Disclaimer: Pokémon is not owned by me, nor do I profit from it - except perhaps by broadening my mind and improving my writing skills, neither of which seem likely…

-Celadon Pokémon Center, Kanto (The next day)

Ash sat restlessly on the edge of his seat, nursing a Coke as he watched the door of the Pokémon Centre. This was where Gary had asked Ash to meet him.

Pikachu, who was chatting with some of the other Pokémon in the Center, gave him a reproachful look as the pepper shaker he was fiddling with fell over with a clang.

"Pikika cha pika," he scolded.

"I know he's not late yet," Ash muttered back. Actually, if Gary had appeared at that moment, he would have been 15 minutes early.

Not even Gary was usually that prompt, but he also didn't usually call a meeting for no reason.

Like he had done yesterday.

The minutes twitched by. Pikachu finished his conversation with a Growlithe when her owner collected her, and wandered back over to Ash, who was sitting by himself at one of the coffee tables. The electric mouse jumped over Ash's lap to peer out the window.

"See anything, Pikachu?"

The weather today was Mostly Cloudy with Fine Breaks, as the Weather Channel announced from a radio in a corner of the Center. It looked just like that outside.

For mid-morning, the traffic was normal in Celadon's Elysian Road, its main street. Tourists, buses, and couriers. Gary was nowhere in sight.

Until a flicker of light behind him made Ash turn his head.

"Hey, loser," said Gary, with a smirk. He looked like a kid with a new toy - he seemed to have teleported to the Center. A pair of Natu flanked him.

"Hey, bighead," responded Ash automatically. His eyes widened. "Are these the reason you wanted to see me?"

"That's right, Ketchum. And one of them's yours! Also, I got a day off, so I thought we'd go into Saffron for the day."

"Do I get to choose which one?" asked Ash eagerly. "And, Gary, why Saffron?"

Gary shrugged. "It's about the only place we haven't gone to on one of our trips," he pointed out. "You up for it?"

"Just let me phone home."

When Ash returned from placing a call to the boarding house, Gary gave him a cryptic half-smile and dragged him off to buy tickets for the Magnet Train.

-Viridian Forest, Johto-Kanto border

One of the Magnet Train's current passengers, Duplika, was very close to her goal.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the station appear through the thinning trees of the Viridian Forest. It was the end of the line for the Magnet Train. Once the express had gone all the way from Lavender Town to Olivine City, but now it stopped just before it got to Victory Road.

With all luck, she wouldn't stop, though.

She had only her Ditto with her, in a form she hoped no-one would guess. He was actually part of her face - forming a shallow film over her features that altered them just a little. If he'd tried to mimic something that wasn't alive, the scanners would have caught him; as it was, he was safe enough, he was helping her disguise, and he was extremely likely to get through.

Now it was up to her.

Her hair was currently dyed a natural shade of black, a sign of status. She had papers that Officer Sajen herself had made for her - and the unofficial Jenny of Morning Glory was *the* expert of anything counterfeit.

The train slowed to a stop. Duplika waited until a porter came to help her with her bag before she got off the train. She walked with an air of capability (or tried to; it was something she had been practising) and, relieving the porter of her bag at last, slid her papers across the correct counter, and kept her face blank while the terminal staff went through them.

This station was one of the most heavily guarded places in Kanto that still allowed public access. It was only a few kilometres from Victory Road, the border. No Kanto proletarian would have any reason to be here. Her visible one, made up by Brock, was that she was a martial arts instructor sent to the Army corps south of here.

Her mission was to get out of it, without revealing the way she did it. Although a few dramatics were allowed - thankfully.

"I'm going to need to scan you for Pokémon, ma'am," the heavy security guard told her. She was only twenty metres from the outside.

She scowled, and waved a hand, indicating that he should go ahead. Her successful facial expressions were a sign of her Ditto's competence - he had to pick up the signals from her face, and shape himself to reflect them. It was a totally new idea that no one except her - the Ditto Master, as Morning Glory called her - would have been able to pull off.

He moved the scanner up from her feet to her hair, then turned her round to face him again and moved it up to her neck. Standard procedure.

He scanned her face and waved her through. Duplika felt weak with relief. She hadn't been sure that Ditto would fool the scans. But he had.

He was her best and first Ditto. They'd been together for thirteen years - he had been a gift from her aunt, just before she'd been sent out of Kanto, before... Team Rocket.

She lived with her aunt, now, in Cherrygrove City, but she had never seen her parents again.

- Azalea Town, Johto

Misty woke to Muddy's tap and rolled over on the floor of her office. "Muddy? Any news?" she asked, rousing and groping for something to pull herself up with.

The Quagsire nodded and pointed to the monitor. There was one message there for her.

"Duplika?" Misty said hopefully. She pushed herself up off the floor and seated herself in the office chair.

"What the - Professor Oak?"

She stared. Then called.

"Hey, Brock - come have a look at something."

She heard an affirmative from downstairs and started to skim the brief email as Brock made his way up the stairs.

It looked like she had something to divert her from her current problem - in the shape of a new one.

-Celadon City, Kanto

"Hope you've got money, Ash," grinned Gary nastily. "There's a bargain sale on at my favourite Saffron breeder store, and I plan to clean the place out."

It was an hour later, and they were finally boarding the train. Ash made some appropriate comment, waiting for Gary's next action - which was to pull out a Magnemite from a Pokéball in his pocket, and wait a few seconds, Ash watching him.

"No bugs," said Gary, in his normal voice. "Okay, Ash: we are in deep shite."