The gang had some more little adventures with Prof Birch; they had walked into a forest that had wild Seedot. Seedot were grass Pokémon and they looked like acorns and Max caught one for himself. Also while travelling in the forest, Ashlyn and May's Silcoon evolved into Beautifly, which made Ashlyn and May happy. They had also run into a wild Loudred that wasn't well and Brock used his knowledge of medicine to help Loudred. Loudred was grateful to Brock and wanted to go with him, so Brock had a Loudred for his own.
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Right now Prof Birch and the gang were going to visit an old abandoned coal mine.
"Is it okay for people to visit the mine?" May asked, nervous.
"Yes there's no need to worry May," Prof Birch assured her, "Lots of people have explored in there before and there has never been any accidents."
When they reached the mine, they saw a crowd of people and some police were stopping people from getting in.
"What's going on?" Ashlyn asked.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Prof Birch replied.
Prof Birch walked up to a Policeman, "Excuse me, could you tell us what's going on?" He asked.
"Well there's have been reports of ghost Pokémon roaming about in the mine and they kept scaring people away from the mine." The Policeman responded.
"Then that means the Ghost Pokémon have made this mine their territory." Prof Birch suggested.
"Then it's a good thing that I came here then." said a female voice.
Prof. Birch and the gang turned the voice and saw a black-haired woman, who wore pink flowers and a red bracelet round her feet. A blue top and a matching long skirt with white flowers prints on it that is slitted to the side.
"It's Phoebe of the elite four!" Someone shouted.
Hearts appeared in Brock's eyes, and he appeared right in front of Phoebe and held her hands in his.
"Your beauty is unmatched to the flowers that bloom alongside a river!" Brock proclaimed.
Phoebe chuckled nervously. Max grabbed Brock by the ear and began pulling him away.
"Maybe you should be thrown into a river so that you can cool off." Max suggested.
"Ooow! My ear!" Brock yelped in pain.
Phoebe, Prof. Birch, Ashlyn, Alain, and May sweat-dropped.
"Anyways, what are you doing here, Phoebe?" Prof. Birch asked, changing the subject.
"I've heard the rumors of Ghost Pokémon lurking about in this mine, so I came here to investigate." Phoebe replied.
"So you must be a Ghost type expert." Ashlyn commented.
Phoebe nodded, "That's right. I presume you also have some Ghost-type Pokémon?"
"Yes, I have a Genger, a Misdreavus, and an Alolan Marowak." Ashlyn replied.
"Wow! I have a Gengar and Misdreavus as well! But I'm trying to find a Cubone as of late." Phoebe smiled.
"Anyways, shouldn't we go and explore the mine?" Alain suggested.
"Right." Max nodded.
"I'll stand here." May decided.
Everyone turned to May.
"Are you sure?" Ashlyn asked.
"Positive." May replied, instantly.
"All right then." Alain said.
Then Phoebe, Prof. Birch, Ashlyn, Alain, Brock, and Max went inside the mine.
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It was dark in the mine, so everyone had to wear helmet's that had lamps on them.
"Do you think that the Ghost Pokémon are living here because this mine is abandoned, and no one works in it anymore?" Ashlyn asked.
"It's a good possibility. Ghost Pokémon are famous for living in old caves, mines, ruins and buildings that have been abandoned." Alain replied.
"But it is best that we find what's going on in this cave, especially the since the Pokémon are frightening people away." Prof. Birch suggested.
"Ghost Pokémon don't really mind intruders much, but sometimes people disturb Ghost Pokémon too much. So these Ghost Pokémon probably don't want the tourists to disturb them, which would explain why they frighten them off. You lot better have Pokéballs ready, in case we do run into any trouble with the Ghost Pokémon." Phoebe informed.
"Got it." Prof Birch and the others together.
Suddenly they saw three ghost Pokémon, but they looked hurt. One was purple and had blue, gem shaped, eyes and a red jewel on its tummy, the second ghost Pokémon looked like a shadowy puppet, and the other ghost Pokémon looked like a phantom.
"That's a Sableye, Shuppet and Duskull." Phoebe said.
Ashlyn, Alain and Max ran over to see if the three Pokémon were okay. The three trainers used Super Potions and gave the three Pokémon Oran berries.
"Hey what happened to you three?" Ashlyn asked.
The Sableye spoke to Ashlyn, "Sable sable sableye sable."
"What did it say, Ashlyn?" Max asked.
"Sableye said that there are two people along with a talking Meowth down here and they're using all the ghost Pokémon as their slaves." Ashlyn translated.
"Using Ghost Pokémon as slaves?" Phoebe gasped, "That's outrageous! We should sort this out at once!"
"Agreed." Brock stated.
"When it comes to Team Rocket, we have to deal with them." Alain added.
Everyone agreed. Ashlyn asked Sableye, Duskull and Shuppet to take them to where the trio were and the three Ghost Pokémon did just that.
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Sableye, Duskull and Shuppet led the humans further down the mine until at last they came to an area of the mine, where the miners were. There were lanterns, pickaxes and wagons everywhere and ghost Pokémon were coming in and out of the mines walls. There was Jessie, James, and Meowth. They had some dark Pokémon with them; a Sneasel, a Nuzleaf and a Poochyena. Max noticed that there were gold nuggets in the wagons.
"I get it," Prof Birch realized, "They must have found the gold nuggets in the mine and they're using the ghost Pokémon to find them and to scare everyone else away to keep their gold mine a secret."
"And I bet those dark Pokémon are to keep the ghost Pokémon in order since Dark beats Ghost." Alain added.
"Yeah well I'm not letting them get away with it." Phoebe declared, crossly.
She told Max and Prof. Birch to go and get the police and asked Ashlyn, Alain and Brock to help her with the Team Rocket. Max and Prof. Birch ran back, with Shuppet, Sableye and Duskull, to the entrance of the mine.
Phoebe, Ashlyn, Alain and Brock ran towards Jessie, James, and Meowth from behind.
"That's enough!" Phoebe shouted.
Jessie, James, and Meowth yelped in panic.
"I will not allow you three to enslave these ghost Pokémon anymore!" Phoebe yelled.
"Neither will I!" Ashlyn shouted.
"The twerps!" Jessie and James yelped.
"Well they're our workers now and you have no say in it!" Meowth retorted.
"Yeah!" Jessie and James shouted.
"Sneasel use Blizzard! Poochyena, use Crunch!" Jessie shouted.
"Nuzleaf use Razorleaf!" James shouted.
"Sableye, use Shadow Ball!" Phoebe released her Sableye.
"Charizard, use Flamethrower!" Alain released his Charizard.
"Forretress, use Signal Beam!" Brock released his Forretress.
"Tesla, Thunder Shock!" Ashlyn ordered.
The attacks hit Poochyena, Nuzleaf and Sneasel who yelped in pain by the attacks and were defeated in no time.
"Tesla, Thunderbolt!" Ashlyn ordered.
Tesla fired her Electric type attack at the Team Rocket trio and were soon sent flying through the ceiling and out into the sky.
"Well so much for that scheme." Meowth whined.
"All that gold we worked so hard for." James whined.
"Gone." Jessie added.
Wobbuffet appeared and saluted, "Wobba!"
The trio sighed.
"TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" The trio screamed before they disappeared across the sky.
"WOBA!" Wobbuffet added.
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At that moment, Officer Jenny and the police arrived on the scene.
"What's going to happen to the mine now that gold nuggets have been located here?" Max asked.
"Well we'll have proper miners come here and work here," Officer Jenny assured him, "and we'll be using the gold nuggets for all sorts of things for the Hoenn region."
Everyone was happy to know that the mine would be all right now.
When Phoebe, Prof Birch, Ashlyn, Alain, Brock, and Max exited the mine, they told May all about it.
"You missed an exciting adventure, May." Max teased.
"I prefer getting into adventures that don't involve dark, spooky places." May replied, nervously.
"I can't thank you guys enough for all your help." Phoebe thanked Prof. Birch and the gang.
Brock appeared in front of Phoebe and held her hand.
"You can thank me by letting me take you out to dinner." Brock requested.
Phoebe was slightly creeped out. At that moment, Max grabbed Brock's ear once more and dragged him away.
"When will you ever learn?" Max questioned.
"OW! Not the ear!" Brock yelped.
"We're glad to have helped and it was an honor meeting an Elite Four member." Prof. Birch stated, changing the subject.
Just then the Sableye, Duskull and Shuppet turned up.
"Hey what are you three doing here?" Ashlyn asked.
The three ghost Pokémon spoke.
"I think they want to go with you three," Phoebe translated, "I understand a ghost Pokémon's feelings well, and I can tell that they like you three, Ashlyn, Alain, and Max."
The three stared at each other and smiled; they agreed to have the ghost Pokémon on their team. Ashlyn captured Sableye, Alain captured Duskull and Max captured Shuppet.
After that the gang said goodbye to both Prof Birch and Phoebe. Prof Birch had to leave to get back to his lab in Littleroot Town, and Phoebe had to leave for business.
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After saying goodbye to them, the gang set off for Dewford Gym. Ashlyn decided that now was the time for her to challenge the Dewford Gym.
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Pokémon Caught: Poochyena (Lela)(F), Mudkip (Finn)(M), Shiny Torchic (Hestia)(F), Ralts (Miku)(F), Ralts (Lancelot)(M), Taillow (Percy)(M), Zigzagoon (Ziggy)(M), Treecko (Kazuki)(M), Beautifly (Willow)(F), Shiny Feebas (Ula)(F), Corphish (Sebastian)(M), Aron (Hagane)(M), Sableye (Jacinth)(M)