Chapitre 264: To save Cinnabar Island
{Ashtwo}
It was later Ash returned to check in all the recruits. Not all of them were able to tame the Pokemon they were given, but those that did, moved on to the next side in the tournament-style battles.
Ash was leaning against the railing at the top, watching the battles, and unsurprisingly, it was disappointing, the battles were slow and uninteresting, they were slower than back when he started.
As he was on the railing, two people walked up for their first battle. One was a man who looked like he was in his 30s, and the other was that weird girl with purple hair, she called herself Helena.
As the battle started, suddenly, from behind him, Sayoko walked up and stood next to Ash, chucking as she watched the battles, "So then, D. What are your thoughts?"
"If I'm being honest, this is just sad. My expectations were low, but this is another level,"
"Spoken like a true member," Sayoko chuckled, "So, any of them catch your eye to become your personal lackey~"
"If I'm honest, not really, are you sure I can't just keep working alone, I do my best when I am on my own, so I'd just rather be alone," Ash responded.
"Well, unfortunately not, this is something that's been required when a grunt 'ranks up' to commander. Obviously, your rank is Spy, but we can't let other grunts know about that position, so we have to get you one to avoid anyone asking any questions." Sayoko shrugged.
"But how long can I just say I have the grunt and then dismiss them?"
Sayoko smirked "Not really, you're required to have that person as an assistant for at least a year; I remember the grunt I had to have, as soon as the year was up, I dismissed him,"
"*sigh* Fine, I guess if I don't have a choice, then I might as well try to make the most of it….I guess,"
Sayoko gave her usual smirk, "Now you're getting it now does anyone here catch your eye~, maybe that one purple-haired girl~"
Sayoko pushed his attention to the purple-haired girl, "From what I heard, she's named Helena, and she's from Kalos, she's also quite pretty, she catch your eye?"
Ash didn't acknowledge her teasing words, "I read her report too, but I doubt I should choose someone based on their looks,"
"Well, you can do what you want, if you want to choose someone for their looks, you can do it, you can even tell them to do stuff for you, and they can't say anything or risk punishment~" Sayoko chuckled.
Ash raised his eyebrow, "From the way you say that whoever I choose will be little more than a slave,"
"And?" Sayoko responded, acting like it was the most casual thing she ever said.
"I'm not going to honor that with a response," Ash said as suddenly the battle ended….and Helena lost, she lost in the first round.
On the field, Helena's face fell as the Pokemon she had been given fell unconscious. "I lost…"
Sayoko looked amused, "Oh, well it seems I was wrong about her, i expected her to at least go farther, but to lose on the first round, she seems to actually be worthless in that department."
As Helena returned the Pokemon to the Pokeball, something in her shadow started to shift, something that it seemed like Helena looked more annoyed about than anything as she went stomping out to find someplace private to do something about that.
Ash could see what it was thanks to Aura, but Sayoko could as well because of that 'thing' she has with her eye, but neither of them said anything with the idea that the other couldn't see it.
Ash stayed silent and kept watching because now that he saw what was in the shadow, he recognized what that girl was meant to be, and he was more surprised, why was she here….
—-
{Ash}
Ash was back in Kanto, right now, he was sitting down with Damian back on the island to discuss the business with the Tauros.
Damian sighed as he put some tea on and sat down on a chair, "So, yeah, it's just like you said, this is going much better than I imagined…"
Ash smiled, "I always know what I'm doing, you didn't think this would fail, and how are the two I recommended you to hire working out for you~"
"*Sigh* I hate to say it, but they're doing great, I expected them to do bad considering they aren't breeders, they were just a couple that just started a business, 'Plusle and Minun All Service' never would I have thought to even hire them to even clean my sink yet here we are,"
"Yeah, but you need to remember we don't need breeders. I trained my main Tauros to train the herd in specifically what they need to be, and I send Pokeblocks every month, hiring the best would be a waste of money; what we needed were loyalty and competence," Ash responded to take a sip of the tea.
"Well, those two, Devi and Multa,....well, Devi sure is competent, not so sure about Multa…"
"Give her a chance," Ash said, "Not everyone is naturally good at everything, everyone has their own strengths. I mean, look at you, quite bad at being a trainer and coming up with ideas, but you're a genius when it comes to business,"
"I guess you have a point, and yeah, her heart is in the right place," Damian sighed, "But you're right, when I offered them enough so they can officially start their 'Plusle and Minun All Service' company, they happily agreed to come and help out, especially since all they need to do is feed them and groom them to take their fur."
"Speaking of which, have you found a buyer from Paldea for the fur and also a chance to get some of the Paldea Tauros?" Ash asked
"Well, I spoke to my father, and as you said, I took all the credit, he was impressed by this operation, and he told me he would contact his people from Paldea, he also gave me credit if things go well apparently, he'll gather connections in Paldea,"
"Good, remember I don't need anything right now, we can do that later. What's important is that your father sees you as a genius, and speaking of which, I saw that some of my Tauros aren't here, I assume you managed to get our first buyers?"
"Yes, as of now, we have 3 of our fastest Tauros sent to Fuchsia City to a ranch there for breeding purposes, we have three more to the same place for manual labor, then in the orange island, we sent 7 for both breeding and work, and finally we have 5 of the strongest Tauros sent to Johto to the ranch that gym leader Whitney runs."
"I see, a decent amount, is there any time frame?"
"About 30–90 days," Damian responded, "All in all, although the prices are different for each, we gain about 30,000 pokedollars per month per Tauros, this is just the rough average, some cost more, some less,"
Ash nodded, "I see, well, that's good to hear you negotiated a good price, I'm sure your father was impressed to hear this was our first commission."
"Yes, he was, he never thought about this even though the market was available. However, I admit I feel like if we were more well known and trustworthy; I could have gone 50,000 pokedollars per Tauros, maybe more, after all the training and food you give them are all the highest quality,"
"That's fine, you can re-make the prices later, for now, we need to get this up and running. Anyway, I put in more Pokeblocks needed in storage that should last you about two months,"
Damian nodded, "Very well, I'll send you a message when we can get into contact with Paldean Ranches,"
Ash nodded as he finished his tea, and Abra sat on his shoulder, "Alright, I have some more business to do, see you around," Ash said as he teleported out.
Damian sighed, as he was about to relax, suddenly he heard a stampede, when he looked out of his window, and in the front, Multa was running for her life while Devi was running behind the herd, trying to calm them down.
Damian's eye twitched. If Ash hadn't recommended them, he would have fired Multa, but he bit his tongue and took a breath, "Give her a chance…just give her a chase, Damian," he closed the blinds and went back to sit down.
—
{Cinnabar Island}
Blaine was rubbing his bandaged arm, every day it seemed to hurt more, but now it seemed like the pain was starting to calm down, when he heard that Giovanni's Gym collapsed, he knew it wasn't an accident.
The growing pain that made him collapse the entire time made him realize exactly what Giovanni did, but now that it was over, he felt that the pain was starting to get better. That's not to say it didn't hurt, but now he isn't considering cutting off his arm from the pain.
Right now, he was evacuating people from the south side of Cinnabar, after the ideas that Ash gave him, he contacted other trainers with Pokemon and rangers, each with Ground, Rock, Fire, and psychic types.
As he was looking over the town to his side, Ash teleported in with Abra. Blaine was about to say something, but no, this was actually what he had come to expect from Ash.
Ash smiled, "Blaine, my man, how's things going here?"
Blaine sighed, "Fine, more or less anyway, I'm evacuating the people, this volcano will erupt in less than a year, so we're going to take care of it now,"
"Really, huh, and here I thought we had more time," Ash said, even though he sounded silly, there was an underlying serious hint to his voice.
Blaine nodded, "It won't be easy. For starters, we can't dump it all in at one time due to the risk of an explosion, and we can't have anyone near the edge due to the toxic haze that will be released. I made preparations for months, but even still, I don't know if everything will go well,"
Ash sat down next to Blaine, "Well, you can think of it like this: you either hope that your preparations were enough and you expand Cinnabar Island to potentially make it thrive, or you can wait for when the volcano erupts after all we don't have any pokemon that can just stop eruptions."
Blaine nodded grimly, "Your right, I have to go through with this for the People that live here,"
He took a deep breath and nodded as he walked out to go speak to the trainers and rangers.
A few moments later, an army of Ground, Rock, Fire, and Psychic. Started moving, the Psychic types worked together, moving the lava out in a stream as the fire and Rock types jumped into the volcano to work from the inside.
As the lava moved, the Ground types created an elevated platform to guide the lava and lessen the strain from the psychic types,
Then eventually, the Lava finally hit the water, causing the entire coast to start boiling, and toxic steam was Released that some flying Pokemon came in and started dispersing, it was a combined effort, and more than a few Pokemon had to tap out to rest while another took their place.
But after hours of nonstop working and continued support, they eventually got the ok from Blain, who was monitoring the Lava in the volcano, and once it got to a stable amount where it no longer was at the risk of erupting, nearly all the Pokemon collapsed looking tired and breathing heavily as they cheered.
They did it; they saved Cinnabar Island. It would take some time for that area to be livable again due to the new land that was being created and the residual toxic gas, but it would be safe, and they could help rebuild.
Ash, especially since he already spoke with Blaine about this and sent him a lot of money to sponsor a few hotels to be built in the new land under his name, this was perfect, exactly the result Ash wanted,
—
{Back to the Gang}
Ash arrived back at the place where he left Brock, Misty, and Yellow.
As soon as he stepped, not even a second later, he heard screaming and running, looking at where it came from, he saw Misty, Brock, and a blue-haired girl Ash recognized as Wilhomena and holding a Marill in her arms while running from a swarm of Beedrill.
When they saw him, Misty yelled out, "Ash! Help us!!!"
Ash debated actually just turning around, but he knew he couldn't do it, with a heavy sigh, he pulled out his Pokeball and threw out Beedrill; he didn't even say anything he just pointed, and she nodded.
Beedrill flew over casually and shot her web out in multiple directions, catching each Beedrill and tying them up, then Beedril pulled her arms back, causing the Beedrill to fall face first into the ground.
Beedrill nodded at Ash as she flew away, dragging the Beedrill behind her, as Ash looked at the 3, "I leave for a few hours, what is wrong with you guys…"
Brock and Misty looked away, but the girl Wilhomena stepped up, "I'm sorry, my name is Wilhomena, and this is Marill. Don't blame them it's my fault. Brock only wanted to help me, and I made things worse."
Brock jumped in front of her, "No, Wilhomena, you did nothing wrong, I'm the one to blame, I let it get this far if anyone should be scolded, it's me!"
"Oh Brock…" Wilhomena said, a small blush creeping onto her cheek.
Ash sighed and looked towards Misty, "So where's Yellow?"
"Oh, she is still by the river…I don't think she ever left,"
"Ok, fine, I won't scold you guys even if you were idiots. I need to go see Pikachu, so you're off the hook for now," Ash said
Then he grabbed Misty and pulled her close, whispering in her ear, "And between you and me, am I the only one that thinks that this girl is actually interested in Brock?"
"I know," She said, whispering, "I didn't want to say something, but it's so weird like this girl genuinely looks like she likes Brock, what dark magic is this,"
"I dunno, but I'm going to keep an eye on him," Ash said as he pulled back.
"Alright, leave it to me, even if I'm tempted to pull his ear, I'm invested now I want to see how this ends."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone