How to Train Your Pokémon

A/N: I hope y'all enjoy Chapter 8. Roll it!

Chapter 8

Late Night Discoveries

It was early in the night when the Ketchum siblings arrived at the laboratory for dinner with the other recruits. As they each got some food, Gary was going over the day's training session and each of the recruits' performances in the Arena.

"All right. Where did Aiden go wrong in the ring today?" He asked as the Ketchum siblings sat down at a separate table.

"I mistimed my somersault dive." Aiden replied indifferently. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

"Yeah. We noticed." Evan said sarcastically. The Newton boy can give anything and everything criticism, even if there was none necessary.

"He's right, though." Gary said, trying to prevent a possible argument. "You have to be tough on yourselves. Where did Mari go wrong?" He asked, making the Ketchum girl glare at him.

"Uh, she showed up?" Keira began to guess. "Didn't get blasted?"

Defending his sister, Luke went over to her, grabbed her arm, and threw her across her table. But then, Aiden spoke up. "She's never where she should be." He answered.

In response to that, Mari grabbed her steak knife and then threw it towards him. He barely ducked in time to dodge it, but the blade stuck itself into the post behind him. Seeing her murderous glare threatening to burn him alive if it was possible, he quickly held his hands up in surrender. "In that case, I take it back."

"See that it will do you good, Newton." Mari turned away from Aiden, still keeping a stony face. But inside, her heart felt a sharp stab. Despite that, she ignored the internal pain. Like always, he wouldn't look her way in a million years.

Gary pulled the knife from the post. "Well, now that's out of the way, that shows that there's more to someone or something than meets the eye." His words hit the Ketchum kids, making them lost in thought. "Now, all of you start heading back home."

The Newton siblings then began to leave the lab, while the Ketchum kids pretended to slowly eat their food. As they did, they saw Gary head over to his office down the hall. Mari left the table and followed him, not making a sound across the white porcelain floor.

Soon, she saw him exit his office and she hid underneath a large discarded desk. When she made sure that he wasn't there anymore, she swiftly head inside before the door closed. She scanned the messy desk and the walls which were covered in pictures. One photo hanging on the wall caught her eye.

It showed two young boys smiling friendly at each other. One was definitely a young version of Gary. The other, she guessed, was her father, Ash. Mari smiled softly at the photo. It showed just close the two were.

Reluctantly, she tore her gaze away and back to the paper-covered desk. When she opened a drawer, she saw three strange-looking handheld devices. One of them was dark gray with a Poké Ball design on the bottom half, while the top part of it had a screen. The second was red with a gray button in the middle. And the third was orange and also had a screen, but in the middle.

Mari carefully took the devices, put them in her satchel, and quietly closed the drawer. She headed over to the door and looked around. When she saw that the coast was clear, she tiptoed out into the hallway and quietly closed the office door behind her.

In a matter of minutes, she arrived back where the twins were waiting. "What did you score?" Luke asked.

Mari quickly looked behind her, then back to her brothers. "At home." She said simply.

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Once the three siblings were in her room, Mari showed them the devices that she found. Luke took the gray one, while Evan examined the orange one.

"I've never seen anything like these before." Evan said.

"Me neither." Mari said as she fingered the red one. "But why would Gary keep them in his office?"

"I think it might have something to do with Dad." Luke guessed. When he pressed a button on the side of the device, the screen on the top half lit up. "Whoa." He breathed. As he scrolled down the screen by pressing a different button, he was amazed. "Guys, these things have tons of information about all sorts of Pokémon."

Mari pressed the button on hers, and the screen revealed itself between the red edges like it was a hologram, while Evan managed to turn on his by pressing a button. They then saw that their brother was right.

"Hey, guys." Evan said as he found something. "Check out this Pokémon." He showed the elder siblings a Pokémon.

In an electronic female voice, the device began to give a short description of the scary-looking Ghost type shown on the screen. "Cofagrigus. The Coffin Pokémon and the evolved of Yamask. It has been said that they swallow those who get too close and turn them into mummies. They like to eat gold nuggets."

The Ketchum siblings visibly shuddered. "Remind me to never get that close to that Pokémon." Luke said, shaking away his fear.

"You and me both." Mari agreed. She then found another Pokémon on her device. "Check this one." This time, it was a Poison type made of sludge.

"Muk. The Sludge Pokémon and the evolved form of Grimer. A toxic fluid seeps from its body. The fluid instantly kills plants and trees on contact."

Mari stuck out her tongue in disgust. "And that's why I hate Poison types." She remarked.

Luke then froze when he came across another entry. "Uh, Evan. You heard of Gyrados before?" He asked.

The youngest Ketchum froze. "Yeah, but it's one Water type that I'm not that big of a fan of."

"How come?" Mari asked. Her youngest brother has a sort of fondness for Water types, so this was pretty strange.

"You'll see." Evan replied as the electronic voice from Luke's device began to speak. This time, it was a male.

"Gyrados. The Atrocious Pokémon and the evolved form of Magikarp. Once Gyarados goes on a rampage, its ferociously violent blood doesn't calm until it has burned everything down. There are records of this Pokémon's rampages lasting a whole month."

"Okay, now I see." Mari said.

"Just what are these things?" Luke wondered aloud as he continued to fiddle around with it. The voice began speaking as it showed a Bug type.

"Pinsir. The Antler Beetle Pokémon. It grips prey with its pincers until the prey is torn in half. What it can't tear, it tosses far."

Mari fiddled around with her device until she found something. "Hey, guys. I think these are called Pokédexes."

"Huh?" The twins questioned, both of them raising an eyebrow.

"It says so right here." Mari showed the twins her screen. Sure enough, the word Pokédex was shown in light blue text.

Evan kept looking through his Pokédex until he came across an entry that once again, made him freeze in shock. "It can't be." He said.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

The youngest Ketchum didn't even answer as he showed his older siblings the entry he found.

"Pikachu. The Mouse Pokémon and the evolved form of Pichu. It has small electric sacs on both its cheeks. If threatened, it looses electric charges from the sacs."

Everyone was stunned silent. "This doesn't make sense." Mari said. "If Electric types are so rare and elusive these days, why is this information not provided anymore?"

"Maybe they don't want us to know." Luke theorized. "But, the answer is still why."

"Either someone is hiding something from us or all the adults had been lying to pretty much everyone of this generation." Evan suggested.

Mari glanced at the screen showing the Electric type that she brought down, now classified as a Pikachu. Whatever the case may be, it's still pretty certain that soon, everything will change.

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Far out on the ocean, on the leading boat, Dawn was sleeping in her cabin, trying to get some sleep for a few hours. But, she kept tossing and turning on her cot. In her mind, she was having a dream.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and she was sitting on a lush green hill with her husband beside her. They looked down and saw their three kids having fun playing chase with each other and Ash's Pikachu.

Suddenly, the sky became smoky and gray. Ash and Dawn stood up and quickly ran down the hill.

"Kids!" Dawn called.

"Start running!" Ash shouted over to them as Pikachu quickly scurried over to his Trainer's shoulder.

No sooner did he say that, thin gray wisps of smoke swooped down from the sky and grabbed Ash's arms. He struggled against them, but couldn't break free. Pikachu tried to zap them, but the wisps enveloped him as well.

Dawn tried to reach her children, but the wisps began to overtake then as well. "No!" She screamed.

"Mom!" The three called out to her.

The Chieftess immediately woke up with a start. As she slowly regained her normal breathing rate, someone from up on the deck called out to her.

"Chieftess! We are nearing Volcano Gate!"

Dawn got off her cot and walked up on the deck. "Take us in, slowly." She said. She has to keep protecting her children, for their sake.

A/N: Kind of short, I know. But, at least, we are starting to get somewhere now. But, what exactly did happen to Ash? It seems that his kids are getting on the case.

I'll see you guys next time, in Chapter 9, where things will start to get even more complex. Please leave a comment about what you think.

Got to fly! ;)