"Damn it! In that case, I have to unearth a Pokémon fossil faster than Gary and show him a thing or two!" Ash clenched his fists, his face a mask of furious determination.
"But don't you think that's like deliberately waking up ancient Pokémon that have turned to fossils and are sleeping underground?" Brock mused thoughtfully.
"Isn't it romantic, though? Searching for Pokémon that have been extinct for tens of thousands of years?" Misty giggled, caught up in the adventure of it all.
'Actually,' Red thought to himself, 'some of them are sleeping peacefully right beneath our feet.' It was plausible. Some ancient Pokémon could have survived the extinction-level disaster by entering a deep, prolonged slumber, minimizing their energy consumption to endure the ages.
"By the way, Big Brother, how many badges do you have now?" Ash asked, proudly pulling out his newest prize. "This is the Black Badge I got from Dark City! Even though it's not officially certified by the League yet, it's still a great memory."
He held it out for Red to see, clearly expecting to finally match his brother's collection, but his jaw dropped when Red casually produced an identical badge from his own pocket.
"How is that possible?!" Ash exclaimed, his moment of pride instantly turning to confusion. "The Kaya Gym leaders said I was their first challenger!"
"Could it be…" Brock stroked his chin, a look of realization dawning on his face as he recalled their time in Dark City. "The 'Master' they spoke of… was that you, Red?"
"So the one who stopped the fighting in Dark City was my own brother!" Ash shouted, finally connecting the dots.
"That's right," Misty added. "A young man in a red hat—that description fits you perfectly, Red."
"I can't believe your Onix and Scyther had already evolved," Brock said with a helpless shake of his head. "I thought another powerful trainer had emerged in Kanto, and I was going to warn you about them. Turns out it was you all along."
"Ash, what about your harvest in the Safari Zone?" Red asked, changing the subject.
"Don't even get me started, Big Brother," Ash said, his shoulders slumping as he squatted on the ground and began drawing circles in the dirt. He clearly hadn't caught anything he was satisfied with.
"It was the strangest thing," Brock explained. "The Tauros in the Safari Zone saw Ash and just… rushed him. Not to attack, but to jump right into his Safari Balls."
"We weren't even there for an hour, and all thirty of Ash's Safari Balls were full of Tauros," Misty said with a sigh, still baffled by the bizarre event.
"…"
Red slowly tipped his hat down, a knowing silence settling over him. He had a strong suspicion. The Tauros herd, having lost its leader to him, had likely mistaken Ash—another trainer from Pallet Town—for one of their own and had frantically entered his Poké Balls in a desperate attempt to follow their leader to Professor Oak's lab.
As they talked, the group made their way toward the central excavation area. Just after they left, a Jigglypuff holding a microphone-shaped marker peeked out from behind a rock. It had intended to serenade them with its wonderful singing, but they had already gone. It puffed out its cheeks, its face turning red with frustration.
"Success! I got the fossil of an extinct Pokémon!"
Gary's triumphant shout echoed through the canyon. He held up his find, making a V-sign for his cheerleaders.
"Yeah! Go, Gary! Go, Gary! You're the best!" they chanted, waving their pom-poms and fueling his already massive ego.
The news that Gary had found a fossil quickly drew a crowd. A balding, elderly archaeologist rushed over and began meticulously examining the object with a magnifying glass.
"How about that? I dug it up right away!" Gary said smugly. "By the way, do you know what kind of fossil this is?"
"This is…" the archaeologist murmured.
"This is a…?!" Gary prompted, bouncing on the balls of his feet, desperate to know what ancient Pokémon he had discovered.
"This is a piece of fossilized Pokémon poop!" the archaeologist declared, looking at Gary with a deadpan expression. All that effort for a petrified turd. It was a complete letdown.
"Huh?"
Gary froze. Then, with a cry of despair, he collapsed to the ground. He had hoped to be the star of the Grand Canyon, but now he was just a clown.
"Ew, poop!" his cheerleaders cried in unison.
"Hahahahaha!" Ash, who had just arrived on the scene, burst into hysterical laughter. "I can't believe Gary actually dug up fossilized poop! That's hilarious!"
"The rumors certainly drew a crowd," Red said with a sigh, standing on a high point and looking down at the sea of people vigorously swinging their pickaxes below.
"If we don't hurry, all the fossils will be gone!" Misty said anxiously.
"I don't know," Brock said, stroking his chin. "So many people are digging and finding nothing. Maybe there's something wrong with these rumors."
"Not necessarily," Red said leisurely. "Perhaps there really are ancient Pokémon that have survived…" He trailed off, his head turning as he noticed a familiar sight. "Ash, isn't that your old rival, Team Rocket?" he teased, pointing at Meowth, who was muttering to himself nearby.
"I wonder if they're having any luck," Meowth complained, stomping his foot. "Given our track record, I don't know if we can rely on 'em, meow!"
The Team Rocket trio had arrived at the canyon even earlier than Red's group. They had dug day and night, hoping to strike it rich, but had found nothing. Now, an enraged Jessie and James had decided on a more direct approach: blow up the entire area with explosives.
"To protect the world from devastation! To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"I'll hit ya! I'll hit ya!" Meowth shrieked, cutting off their motto. He raised an inflatable hammer and began 'rubbing' it back and forth on their heads. "All that nonsense is useless! Have you two loaded the bombs yet?!"
"What are you doing?!" Jessie screeched. She snatched the hammer from Meowth and whacked him with it, sending him flying into a nearby rock wall with enough force to embed his entire body.
"Gurgle!" James watched in horror as Meowth's body slid down the wall, leaving a perfect cartoon imprint behind. Immediately after, rocks crumbled from above, burying the incapacitated Meowth in a pile of rubble.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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