[1] The Daughter of Nurse Joy

Riddle Me This

Cora and her friends were taking a ship to head to Cinnabar Island. By morning, they were getting closer to the Island, on the deck, looking over the ocean and the approaching Island.

"We're almost there." Ash said with excitement.

"It's supposed to be beautiful." Misty told them.

"It's got an awesome volcano, best of all, it got Pokémon research laboratory's one best in the world," Brock informed, "Trainers come all over to learn the latest Pokémon technique."

"And Blaine the Gym Leader lives there." Cora added.

"I wonder what he's like." Mairin commented.

"From what I've heard, he's called the Hotheaded Quiz Master." Alain said.

"The Hotheaded Quiz Master?" Misty asked.

"The guy is a Fire-type gym leader who likes to give out riddles. Some of those riddles are impossible to solve." Cora replied.

"I just hope that he doesn't give us one when we meet him." Ash prayed.

'Oh, but we will, Ash.' Cora thought.

"Well, well, well, isn't it little Ashy."

An annoying voice came from behind the gang. They looked over their shoulders and saw Prof. Oak's arrogant grandson, Gary, laying out on a pool lounge chair with his cheerleaders next to him.

"Gary." Cora deadpanned, "What are you doing here?"

"I've earned so many badges already so I'm taking a break to work on my tan." Gary taunted.

"While you're tanning, I'll be at the Cinnabar Gym." Ash said.

Gary just continued to smirk, "Cinnabar Island doesn't even have Pokémon Gym."

"What?! That's impossible!" Ash exclaimed.

"It's true. Cinnabar is just a tourist attraction." Gary stated.

Ash slumped his head forward at the information.

"Well, let's get going." Cora decided and walked away.

"Good idea." Alain nodded and followed after her with Mairin behind him along with Brock, Ash and Misty to go to their rooms to get their backpacks.

======================

After the ship finally stopped at the dock, Cora and her friends had got off the ship and looked around. There was a lot of people around, but they weren't trainers. They were tourists, much to Cora and Ash's disappointment.

"I guess Gary was right." Ash stated.

"This place is a tourist attraction." Misty commented.

"No sign for a Pokémon Gym but there sure are a lot of tourists around here, there so many nice Islands, I wonder why this one became so popular." Brock said as they looked around the people.

Suddenly a man with long hair, sunglasses and a mustache stood in front of them. Cora recognized this man as Blaine the Cinnabar Gym Leader, in disguise.

"The answer is in the riddle; what's the tourists think is hot and cool?" he asked.

The gang blinked at him.

"Hot spring are really hot and..." Misty trailed off and smiled.

"And tourists think they're cool." Cora finished, smiling.

Blaine nodded, "That's right, young ladies. See kids, because of the volcano, there's a lot of hot springs here on Cinnabar Island, and every year more and more tourists come visit 'em. Now they even taken over Cinnabar Island, trainers don't even come anymore. Tourists! They've ruined the Island!" The man fell to his knees in depression.