Meeting Solana

After leaving Celadon City, the gang was making their way to Fuchsia City. The next battle facility, the Battle Pike, was located just outside Fuchsia City. Right now they had come to a bridge that leads to Fuchsia City. But there was a problem; the bridge was closed. Officer Jenny explained that there was a mudslide from the weather last night, so they couldn't cross the bridge. But there was a foot path they could walk through to get to Fuchsia City, so the gang decided to take the foot path.

"This doesn't make sense." May said. "I mean, I know we had terrible rain last night. But it wouldn't have been bad enough to cause a mudslide, right?"

"Well you can never tell with weather." Brock responded.

Ash had hoped that they would be able to cross the bridge to travel on bikes, but they couldn't argue with the police about it.

Suddenly Growlithe started to run into the forest.

"Hey Growlithe what's wrong?" Ash asked.

The gang started to run after Growlithe, but they were soon stopped by a Plusle. Then a girl with teal hair and red eyes wearing a red jacket, white shirt, black shorts, black socks and red shoes came up to the gang.

"Go back." The girl said. "No one is allowed to pass this point."

"It's a Pokemon ranger." Max said.

Pokemon rangers were people that protected nature and Pokemon from danger, especially from poachers and other bad people like that. Ash told her that Growlithe had run off into the forest. The ranger picked up something that looked like a mobile phone and spoke to someone.

"A Growlithe has gone over the line and his trainer is here as well as some friends." She said.

A minute later she got off the phone.

"So who are all of you?" She asked the gang.

They introduced themselves.

"Well my name is Solana." Solana introduced herself. "And this Plusle is my partner. The ranger union said you can move on to search for Growlithe. Follow me."

In the forest...

Growlithe was still running. Apparently the real reason the bridge was closed was because there were giant green prickly thorns everywhere. But Growlithe wasn't alone in the forest. Jessie, James and Meowth were also there because they were seeing what Pokemon lived in the forest.

"Ugh these vines are annoying!" Jessie shouted.

"I wonder how they grew to this size anyway?" James asked.

"Never mind that!" Jessie shouted. "The problem is how do we get through them."

"This is easy." James said. "Some of my Pokemon know the move Cut."

He released Cacnea, Nuzleaf, Roselia and Sunny and ordered them to use Cut on the vines. Thanks to Cut, Team Rocket managed to get through.

Meanwhile...

The gang was following Solana in the forest.

"Excuse me Solana." Ash said. "But are the Pokemon rangers people who go around protecting nature, humans and Pokemon alike?"

"That's right Ash." Solana nodded. "And we use wild Pokemon to help us."

Ash was about to ask Solana some more questions, but then they had to stop. They came across some giant thorny vines.

"Celebi." Ash said suddenly.

"You're right Ash, these vines are from a Celebi." Brock remarked.

"Wait." Solana said. "You know about Celebi?"

Ash, Brock and Tomo explained they had met Celebi before and they even told her Ash had his own Celebi. May and Max admitted to Solana that what they were saying is true because they had seen Ash's Celebi. Solana couldn't believe her ears.

"I hope you didn't catch it against it's will." She said, cautiously.

"Oh no, no, no." Ash argued. "My Celebi asked me itself to be captured. And I would never catch legendary Pokemon against their will."

"Ash is telling the truth." Brock said.

Solana stared at him again.

"Well that's all right then." She said. "The ranger union will be surprised to hear this."

"I must ask how are we going to get through the vines?" May asked.

"Grovyle's with me." Ash said. "So I can have him use Cut to get through."

"That's a good plan Ash." Solana said. "But we will need more help than that."

She took out her phone like device and started to scan the wild Pokemon living in the area.

"What is that thing?" Tomo asked.

"This is a capture styler." Solana answered.

She explained that a capture styler was a device that scanned a Pokemon's abilities and conditions, and that it was helpful to Pokemon rangers when they needed wild Pokemon to help them.

"From the looks of that thing, it's like a phone, map and Pokedex all in one." Ash said.

"You could say that Ash." Solana chuckled. "It's a very handy device for a Pokemon ranger."

Just then Solana scanned three wild Linoone and they all knew Slash.

"These Linoone will do the job." She said.

She pressed a button on her capture styler and then the device sent out a spinning top thing and it went towards the Linoone, spinning around them. Solana then used her device to control the spinning top like a remote and it circled around the three Linoone. Then the three Linoone glowed white and Solana shouted "Capture complete!"

Tomo was awestruck with what just happened.

"Uh what did you do?" He asked Solana.

Brock explained that she used her capture styler to catch the three Linoone, but it wasn't like capturing them with Poke Balls. The capture styler allows Solana to borrow the wild Pokemon and then release them when she's done. The gang was surprised and Tomo was even more awestruck. Ash released his Grovyle and told him to use Cut while Solana told the three Linoone to use Slash. Grovyle and Linoone got rid of the vines allowing Solana and the gang to get through.

Meanwhile...

Growlithe found Celebi among the vines. It was injured and exhausted; it looked like it had been in a fight. Growlithe went off to find some berries for Celebi. Soon Growlithe came back with some Oran Berries to help Celebi heal for the injuries it had received.

Solana and the gang eventually found them and Ash and Tomo were happy to see Growlithe again. Solana saw Celebi and went to check it out.

"Don't be afraid Celebi." She tried to put it at ease. "We are here to help you."

Growlithe spoke to Celebi, saying that the human spoke the truth. Celebi looked at the humans and agreed to let them help. Brock gave Celebi some medicine so it could heal and Solana laid Celebi down on a blanket and pillow to rest.

"All Celebi needs is a good night's sleep and it should be all right." Solana said.

"I wonder why Celebi created all these vines?" May asked.

"It must have been in trouble somewhere in the past or future." Ash said. "When Celebi are in danger they travel into the past or future to escape and when they are tired or hurt they create vines to protect themselves until they're well again. I've seen a wild Celebi do this before."

"I'm impressed with your knowledge of mythical Pokemon Ash." Solana smiled.

"I've read about legendary and mythical Pokemon lots of times." Ash replied.

*The next day...*

Solana and the gang woke up to see Celebi was fine and healthy again. The Celebi made the vines disappear because it no longer needed them. Suddenly it was grabbed by a mechanical hand. Team Rocket was here; they found out about the Celebi and wanted it for themselves.

"Release Celebi at once!" Solana shouted.

Jessie, James and Meowth refused to let Celebi go. Solana was not going to let them get away with this. She climbed a tree and swung on a vine to get onto the robot. The gang was impressed with how athletic Solana was. She told her Plusle to use Thunder Wave and it paralyzed Jessie, James and Meowth in addition to blowing up their robot. Solana released Celebi from the mechanical arm. As expected, Jessie and James were angry and they sent out Seviper and Cacnea. Ash and Tomo stepped forward to fight. Pikachu used Thunderbolt on Seviper and Growlithe used Flamethrower on Cacnea. To end it Pikachu used Volt Tackle to send Team Rocket flying.

There was another issue; Team Rocket's machine caught fire and threatened to burn the forest down. Ash was about to grab a Poke Ball, but he didn't need to do anything. Celebi used it's vines and power to snuff out the fire and heal the forest, so everything was all right now. Since Celebi was all right now, it was going to travel through time again. Solana and the gang said goodbye to Celebi and told it to take care. Celebi glowed green and vanished. Solana contacted the ranger base and told them that the mission was complete. She even thanked the gang for their help.

"It was a honor to help a Pokemon ranger for once." Ash said.

Now that the vines were all gone, the gang could take their bikes to Fuchsia City.