Meeting Morrison

Ash and May were planning today on what to do to train their Pokemon. As they both had five contest ribbons, the Hoenn Grand Festival was all they could think about now. And of course, Ash had the Hoenn League to think about now. Ash and May found out from Nurse Joy that the Hoenn Grand Festival was going to be held in Slateport City and Ash found out that the Hoenn League was going to be held in Ever Grande City. So the gang had two things to look forward too.

Aside from obtaining a fifth contest ribbon, May also had a new Pokemon. The day after obtaining the Pacifidlog Ribbon, the gang encountered a Munchlax who kept eating berries from some berry trees. The gang remembered what Munchlax was like, because Max's Snorlax was a Munchlax before he caught it. To stop the Munchlax from causing trouble, May captured it for herself.

Right now Brock had made lunch for the gang; it consisted of sandwiches and rice balls.

"So May, Ash. What are you two going to do?" Brock asked.

"Well I am going to train my Spoink to help her evolve." Ash answered. "She told me that she wants to evolve and my Snorunt needs some more training too."

"Can I train with you Ash?" Tomo asked. "My Numel wants to evolve as well."

"Certainly, we'll battle each other after lunch Tomo." Ash said.

"What about you May? What are you going to do?" Max asked.

"I'll be practicing with some of my Pokemon." May said. "But I won't use Munchlax in the Grand Festival. It's too early for that since I just caught it."

"I agree." Brock added.

At that moment a boy with tied up red hair ran past the group and stopped running to catch his breath.

"Hey there." Ash said. "What are you in a rush for?"

"I'm heading towards a area where wild Beldum are swarming." The boy explained.

He introduced himself as Morrison and he explained to the gang that a swarm of Beldum was living in a forest a bit far from where they are standing now.

Ash looked Beldum up on the Pokedex.

"Beldum, the Iron Ball Pokemon. Instead of blood, a powerful magnetic force courses throughout Beldum's body. This Pokemon communicates with others by sending controlled pulses of magnetism."

"Hey, Beldum's final evolved form is Metagross." Max said.

"That's right." Morrison said. "And I want to catch a Beldum so that I can have a Metagross like Steven Stone."

Steven Stone not only had an Aron, he also had an Aggron, a Beldum and a shiny Metagross.

"Can we go and see the Beldum swarm please?" Max asked. "I'd love to see them."

"Yeah, I want to see them too." Tomo added.

Ash and May saw nothing wrong with that and they agreed to see the Beldum too.

What the gang didn't know was that two people and a Pokemon were already in the forest where the Beldum swarm was. It was of course Jessie, James and Meowth.

"So these Beldum evolve into Metagross?" Jessie asked.

"Well they evolve into Metang first and then into Metagross." James said, showing her the information.

"It's great that we found out about the Beldum swarm." Meowth said. "And the best part is that no one is here yet. Let's get gathering."

"Let's." Jessie and James said together.

"Meowth get the empty Poke Balls ready while Jessie and I do the rest." James said.

"Poke Balls all ready." Jessie sent out her Seviper and Loudred and James sent out his Nuzleaf and Teddiursa.

"Seviper you use Flamethrower and Loudred use Fire Punch on Beldum." Jessie said.

"Nuzleaf use Dark Pulse and you use Shadow Claw Teddiursa." James said.

Seviper, Loudred, Nuzleaf and Teddiursa attacked the Beldum swarm and then Meowth captured them with Poke Balls. They ended up capturing thirty Beldum.

"You see any more Beldum?" Jessie asked James.

"No I don't. We must have captured all of them." James answered. "We better skedaddle before anyone finds us and realizes we've captured all the Beldum."

"Great idea." Jessie agreed.

She and James returned their Pokemon and they and Meowth left the area as quickly as they could.

Meanwhile...

The gang had just made their way to the area where Morrison said the Beldum were.

"I can't wait to see the Beldum and truthfully I want to catch one for myself." Tomo said.

"Me too." Max added. "I'd love to have a steel type Pokemon on my team, since I don't have one yet."

"We are almost there." Morrison said.

He continued to walk on, but then he stopped.

"What's wrong Morrison?" Ash asked.

"Something isn't right." Morrison said. "I mean we should have seen the Beldum by now, but I don't see Beldum anywhere."

The gang didn't see any Beldum either.

"Where could they be?" Brock asked.

"You don't supposed they could have been captured by trainers already, do you?" May questioned out loud.

"It's possible. I mean news travels fast whenever a Pokemon swarm has happened." Brock said.

"So that means we can't capture a Beldum at all." Morrison said.

Morrison, Tomo and Max were very disappointed that they couldn't catch a Beldum.

Just then Ash told everyone to wait a moment.

"What is it Ash?" Brock asked.

"I hear something nearby." He responded. "Not all of the Beldum have been captured."

"Really?" Max asked. "Then where are they?"

Ash took a look around the area and pointed to a old tree.

"They're in the tree." He said.

He ran over to the tree and saw a tree hollow. He looked into it and found three injured Beldum.

"Brock come over here quick." Brock rushed over to Ash and saw the three Beldum too.

He picked them up out of the tree and placed them down onto the grass. Morrison, Max, Tomo and May saw the three Beldum and were horrified to see them injured.

"What happened to them?" May gasped.

"It's apparent they were attacked by some Pokemon." Ash said. "And the other Beldum were attacked and captured."

He had looked into the Beldum's memory and he saw the other Beldum being attacked and captured in Poke Balls. As Brock cared for the three injured Beldum, Ash tried to see if he could sense the other wild Beldum. But he couldn't and he didn't sense any other people in the area either.

"No good." He sighed. "I don't sense any other Beldum, so it seems they're all gone except these three."

"Well whoever captured the other Beldum, I hope they are well looked after." Morrison said.

Meanwhile...

Jessie, James and Meowth were celebrating their capture of thirty Beldum. They had come to a place far, far away from the area where they captured the Beldum, so it was no wonder Ash couldn't sense them anywhere. James was looking Beldum up on his laptop.

"Hmm it says here that Beldum aren't much when they're Beldum." He said. "They only know Take Down and they won't learn any more attacks until they evolve into Metang."

"Well that's no good." Meowth said. "This will be just like sending Magikarp who only know Tackle, Splash and Flail to the boss."

"Then we will train them until they evolve." Jessie said. "We've come too far now to get these Beldum for the boss. And I am certainly not going to make a Mankey out of myself with this. So we will evolve them into Metang and then send them to the boss."

James and Meowth agreed with that. So they got ready to train the Beldum they captured and make them evolve into Metang even if it took a day or two.

Back with the gang...

The three Beldum were recovering nicely thanks to Brock's medicine.

"Good thing we were here. Otherwise these Beldum would still be in pretty bad shape." Brock said.

Ash had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Morrison, Tomo, Max." He said. "I think you guys better catch these three now. I mean some more trainers may come here to catch these three."

"I agree with Ash." Brock added. "These three are still recovering and they may end up being injured later."

Morrison, Tomo and Max saw the point being made, so they captured the three Beldum.

"We better take them to a Pokemon Center, and then they receive more treatment there." Morrison said.

The others agreed and they went to a Pokemon Center to get the Beldum healed.

Thanks to Nurse Joy Morrison's, Max's and Tomo's Beldum were fully healed.

"Well thank goodness that the Beldum will be okay now." Brock said.

"Well I better go soon." Morrison said. "I still need to earn my eighth gym badge for the Hoenn League. And then I will win the Hoenn League."

"Dream on Morrison." Ash smirked. "I'm entering the Hoenn League too, and you will have to defeat me first to win it."

"Well I look forward to challenging you in the Hoenn League." Morrison said. "Now I must go and get my eighth badge. Later."

Morrison left the Pokemon Center with his Pokemon. Ash noticed that he had a rival for the Hoenn League.

"It's obvious." He said to the others. "I have rivals for both the Grand Festival and the Hoenn League."

"You're right Ash." Brock agreed.

So with Ash finding a rival for the Hoenn League, it was now time for him to start training his Pokemon and the same could be said for May.