659: Dreams by the Yard Full!
Dodgy Synopsis
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665: Yume no Atochi! Munna to Mushana!
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The Solar Beam crashes in towards the horrified Oshawott and Ash screams for it to deflect it and.... it DOES!?!?!
Grabbing the shell off of its belly, it takes the full force of the Solar Beam, is sent staggering back a few feet and then diverts the flow of the Solar Beam upwards and out the roof of the Restaurant! Cilan is shocked, Cress and Chilli are shocked, the cheerleaders are shocked.... even Oshawott is a little shocked until it realises how fucking awesome it is and poses proudly while Ash cheers it on.
Cilan is delighted, he's never seen anything like that before, and tells Ash that there is no holding back now. He orders another Bullet Seed, and Ash tells Oshawott to block it with the shell, and the now confident little clown-otter happily does so. It then leaps up high with a Razor Shell attack at Ash's order... but Pansage fires off another Bullet Seed that startles and shakes Oshawott's confidence, making it scramble about in the air and have the shell blasted out of its paws.
Ash yells for it to get it back as Iris notes that this is what happens when you get overconfident. Oshawott rushes for the shell, but Pansage uses Bullet Seed to block it off, causing it to scramble back in a panic. Hit in the head by one last seed, it stumbles about in a daze and Cilan declares that "It's Time for the Battle to be Served."
The cheerleaders squeal in excitement and Iris asks what the big deal is, and they gasp breathlessly that he just declared that "It's Time for the Battle to be Served!" Cilan tells Ash that he's a bit of a disappointment; he doesn't have the spice he was looking for - pointing out the dazed Oshawott and comparing it to his own "fragrant" Pansage. Iris sighs, thinking that a Connoisseur being a Gym Leader is a bit much, while Cilan laughs that Ash's tastebuds don't appreciate the gourmet things in life - after all, why challenge a Grass Type with a Water Type?
Of course, Ash is an idiot - but he's an idiot-savant. If there's one thing he knows, it's battling, and if there's one place where he shines, its understanding battle strategy. He smirks and tells Cilan there's more to a Battle than Type and he shouldn't sell Oshawott short. Cilan laughs that now he sounds desperate and his sour attitude will spoil the flavour of the battle. Ash says they'll see, and then tells Oshawott to use Water Gun..... on the wall!?!?!
Everybody is confused, including Oshawott, but Ash tells it to trust him. It blasts Water Gun at the exact spot Ash is pointing at, and it blasts back, hits the rocks in the battlefield, and ricochets back and forth and... hits Oshawott's shell and bounces high into the air. Ash sends Oshawott in to grab it, then charge at a shocked Pansage and score a direct shot with Razor Shell.
Pansage is knocked back and Cilan is impressed, but he's not done yet. He sends Pansage in with Bite, and for some reason it tries to Bite Oshawott with its first, zooming past the little clown Otter as it uses Razor Shell, and they freeze in place in true anime fashion, paused momentarily before.... Pansage falls! Oshawott stumbles back on its ass in relief, while Iris can't believe it, he won? HE ACTUALLY WON!?! You're damn right he did; Ash just won the Trio Badge!
ASH JUST WON HIS FIRST UNOVA GYM BADGE!
Celebrating, he turns and looks up at the balcony to ask Iris what she thought of the battle. Despite earlier being flummoxed by his victory, she coolly tells him that he made things way harder for himself than he had to - there was no reason to fight all three of the Gym Leaders and he would have looked stupid (haha, yeah, LOOKED stupid) if he'd lost this third match and not gotten a badge due to his own foolishness. Angrily he declares fine, maybe he'll fight HER next, and she tells him that would be just fine by her. Cilan steps up and plays peacemaker though, telling them this isn't the time, then noting that the idea of the combination of the two of them does conjure up a certain bouquet!
Iris explains to Ash what bouquet means, complains that he's such a kid and then declares she's leaving. Cilan is confused, aren't they travelling together? She yells angrily that she's not and turns and leaves, leaving behind a frowning Ash.... and a delighted Cilan who appears to have some rather filthy thoughts racing through his head.
Speaking of inappropriate - the inappropriately competent and menacing Team Rocket have arrived at the Dream Yard. Situated outside of the city, it's the blasted remains of a Research Lab that obviously didn't maintain very good control of its experiments into Future Energy (or have a PhD who was handy with a crowbar). They set up the mobile scanner machine that Giovanni gave them the plans to the previous night, and set it out over the site. Immediately it responds, purplish-pinkish energy blasts up out of the ground, Team Rocket taking the readings eagerly while somewhere in the dark.... some THING wakes up.
Elsewhere, a bizarre floating pink fat blob with flowers on the pattern of its skin bobs about in the air in a room mewling a frightened whimper. A girl rushes up and hugs it, asking it what is wrong, because apparently looking like an aborted elephant foetus painted by myopic hippies isn't reason enough.
At the Pokémon Center, Ash is dropping off his Pokémon to healing (though not Pikachu, which has already recovered from its fake beating since that was a big ol' load of bullshit) and proves how idiotic he is outside of battles when he mistakes Nurse Joy as the same one from Accumula Town. She explains that this was her younger sister and shows a picture of her entire family, all identical, but no picture of her exhausted mother and overly virile father. Ash has the decency to at least sweat in embarrassment for making such a boneheaded mistake, while Joy is all eyes on Pikachu and asks if Ash will be going for a Gym Battle. Cilan shows up, saying Ash has already had one and is quite the battler, and then asks Ash if he can chat to him.
A Sandile yawns happily and engulfs some food given to it by a creepy middle-aged man whose lap it is sitting in, while a little girl brushes her Patrat which has the decency to keep its horrible rabid red eyes closed. Off to the side, Cilan is sitting in a booth across from Ash discussing their battle. He was impressed by Ash and the potential pairing of him and his Pokémon (oh God he ships EVERYTHING), and really wants to know the "recipe" for how Ash managed to overcome Type Disadvantage. He insists it's all for helping him as a Connoisseur, but when Ash agrees to answer his questions, he gets a little.... too..... excited.
Suddenly the familiar chimes from the Pokémon games plays, and Joy's voice comes over the intercom telling Ash his Pokémon are ready to be picked up. He rushes to get them (and get away from Cilan, who follows doggedly) and finds an Audino pushing them in on a trolley. What a remarkable stroke of luck that it was just the subject of a "WHO'S THAT POKEMON!?!", and Ash asks for further clarification and learns that they assist Nurse Joy's at Pokémon Centres in Unova, like Chansey do everywhere else. Suddenly Iris comes bursting in, carrying Axew in her arms, the little tusked Pokémon glowing bright pink. She tells Joy a light came from out of the sky and turned it pink, and there is more of the light outside. The woman from earlier rushes in with her Munna and spots Axew, and asks Munna to wake Axew up. The floating elephant foetus flows forward and opens its gaping maw wide, sucking in the pink energy like some kind of monstrous vampire. Ash learns that this is Dream Eater, it is eating the dream that Axew is locked into and then exuding it as a mist that raises into the air shows Axew's dream (thank God Piplup isn't on the show anymore!) - a happy little Axew running through a field and then evolving, first into Fraxure and then into Haxorus. Axew itself has woken up, and eagerly claws with its little paws at the dream, delightedly agreeing with Iris when she notes that it wants to evolve.
The woman introduces herself with an odd little curtsy with her lab coat. She is Dr. Fennel, who specialises in researching dreams and other mysterious powers of Pokémon. They step outside and see the pink light spreading out all over the city, alarming Axew which hides inside Iris' hair. Fennel tells them this is probably caused by Musharna, which Ash looks up in his Pokedex, learning that the bizarre THING is the evolved form of Munna, eats dreams just like it, and can project dreams onto the mist. A Police Car pulls up and out steps.... Officer Jenny? With her hair cut short, she looks almost nothing like the Officer Jenny we're so used to. She warns them that Pokémon all over the city are falling into a sleep they can't get out of, so all Pokémon need to be returned to their Pokeballs. Ash is concerned, because Pikachu really can't stand being inside a Pokeball, which is information that surprises Iris, but Fennel has a solution. She takes Ash's hat off and pops it over Pikachu's head, and any floating motes of light that drift down pop harmlessly against the material.
Munna itself will be fine, the lights are attracted to it but don't affect it, and Fennel figures that the key to the lights will be at the Dream Yard. Officer Jenny gives Fennel, Cilan, Ash and Iris a lift to the Dream Yard (why are they taking the kids?) while Fennel explains what the Dream Yard is. She and other scientists were working on a form of "Clean Energy", finding a way to harvest and use Musharna's Dream Energy. Apparently Musharna was happy enough with this, since its natural desire was to sleep and dream anyway, and it seemed to love the scientists and Fennel in particular. But then one day a group of people showed up determined to harvest the energy for their own ambitions, and since those ambitions were a form of dreaming, Musharna absorbed the ambitions, lost control of the dream and unleashed the energy in an explosion that destroyed the facility. Musharna disappeared, Fennel lost all her desire for the research project, and the wreckage of the facility became the Dream Yard, the broken remains that sit outside the city to this day. But now Munna has sensed something and the return of the pink lights means that Musharna must be back, which is why Fennel has returned.
They arrive at the Dream Yard and discover Team Rocket, and demand to know what they're up to in the open and non-private abandoned property. They tell them they're searching for residual traces of dreams, and Fennel spots their machinery and guesses that it is elevating the energy levels. Jenny demands to know exactly who they are, and if Team Rocket is good for anything anymore, it's still the motto.
"Exacting questions are good indeed!" notes Jesse, one side of her sunglasses dropping down below her eye.
"The answer to come, as we feel the need!" agrees James, dropping his hat. They pull their coats off, and amusingly it seems that it is only at this point that Ash realises it is Team Rocket.
"Bringing.... the white light of evil into the future!"
"And thrusting.... the hammer of justice on the black universe!"
"Carving our names..... in da rock of eternity!"
"The fiery destroyer, I'm Jesse!"
"And with thunderous emotion, I am James."
"Wisest of the wise, I'm Meowth!"
"And now we call all together under the name of.... Team Rocket!" they all finish together.
Officer Jenny demonstrates surprising competence by not asking who Team Rocket are, but rather questioning what a Kanto-Based Operation is doing in Unova! She... she actually knows who they are! Jesse smirks that they're there to prepare to take over Unova, of course, and Fennel can't believe that there are still people stupid enough to try and take advantage of the Dream Energy. Cilan asks if Musharna causing the lights was a way of sending warnings through Munna? Suddenly the pink light permeates everything, and Fennel cries out to Musharna to come out, the others joining in the call - even Axew pops out of Iris' hair and cries out,"AX-AXE-EW!"
A pink vagina appears in the sky and turns into an open circle (pretty much what the Nurse Joys' mum probably looks like!), coalescing into Musharna. Fennel tries to rush to it but a laser blast stops her, the scanning machine acting as a sentry and blasting laser blasts at them. Musharna is caught up in an energy field, and Ash sends Pikachu (apparently the pink light doesn't affect Pokémon here, as Ash removes his hat from Pikachu's head and Axew wasn't affected earlier) in with Volt Tackle. It has to dodge aside from blasted beams, and Munna helps out by using Psychic to.... crumple up the Scanner-Sentry like it was paper!
Pikachu hits it with Volt Tackle to truly put it out of commission, and the energy ball around Musharna fades out. The pink energy disappears from around the Dream Yard, and a furious Jesse calls out Woobat to blast up sand with Gust and cover their escape. Iris can't believe they got away again (and not even a blast-off!) but Ash doesn't care, the important thing is that Fennel has been reunited with her horrific aborted elephant foetus THING again - Cilan getting a little TOO excited.... he isn't going to try and ship THEM too?
Back in the sewers in Striaton, Team Rocket contact Giovanni who is happy with their performance despite the interference of the twerps. They were still able to collect readings on the energy which have been sent back to him, and he has specialists analysing it for him now. He puts them on standby alert till their next mission, and signs off.
But up out of the sewers, somebody else is hoping to dive deep into the filth of Pokémon Shipping. Cilan has decided to go on a Pokémon Journey of his own to become a better Connoisseur, convinced by Ash's success against him in their Gym Battle that he can learn more travelling than he can in helping his brothers actually run and maintain the family business. They agree not to stand in his way and happily wish him the best of luck (hey, more fangirls for them!), and he heads off with Ash who asks where he is going, and learns that Cilan is going... wherever Ash goes!
Yes he's invited himself along for the ride, and Ash figures hey what the hell and agrees. Cilan's TRUE purpose is perhaps revealed though when he asks where Iris is, obviously still excited at the shipping opportunities he sees in the two underage children. Ash tells Cilan he has no idea where Iris is though, at which point she appears beside him upside down, hanging out of a tree and giving him a hell of a fright!
She flips out of the tree, giving the two surprised boys a look right up her skirt as she comes down, asking if she scared Ash. Of course she did, he grumps, and Cilan insists that they all three go together because they complement each other’s tastes so well. Ash agrees, and Iris asks when he became the big decision maker. He insists though, they can all make their dreams come true together! He wants to be a Pokémon Master, Cilan wants to be the greatest Pokémon Connoisseur, and Iris..... what does Iris want to be again?
She giggles that this is a secret and rushes off ahead of them with her arms spread wide like an airplane, and a delighted Ash and somewhat confused Cilan follows on afterwards. It's only taken a few episodes, Gentle Dodgers, but not only does Ash already have a Gym Badge, but he's part of a Twerp Trio again and utterly confused by his female companion. It's good times, let's just get Team Rocket to actually have character again and it'll be the best of times once more!
| BEST QUOTES |
 "Let's make our dreams come true together! Come on! I want to become a Pokémon Master! Cilan wants to be the World's Greatest Pokémon Connoisseur! And then you.... what'd you want to be again...?"
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