The Next Day came, and everyone was woken up by the sounds of construction and People walking around.
Everyone walked out of their rooms and looked outside, seeing the lively town setting up stalls and signs being set up, even the Pokemon center had a few flyers and pamphlets being handed out.
Ash took one and sat down, he currently only had his black shirt and sweatpants with no hat, so his hair was slightly spiky, but Dratini was playing inside it so he didn't bother fixing it.
Brock was bottle-feeding Bonsly and Yellow was doing the same for Chuchu, both looking more tired than usual and much more disheveled.
Misty was the only one that looked normal, she had her jacket wrapped around her Egg on her lap and was petting it, "Wow you guys look horrible,"
"You try being a single parent," Ash said sarcastically
"Try a teen parent," Brock added.
"Yikes, not looking forward to that," Misty said
"Why are you struggling, Brock?" Yellow asked, "Didn't you take care of all your siblings, isn't this similar?"
"Well, I didn't take care of them as Babies, besides they wouldn't slap me when I didn't feed them every 10 minutes."
"Yeah, I got woken up by Chuchu in the night from a shock," Yellow said looking tired.
"Honestly how are you looking so fine about this Ash?" Brock asked.
"Oh I'm used to it, on one hand, I've had my ribs crushed, and on the other, the worst thing Dratini did was almost choke me, honestly not the worst thing that could have happened."
Everyone looked at him with a stare of just pure concern, then they looked at the little Dratini playing in his hair and wrapped around his neck like a scarf.
But before they could say anything Ash spoke up, "Anyway I have a good idea of what is happening, basically it's Nomads Independence Day, I won't go into the details but this is an important thing for them."
"It's a week-long festival, and to commemorate it there are 100 Pokémon races, the first 99 are Pokemon of the same species, like Rattata and Parasect."
Brock's ears perked up at that, "Is there a Rhyhorn race?"
"And Rhydon, but don't get too excited it specifically says these aren't part of the breeding competition."
Brock was a little saddened by that until Ash continued, "However the 100th race is a free-for-all all between any rideable Pokemon, except flying types, and this one does count for the breeding competition, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will get the credit for it."
"Alright, then I'll enter, I'll go on the Rhyhorn for practice for the real thing then I'll get 1st place!" Brock announces stepping on the table.
Ash who was next to him grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down, "Hold your Ponytas, firstly have you actually trained Rhyhorn to race, and secondly, the Rhyhorn race isn't until the 5th day."
Ash then flipped the pamphlet over, "And due to the festival the Gym is closed, just peachy."
"Ohh, that's rough, well I guess you have a week to train," Yellow said, trying to cheer Ash up.
"I was only going to train for a day or two, the only time I went the full week was when I had to fight this idiot I have next to me," Ash said poking at Brock.
"Come on man," Brock said, making Ash smile.
"Well whatever, I wanted to go to the Safari zone anyway, it should be a short journey on foot, then I can get Abra to get us back," Ash said getting up to stretch.
"Should we stay for the day, just to see everything?" Misty asked.
"I mean… if you want, there's not really much going on since everything is being set up, but we can go talk to people if you want," Ash said
"Well if I may," Brock cut in, "How about we go on Rhyhorn so I can train and we can get there faster."
"If you want I'm not going to stop you," Ash said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a Sleeping Pikachu.
"Well first, let's go find something to eat," Misty said, getting a shrug and nod from everyone.
So everyone went back into their rooms and got everything ready before walking out again, Ash in particular went back onto the table where the sleeping mouse had not moved, so he just shoved him back in.
While they were getting food, Ash finally scanned Dratini with his Pokedex to see what he was working with.
–
[Dratini (F)]
[Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)]
[Ability: Shed Skin, Hidden ability: Marvel Scale]
[Current moves: Extreme Speed, Dragon Breath, Thunder Wave, Twister]
[The Dragon of the West]
–
'Not bad, only to be expected by a Pokemon bred by Lance's family, well either way not like I'm going to use her for battles anytime soon, but good for later.' Ash thought as he put away his dex.
Eventually, they found a place and got breakfast for everyone, after which they were just walking around town looking at everything getting set up.
Some small races were going on like Rattata as such. They spent the day walking around and looking at the town, Ash and Yellow specifically because they remembered how different it was before the incident.
As the day progressed more small races happened but nothing particularly interesting happened. They walked around, watched some races, went to some of the stalls, and bankrupted some stalls.
It was currently about 5 pm and the races were done for the day, people were closing up their stalls for the day.
The group was sitting down on a bench looking at what they wanted to do at the moment.
"Alright, so how do we want to go about this? If we take Rhyhorn then we can get here and back in about 2-3 days." Ash asked, looking at everyone.
"Well as much as I would like to stay here, there's not really much we can do," Misty said.
"Well, there's a Starmie and Doduo race that's going to happen on the 2nd and 3rd day respectively if either you or Yellow wanted to stay behind."
Misty and Yellow looked at each other and went into their own huddle meanwhile Brock went over to Ash, "Aren't you going to compete?"
Ash looked back, "Why? I don't exactly have a Pokemon I can ride that also can't fly, besides even if I did, I wouldn't."
Brock shrugged at that answer and Misty and Yellow came back, "So neither of us really wants to compete either." Misty said, looking confident.
"Why did you need to huddle away from us to decide that?" Ash asked.
"Don't worry about that, the point is we aren't going to compete."
Ash rolled his eyes, "Alright then, should we leave tomorrow or tonight?"
Misty pointed at Ash, "That is a good question, let me get back to you on that."
Ash sighed as he was feeding the little Dratini, he also took off his hat and gave it to Pikachu who was having his lunch.
He tried to see if Pikachu would like Cheese, but Pikachu tried it and immediately covered it in ketchup.
Ash sighed as Everyone was discussing without him, so he looked around and what immediately caught his attention was the sound of a scream.
When he looked in the direction of the scream he saw a Tauros running through town and crashing into buildings causing general chaos.
Ash sighed and looked to see if anyone was aiming to stop it which was a negative, so he took his hat from Pikachu and put his hands in his pockets as he started walking towards the raging Bull.
None noticed until they heard a random woman Yell out," That boy is in Danger, can't he see there's a Tauros!!"
Then everyone else looked up to see Ash's empty seat and looked over to see Ash walking towards the bull.
All three of them collectively looked at Ash and sighed wondering if they should do something.
Meanwhile, Ash and the Tauros got closer and closer, Ash had a bored expression and the Tauros was still running into buildings like a wild anime.
And when they started getting closer People were panicking that this boy was going to be injured or worse.
Then when the two were a few feet apart, Machoke jumped out of his Pokeball and caught the bull by the horns. Strangely, Ash never took his hands out of his pockets.
Machoke laughed and picked up the bull and put it over his shoulders, meanwhile, Ash put his hand around his mouth making a cone shape, "Did anyone lose a Tauros!"
Everyone remained silent as the scene of a Machoke holding up an actual Bull like it was nothing.
But then a voice rang out, "Right here!"
A girl with blue hair riding a Ponyta was riding towards Ash, "Sorry about that, the fences in my Ranch were broken, hope Y'all are Okay."
The girl then climbed off of her Ponyta and went over to pet the Tauros and saw Ash, "My name's Lara, Nice T'meetcha."
"I'm Ash, and I guess this is yours then," Ash signed for Machoke, and he lowered the bull, letting Lara calm it down.
"Yeah, strange thing too, my family's ranch had a problem and all the Pokemon escaped, I managed to catch'em all but this one escaped."
Just then everyone walked over, "Wow your Ponyta is so pretty." Yellow said, petting the horse on its white coat.
"Yeah, breed this girl myself, though be careful of her flames they sure do hurt," Lara said.
Brock was already on one knee, "Wow, how beautiful she is certainly the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and the Ponyta isn't too bad either."
Misty was about to pull on his ear but Ash stopped her, "No, no he earned this one."
"Why that is mighty kind of Y'all, but I must get back to my ranch and prepare for the race, after all, I ain't the two-time winner for nothing," Lara said with a smile.
But just then another voice came into the conversation, "Well well, it seems like the great Lara is losing her touch, I can't believe you would let one of your own terrorize the city."
Looking back they saw the familiar sight of Dario, "You know you should be disqualified from racing for that."
Lara frowned, "Right, and tell me why is it that whenever something bad happens you are around to start blabbing your mouth,"
Dario gave a smug smile, "I don't know what you're talking about, besides you have no proof."
But then Dario noticed a familiar sunhat, "Yoooouuu." he said dramatically and pointed at Yellow.
Yellow wasn't paying attention so when she heard that she turned around to see Dario looking at her.
"You embarrassed me last time on the S.S. Anne" Dario accused Yellow, who just looked confused.
Misty stepped in, "Actually I think you embarrassed yourself"
Dario took a step back from that one, "Whatever, this time I'm ready I expect you to be in the Dodrio race."
"Umm, Dody hasn't evolved," Yellow said.
Dario took another step from that one, "What a weak trainer, to not have even evolved your Pokemon how could I have lost."
"Big talk from the guy who lost to that 'weak' trainer," Ash cut in, "And didn't you get disqualified for not even having more than one Pokemon."
"Whatever, we'll just have to settle this for free for all!"
Ash looked back at everyone, "How do we tell him?"
"Are you kidding me, you're not even doing that, whatever, It won't change anything, I'm still going to win this year," Dario said before storming off.
After he was out of sight Ash turned back to everyone, "So we all agree he probably did it."
"Yep"
"Absolutely"
"Probably"
"Pika pika!"
"It is most probable, but unfortunately he is right, without proper evidence we really can't do anything to him," Lara said
"Welp that sucks, anyway good luck, I'd say break a leg but that seems inappropriate," Ash said, looking at Lara.
"Thanks, I'll be seeing y'all" Lara said as she hoped back on Ponyta and took the bull back to her Ranch