It had been a few days since the gang left Fuchsia, meaning that it was now officially September.
Currently Brock and Yellow went out for firewood while Ash and Misty stayed at the camp having a heated discussion.
"Misty you don't want to start this," Ash told Misty
"Oh yes I do, it's time I put you in your place" Misty responded
"Alright but don't say I didn't warn you." Ash sighed and looked back at the orange-haired girl and took a breath
"Slowbro is the better Pokemon and there's nothing to be discussed," Ash said
"What do you mean? Slowking is way better." Misty argued back
Yep, they were talking about the Slowpoke Evo line, if you remember Misty caught a Slowpoke back in the safari zone, and considering she had a Shellder she wasn't using, they were arguing about which was better.
"Slowking is much smarter and stronger than that derpy Pokemon," Misty said
"Yeah well, that derpy Pokemon has its stats placed better and isn't just a copy."
"And what do you mean Slowking is more specially defensive so it can cover its weaknesses better."
"So what, Slowbro is a physically tanker and can compensate for the less special with Calm mind and it feels less pain!"
As this was going on Brock and Yellow were walking, Yellow had Gravvy the Graveler to help her and Brock was just carrying them in his arms. They had their two babies Bonsly and Chuchu resting in their Pokeballs.
Brock looked over at the younger girl, "I think we have enough, let's go back."
"Ok!" Yellow nodded and Gravvy did the same as they all started making their way back to Ash and Misty.
But along the way Yellow heard something, a Pokemon [Mikey-Mikey I'm sorry, it's my fault-]
Yellow blinked and suddenly stopped, she started looking around making Brock stop as well to question her, "Hey Yellow you alright?"
Yellow didn't answer, she just looked around until she seemed to see something and started running, Brock and Gravvy both looked at each other and dropped the wood before starting to chase her.
"Hey Yellow, where are you going!" Brock yelled out to the girl to no avail. So they kept moving.
Eventually a short time later Yelled came to a stop in front of a hollow tree stump, and there was an Eevee tied to the tree, with a bowl of food and water right next to it.
Yellow got down and started petting the small fox meanwhile Brock and Gravvy finally caught up to see the screen in front of them
"An Eevee? And the poor thing looks like it was abandoned." Brock concluded looking sadly at the fox.
"That's not true," Yellow said, getting Brock's attention, "Eevee's trainer tied it to this tree and said that he would come tomorrow."
Brock scratched his chin as Yellow loosened the collar tying Eevee to try to make it more comfortable.
"Hey Brock, what do you think we should do?" Yellow asked as the Eevee was rubbing its head against her as thank you.
Brock was silent until he noticed Eevee's collar, upon closer inspection he saw an address, "Well, in my opinion, I think we should take Eevee back to its owner and see why he left it here, there is a very real possibility that maybe it's trainer just can't take care of it anymore."
"But Eevee said that he would be back tomorrow?" Yellow said
Brock just shook his head, "Unfortunately this kind of thing happens more than you think, I mean remember Ash's Bulbasaur and Squirtle, I'm honestly more surprised we haven't found more."
Yellow looked down at the Fox who was listening to Brock and shook its head denying that its trainer could have abandoned it. So she started petting it to calm it down, before picking it up in a cradle.
Brock nodded, "OK, we should go tell Ash and Misty too,"
As they went back to where Ash and Misty were, they saw Ash holding a Shellder that was squirming like a ravenous animal and Misty was steadying Slowpoke's tail.
"Ok, on the count of 3 release it and try not to get my hand caught in it," Misty said nervously looking at the Shellder.
"Alright, you know you didn't have to do this, I may have an opinion but it is your Pokemon you have all control."
"No it's fine, besides I don't even have a king's rock, and besides I own both of them so I can just separate them if I really want to."
"That's true, anyway 3, 2, 1, go!" Ash said as he released the ravenous clam and Misty removed her hands
Immediately Shellder went forward and bit Slowpoke's tail and almost immediately the two glowed, the Shellder grew in size causing Slowpoke to stand on two legs from the added weight. And once it dispersed there was a brand new Slowbro.
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"Brooo…" the Slowbro said looking at his new bodymate.
It wasn't until then did they noticed Brock, Yellow, and Gravvy looking at the scene.
"Oh hey, how long have you guys been there," Misty asked
"Uhhh, we just got here," Brock said
Ash chuckled and walked over to Yellow and Eevee, "Who's this little one?"
Yellow jumped, "Oh, umm, we found this Eevee tied up over there,"
Ash looked at the Collar and immediately felt himself want to roll his eyes, "Oh, stone town that's like a 10-minute walk from here," Ash said through his teeth
Brock stepped in, "Yeah we wanted to go take this little one back home and if the trainer doesn't want her then we can take it with us."
"Aww, how lucky, I've always wanted a Vaporeon." Misty fantasized.
"Well let's go while the day is young," Brock said
As everyone started walking, Ash followed behind a bit and thought one thing, 'Please let this be like the anime and not the manga, for once let me have some leeway.'
–
{Stone town}
As the gang arrived into the town they started looking around while Misty and Yellow were playing with the little fox.
Ash gave a black expression "Do you guys see the address?"
Misty and Yellow immediately snap back to reality, "Uhh no, no I haven't seen anything."
Brock also noticed and signed, "It's right there." pointing towards the large mansion.
As they got close they noticed that the entire place was empty and there wasn't anyone around.
"Big place, looks like there could be a party here," Ash noted
"So should we knock on the door?" Misty asked.
But suddenly Eevee jumped out of Yellow's arms and started running, after a moment of confusion everyone followed.
As they started running through the streets Eevee went down a nearby alleyway and down a staircase with a sign saying one thing.
[Reserved for the Knights of the E Stone]
Eevee was scratching at the door, so when they caught up they noticed the sign.
"Do you think this is where Eevee's trainer is?" Misty asked
"It's our best lead, Eevee wanted to come here for a reason, so I guess we should go in," Brock responded as he approached the door and pulled on the handle, and opened the door.
Ash was staying quiet as soon as he saw that sign, he was cursing his head and was just following. Pikachu was even looking worried at Ash's blank expression.
As they entered they saw a long hallway with the muffled sounds of a man talking, Eevee immediately started running through and everyone followed.
As they kept walking they heard more voices.
"Weepinbell Diet…"
"Evolution of my...."
"... Into Arcanine…"
"But a Starmie…"
When they finally got to the end of the hallway they saw a large room with people standing around, they were all wearing these weird robes with an even Weirder hat, in the center, there was an older man and a young boy who was just wearing normal clothes. And there was a Long buffet line by the corner.
The older man spoke up, "TODAY, WE'RE FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE TO INTRODUCE OUR NEWEST INDUCTEE. SHOW US YOUR EVOLVED POKÉMON!"
The boy fidgeted his fingers, "Yeah, I evolved Eevee, but it's just that I left it home you know evolution causes Pokémon to use up a lot of energy"
The crowd mumbled as they pondered on what they should do when suddenly they heard something.
"Vee vee!" The small fox ran forward and jumped into the boy's arms.
"Eevee? What are you doing here." the boy asked as the crowd started mumbling.
The man in the front looked upset, "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU MIKEY!? IT HASN'T EVOLVED ONE BIT!"
Mikey held Eevee close, "I-I couldn't do it! I thought about it all day and night and… I like my Eevee just the way it is!"
The crowd mumbled again and 3 boys walked up and the one with Yellow hair spoke, "What's wrong with you Mikey the whole club has been looking forward to your introduction."
The man in front was gritting his teeth in anger, "IF YOU DON'T STONE YOUR POKÉMON, YOU SHOULD BE STONED! UNEVOLVED POKEMON ARE WORTHLESS!"
The one with blue hair spoke up next, "You're just going to have to evolve your Eevee now!"
The crowd of people then started chanting in unison,
"E-VOLVE!"
"E-VOLVE!"
"E-VOLVE!"
"E-VOLVE!"
From the back, the gang was watching the scene play out "Those guys are definitely disturbed." Misty mumbled
"It's an evolution-worshiping cult, That boy looks like he's under a lot of pressure," Brock said, looking at everything.
Yellow looked the most upset seeing this so she ran forward before anyone could stop her and stepped in front of the boy who was even shorter than her, "Hey this isn't right,"
The man looked down at the girl, "WHO IS THIS CHILD, NON-MEMBERS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED HERE!"
"It doesn't matter who I am, you shouldn't be forcing someone to evolve their Pokemon if they don't want to."
The 3rd boy with red hair walked up, "You're entitled to your opinion but this whole ceremony is for that purpose and that purpose only."
Yellow looked back at the boy, "You said your name was Mikey right, you don't have to be a part of this right?"
Mikey fiddled his fingers as he looked down, "No- but-"
Yellow blinked, "You want to be a part of it?"
At this point Brock also jumped in and put her arm on Yellow's shoulder, "Yellow you shouldn't push on what you don't know, this is a real dilemma he wants to join but he doesn't want to evolve his Eevee."
"But I may have the solution Set the Eevee against its own evolved form. In that way it may prove its worthiness, and thus be permitted to enter the fellowship" Brock said in an overly sophisticated tone.
The room stayed quiet then all the members started throwing food and items at him yelling.
"WHATTA BLOWHARD!"
"GO CRAWL BACK UNDER THE ROCK YOU CAME FROM!"
"OPEN YOUR EYES WHILE YOU TALK WHY DON'T YA!"
Then everyone went into a huddle and started murmuring amongst themselves, after a moment the older man walked back on stage.
"A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE! MIKEY'S EEVEE WILL BATTLE IN A 3 ON 3 BATTLE AGAINST OUR REPRESENTATIVES. SHOULD MIKEY WIN, HE WILL RECEIVE SPECIAL DISPENSATION TO JOIN THE ORGANIZATION."
"RIGHT!!"
Ash and Misty finally walked down to Yellow, Brock, and the nervous Mikey.
"Well this is certainly a dilemma you guys got yourselves in, but you'll probably do fine," Ash said.
"Y-you're not going to battle with us?" Yellow asked
Ash and Pikachu looked at each other then looked at everything, and walked over to the Buffet grabbed a tray of food, went to a table, and put his feet up, "Nope, I took care of the last 3, I'm sitting this one out."
Pikachu also went onto the table and grabbed the cake and started eating as they all looked at them.
He pointed at Brock and Yellow, "You two started this so you can go finish it, besides if they're so insistent on evolving their Pokemon, they probably aren't even that strong, besides I don't have a Pokemon that needs a stone evolution right now to beat them, you two do."
Mikey was still quite nervous and looked at Brock and Yellow, "Sorry about all this."
"Don't apologize, it's fine, besides they didn't want to listen to you so you should stand up for yourself" Brock said, cleaning himself off.
"Uhh, yeah," Mikey said
The grounds of the place cleared as a makeshift field was made and on the other side, the 3 boys from earlier stood on the other side and took off their robes revealing their stupid haircuts.
"When my Jolteon wins, you'll know for certain the Way to go!" the Blond side
"Get real Vaporeon's the best." the blue-haired boy said
"Flareon's the best!" the redhead exclaimed.
From the corner, Ash formed a cone with his hands, "You know there are like 5 other ones!"
"Shut up those don't matter x 3," the three said in unison
"With haircuts like those I don't think your opinions matter," Ash yelled back, making Misty who was sitting next to him hold back a laugh and almost spit out the water she was drinking.