If Leon vs. Alain, or the Tournament in the anime is not your cup of tea, why not read another version of the Masters 8?
The story continues from Pokemon Journeys episode 109, with a brand new bracket from the anime. Ash has finally entered the Mast...
Professor Oak, Delia, Serena, and Red all arrived safely at Oak's Lab. Team Psychic's crew didn't chase after them, probably because PsychicMagic was injured, and a couple of Project Mew Chasers were dead.
The protagonists put down their Pokémon for Oak's assistants to check on. Then, Red headed to the basement, where the rest followed.
Turning on the lights, they found a large area with various kinds of machinery. Red started one of the grey machines that was connected by two large plastic capsules.
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Professor Oak didn't know these capsules were in his lab's basement. Even if he knew, he would be too busy to care about them, "When did you put these machines?"
Red fiddled with the buttons on the machines to activate some kinds of program, while his Deoxys stood on a side to observe his master, "A while back. Tracey let me into the lab in exchange for a battle with him, so I could put these here. This is the only safe place to store these high-end technologies, as far as I know."
Delia shrugged, "What are we doing here?"
Red clicked "Enter" on the machine, which began to buzz, "To hide and make sure all of you are safe here. We will wait for Ash to come back. Then I will explain."
Red ran out of the basement and told Deoxys to follow. To kill time, Professor Oak began introducing his lab to Delia and Serena, as well as sharing some of Ash's past stories when he was in Kanto. It was not a surprise for Delia: she knew most of them already. But for Serena, it was her first time hearing his rough and embarrassing beginnings, which were way worse than how she began her journey.
After around 15 minutes, Red carried Ash to the basement. He had fainted and was unconscious. The former Kanto Champion summoned his Audino to use Heal Pulse on Ash.
"Ash! Are you ok?" Serena gasped when she saw Ash like this, then she turned to ask Red, "What happened to him?"
Red explained, "I guess he was outmatched. Dragonite flew him here, but it was also pretty beat up."
A few minutes later, thanks to Audino's Heal Pulse, Ash woke up from his coma, "Where am I?"
Professor Oak replied, "You are in my lab, boy."
Red continued like a nerd, "Two things we need to get done here, Ash. One, we need to remove your Time Lock. The machines are here, and the vessel is ready. We might as well do it right away. Two, I will grab my supplies and Pokémon to save the Champions from PsychicMagic. If you want to come with me, we can discuss strategies here. But if you don't want to go, that's fine as well."
It was a bit of an overload for Ash to suddenly get bombarded with so much information, especially after he just woke up, "Slow down, Dad. Slow down. What is the Time Lock again?"
Red began to explain what happened to Ash and the details about the Time Lock, "If it's just you who stopped aging, then I guess you can decide whether you want to remove the Time Lock."
