PS209

← PS208 : On the Loose and Hyper With Zangoose and Seviper II

Ruby & Sapphire arc

PS210 : Hanging Around With Slaking II →

Hanging Around With Slaking I
Third Choice

VS ケッキング I

VS Kekking I

Info

Shogakukan full volume	Chapter 209 in Vol. 17
VIZ Media full volume	Adventure 209 in Vol. 17
Series	Pokémon Adventures

Other

Location

Route 119 Weather Institute

Hanging Around With Slaking I (Japanese: VS ケッキング I VS Kekking I), titled VS Slaking I in the Chuang Yi translation, is the 209th chapter of the Pokémon Adventures manga, and the 29th chapter of the Ruby & Sapphire arc.

It is subtitled Third Choice (Japanese: ３つ目の選択肢 Three Choices) in the VIZ Media translation and Three Choices in the Chuang Yi translation.

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 on the car window, causing Ty to assume that 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 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 Vigoroth and Slaking. 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 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.

For a list of all major events in the Pokémon Adventures manga, please see the history page.

	Spoilers end here.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Castform (Rainy Form)

Characters

Humans

• Ruby
• Norman
• Gabby and Ty
• Swimmer Jack

Pokémon

• Mightyena (Nana; Ruby's)
• Delcatty (Kiki; Ruby's)
• Marshtomp (Mumu; Ruby's)
• Vigoroth (Norman's)
• Slaking (Norman's)
• Castform (Mr. Stone's; Normal and Rainy Forms)

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.
  • This was fixed in the Brazilian Portuguese translation, with Norman saying he taught Ruby Hyper Beam.

Translation edits

Chuang Yi version of this scene.

• In the VIZ Media version, 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.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		VS 請假王 I (Taiwan) VS 请假王 I (Mainland China)
European French		Retrouvailles - Partie 1
German		VS. Letarking (Teil 1)
Italian		VS Slaking I
Korean		VS 게을킹 I
Brazilian Portuguese		VS Slaking I
Spanish	Latin America	VS Slaking I
	Spain	Contra Slaking (1ª parte)
Vietnamese		VS Kekking I - Sự lựa chọn thứ ba

← PS208 : On the Loose and Hyper With Zangoose and Seviper II

Ruby & Sapphire arc

PS210 : Hanging Around With Slaking II →

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