusamine. She's the head of the Aether Foundation." Prof. Oak introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ashlyn. Prof. Oak has told me a lot about you." Lusamine greeted.

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Lusamine." Ashlyn greeted back, "Uh not to be rude, Lusamine, but could you tell us more about Type: Null?"

"Of course." Lusamine accepted.

Lusamine explained why Type: Null was created: to defeat Ultra Beasts which were creatures from another dimension that very few times had entered their world and caused destruction. If the Alola Regions Island Guardians hadn't come when they did, who knew what further destruction they would have caused. So Type: Full was created to fight against them. But when all three violently rejected the RKS system, the creations were deemed a failure and had control masks put on them and then were sealed away.

"Lusamine, how was Type: Null missing from the lab?" Misty asked.

"Well as it turns out, one of the other labs was broken into a few weeks ago. The thieves took one of the Type: Null along with the RKS System." Lusamine informed and then sighed, "I can't believe that this wasn't reported to me sooner."

"You didn't think this would happen, Lusamine. So don't blame yourself." Ashlyn assured her.

Lusamine smiled softly at her, "Thank you, Ashlyn. Speaking of which, how is Type: Null?"

"Oh, Talos is doing great." Ashlyn replied.

"Talos?" Lusamine blinked.

"Well I didn't know what Type: Null was, so I named it Talos." Ashlyn explained.

"I see." Lusamine said.

"Since you're all here, let's have a tour around my Pokémon corral." Prof Oak suggested.

"Sounds like a great idea." Lusamine agreed.

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Everyone headed outside to the backyard of the lab, seeing hundreds of Pokémon roaming around the Oak's Corral.

"Wow, incredible." Tracey's eyes shined, "Seeing this many Pokémon in this one place." He spotted from other Pokémon he recognized from different regions. "Professor Oak who are those Pokémon?" He pointed in a direction.

"Oh, those are Ashlyn's Pokémon." Prof. Oak answered.

"Wow, how did you managed to get them, Ashlyn?" Tracey asked.

"Some of them I adopted after we rescued them from abusive trainers or were abandoned. A few of them were hatched from eggs that I won or found. There were some that I caught when I was training in the Alola region for the Indigo League." Ashlyn replied.

"Amazing." Tracey said, surprised.

Ashlyn released her Pokémon: Lucario, Espeon, Natsu, Gengar, Levina, Vaporeon, Leafon, Kangaskhan, Toucannon, Chrystal, Rory, Dragonite, Blastoise, and Talos.

Vaporeon, Rory, Blastoise, and Chrystal went over to the lake nearby.

"Well Ashlyn I must say all your Pokémon are fine and doing well." Prof Oak stated. Then he noticed Talos the Type: Null. "So this is Talos."

"Yes, this is Talos." Ashlyn said as Talos walked over to her and nudged her. She petted Talos on the head who seemed to like the attention.

"You've been taking good care of it, Ashlyn." Lusamine complimented.

"Thanks, I'm just glad that I saved Talos in time." Ashlyn said, "By the way, are my Lapras okay as well, Prof. Oak?"

"Yes they are," Prof. Oak answered, "and I haven't forgotten about what you told me when you captured Lapras's mother. So you don't need to worry about a thing, Ashlyn."

"You rarely meet any trainers who have a Lapras. You're the first I know who has two." Lusamine said.

Ashlyn met up with all of her Pokémon and greeted them all. They were all delighted to be with Ashlyn all at once. Ashlyn's baby Lugia, Poseidon, was happy to see Ashlyn too and nuzzled her at once. Along with the three legendary Kanto birds.

"I hope Poseidon and the others here have been good, Professor." Ashlyn said.

"No need to worry Ashlyn," Prof. Oak assured her, "Poseidon is curious and playful but he does exactly what I tell him. Pidgeot is becoming a good mother figure for the other three legendary birds."

"You have the beast trio who are all shiny?!" Tracey exclaimed, pointing to the beast trio of Johto.

"Yes, I got them as eggs." Ashlyn stated.

"I'm also amazed that you found two legendary Galar Pokémon, Ashlyn." Prof. Oak commented.

"Well I never expected legendary Pokémon would hatch from those eggs, Professor." Ashlyn said. 'Thank goodness I didn't tell him about Marshadow yet.'

"That name." Brock said weakly with a cloud of gloom over him as he laid on his side.

The others sweat dropped at his behavior.

"She means Prof. Oak!" Misty snapped.

"Oh, right!" Brock perked back up.

Tracey was amazed with the amount of Pokémon Ashlyn had captured on her journeys so far. After looking at all the Pokémon in the Oak corral, everyone was having some tea with Prof Oak. Prof Oak was looking at Tracey's sketches and thought they were truly remarkable.

"I have to admit that these are amazing sketches." Prof. Oak commented, looking at the sketch of Lapras and his mother, Cyan.

"I agree." Lusamine agreed.

"Why thank you, Prof. Oak, Miss Lusamine." Tracey smiled.

Suddenly they heard a sort of banging noise.

"What was that?" Ashlyn gasped.

Brock looked outside the window, "Huh, something is surrounding the whole place." He said.

"This has Team Rocket written all over it." Volkner said.

Prof Oak and the gang ran out of the building to deal with the situation. There was a tent that surrounded the lab. They noticed Team Rocket was on a trapeze rope above them.

"Prepare for trouble and getting ready for the best act yet." Jessie began.

"And better make that double because we don't use a net." James continued.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all people within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Yukina, Ice Beam!" Ashlyn cut in.

Yukina flew in using Steel Wing to cut out an opening and aimed a Ice Beam attack at Team Rocket which encased them into a block of ice and the ice fell to the ground.

"Enya, Barak, use Steel Wing to cut the rest of the tent!"

Both Legendary Birds screeched out appearing and they both flew upwards, their wings glowed metallic color and cut through the gigantic tent with their wings, the tent began to collapse.

"Now it's time to finish this," Ashlyn declared, "Yukina, Ice Shard! Enya, Fire Blast! Barak, Zap Cannon!"

All Three Legendary Birds fired their attacks at Team Rocket.

BOOM! BLAST!

The attacks caused the ice to break and sent Team Rocket into the air.

Jessie grumbled, "That twerp interrupted our motto again!"

"Yeah and we lost again!" James added.

Meowth sighed.

"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" Team Rocket screamed out as they faded into the distance sky.

"Great job you three." Ashlyn complimented her three Legendary birds.

The birds cooed at her compliment and nuzzled against her.

"I have to say Ashlyn, you and your Pokémon become more amazing every time I see you battle. And the way you have raised and trained your Pokémon is remarkable." Prof. Oak complimented.

"I have to agree. Those three were amazing." Lusamine added.

"Thanks Professor, Miss Lusamine, but my Pokémon deserve the credit." Ashlyn thanked the two.

"Don't say that name." Brock said weakly with a cloud of gloom over him as he laid on his side.

The others sweat dropped again at his behavior.

Volkner sighed, "He'll never be able to get over her."

"Yup." Misty agreed.

"I just hope that I'll do well when I go to the Johto region." Ashlyn said, changing the subject.

"You plan to journey through the Johto region, Ashlyn?" Prof. Oak asked.

"Yes I do and I plan to enter the Johto League." Ashlyn answered.

"That's my plan too." said a voice from behind them.

The gang turned to the voice and saw that the voice came from Gary Oak.

"Hey Gary," Ashlyn greeted, "How've you been?"

"Well, here and there, and other things." Gary responded.

"So Gary I take it you wish to take on the Johto region too?" Prof Oak asked.

"That I do Gramps and I plan on winning the Johto League as well." Gary replied, confidently.

"You do realize that you would have to beat Ashlyn first, Gary." Misty pointed out.

"I know that." Gary then got an idea, "Let's have a battle Ashlyn, one-on-one Pokémon battle." He declared, "I want to see your battling skills."

Ashlyn smiled, "You're on, Gary."

She turned to her Pokémon, "Who wants to battle?"

Galahad barked and came up to Ashlyn, "You sure?"

Galahad nodded with a smile.

Both trainers got ready to battle against each other with Brock as referee.

"I'll choose Galahad, my Zamazenta as my Pokémon." Ashlyn said.

"I choose Eevee." Gary sent out his new evolution Pokémon to battle.

"Eevuii!" The evolution Pokémon cried out.

"Oh? You got yourself an Eevee." Ashlyn smiled. "So what are you planning on making Eevee evolve into Gary?" She asked.

"Don't know," Gary replied, "I haven't made up my mind yet."

"I see." Ashlyn said.

She knew that his Eevee will evolve into an Umbreon.

"Eevee, use Tackle!" Gary ordered.

"Galahad, Iron Head!" Ashlyn countered.

Eevee headed straight towards Galahad who's body became surrounded by a white aura, making it seem black and white, and it slammed into Eevee which sent it flying and then tumbling on the ground.

"Now Agility Combat!" Galahad disappeared and then reappeared in front of Eevee. Then began punching and kicking Eevee for a moment or two and sent Eevee back to Gary's side.

"Eevee, you okay?" Gary asked. Eevee nodded its head, "Okay then, use Swift!"

"Eevuii!" The evolution Pokémon's tail glowed golden color and golden shape stars appeared from hit, heading towards Galahad.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge and then Metal Claw!" Ashlyn commanded.

Galahad dodged the Swift attack with his speed and then his right paw was encased in a metallic color as he headed towards Eevee.

"Eevee use Protect!" The evolution Pokémon brought up a green barrier around itself.

"Grr!" Galahad stopped his Metal Claw before the Protect and he jumped, flipping backwards, landing on his trainer's side.

"Gary has raised his Eevee well just as much as Ashlyn has trained Galahad well." Tracey observed as he drew the battle in his sketchbook.

"Yes it's true," Prof. Oak agreed, "both Gary and Ashlyn have grown up well with Pokémon, while on their journeys."

"Indeed. These two have promise. But I'm starting to think that Ashlyn's more advanced than Gary." Lusamine commented.

Prof. Oak nodded, "I agree."

"Eevee Double Team!" Gary ordered.

Eevee created copies of itself around Galahad.

"Galahad, use Swift and then Focus Blast!" Ashlyn countered.

Galahad jumped up and released a bunch of stars from his tail which rained down at Eevee's copies and managed to hit the real Eevee. Then Galahad opened his mouth and formed a light blue orb of energy in front of it. He the fired the ball at Eevee which sent it flying back to its trainer's side. Soon enough Eevee collapsed with swirling eyes.

"Eevee is unable to battle!" Brock announced, "The winner of this Pokémon battle goes to Ashlyn and Galahad." He declared.

Galahad barked twice happily, he ran towards his trainer.

Ashlyn knelt down and hugged the warrior Pokémon, "Well done, Galahad."

Gary carefully picked up his fallen evolution Pokémon, he gave it an Oran berry and it woke back up. "You did a great job." He said.

Eevee smiled.

Gary placed his Eevee onto his right shoulder, stroking its chin and he turned to Ashlyn, "Next time we battle each other it will be at the Johto League." He said, "I'll win it next time."

Ashlyn giggled, "I look forward to it."

Gary bowed to his grandpa and he picked up his rucksack and walked off, heading to the next region.

"Bye Gary, see you next time in the Johto Region!" Ashlyn shouted out.

Gary waved his right hand in response and soon he was gone.

Everyone headed back inside Professor Oak Lab.

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Professor Oak had the GS Ball in his hand, "I'm giving this back to you Ashlyn." He handed back the GS Ball to Ashlyn, "I need you to help me find out more about it."

Ashlyn blinked twice, "How?"

Professor Oak typed something onto his computer and a image of an old man popped up. Ashlyn recognized the man as Kurt Gantetsu.

"Who's that?" Misty asked.

"That's Kurt Gantetsu, he's a famous Pokéball designer." Ashlyn replied.

"Correct, Ashlyn. If anyone can figure out the GS Ball its Kurt himself." Prof. Oak stated.

"Makes sense." Brock said.

"Ashlyn, I would like you to go to Azalea Town and take the GS Ball to him." Professor Oak said.

"No problem, Prof. Oak. You can count on us." Ashlyn responded.

Prof. Oak chuckled, "I know I can."

"You should also take Talos with you, Ashlyn. It would go in a state of rage if its ever separated from the one its bonded with." Lusamine warned.

"Okay, I will." Ashlyn assured her.

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It was the next day, the group was heading out again. However Volkner had to head back Sinnoh since the Sinnoh league was going to start again. Tracey was staying behind because he became Prof. Oak's new assistant.

Delia, Prof. Oak, Tracey, Volkner, and Lusamine were all there to say goodbye.

Ashlyn was wearing a new outfit that was made by her mom. She wore a light-purple with no sleeves hoodie with a half of a white Pokéball pattern near the bottom on it and a white short-sleeve shirt underneath. She also wore a pair of dark blue jean capri shorts with black leggings underneath and a pair of purple shoes with white laces. On her hands, she wore black fingerless gloves with light purple borders. She got a new backpack which was black with a white Pokéball design on it.

"Well it's time for us to go." Brock said.

"Make sure to visit my mom while we're gone, Tracey." Ashlyn said.

"Don't worry, I will." Tracey promised.

"Call me if you have any questions about Talos." Lusamine said.

She gave her number to Ashlyn's Rotom phone.

"I will." Ashlyn said.

Then the gang headed off.

"Bye everyone take care now." Delia waved.

"Goodbye!" Lusamine waved.

"Do your best out there!" Professor Oak waved.

"Good luck!" Tracey and Volkner waved.

The gang waved back and they walked along the road.

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And so Ashlyn and her friends are leaving Pallet Town once again, this time they're headed West and it seems certain that the new road before them will lead to new friends, rivals and new Pokémon.

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Pokémon on hand: Raichu (Tesla)(F), Type: Null (Talos)(Genderless), Lugia (Poseidon)(M)

*Marshadow is hiding in Ashlyn's shadow