ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
728: A Restoration Confrontation! Part 1	734: Nejiyama no Gekito! Abagora no Kiseki!! (Zenpen)	Minor miners			Team Rocket bring a fossil back to life just to kill it again	Back and out for blood!	Animal sacrifice is so last millennium

Today finds.... TEAM ROCKET! IT'S TEAM ROCKET HOLY SHIT THEY STILL EXIST! They're down in the sewers doing the whole "competent villain" mode thing they've been stuck in for so many episodes now, talking on the laptop to Dr. Zager. He wants to them to get their hands on a Tirtouga, a sea-turtle looking Pokémon that evolves into a Carracosta, which looks like a long-armed aging biker painted blue with a handlebar moustache and a chest protector. He's needs it for getting access to Twist Mountain, where a Team Rocket survey team (so Jesse, James, Meowth and Zager aren't the ONLY ones in Unova?) have reported fossils.

Jesse assures Zager they'll get the Tirtouga for him and Meowth asks if he'll join them there, but he's non-committal before cutting them off. He of course is NOT in a sewer, sitting in one of his many SCIENCE! helicopters out in the open countryside. He takes off, presumably towards Twist Mountain or maybe somewhere else, the person seemingly responsible for Team Rocket's current complete lack of personality.

I hope his helicopter crashes and he dies!



Part 1? Awwwww man.

At Twist Mountain itself, who should we find inside the mine that runs through the mountain but the twerps!?! What are they doing there? Apparently they were trying to take a shortcut through to Icirrus City but have gotten turned around inside the mine. Cilan suggests they head back the way they came but Iris shushes them, sensing something ahead. They pause and listen, and hear the sound of hammering coming from further down the tunnel. A man is chiselling at the wall, breaking it away until to his delight he finds a fossil pressed into it. Happily he turns to his Pokémon buddy, a Drilbur - the pre-evolved form of Excadrill - and asks it to finish the job of getting the fossil loose. It does so, and he beams down at it before noticing that there is a Pikachu and an Axew standing beaming up at him as well. The twerps arrive, relieved to find another human being inside of the mines. They introduce themselves and he does the same, his name is Ferris. Cilan is explaining that they got lost when he spots the fossil and freaks out, raving happily about it while Ash and Iris are just left completely none the wiser.

They attempt to explain archaeology to the ignorant school dropouts, but as Ferris waxes lyrical he is shut up by an angry woman in a shapeless orange mining uniform. Her name is Sierra, and she clearly doesn't think much of Ferris or his archaeology, calling him an amateur and complaining that her men reported strange sounds from this abandoned part of the mine and she knew it would be him. He enthusiastically tries to show off the fossil he found, but she doesn't care at all about a find that will re-write the book on Pokémon archaeology, he's trespassing in an out-of-bounds area... and he brought assistants with him? Minors instead of miners!?!

Iris explains they simply got lost, and Sierra brusquely tells them she'll lead them out. Ash asks Ferris to tell them more about the fossil and he says he'll explain back at his house, and since there is no possibly negative consequences to going to a strange adult's house they happily agree.

In a large excavated cavern, a Conkeldurr is smashing a rock with its fists as Crustles carry rocks away and men look over plans of the mine. As Sierra leads them all into the cavern, Ferris is good naturedly mocked by the workers... till they see the fossil in his hands and gape in shock, rushing around to congratulate him on his find. They ask what kind of a fossil it is and he says he'll need to get it back to his house and study it a little first. As they continue to congratulate him, Team Rocket watch from the shadows, apparently completely nonplussed to find the twerps there too.

A short time later the twerps are gathered around watching Ferris cleaning off the fossil while a grumpy Sierra watches from by the door. Ferris has identified the fossil as being that of a Tirtouga, and he points to a photo of one of them swimming in the ocean to show Ash what type of Pokémon it is. Ash gets overly excited at the notion of ancient Pokémon from long ago, and Iris dismisses him as being "such a kid" till Cilan vaults in to gleefully declare his excitement as well, talking about fossils as the missing link between past and present - it's the icing on the puzzle cake.

Ferris picks up a photo of himself as a child with three other kids, one of whom was clearly Sierra. She notes that they used to play around Twist Mountain all the time, and even went into an off-limits area once and got told off. Ferris says that this was how he got to actually meet a Tirtouga though, surprising the twerps (and Sierra) - it seems that Tirtouga are thought to be extinct Pokémon and this is fairly common knowledge.

But Zager sent Team Rocket to find one... how did he know a living one existed? Or does he just want a fossil to resurrect?

Ferris remembers back to his childhood, he and his friends sneaking into the off-limits tunnel, all of them following Sierra's orders as the clear leader. All of them wore pendants that looked like symbols of the Illuminati as part of their little explorers club, and their "mission" was to explore the tunnels. Ferris was a noodle-armed little weakling though and struggled to keep up, getting lost and ending up panting on his knees, struggling for breath and freaking out at not being able to find his friends. Just then a glowing light caught his attention and he turned to see a shining light breaking through a pile of rocks. Approaching, he'd touched the rock which moved, and when he pushed it the sudden movement and shift of light caused him to pass out.

When he woke he found himself in open fields, the sky a strange colour and Archeops flying in the sky. Hearing a crying noise he'd rushed to a nearby bank and discovered a Tirtouga being assaulted by four Archen. Charging to its rescue, he'd startled the Archen for a moment before they realised he was a little punk-ass bitch and attacked him as well, leaving him cowering over the Tirtouga in a less than glamorous position.

Suddenly they were drenched with hot water (hopefully it's water, maybe their rescuers just REALLY liked the look of a little boy humping the Tirtouga). The Archen are scared off and little Ferris looks up to see several Carracosta looking pissed off at HIM now. But Tirtouga speaks up for him, and the Carracosta seem content to let the two of them spend the rest of the day playing together. As the sun had set, Ferris and Tirtouga sat watching it go, and Ferris asked Tirtouga what its name was before realising it couldn't speak or understand English (or Japanese!). Hearing Sierra's voice, he'd remembered he had to get back to the group but before leaving had left a gift with his new friend, the pendant that marked him a member of the Super-Friends Number One Best All Time Explorers Club! Off he'd run through the fields, running and running till he'd come back to his senses inside of Twist Mountain, confused as to how he'd gotten there. Two miners were with the kids, the latter of whom noticed that he'd lost the pendant and figured it was somewhere in the tunnels.

Back in the present, Ferris explains how he discovered that Tirtouga were now extinct, but Iris seems to have figured out exactly what happened easily enough - he travelled to the "ancient world", and she ponders if it happened to him for any particular reason. Ash is excited by the concept, but as always, supernatural things are one of the ONLY things that Cilan can't get enthusiastic about. He says the story is interesting but he has trouble believing it, and Sierra clearly doesn't believe a word he says.

Ferris isn't put off though, saying the fossil proves that Tirtouga were once found in the area, and he believes that there is a space somewhere in the tunnels where it is possible to travel into the past. He turns the fossil over in his hands and gapes as he spots what is clearly his old kid-illuminati pendant buried in the underside of the shell. Sierra notices his shock and asks him what is wrong, but in a completely understandable and not at all bizarre act he decides not to show her absolute and undeniable proof of his crazy theories and just pops the fossil down on the table. She tells him to stay out of the tunnels from now on, as he is just getting in the way of their work, but then out of nowhere a grappling hook smashes through the glass of his window, grabs the fossil and then is hauled back out - Team Rocket have learned the value of a smash 'n' grab!

Ferris and Ash rush outside, with Sierra, Cilan and Iris a little behind them, and spot the thieves sauntering casually away. Who is it? Well who the else could it be... oh wait, they haven't been on the show for weeks, so maybe you DO need a reminder - it's Team Rocket!

"Two people AND a Pokémon, pay heed!"
"They'll answer your question when we feel the need!"
"INDEED!" adds Meowth.
"Bringing the blinding white light of evil into the future!"
"Thrusting the hammer of justice down onto the black darkness of the universe!"
"And carving our names in da rock of etoinity!"
"The fiery destroyer, Jesse!"
"And with thunderous emotion, I am James."
"Wisest of da wise, Meowth!"
"Now gather.... under the name of Team Rocket!" they all finish together.

Iris demands they return the fossil, but Team Rocket laugh that it is necessary for their missions. They DO however thank him for saving them the trouble of having to excavate it themselves, and then the reason for their casual attitude is revealed - Zager has arrived on his helicopter to whisk them away! They step on board and the ship lifts off, but not before Ferris and Ash are able to grab onto the ramp and clamber onboard themselves.

Inside, they demand the fossil back from Team Rocket, who respond by flicking a switch and creating a forcefield between them! It's a Light Screen like the Pokémon move, but handled by technology. Ash of course runs straight into it and bangs into it headfirst, then tries his other old standby of having Pikachu Thunderbolt it. Neither does anything though, and Team Rocket just smirk at his confusion - he's hitting it and it's not solving his problems!

Zager lands near Twist Mountain as Pikachu continues to try and blast through the forcefield, then steps out of the cabin and finds himself facing Ash and Ferris. He recognises the former as having meddled in their plans before, but Ash has no idea who the weird old man is. Team Rocket actually do the service of introducing Zager to Ash, explaining that he is the "brains" behind Team Rocket. He takes the fossil from Team Rocket (thus they have succeeded in their part of the mission) and walks it over to a waiting machine. They explain that it is a Fossil Restoration machine, powered by the stones they recently stole and ripped off the design of the machine that restored the Archen Ash met some episodes ago.

Ferris realises they plan to restore Tirtouga to life, and seems overwhelmed by the idea. But he also wants to know for what purpose, and surprisingly Zager agrees to tell him "out of respect". Out of respect? Yes, Zager recognises that Ferris is the one who found the fossil in the first place, and he is enough of an academic to give credit where it is due.

He shows them readings they have detected from Twist Mountain recently displaying a build up of temporal energy. There is a pathway to the past there, a "Time Gate" under the mountain, a place where it is possible to travel from the modern day into the past. Ferris realises that this is the place where he himself fell through all those years ago, and apparently it is powering back up again after a relatively quiet period of dormancy. As the time distortion enlarges, the Time Gate gets wider, but as the energy diminishes the gate narrows. Meowth speaks up to say that they (Zager, I assume) has theorised that by using the life-energy of the right type of Pokémon, they can stabilise the Gate and hold it open.

They're literally talking about blood sacrifice!

Team Rocket are going to travel back into the past and assemble an army of prehistoric Pokémon. Ash is mortified and demands another Thunderbolt, but it is as ineffective as before. Zager begins tapping at the Fossil Restorer, and a sweating Ferris admits that if Tirtouga is going to be restored to life, he wants to see it. Ash is shocked, and Ferris agrees that he knows it is wrong, and shouts at Team Rocket to stop. They ignore him (of course) and Zager gets the machine running, power zapping the fossil and the machine putting together the DNA code found within. Lights flash bright and then fades to reveal... Tirtouga alive once again, sitting confused inside the machine! Ferris gasps to see the pendant as well, while Tirtouga demonstrates an entirely reasonable attitude to its resurrection by freaking the fuck out - made only worse when Jesse and James send in Woobat and Yamask to "subdue" it.

Terrified (and it doesn't even know that it has been brought back to life just to be slaughtered yet!) it unleashes Ancient Power and blasts the Fossil Restorer, causing an explosion that knocks out the Light Screen and...



Wow!

Ferris reaches around in the smoke as he checks on Ash, and grabs hold of the pendant. Tirtouga leaps out of the smoking remains of the helicopter, followed by Ferris and Ash who try to calm the frantic turtle down. It turns and blasts Brine at them, then rushes away to the nearby river and leaps inside to escape. Ferris and Ash chase after it, Ferris explaining that it is panicking due to being in an unknown world, and they need to help protect it. Ash does this in the only way he knows how... by fighting! Calling out Oshawott, he sends him into the river to stop Tirtouga, and Oshawott does this by chasing it down with Aqua Jet then headbutting it out of the river!

As Sierra, Cilan and Iris approach the smoking cloud of the wrecked helicopter in Sierra's jeep, Team Rocket are recovering from the explosion. Zager insists that the trio get after Tirtouga and return it to him, he means to have his blood sacrifice!

Back at the riverbank, Ash and Ferris realise too late that attacking Tirtouga probably wasn't the best way to earn its trust. It glares angrily at them as Ash finishes thanking a proud Oshawott, then leaps up and lets rip with Ancient Power directly at them. There is nowhere to run or hide, and we all saw what that move did to the helicopter earlier. What chance do two noodle-armed human beings have? You'll have to wait till next week to find out, because as promised in the episode title, this is only part one!

BEST QUOTES

"Your mediocrity overwhelms me!"

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