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Kevin and Buizel (Second Edition)

Chapter 3: Broken and Missing

Ash and his friends started their day off with a grand breakfast, after which they went to the Poke Mart to get more food and supplies for their Pokémon. Ash was focused on winning the next gym badge, he trained hard yesterday with his Pokémon so he felt absolutely prepared for today. "And maybe I'll invite Kevin to watch my battle!" Ash thought for himself.

They arrived to the Poke mart that was near the plaza of Sunnyshore city, it was a small store but it had what they needed, or mostly what Ash needed, food. Inside the store, Ash and the rest were the only customers inside the store except for the store clerk herself that quickly noticed the travelers and greeted them happily.

"Welcome everyone! How may I help you?" Said a young and pretty girl with brown long hair on the counter. Ash quickly turned towards the young woman and greeted her as well.

"Hi! We'll start looking around first." Ash said as he rushed towards the food section of the store.

"Take your time!" The girl said while smiling. The store had all kinds of pokéballs in the first corridor of the store, it also had a potion section, only two seemed to be available now, and there was the food in a refrigerated transparent container in where Ash was looking around, the store also had all sorts of drinks and toys along the final corridors. The television in the store was telling the story on how a young man managed to recover from his anger because of his Pokémon, a Charizard. Brock picked up some more Pokémon food for the team and looked around to pack some potions as well. Ash was just lost in his thoughts looking at the food inside the container; his inner thoughts were instantly cut when he heard the word "Kevin" on the television.

"Wait, that's Kevin on the news!" Ash said as he got near the TV.

"The young musician Kevin will appear in the musical event that will take place tonight in Sunnyshore, although the managers are currently worried as Kevin is nowhere to be found. We will keep you informed here first on Pokémon News Channel!" The news then went onto a reporter asking people around in Sunnyshore on their plans for the show and on which artist they looked forward too.

"Oh yes, that kid." The girl at the counter said. "I'm really looking forward to listening to young Kevin; I hope he does show up soon." The girl said excited. "Well anyways, is that going to be all you're buying for today?" The girl said while looking at Brock carrying stuff. Brock said that they had all they needed, Brock paid and he began to put the things in his backpack and as they were ready to leave they heard the TV again.

"If anyone knows on the whereabouts of Kevin, please do approach the managers of the Sunnyshore show and let them know, it would be much appreciated." The reporter said with the manager right beside him, he wore a purple suit and dark glasses, he did not seem concerned. Ash and the rest decided to go tell the manager about where Kevin was yesterday.

Ash and the rest approached the building where the manager worked at to contact him, luckily for them the manager was outside. Ash rushed in towards the manager before he went back to the building.

"Sir wait!" Ash yelled as he ran towards the man with the purple suit. The three travelers caught up to the manager, but he seemed to be hasty.

"I need to get working kids, I need to find Kevin or the show will have trouble, it's already as delayed as it is." The manager said as he was opening the door to enter the building.

"But sir, we saw Kevin last night!" Brock quickly said to him, as the manager stopped flat and looked at the three trainers and took off his black sunglasses, precupation was reflected in his eyes.

"Would you mind telling me where he went please?" He said to the three of them. "I'm awfully worried, he was supposed to show up three hours ago!"

Ash and his friends sat inside the building with the manager to speak, he introduced himself as George, a manager who has helped many talents throughout the region. As they looked inside the place, many records where hanging in the walls and many pictures of the manager himself with many different artists, one of them was him and Kevin shaking hands.

"I know Kevin well, I'm not usually concerned when he is late for an event, mostly because I know that he likes to look around the scenery and spend time with his Pokémon." He looked down as he said this, "he would always warn me of this however, but now he is just gone with no warning." The manager looked at the three of them. "Do you see why I'm worried now?" he said to them with a concerning tone.

Ash told him what he knew to the Manager. "We were travelling together until we got to Sunnyshore city and he stayed at the place that was given to him, so are you sure he didn't just fall asleep at his house?" Ash asked the manager, he shook his head.

"We already went to see if he was there," The manager stood up and walked towards the window to look at the town, "It's as if he is missing." He said as he stared on the window. "Thanks for telling me where he was before, I only saw him when he told me to postpone the show for today, I'll tell people I know about his past whearabouts and hope that I can find my friend."

Ash and his friends left to head towards the gym, the manager thanked them for their time and went back inside the building. As they were closing towards the gym Ash noticed that there was a Pokémon laying down on the grass right beside the road, it appeared to be a wild Pikachu just resting there, but Ash recognized the Pikachu, it had small cuts in the ear and the tail.

"That's Kevin's Pikachu!" Ash said as he got near him, a bit further from that place, a Riolu with Kevin's bag was also fainted close by both of Kevin's Pokémon were beat up.

"Ash, they are both too weak, we have to find the pokéballs so that we can put them and keep them safe." Brock said as he was looking for the pokéballs somewhere in the ground. Dawn searched in Kevin's bag and found one of them, Ash had found the other one laying around a bit further away, these were both Pikachu's and Riolu's pokéballs, Ash put both of them inside the pokéballs.

"Okay, we should take both of them to the people over at the city, is there anything else lying around?" Dawn said as she was still looking around, Ash looked around for anything else but found nothing.

"Where do you think Kevin's Buizel is?" Ash asked. Brock managed to find one last pokéball on the ground hidden within a patch of grass, the pokéball appeared to emit a few sparks from it, when Brock attempted to grab said pokéball and got his hand burnt. Upon examination, he noticed that the pokéball was broken, the pokéball’s lock was glowing red, and the exterior of the pokéball was all torn open in a top and bottom portion of the pokéball.

"What's the matter Brock?" Ash asked as he saw him trying to pick up the pokéball form the ground.

"The Pokéball is broken. I've never seen something like this before." Brock said as he showed the Pokéball to Ash, it had some cables inside that were also popping out, Brock picked up a pair of sticks to use to move the pokéball around finding a good angle to grab the pokéball from. Dawn also approached to see what the issue was.

"Why don't we carry the pokéball with the sticks Brock?" Dawn grabbed both of them from Brock and placed them side by side on the pokéball and lifted it up as if it were a tray.

"Thanks Dawn, we need to fix this pokéball as soon as possible, we should take it to a Pokémon center" Brock said while looking at Ash and Dawn, they both nodded and quickly headed towards the Pokémon center.

They arrived at the same Pokémon center from yesterday, they had also brought the manager that they spoke today along with them, Nurse Joy looked at Ash and his friends and smiled at them, "welcome to the Pokémon center, what could I do for you?" Nurse Joy said, Brock was swift to approach Nurse Joy at her counter in one move.

"That's not a question you should make Nurse Joy, in fact, what I should ask is, what could I do for you?" Brock said while holding nurse joy's hands. Seconds later Brock collapsed on the floor, his Croagunk had stopped him again from letting Brock achieved what he wanted. Dawn watched how Brock was dragged away, she then spoke with Nurse Joy.

"Never mind Brock, Do you fix pokéballs here?" Dawn asked the nurse. "Normally we do fix pokéballs that have minor damage, could I see the pokéball please?" Nurse Joy ask as she extended her hand to hold it.

"Could you have a tray for it instead? The pokéball is sparking a lot." Dawn said as she showed the pokéball that she held with the dried wooden sticks.

The manager approached the counter and spoke himself, "We came to the Pokémon center as soon as I got notified by these kids here." He said as he looked at Ash and the rest. "I already contacted Officer Jenny with these issues, I'm getting very worried. Nurse Joy was starting to get concerned.

"What is going on?" She asked, the manager simply said that Kevin was missing.

The group asked Nurse Joy to heal both of Kevin's Pokémon before they went in to talk about the broken pokéball, Nurse Joy was worried as she looked at the broken device from different angles, and she didn't want to touch it with her hands.

"Do you think this pokéball can be fixed, do we at least know if Kevin's Buizel is there?" The manager asked.

"It's hard to tell, this Pokéball is severely damaged." Joy said while she looked at the pokéball, wondering how could it end up like that.

"I'll tell everyone to please start working on the Pokéball immediately, you might want to join us George." Joy said as she left the counter and started to head to a room at the back of the Pokémon center.

"Should these trainers come along with us too, Nurse Joy?" George asked her, the nurse nodded and then Ash and his friends followed along.

Everyone entered a room that had many scientists working on some Pokéballs already, there were big machines as well working in analyzing Pokéballs.

"We get pokéballs almost every day, some trainers are very clumsy at times and they drop them or step on them, these are fixed quickly, but with Kevin's pokéball, it will be much more difficult." A young man approached the group and stood there with a smile.

"This is Cedric, he is just a doctor but he wanted to make sure I could go back to the counter and attend people, I wish you good luck." Nurse Joy said, she bid her farewells and went on her way. Cedric was young for a doctor, he had his hair tied to the back and wore some glasses, and he had a cheerful attitude.

"Hi, I'm Cedric, nice to see you all!" Cedric said as he shaked everybody's hands. "I'm a doctor who takes care of some Pokémon, but I came to see on Kevin's pokéball issue, I'm also a fan of his music and it's pretty much the actual reason I wanted to show you this place really." Cedric said somewhat ashamed, "Uhh, I'm sorry, but here! Let me show you around."

Cedric began taking the lead showing the workings of the place, he stopped in front of some engineers. "These engineers fix pokéballs here, some of the engineers here fix the outer shell, some check on why a pokéball won't open and some check on some error in the coding of the pokéball." Cedric then showed them a small box with only a couple of pokéballs there, fixing pokéballs seemed like a tedious task. "All the pokéballs that they have to fix are here, you might notice that only a few of them are actually broken on the outside, most issues always come with the pokéball not opening." Cedric said as he showed them one of the pokéballs.

"Do you really think they'll be able to fix this pokéball?" Dawn asked Cedric.

"I'm not sure, I don't really fix pokéballs here... I'm just on my lunch break. I just wanted to make sure you were all accompanied so that Nurse Joy could attend other people." Cedric said.

"We are just really worried about Kevin's Pokémon." Dawn replied.

Cedric seemed worried, "Is there any news about his whereabouts?"

Brock shook his head. "No, we just found his Pokémon out there." Brock said, he then handed over the broken pokéball to the doctor, "One of the three pokéballs that we found with Kevin's stuff was the broken pokeball, I just really hope it does get fixed."

The engineers of the place took the pokéball as Cedric handed it to them and the engineers huddled around it, writing visual concerns on the pokéball and planning on a way to fix it. Cedric asked one of them how much it might take, the answer surprised him, Cedric approached the group and gave them the news.

"The pokéball might take around two hours to one day, and unfortunately my break is about to be over, I just want to know if you'll be able to take care of Kevin's Pokémon in the meantime George?" Cedric asked the manager, the purple vested man shocked waved his hands in front of him in disapproval.

"I could never handle Pokémon, I was never good around them." Cedric thought for a bit for a solution. "In that case, we will just have to send them to a day care or something of the sorts."

Ash jumped quickly and gave them another idea. "How about we take care of them in the meantime? We are going to be around Sunnyshore city for a while anyway, I have my gym match and it will take a bit." Cedric reconsidered this and then agreed to it, he had to quickly depart however, so he bid his farewells rather shortly.

Ash, Brock and Dawn left the room and remained in the waiting room, the manager thanked them all for their time and help and quickly went back to do his own work as he was constantly busy. The hours passed and Ash just wondered where Kevin could actually be, he was eager to see them again.

"So shall we see you tomorrow?" Dawn asked Kevin, he nodded "Of course! I have a show tomorrow! I hope you all have a good night!"

Something DID happen, and Ash was not only worried about Kevin, but also what his Pokémon possibly saw. As Ash thought along, another trainer approached him.

"Excuse me, the manager said that you were taking care of Kevin's Pokémon, am I right?" The trainer asked Ash.

"Yeah, we are taking care of them in the meantime, what's your name?" Ash asked him, the trainer smiled at him and then replied.

"My name is Adam." Ash quickly reacted and shouted.

"You are the trainer that tried to steal Buizel from Kevin!" Adam quickly stood and struggled to explain his situation.

"I changed! I was a kid with anger issues in the past, now I don't like fighting others! Please let's talk about this!" Adam still concerned on how Ash might react decided to remain on his defensive position.

"Then why are you here? Did you have to do with Kevin's disappearance?" Ash accused him, Brock and Dawn noticed were listening from a far and decided to come in close by.

Brock tried to calm down the situation. "Ash, don't accuse him just because he did something in the past." Brock explained to Ash, Adam was still worried, he sat down to explain himself.

"I was an angry young trainer back then and had these issues, but I've came to know what happened to Kevin, I heard that he disappeared so I was worried. I've been looking for him all day." Adam said as he sat down.

"Let me tell you what I saw however." Adam Explained everything he saw to Ash and his friends as the hours rolled by...

"...I had found Pikachu and Riolu alone outside of their pokéballs, but they were surrounded by these two guys and their Meowth, so I fought them and won. I couldn't find Kevin's pokéballs so I left them to rest behind the building as I looked for Kevin in the woods, I wasn't able to find him however and when I came back; Pikachu, Riolu and Kevin's bag were gone." Adam was going to say something else but one of the Engineers called out for Ash and his friends to talk to him.

"I'm glad you guys are taking care of Kevin's Pokémon now, I'll keep looking out for Kevin. There was one more thing I was going to say to him before he had left the cafe." Adam started to head out and he silently whispered to himself "I still need to say sorry too." As he exited the Pokémon center he waved them goodbye, he took out his Charizard from the pokéball and began to fly on top of his Pokémon, possibly to find him through air.

The engineer that had called the group was the lead engineer of the Pokémon Center, he had very important details about the broken pokéball. "I'm David, nice to meet you three and your Pikachu as well." He shook everyone's hands and just waved lightly at Pikachu. "Please come in." David invited everyone inside the lab, the four of them gathered close to the pokéball in the counter, Officer Jenny was also there. "Don't mind Officer Jenny, she just came to see how Kevin's Pokémon is and also to ask some questions to you later on."

The situation grew dire, if Officer Jenny was there it meant that Kevin was still not found. "So! About the broken pokéball that you brought for us, we are unfortunately not able to release the Pokémon from the Pokéball." David explained as he grabbed the Pokéball, as he attempted to release the Pokémon inside, the pokéball flashed the center lock. "You see, the Pokéball flashes the lock twice, that means that somehow the information or to put it hypothetically "DNA" could be damaged by whatever force broke the pokéball." The lead engineer explained, of course everyone got worried.

"But there is good news, if we knew which Pokémon was inside, we could fully restore the information composition." David said as he placed the Pokéball in a scanner. "Luckily Kevin only owns three Pokémon and you have already met them all, could you tell me which Pokémon it is?" David asked the group. "The Pokémon is a Buizel." Ash said to him, David promptly turned on the scanner and began processing.

The screen spouted out countless letters, some of them had question marks however and some were just a blank square in the middle of the jumbled text. "Okay, see those strange letters and signs that appear? Those are the parts that are actually damaged in the data and we can fix this with no problem, although this is the biggest data damage I have ever seen, for starters it says that this Buizel uses hyper beam." David said as he inspected the text, the code in itself was hard to make out, looking it again however can tell you that the text had a relation with the one beside it and then below it. "This is the main thing we must fix from the data." Dawn immediately stated otherwise.

"He actually can use Hyper Beam, sir." David looked once again at the text this time much closer.

"It does seem that way now that I look at it a bit more carefully, if that's the case then it's possible that the Hyper Beam that he can use may have caused the damage to the DNA code. We are going to take a while to rewrite some of the code" David said with a serious tone. "This procedure is very strenuous and we can afford no mistakes, otherwise the Pokémon could lose some of his moves, he could acquire secondary effects but mostly he could lose a part of his memory, the point is that he can lose something from this procedure or even worse, gain something... we have to go through this very slowly."

David explained the issue to Ash and his friends when one of the other engineers approached David. "Sir, we detected an unknown component in the pokéball data, its right here." The engineer pointed to a section of the huge wall of text. David looked at it carefully, "this unknown code might be the very source of the issue. It is very large though, this might be because there is something else aside from the Pokémon inside the pokéball."

Ash quickly remembered the everstone "Kevin's Buizel carried an everstone as a collar, I remember well!" As Ash mentioned this David was more relieved. "In that case we can just delete this information, I'll make sure to acquire an everstone for Kevin so that he doesn't have to buy another one, and they are quite cheap in a store I know." David noticed that Ash and his friends were quite tired, perhaps all the technicalities on fixing a pokéball were making them tired, or they just had enough for today. "You three may want to rest for today, this is going to take a long time to finish, if we want to finish tomorrow, we need to work non-stop." David accompanied the group outside the lab and bid them farewell, he went to the coffee machine and served himself a very strong black coffee, and he knew that for him it was going to be an endless night.

In that morning, Ash and the rest returned to the Pokémon center, the men from the lab called upon them. David was looking very sleepy as of now, he somehow still managed to pull off a smile. The Lead Engineer handed the pokéball to Ash. "We have successfully restored the data, there should be no mistakes!" David said as he then went to sit down.

"That's great!" Ash said as he observed the pokéball from all angles.

"That's a relief, Kevin will be happy" Brock said.

"You did an amazing job! It looks like new! So what was the problem with it aside from the exterior damage?" Dawn asked curiously.

David explained, "what happened is that the pokéball had way too much information inside it to be able to handle, which is strange because you can normally capture gigantic Pokémon within these, extra elements like the collar could've caused such a thing, we are just glad that the pokéball is now functional." David could finally relax, "Before you leave, Cedric wanted to talk to you all." David said as he fell asleep swiftly in the chair he sat on.

Cedric was waiting at the exit of the pokéball repair lab for them, this time he was with his white robes and his stethoscope. Cedric waved them from afar, it seemed as though he was smiling, but his expression was entirely bland this time. "Normally I come around the lab to see how these guys work, mostly because I love to see how technology works." Cedric explained as he clearly showed his concerning state. "I've seen this case before, and it is always the same."

Ash and his friends were all shocked to hear this, it sounded serious. "What do you mean by that?" Brock asked the doctor, "I've seen three other cases in where pokéballs are found in a very broken condition and with extra coding on it." Cedric explained as he twiddled his fingers around. "One of the main issues on this is that the register coding for the pokéball is deleted, which means that it's impossible to know who owns the pokéball. And what happens is that the trainer never shows up for his Pokémon." Cedric explained. They were all astonished.

"But Kevin and Buizel are very good friends!" Ash stated, Cedric already knew this which made his preoccupation increase.

"I know, that's why I'm worried. That's not the worst part of it." Cedric explained.

"In all the three cases, whenever the Pokémon is freed, its behaviour is completely aberrant to how they would normally behave. One of them quickly ran out the window and escaped, I had assumed by that case that the trainer was not very good with him.

In the second case, the Pokémon sobbed in a corner and then fled when we least expected it, by that I assumed that the trainer cared deeply for his Pokémon and that he only wanted to look for his trainer.

In the third case, the Pokémon was absolutely happy, he proceeded to push his pokéball around to many of the trainers in the Pokémon center, one of them asked us if he could keep that Pokémon and he was able to carry him along after we established that the trainer would not appear, I couldn't determine anything from that." Ash was simply worried of how Buizel could react if he frees him, and besides, how could he tell him that his trainer was missing? There was one way to find out, and Buizel couldn't stay in the Pokéball forever.

Cedric held Ash's shoulder. "I'm here to make sure that the Pokémon feels alright, but anything could happen if you free him." Ash was ready to free him.

"I'll let him out, okay Buizel, go!" Ash said as he released Buizel, the Pokéball was working again emitting its shiny beam on top of the table...

To be continued…
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This episode was a bit hard to work on, there were many changes to be made around.

As an announcement, I'm going to have an editor soon but for now and I'll have all of the episodes edited out, I mostly wanna write the next part soon.

Description

Kevin and Buizel (Second Edition)

Chapter 3: Broken and Missing

Ash and his friends started their day off with a grand breakfast, after which they went to the Poke Mart to get more food and supplies for their Pokémon. Ash was focused on winning the next gym badge, he trained hard yesterday with his Pokémon so he felt absolutely prepared for today. "And maybe I'll invite Kevin to watch my battle!" Ash thought for himself.

They arrived to the Poke mart that was near the plaza of Sunnyshore city, it was a small store but it had what they needed, or mostly what Ash needed, food. Inside the store, Ash and the rest were the only customers inside the store except for the store clerk herself that quickly noticed the travelers and greeted them happily.

"Welcome everyone! How may I help you?" Said a young and pretty girl with brown long hair on the counter. Ash quickly turned towards the young woman and greeted her as well.

"Hi! We'll start looking around first." Ash said as he rushed towards the food section of the store.

"Take your time!" The girl said while smiling. The store had all kinds of pokéballs in the first corridor of the store, it also had a potion section, only two seemed to be available now, and there was the food in a refrigerated transparent container in where Ash was looking around, the store also had all sorts of drinks and toys along the final corridors. The television in the store was telling the story on how a young man managed to recover from his anger because of his Pokémon, a Charizard. Brock picked up some more Pokémon food for the team and looked around to pack some potions as well. Ash was just lost in his thoughts looking at the food inside the container; his inner thoughts were instantly cut when he heard the word "Kevin" on the television.

"Wait, that's Kevin on the news!" Ash said as he got near the TV.

"The young musician Kevin will appear in the musical event that will take place tonight in Sunnyshore, although the managers are currently worried as Kevin is nowhere to be found. We will keep you informed here first on Pokémon News Channel!" The news then went onto a reporter asking people around in Sunnyshore on their plans for the show and on which artist they looked forward too.

"Oh yes, that kid." The girl at the counter said. "I'm really looking forward to listening to young Kevin; I hope he does show up soon." The girl said excited. "Well anyways, is that going to be all you're buying for today?" The girl said while looking at Brock carrying stuff. Brock said that they had all they needed, Brock paid and he began to put the things in his backpack and as they were ready to leave they heard the TV again.

"If anyone knows on the whereabouts of Kevin, please do approach the managers of the Sunnyshore show and let them know, it would be much appreciated." The reporter said with the manager right beside him, he wore a purple suit and dark glasses, he did not seem concerned. Ash and the rest decided to go tell the manager about where Kevin was yesterday.

Ash and the rest approached the building where the manager worked at to contact him, luckily for them the manager was outside. Ash rushed in towards the manager before he went back to the building.

"Sir wait!" Ash yelled as he ran towards the man with the purple suit. The three travelers caught up to the manager, but he seemed to be hasty.

"I need to get working kids, I need to find Kevin or the show will have trouble, it's already as delayed as it is." The manager said as he was opening the door to enter the building.

"But sir, we saw Kevin last night!" Brock quickly said to him, as the manager stopped flat and looked at the three trainers and took off his black sunglasses, precupation was reflected in his eyes.

"Would you mind telling me where he went please?" He said to the three of them. "I'm awfully worried, he was supposed to show up three hours ago!"

Ash and his friends sat inside the building with the manager to speak, he introduced himself as George, a manager who has helped many talents throughout the region. As they looked inside the place, many records where hanging in the walls and many pictures of the manager himself with many different artists, one of them was him and Kevin shaking hands.

"I know Kevin well, I'm not usually concerned when he is late for an event, mostly because I know that he likes to look around the scenery and spend time with his Pokémon." He looked down as he said this, "he would always warn me of this however, but now he is just gone with no warning." The manager looked at the three of them. "Do you see why I'm worried now?" he said to them with a concerning tone.

Ash told him what he knew to the Manager. "We were travelling together until we got to Sunnyshore city and he stayed at the place that was given to him, so are you sure he didn't just fall asleep at his house?" Ash asked the manager, he shook his head.

"We already went to see if he was there," The manager stood up and walked towards the window to look at the town, "It's as if he is missing." He said as he stared on the window. "Thanks for telling me where he was before, I only saw him when he told me to postpone the show for today, I'll tell people I know about his past whearabouts and hope that I can find my friend."

Ash and his friends left to head towards the gym, the manager thanked them for their time and went back inside the building. As they were closing towards the gym Ash noticed that there was a Pokémon laying down on the grass right beside the road, it appeared to be a wild Pikachu just resting there, but Ash recognized the Pikachu, it had small cuts in the ear and the tail.

"That's Kevin's Pikachu!" Ash said as he got near him, a bit further from that place, a Riolu with Kevin's bag was also fainted close by both of Kevin's Pokémon were beat up.

"Ash, they are both too weak, we have to find the pokéballs so that we can put them and keep them safe." Brock said as he was looking for the pokéballs somewhere in the ground. Dawn searched in Kevin's bag and found one of them, Ash had found the other one laying around a bit further away, these were both Pikachu's and Riolu's pokéballs, Ash put both of them inside the pokéballs.

"Okay, we should take both of them to the people over at the city, is there anything else lying around?" Dawn said as she was still looking around, Ash looked around for anything else but found nothing.

"Where do you think Kevin's Buizel is?" Ash asked. Brock managed to find one last pokéball on the ground hidden within a patch of grass, the pokéball appeared to emit a few sparks from it, when Brock attempted to grab said pokéball and got his hand burnt. Upon examination, he noticed that the pokéball was broken, the pokéball’s lock was glowing red, and the exterior of the pokéball was all torn open in a top and bottom portion of the pokéball.

"What's the matter Brock?" Ash asked as he saw him trying to pick up the pokéball form the ground.

"The Pokéball is broken. I've never seen something like this before." Brock said as he showed the Pokéball to Ash, it had some cables inside that were also popping out, Brock picked up a pair of sticks to use to move the pokéball around finding a good angle to grab the pokéball from. Dawn also approached to see what the issue was.

"Why don't we carry the pokéball with the sticks Brock?" Dawn grabbed both of them from Brock and placed them side by side on the pokéball and lifted it up as if it were a tray.

"Thanks Dawn, we need to fix this pokéball as soon as possible, we should take it to a Pokémon center" Brock said while looking at Ash and Dawn, they both nodded and quickly headed towards the Pokémon center.

They arrived at the same Pokémon center from yesterday, they had also brought the manager that they spoke today along with them, Nurse Joy looked at Ash and his friends and smiled at them, "welcome to the Pokémon center, what could I do for you?" Nurse Joy said, Brock was swift to approach Nurse Joy at her counter in one move.

"That's not a question you should make Nurse Joy, in fact, what I should ask is, what could I do for you?" Brock said while holding nurse joy's hands. Seconds later Brock collapsed on the floor, his Croagunk had stopped him again from letting Brock achieved what he wanted. Dawn watched how Brock was dragged away, she then spoke with Nurse Joy.

"Never mind Brock, Do you fix pokéballs here?" Dawn asked the nurse. "Normally we do fix pokéballs that have minor damage, could I see the pokéball please?" Nurse Joy ask as she extended her hand to hold it.

"Could you have a tray for it instead? The pokéball is sparking a lot." Dawn said as she showed the pokéball that she held with the dried wooden sticks.

The manager approached the counter and spoke himself, "We came to the Pokémon center as soon as I got notified by these kids here." He said as he looked at Ash and the rest. "I already contacted Officer Jenny with these issues, I'm getting very worried. Nurse Joy was starting to get concerned.

"What is going on?" She asked, the manager simply said that Kevin was missing.

The group asked Nurse Joy to heal both of Kevin's Pokémon before they went in to talk about the broken pokéball, Nurse Joy was worried as she looked at the broken device from different angles, and she didn't want to touch it with her hands.

"Do you think this pokéball can be fixed, do we at least know if Kevin's Buizel is there?" The manager asked.

"It's hard to tell, this Pokéball is severely damaged." Joy said while she looked at the pokéball, wondering how could it end up like that.

"I'll tell everyone to please start working on the Pokéball immediately, you might want to join us George." Joy said as she left the counter and started to head to a room at the back of the Pokémon center.

"Should these trainers come along with us too, Nurse Joy?" George asked her, the nurse nodded and then Ash and his friends followed along.

Everyone entered a room that had many scientists working on some Pokéballs already, there were big machines as well working in analyzing Pokéballs.

"We get pokéballs almost every day, some trainers are very clumsy at times and they drop them or step on them, these are fixed quickly, but with Kevin's pokéball, it will be much more difficult." A young man approached the group and stood there with a smile.

"This is Cedric, he is just a doctor but he wanted to make sure I could go back to the counter and attend people, I wish you good luck." Nurse Joy said, she bid her farewells and went on her way. Cedric was young for a doctor, he had his hair tied to the back and wore some glasses, and he had a cheerful attitude.

"Hi, I'm Cedric, nice to see you all!" Cedric said as he shaked everybody's hands. "I'm a doctor who takes care of some Pokémon, but I came to see on Kevin's pokéball issue, I'm also a fan of his music and it's pretty much the actual reason I wanted to show you this place really." Cedric said somewhat ashamed, "Uhh, I'm sorry, but here! Let me show you around."

Cedric began taking the lead showing the workings of the place, he stopped in front of some engineers. "These engineers fix pokéballs here, some of the engineers here fix the outer shell, some check on why a pokéball won't open and some check on some error in the coding of the pokéball." Cedric then showed them a small box with only a couple of pokéballs there, fixing pokéballs seemed like a tedious task. "All the pokéballs that they have to fix are here, you might notice that only a few of them are actually broken on the outside, most issues always come with the pokéball not opening." Cedric said as he showed them one of the pokéballs.

"Do you really think they'll be able to fix this pokéball?" Dawn asked Cedric.

"I'm not sure, I don't really fix pokéballs here... I'm just on my lunch break. I just wanted to make sure you were all accompanied so that Nurse Joy could attend other people." Cedric said.

"We are just really worried about Kevin's Pokémon." Dawn replied.

Cedric seemed worried, "Is there any news about his whereabouts?"

Brock shook his head. "No, we just found his Pokémon out there." Brock said, he then handed over the broken pokéball to the doctor, "One of the three pokéballs that we found with Kevin's stuff was the broken pokeball, I just really hope it does get fixed."

The engineers of the place took the pokéball as Cedric handed it to them and the engineers huddled around it, writing visual concerns on the pokéball and planning on a way to fix it. Cedric asked one of them how much it might take, the answer surprised him, Cedric approached the group and gave them the news.

"The pokéball might take around two hours to one day, and unfortunately my break is about to be over, I just want to know if you'll be able to take care of Kevin's Pokémon in the meantime George?" Cedric asked the manager, the purple vested man shocked waved his hands in front of him in disapproval.

"I could never handle Pokémon, I was never good around them." Cedric thought for a bit for a solution. "In that case, we will just have to send them to a day care or something of the sorts."

Ash jumped quickly and gave them another idea. "How about we take care of them in the meantime? We are going to be around Sunnyshore city for a while anyway, I have my gym match and it will take a bit." Cedric reconsidered this and then agreed to it, he had to quickly depart however, so he bid his farewells rather shortly.

Ash, Brock and Dawn left the room and remained in the waiting room, the manager thanked them all for their time and help and quickly went back to do his own work as he was constantly busy. The hours passed and Ash just wondered where Kevin could actually be, he was eager to see them again.

"So shall we see you tomorrow?" Dawn asked Kevin, he nodded "Of course! I have a show tomorrow! I hope you all have a good night!"

Something DID happen, and Ash was not only worried about Kevin, but also what his Pokémon possibly saw. As Ash thought along, another trainer approached him.

"Excuse me, the manager said that you were taking care of Kevin's Pokémon, am I right?" The trainer asked Ash.

"Yeah, we are taking care of them in the meantime, what's your name?" Ash asked him, the trainer smiled at him and then replied.

"My name is Adam." Ash quickly reacted and shouted.

"You are the trainer that tried to steal Buizel from Kevin!" Adam quickly stood and struggled to explain his situation.

"I changed! I was a kid with anger issues in the past, now I don't like fighting others! Please let's talk about this!" Adam still concerned on how Ash might react decided to remain on his defensive position.

"Then why are you here? Did you have to do with Kevin's disappearance?" Ash accused him, Brock and Dawn noticed were listening from a far and decided to come in close by.

Brock tried to calm down the situation. "Ash, don't accuse him just because he did something in the past." Brock explained to Ash, Adam was still worried, he sat down to explain himself.

"I was an angry young trainer back then and had these issues, but I've came to know what happened to Kevin, I heard that he disappeared so I was worried. I've been looking for him all day." Adam said as he sat down.

"Let me tell you what I saw however." Adam Explained everything he saw to Ash and his friends as the hours rolled by...

"...I had found Pikachu and Riolu alone outside of their pokéballs, but they were surrounded by these two guys and their Meowth, so I fought them and won. I couldn't find Kevin's pokéballs so I left them to rest behind the building as I looked for Kevin in the woods, I wasn't able to find him however and when I came back; Pikachu, Riolu and Kevin's bag were gone." Adam was going to say something else but one of the Engineers called out for Ash and his friends to talk to him.

"I'm glad you guys are taking care of Kevin's Pokémon now, I'll keep looking out for Kevin. There was one more thing I was going to say to him before he had left the cafe." Adam started to head out and he silently whispered to himself "I still need to say sorry too." As he exited the Pokémon center he waved them goodbye, he took out his Charizard from the pokéball and began to fly on top of his Pokémon, possibly to find him through air.

The engineer that had called the group was the lead engineer of the Pokémon Center, he had very important details about the broken pokéball. "I'm David, nice to meet you three and your Pikachu as well." He shook everyone's hands and just waved lightly at Pikachu. "Please come in." David invited everyone inside the lab, the four of them gathered close to the pokéball in the counter, Officer Jenny was also there. "Don't mind Officer Jenny, she just came to see how Kevin's Pokémon is and also to ask some questions to you later on."

The situation grew dire, if Officer Jenny was there it meant that Kevin was still not found. "So! About the broken pokéball that you brought for us, we are unfortunately not able to release the Pokémon from the Pokéball." David explained as he grabbed the Pokéball, as he attempted to release the Pokémon inside, the pokéball flashed the center lock. "You see, the Pokéball flashes the lock twice, that means that somehow the information or to put it hypothetically "DNA" could be damaged by whatever force broke the pokéball." The lead engineer explained, of course everyone got worried.

"But there is good news, if we knew which Pokémon was inside, we could fully restore the information composition." David said as he placed the Pokéball in a scanner. "Luckily Kevin only owns three Pokémon and you have already met them all, could you tell me which Pokémon it is?" David asked the group. "The Pokémon is a Buizel." Ash said to him, David promptly turned on the scanner and began processing.

The screen spouted out countless letters, some of them had question marks however and some were just a blank square in the middle of the jumbled text. "Okay, see those strange letters and signs that appear? Those are the parts that are actually damaged in the data and we can fix this with no problem, although this is the biggest data damage I have ever seen, for starters it says that this Buizel uses hyper beam." David said as he inspected the text, the code in itself was hard to make out, looking it again however can tell you that the text had a relation with the one beside it and then below it. "This is the main thing we must fix from the data." Dawn immediately stated otherwise.

"He actually can use Hyper Beam, sir." David looked once again at the text this time much closer.

"It does seem that way now that I look at it a bit more carefully, if that's the case then it's possible that the Hyper Beam that he can use may have caused the damage to the DNA code. We are going to take a while to rewrite some of the code" David said with a serious tone. "This procedure is very strenuous and we can afford no mistakes, otherwise the Pokémon could lose some of his moves, he could acquire secondary effects but mostly he could lose a part of his memory, the point is that he can lose something from this procedure or even worse, gain something... we have to go through this very slowly."

David explained the issue to Ash and his friends when one of the other engineers approached David. "Sir, we detected an unknown component in the pokéball data, its right here." The engineer pointed to a section of the huge wall of text. David looked at it carefully, "this unknown code might be the very source of the issue. It is very large though, this might be because there is something else aside from the Pokémon inside the pokéball."

Ash quickly remembered the everstone "Kevin's Buizel carried an everstone as a collar, I remember well!" As Ash mentioned this David was more relieved. "In that case we can just delete this information, I'll make sure to acquire an everstone for Kevin so that he doesn't have to buy another one, and they are quite cheap in a store I know." David noticed that Ash and his friends were quite tired, perhaps all the technicalities on fixing a pokéball were making them tired, or they just had enough for today. "You three may want to rest for today, this is going to take a long time to finish, if we want to finish tomorrow, we need to work non-stop." David accompanied the group outside the lab and bid them farewell, he went to the coffee machine and served himself a very strong black coffee, and he knew that for him it was going to be an endless night.

In that morning, Ash and the rest returned to the Pokémon center, the men from the lab called upon them. David was looking very sleepy as of now, he somehow still managed to pull off a smile. The Lead Engineer handed the pokéball to Ash. "We have successfully restored the data, there should be no mistakes!" David said as he then went to sit down.

"That's great!" Ash said as he observed the pokéball from all angles.

"That's a relief, Kevin will be happy" Brock said.

"You did an amazing job! It looks like new! So what was the problem with it aside from the exterior damage?" Dawn asked curiously.

David explained, "what happened is that the pokéball had way too much information inside it to be able to handle, which is strange because you can normally capture gigantic Pokémon within these, extra elements like the collar could've caused such a thing, we are just glad that the pokéball is now functional." David could finally relax, "Before you leave, Cedric wanted to talk to you all." David said as he fell asleep swiftly in the chair he sat on.

Cedric was waiting at the exit of the pokéball repair lab for them, this time he was with his white robes and his stethoscope. Cedric waved them from afar, it seemed as though he was smiling, but his expression was entirely bland this time. "Normally I come around the lab to see how these guys work, mostly because I love to see how technology works." Cedric explained as he clearly showed his concerning state. "I've seen this case before, and it is always the same."

Ash and his friends were all shocked to hear this, it sounded serious. "What do you mean by that?" Brock asked the doctor, "I've seen three other cases in where pokéballs are found in a very broken condition and with extra coding on it." Cedric explained as he twiddled his fingers around. "One of the main issues on this is that the register coding for the pokéball is deleted, which means that it's impossible to know who owns the pokéball. And what happens is that the trainer never shows up for his Pokémon." Cedric explained. They were all astonished.

"But Kevin and Buizel are very good friends!" Ash stated, Cedric already knew this which made his preoccupation increase.

"I know, that's why I'm worried. That's not the worst part of it." Cedric explained.

"In all the three cases, whenever the Pokémon is freed, its behaviour is completely aberrant to how they would normally behave. One of them quickly ran out the window and escaped, I had assumed by that case that the trainer was not very good with him.

In the second case, the Pokémon sobbed in a corner and then fled when we least expected it, by that I assumed that the trainer cared deeply for his Pokémon and that he only wanted to look for his trainer.

In the third case, the Pokémon was absolutely happy, he proceeded to push his pokéball around to many of the trainers in the Pokémon center, one of them asked us if he could keep that Pokémon and he was able to carry him along after we established that the trainer would not appear, I couldn't determine anything from that." Ash was simply worried of how Buizel could react if he frees him, and besides, how could he tell him that his trainer was missing? There was one way to find out, and Buizel couldn't stay in the Pokéball forever.

Cedric held Ash's shoulder. "I'm here to make sure that the Pokémon feels alright, but anything could happen if you free him." Ash was ready to free him.

"I'll let him out, okay Buizel, go!" Ash said as he released Buizel, the Pokéball was working again emitting its shiny beam on top of the table...

To be continued…
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This episode was a bit hard to work on, there were many changes to be made around.

As an announcement, I'm going to have an editor soon but for now and I'll have all of the episodes edited out, I mostly wanna write the next part soon.