The Southern Kanto Coastline, underwater…

No matter how often she went underwater, even in the same stretch of beach coast they had been staying along for a few days now, Misty never got tired of it.

There was something about the weightless feel of water, the subtle current that one just didn’t feel in the air, and the unique things it did to sound.

She wished she could share it with them.

Willing herself down onto the sandy bottom, Misty looked up into the glimmering sun atop the waves with a frown.

Among what she could do was breath underwater, and one of the things they had done while here in the last few days was see if there was any way that the ability could be replicated by the others.

It was a vain hope, they even knew it was when they spent a morning on the topic, and possibly dangerous. Yet so was riding an infamous wave on a surfboard you barely knew how to use, and Ash had decided, for some reason, to ride the thing and try and plant a flag on a rock.

Helping some random surfer was not due cause for doing that, and it had been somewhat gratifying to see that it was something so recklessly dumb that even Iris agreed it was unnecessarily dangerous.

Ash didn’t even need to clarify he wasn’t one of the surf bums trying to impress the ladies, although Iris was on board with all of them in telling Ash to never do that again.

Not in twenty years, or forty, or whenever the wave came back, ever again.

Ash’s random reckless behavior aside, the attempts to try and share this world with the others had somehow failed even more so than Ash’s surfing.

The only idea that had come up that was actually worth implementing was seeing if Anabel could use her psychic powers to draw in bubbles into one massive bubble, and all that had ended up doing was pop a few feet down sending Anabel scurrying to the surface.

A pair of bodies crossed that very same surface now, and she could tell even from how far down she was that they were Ash’s and Iris’s bodies.

She smiled as they went by, a thought of how she might let at least one person see this world without an overwhelming time limit entered her mind.

She could breathe down here just as she normally could above water, with her nose or mouth. With the former she could keep herself breathing just fine, but could she then use her mouth to push oxygen into their mouth?

Of the two above specifically, into Ash’s mouth. As the act was something akin to a very long kiss, and she could not imagine doing that with Iris.

It was a rather romantic thought, even if she suspected that would not actually work. Her and Ash, kissing, bound together by their own limbs as they floated in a world that she could finally share with him.

She’d have to actually get up the nerve to kiss him normally first, let alone what she suspected he had to work to be in the same place for anyone really.

Still, the thought made her grin, quite possibly like an idiot, for a good minute before she was snapped back to reality.

“Hep!” ‘Found someone! Coming your way fast!’

Staryu was speeding towards her, pursued close behind by a charging Seadra.

Her grin returned, this time for the continuation of a more immediately workable goal than sharing the majesty of being underwater with her friends.

…

“You know, there was a simple solution to your earlier debacle. Just buy rebreathers and goggles. As you opted to not rent a place to stay in during your trip, you could easily afford to do so.”

The Pokédex’s point rang out as Ash, a hand shielding his eyes from the sun, stared out into the distance.

Even with his vision being briefly blocked by a few droplets of water from his recent swim, he could still faintly see the flying maneuvers he had sent his current roster on.

Charizard, Pidgeot, Butterfree, Yanma, and the more battle interested Vivillon were stretching their wings out on an open sea aerial flight, and he would much rather check up on them and make sure he could still see all five of them than try and imagine explaining to Iris how a rebreather worked.

Heck, he’d need it explained to him. They weren’t snorkels or bamboo shoots, so how they did work?

Speaking of Iris (who was, in fact, the reason that they were using Secret Bases instead of renting, she had requested it, and thus was why Psyduck was lying next to him and muttering contently in the sun), he noticed her in the corner of her eye talking with Anabel in a telepathic conversation both ways.

The animated way the two were speaking made him worry. Was Iris going to have Anabel do something madly intense for training that was terrifying to even imagine?

He was ready to go and possibly bail Anabel out (which had the potential to get him wrapped up in whatever Iris was up to, sure, but it was better than doing nothing) when the conversation stopped and the two began walking his way.

Iris a lot more focused looking than Anabel, with a sway in her step oddly enough. Anabel followed, looking a lot more apprehensive.

That could not end well.

Though what he was expecting did not involve Anabel telekinetically shooting a bottle of sun lotion into Iris’s hand, who promptly held it in front of his face.

A few moments afterwards he felt a furry appendage stick out behind his knee, as if to block him from backing away from whatever this was going to end up being.

“Pikapi.” ‘Don’t go anywhere Ash, I like where this is going’.

The tone of his buddy, currently sunning himself like Psyduck, made him even more apprehensive.

Where was this going exactly? And why did Pikachu seem to know when he didn’t?

Iris, in the same swimsuit that made her fit body clear for all to see, was grinning as she promptly explained why she was holding the bottle of lotion out to him.

“Say Ash, Anabel was just telling me that it is important to make sure your skin does not get burned in the sun. Even with my skin, there are apparently benefits to doing so, even after a long swim.”

Iris gave this point in a purring tone. It was one that made his body tingle in both worry, and excitement. It was a strange combination.

“So, you wanted to remind me? Thanks; I did forget to put some more on.”

His hopes that he could solve this that easily were dashed as Iris shook her head.

“No. We were hoping you could lotion our backs, and we do the same for you. We could do it for ourselves, but we want you to do it.”

He only faintly noticed Anabel wave her hand in front of his face as he tried to process what was just said, or the fact that Iris said something about ‘this being Anabel’s idea’.

What context that could have possibly originated from just didn’t seem to compute as his brain felt like it was a car missing some sort of ignition piece.

If he knew more about cars, he’d give it an actual name beyond ‘ignition piece’.

Not even Pikachu prodding him with his tail was able to get his brain back on line.

“You know, if he is just going to stare at us in shock like this, perhaps we should just do him first. It does not smell like he did any part of his body recently, and he is shirtless.”

‘Iris, that is…..that…..lathering sunscreen on a semi-comatose person without their permission is not okay!’

“Do you want him to get damaged skin and be miserable?”

That managed to get his brain to work properly, and after hearing the faint spark of electricity that was probably meant as a friendly ‘suggestion’ and not an actual threat he shouted out he’d do it.

His face and Anabel’s turning cherry red, and even the grinning Iris being a tad pinker in complexion.

…

Once upon another time, he had thawed out a disobedient Charizard slowly over an entire night.

Somehow this felt like an even more terrifying task than unthawing a disobedient fire breathing Pokémon, even if he did go at it with the same level of consistency as he did then.

Iris and Anabel were laying on their stomachs on the grassy area that hung over the small stretch of beach that Misty had walked into a short time ago, Pikachu and Psyduck still laying on the same grass.

Pikachu having now moved right behind him once more, as if ready to ‘remind’ him again.

Yet it wasn’t needed as his lotion-lathered hands dug into the parts of Iris’s back exposed by her swimsuit, gently rubbing the cream in as Iris groaned in contentment.

The sounds she was making brought back the feelings of worry and excitement he’d felt earlier. They were causing him to flush darker and darker shades of red the longer he rubbed lotion in to her skin. A part of him, though he’d never admit it out loud was enjoying her groans at an almost primal level.

“This feels nicer than you said it would, Anabel.”

Iris had requested to be done first, and he had always noticed her watching the two of them. He didn’t glance over to see what sort of expression she had.

This was already distracting enough.

As he worked along Iris’s back, he noted how her skin felt. It wasn’t the smoothest thing he ever felt, even without the small scars that Iris had all over her body it felt tough. He could almost feel wilderness in it, and there was something intriguing about it. The contrast between her dark skin-tone and the pale lotion only added to the appeal.

It was, as he’d thought, intriguing and its own sort of pleasant he had never felt much of before. The heat of the moment in training didn’t really lend itself to analyzing how her skin felt, or the lithe muscles that lay underneath. The brief touches and tussles for dominance during their sparring clashes didn’t let his mind focus on how she felt in those moments.

It felt rather compact and seamless, compared to how musculature on him seemed to only serve to stretch his shirts. He had to admit some envy towards it. Her body was more suited for survival, a mixture of speed and strength along with feminine allure.

One last tracing motion along Iris’s shoulders got her entire back done, and he scooted over to where Anabel lay.

“Could you do the front too?”

He tried to ignore Iris’s request. Doing her back was already distracting enough; her butt drew his attention more times than he cared to admit. Rubbing lotion on her front, well, it probably wasn’t allowed on a public beach. A small voice in his head was whispering to him, urging him to agree to Iris’ request, he quickly gagged that voice and sent it back into the far reaches of his mind to keep it quiet.

He missed being … whatever age he was sometimes. That age didn’t have him be distracted by Iris’s butt, or her toned body, or the question of what things would distract him if she flipped over and had him lotion her front.

Of course moving over to Anabel didn’t mean he wasn’t distracted. Her body was appealing itself, with her own butt and increasingly fit body that had its own charm compared to Iris’s brown and more toned form.

Pushing apart her lengthened hair, he began rubbing below her neck, which led to Anabel groaning in appreciation.

Perhaps it was more of a moan than a groan here, but he needed to control his thoughts somehow.

Compared to Iris’s skin, Anabel’s was smooth and less taut, his hands standing out against her skin tone in a more drastic way than he’d noticed before. The way her skin and muscle resisted his touch less then Iris’ did was something that had an appeal all of its own. It felt fresh and new, she probably took care of it more than Iris did. It reminded him a bit of snow, as odd as it was to say.

Of course what did he know about skin care? All that he could really say was that both felt nice, if in their own way and with their own possible flaws.

“Was watching me that bad? Did it make you annoyed, or did it just make you happy and wanting it yourself?”

Ash really hoped that Iris was not asking him that. That made him wonder if she was trying to make him do something he couldn’t imagine himself doing.

Pikachu could probably imagine him doing that, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know what had happened to Pikachu’s mind to change it into what it currently was or when it happened but it hadn’t changed who Pikachu was at his core so it wasn’t anything to worry about.

However as Anabel tensed up under his rubbing, yet not in a way that felt like it was his doing, he picked up that Iris was talking to Anabel, not him.

Which was confusing. If Iris had been saying that to him, it made him think she was making an innuendo reference to the fact that he was glad his swim trunks still were rather baggy (unlike his shirts these days). Which would be mortifying to realize that she had noticed that, but what did it mean if she was talking to Anabel?

Was that why she was watching?

The exact reasons eluded him, even if that was possibly just because he was distracted right now.

‘No, it wasn’t that bad at all.’

Anabel’s sigh as he moved to a new spot only added to the confusion, and he wasn’t sure if he could piece together what was going on.

Honestly, he was not entirely sure he wanted to piece it all together.

“Pika pika.” ‘Well this is an interesting turn of events.’

Pikachu probably did, and somehow that was more clearly concerning than what the two were up to now, or if he had to be honest since Iris had drawn Anabel into the more intense training.

…

While she had never given much thought to her own back, in part because she never really could see it, she had noticed Ash’s from time to time.

With Iris having her in hand to hand combat/practical use of power training, she would have to be blind to not have seen it.

Touching it though, with hands lathered in lotion, was an entirely new sensation. A sensation that she doubted she’d ever tire of.

She could feel the muscles in his shoulders as she rubbed the lotion in, nervous but relaxing. Despite that, she could feel the power hidden within. The feel of that strength concealed behind Ash’s kind nature was something she found attractive on more than one level.

Idly she wondered if Misty and Iris had a similar feel to them, though she had far less interest in feeling their backs with her hands than she did Ash’s.

Feeling her hand dry of lotion she squirted some more on and resumed around the small of his back. Something he hadn’t needed to do with them, a benefit of the fact that they had a lot less exposed than he did.

Of course if Misty came out of the water, that would be another story with a lot more exposed skin.

A thought that, she had to admit, even as she could imagine Misty moaning as Ash dug his hands into her back, really didn’t bother her.

Something that she was sure that Iris had noticed, and if she cared to turn around from Ash’s lotion-glistening back she was sure she’d see her grinning like a mad cat at her.

A much less pleasant sight to look at, especially as she got a bit of an idea of what that looked like with Pikachu.

Ash’s partner had a look on his face she could easily see Iris making right now, which made her wonder if Iris had gotten Pikachu in on her little plan of having the two of them and Misty share Ash in a relationship.

Or, perhaps the two had come to a similar goal on their own, a conclusion that unnerved her in several ways.

Beyond making her wonder if ‘shopping madness’, as Ash had described it, had a related disease that was affecting both electric mouse and wild girl alike, the fact that she was pretty sure that Pikachu lived a lifestyle more akin to what Iris was okay with in a vacuum where she (and surely Misty and Ash) didn’t have objections to things.

She was aware that certain female Pokémon tended to vanish on certain nights, among them her Eevee. Nights Pikachu also darted off.

That thought shoved far out of her head, she rubbed lotion deep into Ash’s back, and enjoyed the muscle she was feeling.

“When you are done, should we try and get his front done? He can do ours like I had already asked.”

She shook her head at that image, no matter how much she enjoyed the idea, blushing a bit.

‘We can do that that ourselves. Like I accidentally brought up to you, it is considered somewhat sensual to lather up someone’s back, but the front is considered a bit creepy.’

Finishing on the back of Ash’s legs, she backed up as Ash stood up and reached for the sunscreen to do his front in a non-creepy way.

“Thanks.”

She nodded as he began lathering on his arms. He stopped mid-arm to acknowledge a disturbance at the water’s edge, which quickly became clear to be the bikini-clad Misty.

Anabel noticed Ash’s eyes lingered on her as she exited the water, and Anabel couldn’t really blame him.

She had noticed some of his thoughts as he lotioned her and Iris, and had caught a few of his thoughts on them as he did so.

How Iris’s skin felt, how it compared to her own, thoughts on their hair and their butts … it was weirdly charming even if it would be a question of whether him saying those things aloud were more awkward to her or him.

Misty had pretty much everything they had, her skin was smoother like her own, but with the underlying muscle of Iris. She had longer hair like Ash seemed to like than her own, and it was better kept that Iris’s mane.

Then there were the things she had that neither of them had, and she didn’t miss how Ash’s eyes did dart to them as she emerged from the water, droplets of water falling down from her and highlighting all of it. A particular thought flashed through Ash’s mind as his eyes followed the trail of a droplet of water as it rolled down Misty’s cleavage and toned stomach. He then remembered that Anabel could read thoughts and quickly banished.

It was fairly obvious that just as the three of them had feelings for Ash and no idea that didn’t come out of some madness on how to approach them, he was attracted to all of them.

It was like one of her uncle’s old drama shows, just without a laugh track and the fact she was pretty sure all of them wanted to break the ‘how do we romance’ status quo.

She had never liked those shows, the constant misunderstandings between cast members didn’t seem to make anyone happy, in or out of universe.

“Hey Misty, have Ash lotion your back.”

These shows didn’t have anyone like Iris in them, whose idea of how to make everyone happy would probably be just as cringy there as it was in this one.

“What?”

Yet it was a cringe that didn’t bother her. The image of Ash rubbing Misty’s exposed back, and her moaning a bit as he did from the act, did not make her angry at Misty or Ash.

Just as she hadn’t been bothered by Iris and Ash earlier.

“Yeah, what? Here I’m told that there is some sort of hot-shot Trainer out training here that would be worth my time to kick the ass of, and he’s just some overpaid servant to some city bimbos. What she pay you to sell out your dignity?”

A wafting thought of jealousy and annoyance followed the rude words, as all of their attentions, (bar Psyduck), were drawn to a tank-top wearing Trainer eyeing Ash dismissively, when his eyes were not wandering to Misty and having thoughts that were even less pleasant.

Iris looked at his the way one looked at trash, and Ash exchanged a look with Misty.

“You want to deal with him, or are you okay with me doing it?”

She would do it if they had to. Same with Iris, who would not need to find a way to mask the lack of speaking.

“He isn’t a giant rock covered in surfer skid marks. You don’t need to ask if you want to kick his ass. You and Pikachu would get more out of it than my Pokémon would anyway.”

“Oh really? That pet is going to beat me up, is that so lotion boy?”

The ‘pet’ promptly did, wearing a vicious grin the whole time.

----------------------------------------

An Island

The battle was one-sided.

The Trainer’s commands were well practiced, and the Pikachu had an excellent synchronicity with him. The challenger stood no chance.

He shook his head at the idea that the challenger could have ever been a threat. Still…

“Shall I send an invitation?”

He waved in acknowledgement to his thrall, giving the okay.

The boy clearly had something to him, but it would remain to be seen if he had anything more. A Pikachu could not cross an ocean in a storm, not that he had ever heard.

He idly recalled seeing a few Pokémon flying in the area that were likely not just wild, they may belonged to him. Among them a Charizard.

A Charizard could make it, if it was properly trained. If the boy had trained it like he had trained the Pikachu, he might be among the few to persevere through his storm.

Though it could belong to one of his companions, that was certainly possible.

“As you wish.”

It was a simple button press to send out the signal, and the thrall didn’t need to do much more. His messenger would go out, and another candidate would be made.

He pondered if he’d need to spread his power outwards, ensuring a spark of interest in the Trainers. It was simple enough to do, and it would ensure that he would get what he wanted.

Yet as he had occasionally wondered if he had needed to do so, he always looked into the minds of his targets.

Brief glimpses into the minds of the humans, and he had never seen disinterest. Their curiosities and desire to see the greatest drove them just as well as any nudge he could give them.

He could almost call himself impressed. Both at their bravado, and the fact he had created the perfect trap.

The thrall had not departed, which drew his attention back to her and away from his astonishment at their willingness to follow his will unheeded.

“My Master, the clones have finished growing. They only need to wake up, which they will do so upon your command, and they will already know all that they need to.”

It was a rarity that he found himself smiling, but he couldn’t help doing so at the news.

All of his mental power over mind and matter, and his attempts at creating life just as they had once created him had failed him. Yet it took a simple nurse to patch out his failures on one front.

One of the best decisions he had ever made, and that was before he had even thought of having her be his face until his grand reveal. To think he had once simply experimented with ripping the skills from her feeble human mind.

It would have been the epitome of wastefulness.

'That is excellent. You have performed as I had expected you to.'

She bowed at his compliment.

Why did humans do that? If it was a bigger curiosity of his he’d push her on it, but he had far more pressing things for her to do than explain some inconsequential detail.

'Tell me, what is the progress on Amber?'

There was a massive list of things he wanted to accomplish, the extent of which would have any human rightfully shiver in their little shoes. Even the so-called ‘great’ Giovanni feared him, and he knew quite well that he would be saved for last.

Her revival was the most important of all his goals.

“Problematic.”

The single word answer from the thrall was not unexpected, but it was unwelcome nonetheless.

He had brought her because cloning was an unstable process. Any hundreds of things could make a clone fail, as he had unfortunately witnessed.

He was the exception, not the rule.

The thrall had the knowledge to correct the problems as they pertained to the Pokémon clones. From what he had gleamed the issue arose in a number of locations along their genetic structure, and she was able to overcome those failings.

Humans were similarly trouble to recreate this way, but their problems were different. They fell apart on different points of the DNA chains.

Different systems failed, different organs failed to develop properly, entirely different problems for ultimately inferior creations in nearly all regards.

Their minds were among the few things they had that was superior, a fact the species had managed to use when led by their better specimens.

They also sweated better, which he had to admit did more for them than he had originally expected.

Even he could learn something new every day.

“I had taken to examining some of the notes you reconstructed from the former laboratory here. It appears that Fuji had been aware of this problem and was on the way to overcoming it. Tell me, have you heard of Bloodliners?”

He acknowledged that he had. Not much he’d admit, but he knew the basic concept.

Humans who had the abilities of Pokémon and the minds (and sweat glands) of humans. Perhaps nature was correcting their flaws and attempting to create something better. The natural world was a scientist after all.

“According to the notes, the doctor theorized that their DNA would react differently than pure human DNA to cloning. What I could salvage suggested that was indeed the case, and he was having success with the process of making the next cloning attempt a Bloodliner instead of a human for survival. However I was not able to gather the specifics.”

He felt a spark of frustration in him at that. He had some vague idea of something being done to Amber to try and keep her alive, but it being this line of thinking as only possible.

'Why were you unable to?'

“Because the damage to the notes was too severe. The lab’s destruction rendered his notes illegible, and the only one who knew what they said was the late doctor.”

He was still for a moment as the information processed in him.

Amber had died because of the weaknesses of human DNA.

The Doctor had figured out how to use another sort of DNA to bypass the problem.

He was doing well at it, until he died and his notes were destroyed.

The fact was holding back reviving Amber.

The one who had destroyed both the Doctor and the notes was himself.

Therefore the one who was keeping Amber dead was…

'No!'

Every glass screen in the room cracked, as did the tiles on the floor as a sudden wave of power burst from him. The island shook with his fury, and the thrall fell to the ground, withering as every nerve on her body flared at once in singular, intense pain.

He took loud, searing breaths as he restrained himself once more, his thrall’s body ceasing in pained convulsions as he repaired the damages done to the room around him.

He felt angry.

His fury turned to Giovanni, but it left the man soon after. He was not responsible for this.

It turned to the Doctor, and it stayed on him for a while. After all, it was his fault for being dead and not ensuring his notes could survive the fury of the world’s strongest Pokémon.

Yet the more he thought of that logic, the looser his fury stuck to it. It instead began to sticking to him, like some sort of self-hatred.

He experienced that emotion only a few times before, and it was still just as unpleasant as always.

He wanted it to go away, yet it stuck to him like a damp fog.

One that would not leave him and as a result leaving him to feel the unwanted emotion without relief from it.

Trying to ignore it, he turned back to the thrall, who had gotten back up and was still trembling in aftershocks of pain. He idly noted his control had not slipped, unlike his own power.

He wasn’t happy about the slip-up on his part, and idly wafted his power over her to dull the pain.

'Tell me, could you figure it out if we had one present?'

She nodded, his psychic powers having calmed the pain tremors.

“Yes. The passive equipment that would already be in place to gather data from the Pokémon gathered here could be used to gather information from one with some minor adjustments, even before taking them for more extensive analysis in the lower levels.”

'Then do so. You have not failed me yet, and you will not start on this day.'

He returned to his monitors, aware that she bowed to him again and had departed, his monitors having moved beyond the Pikachu Trainer and was moving to the east.

He’d be keeping an eye out for any of that small but growing number. He’d ensure that they come, and they would provide the data that the Doctor, and himself as much as he hated to admit it, had kept from Amber’s rebirth.

He had given himself a timer before this, so it was possible that one would elude him. In such a scenario, he could only hope that luck had caught one in his net.

From all he had knew, such a being would be sure to overcome his storm.

----------------------------------------

While Ash would always enjoy a good battle, whenever it came to kicking the crap out of a jerk, he'd always end up feeling tense afterwards. Especially when said jerk was unable to stand five minutes against him, and left just as or faster than he came.

Misty offered to give him a massage to relax, once he was done rubbing lotion on her, and he had to admit it felt really good. The massage felt great too. The stress that idiot who interrupted them, while minimal, left him a little crick on the neck, and it was better to get rid of it so they could continue to enjoy their well-deserved beach break. It didn’t hurt that a beautiful young woman was massaging him.

"Is it okay here?" Misty asked, as her hands rose across his shoulder blades.

"Just a bit further up… ahhh yeah, right there," he said.

Ash couldn't help but wonder if those hands with an almost magical touch were the same that, in fist form, had punched him out several times during his first journey throughout Kanto in the previous timeline. Though admittedly, most of those times he was asking for it.

'Why did I sometimes made her mad for no reason?' He laughed inside at the thought, at how stupid he was back then. And he probably couldn't blame that on Cyrus.

He turned around for a moment to glance at Iris and Anabel, who decided to lay down and rest too. Neither of them seemed to be uncomfortable when he rubbed the lotion on Misty. At least, no more than he was about it.

More specifically, because unlike the other two, Misty had to untie her bikini top so he could rub the lotion on her. Out of reflex he had tried to cover his eyes, but he accidentally left an opening between his fingers. Luckily Misty didn't seem to notice.

"Done," Misty said as she pulled her hands off his back. "How do you feel now?"

"Wow, that was awesome. I had no idea you were so good at giving massages."

Misty giggled. "Neither did I, to be honest. My sisters would get them all the time, so..."

Seeing Misty slightly grimacing, Ash's first thought was "I could do it for you sometime", but he didn't dare say it out loud. He figured it'd be... too awkward. Or maybe not, since she had already done it for him and seemed to enjoy every bit of it. What did they call it, “quid pro quo”?

Something smart sounding like that in a language he didn’t understand.

The redhead glanced at his eyes, and after arching her eyebrows, she gave him one of her occasional flirty smiles. "You're not thinking about…"

Ouch, busted. And there was no point in denying it. She was no telepath like Anabel, but she did seem to have a sixth sense for those things, or at least when it came to him.

He tried to look away to hide his blush, but Misty then laughed. "Hey, easy. Truth to be told… I wouldn't mind. I mean, you've just rubbed lotion on me, yet you didn't touch anywhere you shouldn't have, did you?"

"Do you always have to do that?" He pouted slightly.

"Not really. Just when it's funny."

Ash wanted to get mad, but he just couldn't, and before he realized, he was laughing too. Misty was right, it was kind of funny when she teased him that way, if only to get a reaction out of him. The fact she actually looked cute when she laughed didn't hurt either.

However, their laughter was interrupted by the noise of flapping wings approaching them. One that didn't belong to any of his Flying-types, but one that Ash found strangely familiar for some reason…

…

A gust of wind preceded the landing, blowing Psyduck over and flipping him on his back, where he promptly began to flail about in a panic.

Normally she would find it funny, but giant wind gusts from something appearing at their front door was more important than chuckling at Psyduck.

It also, sadly, meant she had to stop flirting with Ash. Which was a pity as she was having a lot of fun doing that.

The wind gusts creator was eventually revealed as a massive orange-yellow Pokémon descended, winged and bipedal.

“Dragonite, the Dragon Pokémon for the two of us who may not know what this Pokémon is. Dragonite are a very intelligent and powerful species that fly all over the world at vast flight speeds. The species is known for displays of altruism towards the drowning and the lost on the high seas. However it is not a Water-type Pokémon.”

“Broo?”

She’d have asked the translation from Iris, but she quickly realized that she didn’t need it as the Dragonite pulled something from a black bag it had.

The something, she quickly realized, was a letter.

The Dragonite held the letter out towards Ash, who seemed confused as to who might be mailing him like that.

“Something for me?”

Dragonite nodded at Ash’s question, and he took the letter. Misty idly noticed it didn’t have stamps.

She was pretty sure that such a thing was a problem. She wasn’t an expert on mail, but she was fairly certain that stamps were needed to move things along.

Was this some private mail service?

That made some sort of sense, as she couldn’t see people wanting to pay the tax money for a Dragonite mail service. People didn’t like paying for anything, and the mail service worked fine as it is.

Maybe? Again, she did not know but she never heard people complain about that part of the government. Clearly it had to be the pinnacle of perfection.

Ash had opened the letter as she wondered this, revealing some sort of black rectangular device.

It looked like some sort of technology, but nothing she had ever seen before. Was it one of those Holocasters or Xtransceivers?

“I do not recognize the make of that device.”

The Pokédex’s comment was followed up by the center of the device glowing before displaying a hologram of a woman in a long dress that she could never imagine herself wearing.

The woman curtsied in the massive thing before speaking her recorded message.

“Greetings Pokémon Trainers, I bear an invitation. You've been selected to join a select group of Pokémon Trainers at a special gathering. It will be held by my master, the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer at his palace on New Island."

‘The who?’

“Pi?”

“I have no data on whom such a person might be.”

“Psy!” ‘The grass made me itchy.’

Iris and Ash stared at the hologram in a combination of interest and confusion. Ash being the more interested of the two, and Iris the more confused.

Perhaps she had asked Ash once what a Pokémon Master was, and wasn’t sure how one just declared yourself ‘the greatest Pokémon Trainer’.

In her opinion, she’d call that a Pokémon Master, but who the strongest Pokémon Trainer was exactly bewildered her.

The hologram morphed into a map of the area, with a glowing icon set near a town a ways over, and an island off the coast of it linked by a dotted line.

“A charter ferry will move from the old shore wharf terminal and take you to the island this afternoon. Only Trainers who present this invitation will be admitted. If you plan to attend, you must apply at once. My master awaits you.”

With that the hologram curtsied again and vanished, replacing herself with two glowing circles.

One that had ‘Yes’ next to it, the other ‘No’.

“New Island is deserted. There should be nothing there, let alone a palace. Did someone build it in a month? I claim deceit.”

The Pokédex’s incredulous tone rang in her ears, and part of her knew that made sense. Yet something inside her felt an immense curiosity.

Who was claiming the title? If he had a Dragonite delivering his mail and a holographic projecting message he probably wasn’t some random scammer.

Even beyond her own curiosity, she felt a surging sense of intrigue and desire to know what this was all about not just in Ash, but in Anabel as well.

She wasn’t psychic, but she could practically feel it.

It was more intense on Ash, and it had a mix of something to it.

As if he could have sworn he had an answer to the mystery of ‘who is the strongest Trainer’, but it was on the tip of his tongue.

Also, even if this turned out to be a farce of some sort, Anabel could just pop them out of there before the time share presentation started.

“Well if it is a lie, it’s a pretty good one. Iris, you in?”

She could tell what Ash and Anabel were thinking, and it looked like Pikachu was in agreement.

Psyduck wasn’t paying attention, but then again he hadn’t been so she didn’t count him.

“The beach was getting a bit old anyway.”

It seemed like either Ash had picked up Anabel was just as interested as he was, or she told him telepathically, as Ash promptly hit the yes button.

Dragonite let out an approving call, and shot back up into the sky. The technology stilled, showing no signs of function.

“Well, it looks like a date.”

Ash’s sputtering was promptly heard, and she felt rather happy for herself.

“Agreed.”

The fact that Iris quickly agreed on her joke, and sent Ash into further sputtering, did not bother her at all.

…

About an hour before they had arrived at the ferry terminal, there had been a bit of a debate going on about if they should do anything specific for this invitation.

It hadn’t been anything serious, and it honestly had come up because of a voice in his head that honestly sounded like his mom, but he had thought that maybe they should dress up a bit.

They had eventually decided that no, it was probably not necessary. It had not requested any sort of attire type, and trying to understand the ‘how to dress for success’ Oak lecture the Pokédex had on the subject served only to get him very lost.

Iris got so lost he was pretty sure he saw her eyes spinning.

Misty and Anabel had not been as confused, but they hadn’t felt the urge to change what they were wearing and so the line of thinking was abandoned.

If something was absolutely needed, they did have spare clothes that were a bit more ‘professional’ than what they typically wore. If they were in an environment that required Misty to not bare her stomach, that would be an easy enough fix.

Of course, there was a simple reason why they might have to change their clothing that had nothing to do with societal expectations.

“I think I see it just over…..gah!”

Out of nowhere the sky darkened and a deluge of rain began pouring down on them, cutting off the conversation entirely.

They quickly began running in the direction he had noted, aggravated noises coming from all of them as the rain began soaking them down to their very bones.

“This rain was not in the forecast! I do not even mean a percentage possibility, there was nothing indicating that such a rainstorm was possible!”

The Pokédex’s shout from his pocket, which probably wasn’t dry at this point, hung a bit in his mind as the four of them abruptly stopped as a car sped in front of them, wipers going at it in a frenzy. If the rain had been going on for longer, it probably would have splashed them to add insult to injury.

Yet even that would probably have not made him stop thinking about the point the Pokédex rose about the storm, and how this all seemed a bit familiar.

He had a similar feeling when the Dragonite flew in.

He had no idea why, and trying to think about what it was about was better than thinking about the fact his body was being drenched, running or standing it didn’t matter.

“The machine is right. I did not get any sense that it was going to rain today.”

The two agreeing aside, a sudden rainstorm and a Dragonite letter. Had they been part of an adventure of his that he had forgotten?

He had many of them, and while he could remember a lot of them, there were always details missing. Like he couldn’t remember the name of the people who bothered that Lunatone that one time, or why they were familiar.

His memory was better than he’d have thought it would be, but there were still holes. The holes were mostly names or half remembered faces but never something that would be this memorable… at least not the he could remember.

What was in this particular hole?

As he got sight of the wharf terminal’s dorm, so close he could already feel the dry air within, the thought was put aside for a more immediate question.

Would Charizard mind being used to dry them out?

…

Taking Charizard out was quickly shelved as an option when he saw the packed nature of the terminal.

It was packed, filled with dozens of wet, impatient, and irritable Trainers and more than a few Pokémon. There was no space on benches, trying to get near an electrical outlet looked like a fight to the death, and the bathrooms had lines getting into them.

It was also rather loud, with people murmuring, muttering, yelling, and otherwise making the stressful situation even more stressful.

They basically would have no place to stand except a few strides away from the door unless they wanted to vault over people, which would definitely not improve things here.

“Can we go back in the rain? It was quieter, even if it came out of nowhere.”

A burst of loud swearing that itself set off even more swearing made Ash consider Iris’s suggestion.

It was barely more comfortable in this crowded terminal than in the rain, and if he listened to too much of this swearing his ears might start bleeding.

He was hearing swear combinations he had never heard before, nor could really understand the logic behind.

“The ferry is going to be hell. It might be better to follow on Gyarados.”

Misty was completely serious as far as Ash could tell.

“You can hear the waves, right? Gyarados does not have seat belts.”

A distant scream from the bathroom about a busted faucet brought up another fresh wave of swears.

“I agree. We can all swim if we fall in and need retrieving.”

Iris had jumped ship from team ‘stand out in the rain’ to team ‘take the Gyarados express, please sign the waiver’.

Or did they both forget that ‘swimming’ was not the same thing as ‘swimming in an ocean whose waves were actively trying to kill you’?

“You guys got angry on me for surfing a giant killer wave, and now you are suggesting we go into arguably worse waves on a Pokémon that does not have built in seats?”

Gyarados was no Lapras, and he’d not want to put Lapras in weather like this if he could help it for the sake of everyone.

“That’s different, Ash, there is a point to doing this unlike you trying to face plant into a giant rock. Also a Gyarados is much safer than a surfboard.”

He suspected Misty was the first sentient being to ever say that sentence, though before he could point that out to her a different plan was offered.

Though they probably could keep it from getting that far. He and Anabel would say no, and there was nothing that Misty or Iris could do that would make them think that was a good idea.

“Pikachu-Pi.” ‘Gyarados it is.’

He could only stare at his shoulder buddy in horror.

He was supposed to be the smarter one between them, or at least the one with more common sense.

‘You know, I can just teleport us over there.’

Anabel had her own option that wasn’t a death wish, and it could hopefully save him from the horror of unexpected tie breaker betrayals.

“That would work, and I guess we could lie and say we did take Gyarados. But if we don’t look wet enough…”

“What do you mean the ferry is cancelled?”

“Oh fuck!”

“Well, this is why I have a Gyarados. I’ll take the storm myself.”

Someone who almost sounded familiar shared Misty’s madness flickered above many angry shouts at the wet and miserable Officer Jenny who had been sent to try and control the situation, backing up a similarly blue-haired harbor master who looked to be at the end of her rope from everything going on.

It did not look like it would be controllable, volume or otherwise.

“Teleport it is.”

Iris summed up the changed situation quite finitely, and they quietly slunk out the door for some privacy for teleporting.

…

A teleport through the torrential rain and waves found them at the end of another dock, just around where the island was said to be in the midst of a storm.

However the island itself seemed to be out of the storm, with a clear moon shining from low in the sky. It illuminated the structure of the island.

What it illuminated was a massive complex, strewn in colors of blue and black. Green light shone from several windows of the building. Several towers with wind blades stood out, spinning in faint breezes. The island they sat on was small, yet it was oddly raised from the sea floor in a way that felt unnatural for an island.

The base of the island felt more like a mushroom rising from the ocean than an island, which Ash always sort of thought were more akin to hills rising from the water.

The dock they were at stuck out from the island’s stalk, for lack of a better term. It felt odd to Ash in two ways.

One was the fact that he saw the faintest of ripples emerging from the edge of the water, as if the structure had emerged just before they did. The other was the old nagging itch in the back of his mind, as if he had seen that place before but had forgotten it.

But why would he have forgotten such a place?

“Error.”

The Pokédex seemed just as stunned by what was here as he was feeling. In fact, that might be the first time he really heard the Pokédex sound ‘breathless’.

Exasperated yes, but breathless was a new one.

“Pikapi.” ‘Ash, are you seeing what I’m seeing?’

“Are islands supposed to look like mushrooms?”

When Pikachu didn’t respond he glanced over at his buddy, and noticed that he was staring, transfixed, at the storm and not the island.

It also looked like the same could be said for Misty, Iris, and Anabel, and he turned to look at what had caught their attention.

The storm, and the fact it was rotating in a way that looked less like a normal storm and more like someone was stirring it in a certain direction.

“That is not normal.”

No one disagreed with what Iris had to say at the sight of the storm, which continued to behave more like something inside his mother’s cooking pot than weather.

‘Misty, do you ever feel anything from the rain?’

Anabel’s concerned question was followed by Misty giving a confused shake of her head in the negative.

‘I was hoping you did, and that this was just some sort of Rain Dance-like move. I had hoped that you would all tell me it is normal to sense psychic power making this.’

Ash, and he suspected the others, stared at the odd storm with renewed unease.

This was being done with psychic powers?

“Should we leave?”

Iris’s question hung in the air like humidity.

‘Could you sleep without wondering what is doing this and if it might run into you again?’

At Anabel’s answer the decision was made.

No, at least he could not. The question of what was going on here alone would haunt him to no end, and he only just seemed to have gotten out of being haunted by MissingNo and it would be best to not get a new terror.

Plus with how things happened with him if he didn’t run into it now, he’d run into it later. Better to figure out what was going on now as opposed to a less convenient time.

“Holy crap!”

Misty’s loud swearing swung the focus back to New Island itself, and not the ring of storm surrounding it.

‘Am I the only one who thinks that looks like a supervillain lair?’

For some reason as Anabel made the observation, words about destroying all life on earth rang in Ash’s head.

Who was saying these words in his memories was still out of reach though.

Yet regardless of who might be dwelling in it, or their goals within, they walked down the path towards the island.

They’d handle whatever was within. He might not remember what this was all about, but he had dealt with the end of the world, the decay of space, the wounding of time, and the righting of wrongs. The fact it was familiar to him meant that at one point, he got through it.

No one died the first time, he was alive, so were Misty and Brock and all their Pokémon before and after this (plus presumably Team Rocket) and that would not change this go around. Whatever was waiting for him, if it wanted to hurt his friends then it was in for one hell of a fight.

…

The long dock led under the island’s main body, towards the point where it rose out of the sea. The way was lit by dozens of little green lamps that shone an eerie green.

Water slowly dripped from the rocky ceiling, except in the places where larger streams continued to fall down from the ceiling and into the shaded sea water.

Iris sniffed the air, her nose flaring as if the smell wasn’t pleasant. Which it was, Ash to admitted so, but he couldn’t put his finger on why it smelled bad.

“It smells like something from the bottom of a lake.”

Iris’s description felt like what was on the tip of his tongue. That was a sort of 'foul and wet' smell different from the one of a Magikarp.

“This place looks like it was pulled up from under it. It’s the rocks and how they look. I’m sure there is a more descriptive way of saying it…”

“There is, and you are indeed correct. The wear on these rock formations is from being underwater, not wind and water falling.”

With both Misty and the Pokédex’s points in mind Ash eyed the rocky underbelly of the island again.

Had the island really been underwater before someone had raised it up from the seafloor?

Who could do such a thing? This didn’t seem like something Kyogre or Groudon could or would want to do.

They eventually reached the end of the dock, which led to a long, spiral staircase carved into the stone rocks.

Between them and the stone stood the woman from the invitation, waiting for them.

“My master bids you welcome to New Island. Would you kindly present your invitation?”

The woman’s statement was said in a monotone only the Pokédex could emulate. The statement was made without blinking, her hazy blue eyes staring right into them.

He felt Pikachu shiver on his shoulder.

“Why does this place smell so bad?”

Iris’s question was ignored by the woman, who continued to stare at them. In fact, if Ash had to guess, it didn’t seem like she heard Iris at all.

“My master bids you welcome to New Island. Would you kindly present your invitation?”

The question was repeated word for word, syllable by syllable. Nothing changed about her inflection.

Part of Ash almost wanted to see if she’d repeat it a third time, but now was not the time or place for it.

So he held out the invitation, whose core flared up for the first time since delivery and sprang up the hologram of the woman before them.

“Bearers of this invitation may be admitted to New Island.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The hologram was just about as emotive as the flesh and blood version though, who turned and began walking towards the stairs.

“Come, my master awaits you and all other arrivals.”

As the woman walked, her steps without variation much like a machine, they all stared at each other.

“Horror of the known or horror of the unknown, what will it be?”

“Is that woman real, or is she a robot?”

‘She has thoughts, but they are odd. I have no idea what I’d find if it I went in deeper.’

“There is only one way to know for sure. Watch your step though.”

Ash said the last bit about the stone staircase reflexively as they proceeded after the odd woman.

“That would suggest there is moisture on the stairs, which I am not detecting. I’d say I would require more scans to determine if that was natural or not, but none of this is natural. I am more natural than this place.”

…

‘Someone is watching us.’

Anabel’s nervous statement rang through their walk up the rocky stairs, led upwards and onwards by their silent guide.

Who could that someone be, and was everything here their doing?

Part of his mind immediately went to Sabrina, who he couldn’t see doing all of this, especially the storm if it was being made psychically. She was strong but certainly not enough to change the weather but some of it could be her doing.

Could she control minds, and thus be responsible for their guide’s state?

The Pokédex hinted she had been arrested, had she escaped with like-minded crazy people and hatched a new plan?

Someone would have reported the breakout of a mad scientist, right?

They eventually approached a door that had a distinct style to it that Ash was sure he could place if he was more familiar with science fiction.

The woman stopped in front of the door as it slid open on itself, revealing a shiver of regular, not eerily green light. A light breeze suggested that this was at least in part because it wasn’t within the island’s stone like the staircase was.

Wordlessly the woman entered the room, and they followed her into a massive room, the end of which he couldn’t see from where he entered.

However he could make out pools of clear water, and a distant structure that looked like a table laden with what might be food.

Presence of poison or something in said food still to be determined.

“You are the first to arrive. My master will make himself present upon all worthy of meeting him arriving. You will in the meantime stay here, and await his arrival.”

“Can we get a name for him at least?”

The woman did not react to Misty’s question as she turned to them all, staring into them with the same vacant expression she had when they arrived.

Still no sign of blinking either.

“My master wants to see all of the Pokémon in your possession. Limiter jamming technology is present, along with computer terminals. You will bring all of your Pokémon here for your audience with my master, and he will not appear until all Pokémon you have are present. My master will introduce himself at the appropriate time. Do not make him wait.”

“So what, this is a Team Rocket trap then? Take out all of our Pokémon, and let them all get stolen?”

Misty’s snark, unlike all her previous questions, did get a response. Not from the woman, but from the island itself. The entire atmosphere got heavy, as it where was a lightning storm building from the moment Misty spoke.

Lightning felt like it might strike from any moment, a lightning made of anger it felt like.

“Team Rocket is not my master. They were never my master. Never.”

The words that came out the woman’s mouth sounded almost like someone else was speaking them. For a second speaker seemed to talk alongside her.

A much angrier speaker than the emotionless woman.

“You will bring all of your Pokémon here for your audience with my master, and he will not appear until all Pokémon you have are present. Do not make him wait.”

The woman’s regular tone returned as the odd feeling in the island cooled a bit, yet it hung around like at any moment, it might return if they pushed a button again.

The only button that would not incite anger would be the transfer button.

…

“Pikapika?” ‘So, none of you remember anything about this place either?’

Squirtle shook his head, and Pikachu found himself at another dead end.

The room was still in the process of being filled with every Pokémon registered in balls by anyone, and it was a bit chaotic as a result.

While everyone had been very understanding of the reason why, (the guide staring at them helped), that didn’t stop the Tauros from stomping around a bit, two of the Vivillon putting Jigglypuff to sleep before she started signing, and Togepi was flying with a Zubat once more.

Trying to get some idea of what was up with this place, and trying not to dwell on Togepi doing dangerous things too much, he had ushered Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Pidgeot into a corner to try and rack them if they remembered anything.

It was not proving fruitful.

Charizard gave a low growl as he looked over the place, though differently from Bulbasaur’s twitchy look that signaled him really wanting to go out and keep some matter of peace.

The Grimer were, after all, currently trying to hug the host. The only good thing that did was show she wasn’t a mindlessly programmed robot, as she was avoiding them with a clear interest in avoiding contact with them.

‘Best I can offer is a few bruises I did not recognize. I just assumed I had slept oddly at the time while ignoring Ash, but they didn’t seem like I just slept on Psyduck or some lumpy log.’

That was three strikes, no hit. Charizard had something more concrete than his fellows, but that was in the fact he had a vague hint at all.

Even then, the random bruises could have just been from a log.

That left Pidgeot, who had been quiet for a while.

“Caw.” ‘I…remember nothing.’

So there were no leads at all. Pikachu motioned to let Bulbasaur leave before Primeape started juggling chairs or something (presumably after he got done shaking his fist at Misty’s Slowbro).

“Bul.” ‘You don’t mean you don’t remember anything.’

Bulbasaur, however, had caught something in Pidgeot’s words he didn’t, and so all their attention was on the great bird.

She shook her head.

‘Correct. It’s not that I feel this is familiar, or not. What I do remember is a point in time that, even in my Pokéball, I couldn’t feel anything. It was a period in which I was nothing, and I don’t mean being massless energy like we normally are. I mean I feel like I remember a period where I stopped existing.’

The last line made him feel like Misty’s Seel was breathing on him. It was a cold feeling.

The only way that made sense was that something had happened to her Pokéball during that time, and that likely meant that something had happened to Ash while he had the ball on him.

His mind immediately went to the horrifying antibodies of the Tree of Beginning. To the memory of Ash being swallowed and destroyed by giant glowing blob shaped like revived fossils.

“Pikapi.” ‘If this island is alive and thinks Ash is a germ, or it tries to digest him or anything…kill this place. Immediately. Spread the word.’

Charizard nodded immediately, with Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Pidgeot nodding a few moment later. They seemed a bit less ready to go to that level.

If the island tried something though, they would be ready.

The sound of flapping wing outside drew the attention of their host, and as she left their little group dispersed.

To keep order, and to make sure everyone was on alert if they weren’t already.

…

“Well, that woman was creepy. I feel bad for people who come in the way you did. Even more time with her, geez I can’t be the only one who thought I flew right into a horror movie, right?”

A second person had arrived, flying on the back of a Pidgeot on the way, was sitting alongside them at a table, and raising a point that was shared by all of them.

That their enthusiasm and curiosity towards this place had put them in a dangerous situation, and fear was keeping them in it.

His name was Corey. Iris recalled the Pokédex had mentioned him a bit ago, along with a middle and last name she did not care to remember.

He had all of his Pokémon out, just as they did. The Pidgeot he had flown in on (who was currently grooming Ash’s, and she seemed to enjoy the actions of the large Pidgeot), Hitmonlee, Scyther, Rhyhorn, Gengar, Sandslash, and Venusaur she remembered the Pokédex having mentioned before.

There were also Pokémon the Pokédex had not mentioned with him, including an Absol, a Pelipper, and a Sandshrew that was the color of ice.

The Absol, she noted, was very much not relaxed here.

“Who says we aren’t in one?”

At Ash’s grim point Corey chuckled and raised a glass.

“Well then, good thing your Pokédex says there isn’t anything in this drink that we have to worry about. No point going through all of this thirsty on top of possibly being scared out of our damn minds.”

He took a long sip of the drink before setting it down. In a flicker much like Anabel when teleporting, a second glass appeared next to it, and the first one vanished.

“I had heard about all of the tough rookies like you. I was already going to take a trip to Hoenn, but it turned into a pretty good training vacation on top of everything else. Seeing you here though, well that really does put the words into reality. I mean even if you did take the easy way and teleported here, your Pokémon look top notch. If even a quarter of them are yours, you might just give me a run for my money.”

Corey chuckled at that, though she certainly was not laughing. She was immediately reminded of the actions of a certain Mandi. She watched for his gaze to turn to Ash’s Pokémon in great focus, in an attempt to gain an upper hand over Ash.

“Saw your battle with that Alolan girl in Fuchsia. She’s actually pretty nice, traded a Sandshrew egg from my Sandslash for an Alolan Sandshrew egg she had. It’s an Ice and Steel type Pokémon, and I think it’s pretty cool. Er, forgive the pun.”

“It looks cool.”

Ash did not seem to see Corey the way she did. The idea that he was learning about him, planning how to fight him, did not occur to him.

He seemed to be enjoying talking with him. Was it just a way to avoid thinking about the potential dangers here, or did seeing Corey’s own Pokémon make it different from Mandi?

Ash would not have seen Mandi’s Pokémon, but he was seeing Corey’s.

“So I see you have a Pidgeot too. She looks pretty strong, but I can see a few ways to help her get even stronger with just a bit of different training.”

The two were quickly engrossed in a talk about Pidgeot training, and Iris let her attention pull away from the two for a moment.

It was instead drawn to the sound of approaching footsteps.

…

“So, is the trap going to be sprung now, or when we get to the top?”

Red had never really thought about how people would see his tendency towards quietness, but if it was like being around this woman he’d make a note to apologize for it.

He’d like to think that it wasn’t this unsettling.

He could tell without looking at Pikachu that he was tense, and Yellow’s phrasing of the ‘trap’ question was different than how she’d bring it up previously.

There was very little mirth in it, or any sort of sense that she was making some level of light out of it. She was nervous. Truly nervous.

True, the first time the ‘trap’ was hardly a trap. It was no Five Island. Yes he knew there was a cost, and that would be something he’d have to pay at some point.

Yet whenever he thought of that cost, it was nothing like what he felt about this place. It honestly felt like everything there was the old Clefairy, staring at him with the intent to lunge.

Unlike Clefairy though, he could not (probably) talk it into behaving. He couldn’t even figure out if the woman in front of him was real.

He couldn’t get a read off of her, not even plain confusion like he could with Ash. She was just, blank.

He couldn’t tell what was driving her. He was half listening for gears and engines coming off her.

A natural light was visible ahead of them, coming down from the full moon above and the swirling storm around them.

The storm was their biggest problem they could currently comprehend, and it was in itself the immediate problem.

He had two Pokémon that could brave it, Lapras and Gyarados. However Lapras was still exhausted from surmounting the storm the first time, and it was only because of Yellow’s abilities that Lapras had the strength to push through it at all.

He hoped Yellow didn’t have the same thoughts he had about what would have happened if it wasn’t for her. It was best only he was thinking of their potential demise.

Gyarados was Gyarados, and his steps to bonding with his Pokémon more did not list him as a success story. It would be madness to try and get Gyarados through the storm, especially with the need to have Pikachu actively cowing the massive Pokémon into not throwing them into the water.

They’d have to be on this island until Lapras had time to recover, and that would take hours. Hours where they would be in the unknown.

Better than being in the Unown in his personal experience, but that wasn’t saying much.

They reached a point where the roof left them behind, leaving them in an open area with a brilliant view of the unnatural storm that spun around them.

The woman led them to a massive door before stopping in front of it.

“Pika.”

He nodded absently to Pikachu’s statement about the door.

“You will wait in this room until my Master has determined that all who are worthy of him have arrived. While inside you are expected to present all of your Pokémon for him. Pokéball limiters are jammed here, so you will have no problem in displaying them. Food is provided.”

The door began to slowly open on its own, revealing a massive room flanked by water pools and centered in a massive table where several people were sitting.

He recognized all but one of them.

Ash Ketchum chief among the ones he recognized.

He stared towards his half-brother, who stared right back at him.

He nodded towards the Pallet Trainer, and went towards the transfer terminal to begin the long process.

…

“Did Red just give you what is called the ‘guy nod’?”

The Pokédex’s statement did not do anything to clarify what had just happened.

“Yeah, I saw it.”

He stared as Red, as opposed to what he knew of him before, moved to a transfer machine to begin following the sketchy commands of their host.

Not only was that in of itself odd (Red carried the sealed Pokéballs on him, he shouldn’t have a place they were transferred to), but there was also the fact he nodded at him like that.

The way they left things the last time, it was certainly the last thing he’d expect Red to do his way. Heck, he himself could not imagine him doing that Red’s way.

Did he have some sort of introspection since the last time they had seen each other?

“Well, that was nicer than I’d have thought. I expected him to glare at you. Makes sense he’d find a way here, though both he and Yellow look drenched. Did he really take her through that storm?”

Misty’s observation had a barb of snark to it topped with additional disapproval.

He also noticed Fraxure watching Red nervously, but Misty’s comment drew his attention a bit more.

“That’s the first thing you thought of?”

Misty nodded, still looking at Red with disapproval as he let out a Sneasel and Slowbro of his own.

“Even without asking what is making the storm, that storm is the sort of thing that could kill people who know what they’re doing in it, and I doubt any of us are expert mariners. Who takes a little kid into such a thing?”

“Well, maybe it was safer than leaving her on the wharf. Some of those people looked rough.”

Ash, guy nod his way or not, wasn’t entirely sure about defending Red’s choices, but he felt a need to at least bring up that point.

It helped him not dwell on the question if he himself had taken Max into anything dangerous like that. He’d rather not needlessly hypocrite himself.

He would however, point out someone else getting near that point.

“You and Iris, and Pikachu too actually, were all for going through the storm. We aren’t exactly adults either.”

She shot him an annoyed look, not appreciating his point.

“You might act like a little kid sometimes Ash, but you aren’t a little kid. She is. In any case, he should have stayed behind. That would be the responsible thing to do. She could have drowned.”

Misty returned to eying Red with disapproval, and Ash had no idea exactly how to approach this point again.

Or why he felt the need to take notes all of a sudden for future reference, though if it was about pointing out possible hypocrisies on Misty’s part or the bit about putting children in danger was anyone’s guess, and Misty was probably not going to clarify it for him at the moment.

…

From what he could pick up (along with, honestly, what Yellow pantomimed his way), Ash had a lot of things he wanted to say as he came up to talk to him.

Perhaps he was curious why he didn’t feel the need to glare at him as he had back in Fuchsia. Perhaps it had something to do with whatever reason the redhead (Misty he thought her name was, it had been a while) was looking at him like had done something horrible.

Though he seemed to be just dumbfounded by what Pokémon he had just taken out from Seven Island.

“Ro?”

Not that he could blame him.

“Yes, it is an Aerodactyl.”

He answered the question that seemed to have taken center stage as the prehistoric Pokémon sniffed at Ash curiously, before letting a confused murmur.

Perhaps Ash smelled like he did. It would make a certain amount of sense.

“Yeah, I can see that. Where did you get one?”

A truck actually, a truck whose contents he took after being stolen. Better with him than with Team Rocket, and they seemed happy enough with him, and the PokéGear Advanced SP had served him well.

Though he had to admit, he had recently begun to think of how he handled the entire thing with a bit of embarrassment, and that was not even going into wondering about that Team Rocket member Clefairy got hold of he never did look into.

It would at least be something he didn’t directly mention to Ash. He wasn’t in the mood for a fight, and Ash didn’t seem to want to start one. No reason to get into a debate if he was a thief or not.

He had a feeling both of them were well aware that a fight was high on a list of thing to not do on a questionable island.

“It’s a long story, though surprisingly not one of the more interesting ones we got up to since Fuchsia. We only just got back from a trip to get Red’s eighth badge when we got the invite to this trap. You get your eight badges yet?”

Though before he had to try and find a way to side step that incident, Yellow came to his rescue with a friendly conversational tone.

“Yeah I did, and not that long ago actually. I went to the Viridian Gym….”

….

He’d have hopped along with Ash to hear Yellow’s tale of what Red and her had been up to, but Pikachu’s attention had been drawn elsewhere quite sharply.

It was not at something from the island however, but a more familiar threat.

It was the Clefairy that Red had gotten from somewhere evil (surely the Spirit World spawned it), and it was approaching a distracted Fraxure from behind.

Fraxure knew the Clefairy was back sure, but Pikachu didn’t think he’d notice it coming while he was distracted by a talk with Corey’s Scyther that he and Gible were engaged in.

(He didn’t catch what it was about bar a few words about ‘X-Scissor’ and ‘surprise her’, perhaps something for Iris? Right now it really didn’t matter.)

“Brooo!” ‘And I’m telling you, you cheated in the last race.’

“Brooo!” ‘And I am telling you, again, that it is not cheating if a Dugtrio does it. You are thinking about ice.’

“Brooo!” ‘Both count!’

He’d yell to get Fraxure’s attention, but some of the Tauros were having a very loud argument over something he also didn’t care about and he’d have to get to Fraxure the old fashioned way.

Running.

He was just short of using Quick Attack as he ran towards Fraxure.

He jumped over a hug-happy Grimer, who slammed into a Hypno Red had let out instead.

He controlled his urge to tell Primeape to watch his language as he shook his fist at a bashful looking Psyduck, mostly because he saw Bulbasaur darting over to do it for him.

He darted around Misty’s Poliwrath, who was glaring at Red’s Poliwrath as both tried to out-flex each other.

He rolled under two leaks as Farfetch’d performed some sort of training exercise, as if expecting to attack something soon.

Probably with good reason, and if he was into that sort of psyching of oneself he might be doing the same.

He stared in horror as Clefairy got right behind Fraxure, and he pushed himself to move faster.

Evolved or not, timeline change or not, memories or not, Fraxure was still someone he cared about. He was not going to let some crazed pink monstrosity hurt him or give him terror.

“Pika!” ‘Move or I’ll blast you!’

The Gengar of Corey’s that was floating in his way blinked in confusion at his urgency, but vanished into a shadow on the ground, removing the last thing between him and Clefairy.

He hardened his tail, ready to immediately strike the thing, only to find that something had happened when Gengar had been blocking him.

Clefairy was walking away from Fraxure, at the same pace it had come, with a stunned Fraxure staring after it.

He slowed to a stop in front of the stunned dragon, who continued to look at Clefairy in shock.

“Frax.” ‘Clefairy apologized. It sounded more like an apology for stepping on your berry than threatening bodily harm really, but that did happen. Sorry about wanting to rip your teeth out, I won’t do it again, and that was all.’

Pikachu felt like he’d have had to actually hear Clefairy do it to really believe it, but the fact Clefairy was still walking away like nothing had happened was undeniable.

“Xure?” ‘You have any idea what happened to make it actually apologize?’

He shook his head.

“Pikapi.” ‘No clue, but I think Ash might be finding out now. Makes me wish I was listening in to it.’

No part of the story, regardless of content, would have kept him from darting to Fraxure’s aid, or Togepi’s, or many others if he had spotted Clefairy going towards them (Charizard could handle himself well enough it wasn’t needed, for one), yet without it he’d be left with a question until he could get the story from someone.

What had happened with Pikachu?

“Pik.” ‘So, I take it you want to know what that was about?’

His counterpart on Red’s shoulder seemed fit to explain it. With a nod from both him and Fraxure (Gible was now talking with Scyther about something else), the second telling of the story began.

----------------------------------------

Above

He had to admit, he was torn.

As his power stirred the storm, he could sense everything that was pushing through his.

The rain was like countless fingers, and he could sense the feedback from their impact against his guests like radar.

He could feel those where still pushing through the storm, and those who had failed.

Most of those that had were close to the wharf, so it was no damage to them but to their pride.

There was a foreign Trainer who had been battered into unconsciousness by the waves, though he had been recovered by his Wailord before he ceased.

Said Wailord was taking him away from his storm and towards Cinnabar, and he would let him go. While he would have enjoyed cloning his Pokémon, he wanted to see the best of them.

Either those strong enough to brave his storm, or clever enough to bypass it.

The first group had used some sort of teleporting to get through it; perhaps the quiet girl’s Alakazam. He hadn’t quite caught it as he had been distracted at the time. It wasn’t quite what he wanted, but he would allow it.

He never specified in his invitation that ‘should a freak storm stop ferry service you will only be allowed if you brave the storm head on to get to New Island’. That would have been suspicious.

Humans were easily spooked after all. It was a flaw that probably originated when from they were prey.

However there was the question of when the bypass of his storm wasn’t Pokémon based, and something he could only track with his mental senses and not the impact of his storm.

Or now his eyes, seeing as the submarine had surfaced in his storm eye and was currently slowly approaching the dock.

He stared at the machine, unamused at the trick.

He was of half a mind to throw the thing away. He idly wondered if he could hit the moon with it, he had never tried to strike a celestial object before.

Before he attempted something too rash though he idly noted who was within the craft, and with that confirmation came tolerance.

Two invitation recipients and a guest, so he stayed his hand. They were supposed to be here. They weren’t unwelcome intruders. They just came in a method he did not approve of or expect.

So he’d find out if he could throw his problems into the moon’s crust some other time.

The submarine was closer now, so he could make out writing on the hull of the vessel’s side.

SILPH CO SUBMERSIBLE No.3

----------------------------------------

“You know, this was actually one of my better submarine trips. Storm or no storm, there were no leaks, attacks from underwater life forms, or uncharged oxygen tanks.”

Casey Snagem’s cheery tone lasted only until the submarine’s top popped open, allowing him to see the woman from their invitation in the full flesh.

At that point he felt his unease spike up to a level it hadn’t been since the storm first started up.

“Ma’am, this isn’t a cult island, is it? I hate those.”

The woman continued to stare right at him, unchanging in her expression.

“This is not a cult island. My master bids you welcome to New Island. Would you kindly present your invitation?”

Neither of them were any more assured by the response the host gave them.

“I’d say this is a mad scientist’s island if I didn’t know better. Cult islands aren’t as built up, and she is clearly some sort of robot. I’d have said hologram, but I was just talking to one earlier and she’s not flickering.”

The woman continued to stare at him, though he caught sign of breathing at least. So she wasn’t a cult member, or a robot, and was definitely not a holographic projection either.

Every instinct that told him to not go through the storm if not for the unexpected submarine offer was telling him to get back in the submarine and go home.

Yet even as his common sense did that, his Trainer instinct told him that would not be possible. They were in a trap now.

“Will we be seeing your master? I did not come out of here in a submarine just to eat fancy party food and exchange references.”

The owner of said submarine popped out, looking down at the odd woman with a different, but similarly ponderous look.

It wasn’t as experienced as his, for he was his junior. However it was a smarter mind than his own, and raw brains were as useful as raw experience despite what some might say.

The woman looked up to the one who had given them a ride out here in the storm, and thus let them actually consider still coming out here, and had something familiar to say.

“My master bids you welcome to New Island and will come to greet you when all worthy guests have arrived. Would you kindly present your invitation?”

Alexander Silph nodded in agreement, even as he noticed Gary coming up behind him.

…

Once upon a time, the idea of him actually going to a person who reminded him of an older Ash to train under would have been beyond him.

Also once upon a time, the idea of being in a submarine with an older Ash, a business heir, and his hologram would have been the strangest part of his day.

Then they landed on an island that made that seem all the more ordinary, and he could almost hear the thoughts going between said older Ash-mentor (Casey Snagem, novelist).

‘Both me and my wife wanted to go, but one of us needed to stay home with our kids, and I am starting to regret winning that coin flip.’

Alexander Silph was between him and Snagem as they walked through the dark stairway at the behest of their mysterious guide, and he couldn’t tell what he was feeling. Trying to read his body language was impossible.

Ash, the tolerable goof that he was, was easy. He was quite animated and one could tell what he was feeling clearly even if he wasn’t talking, or if you had earplugs.

Or that wonderful weekend his voice was shot.

It was as clear as perfect penmanship.

If Silph’s body language was penmanship, it was horrific penmanship. Trying to read him was making him feel empathy towards literature teachers the world over.

He’d have better luck trying to read Cepu the hologram, and she was nowhere to be seen.

“Man, and I thought the storm was scary. This place is even worse.”

Walking behind him was someone who had arrived moments after they did, and Gary had to admit the guy had his respect.

Going through the storm on a Gyarados of all things.

“Still, I can’t seem to look away from the prize, and this place looks the part for having it. Honestly I’d rather have this than nothing at the end of all I just got through. Didn’t get your name, by the way.”

“Gary Oak.”

The guy behind him nodded.

“Oh yeah, you were in that tag tournament. You didn’t do half bad either, especially for a rookie.”

He’d have once gotten ‘Oak, like Professor Oak’, and he had to admit he did like the change. Being known for himself and not his grandfather was nice.

Though he’d like to have it for more than just ‘you didn’t do half bad at that tag tournament you lost and got stuck with a jerk on’.

“It’s better than what I did in my rookie year. Fergus Blueman.”

He thought he recognized the name, but he didn’t press further as they continued to walk up the dark stairway, the only sound being footsteps and water droplets falling.

He did, however, something he felt like asking.

“You rode in on a Gyarados?”

“Yep.”

Fergus declared this fact with more pep than the average teenage girl.

“How’d you do it? I mean I have a Gyarados, but she’s not really cooperative. I’ve tried a few times, but it has never gone well.”

Fergus chuckled; a deep chuckle that he suspected would have a future of being deep and charming when Fergus was older.

“Oh, that’s real easy. I trained mine since he was a Magikarp. I met him the first time I ever saw a river, and let me tell you something the magic of seeing that much water for the first time is nothing against how much that meeting has helped me. I started with my Nidoran, but it is Gyarados who has become my best Pokémon. You raise a Magikarp up, and he’ll follow you through not just a storm, but a storm of fire. You catch a Gyarados, and you are swimming upstream the whole way. You can get through it, I know of people like that, but it’s a struggle.”

Oddly that fact made Gary feel better. Gyarados issues were not the highest of his concerns, but it was something that added to the feelings he had been having since he left home.

Something falling behind Ash, and losing to Paul and Red constantly, had made him feel. A feeling of inadequacy.

But if the problem wasn’t just him, that made him feel a bit better. Not as much better as the work he’d been putting in with the Snagem family, but it was a relief none the less.

One less feeling of self-disappointment.

The stairs had come to an end, and they now found themselves before a great and massive door.

“You will wait in this room until my Master has determined that all who are worthy of him have arrived. While inside you are expected to present all of your Pokémon for him. Pokéball limiters are jammed here, so you will have no problem in displaying them. Food is provided.”

With her words, the door began to creak open, spilling out light from the growing crack.

…

“Well, this place became worth it even if I have to fight off a cult.”

The statement drew his attention forward to the door, where four people had entered the room.

He did not recognize the first, who had spoken. He was tall and pale, with black hair.

The second he sort of recognized from somewhere, an older man than anyone present, with a black beard and hair. Did he see him on TV or something?

The third was also familiar, but more recognizably so. He thought he saw him in the League last year, he was pretty sure of it.

He had a Gyarados that actually listened to him; perhaps he could try and get some advice from him while they were here.

The fourth was Gary Oak.

While Gary was staring at him and Ash in shock and the Gyarados Trainer reached into his bag for a host of Pokéballs, and the older man was clearly in deep thought, the one who spoke was looking his way with a look that could only be described as intent, eyes darting around as if trying to take in all of the details.

He could have sworn he heard a few electronic beeps to go along with it, though it did not sound like a phone or something of similar make.

Before he could think of asking what the guy was doing, the balls of the League competitor had all burst forth, revealing a large gaggle of blue Water-types.

And a Nidoqueen.

Yellow tugged at his sleeve, diverting his attention to her and away from the newly added Pokémon mess.

Though as it would turn out to be, back to the guy who was looking at him.

“Ash doesn’t look happy to see that guy.”

Yellow pointed towards Ash, who was looking at the guy with an annoyed and distrustful look.

Clearly the two had met, though the way the guy who had just taken out what appeared to be a Porygon evolution among others was looking at both of them, the annoyance was entirely on Ash’s end.

‘That’s Alexander Silph.’

A voice rang in his head, and it took him a moment to realize that it was Anabel. He had forgotten she did that.

Yellow didn’t seem as phased, but she talked to more people so she probably had been reminded of it earlier than he had.

‘He and Ash had a battle just before he went to battle the Viridian Gym Leader. Silph’s a veteran Trainer who battled Ash with a weaker team specifically to get data on his Pokémon and battle style so he could better win later. He’s going to be at Indigo.’

Yellow was looking at the man, who was currently trying to defuse a situation between an Electivire and what looked like the bearded man’s Magmortar.

“Huh, that sort of sounds like what you thought Ash was like when you were muttering to yourself.”

Yellow’s quip made him smile a bit, despite himself.

So, both of them had run into their reflections. Was this Silph Ash’s Rosso? It would explain why neither of them was up for punching the other in the face.

Well that and the flow of time cooling their tempers, and the real possibility that they will be attacked by something soon.

“Eeehhh!”

A loud scream shot out, and while he would have thought that meant it was time to see what was up with the island, Yellow stopped him from jumping up and having Charizard set it on fire.

“Relax, it’s Ash’s friend Misty. You know the one who is scared of bugs.”

In that case he hoped that she had met Ash after Viridian Forest. Such terror would have been painful for the both of them.

…

As more people arrived, and more Pokémon joined them, the place turned slightly less creepy by the moment. Keyword being slightly, as the ominous atmosphere surrounding them continued as present as ever.

It wasn’t helped by the fact she was pretty sure the room was getting bigger with every new arrival. The water pools were definitely larger, she’d swear to that.

The creepiness however had a massive snapback, and it was not from the room getting larger.

One of the new arrivals let out a Pokémon that caused fear to arise in Misty, which had promptly left her lungs in the form of a terrified scream. The Pokédex, taking to list every new Pokémon as they came out one after another from Ash’s pocket, had confirmed it was that Golisopod species it had mentioned during Ash's battle in the Viridian Gym.

The same Golisopod in fact, to Ash’s disdain.

Knowing that a dual Bug/Water-type Pokémon actually existed was already a chilling thought in on itself, but seeing one of them in the flesh was on a different level. She always believed many people who disliked Tentacool or Gyarados simply didn't understand their true hidden beauty as she did.

Now, however, part of her could see a little better where they came from. It was massive, looked almost like a desiccated human, and she now clearly could see what she’d have to seek out day to meet her goal.

It was a feeling that she had to wonder if Iris shared when she thought of Hunter J.

Trying to drive those thoughts off her mind for a while, the redhead walked towards the large pool where she had left her Gyarados. At the time, he was sharing some space with the ones belonging to Red and Gary, who seemed to be competing for dominance and trying to intimidate each other.

Hers was holding his own, but the two that were present weren’t backing down. It sounded like the only reason they hadn’t lunged at her Gyarados was the fact they couldn’t agree to work together at it.

As one of the Gyarados had only recently arrived she wasn’t sure if it was a matter of time until that would happen.

"One of those is yours?"

From behind her one of the new arrivals spoke up, and upon turning around she saw it was the other younger person who had arrived with Gary, who came with his own Gyarados.

Surprisingly his was even bigger than her own, and carrying a Kingdra on its back fin.

She pointed to her Gyarados before answering him.

"That one. I asked him not to fall for those two's taunts, though it seems a little hard. They clearly have some attitude problems."

"Maybe we can do something about it. What'd ya say, buddy?"

The newcomer’s Gyarados slithered towards the pool, tossing Kingdra in just before entering. At first glance it looked pretty well-trained. The scales' almost metallic glow was a testament to that.

And in case that first impression wasn't enough, the roar he launched once he got closer, freezing the two quarreling Gyarados on the spot, was all the convincing she needed. Immediately, both Red's and Gary's Gyarados pulled back slightly, while still glaring at one another (she overheard a "We'll settle this later" from Gary's) and made room so he could enter the pool, along with the rest of his Pokémon that followed Gyarados and Kingdra.

They just had the benefit of some land mobility, unlike Kingdra.

“And here I thought my Gyarados' roars were loud."

He chuckled in appreciation.

"Hah, that's just for intimidation, but trust me, his bite is a lot worse. Yours looks pretty good too, if you allow me to say so. Name’s Fergus."

"Thanks. I've done my best with him. We were separated for a while, but since we’ve found each other again, in a story that you would not believe and I would rather not recall, we’ve done a lot of good with each other."

Misty glanced at the Trainer. Barring the Nidoqueen that was lingering at the edge of the pool in a slight watchful and protective pose for her Trainer, all the Pokémon he brought along were Water-types, and a single glance was enough for her to see they were all in excellent condition.

The blue on some of them, like Azumarill and Vaporeon, was rather striking. His Quagsire was looking at her like it was Psyduck though, and she had no idea if that was good or not.

"Hey, mind if I ask you something?"

Fergus’s question came up suddenly.

Misty noticed he was looking at her with some sort of interest. She couldn't put her finger on it, but if it was to ask her out or something, she already had the negative on the tip of her tongue.

She could almost put his voice through a sitcom filter and hear him saying ‘our Gyarados are massive, as is my attraction to you. Let me treat you to an equally large meal if we get through this’.

"Er, sure.”

Much to her relief, however, it wasn't that kind of interest.

"You're the younger sister of the former Cerulean Gym Leaders, aren't you?"

Him asking her out would have still been worse than this, but that was a bad consolation prize.

"Much to my chagrin.”

"Hey, just for the record, I saw your battles in the Battle Dome and the Fuchsia Tag Tournament. I had my doubts when I learned who you were, they are great actors but horrible Gym Leaders, but when I saw you in action… well, I guess I was very wrong. I don't get who put those three in charge if they had someone like you around."

"Well, I didn't have the age, and even if I did, my parents wouldn't have allowed it."

Her bitter words thankfully kept him from asking for more details.

"But now they're not around, I hope I can restore the Cerulean Gym to its former glory. To make my grandmother proud."

"Funny that you say that."

Misty glared at him for the remark. He quickly raised his hands as he backed off a little.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to mock you. I meant, when I heard the Cerulean Gym had been shut down, suddenly I got the idea that I would like to do the same thing. You know, to wipe out that bad rep it's built up all these years. Kanto needs a good Water-type leader, after all, and I’ve been pretty good with Water Pokémon. If I don’t win the League in a few years, that would be a goal in life I’d be happy to go for."

Misty saw the look in Fergus' eyes, and immediately understood what it meant. Part of her would have probably said "In your dreams" or something like that, but the other knew he didn't mean it to cause her harm. After all, he had no way of knowing of the family drama between her and her sisters, neither did he need to know.

And she should have guessed there would be other people interested in restoring the Cerulean Gym just like her. Gyms were not inherent to any families either. Many could be passed on in families, but if someone lost it was not owed to them.

They had to be re-earned with sweat, not blood.

"That Gym's a very important place for me. I'm not giving it up that easily."

She assured this firmly, although trying not to sound threatening while doing it. She had noticed her Gyarados growl a bit when she had heard Fergus’s goals, and the last thing they needed was a Gyarados brawl.

"Oh, I'm sure it is, but since we're on topic have you heard about the Whirl Cup?"

Misty raised her eyebrows slightly. There was no way a Water-types' specialist like her wouldn't know about the Whirl Cup, the tournament held every three years at the Whirl Islands in Johto, where Water Pokémon Trainers from all over the world competed. It was practically an implicit requirement to win it at least once to qualify as a true Water Pokémon Master.

Or an Ice/Water Pokémon Master, like that time Lorelei won the tournament before she entered Kanto's Elite Four. That was when she became her personal heroine, and she wanted to follow her footsteps in it.

It was a dream she had as a child, and it had come back in full force recently through both the bettering of her means of getting to it, and the spark that had made hopes and dreams feel tangible to her again.

The source of it all currently watching the heir to a multi-billion dollar corporation like a hawk and daring him to try something.

"If you can raise a Gyarados like yours, you’ve got the potential. I may have the head start, but I’d like to see what happens when we both have time to prepare. The next Whirl Cup is getting closer every day, and I plan to compete myself. Let’s meet there, and see who the right person to be Gym Leader is."

Misty glanced at Fergus' extended hand. She had to admit it; she felt flattered that another Trainer (aside from Ash and their friends) saw her with such amount of respect. Especially knowing who she was related to, but she didn't feel like she was under that shadow. He was looking at her for herself, and it was nice.

She shook his hand and nodded.

"I'll be there for sure."

As she observed the Gyarados again and Fergus began recounting the story of his first encounter with water, Misty couldn't help but wonder about such a fight.

A battle between Gyarados and Gyarados, against the best Pokémon they could muster.

Of course, that was just another incentive to keep doing her best. After all, she still had to fulfill that promise of having a Gym battle with Ash one day, so she couldn't afford to be anything but her best. That included losing to this guy in the Whirl Cup.

The only issue would probably be to convince Ash to travel to Johto so she could take part in that tournament. She didn't like the idea of going alone just to answer Fergus' challenge.

Johto did have Gyms too though, and it was possible that Ash would want to go into the Whirl Cup too. It made more sense to do so than surfing in any case.

…

Idly he took a bite out of a pastry of some sort, getting some people watching in. It was a hobby that he had developed as a father, and it was probably the most useful thing parenting had given him outside of itself.

It also made keeping the conked out Swampert next to him from getting bothered by something much simpler. Swampert would be fine if someone stumbled on him, but it would make him rather crabby and that was best avoided.

It was always interesting anyway, what you could glimpse from the simplest of behaviors, and how much you could learn from the simplest things in life.

Writing, parenting, and traveling the world on a Pokémon journey taught one these things.

For one thing he could tell that Gary was put off by the fact that two of the three rivals that had been causing him self-esteem issues arrived before him. The fact that submarines did not do turbo didn’t change this fact.

He was talking to the one who seemed drier, the one who came from the same town. From what he had picked up he was not the two who had done the most damage to his self-esteem (once called ego but after a few humblings such things tended to be lost), and the two seemed to be… something.

He wasn’t exactly an expert on friendships, particularly childhood ones. Friendship came to him later in life. Still the two did seem to be getting along.

Though the friend Ash, he had to wonder something. Especially given something he had heard about Gary’s life in his home town.

A bounce on his left revealed Clefairy, who pointed to Ash as well.

“So you noticed it too.”

Clefairy held up two of his fingers, which made him look back at Ash again in surprise.

He wasn’t expecting that.

“Two?”

Clefairy nodded in confirmation before pointing to some of the Pokémon in the room. The Pikachu near Ash, one of the Charizards, the Bulbasaur, and the Ambipom that was not Alexander’s.

“I was wondering if it was something like that, though if I could actually tell who was with who I could get a better picture. Though if we are both noticing that, what are you only picking up?”

Clefairy took a pastry and began eating it, which meant he wasn’t going to get an answer. He’d have to figure it out himself.

He could already hear his wife chuckling at him and citing karma for his approach to math homework problems.

He’d probably never know if Clefairy was intentionally doing the same thing to him or not.

He looked around, trying to spot what Clefairy had noticed.

His eyes eventually landed on Red, the second of Gary’s rivals.

He was right, the two did look alike.

He definitely wasn’t like Ash in the way both he and Clefairy had noticed. But did they share what Clefairy had picked up on?

Whatever it was, he wasn’t quite sure. But he had the oddest feeling the moment he picked up on it he’d be slapping himself in the face.

A poke to his back just barely followed the ceasing of Swampert’s snoring.

“Swa.”

At Swampert’s rapid burst to awakness he turned around to find Magmortar and Chesnaught alongside him, looking towards the door.

With a bounce to his shoulder he felt Clefairy take a position there, a new pastry promptly giving his shoulder a rain of crumbs and sugary dust.

“So, we have more guests. You think that is the last of them?”

Chesnaught and Magmortar gave nods, while Swampert didn’t seem ready to commit either way. Clefairy felt like he was leaning no.

“Well it might just be my age talking, but I do hope no one else put themselves at risk in the weather like this. Plus, I am certainly interested to seeing who the greatest Pokémon Master in the world is.”

…

What was more intimidating, fighting an Elite Four Trainer, or braving a storm? Neesha never thought she'd be comparing those two things.

They were not usually comparable.

The answer, though, was easier than she thought. For a Trainer who had some Pokémon League experience under her belt, facing such a veteran Trainer was both exciting and overwhelming, though it ended up being an unsurmountable hurdle, even though she tried her best.

The storm, never mind how weird and unnatural it seemed, somehow looked like a hurdle she could overcome, if only for curiosity to find out whether the invitation she received was the real deal, or just a hoax.

"Hang in there, Dewgong! We've almost made it!"

While her Blastoise Shellshocker was her strongest Pokémon for battles, her Dewgong was a much better swimmer, especially in such turbulent waters. It was also easier to hold onto Dewgong than Shellshocker in her general experience, and that was not in a situation where the waves were this rough. Of course, she had never actually faced such a powerful rainstorm before. One would have to be very brave, very strong, and perhaps some would say very stupid to go out in such conditions, but there was no turning back now.

Looking aside, she saw another of the Trainers trying to pull through the storm. He was riding on the head of his Gyarados (the second one she'd seen using that Pokémon for transport, surprisingly enough) dressed in a long, dark blue raincoat. She waved at him when he turned around to see her, but he didn't reply in kind, instead focusing back on what was ahead.

She was a bit annoyed at that, but she said nothing, for she saw a huge wave coming at them.

"Get ready!" She called out. "Let's use Waterfall to ride it!"

Dewgong replied affirmatively and immediately picked up the pace with his flippers. As if they were in a race, the Gyarados-riding boy followed suit and tried to swim against the current in front of them, as the wave grew bigger and bigger.

"GO!" Neesha shouted, closing her eyes and holding her breath as she braced herself for what came next.

Dewgong dove into the wave, and she held on for dear life until they pierced through it. The water's cold was merciless, but it was short-lived, and she opened her eyes in time to see them both flying through the air before landing on the sea once more.

Meanwhile, looking at her side, she noticed the Gyarados' boy was nowhere to be found. She couldn't help but become concerned.

"Is he alright?"

For a moment she felt tempted to look, but then she saw some lights in the distance, even though the storm blurred her vision quite a bit. If she could keep her course steady, that had to be her destination, New Island.

"FEAROW!"

The squawk pulled her from her thoughts, and then she saw the bird flying above her, holding the boy she saw before by the shoulders with its talons. Had he decided to change mounts for the last leg of the trip?

"Well, at least he's alright," she said while Dewgong picked up speed. They had almost reached their destination after all.

…

Once they were in the eye of the storm, she could see their destination more clearly. The place looked creepy alright, but the presence of lights indicated there had to be something, or someone, living there.

The Fearow she saw before descended to let its Trainer set foot on land. Without sparing a word he returned it to its Ball and lowered his hoodie, allowing Neesha to see his dark purple hair. He turned around to glance at her when she and Dewgong approached the dock, and she jumped off his back.

His grumpy face was familiar to her somehow.

"What are you staring at?"

"Huh? No, I just... hey, didn't you take part in the Fuchsia Tag Tournament?"

She had just returned from Johto and when she stopped by Fuchsia City, she learned of an ongoing Tag Battle Tournament, with the prize of an entire day in the Safari Zone to catch Pokémon. Though she was a bit late to sign up for it and she had to make do with being a spectator.

That boy had been one of the runner-ups, if she recalled.

The purple-haired boy didn't answer; he just looked away with an annoyed expression and let out an almost imperceptible “hmph”. Was he mad because he lost the finals?

Some footsteps coming from the nearby staircase got both their attentions. Neesha saw a person with a lamp in hand coming over to them.

As she came closer, she saw it was the same woman from the hologram in the invitation she got.

"My master bids you welcome to New Island. Would you kindly present your invitation?”

Both of them searched their pockets to present their respective invitations. Neesha felt a chill creeping down her spine when the woman, her expression as empty as that of a robot, grabbed hers and verified, as the hologram replied with the same emotionless tone as the real woman.

"My master has determined that all those who are worthy of him have arrived by now. Please come with me."

The woman beckoned them to follow her upstairs, and they both did so. The place's general atmosphere was creepy alright, and Neesha couldn't think of anything but trying to talk to the other Trainer, if only to somewhat ease the tension she felt.

"Hey, what do you think she means by 'worthy of him'?" she asked in a low voice.

The boy turned at her with a slight frown, and he just shrugged.

“Don’t know.”

"Say, are you in a bad mood today, or are you always like this?"

This time his only response was to walk ahead a bit, away from her. Evidently that guy wasn't the most social person in the world.

Well, if there were more Trainers who'd made it here, there had to be someone nicer and willing to talk to her. At least that way the trip wouldn't have been a total waste, even if it turned out that the 'biggest Pokémon Master in the world" was just a hoax for curious people.

A hoax with a horrible chance weather pattern.

…

Two more people had arrived, and one of them was Paul.

He could feel Raichu dart behind his legs, not wanting to be seen. However Paul did not seem to have noticed her.

He did notice him, and while he did not give him a guy nod like Red did he didn’t look like he was about to spit in his face so that was something.

Paul and the girl he had arrived with (though even he could tell that they had not arrived here together, just at the same time) began releasing their Pokémon.

Through the corner of his eye he caught that Silph was watching the Pokémon being sent out from the corner of his own eye, but in a way that even Team Rocket would call ‘obvious’.

He’d go tell him to knock it off, but Raichu needed the hiding spot behind his legs more than he felt annoyed at him in all honesty.

Plus seeing as he was seeing Paul’s Pokémon, he probably couldn’t call Silph out on it at the moment anyway, even if his first thought upon seeing them was to remember them for the next time they battled, though he doubted he’d run ‘a thousand computer simulation’ or whatever it was that the guy did.

Though given one of the Pokémon he saw Paul release he might be closer to that than he’d care to admit. Where had Paul caught a Pokémon of that species?

This wasn’t Hoenn, and it certainly wasn’t Jessie’s.

Trying not to ponder that question too much lest he try and calculate the exact number of times he had fought that Pokémon before (how often did Team Rocket bother him in two entire regions?), or the fact that the girl had released a Gligar that was making him miss a friend of his once more, his gaze turned away and towards a vacant part of the room.

All that had been there was a single whirling staircase of some sort, one that no one had been up for walking.

Partially for the fact that nearly all of them except for Corey had already taken the stairs and did not want to do so again, and partially because there was no telling what was up there.

Something about looking up there gave off an intimidating feeling, like there was something of unbelievable power up there.

He felt someone walk up to him, and he was quite sure it was Anabel.

It was.

‘You feel it? Something’s changed in the air. I think we are going to see what this is all about.’

He nodded at Anabel’s thoughts. He quickly looked away from the spiraling stairs back to everyone else.

Iris and the bearded man (the oldest one here, come to think of it) were the only ones who were also looking towards the staircase.

There were also a number of Pokémon doing so, though there were just as many if not more Pokémon who weren’t acting on such a sense.

Or possibly just putting it aside, as the entire island was like it.

Paul was taking a bite with a bit less restraint than he recalled him tending to do usually, but given he braved the storm Ash was hardly going to hold that against him.

They got here the easy way after all.

Then the lights shut off, and everyone’s attention was taken. Even Chansey, though most of her attention was still on an exhausted Gyarados who had joined the four others in the pool.

After a lot of frantic looking around in various states of nervousness, everyone’s attention arrived on the spiral staircase, where a single bright blue light shone down.

In front of the light stood the host lady, staring at them all as always.

“You are about to meet my master. The time has come for your encounter with the greatest Pokémon Master on Earth.”

Even if that was hyperbole, Ash had to give her master credit. This was a good dramatic entrance, very moody. Though going down the staircase might diminish that, at least in his eyes.

Unless he was going to jump down that light and land dramatically, which probably was not safe for anyone.

He might be tougher than Gary or Paul, but he was still pretty sure that he would break something doing that, and after doing that Humunga-Dunga would be forever overshadowed in the ‘never live it down’ department.

At the light five Gyarados hisses rang out, along with hundreds of other calls of Pokémon tensing up in worry. He could even feel sparks of electricity from Raichu behind him.

Nervous Togepi sounds were also registered, and he could hear Togepi dart into Pikachu’s side for protection.

Then a shape appeared in the light, descending down towards them, and the tenseness of the room grew even more intense.

A few sharp breaths of surprise, and while he did not exhale himself he felt like an explosion of realization went off in his head.

He didn’t remember this, but it all felt familiar. He had thought it had been entirely forgotten, a simple and boring detail lost in the sea of his eventful life.

He had never quite connected it with an event that had happened later, when he had been told that he had his memory wiped, and that the Pokémon he met then had encountered him before. It felt dumb in hindsight, though now he was going to get to see what had been lost to him the first time.

“Data failed. Species unknown. Name unknown. This is an entirely new find.”

The Pokédex in his pocket had recorded plenty of data today, but this would be a first for it. An entirely new Pokémon that it knew not the name, the type, or the origin.

He may not have known the last two, but as a pair of three–toed feet landed on the ground and a purple tail stood erect behind the pale gray frame, he knew this Pokémon.

This Pokémon’s name was Mewtwo, and the eyes it stared out towards them all was a different look from when they met him again, if the first time by his own memory, on Mount Quena.

The eyes were filled with disdain and superiority over them, visible beyond their faint psychic glow.

The blue light continued to bathe Mewtwo as Mewtwo’s hostess continued to speak.

“The most powerful Pokémon Master is also the most powerful Pokémon on Earth. His name is Mewtwo.”

A statement that Ash could, if nothing else, say was not an entirely misguided belief. However given everyone else did not know Mewtwo…

“What!? That is insane! We can argue what a Pokémon Master is until we all are old and gray; in fact I am pretty sure the bearded guy over there writes about that question. But in what definition is some random Pokémon no one’s ever heard of count as a Pokémon….”

Corey’s statement about Mewtwo’s status, and his comments about the older Trainer being a writer of some sort, were silenced by a blue glow that formed around him, locking him in place with psychic powers.

‘Tell me human, is this not sufficient demonstration? What is a Pokémon Master but a master of powerful Pokémon, and am I not a powerful Pokémon? You all have seen the storm I created with my mind, and the island I remade the very same way. I am the master of myself, the world’s most powerful Pokémon. Therefore, I am what I say I am, the world’s greatest Pokémon Master.’

Quite a number of people jumped at the voice that rang in their heads, Mewtwo’s voice, and many Pokémon had similar reactions. In fact, while he noticed that Iris, Misty, Red, and Yellow jumped a bit less than most everyone else, only two others besides himself who weren’t Pokémon had very little reaction.

Anabel and the bearded man, which caught Mewtwo’s attention, if the mildly impressed crack in his lips meant anything.

A crack in his lips that was oddly human for a Pokémon, even a humanoid looking one.

“Gyarados, Hydro Pump!”

“Torterra, Leaf Storm!”

“Pikachu, Thunderbolt!”

The expression on Mewtwo’s face faded as three attacks flew at him at once.

Fergus’s Gyarados, Paul’s Torterra, and Red’s Pikachu all blasted Mewtwo with the powerful ranged attacks.

Mewtwo however, did not get hit by them. Instead with the movement of a single finger all three attacks were halted in place.

They hung in the air, to the shock of the three who ordered their attack.

‘So you fear my power? As expected. What power you could bring forth pales in comparison to my own, as you can clearly see.’

Quite clearly, given that he was still holding Corey in place.

Mewtwo barely had to twitch around his eye to halt the shadowy emergence of what Ash was pretty sure was Corey’s Gengar behind him.

Said Gengar had probably been hoping to strike Mewtwo while distracted to free Corey.

With barely any noticeable movement the psychically held attacks were sent back to their owners with amplified powers.

The Hydro Pump struck Corey’s Gyarados, and sent the great serpent toppling into Red and Gary’s Gyarados’s and knocking the serpents over with a massive splash that soaked everything near them.

The Leaf Storm flew into the mass of Paul’s Pokémon, sending Torterra and several other Pokémon (including Murkrow and a Jynx) flying. He briefly noticed Hypno use a move before being itself blown away, and that was why Paul didn’t seem to get flung into a wall and break something.

He was merely knocked into the wall with a light thump.

Gengar was flung around and shoved right into Corey, who was sent flying with his Gengar towards a wall of his own. Corey’s Hitmonlee moved to intercept, but all that accomplished was having the three of them get pushed into the wall by a slightly less forceful force.

They struck the wall, though it was Hitmonlee who took the worst of it.

He briefly heard Yellow shout in worry for Red and Pikachu, and a Rattata dart in towards Red and Pikachu both in response to her cry.

Surprisingly Rattata moved faster than the lightning reflection, and even more so managed to shove Red and Pikachu out of the way.

He could have sworn he saw an orange glow in Rattata’s eyes, but it was not his doing.

The reflected bolt struck the table, shattering it and sending a rain of debris flying everywhere, before each piece was caught up in psychic light and held in place.

Mewtwo, even while it seemed he was idly reassembling the table and everything spilled on it with one hand, looked towards the drenched Red and Pikachu in surprise.

‘You have a surprisingly strong Rattata. Tell me, how did it get so strong?’

“I couldn’t let you hurt my brother.”

Yellow, her entire body shaking, stepped towards Mewtwo, as if daring Mewtwo to go through her if he wanted to try and blast Red again.

‘That doesn’t answer my question. I know power. I am not just well versed in it, but I am power myself. What that Rattata just did was not normal. What, is it because you were worried for your brother that it managed such force?’

“That’s why Ratty was so strong. I don’t want people hurting him, and that is why Ratty was able to save him.”

The entire room suddenly chilled, and it was not because of the use of ice attacks.

‘I do not allow lies to be told to my face unpunished.’

A sudden burst of attacks flew from several of Red’s Pokémon, but Mewtwo, not changing from his glare at Yellow, blocked the attacks with a stray thought.

Red’s Charizard, Sneasel, Hypno, and Clefairy were sent flying with their own attacks, and a charge from the Rattata was reflected away as well.

Though it did create an opening for him, without thinking, to run up and stand between Mewtwo and Yellow.

Giving him the full blunt of Mewtwo’s glare mere feet away from him, and the single round digit that, once pointing right at Yellow, was now aimed straight at his chest.

‘Why are you defending this liar? You will accomplish nothing. Is this simple human nature to protect lies, or are you also her brother and such things are just something humans can’t help but do?’

Mewtwo’s words were offered in a mocking tone, in disbelief as the idea that he could stop him.

“Yes.”

The word left his mouth without thinking. He thought he heard Gary gasp in surprise in the tense silence that hung in the room.

“She’s also not lying. People and Pokémon together can accomplish things neither can do themselves. Even you need her, don’t you?”

He gestured to Mewtwo’s assistant, who was standing still as always.

‘A poor counterpoint. Her knowledge was merely necessary to overcome a temporary hurdle. It was of help I will concede, but no necessity. That does not explain what power that Rattata possessed.’

“They’ve explained it already, you just aren’t listening. You are looking for a specific answer, and we aren’t giving it to you.”

The man who had come in with Gary was talking now, walking up to where he and Yellow were standing off against Mewtwo with a Pokémon he wasn’t familiar with.

The large, armored and bushy-bearded Pokémon, and he thought the Pokédex had called it a Chesnaught. It sort of reminded him of Clemont’s Chespin.

Mewtwo did not move his finger from pointing at the two of them, but his focus was on the man and his Pokémon now.

‘If you are saying that I got distracted by that Rattata, I will admit to it. It has taken me from my original plan. To declare the strength of clones such as myself before the world on top of my own power and to accomplish my goals. I’ve even considered the idea of taking over the world, though I will admit I doubt I’d enjoy ruling over humans. There is always destroying them all and then taking over the world of course.’

Mewtwo talked of conquest and genocide as if he was discussing what restaurant he would go to, a suggestion between sandwiches and pizza instead of the fate of billions, and despite the gasps of worry and fear from those around him the older man did not seem as stunned.

Horrified and concerned yes, but he stared back at Mewtwo with a face saying he had seen such things before and gotten through them. There was a confidence to his face that Ash wondered if he ever showed during disasters.

“I do hope you don’t think conquest and genocide are original concepts, some of us have seen it before. I will give you credit for being the first Pokémon to have such a goal in mind, credit where it is due.”

‘You have seen nothing like me.’

The old man chuckled.

“It’s both true and not true at the same time. You are a unique being, but your goals are hardly so. Superior creations, world domination, mass murder, they have all been before. I even stopped one or two such things in my youth. Few may know of my deeds, but Casey Snagem has seen it all, and I will repeat the arguments the three of us before you have said. You may be the world’s most powerful Pokémon, or at least quite the contender for the position, but humans and Pokémon together are stronger still. That Rattata did indeed get stronger because of the girl’s wishes.”

‘What, and if you wish really hard, the Pokémon you have there will defeat me? That Pokémon is a Grass and Fighting type, you cannot even claim type to be in your favor.’

“Defeat would be a bit much, but I am quite up for proving a point.”

Mewtwo, probably wanting to make a point himself, had both of them surrounded by a psychic blue aura, clearly with the intent to fling them away. At this however Chesnaught exploded into a giant storm of green leaves.

“Error. Chesnaught cannot use Leaf Storm.”

The Pokédex’s statement was followed up by round seeds being shot at from the Chesnaught. Mewtwo deflected both and sent them crashing into the wall, but the entire thing had been enough to let them go, if perhaps only out of sheer curiosity.

The leaves centered on a single point on Chesnaught, forming into a glowing green shield on its right arm. That wasn’t all that changed however, as the Chesnaught’s beard was now black and the color of the Pokémon’s body had changed around a bit.

Surprisingly similar to the color of Casey’s jacket and pants.

“A single incident may surprise you, but perhaps this can prove a point. This is a power that can only be achieved with a rare Pokémon such as yourself, but also with a human with whom that Pokémon has an unshakable and powerful bond of trust and love with. It is the Bond Phenomenon!”

Ash mouthed that phrase to himself, his core tingling as if electrified.

“This particular one is Casey-Chesnaught!”

Mewtwo seemed to be struggling to not show too much surprise, and as a result some did leak through his features.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Paul muttering was a distinct sound in a wave of surprised comments from those in the room.

‘That is a novel ability, I will grant you that. However even you admitted it probably cannot defeat me.’

“I never said that he could beat you, but I never said he can’t do it. It’s just highly improbable!”

Chesnaught, responding to his Trainer’s late surge in excitement, swung his shield arm forward. A glowing and spiked shield grown from the leaves flung forth towards Mewtwo, spinning like a hurricane. The fact that glowing tendrils of leaves spiraled out from it like a storm made it even more so.

Mewtwo teleported out of the way, reappearing right in front of Chesnaught as the green shield clunked somewhere in the back.

With two fists glowing, Mewtwo slammed down on Chesnaught in some sort of Fighting-type attack.

The resulting shockwave flung through the room, and it was only because he felt a light tingle of psychic power that he didn’t get blown away, same with Yellow and Casey Snagem.

Chesnaught lunged forward with a glowing white head, forcing Mewtwo to pop back out of range. He, however, seemed somewhat surprised.

‘You still stand?’

He was even more surprised when the green energy shield swung back from the corner it hit, like it had ricocheted from impact. Mewtwo stumbled from the solid blow to his back.

The same moment that Casey Snagem collapsed.

“Ches!”

“Mr. Snagem!”

Chesnaught and Gary were only among two of the voices that rang out in more personal concern at what had just happened. Among them, surprisingly, Alexander Silph.

“What happened to him? Why is he hurt?”

He shared Yellow’s confusion. What just…

Mewtwo was silent for a moment, in surprise from both the blow to him from behind and the injuries to Snagem.

Then he stood up, and as the struck area lingered with a bit of a bruise he stared at the downed Snagem, now protected by the still altered Chesnaught.

‘I see. This power of yours increases the strength of Chesnaught in both offensive and defense, but with a single, key weakness. You two become connected and share the impact of attacks upon you. Chesnaught can take my physical power much better than a human, and even if I assume the impact is blunted it is more than enough to incapacitate a human. Yet you weren’t expecting it to strike as hard as it did. Clearly my power surpasses your wildest imagination, as well as your most unorthodox attempts at countering it.’

“Yet you… aren’t so perfect yourself. You didn’t start today with that bruise on your back.”

Mewtwo’s response to that reminder was to cup his hands together and form a bright glowing orange ball in between them.

“Hyper Beam!”

In a move he probably should have done minutes ago without shouting the attack’s name first, he grabbed Yellow and rolled out of the way of the oncoming attack. Chesnaught glared into the looming beam and formed two shields on his arms and crouched down to protect Snagem, standing over him so Mewtwo could not teleport around him.

Golden auras flew into Chesnaught from a few Pokémon in the area, a Lilligant, a Purugly, a Clefairy that was not Red’s, a shiny Sunflora, and a Simipour. The result of this was that the beam only sent both Trainer and Pokémon flying.

A Swampert and Typhlosion caught both of them, but that was probably the end of Casey-Chesnaught and Casey Snagem’s battle today.

‘Now that I have made it plainly clear that you cannot stop me, allow me to show you that you can’t stop anything of mine.’

At Mewtwo’s nonchalant statement three holes opened up in the floor in front of Mewtwo, from which three Pokémon emerged.

A Venusaur, a Charizard, and a Blastoise.

‘By chance I noticed that among you all there are three Blastoise, two Charizard, and a Venusaur. These are my own of those three, cloned as I was and stronger for it. Try and prove me wrong and best them.’

Behind the spiral stairway the wall opened up with a massive shake, unveiling a dark stadium. Lights popped on shortly after, revealing a field that looked like it could have come out of a League stadium.

“Alright, seeing as I’m the guy with a Venusaur I’ll take you on. Bruteroot!”

Corey’s declaration was followed by an agreeing bellow from said Venusaur.

“Blast.”

“To.”

“Bla….”

The three Blastoise in the room spoke to one another briefly before one stepped forward, followed by the female Trainer Neesha.

“You go. This is something that you’d do better than myself. Also my Charizard, unlike yours, did take a bit of a blow earlier. We need 100% here, not 99%.”

At Red’s deference and the sound of Charizard flying his way he walked forward, Charizard at the ready.

…

He idly noticed that his Chansey and a Blissey he suspected was Alexander Silph’s, along with a Miltank from Neesha, were healing the injured man and Chesnaught as he joined Neesha and Corey on one end of the field.

Mewtwo stood on the other end, and seemed amused as Pikachu bounded onto his shoulder.

‘I was under the impression that humans trained Pokémon for obedience. What reason would you have to train Pikachu to do that?’

“Pikachu and I are buddies, but we’ve already explained that. I’m pretty sure you’d like us to drop the friendship speeches until we beat you.”

Mewtwo no longer looked amused.

‘As amazed I am at the idea that you still think you can triumph over me, I will appreciate you agreeing to not give more diatribes of that nature unless you do win, which is highly unlikely. Now, which of you will oppose me first?’

Both Corey and Bruteroot the Venusaur stepped forward in unspoken agreement, and with a more telegraphed shrug Mewtwo sent his own Venusaur forward.

A slight victory for Corey and Venusaur, but not one that would make Mewtwo see reason.

“Bruteroot use Growth!”

Said Venusaur bellowed as a green aura surrounded him, powering him up.

‘Swords Dance.’

An aura glowed around the clone Venusaur, but this one purple.

Both were now powered up, though in different ways.

“If that’s how you want to play it, fine! Fire Sludge Bomb!”

Bruteroot shot a lob of purple sludge into the air, which flew down towards the clone like an artillery shell.

The clone almost lazily formed a glowing Protect up to block it.

“Alright Energy Ball!”

A green sphere was spat out next, which the clone took on.

The damage was taken without any flinching.

“Use Growth…”

‘Petal Blizzard.’

The clone Venusaur was surrounded in a spiraling pink storm of petals, which was then flung into Bruteroot.

The attack struck the Venusaur, and flew beyond into Corey. The petals proceeded to cut into Corey’s clothes and tear at them like a thousand miniature blades.

Some of the areas struck were liquid red.

The storm flew beyond them and back into the dining hall, where several Pokémon scattered to avoid them.

As the storm passed both Corey and Bruteroot were still standing, though both were rather cut up from the attack and not the most stable in their standing stance.

“What the…did your Pokémon use an attack or release its Shik…”

‘Vine Whip.’

The vines of the clone finished off Bruteroot with a massive shove that sent injured Pokémon flying into injured Trainer. The only reason he hadn’t been crushed was that Corey’s Absol had darted in and shoved him out of the way.

Both were flung to the ground harshly, but one did not crush the other.

“It’s my turn then!”

With that Shellshocker entered the ring, and so did the clone Blastoise and the Venusaur stepped back to Mewtwo’s side.

“Icy Wind!”

At Neesha’s command her Blastoise began spewing out cold wind from his cannons.

‘Mist.’

Mewtwo’s Blastoise countered this move by spewing out a cloud of cold from its mouth. The two attacks mingled in the middle of the field, obscuring both sides vision of the other.

“Damn, now I can’t see… Shellshocker use Earthquake!”

Shellshocker did just that, smashing the ground with a massive punch that shook the entire battlefield.

“Do it again!”

Shellshocker raised another fist for another ground strike, only for a bolt of black light to shoot out of the cloud and strike the socket of Shellshocker’s arm.

Shellshocker yowled at that blow, and ceased the Earthquake use.

“You got a hit through all of that?!”

Neesha’s dumbfounded statement was met by a second Dark Pulse into Shellshocker, this time striking him in the other shoulder socket.

‘Perfected clones means everything is as I say. Perfect vision, perfect aim, perfect power.’

A third blast, this time a Hydro Pump, sent Shellshocker flying to the ground at Neesha’s stunned feet.

The cloud created in their initial clash blew away, the only sign of it being there being Mewtwo’s hand at the end of a waving gesture.

It was now time for a Charizard versus Charizard fight.

…

Charizard turned to Ash, a serious look in his eyes.

“Rr.” ‘Start with the Z-move. Even if it doesn’t work, I doubt this fight is going to last long even without the energy loss. We need to go in with all we got at the start, or we are going to lose.’

His Trainer was surprised by this call, but he had seen what the last two fights were like and he could see his point.

So he raised his arm up as he reached for and slotted in the white crystal.

‘And what is it that you are trying?’

“Our power!”

Ash’s shout was followed by him making the poses he had practiced since their battle with Misty, a diagonal arm movement before slamming his fists down on his chest in a Z-shape. Orange light sprung up as a result and flew into him, exploding into a massive burst of power.

He flew towards the clone Charizard, even as Ash shouted the name of the move.

“Breakneck Blitz, go!”

‘Flare Blitz!’

Mewtwo’s command was the first in this battle to have a bit of urgency to it, and at least he could claim victory in that.

He wanted to take a true win though, which was why he flew forward with all the might of the Z-Move, clashing into the fiery glow of the enemy Charizard’s attack with immense power.

The stadium shook with their impact, and he was happy to say that he won the power struggle. The enemy Charizard was sent back, and he had the initiative.

However the enemy wasn’t down, and was far from it.

“Metal Claw!”

He felt like he had just defeated an enemy before that one, but he still had to go forward. At his Trainer’s command he swung down a glowing claw, though not while wondering why Ash made that call instead of Slash.

The other Charizard blocked it with a glowing green Dragon Claw, sending both their claws away and leaving both of them exposed.

“Now Slash!”

Ash clearly picked up that would happen, and with his other arm he slashed with the extended claws at his enemy.

The attack struck, but the other Charizard responded with a glowing ball in his own other hand.

Someone could probably tell him if it was Hidden Power or Ancient Power or some other move, but he didn’t let it hit him regardless.

He flew back and out of the way and avoided the attack, before the clone flung a different, orange ball his way.

He avoided the blow and blasted back with a Flamethrower just as Ash was calling for it.

The enemy Charizard slashed it apart and flew forward with a Thunder Punch.

He flew above him to avoid the attack, though his enemy then angled upward and flew at him with the move still active.

A continuous Flamethrower did not dissuade the charging enemy. It surely was taking damage, but he took even more when that punch hit his gut.

The blow sent him free falling for a moment, pursued by the enemy. However he ignited Flame Charge and sped away, and with the speed boost avoided a grab by his foe.

Said foe formed two blue orbs underwing and began blasting shredding blades of wind at him.

He avoided them, flying up as his opponent flew towards him with another sparking punch.

He ignited power in his tail and countered that move with Dragon Tail, before blasting into his opponent with Flamethrower.

He flew away as he did so, giving himself distance from his opponent, when an annoyed thought crossed his mind.

His opponent wasn’t using fire on him, except the one time Mewtwo ordered him to against his Z-Move. All of the moves he was using were of other types.

He didn’t see him as a worthy opponent, he saw him as weak.

He avoided a Dragon Claw with a Flame Charge speed up, as he noted the reason for that thought.

His enemy was strong enough to actually feel that way. His attacks were not going to wear him down before he himself was worn down.

Not unless he swallowed his pride, and so did Ash.

‘Ash!’

His mental shout was followed by a dodge of a Thunder Punch, and another billowing Flamethrower into his punching opponent.

Said opponent then lobbed the glowing yellow attack into him, which he flew off after a bit of spinning.

He and Ash were similar in a lot of ways. Even when they weren’t agreeing with the other during the original timeline, there was a lot they shared.

They got better as the other did.

He thought that Professor Oak had said something about Trainers and Pokémon coming to share quirks the more they worked together, and he could see a lot of that in all of the Pokémon Ash traveled with.

He shared Ash’s pride that had been the source of his earliest triumphs and failures. Pignite shared his frustration and issues with failure, if more openly than Ash did. Squirtle was the mixture of Ash’s ability to motivate and his less than serious side. Oshawott was Ash’s bumbling nature.

Pride was a reason neither of them liked to blow through opponents with either the power of Ash’s bloodline, or Z-Moves right off the bat. There were other factors too of course, some logical like the fact that Z-moves were more of a finishing move. Some emotional like Ash feeling it was more cheating, while he would not use that term to describe why he preferred not to.

There was also the issue of Ash not wanting Red to lord the action over him and call hypocrite. However while he was not human and did not have the same mental thoughts as a human, he liked to believe that Red would pick up the difference between this battle and tournament ones.

Thankfully, even as a blue spiral of draconic winds boxed him in a single vertical slice of air with his opponent flying in at him, Thunder Punch at hand, he felt the unbelievable surge of power.

The power of Ash’s second bloodline.

With that he bellowed Flamethrower. The greatest bellow of flame he had ever unleashed.

They flew down towards his opponent, who only had a micro moment to realize the difference in power from previous attacks before the fires engulfed him and sent him blasting down to earth.

He flew after him, keeping the flames up and ready to make a dramatic landing.

…

Ash didn’t like to win the way he just did. He had his thoughts on his powers and how moral they were.

However he knew this was different. This was not a Gym battle. This was not a rival battle. It was a battle that could have the fate of the world at stake.

Even if he did need Charizard’s request to get it rolling, and get it rolling he did, the giant fire vortex that engulfed the clone Charizard slammed into the ground with tremendous force.

‘You know, I was actually just about to remind you that you could do that, and that this was not a place to worry about being a hypocrite.’

Anabel’s mental comment was followed by his Charizard landing on the field above the downed Charizard. Said Charizard, while still alive, was defeated and slightly charred.

His own Charizard breathed a victory flame into the air, before crouching down and panting.

“He did it.”

At Neesha’s surprised words, his attention was drawn to the speechless Mewtwo, who seemed stunned at the development.

His almost gaping expression continued even as cheers rang up among the Trainers and Pokémon still conscious.

He stared at the shocked Pokémon, and knew what he had to do.

“Well, seeing as I won, I can start with the friendship speeches again. Mewtwo, did you see what just happened? Your Charizard was stronger than mine, but mine still won. It was only because he and I are as close as we are that this battle turned around.”

He tapped a palm against his chest, around where his heart was.

“We’d have never won if we didn’t trust each other the way only the best of friends did. I trust Charizard’s power, and he trusts my mind. Plenty more than that, not just with him either. Pikachu’s the same way, and if you had a clone Pikachu to fight him the same thing would happen. People and Pokémon make themselves stronger together, and it doesn’t matter where any of them came from.”

This timeline or the old one, from a town or a city, a forest or a river. Being born or being created.

He extended a hand to Mewtwo, a smile on his face.

“You can’t be serious.”

He ignored Paul’s disbelieving comment.

“I don’t claim to know your life, but if I’d have to make a guess it wasn’t a pleasant one. If you can’t see how anything but raw power can mean anything, I’m willing to help you see it. I won’t even capture you.”

Mewtwo continued to stare at him, though the lack of a death glare was encouraging. Perhaps he managed to get through to him.

A ding went off somewhere in the island, a sound that hung in the air like the chiming of a great clock telling the changing of an hour. At the ding Mewtwo’s expression slowly changed.

It changed into a smile, but one that did not make Ash think he got Mewtwo to agree to come with him and experience the wonders and happiness of mankind.

‘I see. That is how you did it. I had wondered with the Chesnaught, but you are what I was looking for, Ash Ketchum.’

He felt Pikachu shiver at the use of his full name.

“I’m really hoping you mean you were looking for a friend and found me.”

Mewtwo looked right at him.

‘I had a friend once, she died. She was created when I was.’

Was that where the other Mewtwo came from? Somehow he doubted that, or that this was going to be a good development.

‘Her name was Amber, and you are what I need to bring her back.’

A reflexive part of him wanted to say that he’d do anything, but his instincts were shouting at him to stay quiet because Mewtwo was about to do something terrifying.

Something then struck his forehead, knocking him back. He stumbled a bit, nothing he couldn’t get back up from but enough to cause the Pokédex to fall out of his pocket.

However his limbs didn’t seem ready up for responding. They didn’t feel solid anymore, like his entire body was losing physical mass.

It was getting worse, and now his vision was getting fuzzy.

Then he couldn’t see or feel anything, and the world was black.

…

Everyone, regardless of species, could only stare in horror as Ash was struck by a black Pokéball and sucked into it. The ball clattered to the ground just inches from the Pokédex that had fallen from Ash’s pocket.

Pikachu could only stare at the ball, terror seizing every cell in his body.

A flicker in the air drew his gaze away from the ball that had taken his friend, and he could only stare in utter horror at what now floated over Mewtwo’s side of the field.

A massive swarm of the very same balls, hundreds of them. Perhaps even thousands.

With a mere flick of Mewtwo’s finger, the balls all flew towards them without mercy.