Chaser and the Greatest Smith's Ball

Chaser and Curt Welcomes

The more he saw of Azalea Town, the more he found himself remembering Stone Town and Ecruteak City.

Much like the latter, the city was built with traditional construction methods in mind. Walls made of white plaster sat atop a basis of roughly hewn and carved stones lined the streets, keeping the larger homes from being seen by the passersby, and clay tiles lined the roofs and gates of every building that Goh could see besides the Pokémon Center and a handful of other buildings.

Much like Stone Town, though, the city seemed to be in a state of disrepair. Other than the main thoroughfare that the bus lines ran on, the 'roads' around the city were little more than widened dirt paths. Indeed, it didn't seem like many people here owned cars at all, with Goh not seeing any motor vehicles other than the bus they rode in on and the occasional car driving through. The plaster walls he could see were cracked, and he saw many spots of clay tiles missing or broken by weathering and erosion. Azalea Town may have had a Pokémon Gym, something that no town of comparable size in Kanto could boast, but for some reason that didn't seem to help the overall state of the town.

If those were the only two things he saw, though, he would have thought he was in any other rural town between the two regions. However, there was one other sticking point that seemed to keep popping up.

Or more accurately, kept laying in the way.

"What's with all these Slowpoke?"

Chloe, thankfully, was able to ask it before he could. She took out her phone and pointed it at one that was lazily lying beside the dirt road, causing the Rotom within to speak, reading out the entry.

"Slowpoke," the phone said the somewhat large, pink creature, "the Dopey Pokémon. A Water- and Psychic-type. Slowpoke's tail often falls off, but it doesn't hurt, and a new one grows quickly, so the Slowpoke doesn't seem to mind. It takes a little time for them to feel pain."

"There's a legend," Ash explained. "They say that a really long time ago, when Azalea Town was suffering from a drought, a Slowpoke yawned and made it rain."

Goh raised an eyebrow. "Yawned and made it rain? So they were using Rain Dance?"

"Probably," he shrugged. "You know how legends can start up."

"I wanted to catch one while I was here," Horace said, "but all these Slowpoke belong to the town, so if I wanted to catch one, I'd have to look somewhere else."

Goh nodded. "Yeah, you did say you wanted to learn about every Psychic-type Pokémon, right?"

"Yeah," Horace said, "and catching them is a great way to learn about them!"

"Bay, bay!" chirped the Pokémon by his side, happy as can be.

Ash moved so that he'd be closer to Horace's Pokémon as they walked. "So your partner's Bayleef?" he asked. "Reminds me of mine!"

"Yeah! He's my first Pokémon, and really reliable when things get tough," he explained. "He evolved from Chikorita not too long ago. Speaking of," he turned back to Goh, "I haven't seen Raboot or Sobble with you. Did you leave them back at the lab?"
Goh chuckled. "Well, if you must know," he said, pulling a Poké Ball from his pocket, "You can see-"

"I can see that we're wasting daylight," Chloe snapped, grabbing him by the wrist, pouting as she did. "Or aren't we supposed to get to this Kurt's house sometime today?"

"Eievui!"

Her partner seemed blissfully unaware of Chloe's bad mood.

"Grooki!"

And for his part, the same applied to Grookey.

Goh wrenched his wrist from Chloe's hand and put his Poké Ball back into his pocket. "Fine, you're right. We should stay on task. I can show Horace all my incredibly amazing Pokémon later."