Chaser and the Greatest Smith's Ball

Chaser and Moonlight

The full moon hung in the night sky over Azalea Town, and to Goh, that felt like a good omen.

After eating dinner and planning their strategy, he and the others waited until it was past midnight, when they could expect the entire town to be asleep. The four teens slipped out of the Pokémon Center under the cover of night, their Pokémon traveling with them in the quiet darkness.

Once they arrived at the outside of Kurt's compound, the four approached their first obstacle. While they had floated the idea of using Dragonite to fly over the wall, the dragon's powerful wings might awaken Kurt, Maizie, or Teddiursa, and so they opted for something slower but a bit stealthier.

Horace let out his Bayleef, who used his Vine Whip to quietly lift each of the humans onto the wall before being recalled and let out up top to let them slide down quietly and safely.

Once inside, Horace then let out his Gardevoir, a Pokémon Goh had only learned about over their dinners over the past few days. The Embrace Pokémon held her arms out and glowed slightly, projecting her psychic power over the home, checking to see if the occupants were still asleep.

"Garde..." she said, nodding to Horace, who nodded back.

"I still wonder if this is a good idea..." Chloe whispered, clutching Eevee to her chest.

Goh turned to her. "We're not going to keep it. We just need to force his hand."

She frowned. "But still..."

"You came with, didn't you?"

Goh's question caught her off guard, and her eyes darted away from him. "Well, yeah..."

"So have some faith in me, okay?"

Chloe pouted and looked away from him, but even so she still nodded. "Fine. I will."

Goh smirked to himself, mentally noting how cute she could be when she was losing their little game. He turned his gaze towards the building and gestured forward."

"Let's go."

At his signal, the four teens began moving into their positions, with Chloe staying close to the door, ready to unlock it and make a hasty retreat if need be. She nodded to Goh, Ash and Horace, silently mouthing 'good luck' to them as she and Eevee sat and watched quietly from the shadow of the wall.

Horace recalled Gardevoir and Bayleef, leaving Grookey and Pikachu as the only Pokémon out with the boys. Goh glanced between the house and the workshop, thinking to himself.

Where could they best find evidence that Kurt hadn't worked on the GS Ball like he had been claiming? It was a lot like proving a negative, and came with all the issues that it brought with it. They would need something that caught Kurt in his lie...

If it were Goh, he'd have stashed the ball somewhere in his room where no one would find it without breaking in, but thinking about that, he wondered if that was true. If he had anything hidden, and he was out of the house, his grandmother or parents could find it just by trying to tidy up by mistake. So instead, the best place to hide it would be as close to where he worked as possible.

So for Kurt, that would be his workshop.

Goh gestured wordlessly towards the now quiet workshop with its now cold forge, and Horace and Ash nodded. The three boys crossed the yard to the workshop, still sitting open, its shelves exposed to the open air given the three walled structure.

"Let's look around and see if we can find anything," Goh whispered.

As he looked around the room, Goh decided to start at the bench that Kurt worked at. He sat in the old man's seat and opened the drawer that contained a myriad of specialized tools. He tried to be as quiet as he could going through the drawer, looking for some sort of clue, but all of the tools were made of a heavy metal, probably to keep them from overheating or breaking easily during the intense forging work.