Cha. 34

The group applauded as the hippie finished playing his Pokéflute.

"Bravo!" Ash cheered.

"Thank you, son." The old man bowed and raised a bowl. "May I have a bit of food? I'm starving."

Brock pulled opened his backpack and handed the man some sushi from lunch.

Misty made a grunt of realization. "Ah, yes. This is the one with the Snorlax blocking the stream?"

"Yes. Heavy sleeper, he is." Pikachu gulped down another Chesto, counteracting the effects of the flute.

"This should be easy." Ash remarked. "I can think of five different ways already to wake him up."

"Plus, I can always just move the Snorlax with Psychic." Domino shrugged. "If I can lift Ash, I can lift him."

"HEY!" Ash protested, and the blonde broke down in giggles.

Pikachu handed over some of his leftover Chesto Berries. "If you need any as backup…"

"Nah, let me try." Lucario walked in front of the Sleeping Pokémon.

"Don't pull your back." Ash warned.

"Aura BOOST!" A condensed blue glow, turning purple, surrounded the ancient Steel Type. He then bent down and grabbed onto the heavy bear and tossed him twenty feet away from the stream.

Then, he turned around and rubbed his palms together in near sonic speed, producing a bright red aura glow, induced by friction, and sent a Flamethrower at the thorns, burning a large hole for the river to flow through in seconds.

"Showoff." Pikachu muttered.

"Cheers to…" Mew couldn't think of anything else after their three hundredth toast. "Oh, yes! Regigigas losing weight!"

The two Mews and Giratina gulped down their cups of smoothie, and Regice refilled their cup on auto-programming.

"This is awesome." Giratina commented. "I wish I can stay in your Tree all the time, Mew."

Mew smirked. "It's more work than you think."

Her sister gave her a look, and she laughed. "Just kidding. No it's not."

"What are you all doing up there?" The other Mew asked curiously.

"Arceus forces us to, well, do free labor." The Ghost Dragon complained. "It's basically slavery without representation!"

"It's taxation without representation." Regice corrected.

"Not everyone is programmed to have an infinite database, Regice." The Renegade Legendary sighed. "We established this two thousand years ago already."

"Noted. Gratitude for reminder." The Ice Golem beeped and filled his cup up again. "Even though I can only store four hundred thousand telobytes."

Moltres landed next to the still-sleeping Snorlax. She shrugged and blew out an actual Flamethrower, wiping away the entire cluster of thorns.

"That should allow the river to have more room." She muttered, and looked at the direction where the crew was standing before the teleportation.

"Good thing I'm psychic. Guess that's one plus to being shiny." The pink legendary vanished in a blink.

She never saw the circling shape a few thousand feet on top of her, creating trails of rainbows.

As they phased into existence from Domino's teleportation, sounds of clashing flooded the street they were standing on.

Two groups, one wearing blue and one orange was forcing one another, some of them wrestling, and Pokémon fighting as well on open streets.

Ash looked to Pikachu. "Your turn to show off."

"My pleasure!" Pikachu yelped excited and hopped off. A second later, massive Thunderbolts zapped into the midst of the battle, completely paralyzing everyone.

"Good work." Ash complimented.

Misty winked at him. "Leave this group to me."

With that, she dashed straight between the two groups and pulled out her mallet threateningly. "You two are not even close to becoming a gym leader."

Misty shook her head as she looked at Kaz and Yas. "First of all, isn't this supposed be a Dark Gym? Why do I not see a single Dark Pokémon!?"

"Second, you think that Gyms are just battles" Misty waved her weapon around. "Of course not! They are tests of character! That's why they are recognized by Indigo Plateau. Pokémon battling is supposed to strengthen bonds and develop respect, not a series of bang-bang-bang!"

"And let met tell you something: Street fighting is definitely NOT a way to show character!"

"Well said!" Brock applauded as he walked up with the group. "A small problem though, Mist. I think they're still paralyzed."

Domino tossed over a roll of Paralysis Heal. "Don't worry. Always prepared."

"And who are YOU supposed to be?" Kaz growled at the Water Type Trainer. "Why should we listen to you?"

Misty rolled her eyes and pulled out her master Cerulean Badge. "Misty. Cerulean Gym Leader."

"Brock, Pewter leader." Brock held out his master Boulder Badge as well. "Misty is right. Aggressive Pokémon fighting is definitely NOT a way to solve your issue, especially not in your city of peace."

The older teen gestured around the street. "Look at what you're doing. You're scaring everyone away into their homes. If you truly want to help people by opening a gym, resolve this peacefully! Or else, your characters do not fit to be Gym Leader."

"Gym Leaders have to also protect the city against crime, regulate laws, and let me remind you, the same laws that you are CURRENTLY BREAKING!"

Misty continued. "Plus, it is not fair to the Pokémon. What should they do your dirty battling for you? To them, battling is a noble cause. It demands respect and honor!"

Lucario nodded. "She's not wrong."

Yas and Kaz looked at each other and back at her, ashamed. Yaz spoke up. "How do YOU suppose we solve this issue?"

"Yeah, we've already tried battling and choosing the more skilled, but most battles end with ties and the large influx in victories determined nothing." Kaz supported his argument.

"Again, it's not about battling. It's so much more." Misty said, exasperatedly. "If you are so stubborn and concentrated on battling, let me tell you something with battling then."
"To become Gym Leader, you need to get approval from an Elite Four, which requires at least one battle where you can impress them with considerable skill, with Pokémon of your type."

"Now, how do you suppose you do that, when you don't even HAVE a Dark Type right now?"

"What she's saying is," Ash spoke up, "Help each other figure out a plan of action. Research more into the Gym subject. When we bond, our strength is a lot stronger than single."
"How do you suppose we do that?" Kaz asked. "How did YOU get your Gym certification?"

"You can borrow Pokémon, or train them yourself. The Elite Four are just assessing you on skill and whether you know what you're doing" Misty said. "However, I'm kind of different from your case."

"Brock and I," she gestured to the Rock Trainer and herself, "have strong, mature, evolved Pokémon already trained for the Gym by our parents and siblings."
"However, in your case, in which you're starting from scratch, you must find the Pokémon by yourself, and then train them, which adds to the my original statement that you two shouldn't ever fight, for a position that hasn't even been established yet. You need to help each other."

"We're not actually sure how to start from scratch." Brock said. "But if you are interested, talk to Koga of the Fuchsia Gym. He's extremely experienced, both as a trainer and gym leader."

"Yeah, and I think he said he started the Poison Type Gym by himself singlehandedly a decade ago. You should ask him for more information." Misty agreed.

"Then, if you truly think that you can handle the responsibilities of the Gym, help each develop a structure and apply to the Pokémon Inspection Agency, while planning for the battle with the Elites."

"Because let me assure you, they, or at least Lorelei, are difficult as heck."

"Same with Agatha." Brock supplied.

"Umm…" Kaz started hesitantly. "Do you mind demonstrating how strong they are?"

"There's no point to a battle if you are going to be battling with non-Dark types when your gym is Dark." Misty said and handed over a piece of paper. "Here's my number. I'll be happy to battle when you organized a team."

"So, Mistyyyy." Ash poked the redhead, "Did you prepare your Goldfish costume yet?"

Misty blushed and punched Ash. "You weren't supposed to see that last time!"

The two males bent over, laughing, as they recalled the look on Misty's face last time as they walked in on her in her Goldeen costume performing for Melvin.

"Speaking of Melvin," Misty coughed and quickly changed the subject. The time she was seen in that costume was really not one of her best days. "What are we going to do with him?"

Ash shrugged. "As long as he doesn't try anything stupid, we'll go our way."

"And my next magic trick is…" Melvin said in his monotone voice, "Black hole!"

The object on the table behind which he stood floated upward and was sucked into a tight ball in front of him and maintained in that position for a full minute. The few who are still sitting stood up and left, leaving Ash and co. and few rare others to be the only ones left.

Domino rolled her eyes and wanted to get up as well, but didn't feel like moving with her head currently comfortably attached to Ash's shoulder. "That's just the easiest psychic pulse I've ever since."

Ash winced. "Is it me, or does he suck even more this time?"

Misty stared at him as he performed his next trick, levitating objects. "Believe me, it's not just you."

The rest of the audience got up and left. The magician sighed and gestured for his Exeggcute to stop. "You guys can leave too. I know I suck."

"You do. That was a complete waste of thirty minutes." Domino stood up. Ash pulled on her sleeve, signaling her not to be too mean. The girl shrugged. "However, I do see potential."

"Really!?" Melvin asked, surprised. "I knew it! Would you like to help me? I have a really cute Goldeen costume…"
"STOP!" Domino cut him off right there. "What I mean is that your performance with Pokémon is decent, even though it's not necessarily magic."

"What are you saying?" Melvin asked.

"I can introduce you to a circus. A pretty popular one as well." The Elite said. "You can perform with your Exeggcute all the time.

"A circus? But I want to do magic."

Domino sighed. "Names are only a matter of identification. You can call Team Rocket evil," Domino shot a smirk at Ash, "Before you know the organization truly."

"You'll be doing what you love, so why do you care what people call it?" She continued. "Plus people will actually applaud you for what you do because they are paying to see a circus, aka your 'magic' show, and not what you qualify as magic, which most think was a waste of their money."

Melvin considered that and slowly nodded. "I would like to try that, yes. Will there be people to train me through the process of a circus."
"Of course." She replied. "Here's the number to the circus. You'll have to also submit a form to the Abra Assets, and tell them that you're sent by the Black Tulip."

Melvin nodded with gratitude, and took the slip of paper over. "Thank you. This is a great opportunity."

"No problem." She nodded. "Just don't try TOO hard, you got that?"

Melvin nodded and went to the back of the stage. Ash looked at her curiously. "Abra Assets?"

"Yeah. It's a theme park company that the Team runs in the tourism business. I'm a shareholder, apparently." Domino nodded. "Giovanni made me spent all of my Christmas money on a fourth of its stock when it is first launched. I remember not talking to him for almost a month."

She laughed. "Then the money started pouring in at an insane rate after a year."

Ash shrugged. He never cared for the financial field. In his mind, as long as there was money to fund his journey, he was all set.

Brock dusted his hands and stood up. "Wasted thirty minutes to take care of a psycho magician. I guess that's a fair trade."

"We have arrived at destination: Leaf Forest." Dexter sounded.

The group looked around the woods. For a relatively small forest, it had a lot of Exeggutor. Even at the outskirts of the area already stood a Coconut Pokémon.

He wobbled after the group, examining them inquisitively. Domino reached out with a psychic pulse, inviting the Pokémon to a link.

The Grass/Psychic shrugged and joined it, and began to communicate with the girl. After a while of fast-paced communications, the Exeggutor nodded. "If you beat me in a battle."

Domino sent out Shedinja, who phased into the shadows of the forest.

Exeggutor blinked. "That's a Shedinja? They're really rare. I thought they're found only in Hoenn."

"Mine traveled a bit." Domino smirked. "How do you know Shedinja?"

The Coconut Tree smiled. "He's not the only one who has traveled, which reminds me. Prepare for my ultimate form!"

He raised his hands, producing a Light Screen shield and blocked off an attack from Shedinja. "Alolan Form!"

Lights not unsimilar to that of a Mega Evolution flooded out of him. His neck started stretching and stretching, to almost twenty feet high before stopping. A tail grew out of his backside, and another coconut materialized at the tip.

The crew's jaw dropped. Dexter materialized and scanned the Pokémon, the first time in a long while. "Pokémon unidentified. Absorbed infrared suggest same radiation as Koga's Muk. Conclusion: You're from Alola."

The newly formed Grass/Dragon Pokémon smirked. "That is correct. I'm from Alola. My parents were a Kanto Exeggutor and an Alolan one, so I could switch in between forms as I wish."

The lights rushing out of him started to die down. As Shedinja tried to hid back into the shadows out from which the lights pushed him, the coconut tree released a pink wave at him.

Thinking that it'll have no effect, the Shed Pokémon decided to tank the attack. The Coconut Tree smiled. "And I also know the Wonder Guard prevents me from doing any damage, since my only super-effective attack against you is the Dark Type Thief."

Shedinja was covered by the pink light. His face changed abruptly as he realized that his ability is getting… drained.

Domino immediately realized what the attack was, but it was too late. The Skill Swap already rid him of his Wonder Guard ability for the match, in trade for Alolan Exeggutor's Frisk.

The Coconut, using the moment of his opponent's shock, called down a rain of Draco Meteor, determined to rid Shedinja of his minimum health, especially vulnerable without the protection of the traditional Shed ability.

Of course, even without his special ability, any Pokémon of Domino's would not go down easily. Coming back to his senses within a second, he phased through the heavy assault with Phantom Force.

Appearing again mysteriously behind his opponent, Shedinja used Mirror Coat to repeat the same move on him.

Light flashed on the Exeggutor, and he switched to original form in the blink of an eye, and teleported out.

Shedinja looked at the spot where he was standing and a grin formed on his face. "Hmmm, Zorua thought up a counter to short ranged teleportation. What was it again? Oh, yes!"

"Beat up!" Shedinja flashed, and five different shadows flowed out of him, materializing into giant Dragonite, Tentacruel, Alakazam, Jigglypuff and Mew.

The four giants rushed forward and stomped at the poor Coconut Pokémon, who was forced out of his hiding space, by the shaking and breaking of trees. Instantly, he was flooded by Fire Blast, Gunkshot, Ice Beam and Shadow Ball from the four giants respectively, all while being held down by Mew's Gravity.

Zorua shook her head. "Poor Exeggutor. Now I kind of feel guilty for teaching Shedinja that."

The Exeggutor pointed at the sky, trying to say something. However, the only thing that emerged was smoke.

"Our motto is that type advantages don't mean crap." Domino chuckled. "We have long considered the consequence if Shedinja was somehow rid of his ability temporarily, and with our luck and the Pokémon we have to phase, it is probably extremely common."

"We've already planned out an entire moveset against that."

Then, behind the Pokémon sneaked in the Shed Pokémon and finished the job with a quadrupled effective Bug Buzz.

"This goes against everything I believe in…" Domino muttered as Zorua jumped down from her shoulder to face the Paras.

His trainer, Cassandra, had a big smile on her face. "Thank you so much for helping me evolve Paras."

"Ehh, no problem. My team needs to learn humility anyways." Domino shrugged, and sighed as she sent a reinforced psychic pulse to Zorua. "You know the plan. Lose on purpose…"

Zorua nodded. "Got it! In that case, I have an idea."

She looked at the hesitant Paras, who is afraid to make the first move, since he never had seen a Pokémon like Zorua.

The Disguise Pokémon transformed into a Joltik and crawled in front of the Paras. "Come on! You can literally defeat me by stepping on me!"

Paras shrunk back in fear. Domino turned to Ash and glared at him. "Why do I have to do this dishonorable nonsense?"

"Please, Princess? Just throw the battle." Ash pleaded, which earned an eye roll from the blonde.

"I swear, I'm getting way too soft around you." She remarked and turned back. "Paras has Dry Skin, so a Water shouldn't hurt it."

The Joltik jumped up and gave her opponent a light Water Gun, which got absorbed by the Mushroom Pokémon.

Cassandra kneeled down next to her Pokémon and whispered encouraging. "See? She couldn't do any damage to you. There's nothing to be afraid of. You're so close. Just a little more. Use Fury Cutter."

Paras blinked slowly, as if assessing the situation. Then, a faint, dark green light of the Bug Type energy lit up around his mouth and aimed at the Disguise Pokémon.

The first attack flew past Joltik and ended in the ground. So did the second.

Domino sighed and called out. "Enlarge yourself, Zorua."

The "Joltik" started to inflate to become Paras's shape to give him better aim. Seeing his opponent enlarge herself, the Paras shrunk back in fear.

It took another few minutes of encouraging on Cassandra's part to have him try attacking again… and also Ash being Domino's punching bag to relieve her of the "shame and disgrace of this entirety of situation."

Paras's fourth Fury Cutter hit Zorua, who barely flinched from the effective attack. The next few came more strongly, but the move expert easily diffused them into her defenses.

The ninth actually stung a bit. Domino, seeing her beloved Pokémon flinch, quickly sent her telepathic message. 'You can drop dead now.'

Zorua secretly rolled her eyes and "fainted."

Paras stood in front of them, the expected evolutionary light failed to shine.

A look of realization lit up on Ash's face. He pulled Domino to the side. "This time we were months early. Maybe Paras needs a lot more battling to evolve?"
Domino stared at him, and then walked forward and implanted a palm on Paras's head. She extracted her hand, and the Mushroom Pokémon began to glow.

"You could have just told me he evolved last time already. Just remind him of his knowledge last time, and he'll evolve." Domino deadpanned. "We've already established knowledge is what evolves a Pokémon."

Ash opened his mouth slightly, and Misty and Brock facepalmed.

"What's next?" Ash asked his Pokédex.

"Neon City. Nothing major. You meet a Jigglypuff that would stalk you for years."

"Yeah, haha, screw that."

"Welcome to the ranch!" Kirlia said brightly as she worked on her swingset hanging off of a tree.

"Where is this place?" Exeggutor asked.

"This is a ranch where Pokémon whom Ash and Domino don't carry with them stays. The owner of this place is Professor Oak. He's really nice." Kirlia levitated a screwdriver over with a box of screws. "He's also the regional professor."

"What does he do?" Exeggutor asked.

Kirlia was about to apply when Squirtle hopped over, carrying a tray of smoothies. "Free drinks! Anyone?"

"Gladly." Exeggutor plucked a cup out from the tray. Squirtle Aqua Jetted away.

Kirlia eyed the cup in his hands suspiciously. "You might not want to inspect that before you drink it…"

"Why?" The Coconut Pokémon gave the smoothie another look. "What's wrong with it?"

"...Well, first of all, that's not smoothie." Kirlia lifted the goop out with Psychic. "And second, I think that's his experiemental homemade seaweed blend."

Exeggutor face wrinkled in disgust and immediately ripped a hole in space, teleporting it away in the blink of an eye.

"Good decision." Kirlia nodded. "Anyways, Professor Oak is who feeds us and take care of this place. He also conducts research on all sorts of Pokémon related stuff, as well as weird human stuff."

As Kirlia finished, a herd of Tauros stampeded through the ranch, chased by Squirtle waving his tray of 'smoothies'.

Exeggutor coughed. "This is could take awhile to get use to."

"Sure. You guys can leave temporarily. There's nothing too impactful going on with Mewtwo currently anyways." Fuji returned the Rocket trio's vacation forms, sighed. "If you are going to Grandpa Canyon for the fossils, can you bring me back something meaningful?"

"Of course, if we're lucky enough." James nodded, and sent out a Metang. "Grandpa Canyon please?"

The Psychic/Steel Pokémon nodded and flashed off with them.

Moltres screamed at the top of her lungs as the cup of green ooze that had appeared out of midair splattered on her head. "WHO THE HELL DID THIS!?"

A drop dripped into her mouth, and the legendary almost fainted from the taste.

She lit herself up with Flare Blitz, hoping to burn the green goo to ash, but somehow it stayed intact under her flame.

The shiny opened her mouth in shock. "What the hell is this?"

She seriously couldn't take this smell any longer. With a flash of pink, she teleported herself to her underground lava base and plunged into the magma shower.

"Ay! Ashy boy!" Gary walked forward, with Violet and Giselle, tailed by his massive crowd of cheerleaders in an Indiana Jones outfit and greeted the newly appeared Ash. "I can see you got the update about Grandpa Canyon as well."

Ash nodded. "Dexter and Noah both got an notice from the Web."

Brock spoke up. "I'm calling the Aerodactyl."

Ash protested. "Hey! No fair. I wanted that."

"Me too!" Gary agreed.

Brock shrugged. "You didn't call dips."

"It's quite easy, actually." Ash demonstrated as he closed his eyes. "Just go to Aura Sight, and sense the life forces."

He pointed at a direction. "There you go, Dex."

Noah materialized and released a beam that went through into the ground. "Thermal data suggests cave below three hundred fifteen feet under the large, cake-shaped boulder."

Domino nodded and reached out with a pulse. "Got it. Ready for a teleport?"

Giselle stared at their efficiency. "How many times have you all been doing this?"

They shrugged. "Maybe a hundred. Why?"

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie stood on top of the canyon with a megaphone.

"And make it double!" James finished her thought, before the megaphone was slapped out of his hand by Meowth.

"Da twerps ain't here, can't you see!?"

Jessie scanned the area. "...Oh yeah."

A voice sounded behind them. "Hey look who're here. The useless admins!"

The trio whipped around to find Cassidy and Brush standing behind them. "At least we're officers."

"Yeah, that's so funny." Cassidy laughed. "It's probably a fluke or blind luck or something. How can someone can useless as you three be promoted?"

Jessie growled. "Useless? More useful than you."

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Brit spoke up.

"I will, Brad!"

"IT'S BUTCH!"

A second later, the duo was blasted away with a massive Hyper Beam from Rhyperior. Jessie smiled. "Wow, the last few months trapped on that island really paid off."

"Of course! Who's a better teacher than Mewtwo, a legendary battler?"

"Wonder how much distance is between the twerps and us?"

"Wait. Are you countin' Domino too?" Meowth asked.

Jessie tilted and head, and then nodded. "Sure. She's going to be Mrs. Twerp sooner or later."

Dexter materialized a giant lightbulb into the cave, instantly lighting up the entire underground system. Undisturbed fossil Pokémon lined the place.

The Pokédex shined the light further, and the shadow of a sleeping Aerodactyl illuminated the place.

Ash closed his eyes, and opened them as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Something seems extremely wrong here. Something I didn't realize last time."

They looked at him in confusion. "What's wrong?"

""Every fossil here is alive." Ash deadpanned. "Every, single fossil is full of life, after being trapped here for thousands of years."

"What's wrong with that?" Violet asked. "The Grandpa Canyon people said that it is natural for Pokémon to live if they are hibernating in a close-off area."

"But this is unnatural. It's impossible!" Ash said. "Every single fossil here is alive. If I told you that if an entire ecosystem of ancient Pokémon is buried under a sinkhole for thousands of years, and every one of them survived, what would YOU say?"

Domino realized his point immediately, having been trained in analysis for years. "What are you saying Ash?"

"I'm saying this is improbable… without the interference of some other force. Ash looked into the darkness of the cave and closed his eyes again. "Domino. Think. What is the only force that can keep so many Pokémon alive over thousands of years that is not aura, because I didn't detect pure aura here?"

A look of horror entered her face. "You're not saying…"

Ash nodded, and Brock and Misty began to understood what they are saying as well. Lucario immediately put on a defensive stance. Gary, Violet and Giselle looked at them, lost. "What are you talking about?"

Ash took a deep breath. "Domino. Use Miracle Eye on me."

The Elite didn't waste words as a pink glow formed on Ash. He closed his eyes, which flashed with a mix of blue and pink.

A second later, he shook violently and opened his eyes. Taking a shaky breath, he said in a low voice. "It's that."

A/N: Broke 150,000 words! Go us!

What's the secret under Grandpa Canyon? Wait to find out!
Please review. It's much appreciated.