After finishing their call with Professor Oak, Ash and his friends booked two rooms at the Pokémon Center; with their traveling party now numbering four, a single room would have been a bit too cramped.
Although a single room—equipped with bunk beds—would technically have enough sleeping space, it would still be rather awkward for two girls and two boys to share the same quarters.
While it would have been fine for Ash and Misty to share a room given their relationship, the situation would have been uncomfortable for Brock and Serena.
Consequently, they had to book two rooms: one for Misty and Serena, and another for Ash and Brock—an arrangement that left Ash feeling a bit bummed out.
Ever since he and Misty became a couple, the most intimate thing they had done was hold hands; they hadn't taken things any further than that.
If Ash were completely clueless, it wouldn't matter much. However, during their nightly chat group sessions, an alternate version of himself—"Harem King Ash"—would frequently chime in, teaching him all sorts of things.
Under the Harem King's tutelage, Ash had certainly matured...
Yet, it was all purely theoretical; he had never put any of it into practice. Leaving aside more advanced intimacy, surely a kiss between a couple was reasonable?
And yet, he and Misty had never even done that.
To the Harem King, Ash's behavior was nothing short of a disgrace!
Every night, when Ash logged into the chat group to learn about Pokémon, the Harem King would egg him on, urging him to take the next step.
As the Harem King put it: "If you don't make the first move, are you expecting the girl to do it? Someone else had to make the confession; are you really going to wait for her to suggest the first kiss, too? You're a guy, for crying out loud!"
In short, the Harem King relentlessly ridiculed Ash for his lack of initiative.
Ash took those words to heart, resolving to try taking things to the next level whenever he and Misty found themselves alone together.
The awkward part, however, was that they never actually had any time alone. Had it been the original trio—Misty, Brock, and himself—booking two rooms would have been simple enough; Brock could have just taken a room to himself.
But now the group has grown to four people, and one of them is a girl—so naturally, you couldn't have her sharing a room with Brock, right?
However, if that meant booking three separate rooms, then...
Yet, if they opened three rooms because of this, it would seem somewhat deliberate and distant.
In conclusion—Ash is truly feeling a batch of discomfort!
Upon arriving at the Pokemon Center room, Ash set down his backpack and set aside the messy thoughts, then released Lucario.
"Ash, what are you doing…" Brock asked, puzzled, seeing Ash release Lucario.
"I want to see another possibility of MEGA evolution for Lucario. The MEGA Evolution Stone indeed has life energy very similar to Lucario, so Lucario's other MEGA evolution definitely exists."
"But whether it's Gurkinn's Lucario or Korrina's Lucario, or my Lucario, they all have no response to this MEGA Evolution Stone, so I want to see what went wrong in between." Ash explained.
Actually, he already knows where the problem lies, but he still needs to put on an act, and he might not necessarily be able to solve the problem.
Champion Ash's side opened Lucario's hidden gene chain due to the Nightmare God's MEGA evolution.
He could either use the same method, find a Nightmare God to perform MEGA evolution, or rely on the power of Aura Power.
His Aura Power reaches Divine Domain Level, so theoretically, he should be capable of doing what the Nightmare God can do.
The latter involves using his ability to pull humans and Pokemon into a real dream and realizing human desires within the real dream—as long as these things exist in reality.
For example, if you want a flying Groudon, it clearly can't be created because it doesn't exist in the real world.
But if you merely want a Groudon, it can be conjured in the dream. It depends on how much energy the Nightmare God possesses and how determined the Lord of Dreams is.
Although it seems difficult, it can ultimately be produced because it is something that exists in the real world.
If something doesn't exist in the real world, even the power of Darkrai can't forcefully create it.
Therefore, the hidden gene chain of Lucario is certainly there, just that the method of activation is still a mystery.
But as Champion Ash said, he can try using his all-powerful Aura Power!
Even if the Divine Domain Level Aura Power can't directly activate the gene chain, it can definitely explore and figure something out.
Ash's Aura Power surged into Lucario's body, and the immense Aura Power explored the depth of Lucario's genes to uncover hidden things.
Previously, he has undergone countless Aura Fusions with Lucario, so both parties are incredibly familiar with each other's Aura and bodies, but Ash never attempted to extend Aura Power to the gene chain.
This first attempt surprisingly yielded a result; Ash discovered an additional hidden gene chain deep within Lucario's genes.
However, that gene chain was almost covered by the original gene chain, which caused it to be unable to resonate with another MEGA Evolution Stone.
Ash wasn't too sure what to do about this situation either.
He could choose to use Aura Power to suppress that gene chain on the surface, and then the other gene chain might be able to emerge—but it was only a possibility.
And doing that would cause Lucario to be unable to undergo its original MEGA Evolution; even if he could use Aura Power to help switch between them, it would still be very troublesome in the end.
So he had to go research some Pokemon that possessed dual MEGA Evolutions; that way, he might be able to find a method that would let Lucario freely evolve into either of its MEGA forms.
...
Time flew by and the next morning arrived. Early that day, Ash and the others came to Mr. Kurt's place, and what unfolded before them was a display of colorful Pokeballs.
"These Apricorn Balls were all made from the Apricorns you collected. The craftsmanship is quite good. This one's a Moon Ball; its effect is that the capture rate is very high for Pokemon that evolve with a Moon Stone. And this one is a Heavy Ball…"
Mr. Kurt introduced the various functions of the Apricorn Balls to them one by one.
Besides looking nice on the outside, these Pokeballs made from Apricorns also increased the capture rate under specific conditions. Out there, these Pokeballs were all quite valuable.
"Thank you, Mr. Kurt!" Ash picked up a Speed Ball, reluctant to put it down. He had a good feeling about this yellow Pokeball, probably because of Pikachu.
"As long as you like them… Also, I already have some leads regarding the GS Ball." Mr. Kurt said as he took out the GS Ball, a hint of emotion in his expression. "This Pokeball really is incredible. There's a mechanism inside it that's extremely hard to unlock. I gave it everything I had and still couldn't completely crack it; I only managed to detect some information from within."
"This Pokeball has the ability to capture Pokemon of time and space. For Pokemon that can control time and space, it has an extremely powerful binding force. Once they're taken into it, they probably won't be able to come out. As for more detailed functions, I couldn't figure them out."
All that could be said was that he truly deserved his reputation as an expert in Pokeballs. The thing that even Professor Oak and Dr. Nemu couldn't make heads or tails of, he had managed to decipher a bit of its mysteries in just one day.
Even though this was still not the entire secret of this Pokeball, being able to uncover this much was actually already enough.
"Able to capture Pokemon that wield the Power of Space-Time, huh? What a miraculous Pokeball… I wonder who its creator was, and what they were aiming for…" Brock rubbed his chin, amazement on his face.
Speaking of time-and-space Pokemon, the first that came to mind were, of course, Palkia and Dialga, the twin gods of time and space.
Could it be that the person who made this Pokeball was targeting those two Pokemon? If that really was the case, then this person's ambition was a bit too big!
"You should take this Pokeball with you for now. I've kept all the research data. If there's any new progress later, I'll call Professor Oak directly." Mr. Kurt indicated that Ash and the others could take the GS Ball back with them.
The subsequent research no longer required the GS Ball itself; the data alone was enough.
Hearing this, Ash put the Pokeball back into his backpack, then gathered up the Apricorn Balls as well, and said his goodbyes to Mr. Kurt: "We'll bring the GS Ball back to Professor Oak. If there's nothing else, we'll be on our way, Mr. Kurt."
Mr. Kurt stood at the door, watching as Ash and the others slowly walked off into the distance.
The morning sunlight stretched the shadows of the four youths very long. With packs on their backs, chatting and laughing, they followed the little path leading out of Azalea Town.
...
Time flashed by; three days passed, and Ash and the others were already far from Azalea Town.
During these three days, Ash had encountered a timid Cyndaquil that couldn't use flames. Under Ash's encouragement and guidance, Cyndaquil successfully overcame its flaw, unleashed fire far exceeding its own Level, and even defeated a Rock Type Onix.
After that, Ash captured Cyndaquil into his team. At this point, Ash's team already had two of the Johto Three Starter Pokemon, and he was only one away from having them all.
With the "luck king" Ash combined with the "luck king" Togepi, of course it would result in incomparable good fortune.
Sure enough, on their fourth day, they triggered another low-probability event.
On the fourth day after leaving Azalea Town, Ash and the others arrived at a wild woodland area.
The path here wasn't easy to walk. The trees grew densely packed, and the ground was covered in waist-high wild grass that rustled underfoot.
Brock held the map and led the way in front, while Ash followed behind, using Aura to confirm their direction.
Suddenly, Ash stopped in his tracks, his expression turning grave as he looked toward the depths of the forest.
"What is it, Ash? Is there something over there?" Misty had been walking right behind Ash. Seeing him stop, she couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Yeah. There's a gigantic robot over there, and two Aura presences are being chased by that robot."
"What?! Is it Team Rocket?" Serena exclaimed at his words, instinctively thinking of Team Rocket.
After all, when you mentioned robots, the first to come to mind was naturally the Team Rocket trio. Besides them, who else was still playing around with giant robots these days?
"It's not those three from Team Rocket. It's a very unfamiliar Aura, and from that Aura I can feel an evil presence. It's much more disgusting than the feeling I get from Team Rocket. I'm going over to check it out first!" As Ash spoke, he leapt into the trees with Pikachu and bolted toward the direction indicated by Aura.
"Wait for us, Ash!" Brock and the others hurriedly followed, but Ash was running too fast; within just a few seconds he had already disappeared from their sight.
Fortunately, the places Ash passed through were directly blasted open into a path. In this dense forest it was basically a road sign—just follow this trail and they'd find where Ash had gone.
"If Ash is in such a rush, could something big have happened?" Misty, holding Togepi, ran as she spoke, worry in her voice.
"It must be something urgent, otherwise Ash wouldn't be running that fast. We need to hurry and catch up." Brock's expression had also turned serious. As he spoke, his running Speed increased even more.
...
"Stop struggling. You're just a kid—how far do you think you can get with Celebi in tow?" On top of a massive robot, a burly man wearing a mask sneered coldly.
In front of him, a roughly fifteen-year-old boy with a mop of jellyfish-like hair was running for his life, clutching an onion-headed Pokemon in his arms.
But his physical fitness was only that of a normal teenager. There was no way he could match the Speed of that robot, which was nearly ten meters tall.
When the robot took a single step, he needed to run ten, even fifteen steps just to keep pace.
"I'll never hand Celebi over to a bad guy like you!"
"Heh, you really won't cry until you see your own coffin." The burly man snorted coldly and slammed his palm against the console. The giant robot lifted its foot and stomped down hard!
This stomp was aimed directly at the boy. If he were hit by such a colossal thing, even if his body were made of iron he'd be flattened.
"Damn…" The boy watched the steel foot descend with his eyes wide open. All he could do was hold Celebi tightly to his chest, turning his back to the mechanical foot. Even at the brink of death, he was still protecting Celebi.
"BOOM!!" A tremor echoed through the forest. The boy had already prepared himself for death, but a few seconds later, he realized that absolutely nothing had happened to him.
He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head, only to see a figure in a blue jacket with red-and-white trim standing straight behind him.
After blasting the robot's foot away with a single punch, Ash glared coldly at the dumbstruck burly man. "Were you trying to kill this Pokemon and this person?"
Anyone who knew Ash and heard the tone of that sentence would immediately understand: he was angry!
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