In front of the Tin Tower, Crys gasps in surprise when the second Pokéball she kicked off misses the wild Psyduck as well. She hurriedly tells Megapon to deliver a razor leaf, and attempts a third capture. But the Psyduck manages to fend off the ball even in its weakened state, and Crys starts to wonder if it has some special abilities. She quickly checks on her Pokédex, but to her shock, the screen of the device goes black and stops responding. Psyduck leaps into the pond to escape, and Crys kicks out yet another Pokéball. However, it once again misses, and the wild Pokémon soon disappears into the water. Deeply surprised by her consecutive failed attempts, Crys falls onto her knees in horror and despair.

Later, under the moonlit sky, Crys and her Pokémon sit in bemusement next to a lake on route 42. After several more unsuccessful captures, it has become clear that the Psyduck earlier did not possess any special abilities at all. Instead, it is Crys herself who appears to have lost her touch in catching Pokémon. The girl takes a look at the dysfunctioned Pokédex in her hands, and sighs that it must have been damaged when she lands hard on the ground following her fall off the Tin Tower. Without the device's tracking system, she can no longer trace Suicune by its location. She forces on a bitter smile, and remarks to her Pokémon that she seems to have returned to the inept state she was five years ago, back at the time when she was still a novice little girl training hard to become a capture specialist, also the time when Smoochon was her only Pokémon…

On this one fine day five years ago, young little Crys is training high up on the mountains to polish her capture skills. She tosses out a Pokéball towards a circular mark on the giant boulder in front of her, but the throw is far from accurate and the ball barely touches the rim of the mark. Crys whines to Smoochon that she just can't seem to make things right, and suddenly hears a rumbling sound from behind. She turns around curiously, and to her horror, an Arcanine leaps out from the rocks and starts charging towards her. The little girl immediately runs for her life, but soon trips on the irregular ground, and falls off a small cliff. She lands hard on the floor, and cries in shock when she finds herself unable to move her upper limbs. As the pain of the broken arms slowly overwhelms her, Crys passes out with tears in her eyes while Smoochon worriedly runs in circles around its trainer…

Recalling how lame she was in capturing Pokémon back then, Crys sighs in despair and doesn't understand why she has suddenly lost her skills. The problem is, she still needs to carry out her obligation in collecting Pokémon data for Prof. Oak, and judging from her current state, it isn't likely that she will be able to fulfill the deal. She takes a look at her damaged Pokégear, which miraculously still has its phone calling function intact, and wonders if she should let the professor know about the situation. She is still pondering on the matter when an Azumarill suddenly trots by beside her and hops into the lake. Just then, a familiar voice calls out for it to stop, and Crys turns around in shock to see her own mother giving chase with her Wobbuffet.

With a basket in her arms, the hyperactive woman jumps in joy immediately upon seeing Crys, and says it's a pleasant coincidence for them to run into each other on their separate journeys. She greets Crys's Pokémon enthusiastically, and is surprised to see that a Chicorita has joined the team. She quickly picks it up in her hands, and asks Crys if she has nicknamed it something ending with 'pon' as she taught her. Crys sweatdrops that she did and has called it Megapon, but remarks that she still feels weird every now and then about the phrase.

Crys's mom then says she has actually been trying to get in touch with her, and proceeds to open the lid of the basket she's holding. Inside lies a dozen of the special Pokéballs Kurt manufactures, and the woman explains that she thought it should be time Crys replenishes her ball supplies. She hurriedly tells Crys to help her capture the Azumarill, who is still floating and relaxing itself on the surface of the lake, and says she can't wait to see her special kicking technique again. Crys hesitates a little over the notion, and slowly picks up a Pokéball. Not wanting to witness her own failure, she closes her eyes before kicking off the ball, and ends up missing like she feared.

The Azumarill quickly dives underwater to escape after being alerted, and Crys's mom is momentarily stunned by what she saw. With a baffled look on her face, she exclaims that the timing, speed and striking point of the catch were all amateur standard, and worriedly inquires if Crys is feeling alright. Unable to hold back her tears anymore, Crys breaks into a sob and cries that she has lost her ability as a capture specialist. She explains to her mother that she had a big battle with a very powerful Pokémon that afternoon, and was overwhelmingly defeated. Ever since then, her body can't seem to respond well to her desires, and it's as if all her skills have escaped her altogether. She weeps that she doesn't know how to carry on with the mission Prof. Oak bestowed upon her, and asks her mother to teach her what to do.

With a stern look on her face, Crys's mom hollers that it is not simply a mission but a paid job that Crys was given, because the moment she requested financial reward to support the Pokémon Academy, the work is no longer voluntary in nature. Then without warning, she slaps Crys on the face, and tells her never to forget the fact that she is a professional, a capture specialist trained to catch Pokémon, and that professionals never quit until they have finished their job. After calming herself down, the woman turns to leave and says Crys should perhaps revisit the place where she trained before, and start from scratch again to regain her skills. Watching her mother slowly walk away, Crys makes up her mind.

The next morning, Crys has arrived at Mt. Mortar, the same mountainous region where she did her capture training five years ago. She starts tying up her arms with thick bandages, and attempts to mimick her state during the time her arms were broken. Back then, her upper limbs were rendered immobile for a whole month, and she could only depend on her legs and feet for any movement. Perhaps that was reason how she came to develop her unique Pokéball kicking style, and even polished her skills well enough to be so adept in capturing Pokémon.

Having learnt her lesson from her mother last night, Crys is determined to regain what she has lost and gets herself ready. Nearby, a Larvitar puts on an evil grin as it continues to spy on the girl from behind a rock…

Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us