Cinnabar island.

The hail storm subsided after Articuno was captured.

"What was that…..that evolution," Sabrina asked still a bit shocked after witnessing the battle.

"It is called Mega Evolution…..

It is something that existed in the world thousands of years ago.

It's a power that can let a Pokemon temporarily evolve beyond their normal evolution"

Aoki slowly explained Sabrina everything while he let his Clefable and Chansey squad heal Articuno and Charizard.

Since Aoki was still compiling data on Mega evolution, it would take some time for him to introduce this to the real world.

Sabrina was very excited to hear about Mega Evolution and wanted to try Mega Evolution for herself.

Since Sabrina knew about mega evolution, he would try using Sabrina as a subject to see if it was different.

He had the mega stone for Alakazam so he didn't have to go search for a mega stone.

Now that Articuno was captured, it was time to leave the island.

Since it was already nearly evening, they decided to leave the next morning.

During the nighttime, Aoki went back into the mountain to collect some high-quality Dawn stones and Ice stones that he could not collect earlier due to the fight.

There was an abundance of those in Articuno's lair so Aoki took as much as he wanted.

Aoki's main team surrounded Articuno while the second team stood a bit far from Articuno.

"Darkrai, wake him up"

Articuno slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a forest.

The first thing he saw was a figure of Aoki with Charizard behind him.

Articuno didn't take any defensive posture because a monster was standing beside him. He knew that he would be dead before he could retaliate so he wouldn't try.

Articuno looked into Aoki's eyes with acceptance saying that he was ready to accept his teams since he was defeated.

Aoki walked up to Articuno and put his aura-coated hands-on Articuno's head.

"You will be my companion from now on…..

I shall make you stronger than ever and show you the world from the peak.

You just have to trust me"

Articuno felt a strange sense of relief from Aoki's palm.

"All these Pokemon here will be your family from now on.

Treat them with love and respect"

**********

The next morning, with all preparations done, Aoki and Sabrina set out for Cinnabar Island.

As usual, Aoki let Gyarados follow them through the ocean at his own pace while Aoki and Sabrina flew on the back of Articuno.

Articuno's cold back gave a comfortable feeling against the hot Sun overhead.

Aoki let Sabrina borrow his keystone and Alakazite to get familiar with it.

During the few hours Articuno spent with Aoki's Pokemon, he liked Pidgeot the most.

Pidgeot gave out that noble feeling of an empress due to her having a royal gene that Articuno liked a lot.

Like all other Pokemon, Articuno had a strong personality trait which was arrogance.

Due to being a legendary or superior species, she saw most of Aoki's Pokemon as inferior species to her except Pidgeot, Charizard, Salamence and Dakrai.

Minutes after opening his eyes, Articuno learned that Darkrai was the strongest there and made a note not to mess with him.

Articuno also met Celebi who was very happy to meet Articuno since he was similar to her friend Zapdos.

Celebi told Articuno how Aoki helped Zapdos which increased the image of Aoki for Articuno.

Although Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno were always meant to fight, knowing that Zapdos had left an offspring despite the extremely low birth rate made Articuno happy.

Since Articuno was now fighting with Aoki, Darkrai decided to inform them about the events till now and what Articuno would be facing in the future.

Legendary Pokemon are born with a responsibility to maintain order.

Since Aoki was walking on the same path to maintain balance, Articuno desired to follow even more.

********

It took a few days for Aoki and Sabrina to reach Cinnabar Island as they stopped at multiple small islands.

Cinnabar Island was the largest island in the southwest region of Kanto region.

It was a famous tourist spot due to its beaches, hot springs, and volcanos.

Half of the islands are civilised while the other half is covered with dense grey forest and both active and dormant volcanos.

This area was home to a lot of fire-type Pokemon like the Arcanine tribe, Magmar tribe, and Rapidash tribe.

Sometimes even the Charizard tribe can be found here but they were very rare like the Magmar tribe.

Apart from these, more Tribes like the Rhyhorn tribe, Golem tribe, Sandslash tribe, Dugtrio tribe, Marowark tribe, and Onix tribe.

The island had an official fire-type gym led by Blaine.

This gym was unique in the sense that the gym was hidden from the public eye.

Only the trainer who had found the gym was allowed to fight Blaine and had to sign an agreement not to reveal the location of the gym.

Lastly, the headquarters of the Archeologist Association was present in Cinnabar islands where the revival of fossil Pokemon was also done.

By the time Aoki and Sabrina reached Cinnabar Island so they decided to rest for the day in a hotel.

For the next two days, Aoki and Sabrina relaxed in different hot springs and hotels.

There were hot springs for Pokemon too so their Pokemon got to relax as well.

In the original Kanto game, there was an abandoned research lab on Cinnabar Island where Mewtwo was created.

Aoki wanted to see the lab for himself but Sabrina had no idea about it since the project Mewtwo was kept top secret.

Aoki asked around the town but there was no information about the Pokemon mansion so the most probable position of the research lab should be somewhere in the volcanic region.

On the third day, Sabrina left for some information gathering so Aoki left alone to see the Archaeologist Association.

Entering the huge building gave Aoki flashbacks of the museum in Pewter City due to the similar design.

It was expected as the museum was a part of the Archaelosit association.

Aoki was immediately recognized at the reception and was warmly welcomed for a tour of the entire building but some senior researchers.

The entire building was divided into various sections which Aoki looked at with interest.

The first area he was taken to was an underground sanctuary where the Pokemon who was revived from fossils lived and interacted with researchers.

After all their data was recorded, they were given to either trainer, the researcher alliance, or the League alliance.

The next area was the place where the revival of fossils took place, there was large machinery that utilized the blue revival water.

Aoki was told that there was a fresh new batch of similar machines that would get a discount. He took the offer and bought one revival machine.

Aoki let out Clefable and asked her to teleport the machine to his lab for a show while Darkrai from the shadows put the machine into his dimension.

The next area was the research labs where various experiments were conducted. Aoki spent a few hours discussing the researchers about their research while giving his opinions too.

The Aerodactyl at the facility was very young so they didn't have any accurate reading on the behavior of an adult Aerodactyl.

Aoki was happy to provide them with his data but at a price to which the researchers happily agreed.

After going through some more areas they finally came to the commercial area.

This place had fossils that could not be revived, evolution stones, and beautiful rocks found along with the fossils.

'Similar indeed'

Aoki remembered that he bought a mega stone from the Pewter city museum and today the same thing happened again.

There was one Mega stone and one keystone on display along with the other beautiful stones.

Aoki immediately bought them with the excuse that he found them pretty.

When he asked them where they were excavated from, he was told that they were found alongside an Aerodactyl fossil in the grandpa canyon.

Aoki smiled hearing that information since the energy from the mega stone matched with Aerodactyl.

******

Aoki returned in the evening and handed Sabrina the new keystone in the form of a gold necklace.

Sabrina didn't ask where he got that from and was delighted to have one for herself.

She was ready to serve Aoki for the night in exchange for such a precious gift.

"I was searching for information about the gym for the entire day and found the location of the gym," Sabrina said.

"But there is a problem, the people who know gym leader Blaine said that he has been missing for a week…..

The last person Blaine talked to said that he was going to the volcanic region but hasn't returned since." Sabrina said.

"I was going to explore the volcanos anyways, might as well search for our gym leader " Aoki gave a wide smile which sent a chill down Sabrina's spine.

She knew what that smile meant…..Aoki was going to throw his Pokemon into the lava.