"It's already been twenty minutes. We need to go after him!"

"Misty." Brock's voice was tense, but he remained by his makeshift campfire, frying onions of all things. "We can't just go running off after him. We-"

"Oh I'm sorry," Misty snapped, "but should I be taking advice from the person frying onions instead of looking for our missing friend?!"

Her crawdaunt and totodile both flanked her, sensing the fight in her tone. If Brock was at all affected by the display of power, he hid it impressively well behind a single raised eyebrow.

"Misty," Brock said pointedly, "this cave is filled with rocky pokémon and those that rely on their sense of smell over their eyesight. When you cut onions, you cry because the sulphur released by onions means that your eyes produce weak amounts of sulphuric acid. Rock pokémon have a natural aversion to sulphurous compounds, because it's able to strip away their defences with ease. I'm doing this because it's keeping the wild pokémon away from us."

Misty collapsed to the ground with a sigh. She placed a hand on her crawdaunt's back as it moved closer to her, and grunted as her totodile climbed into her lap. "I'm sorry," she said finally. "I'm just worried. We're former gym leaders. We should be able to do something!"

"I know," Brock said quietly. "And I'm thinking of the best possible thing we can do in this situation. We don't know how far down Ash has gone. What if he found a ledge halfway down the rope and followed a path? What if he got all the way down and went north whilst we search south?"

"What if there wasn't enough rope and he fell and needs us? What if something saw him descending and thought 'brilliant, my food comes to me now!'?" Misty's hands cupped her chin. "What if he's down there, hurt, crying out, needing us and we're up here talking about how to go after him?" Her eyes felt like they were open unnaturally wide. Her pulse thundered in her ears like a roaring storm. "What if his mankey wanted to settle the score? What if he's dead Brock?" Her voice dropped to a tiny whisper. "What will we do?"

"Misty." Brock's hands were heavy on her shoulders. He was crouched in front of her, a tense smile on his face. Misty was surprised that she had failed to notice him approach, and part of her was even more surprised that both her pokémon had trusted his intentions so much that they had made no move to jolt her from her dark thoughts. "You're not going to help anyone if you give in to those kinds of thoughts. You need to keep calm."

"That's easy for you to say - you've got all the emotional capacity of a rock!"

She had already regretted the words the moment she said them, but seeing the way he flinched made her stomach sink.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly.

"It's fine." He stood and turned away from her. "You're right that we're not doing enough. I just don't know what we should do. In any other situation I'd have a team go down to look, whilst another team remained behind to secure the position."

"So you're saying we should split up?"

He sighed. "I… I don't know, Mist. I want to jump down there after him, but I know it's not the smartest thing to do. I want to wait here for him to return with that big goofy grin of his, but I know that means I"m trusting too much in him staying alive through sheer luck. I don't want to chase after him and go the wrong way, because then who knows if we'll ever find each other again. People go missing in these tunnels all the time."

Misty felt her heart skip a beat. "Not helping," she whispered. She took a deep breath, picked up Quill and placed him on Ren's back. "I'm going down there, Brock. I can't sit around and do nothing. I need to -"

She cut herself off at the sound of voices approaching. Ren and Quill were by her side, already primed and ready to attack on her signal.

To her surprise, it was two middle aged women who approached them, illuminated by the flickering flames of their torch. The climbing clothes they were wearing seemed to be recent, judging by the lack of wear and tear Misty was accustomed to seeing in travelling trainers. Both had brunette hair tied up and tucked away under their black beanies, and were both nearly as tall as each other, though the taller of the two women was pale skinned, whilst the shorter was obviously more Kantonese. The taller of the two noticed them first, and Misty noticed the way she seemed to take in a deep breath and steel herself.

Not trainers, Misty deduced. She held out a hand to calm both of her pokémon. They quieted, though remained by her side. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Brock had moved back to his campfire, though she saw the poké ball primed and ready in his hand.

"Excuse me?" the taller of the two women called out to them. "Are you both trainers?"

Misty had to fight back her immediate retort of 'what of it?'. Instead she smoothed her expression and replied, "We are. Do you need help?"

The women looked at each other and seemed to share an unspoken conversation. "Not anything we'd want to subject you to," the shorter of the two said. "We're looking for our son. He's been here for over a year now. Don't stray from the path if you can help it."

Misty sucked in a breath and spun around to look at Brock. "We have to go down there. I'm not letting Ash stay down there alone."

Brock nodded and began to pack away their campfire. "You're right. We've waited long enough, maybe too long. Thanks for the advice," he said to the women, "but our friend just went down after his pokémon."

The taller of the two women sighed. "I'm sorry. We're planning on descending and looking for our son - it's not much, but we can at least help each other."

Misty recalled her totodile and spared a glance at Ren. The crawdaunt would be at home in the dark, although getting down to the depths would pose their own challenges. She recalled him for the moment. "I'm Misty," she said, turning to look at the women. "That's Brock."

"Chloe," the taller of the two women said. "And Leah." She raised an eyebrow. "I've heard of you both - former gym leaders, correct?"

"That's us," Brock said before Misty could answer. "Before we go down there, I want to ask something. You say you're looking for your son… and he's been here over a year…"

"We know he's most likely dead," Leah said. She strode towards the rope Ash had used to descend, shook her head and produced a poké ball from the inside of her jacket. "He was a ranger, he came here on a call to help stop an invasive species of pokémon that had killed some trainers. Most of his team were healing from a previous job, so he only took one with him. That was the last time we saw him." She released a toxicroak from the poké ball. "This is the whole reason why Diglett's Tunnel has been closed off for a long time. Now they've reopened it, assuming that the problem has solved itself. It doesn't bring back our son."

Chloe placed a hand on Leah's arm. "He wanted to help people. Let's put the world to rights another time, Honey."

Leah took a deep breath before taking her toxicroak's arm. "You're right. You're probably both stronger than both of us put together," she said, turning to Misty and Brock, "but we'll do what we can to help you. No more parents need to lose their children to these tunnels."

-O-O-O-

"Wow, you really know your way around down here, huh?"

The frosty sandshrew nodded as it continued to lead Ash down a series of twisting tunnels that Ash had long since found difficult to keep track of. Sun was by his side, oddly quiet. Pikachu remained on Ash's shoulder and Butterfree fluttered behind them slowly. Ash half considered letting Apollo out so that he would have all of his team with him, though he remembered Gary's advice about always keeping one pokémon healthy and in reserve. With Sun's poké ball broken, Ash was keenly aware that if his mankey got injured it meant either Ash or another of his pokémon would have to keep Sun safe.

"So how long have you been down here?" Ash's voice echoed up and down the tunnels. He saw diglett poke their heads out from the tunnel roof, then retreat back inside quickly when they saw him.

The sandshrew made a vague gesture that could have meant anything. Regardless, Ash nodded and grunted like he understood. "You're used to having humans talk to you, huh?"

The sandshrew's ears pinned down against its skull for a brief moment. It stopped at the edge of a fork in the tunnels that to Ash looked no different to the rest of the tunnel systems they had made their way through. With a grunt it pointed to the tunnel to the right. Ash felt a slight warm breeze drifting down.

"That's the way out?" Ash asked. The sandshrew nodded. When Ash made no effort to move, the sandshrew turned to look at him. It was nearly as tall as he was, which made the flat, deadpan look it gave him hit that little harder.

"Okay then, what are you going to do?"

His pokémon were uncharastically quiet. Ash could tell that they were nervous about the dugtrio that had attacked them before. It could attack from anywhere, at any time. Ash felt Butterfree touch down gently on his other shoulder. Sun remained by his side, sulking in a way that reminded Ash of a younger, recently scolded Gary. Pikachu was still on Ash's shoulder, waiting, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

The sandshrew pointed back the way they had come. It mimed something emerging from the ground, and then mimed attacking it.

"You're going after that dugtrio, aren't you?" Ash asked. "In that case, why don't you let us help you?"

The look that the sandshrew gave him told him exactly what it thought of that.

"You know it makes sense," he told the pokémon. "It's better to have friends."

A rumbling cut off the sandshrew before it could answer. Butterfree took to the air. Pikachu leaped off of Ash's shoulder, cheeks sparking. Sun dropped into a fighting stance.

It was a small diglett that poked its head through. Strands of what appeared to be copper hair flowed from its head. It squeaked when it saw them, then quickly disappeared back beneath the earth.

Ash frowned at the hole the pokémon had left behind. "That was a baby diglett," he said. His pokémon relaxed and regrouped back to his side. "That older dugtrio was its parent, wasn't it?"

The sandshrew grunted something that Ash failed to understand. With another grunt, it shook its head and pointed again to the exit it had pointed out before. It met Ash's eyes and finally sighed. Instead it turned around and gestured for Ash to follow once again.

"Alright," Ash said, nodding. "We'll think of a way to help you, and we'll make sure it works well if the dugtrio are breeding." Bugsy's lecture was still dancing around in his mind. Ecosystems were fragile, easily distrubed things. If even they had been forced into inaction because of bugs laying their young, he wondered what would happen with other pokémon that had invaded and started reproducing.

He wished that he had waited and convinced Misty or Brock to come down with him. Either of them would know what to do. The one thing that Ash was resolute in was that despite his haste to reclaim the poké ball, Sun was not at fault. Ash was his trainer, which meant that anything his pokémon did wrong was a reflection on their training, or lack thereof.

But the reality was that neither of them were with him. Yet again, Ash had ran off without them, though this time he had at least taken his pokémon with him. Though Ash was certain helping the sandshrew was the right thing to do - the thing a true Master would do - he found himself unable to quiet the small voice in the back of his head asking if it was a good idea.

-O-O-O-

The cavernous areas of Diglett's Tunnel were a natural maze of twisting turns and sudden pitfalls. The ground underneath them felt unstable, like it may give way at any moment to a hole dug by a passing diglett. They had found the rope Ash had used to descend with, and what appeared to be the signs of battle nearby. It was impossible to determine who had won or lost the battle, though the traces of frost and lack of Ash or his pokémon made it seem like he may not have even been caught up in the battle.

Brock felt his gut twist in a mixture of guilt and shame. He had based his decision to hold back on cold, hard logic, mixed with an approach based off what he had always told his siblings.

It was stupid, obvious really, that Ash was a completely different person. He was every bit the naive ten-year-old that the Families of Lost or Missing Trainers would use as an argument to increase the legal training age. Misty was right that they should have gone after him sooner, but Brock had thought - hoped, really - that Ash would come right back.

He had released Yomi to stay by his side. The lunatone was silent, as she ever was. She was floating along behind him, her red eyes glowing to provide some light, though it basked the caverns in an otherworldly red glow that made the shadows around them seem to stretch for eternity.

Leah and Chloe were taking point. Leah's toxicroak ambled slowly behind the two women, keeping a distance from the fiery torches they both carried. A mamoswine ambled before the two of them. It was a tall, wide, solid mass of muscle and fat that seemed too small to fit comfortably through the tunnel systems.

"We need to find the coldest part of these tunnels," Chloe told them. "The only pokémon CJ took with him that day was his sandshrew."

"No offence, but how do you know that it's still alive?" Misty asked. Her crawdaunt was by her side and seemed to be at home in the darkness. It was almost lost to the blackness, save for the way its yellow eyes caught the limited light. "If your son's been down here for over a year, then maybe whatever happened to him also happened to his pokémon."

"The area where we saw there had been a pokémon battle - there were signs of ice attacks having recently been used," Leah said. She kept her torch held high, away from both the toxicroak and the mamoswine. "I know that some other pokémon down here may have learnt how to use cold attacks. It's a small chance, a tiny hope… but it's also the biggest we've had in the past year."

"I get that," Misty said. "Trust me, I really do. My parents died at sea when I was younger and we still haven't found their bodies. I just don't want you to make the same mistakes I did and exist for no other reason than to find answers."

"I'm sorry about your parents," Chloe said. "We have another son, so we have no plans to lose both children to one stroke of bad luck. But at the same time, we couldn't live with ourselves if we didn't at least try."

"Once every few weeks, if not every month," Leah said. Her voice was quiet, but it echoed all around them. "It never feels like enough, no matter how much we do."

Ahead, the mamoswine grumbled at a fork in the tunnels. Brock was certain he could feel a slight breeze coming from the right, but the pokémon's whiskers twitched and it aimed towards the left.

Yomi rotated slowly in the air. She was still quiet, and Brock knew her silence was not just about the close presence of Misty's crawdaunt. There was something down in the tunnels that was unnerving her, though Brock hoped it was just that they were passing close to Saffron.

"I'm still not seeing any signs of the dugtrio," Chloe said. She sounded disappointed, and even her mamoswine seemed annoyed. "Trainers can keep Alolan or Galarian pokémon without any problems, but should they want to release them, they're meant to hand over the pokémon to a registered breeder or to a League authority." She sounded like she was reciting a passage from memory.

"Yeah, I remember having to arrange Rangers to investigate Mount Moon more times than I cared to count," Brock said. "The worst was when they'd started to breed. Then it became a hassle of trying to make sure all the pokémon were being appropriately taken in."

"Exactly, that's one of the situations we try to avoid," Chloe continued. "But it's been a year since CJ came down here. If we're lucky, the other pokémon have chased it out."

"You're not at work," Leah said, her tone chiding. The toxicroak rumbled its agreement.

"Sorry, habit." Chloe sighed. "I work for the Kanto Department of Conversation. I'm always trying to explain to people why introducing invasive species is a bad idea."

"I understand," Brock said. He reached out and gestured near the cavern walls, close enough to disturb the dirt, but far enough away not to actually touch the rock. He had seen more than enough terrainial pokémon hide in rock walls, waiting to pounce at the slightest contact.

He glanced upwards and saw an endless stretching of crystallised stones. Under Yomi's illumination they all seemed to glow a fiery red. They were inert evolution stones, having never been exposed to the raw energy required before they had fully formed. Individually they were a dark grey, almost black, forming a crystalline lattice that held the roof of the tunnels together from the passing diglett and dugtrio. Zubat were still gathered on the roof, having chipped their way into the stones to form their own nests. Piles of guano identified their frequent nesting spots, and judging by the track marks around them he could begin to guess what different pokémon fed on the passings.

Chloe and Leah had fallen silent again. Misty grabbed Brock's wrist and shot him a concerned glance. "Your lunatone has noticed it too, hasn't she?" When Misty rubbed her neck, Brock saw that all her hair was standing on end. "Ren noticed it - there's something strong down here, isn't there?"

Brock nodded. His jaw was beginning to hurt with where he was clenching it so much. "It's not the dugtrio they've mentioned - whatever this is has to be psychic in nature. I was hoping that maybe we were just feeling the influence of Sabrina's Mind Army, but now I'm not so sure."

"These tunnels stretch far, don't they?" Misty shuddered. "Did the League ever tell you just how far?"

"Classified," Brock said. "Even to me," he admitted, sighing. "Whatever it is, it's-"

The way the dirt began to swirl without a breeze was his only warning.

"Everyone, get back!"

He grabbed Misty and jumped backwards. Her crawdaunt followed behind and scuttled backwards. The two women, their lack of training instincts clear, spun around and froze rather than moving.

A dugtrio burst free from the ground with a shower of dirt and pebbles. A wave of mud and rocks surged forwards. It slammed into the toxicroak and sent it flying into the nearby cavern wall, knocking it out instantly.

The mamoswine trumpeted a sound that echoed throughout the tunnels. Before it had even finished, the dugtrio had disappeared back into the ground.

Brock was certain he heard the squeaks of diglett from the hole. Though it was difficult to see anything, under Yomi's glowing light he saw a flash of something thin and metallic, almost like hair.

Leah was by the side of her toxicroak, running a hand over its head before recalling it into its ball. Chloe had moved to her side, though her mamoswine was growling at every shadow.

"I think that dugtrio they've mentioned found a mate," Brock told Misty. "If that's the case, we just found its partner and they're not happy we've intruded on their young."

-O-O-O-

Ash was cold.

The sandshrew had guided them through the tunnels to an area where the walls were slick with frost. He could feel the goosebumps covering his skin, and both Pikachu and Sun were staying close to him, despite their furry bodies. Butterfree had already been withdrawn to the safe confines of his poké ball.

What appeared to be scattered pieces of a backpack had been gathered and sealed together with ice. It was almost like the sandshrew had found the pieces and tried its best to put everything back together again.

The tunnel opened up into a large, ice-covered room. Spiralled columns of ice reached from the ground to the ceiling. The room was quiet, almost unnaturally so. Ash felt like he was being watched, like there were eyes hidden in the ice, staring out, judging him.

In the centre of the room was what could only be called a shrine. It had reclaimed pieces of human technology and belongings, though there was a pile of trash next to it, like the sandshrew had sorted through and determined what it was that it wanted to keep on the shrine. It was built out of solid black ice, and had more fragments of a backpack frozen to it.

Ash saw the pokémon swipe something from the top of the shrine, cover it in snow and then freeze it to the top of its own arm. When it turned around and looked at Ash, he felt like he was being appraised by the pokémon.

The stalemate was broken by rumbling in the distance. Sun jumped away from Ash's legs and slipped on the icy floor. Hooting, he dug his claws into the ice, flipped himself over and twirled on his hands before springing back to his feet. The sandshrew blinked once, then gestured for them to follow.

Ash felt his stomach was colder than the outside as they rushed back out of the icy cave.

A flock of zubat screeched as they fluttered past. Ash cried out and shielded his face with his arms. Pikachu leaped from his shoulder to the ground, cheeks sparking.

From the crystalline ceiling, a single diglett head poked out. It was a normal Kantonese diglett, without the telltale strands of metallic hair.

A shard of ice thudded into the ceiling beside it and exploded into hundreds of tiny, glistening pieces. The diglett popped its head back into the hole immediately with a shrill squeak.

The rumbling started almost instantly. The sandshrew grunted and slammed a foot down on the ground. The ground erupted around it and turned to ice. Shards of thick, crystalline ice coated the sandshrew's legs, pinning it to the ground.

The rumbling got stronger. The earth began to quake beneath them. Dust and gravel began to fall from the walls around them.

The ground in front of them burst open and with it came a screaming, swirling vortex of sand. Ash cried out and shielded his eyes with his hand. The sandstorm grew stronger in strength. Ash felt his clothes whipping against his body. He felt like his body was being pulled off the ground.

Pikachu cried out in the swirling storm. Sun hooted and Ash heard the meaty sounds of a body impacting against another one. Squinting his eyes open, he barely saw Sun falling to the ground, his arms wrapped around Pikachu.

"Sun! Pikachu!" Ash cried, throwing himself at them both. No sooner did he wrap his body over the both of them did a wall of ice burst into life. It shot out of the walls around them and slammed as it met in the middle, making the world around them shake even more.

The dugtrio revealed itself. Jagged boulders had burst free of the ground to shield it from the crushing ice. The sandstorm died out, replaced instead by an unnatural hailstorm that brought a chill to Ash's core. He could see the tips of his fingers were starting to turn blue. His breath felt like it was turning solid in his own throat.

He caught movement underneath the hailstorm. There were what felt like hundreds of tiny shadows rushing around them. The squeaking sounds all blurred into one, carried by the howling winds of the hailstorm.

Chunks of ice slapped against Ash's face. He winced as he stood up and tried to hold his ground. More and more shadows felt like they were appearing in the surrounding tunnels.

He knew it was most likely something using a double team technique. The cacophony of sounds and swirling shadows made his stomach do flips and his heart race. The doubting voice in his head seemed to grow louder.

"Why didn't you make a new tunnel?" Ash cried into the hailstorm. "You could have moved away from people! You could have had a quiet life! Why did you have to do this?"

Another dugtrio burst free from the ground, though this one was a normal Kantonese dugtrio. Behind it, three smaller diglett emerged, squeaking and spinning around on the spot.

Ash growled as he grit his teeth together. "Alright fine, if you want to fight, I'll make sure to give you a battle you'll never forget! Pikachu, signal beam on the dugtrio! Sun, take on the diglett!" He turned to the pokémon and grinned. "I'm trusting you here, follow your initiative, I'll back you up when you need it."

PIkachu leaped into the air with a snarl. A twirl and a beam of rainbow light collected at the base of his tail. The swirling ice storm around them caught all the colours of the light and for a brilliant moment, the cavern lit up like a disco ball.

Then Pikachu growled and the beam hammered into the dugtrio's side with an audible crack. The sound of it made Ash wince. He squinted past the swirling ice to see Sun leaping into the air, his hands glowing white. He dropped onto one of the nearby diglett and swiped it in the back of the head. Another of the diglett disappeared beneath the ground whilst the other began to spin in place, throwing sand in every direction.

"Sun, behind you!" Ash cried. The dugtrio spun on the spot and fired a beam of spiralling blue, yellow and red energy. Sun's eyes widened just before he flipped backwards over the beam. It carried on beneath him and hit another one of the diglett. Before Sun had even landed, the dugtrio was already readjusting its aim.

"Pikachu, quick attack!" Ash shouted. "Sun, grab him!"

Pikachu rocketed towards the mankey in a blur, almost too fast for Ash to see. He just about saw his mankey reach out and grab Pikachu by the back. Pikachu slowed, just enough for Ash to only struggle slightly to keep up with them. "Pikachu, keep it up!" Ash cried. "Go faster! Sun, chop anything that comes too close!"

Pikachu growled and put on an extra burst of speed. Poor Sun's legs seemed like they were smouldering as he tried to match Pikachu's pace. Sun's glowing palms left a trail of white behind them that was punctuated briefly with the sound of flesh hitting flesh and the pained shriek of a diglett.

Ash glanced over his shoulder. He saw the sandshrew commanding spears of rock that burst free from the ground. The Alolan dugtrio met each of them with a blast of silver energy. Diglett poked their heads free from the cavern ceiling, firing off small blasts of mud. The sandshrew pierced each of the mud blasts with a finely aimed icicle spear. The diglett would disappear back into the ground before they hit, leaving the ice to continue on and explore harmlessly against the crystalline ceiling.

"Apollo!" Ash cried, grabbing her ball. "Use the hailstorm to your advantage - bring a silver wind into it!"

His hoothoot burst free in a shower of sparkles. She was on the attack immediately, any discomfort from the cold hidden as she beat her tiny wings towards the howling storm. Flecks of silver danced between the ice. A pressure started to grow in the air. Ash's ears felt like they were going to pop. He could see the arcs of silver in the wind, slicing through the pellets of ice, showering the diglett as they emerged from the ceiling.

A glance in front of him showed him that Sun and Pikachu had bested the diglett the Kantonese dugtrio had brought. The dugtrio vanished beneath the ground. There was a disjointed quiet that emerged in front of him. Ash felt a drop of sweat race down his spine, despite the cold storm raging behind him.

The ground beneath him rumbled.

"Oh shi-"

Something slammed into his stomach, stealing the wind from his lungs. Ash rolled across the ground, feeling the way the rocks and tiny shards of ice scratched at his skin. He opened his eyes to the hooting, concerned sight of Sun bouncing up and down in front of him.

A crack of thunder was the prelude to the blinting lightning that filled the cavern. Ash blinked past the spots that danced in his vision, managing to smile as Sun offered him a hand up.

"I'm fine buddy," he said quietly. The dugtrio shook off any of the effects Pikachu's electric blast could have had and surged forwards. Dirt and gravel parted before it like ocean waves. "Help Pikachu!" Ash cried. He glanced over his shoulder. Apollo was soaring through the icy storm, beating her wings to direct more silvery, slicing winds. The sandshrew was beneath her, commanding rocks and icicles like a conductor at an orchestra.

He looked forwards again to see the dugtrio had turned direction again. The ground was parting before it as it surged towards him. Ash's stomach dropped. He screamed as he threw himself to the side. The dugtrio sped past him, looped back around in a long turn and snarled from where it stood, just outside the swirling ice storm.

Ash got to his feet, his heart almost thundering in his ears. The Alolan dugtrio appeared by the Kantonese one's side, and Ash felt his spine grow cold at the dark intensity in their glares. It felt like they were out for his blood, and the thought of that made his mouth go dry.

He swallowed and banished the doubting voices in his head. This is a battle, he told himself. Just imagine the crowds. Imagine that those dugtrio are Gary's, and that taking them down will show him up in front of everyone.

He took a deep breath and smiled as the plan began to form. "Apollo, to me! Sandshrew, aim a blizzard this way!" Ash gave the pokémon a thumbs up. "Trust me, I've got this, give us your strongest blizzard!"

The sandshrew seemed to shrug before almost popping its neck. Its arms weaved around its head. The howling storm seemed to stop for a moment before whirling in place in time with the sandshrew's arms. The storm funneled towards the sandshrew. Ash watched as the pokémon itself became covered in snow and ice. The dugtrio had spun in place to watch it happen.

"Pikachu, signal beam, aim for the ground!" Ash cried. Pikachu leaped up into the air without a moment's hesitation. The rainbow beam of light tore into the ground, carving a path towards the two dugtrio. They spun away from the beam just as the screaming blizzard surged forwards.

Both the pokémon shrieked as the cold burned into them. Ash spread his feet and grinned as the frozen maelstrom arced towards them.

"Apollo, mirror move! You can do it - I believe in you!"

Apollo shrieked as she dove from the air to meet the ice storm head-on. Her tiny body shone with a brilliant light that reflected the intensity of the storm that came to meet them. Her tiny cries were almost obliterated by the storm. She was thrown to the ground, tiny wings not beating fast enough to keep her aloft.

Still, she continued to glow. Ash watched as the blizzard spun in place in front of her before surging back towards the dugtrio and burying them under a foot of snow.

Pikachu grunted in obvious amazement from Ash's side. Sun was quiet as he took a tentative step forward. Apollo got to her feet slowly, puffed out her feathers and with one final chirp, fell backwards, completely unconscious. Ash recalled her, smiling at her poké ball.

The sandshrew moved towards them as the hailstorm subsided. It gestured and the snow moved away from the two dugtrio, revealing that they were both unconscious and still alive. It made another gesture and the snow around them solidified into thick, impenetrable ice. It raised a hand and brought it down sharply on the Alolan dugtrio's head. When there was no reaction, the sandshrew turned and gave Ash a thumbs up.

Ash doubled over, holding onto his knees as he started to laugh. He could feel Pikachu and Sun's confusion as they both looked up at him. With a wheeze Ash forced himself to stand up. As he wiped away the tears from his eyes, he sucked in a breath at the sight of a giant mamoswine charging towards them.

It was only the flash of Misty's bright orange hair behind it that made Ash relax.

The mamoswine charged towards the sandshrew and surprisingly, dropped to its knees in front of it. The sandshrew seemed incredulous for one long moment before it finally threw itself forwards and wrapped its arms around one of the pokémon's thick legs.

It was just a moment later that Ash was blindsided by Misty hugging him with equal ferocity. "Ash!" she cried, almost sobbing as she rested her head against his shoulder. "You had me so worried." She pulled away from him and any sense of worry was forgotten as her cheeks turned bright red and she swatted him on the shoulder. "You jerk! Don't you ever do that again, you hear?"

Ash laughed, even as he held a hand to his now-throbbing shoulder. "I missed you too, Mist." Over her shoulder he saw her crawdaunt beside Brock and a lunatone with glowing red eyes. Two women had moved from his side to the mamoswine, and both were crouched down in front of the sandshrew. They seemed to be overcome with a mixture of elation and sadness, and when they turned his way Ash could see the tear streaks down both of their faces. "Um, who're they?"

"It's a long story," Misty said. She glanced over her shoulder as Brock joined them and nodded at him. "But that's not important now. What's important is that you're safe."

"But what about the dugtrio?" Ash asked. He looked over at them both, buried beneath the ice as they were. "They've had kids here. Bugsy told me back in Viridian forest that when pokémon have had babies then we can't move them. What do we do now?"

"That's not for us to decide," Brock said. "That's down to the local Ranger teams." He looked over and sighed. "If it was just the two of them, we could capture them both and hand them over to the relevant authorities." He snapped his fingers. "I've got it! Yomi, think you can leave a marker on the two of them? Something any psychic can trace easily?"

His lunatone spun on the spot slowly before its eyes shone with a dep, crimson colour. Each stepped back as both the dugtrio were illuminated in the same glow before they faded.

It seemed to be the thing to break the spell between the two women and the sandshrew. The two women stood and were holding hands as they approached them. Their eyes were brimming with tears, but now they seemed strangely at ease.

"It's like we thought," said the taller of the two women. "He never made it back out of these tunnels, but he died helping trainers escape. Titan knows where the blockade is - she says she froze the area over so that no one can ever disturb his final resting place."

"We're going to see what we can do. It'll be nice to have somewhere proper to remember our son, even if we can't move his body," said the other woman. She had a hand on her mamoswine, which she moved slowly to tap the sandshrew on the back of its head. "But before that, it seems that Titan has something she wants to say."

"Titan?" Ash asked, before looking at the pokémon. It snapped off the lump of ice that it had attached to itself what felt like a lifetime ago. It gestured for Ash to hold out his hands. He complied as the pokémon closed its eyes and the ice turned to water and then to steam, revealing a bright red poké ball beneath. It grunted and placed the poké ball into Ash's hands.

"Huh?" Ash grunted. "This is for me?" He felt the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, though had to fight to keep it hidden. "Does this mean you want to join me?"

The pokémon nodded and closed Ash's hands over the ball. It grunted something that Ash took as its reasoning behind the decision.

"Her old trainer was our son," the taller woman said. "He was a Ranger. It seems she stayed behind to make sure she caught the pokémon that caused all that trouble in the first place." She was smiling as she placed a hand on Ash's shoulder. "It seems she's chosen a new trainer, now that she feels like she can move on. Given what she said, I think she's making a good choice."

"Chloe," Brock said, drawing the taller woman's attention, "do you need us to help with anything? We should wait around and help you both out of here." He threw a glance at Ash. "I don't think any of us are splitting up again anytime soon."

Ash laughed nervously at the looks he got. "Hey, everything worked out perfectly in the end. Sun's learnt his lesson, Apollo is awesomely strong and now I've got my own Titan." He grinned at the sandshrew. "Welcome to the team."