"Midchu, use Discharge!"
"Hm?"
By the shore, Natsu, fiddling with his Great Ball, raised his head and looked toward Midchu on the platform.
*So he actually learned Discharge—then Midchu must be at least level 32.*
*Tsk tsk, no wonder he's such a battle maniac. Even with two Pikachu, he managed to raise them this fast.*
*Over level 30 already… looks like I'll have to make a third-tier Enhancent chair.*
*Boom!*
Five minutes later, Midchu landed gracefully, while the opposing Staryu was blasted away by a violent burst of electricity, losing his ability to battle.
*Pika? Pika!?*
For so reason, even though he had won, Midchu still felt a chill run down his back.
"Alright, let's keep up the montum—wait, Midchu, why are you coming back?"
*Pika pi*
Yawning, Midchu returned. After high-fiving Pikachu, the two stood to the left and right behind Ash.
"…Fine, I get it."
Ash tugged helplessly at the brim of his cap.
Natsu's Pikachu was too lazy. Unless ordered directly by Natsu, whenever Ash wanted him to battle, he absolutely refused to fight consecutively.
A little taste was enough—Pokémon needed rest too.
True to his philosophy of self-care, Midchu pulled a small blanket from Ash's backpack, used Pikachu's tail as a pillow, and started snoring.
"Hmph, without Midchu and Pikachu, let's see how you plan to win now!"
Across from him, Misty once again tossed a Pokéball:
"Go, Starmie!"
*Mie—!*
A star-shaped Pokémon appeared on the water, its chest gem resembling Ultraman's tir.
**Starmie: Water/Psychic. The evolved form of Staryu, a genderless Pokémon.**
"So it's Staryu's evolution? In that case—go, Butterfree!"
Ash's voice rang out. Natsu raised an eyebrow, looking at the battlefield.
*Rotom*
Rotom understood and scanned Butterfree on the field:
**Butterfree, Lv.16**
Seeing its approximate level, Natsu rubbed his temples.
He almost forgot—he still had a research proposal about the relationship between a Pokémon's desire to evolve and its evolution level.
Well, whatever. Following Ash, opportunities were everywhere.
So many of his Pokémon evolved mid-battle—clearly the will to fight often triggered their evolution.
But what a pity. At best, research at this level could only get published in second-rate journals.
Besides, after integrating his Pokéball Rotom theories into articles, he hadn't had the ti to take on anything else for a long while.
*Tasteless to keep, wasteful to abandon.*
Thinking this, Natsu shifted his gaze toward the collapsed Brock.
"Brock, training and research go hand in hand. Interested in becoming a researcher?"
He leaned closer. Even if the work only made it into second-rate journals, publishing a few articles could still easily secure him a position in a city-level research unit later.
"Well…"
Brock glanced at Natsu, quickly stood, and shook his head firmly.
"I only want to be a Breeder. Besides, my father's already old. In a few years, I'll have to take over the Gym. I'm afraid I won't have the energy to be a researcher."
"I see…" Natsu lowered his head, then looked again at the Great Ball in his hand.
Maybe he should take on a student?
He had plenty of ideas, but most of them were incomplete. He lacked the motivation to research them himself—but passing them to a student would be just right.
*Boom!*
Suddenly, the walls of Cerulean Gym burst apart as a massive, tank-like machine roared its way inside.
*Prepare for trouble!*
*And make it double!*
"It's Team Rocket!"
The battle had just ended, and Ash and Misty instantly tensed up.
*To protect the world from devastation!*
*To unite all peoples within our nation!*
"That damn researcher isn't here, right, owth?"
"owth, don't ruin our lines!"
*BAM!*
Jessie punched owth on the head.
"owth, don't—"
Before he could finish, owth's body was engulfed in red light.
"Return, owth!"
Natsu's Pokéball struck owth perfectly, capturing him inside.
Jas and Jessie stared blankly as the ball fell to the ground, shaking nonstop.
A mont later, they snapped out of it and shouted at Natsu:
"You brat! What do you think you're doing?!"
"owth is a mber of Team Rocket!"
"Huh?" Natsu spread his hands. "I know. But he's still a wild Pokémon."
"Finally free, owth!"
The Pokéball shook violently, and owth burst out in a flash.
The instant he saw Natsu, owth's fur bristled as he clung to Jessie's leg.
"Let's get out of here, owth!"
"owth don't give in to him! Don't forget why we ca here!" Jessie yanked owth off her.
"That's right! We're here to steal all the Water-type Pokémon and hand them over to Boss Giovanni!"
Jas pulled out a rose from nowhere, speaking dreamily.
"Exactly, owth! Start it up!"
owth pressed a button on the machine beneath him.
A huge pipe extended from the back of the machine, plunging into the battlefield pool and sucking water at high speed.
"This is bad, stop them!"
Ash was about to throw a Pokéball when Daisy held him back by the shoulder.
"Huh? What are they doing?"
"Except for the Pokémon we use for shows, the rest are all at the Pokémon Center."
"So they're just draining water?"
The Cerulean Sisters walked over.
"That thing looks like it's going to explode. The quality seems awful."
Clutching her backpack, Misty stepped back nervously.
"It's not that bad," Natsu said as he studied Team Rocket's pump-tank, recalling the stolen old pipes and engines from earlier that morning.
For them to build this in less than a day—their hands-on skills were impressive.
"You're always giving them too much credit," Misty muttered, glaring at him.
Natsu didn't answer, his eyes fixed on Team Rocket.
Tch—how could he have forgotten about these three?
In the ani, their ability to build machines was terrifying. They were basically born research-lab workhorses!
"Why's he staring at us like that, owth?"
owth kept glancing nervously at Natsu, clearly shaken.
"Sothing's not right, owth! Shut the machine down, quick!" Jessie and Jas had also noticed sothing was off. There weren't any Pokémon in the pool at all!
"It's fine, owth!"
Overly tense, owth hit the wrong button. Instead of stopping, the machine began draining water even faster.
"This is bad, owth!"
*Boom!*
With a thunderous explosion, the pump-tank blew apart, and Team Rocket blasted off again!
"Ah! My bag is soaked!"
"Hey! Don't bla for waking you up, Natsu—Midchu bit !"
"That's strange… where did Natsu go?"
Brock realized Natsu was missing, but his attention uncontrollably drifted back to the Cerulean Sisters.
...
**Cerulean City, outskirts.**
From the branches of a tree, three people dressed as Priape dangled upside down.
"owth, this is all your fault for pressing the wrong button!"
"What are you talking about, owth? Jas hooked up the engine to the wrong pipe."
"Huh? Then why don't you bla Jessie—she didn't do anything at all!"
"What did you say?! Who drew the blueprints?!"
Jessie grabbed Jas by the collar, spitting in his face as she yelled.
In Jas's pupils, Jessie seed to glimpse a shadow.
"Alright, no need to fight. Look at ."
Behind them, Natsu's voice rang out.
Turning around, they saw his face bathed in a holy, benevolent glow.
"The three of you—would you like to beco my reserach assistants?"
You can read more (around 50 free chapters) of Natsu's adventure ad-free here[sravenarchives/book/pokemon-who-let-him-leave-pallet-town]. Bulk uploads is a ss here, so updates here might be irregular.
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