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Ash walked down the street, Pikachu perched on his shoulder, as they continued their journey through the world of Pokémon. Today, they were spending the day in a city, instead of out in the wild. It was nice to sleep in a Pokémon Center from time to time… and Pikachu had been insistent on how they were running low on critical supplies and needed to stock up… and also that he needed to buy them on his own, which Ash probably shouldn't have listened to because now they had three more bottles of ketchup to carry around.
"Is that… It is!" A voice said from behind them. "Hey, Ash!"
"Ee-vee!"
Ash looked behind him to see… "Chloe! Hi!" He ran over to greet Chloe. Well, not really ran, because he had to avoid people. He moved as quickly as he could without bumping into anyone, though. "It's been a while!"
"Only a few months, actually," Chloe pointed out.
"So, what are you doing… where are we again?" Ash asked.
"(… Unova?)" Pikachu guessed. "(I think we're in Unova…)"
Eevee squeaked something at Pikachu, and the mouse proceeded to look quite embarrassed.
"… Castelia City?" Chloe asked. "Didn't you come here with Goh just to eat ice cream a while back?"
"Oh, yeah!" Ash said brightly, remembering it. "That ice cream was the best! And the cakes, too!"
"(We should add tomato to one!)" Pikachu suggested.
"Is that why you're here?" Ash asked.
"I wouldn't come to Unova just for ice cream," Chloe pointed out. "… We did have some earlier, though. I'm actually here for research!"
"Vee-vee!" Eevee cheered.
"Awesome!" Ash said.
"Why don't you come with me?" Chloe asked.
"Sure!" Ash agreed.
As they walked, Chloe told Ash what the research she was doing actually was.
"Mostly, it's for Eevee," Chloe explained. "I was hoping to see if I could learn anything about why she can't evolve."
Ash nodded. "That makes sense! I don't think I ever met a Pokémon that just couldn't evolve like that before Eevee."
Chloe nodded. "That's right! And whatever decision she makes, it's best to try and understand it and help her make that decision."
"Do you know what she wants?" Ash asked.
"I like to think that she's like me, and hasn't really figured it all out yet," Chloe said. "But it's kind of hard to ask her."
"(She could've just asked me to translate for you,)" Pikachu pointed out to Ash.
"Ee-voi?" Eevee asked. "Eevee-vee?"
"(Yes?)" Pikachu said. "(Didn't we mention that?)"
"Vee," Eevee shook her head.
"(… Ash, I think we might be bad at explaining things.)"
Ash scratched Pikachu's head, and the mouse leaned into it. "Yeah, buddy?"
Pikachu nodded.
"Pikachu decided not to evolve, right?" Chloe asked.
"That's right!" Ash said. "It's fine if he changes his mind someday…"
"(Not likely,)" Pikachu cut in.
"But it's his choice! And he wants to be Pikachu."
"His choice…" Chloe smiled. "And whatever Eevee evolves into, or if she doesn't, that'll be her choice."
Ash nodded. "So, uh… how does Castelia City help Eevee?"
"There's a scientist here who discovered a special kind of stone," Chloe explained. "It's called Eviolite, and it has special effects for Pokémon that can still evolve. I want to see if we can use it to help figure out what makes Eevee different from other Eevee."
"That's so cool!" Ash said. He thought for a moment. "But… couldn't you just ask the guy to mail you one?"
Eevee huffed.
"We tried that…" Chloe said nervously. "He insisted that we had to show proof that we'd seen a lot of Pokémon in person. So, I scanned all of Goh's Pokémon with the Pokédex app, and now we're here."
The scientist they were meeting was named Dr. Aspen.
Ash's impression of him was that he was really enthusiastic about Pokémon, which was cool! He was very excited to see Pikachu, since his species wasn't native to the Unova region. After a few minutes of him excitedly going over the Pokémon Chloe had seen, he finally produced a teardrop-shaped purple-pink stone and explained what it was.
"Eviolite has the mysterious ability to boost the defensive power of Pokémon that can still evolve," he explained.
"That's so cool! How does it work?" Ash asked.
Aspen shrugged. "No idea. The League banned it from official battles about ten minutes after I sent them an e-mail about the effects, so I can't really get paid to do more research on it…"
Chloe turned it over in her hands. "It's really pretty, though…"
"Vee-vee!" Eevee agreed.
"You know, I don't really participate in official battles, so maybe I could make it into a necklace for Eevee," Chloe mused. "… After we do science with it."
Eevee seemed pleased with the idea.
Chloe turned to Ash. "You've got a lot of different kinds of Pokémon, right? Why don't we go to the Pokémon Center and see how it works for them?"
Ash grinned. "Sure! What do you say, buddy?" He turned to Pikachu.
"(Let's go!)" Pikachu agreed.
"Just make sure to e-mail me if you publish your findings," Dr. Aspen said.
Once they were back at the Pokémon Center, they made their way to the practice battlefield, which in this Pokémon Center was indoors. Chloe had a clipboard ready to record everything she thought she might need.
"So, right now, what we're doing is gathering data," Chloe said. "And, no, Ash, that's not something you can just go find by catching it like a Pokémon."
"(We are never living that down…)" Pikachu groaned.
"I know," Ash said. "So… What are we doing?"
"Well, I want you to send out the Pokémon you have on you, for now," Chloe explained. "Then we're going to see if the Eviolite reacts to them. Hopefully it's a visible reaction, I don't want all of your Pokémon getting beaten up just to see how it works…"
Pikachu jumped to the ground. "(I'm always ready for a battle!)" he exclaimed.
Ash smiled at his friend's antics, but he did kind of agree with Chloe. It wasn't really like training or overcoming a challenge, and dodging like they normally did wouldn't really work if they were supposed to be measuring defensive power.
For now, though, he sent out the rest of the Pokémon he had on hand: Oshawott, Quilava, Boldore, Torterra, and Lucario.
"That's actually a really good start," Chloe said. "Different evolution stages, Lucario can Mega Evolve so we can see if that counts, Pikachu evolves with a stone, and Boldore evolves by trade." She held up the Eviolite. "So, who wants to be the first data point?"
"Vee!"
Chloe shook her head. "I want to see what it's like normally first, Eevee. We're doing this so we can figure out what makes you different, remember? You can try after Ash's Pokémon. So, which of you wants to go first?"
"Osha!" Oshawott stepped forward and placed a paw on his chest as he posed. "Osha-wott!"
"Oshawott first, then," Chloe agreed. She knelt down and handed Oshawott the Eviolite. The moment he touched it, it began shining faintly with a pearlescent sheen.
"Osha…" The little otter seemed mesmerized.
"(Dang it, I wanted to battle,)" Pikachu crossed his arms and pouted.
"Don't worry, buddy," Ash said, crouching down to pat him on the head. "We can have a practice battle later."
Chloe wrote something down. "It's actually really helpful that we don't need to, though. Even if you want to battle, this is a lot faster. Oshawott, can you give it to Quilava?"
Oshawott snapped out of his admiration of the Eviolite and nodded. Quilava stood up on their hind legs as he approached and took the Eviolite from him. It shone exactly the same way as it had with Oshawott.
"That's interesting…" Chloe said, as she wrote something down. "Even though Oshawott can evolve two more times, and Quilava can only evolve once, it's just as bright."
"Does that mean anything?" Ash asked.
"I don't know yet," Chloe admitted. "We've only tried it with two Pokémon." Chloe thought for a moment. "I think… Either Boldore or Pikachu, next."
Pikachu faced Boldore. "(Rock, Paper, Scissors?)" he suggested.
"Dore," they responded in affirmative.
Pikachu threw scissors, while Boldore just stood there.
"Boldore."
"(… I didn't think that through,)" Pikachu admitted.
"Boldore next," Ash said.
When Quilava gave the Eviolite to Boldore, something about the way it was glowing changed. Chloe actually ended up asking them to pass it back and forth a few times before realizing that it was the way the shimmering moved.
During this, they gained an audience of a few trainers. One of them had magenta hair, the second lavender, and the last of them was very short and wearing oversized clothes.
"So it does do something different for a trade evolution," she said, as she wrote down more findings. "Alright… So, who's next?"
"Lu!" Lucario snatched the Eviolite and held it high above his head. "Ca!"
It stopped glowing entirely.
"Ra?" He brought it down to eye level.
"(Lucario!)" Pikachu admonished. "(Be patient!)"
"Dore-bol," Boldore made a sort of rocky shrug motion.
"It doesn't glow for Lucario at all," Ash said. "I thought for sure it would."
"Rargh!" Lucario began shaking the Eviolite.
"I guess mega evolution is something else?" Chloe said.
Lucario grumbled and began walking towards the door, shoving the Eviolite into the tree on Torterra's shell on his way out.
"(He's disappointed there's no)" Pikachu said a word Ash couldn't understand. "(And he's hungry.)"
"Terra?" Torterra asked, craning his neck to look at the Eviolite in his tree. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't glowing.
"I… think that counts as holding it," Chloe said, as she wrote down both of the previous results. "I guess that just leaves-"
"Meowth!" The short trainer who had entered the room before said, as he yanked the Eviolite from Torterra's tree.
It began glowing similar to how it had with Oshawott and Quilava, but instead of a steady glow it was faint and flickering.
"Huh?" Chloe asked.
"What's going on?" Ash shouted.
The other two trainers began laughing.
"Prepare for trouble!" Magenta-hair trainer said, throwing off her disguise to reveal Jessie.
"And make it double!" Lavender continued, being of course no one but James.
"It's Meowth and those guys that kept following you and Goh around!" Chloe interrupted.
"The nerve!" Jessie said. "To protect the world from twerpish disruption!"
"To unite all peoples against motto interruption!" James continued.
"To denounce the evils of you ruining our rhyme!"
"To exemplify our mastery of poetry sublime!"
"Jessie!"
"And it's James!"
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth, that's-" Meowth jumped in. "… Hey!"
"No, Meowth, your line is 'Meowth, that's right,'" James reminded him.
"No, look!" Meowth held up his paw, which was now empty. "They took the thingy back when you lugs were doin' the motto!"
Ash quickly looked around to try and find the Eviolite. All of his Pokémon were also looking around – except Oshawott, who was yelling at Meowth – as were Chloe and Eevee.
"(Oh no.)" Ash heard Pikachu say, as he looked in his direction.
"Buddy?"
"(He's back,)" Pikachu said, pointing behind Ash. "(Why is he in Unova?)"
"Who's back?" Meowth yelled.
Ash began turning around, but heard him before he saw him.
"Puff?"
Team Rocket, Pikachu, and Quilava all froze at that sound. And Ash saw him as he finished turning around.
Jigglypuff – the very same Jigglypuff that had followed him to the Orange Islands, Johto, and Hoenn – was standing near the entrance of the room that contained the practice battlefield. With one arm, he held the Eviolite, which was shining with a muted blue-green color. With the other, he held his signature microphone/marker.
After inspecting the Eviolite for a moment, he tossed it behind himself. Then he began to sing, and Ash knew no more.
Ash woke up again to Lucario (quite roughly, as was typical with him) shaking him awake.
"Ra!" Lucario said, gesturing towards the still sleeping Team Rocket. "Luca?" He held up the Eviolite.
"Thanks, Lucario," Ash said, taking it from him and putting it in his jacket pocket. "Everyone, return!" This was said quietly so as to not wake Team Rocket. He first moved to Pikachu, who'd had lines drawn on his face to resemble Ash's birthmarks and hair, and picked him up. He woke Chloe up as quietly.
"Ash, what's on your face?" She asked. She spotted Pikachu. "And Pikachu, and Eevee…"
"Jigglypuff," Ash explained. "Come on, let's go before Team Rocket wakes up. I've got the Eviolite."
Chloe nodded. She returned Eevee and grabbed her clipboard, quickly following Ash out. Once the two had washed themselves and their Pokémon up (this took considerably longer for Ash), as well as woken up their partners, Chloe suggested that they make their way to the Central Plaza so Team Rocket wouldn’t bother them again.
On the way to the plaza, Chloe continued to make notes on her clipboard. "So, when Meowth held it, it flickered. We didn't see it do that, yet. Ash, did you see what it looked like when Jigglypuff held it?"
"It sort of… glowed a different color?' Ash said. "Like a moon stone!"
Chloe nodded. "That makes sense. So Eviolite can not only tell you if a Pokémon can evolve, but also how if you know the patterns to look for. That's honestly a lot better than I was expecting, and we haven't even tried it with Eevee yet."
"Vee!" Eevee perked up.
"(Or me!)" Pikachu added.
"Or Pikachu," Ash translated. He reached into his pocket to bring out the Eviolite, which was flickering with a faint yellow shimmer – much fainter than with Meowth, but still visible – as he held it. "Huh, that's weird."
Pikachu laughed from his spot on Ash's shoulder.
Chloe took a deep breath. "… I think I'm going to chalk that up to another Ash Ketchum scientific mystery." She took the Eviolite from him and it returned to normal.
"Nothin' mysterious about me…" Ash said.
Chloe shook her head fondly. "You confuse a lot of Pokémon Professors, Ash."
She knelt down to Eevee and set down the stone in front of you. "I know you've been waiting, Eevee. Let's see what it looks like."
Eevee placed her paw on the Eviolite, which began to flicker faintly, just as it had with Meowth. Instead of the plain color it had been with him, however, it shone in a rainbow of colors.
Chloe wrote something down on her clipboard as Pikachu hopped down from Ash's shoulder for a closer look. "I think I'm going to have to do more testing to draw a conclusion, but this is a good start. It definitely reacts to Eevee, but it doesn't seem to work, just like evolution stones."
"Maybe something's blocking her from evolving?" Ash guessed.
"That's my guess, too, but I should probably gather more data," Chloe admitted. "It did the same thing for Meowth, and…" Her gaze lingered on Ash for a moment. "Do you know if Meowth can evolve?"
"(He doesn't want to,)" Pikachu pointed out. "(… But he doesn't have an everstone.)"
"No idea," Ash said.
Chloe nodded. "If you're right, I wonder what could stop a Pokémon from evolving? Do Meowth and Eevee have anything in common?"
Ash thought hard about that.
"(Ash!)" Pikachu's voice snapped him out of it.
Pikachu was holding the Eviolite in his paws, the strange little stone just as dim as when Chloe held it.
"It doesn't glow at all for Pikachu?" Chloe asked, quickly writing that down. "Why?"
Eevee tapped it again, and it began flickering when she touched it, going dark again the moment she moved her paw away.
Pikachu looked at Eevee. "(Eevee, use Tackle!)"
"Vee?"
Pikachu nodded, and Eevee tackled him. He stood his ground easily.
"Eevee!" Chloe called out.
"Pikachu wanted her to," Ash reassured her. "I'm not sure why, though…"
Pikachu handed the Eviolite back to Chloe, and then turned to Eevee. "(Again!)"
Eevee tackled him again, to the same result.
"(It didn't work,)" Pikachu announced. "(That felt the same both times.)"
"The defense thing didn't work," Ash relayed. "Wait, does that mean Pikachu can't evolve, either?"
"I think it has to," Chloe said, as she put her clipboard away in her bag.
Ash grinned. "Then that's great! Pikachu, you don't have to worry about evolving!"
Pikachu, however, was frowning.
"Buddy?" Ash asked. "Is something wrong?"
"(It feels… weird,)" Pikachu said.
Ash picked Pikachu up and raised him to his shoulder. The mouse gladly took his normal perch.
"Better?" Ash asked.
Pikachu nodded, but still looked a little down.
"… Did you change your mind about evolving?" Ash asked.
"(No!)" Pikachu shook his head rapidly.
"I think I get it," Chloe said, as she crouched down to pick Eevee back up. "Remember what you said earlier, Ash? It's Pikachu's choice if he evolves."
Chloe petted Eevee's head, earning happy sounds from her Pokémon.
"But if he can't evolve, that means it's not actually a choice, even if he never wants it," Chloe continued. "Is that right, Pikachu?"
"(I think so.)" Pikachu nodded hesitantly. "(I guess I'm worried that it doesn't matter that I like being Pikachu.)"
"Of course it matters," Ash reassured him, pulling his best friend into a hug. "You're happy being Pikachu, right?"
Pikachu nodded.
"And… what was it? Something about being strong as a Pikachu to defend the honor of all Pikachu everywhere?" Ash asked.
Pikachu rubbed the back of his head nervously. "(Yeah… I did say that…)"
"Then that's that!" Ash held up a fist.
"(I'm not sure I get it, but I trust you,)" Pikachu said, using his own fist to bump Ash's. "(Thanks, Ash.)"
"Anything for you, buddy!" Ash grinned.
"(I guess I'm also kind of worried about what it might mean,)" Pikachu admitted.
"What do you mean?" Ash asked.
"(Why can't I evolve?)" Pikachu asked. "(That's weird! What if I'm sick? Or what if it's something to do with my parents?)"
Ash rubbed the top of Pikachu's head. "I dunno about all that, buddy, but if you want to try and figure it out, I'll be right there. As long as we're together, we can go anywhere."
"Chaaa," Pikachu said. That sound didn't really mean anything specific, it was just a sound of happiness.
Chloe had been spending the last minute or so looking back and forth between the two. "Hold on… could you understand everything Pikachu was saying this whole time?"