Ash sailed on top of Lapras through the seas, apparently Fairchild Island was right next to Pinkan Island, it didn't even take the full day to get there, Fairchild Island was the Island at the very center of the archipelago and it had something interesting.
The Pokemon which were mainly Pidgeot and Rhydon but there was no reason that there couldn't be more, but that's not why he was here, he wanted to know what made them so big.
In the anime, it said that they grew that big because there are so many berries, but that can't be the only reason can it, well he'll find out.
When he arrived at the island he was immediately greeted with a giant Pidgeot coming at him and a rushing Rhydon.
But a quick slap from Gyarados and a shock from Pikachu sent the big guys running with their tails between their legs, letting Ash do whatever he wanted in peace.
Firstly he went to the nearest tree and threw Lapras, Gyarados, and Pikachu some of the fruits because why not while they were eating he began collecting as many different fruits as he could find, although he only needed 1 of each.
That took the rest of the day and by the time he was satisfied the sun was going down, so he decided to just camp out here while he looked into these fruits.
He let the Pokemon he had with him out, which was pretty much just Charizard, Clefairy, Nidoking, Machamp, and Dratini since he let most of the others go do their own thing while he does things here in the Orange Islands.
He told them to just grab whatever they wanted since there was so much fruit everywhere and they went out like a gaggle of children.
Meanwhile, Ash sat down and took an apple from the Island and one from the mainland, at first glance, they didn't look different, same size, same color, and taking a bite of them they tasted the same.
But he pulled out his dex and pulled up the farming app he got from it to start looking through the information he had, just trying to find a reason as to what makes all the fruit on this island so different.
After a bit of work, Ash finally found something, so apparently the fruit grown on this island is at least twice as nutrition-dense as normal fruit on the mainland. As far as that goes it's something.
Ash shrugged and just took the seeds and planted them as well, he would probably start cross-breeding Berris after those grow to try and optimize how good of Pokeblocks he can make.
But for now, he would be camping out tonight and Charizard came back with a literal handful of fruit and dropped them down before lying down to relax next to Ash and eating them.
Ash shrugged and threw himself onto the ground thinking he almost did everything he needed to here, but he also had to send something, after all it was the end of the month so now it was April 1st, which meant it was Misty's birthday so he sent Abra with a gift.
—
{Misty's mansion}
The next morning after Misty woke up she did her usual rounds, go check on all the water Pokemon, pet her Squirtle that already evolved into a Wartortle, try to bond with her Lapras that still only tolerate her, and kick Psyduck back in his Pokeball.
But this time she found something next to her bed, a box with a happy birthday label on it.
She was confused for a second since when her family gives her a birthday it's not usually so…normal as just putting it next to her bed.
She opened it and on the top, there was a card with a picture of Ash and Pikachu with a Lapras all sticking their tongue out with the words 'wish you were here'
Misty sighed and mumbled, 'Of course he finds a Lapras,'
Then she turned it around seeing that there was writing on the back.
—
To my one true Love Misty
I send my dearest regards
May this gift be a testament to our true love for your day of birth
P.S. Also April Fools, obviously,
P.P.S. Oh and don't kick the box.
—
Misty shook her head, she was expecting that kind of stuff, wouldn't even be the first time either since her sisters were quite cruel to her in her younger years.
She put the card down and looked inside and immediately almost kicked the box, inside there was another pair of pants, but remembering the one part of the note she took it seriously and didn't, she just threw the pants out the window.
And when she looked inside she saw another smaller box that was double padded like it was expected that Misty would kick the box.
Misty sighed and pulled it out to open it, and she was glad she didn't kick it because inside were 3 glass statues.
The first 2 that got her attention were a realistic figure of Lorelei and a Lapras, which she loved and immediately put next to her bed stand, and as for the last one… it was Psyduck.
She had to stop herself from throwing it to the wall, but she didn't and had it in her hand wondering what she should do with this thing, but that was immediately cut short when Misty heard something.
"Misty dear, come down!" her mother's voice rang out so she sighed and put Psyduck next to her stand as well and ran out.
—
{Brock}
Brock was upset, he spent so much time getting ready for the breeding competition but also more than half the time he had to also take care of the girls, he didn't even have much time to bond with Aerodactyl so he was still pretty disobedient.
And then the Breeding competition came, the one held on Valencia Island, and since he wasn't as prepared as he would have liked to have been more but he couldn't since the girls were hopeless on their own.
Admittedly he only won because he had Suzie's Vulpix to carry him, but it meant he had 3 medals and was eligible to go to nationals to get a breeding license for funding and all that stuff.
But that's not why he was upset, even though he invited the girls to come watch the competition, they didn't come.
In fact, the longer he was here the more he found some behaviors different, like the warm greeting she gave him when he first got here was starting to be replaced by s colder one as she went deeper into her research.
He slapped his face to snap him out of his trance and made up his mind, today was the day he was going to confess to Ivy, besides what could go wrong the worst she could say was no…right?
—
{Ashtwo}
The ship arrived near a seemingly abandoned island that fell between Two Island and Three Island, Ash didn't tell anyone about the 'offer' Aster gave him, it didn't matter anyway because he already set everything up that he needed.
But they didn't go yet they needed to wait for the sun to go down and attack at nightfall, in the meantime Owari made sure to double and triple remind everyone as to why they were there, and Aster kept a close eye for any more talents he could steal.
The ship was taken to a discreet location as some grunts with water Pokemon sent them out to help everyone get out to their location, as the moon finally started rising and they began moving.
Though as they did they couldn't help but notice a tint of red on the moon, but they didn't pay attention since they had bigger fish to fry.
As they went through the water led by Aster since he knew a lot about this, a surprising amount you could say, but because of that they reached a spot where they could finally see the hideout.
Just looking at it everyone could see lookouts on each side of the wall but Aster led them to a blind spot where they landed and planned from there, starting now all the rockets would separate into their squads that they chose and Ash and Owari would follow Aster.
As soon as they were released it was like releasing kids into a candy store, they sent out Pokemon and busted down the door, they literally went in screaming before anyone could find out they were there immediately sounding the alarms.
Unfortunately for them, that's exactly the plan, as Ash, Owari, and Aster stood by the side watching them rush through the doors as the alarms started buzzing.
Aster signaled to the two, "Come on, there is a back entrance we can take, we're going after the boss."
—
As the grunts started pouring in with their Pokemon the so-called raiders were taken by surprise and most of them didn't have their Pokemon out for the tiny problem of that they completely hated them.
So the first line was taken down and knocked down or just subdued with the sheer amount, as they got further in more and more people showed up as they were finally starting to bring out their Pokemon.
"You Rocket dorks have some nerve coming to our base!" one raider said.
"Yeah, now we'll show you who really rules Kanto!" another said as he held a Pokeball.
But before he could throw it out a surprise Growlithe jumped through the air and landed on his face, and before the other guy could react a Meowth sent a scratch at his face. It was Meowth riding on top of Growlie.
"Let's go, cat and dog working together!" Meowth said as Growlithe jumped off the grunt's face and started running again.
Meowth raised his claws "Let's go for the honor of all the beautiful felines out there!"
From the back of the line, grunts started breaking through, Jessie had Lickitung out grabbing multiple Pokemon with her tongue and throwing them to the side so that they could advance, but from the top, about 5 raiders got to the high ground and released their Pokemon.
All 5 of them had Rattata that climbed on the railings as one that seemed to be the leader called out, "Rattata squad fire!"
All the Rattata started charging something in their mouths as they each shot out [Hyper Beam] aiming at all the Rockets.
But James stepped in the way, "Oh no you don't, Mime Jr. [Mimic]!"
Mime Jr. giggled as he jumped off his shoulder and from his little mouth shot a [Hyper Beam] that clashed and beat the blast sent from the Rattata causing a small explosion on the ralings knocking those Rattata out.
As James caught Mime Jr. suddenly a Doduo jumped out and was aiming to kick James when suddenly another voice called out.
"Moody, Rudey now!" Jay called out as 2 Meowth jumped up and each slashed each Doduo head sending the bird falling down.
Jay ran up and gave a thumbs up, "You bro, nice one on those Rattata,"
James blinked then returned the thumbs up, "Err, yeah, and thanks let's call it even then."
Jessie yelled, "Hey, are you two going to talk while we do everything, we have bigger things going on!" she said as Lickitung grabbed another squad of Pokemon.
"Right!" James said instinctively as he let Mime Jr. rest after that big attack and pulled out his next Pokemon, "Victreebel let's do this!"
But as soon as Victreebel was let out immediately he was chomping on James's head as his muffled screams could be heard, 'Victreebel what are you doing this isn't the time!'
That made everyone, the Rockets, the Raiders, the Pokemon stop to see this happening, and it wasn't until James ripped Victreebel off his head that the fighting continued again.
"Victreebel not me, them! [Sleep Powder]." James said as he threw Victreebel at the approaching small army of Raiders and Pokemon.
Victreebel heard that and started spitting out spores from his large mouth that spread across the incoming enemies, and as soon as they breathed in about 75% of them fell asleep immediately.
That let most of the grunts move forward and take care of those who weren't asleep as they got to go deeper in the base.
Enid smiled as she ran ahead of the rest with her Ursaring as she saw a fresh group approach her with their Pokemon out, thinking this was her last stand moment.
"Stop right there Rocket scum, you were a fool to come alone!" the leader of that small group said.
Enid looked them over, "9…"
"What are you talking about, have you gone mad?" another said.
"We broke in and this is all you've got," Enid said with a smile, "Com'on, bring more! 10, 20, 50! You'll need a lot more than that!"
"insolent girl, you're too cocky, let's take this brat down!"