PS209

Hanging Around With Slaking I/VS Slaking I

VS ケッキング I

VS Kekking I

Info

Series

Pokémon Adventures

Other

Location

Weather Institute

Hanging Around With Slaking I/VS Slaking I or Three Choices (Japanese: VS ケッキング I VS Kekking I or ３つ目の選択肢 Three Choices) is the 209th round of the Pokémon Adventures manga.

Plot

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

On Route 119, Gabby and Ty drive down the road as it begins to rain, causing Mr. Stone's Castform to change into its Rainy form. Free to cover their story, the two look for Norman and Ruby to get information about the team clad in red that attacked Captain Stern. Suddenly, Castform begins knocking at the car window, leading to Ty assuming it's being hostile again.

Gabby, however, correctly guess that Castform is actually pointing at something——the Weather Institute. Upon checking, they find Norman holding Ruby up by his throat. Norman punches Ruby into a wall again and demands to know why he ran away from home. When Ruby informs the Swimmer of the situation, the Swimmer suggests that he should give up to Norman and go home.

In his head, Ruby calculates three different choices he has: one, to apologize to his father; two, to escape and run away again; three, to stay and fight his father. Having no choice, Ruby decides to stay and fight in order to show his father how serious he is about Contests. Although he admits to the Swimmer that apologizing would be better, Ruby chooses to fight and requests that he does not watch the fight between him and Norman.

Ruby charges into battle and sends out Kiki and Nana to face Norman's Slaking and Delcatty. Despite their strength, Nana and Kiki are easily swept away because Norman knows all of Ruby's strategies, as he was the one to teach them to him. Ruby's confidence isn't shattered, as he reveals to his father his newest team member, Mumu and that his first two Pokémon were nearly decoys for a trap he set up. Mumu fires a Mud Shot into a pipe, which sends several balls of mud flying towards Norman and his Pokémon. Gabby and Ty soon reach the Swimmer, who tells the two of them about Norman and Ruby's battle.

Major events

• Ruby faces his father in battle to force him to let him do Contests.
• Gabby and Ty arrive at the Weather Institute.

Characters

Humans

• Gabby and Ty
• Ruby
• Swimmer
• Norman

Pokémon

• Marshtomp (Mumu/Zuzu; Ruby's)
• Delcatty (Kiki/Coco; Ruby's)
• Mightyena (Nana; Ruby's)
• Slaking (Norman's)
• Vigoroth (Norman's)
• Castform (Mr. Stone's)

Trivia

Errors

• Norman claims that he taught Nana Hyper Beam. However, the only time that Norman has seen Nana is when she was a Poochyena, when she couldn't learn the move.

Translation edits

• In the VIZ Media edition, the scene where Norman slaps Ruby while asking why he ran away from home is changed to Norman being startled by a bolt of lightning and accidentally losing his grip on Ruby's shirt.

This article is part of Project Manga, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each series of Pokémon manga.