I’d like to apologise for the crummy title in the last chapter, and I hope I didn’t lose readers because they hate the song! No more songfic chapters for a while, I promise.

Blah blah blah, don’t own this.

We stayed in Goldenrod for 3 or 4 more days, owing to the fact that the place was packed with trainers of all kinds for us to battle. We also came up with a new schedule from the duration of out stay:

8:30 Wake up and have breakfast

9:00 Training

1:00 Lunch

2:00 Battles

5:00 Training

7:00 Dinner

8:00 Bed

Yeah, I know it’s rather early to go to bed, but most of the time we were late anyway, and I did other things then too, like reading and stuff that I didn’t have time for during the day. When it says ‘training’ it means that we find somewhere in the city with few people, let out all our pokémon and they practice using, dodging and defending against attacks. Sometimes Gary’s pokémon would practice against mine, but they were too strong so we stopped that after a while.

So after a few days of vigorous training, we set off again. On the way to Ecruteak we passed through the National Park, where Gary caught a Scyther and a Pinsir. Jealous? Moi? Well, maybe a little. I started getting on better with Gary’s pokémon too. I loved seeing close-up how elegantly Arcanine ran and jumped, and Eevee became a great friend. He said that ‘it was great seeing a girl with a brain cell’. Praise indeed.

We had a training program for the road as well. During the day we’d travel and fight wild pokémon and trainers, and at night we trained by ourselves. Sometimes it could go on very late, and I started wishing for the 8:00 bedtime opportunity we had back in Goldenrod.

Well, one night we were walking (as usual) and fighting (as usual) and I started thinking that we’d never get to Ecruteak.

‘Gaaaaaryyyyyyy, are we there yet?’

‘How should I know?’

‘You have the MAP.’

‘Look, there’s a Pidgey. Go fight.’

‘Gary, we’ve been on the road for over a week. I. Need. A. Shower.’

Meowth broke in here. ‘It’s getting late. We should stop for the night.’

‘Yeah, let’s find a place for camp.’

A trainer walking towards us came into view, and quickly challenged us to a battle. Gary walked up, since I had the last one.

‘Heh, this is gonna be good!’ claimed the trainer. ‘I choose you, Poliwhirl!’ His pokémon appeared on the field, a blue frog-like pokémon with a black and white clockwise spiral.

‘Hang on, there’s something I want to know,’ I addressed the Poliwhirl’s trainer. ‘Do Poliwhirls have mouths? Because it doesn’t look like it, and how do they speak and eat if they don’t?’

‘I’ll tell you if I win,’ he said. Great, I’d never know.

Meanwhile Gary was done calling Eevee out of his pokéball. I stepped in-between the trainers to referee the match.

‘This is a one-on-one match. Let the battle begin!’ Just before they started I saw that the moonlight filtering through the trees covered the ground, making an arena.

‘Poliwhirl, water gun!’ A powerful blast of water sprayed from the middle of Poliwhirl’s spiral, and Eevee dodged it easily.

‘Eevee, use double team, then take down.’

Eevee’s image split many times, surrounding Poliwhirl. It was confused and searched for the real one, then all the Eevees leapt forward and hit it in a take down attack. Of course, only the real Eevee did any damage. Then they all melted back into one.

‘Poliwhirl, try an ice beam!’

A blue ball of energy formed in Poliwhirl’s hands, and blue bolts shot out towards its foe. Eevee expertly dodged each one and ran at full speed to its opponent in a double-edge attack. Then he used quick attack to avoid a water gun and smashed into Poliwhirl again. It toppled over, grazed and beaten.

‘This battle is over! Gary is the winner!’ I said happily.

‘Awww, Poliwhirl return.’ The trainer recalled his pokémon and went on his way.

‘Great job Eevee!’ Gary said, ruffling his pokémon’s fur as it came bounding up to him.

‘Yeah Eevee, you were awesome!’ I agreed, petting it fondly. Eevee jumped up happily and shouted:

‘Eeee! Eewie! Eeee… EEEEEEE!’

It started yelling at the top of its voice. Not fear screaming, but happy screaming. Even so we had to shut out our ears. Gary closed his eyes too, but I nudged him to open them. Eevee was doing something. He glowed and emitted a shining white aura that I had seen once before.

‘Eevee’s… evolving!’ Gary had taken his hands off his ears and was staring happily at what he was seeing. Eevee had started changing shape, and grew much, much bigger. His ears got longer and his tail thinned out. His legs became long and elegant instead of stubby and cute. The bright light started fading, and the white turned to complete black. A new pokémon stood before us, jet black save for yellow circles and red eyes. It looked to Gary, and to me.

‘Umbre!’

‘Cool,’ said Meowth.

Gary ran forward and hugged his pokémon. ‘YES!! Haha! I have an Umbreon! I have an Umbreon!’ he sang. I opened my pokédex.

‘Umbreon: the moonlight pokémon. The yellow markings on it glow brightly under the full moon. When it is scared it sprays poisonous sweat from its pores. (charming, I thought) *DING* Pokémon level: 43.’

‘GARY?! Level 43?’

Gary shrugged and continued dancing.

We found a place to set up camp eventually. Although I didn’t think we’d get any sleep. I got into my sleeping bag to read with Meowth lying on top of the covers, but Gary didn’t go to bed until he groomed and fed Umbreon.

‘Hey Gary, why didn’t you use a stone on Eevee before? Did you know it could become something else?’

‘Well, once I beat a trainer who said he was from an island to the north of Johto. After defeating him with Eevee he told me that, where he was from, they had lots of Eevee evolutions and even legends about them. After that I was determined to get one other than Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporeon.’ He smiled and scratched Umbreon behind the ears. ‘I like Umbreon better anyway.’

The next day looked brighter than before. Apparently there was a town up ahead with a pokémon centre (much starry-eyed-ness went on here. Meowth said ‘they’ll have food!’ and I said ‘they’ll have baths!’) and we could stop off there. We just had to go down some cliffs to get there, and then go back up to carry on. We’d only just got down the cliffs when we were challenged to another battle. Gary got Umbreon ready, but I gave him a puppy dog face. We agreed that Meowth and I would go on ahead, and he’d stay to battle and catch up. We went on into the town and found the pokécentre, and gave my pokémon to Nurse Joy for some much needed healing. Then I went to clean up, had a shower and everything, and came back down to order lunch in the cafeteria. As our food came Gary walked in.

‘Hey! How’d it go?’

‘Fine. I won, and everything. Oh, and I met Ash.’

‘Ash?’

‘Da twerp?’

‘Yeah, he saw me afterwards and asked me for a battle.’

‘So, you kicked his twerpy little butt?’

‘Not exactly. He asked Umbreon to battle his Pikachu. And as you know, I already have my battle strategy planned out for Pikachus, so I said no.’

‘That’s Nidoking and earthquake, isn’t it?’

‘Yep. So I said it was pointless to battle, and he takes out all his pokémon, and asks me to battle one of them!’

‘But… you shouldn’t show someone else you pokémon, right? That means they can start planning strategies against you.’

‘Exactly. Just as I told him two years ago – only amateurs show off their pokémon.’

‘So… are you going to start preparing against him?’

‘Nah. They weren’t anything special – Pikachu, Chikorita, Totodile, Cyndaquil, Bulbasaur… hmmm… but that Noctowl…’

‘What is it?’

‘Somehow Ash has got himself a shiny pokémon.’

‘Shiny?’

‘Yeah. It’s a Noctowl. I’m sure it’s shiny, it’s golden with red wings, and a bit smaller than an average Noctowl. And I saw the sparkles as it came out of its pokéball.’

After eating and chatting about shiny pokémon we went out to leave the pokécentre, and I saw Nurse Joy.

‘G’bye, Nurse Joy! Huh…’ I stopped. The pokémon nurse didn’t seem at all happy and perky like every Joy normally was. ‘Nurse, is something wrong?’

‘Oh, no, it’s all right. Somebody brought in a very sick pokémon a little while ago, and I had to put it in intensive care. It should be okay after a good nights sleep, but I get worried easily when I’m bored.’

We left and spent a while around town and in the pokémart to stock up on healing items, then fighting a few random trainers. Then there was the arduous task of climbing back up the cliffs. It was well into the evening before we reached the pathway at the top. We were tired and sleepy, so we went a little way into a wooded area and set up a fire and sleeping bags. It was a beautiful place, the stars were bright and we could clearly see the town below us. It was a warm night, even for spring. I sat on a log and watched the city’s lights while Gary sorted out some food. I wasn’t hungry, so I just ate crisps from my bag. The pokémon were playing around, some sort of pokémon tag, in and out of the trees. Meowth was sitting with me.

‘It’s a full moon tonight.’

‘You like the moon, don’t you Meowth?’

Umbreon looked at the moon too, and the yellow rings started glowing.

‘Cool! Just like the pokédex said.’

‘Dinnertime, Umbreon,’ Gary said, pushing out a bowl of food. Umbreon sniffed it and looked at Gary with distaste. ‘Yeah, I know. You’ll have to eat normal type pokéchow until I can work out a recipe for dark types.’

Suddenly everything became a lot darker. ‘Hey! What’s going on?’ I asked.

Gary was looking down to the town. ‘What happened to all the lights? Must be a blackout.’

‘Oh no!’ I exclaimed. ‘That pokémon Nurse Joy was treating! It’s in intensive care! In a blackout it might not survive!’

Suddenly a blur rushed past the clearing. A snapped around to see it just too late.

‘Where are those three going?’

‘Gary? What three?’

‘Never mind. Come on.’

I recalled my pokémon and ran after Gary. He tried to explain on the way.

‘I think there’s a power plant around here. If there was a blackout, the problem may lie there. And if Ash and his friends are heading there in such a hurry, it must mean trouble.’

We reached the power plant after a few minutes of running. We couldn’t see anyone there, but all the power gauges were dead. Then we saw a large cable running from the building into the forest.

‘What on earth is this?’ Gary asked.

‘It… it looks like an extension cord.’

‘Oh, really? Umbreon, tackle attack!’

‘Umbre!’ Umbreon tackled the large wire and it shattered off the building. Gary and Umbreon ran off, following the cable into the woods. I looked at the gauges, then at the city. Nothing. Why was there no power?

‘Meowth, where do you suppose they get their power from?’

‘I dunno.’

I saw electricity cables, and started running.

Gary ran further and further, following the huge cable. Umbreon was closely following. Wherever this thing lead, he would bet anything that Ash was at the other end. And where had Holly got to? The trail ended, and Gary found the biggest Wobbuffet he had ever seen.

The power lines took me right where I wanted to go. So it was a hydroelectric plant. But why wasn’t the water flowing through?

‘Look!’ Meowth was pointing to a small structure. ‘I think something should go in here.’

‘A handle.’

Gary untied the last of the engineers. But unfortunately the power wasn’t back on yet. They were explaining to Ash and co. how they got their power.

‘And the water gate then turns the turbines which –‘

‘The water gate?’ Gary realised where I had gone. He ran in the direction of the electric cables. He heard Ash and a loud crash, but didn’t stop.

A while after Gary arrived three people, one who I assumed was Ash, made it here. He briefly explained what the situation was.

‘The handle’s missing.’

Very briefly.

After a while Ash deducted that it might be inside a small cabin. I watched from a distance.

‘Cyndaquil! Tackle this door!’

I saw the poor pokémon crash into the door and fall down on the other side. After some time passed Gary went up to the door.

‘Hey, have you found the handle?’

I saw Umbreon run in, and light emerged from the door. Must be a moonlight attack. Then Ash came out with a red bar, and slotted it into the hole. Then he pushed down as hard as he could. Nothing happened. Not surprising, his arms were scrawny. Soon his friends were helping him pull, and then all the pokémon (in a very inefficient way, I might add) but nothing was working. After it became clear that they couldn’t budge it, Gary went to help too, and Umbreon under it. Then I helped on Gary’s side too. After a few seconds of back-breaking work, the handle crunched into action and the water gate opened. Water rushed through, and when we returned to the power plant they said everything was working fine (after Ash’s Pikachu gave them a jumpstart). I watched as all the light came back on down in the town. Then Gary, Meowth, Umbreon and I turned to leave.

Later on we made it back to the campsite. The fire had gone out, and Gary was attempting to light a new one.

‘You were awfully quiet before, Meowth,’ I said, back on the log.

‘Yeah, well, I sorta knew the kids, and I didn’t think they’d be too happy to see me, so I kept my meowth shut.’

‘Gary, why did you offer to fight Ash? I thought you couldn’t gain anything from a battle with him.’

‘Well, I suppose I might of gained a bit of respect for Ash now. And that’s not an easy thing for me to say. Catching a shiny pokémon must have been a tricky business.’

‘Why? Aren’t shinies just rarer than normal pokémon? Maybe he was just lucky.’

‘Maybe. But I think it does require skill. Look at it this way: if you were a shiny pokémon, people are always trying to capture you. From the day you’re born to the day you die, people will be chasing you and hunting you, just because you’re a different colour. And if you get hunted, you hide. You’d think of ways to avoid humans. Ways to trick them. And you become smarter than normal pokémon too. Catching a shiny is quite a feat.’

‘That’s an interesting hypothesis.’

‘Now you sound like my Grandpa.’

‘Well, it is! Did you tell him?’

‘Yeah. He wrote it down somewhere, but I don’t think he was interested. I think he actually wrote "Blah blah blah, bling bling bling blah." He was always the closest person in the family to me, but if I call him up and tell him how I’m doing, it’s always ‘That’s nice Gary, but you know what ASH did…’ ugh… I hate it that he likes Ash more than me.’

‘How can he like Ash more? You’re his GRANDSON.’

‘Yeah, well. Big whoop. He even saved Ash a Pikachu, even though he was late and didn’t get a usual pokémon.’

‘Gary, YOU didn’t get a usual pokémon.’

‘I know he likes Ash more. He’s always encouraging him, giving him advice, making him stronger. He said something like ‘Preserving the future’ (here Gary mimicked an old man). He even came to the indigo plateau to cheer Ash on. Me? Nope, I’m a lost cause, let’s go cheer Ash instead.’

‘I’m going to sleep now.’

‘I think they were best friends in a past life..’

‘Gary! Give it a rest!’

‘Only Ash lived much longer than him, that’s why he’s so much younger….’

Eventually he was too tired to talk and fell asleep.

Before anyone complains about Umbreon’s level information, I have 2 things to say. 1: Pikachu is now nearing level 5000 and 2: I only did that ‘cos it was the number of pages in this story. Sorry if this chapter was really long (6 pages! Whoof!).

Also, I read some of Emerald Milotic’s fics, and I decided to do the same thing with those tables that tell you how strong the character’s pokémon are. So I’ll add one at the end of all the chapters now:

Holly

Meowth L25

Lapras L26

Onix L28

Cyndaquil L12

Trapinch L10

I haven’t asked permission to do this, but I really don’t think it’s the kind of thing you can copyright, and anyway, you know who I nicked it from, so no praise for me!

And I’m sorry if anything was wrong with this episode, dialogue etc. because I haven’t seen Power Play for about 2 months and that was what I could remember. It was on about a week ago and I woke up too late for the one in the morning, then my Mum kept me out shopping so I missed the one in the afternoon! >cries<

Anyway, review if you want. Yep, that’s my new attitude. You don’t have to review if you don’t want to, so I won’t ask you to. Just do it if you think I have done some great work, or if it is so bad I need help. Personally I don’t think it’s either of those, just snugly in-between.