"Big Bro, can you show me that Stone Badge of yours?"
Ash had now finally got his first Badge for his Hoenn Journeys, but Max seemed even happier than himself and pestered him to show his Badge collection box.
The result was very obvious. A 'gental' hit to the head made him behave very differently. He obediently took out his PokéNav and checked it out. "Big Bro, the next closest Gym from here is the Dewford Town Gym on Dewford Island. Looks like that's going to be our next destination."
Dewford Island huh?
Ash nodded his head lightly, "But before that..."
He looked at Brock and May beside him, and saw that they were looking up the travel guide about Rustboro City with great interest.
"Rustboro City really deserves to one of the largest cities in the region. Almost everything can be found here if you look closely." Brock was of course looking up the information about where they could find their upcoming much needed supplies.
Before coming here, they had gone through several long journeys in the forest. Although they also passed through several small towns to replenish some of their supplies, after all, they could not buy all the supplies in those small towns, so they could only find some sort of substitutes or make do with what little they had.
In short, Brock has always been responsible for these things, and Ash was mostly very worry-free about these.
As for what May was looking up, naturally it was the food guide section, "Seaside restaurants, shops with delicious burgers, and many, many others! I can't wait to eat them up!"
It can be seen that she was very excited. Perhaps before she came into contact with idea of participating in Pokémon Contests, the source of all her motivation for her travels was the anticipation of the various delicacies in different places.
Ash smiled slightly, "In that case, let's move freely next. It just so happens that I also have some places that I would love to go to."
"Ash, where are you going? Can I go with you?" Although he always gets beaten, Max just really admires Ash and his skills.
But this time Ash refused directly without any buttering, "Just look for some places where there are Pokémon's in this big city. The place I want to go is not suitable for you at all."
"Why..."
Seeing Ash getting ready to raise his fist again, Max quickly didn't dare to object anymore. He sighed, holding his PokéNav in one hand and his own drink in the other to drink, "Then where should I do? "
But accidentally, his drink spilled on his new PokéNav. After that, the navigator flashed a flash of electricity. It must have been short-circuited due to water intrusion.
Such a high-tech thing is not even waterproof?
He quickly wiped it with a handkerchief, then tried to press the button to tune it on, only to find that it was completely malfunctioning, "This is too bad..."
All three of them looked at him, and May asked, "What's wrong with you, Max?"
Max suddenly became alert and thought that he could definitely not let his sister know that he had damaged their PokéNav.
The two siblings actually have a very good relationship, but their regular way of getting along is to quarrel, just like most siblings. Max always said that May was an unreliable person, but now he broke the PokéNav that technically belonged to both of them.
What can he do now?
But it can't be like this!
Max, who is still very young, immediately decided not to report it on his instinct, "It's nothing, really! We can do whatever you want next, right? Goodbye!"
He said goodbye and run away in a flash.
In fact, his little moves could not be hidden from Ash's eyes, but since he wanted to take responsibility for his own mistake and find a way to make up for it, Ash was willing to give him this opportunity.
Ash was not at ease with this boy's cleverness.
"Ash, where are you going now?" Brock asked curiously before leaving.
Ash would not hide anything from his long time trusty traveling companion and said frankly, "It's time for Dratini to shed his skin again. So I plan to go north to a place called Meteor Falls!"
Meteor Falls is a large cave formed by a huge impact of a meteorite.
There was even a natural waterfall inside of it.
The terrain inside was very complex, and the level of Pokémon in the deeper parts of it was also very high.
Moreover, the road from Rustboro City is bumpy and difficult, so it is really not suitable to take Max with him.
But Ash didn't intend to go that deep, he just wanted to find a suitable environment for his Dratini to complete his molting.
The four of them acted separately. Max met an uncle on the street who was showing off a strange new invention to bunch of children's.
A robot that automatically opens a soda can will burst the soda inside when it opens the can.
It is a completely useless invention.
After watching the funny show, the children immediately dispersed.
"Little boy, what's wrong with you? Why are you sighing so many times?" Seeing Max's troubled expression, the uncle came over to ask enthusiastically.
"My name is not little boy, my name is Max!" Max introduced himself and explained, "It's like this, my sister's PokéNav is not working!"
"I see, I see. You can just go to the Devon Corporation for this kind of problem."
Unexpectedly, the uncle who would show the wonderfully useless invention to the children on the street turned out to be the president of Devon Corporation.
Joseph Stone!
This is one of the biggest companies in the world that has grown to the point that it can rival even Silph Co., and most of the items their companies produces are for Pokémon Trainers.
Not only have they developed new types of Poké Balls, they are also working on a project to restore the fossils of ancient Pokémon back to their 'original' self.
This kind of technology has yet to be developed but they are the closet to making one.
President Stone seemed to like Max very much, so he took him back to the main headquarters of his Devon Corporation and asked one of the researchers here to repair the PokéNav for Max.
He also asked his secretary, Mr. Kennedy, to go to the Pokémon Center and invite Ash and the others here.
After that, President Stone took Max to visit the equipment that can resurrect Pokémon fossils.
However, just as they turned around and stood in front of another machine, a man dressed as one of the many researchers walked past them and took out two culture bottles from the fossil resurrection machine.
The most core and precious thing in this fossil resurrection machine is the genetic medicine found in this culture bottle, so this culture bottle cannot be lost no matter what.
When the man walked out of the door of the laboratory, President Stone noticed him with his peripheral vision and immediately realized something was wrong here.
The president remembered the appearance of everyone in the company that worked here, but he had never seen this researcher before. He decisively followed him loosely.
In order not to alert the culprit, he did not alert the company's security, but chose to follow him quietly.
At the same time, Ash and the two others have also been taken into the company by Mr. Kennedy.
Brock had already purchased all the necessary supplies, May ate herself until her stomach felt uncomfortable, Ash accompanied his Dratini to complete the molting, and they all happened to meet at the Pokémon Center.
"I see, so you are also Pokémon Trainers!" Mr. Kennedy and Ash and the others had a great conversation.
"Ash, I know you were the Champion of the last Silver Conference. Our Young Master also said that he wanted to battle against you at least once!"
"The Young Master of the Devon Corporations, should that be Mr. Steven Stone?" Ash said a name he knew very well.
"So you have heard of Master Steven's name!" Mr. Kennedy now had a better impression of Ash.
"Ash, how come you have heard of Mr. Steven's name?" May was puzzled. Ash had obviously been in the Hoenn Region for only a short amount of time, so how could he know people from the Hoenn Region?
"Of course I know of him, I'm always paying attention to the powerful Trainers that I could go against!" Ash looked at Brock, "Steven's strength is completely comparable to Lance, after all, he is the Champion of the Hoenn Region!"