Strange Plate

*One night...*

Ash had a strange dream. He was in some strange underground cave. It was dark and he couldn't see anything. Suddenly seventeen rectangular plates appeared in front of them and then they started to fly away together. Ash chased after them and suddenly he ended up in some strange ruins. Suddenly the ruins and the seventeen plates began to glow, while Ash looked on in surprise.

Ash was then woken up by a scream; it was Dawn screaming about her bed head. The boys ended up learning about Dawn's fussiness regarding how she looked especially with her hair. And they learned how she hated it when her hair was in a mess. Ash felt relieved he was a boy otherwise he would have been just as fussy. Another thing the boys learned about Dawn was that she always said 'no need to worry' when there's a problem or something like that.

Brock was sorting out breakfast while Ash and Tomo set the table. Brock had a new Pokemon called Croagunk; he captured it yesterday. Croagunk was a dark blue frog and a poison/fighting type Pokemon with black markings, white stripes across the tummy, orange cheeks, two orange fingers and yellow eyes.

Tomo looked Croagunk up on the Pokedex.

"Croagunk, the Toxic Mouth Pokemon. It's cheeks hold poison sacs. It tries to catch foes off guard to jab them with toxic fingers."

Croagunk was a bit of a creepy-looking Pokemon but this Croagunk liked Brock and it wanted to go with him, and that was how Brock captured him.

Dawn was soon tidied up and ready for breakfast. To fix her hair she had her Piplup use Bubble Beam on it and her hair became neat, tidy and clean. She knew by now how great a cook Brock was and she was looking forward to his food.

"So what are we going to do today?" Dawn asked.

"Well training and getting ready for the contest is complete." Ash said. "So all that's left to do now is get to Jubilife City."

"And we are not far from there so we can get there by today." Brock said.

Dawn was happy to hear that.

Suddenly a Buneary came out of the bushes.

"Hey a Buneary." Dawn said happily. "Now's my chance to finally catch one."

"I tried to catch one last time but failed." She informed the others.

Before Dawn could do anything, the Buneary went up to Pikachu, who was out of his Poke Ball and snuggled up beside him.

"What's Buneary doing?" Dawn asked.

"It likes Pikachu." Brock answered. "And it seems to have a crush on him."

That meant this Buneary was female.

"Um I'm sorry to upset Buneary but Pikachu already has a crush on another Pokemon." Ash said.

"Does he?" Dawn asked.

"I have a girlfriend named Anabel." Ash told Dawn. "And she has a female Espeon who's Pikachu's girlfriend."

Buneary heard that, turned to Pikachu to ask if it was true, and when Pikachu told her it was she became upset. Ash quickly went over to Buneary and stroked her head.

"Don't be sad Buneary." He said kindly. "Even though Pikachu already has a girlfriend he would be more than happy to have you as a friend."

"Ash is right." Dawn said. "So there's no need to worry Buneary."

Buneary started to feel a bit better.

Suddenly something caught Ash's eye; there was something somewhat buried in the ground next to a bush. Ash went over to see and after brushing off some dirt, he found a small red colored rectangular plate with a darker red outline.

"What is that?" Tomo asked.

"It looks like a plate, only it's rectangular shaped." Brock said.

"Hey, I saw something like this in my dream last night." Ash said.

He explained to the others about his dream regarding the sixteen plates and the ruins.

"And this is one of the plates I saw."

"Do you think it means something?" Brock asked.

"I don't know." Ash admitted. "What I can say is that we have a new mystery on our hands."

It felt funny to Ash; he had only barely started his Sinnoh journey and he already had a mystery on his hands. He placed the plate in his backpack; he had a strange feeling that keeping the plate would help him solve the mystery later.

Just then Dawn turned to the Buneary, who was still around.

"Buneary, I'm going to catch you." She said.

Buneary turned to her position to fight and Dawn sent her Piplup out.

"Piplup use Bubble Beam." She said.

Piplup fired the bubbles towards Buneary, but Buneary dodged the bubbles with the move Bounce. Piplup tried again, but Buneary just kept dodging the bubbles.

"Wow, that Buneary is fast." Ash said.

"Okay Piplup, use Growl to slow it down." Dawn said.

She remembered something Ash's Piplup did.

Piplup growled hard and Buneary was caught off guard.

"Now use Peck." Piplup pecked Buneary really hard.

Buneary wasn't beaten yet and she fought back with Ice Beam.

"Quick dodge that Piplup." Dawn said.

Luckily Piplup managed to get out of the way before Ice Beam could hit him. Piplup then attacked with Bubble Beam and this time Buneary was hit by the bubbles. Then Piplup moved in with Pound and Buneary took some more damage.

"Use the Poke Ball now Dawn." Brock said.

Dawn quickly threw the Poke Ball at Buneary and she got sucked into the Poke Ball. A few seconds later Buneary was caught.

"Alright, I caught my own Buneary!" Dawn cheered.

Piplup cheered as well.

Dawn was happy with her newest capture and looked at Buneary on the Pokedex. Aside from knowing Ice Beam and Bounce, Buneary also knew Pound, Defense Curl, Quick Attack, Frustration, Attract and Headbutt. Dawn couldn't stop smiling for joy and Piplup felt prouder than ever. So now the gang could continue onward to Jubilife City.