"I challenge you!" a young girl said, jumping up onto a log and pointing a finger at Ash.

Ash looked up. "Oh, hi! Sure!"

He paused, as an idea came to him. "Tell you what."

Rummaging through his available Pokeballs, he released Charizard and Ivysaur. "Pick one of my Pokemon. I'll just use that one."

Casey scowled. "Don't patronize me!"

"What? No, I'm not!" Ash denied, holding up his hands. He liked Casey. "It's just... okay, yeah, I kind of am."

"With good reason, though," Brock said.

While they'd been talking, Casey had blinked and looked closer. "Wait a sec... oh, great. You're Ash Ketchum."

She slumped. "Yeah, I've got no chance."

Lucario walked over, and placed a paw on her shoulder. "If it helps," he said, focusing a little aura to make sure she could understand him, "that's how everyone starts out. You should have seen Ash when he first set off."

"Hey!" Ash snapped. "I wasn't that bad... was I?"

Misty chuckled. "You set my bike on fire. Twice."

"So, win or lose, take it as a lesson."

"Thanks," Casey said. "Okay... can I pick any of them?"

"That's kind of the point," Ash agreed.

"Okay." She thought for a bit. "Charizard."

Everyone stared at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Seriously?" Ash checked. "Charizard fights legendaries."

"Yeah, yeah, hurry it up!"

Charizard lumbered forwards, as she sent out her Chikorita. "I feel kind of bad about this."

"Hey!" Chikorita said. "You may be a fully evolved Fire/Flying type who was in a winning League team, but that's no reason to act like you're definitely going to win this!"

"It really, really is, though."

"Vine whip!" Casey ordered.

Charizard let the vines hit him with a faint thwik noise, then theatrically fell over.

"Stop overacting!" Ash said.

"Fine." Charizard raised his head, and launched a carefully limited Ember at Chikorita.

As Charizard was holding back considerably, it didn't actually knock her out – instead, it merely sent her flying, scorched, and she bounced to a stop next to Casey.

"Pidgey!" she said, undeterred.

"If you train that so it evolves, it becomes really cool," Ash contributed.

"I know, I saw your Pidgeot on TV," Casey agreed, as Pidgey flew in circles chirping and Charizard ignored him. "How come you don't have her here?"

"She's training in the Orange Islands."

"Huh. Cool." Casey pointed. "Sand-attack!"

Charizard flung up an arm against the shower of dust and grit. "Okay, annoyed now. Wing attack!"

He stood, raised his wings, and clapped them together in front of his chest with a slap sound.

Casey's Pidgey went tumbling backwards beak-over-tail, and she recalled him. "Okay, Ratatta! Go! Go Electabuzzes!"

"Cute scarf," Charizard said, blinking reddened eyes as he peered at the Ratatta.

"The team does terribly, though," Ash pointed out.

Casey glared Cuts at him.

"What?" Ash looked around for support. "I don't follow baseball, but even I know the Electabuzzes do really badly."

Ratatta snarled at him, then ran up to Charizard and tackled him.

As Ratatta weighed about the same as Charizard's left toes, this had very little effect.

"Are we done yet?" Charizard asked, and fired another Ember.

It hit Ratatta dead on, resulting in a plume of smoke.

"Piece of cake," the Fire-type said. Then frowned. "Eh?"

A slightly tattered black-and-yellow scarf skidded to the floor, broken in half.

The smoke parted, revealing Ratatta. She was panting heavily, but gave Charizard a surprisingly vicious look.

Then she jumped forwards.

This time, when she made contact, it most certainly did have an effect. Charizard went skidding backwards, crashed into several of the trees at the side of the road, and came to a halt with an incredulous expression on his face.

"What the heck was that?"

Shaking his head, he focused on the Ratatta as best he could with his impaired eyesight. "Ember-"

"Quick attack!" Casey said quickly.

The Normal-type Pokemon darted across the intervening space, clocking Charizard one on the snout just before his Ember fired.

He sneezed out a gout of flame and smoke, stumbled, and fell over backwards.


"...what just..." Ash said, blinking. "Charizard? The heck?"

Ratatta glowed, and evolved into Raticate. A second flare of light over by Casey indicated her Pidgey had just evolved as well.

"It's a move called Endeavor that's stronger the weaker the user is," Casey said. "I don't have very strong Pokemon, but they're fast, and my focus sash means Ratatta gets a chance to use it!"

Charizard sat up, rubbing his head. "I feel very, very embarassed."

Ash shook his head, and walked over to Casey. "That was really impressive," he told her, shaking her hand. "Good work. Hopefully Charizard won't underestimate any Ratatta any time soon."

"No kidding," Charizard muttered.

"That's fine!" Casey said, looking at her new Raticate and Pidgeotto. "Well, hope to see you again some time!"

"Me too."

"And now I get to tell everyone I beat a League Champion!" she added.

Lucario smiled. "You walked into that one, Ash."


"Forest full of bugs," Misty said, wincing.

"I thought you were okay with bugs now?" Ash asked. "'cause if not, we could do the whole thing again..."

"No, I'm fine." Misty shook her head. "Really... I'm not afraid of bugs any more, I just don't usually like them. Pinsir are kind of ew."

"Oh, fair enough." Ash nodded. "Well, I suppose we can be ready to handle Bug types. Everyone send out what they've got that's effective against them?"

Out came Charizard again. Misty contributed with her Kabuto, which sat on her head like an unusually rocky beret, and Brock released Geodude.

"No Ninetales?" Ash asked.

"No, she's busy." Brock shrugged. "She said she had an appointment, and – well, who am I to argue?"


In the tall grass somewhere north of Fuchsia, paws beat a tattoo on hard ground.

Hooves started, thundering away, and then there was a roar and a flash of fire.

Teeth flashed near Ninetales' throat, and she went limp. Then, as Growlie stepped off her, she rolled upright. "Very nice. That makes it, what, five to two in my favour?"

"Five-three, I thought," Growlie corrected.

"That's right, yes. Forgot the one in the blind canyon."

She padded over to him, and rubbed up against his flank. "That's one thing I like about you, love. Never afraid to treat me as a Pokemon, not just a female."

"I've got no choice, you win more than half the time," Growlie replied with a bass chuckle.

Ninetales flirted a tail. "I try. I try. Now, what else did we have booked?"

"Well, James tells me that he managed to get us on the list for coralling a herd of Tauros. That should be fun." Growlie winked, and Ninetales smirked in appreciation – a good run and a good challenge, perfect to get the blood pounding.

"Then there's a meal in the evening. Jessie suggested this lovely restaurant overlooking the harbour – sea food."

The elegant fox licked her lips. "I'm hungry already."

Then she frowned. "The table is booked in our name, right?"

"Oh, I make the mistake once and you never let me forget it," Growlie said, without any real sting to it. "Yes, it is. One reason Jessie recommended the restaurant is that they have a Psychic-type on staff, they're used to translating for Pokemon."

Ninetales nodded – attention to detail was important. "And the other reason?"

"She says it's very romantic." Growlie blushed slightly. "After that recommendation, how could I say no?"

She nipped his ear affectionately. "Makes perfect sense to me. Now, where are those Tauros?"

"That was them over there, the ones we startled." Growlie indicated them with a nod of his head.

"Well, no time like the present," she decided. "Race you!"


"It's nice to see this place functioning normally," Ash said, looking around. "No random crazy sap-mining scheme or whatever they were doing."

"Yeah, Team Rocket showing a bit of restraint is really smoothing our way," Brock agreed. "I can see one problem, though – how are we going to find the right Heracross?"

As he spoke, a couple of the Bug/Fighting Pokemon moved from one tree to another, generally moving away from the interlopers.

Ash replied by closing his eyes, feeling for a familiar aura.

After several seconds, he pointed. "I think he's over there."

"Right." Misty tapped her Kabuto. "Hear that? If any bugs are coming at us from other directions, feel free to defend us."

"Misty," Ash asked, puzzled. "You do know Kabuto is on your head, right?"

"...yes?" Misty replied. "He does weigh quite a lot, he's hard to miss."

"Well... if you don't like bugs..." Ash gestured. "How much more bug-like could you get?"

"Not a Bug type, actually a shellfish." Misty shrugged. "What's the problem?"

"...forget it."

A jet of water sent a Spinarak flying backwards.

"Well done!" Misty said, scratching the reanimated fossil's cephalon. "That's just right!"

It made a clicking noise, leaning into the scratch as much as it could given the fact it was covered in an exoskeleton.


"Okay, that's the one." Ash pointed. "Ready for this?"

"This is very demeaning," Ivysaur muttered. "Okay, here we go."

He stepped out of the bush, and cleared his throat. "Oh, dear. I appear to be a Grass type. Which means that I have sap going to waste."

Half a dozen Heracross began walking over at once.

"Well, that part worked." Ivysaur began backing away nervously. "Next part of the plan, please?"

Pikachu bounced up from the bush. "Thunder wave!"

Electricity arced across the six Bug types.

"Great!" Ash announced, coming out of the same bush, and stepping over to one particular Heracross. "Okay... here goes."

He put out his palm, exhaled, and touched Heracross.

The Single Horn Pokemon twitched, then shook the paralysis off and stood. "Ash! What happened?"

He looked over at Ivysaur. "And is he still tasty?"

"No nibbling the flower!" Ivysaur said, folding his leaves up around it. "You have terrible self control!"

Lucario picked up the other five Heracross, and carried them off back to their original tree. "Better luck next time," he informed them, then dropped a Lum berry into the mouth of one and giving it a small pile of other berries.

It looked at him, then the berries, shrugged, and started to unparalyze its friends.

"I think I understand," Ash's Heracross said. "So... time travel..."

He shook his head. "Oh well. So long as it's with you, it doesn't matter. Let's go!"

Ash grinned. "Glad to have you back. Just – don't pester Ivysaur, okay? There's other places to get sap."

"But it's so tasty..."

A Caterpie went pinging off a nearby tree as Kabuto fired another Water Gun. Misty praised him effusively.

"He's new," Heracross added, pointing.

"Misty picked him up in the Orange Islands," Ash said. "They were kind of everywhere at the time."

"Interesting."

"Oh – that reminds me." Ash rummaged around, and got out a red/white standard Pokeball and a Net Ball. "Any preference?"

"I'll take the normal one."

Ash held it out, and then sealed the deal.

Behind him, a large rock slammed into a tree, nearly knocking it over.

"Whoa!" Misty said. "Okay, was that Ancient Power? I like this trend."


"What is it with building roads through deep forests?" Ash asked. "Well, you know... not roads so much as... paths..."

"It wouldn't be so bad if there was a route cut through the forest, but there's not." Brock shook his head. "It's environmentally protected, after all. Oh well. Suppose we have to go through."

"There were ghosts here, right?" Ash sighed. "This is one of those times it'd be really nice to have Noctowl back, it's right up his street."

Lucario stepped forwards. "I'm sure it is. But I can not only see ghosts, but punch them."

"Well aren't you the all-purpose Pokemon," Pikachu said, shaking his head. "Can you make toast?"

Lucario's response was to charge up a fire punch, making his fist smoulder with heat.

"Fair enough. I'll have two slices."


The travellers stepped out of the forest, into a clearing.

"Finally!" Ash said. "Which way's Cherrygrove City?"

We're still in the forest, Dexter said promptly. This is another illusion.

Lucario's palm glowed, and a Dark Pulse shot out. The clearing shimmered and vanished, and a Gengar appeared rubbing its head.

"Ruin our fun, why don't you..." it muttered.

"You get enough fun already," Misty said. "This is a major route, for some unfathomable reason."

"Agatha likes us," the Gengar informed her. "She made sure they didn't knock down the trees, and her sisters hire out Hoothoot for a nominal fee."

It glared at them. "But someone didn't get a Hoothoot, so rather than having fun with illusions everyone's going all out to try and trick you."

"That might not be the best plan," Brock said.

Dexter bleeped. Speaking of... Brock, you have an email with an attachment. Email reads: Sorry I stayed out so late, we were having too much fun.

The transmitter lit up, and then a Pokeball dropped out. The 'ball opened, releasing Ninetales.

"Do you even pay attention to curfews?" Brock asked. "What time do you call this?"

"I said I was sorry," Ninetales muttered, not looking very sorry. "We lost track of time."

"That was two days!"

"There was a lot of time to lose track of." She picked up her Pokeball and tossed it up to him with a sure flick of her muzzle, then turned. "Oh, is that a ghost?"

"You people are terrible at this," Gengar muttered, and slunk off. "You're supposed to be scared..."

"Do you think that Gengar would feel better if we told him we'd met Giratina?" Ash asked.

"I haven't," Misty pointed out.

"Yeah, but still." Ash shrugged. "It might have helped."


"Dark pulse!"

A Gastly bounced away, looking glum, and the latest illusion dissolved.

"Finally!" Ash said. "We're out!"

Lucario blew on his paws. "About time, I was getting cramp."

And there's Florando city, Dexter supplied. A small city on the way to Cherrygrove.

"What's this place's thing?" Misty asked.

There's a Pokemon Exhibition, which is what they call a contest around here.

Ninetales looked interested. "Actually, that sounds like fun."

She turned to Brock. "Could Steelix and I do that thing we practiced?"

"Assuming he's fine with it, sure," Brock agreed. "We should give you a brush first, though, so you look your best."


"I see the problem," Pikachu said, watching as one of the Bellossom flubbed her jump again and came down badly. "You're just not pushing off from the groud hard enough, so you don't have the time to do the full flip. It's when you realize that that you're having trouble."

Bailey frowned. "What did he say?"

"That your Bellossom is having trouble jumping high enough," Ash summarized. "Pikachu does a lot of aerial combat, so he's got a bit of experience at this."

"He does seem skilled," Bailey agreed.

Left unsaid by both Pokemon and trainer was that it had actually been Bailey herself who'd taught him some of his dodge technique building blocks.

Time travel could make your head hurt.

"Do they know Petal Dance?" Ash asked, an idea coming to him. "Perhaps they could use that as a finisher."

"That sounds like a good idea, thanks." Bailey looked at her Bellossom, and Bella nodded – she knew the move.

"Can you teach Belle, Bella?" Another nod. "Thanks."


Brock cleared his throat, as the curtain rose. "Once, long ago, there was a village terrorized by an eight-headed Dragon, of a kind long since gone from Johto."

Steelix rumbled out of the backstage, Double Teams beside him to give the illusion of multiple heads, and let loose a gout of dragonbreath.

"The village feared and loathed the dragon, but there was nothing they could do – none of their own Pokemon was powerful enough to fight it, and these were the days before the gyms. Until, one day, a travelling Ninetales came to the village."

Brock's Ninetales came on from the side of the stage, a cloak over her obscuring all but her muzzle and the tips of her supple tails.

"The villagers begged for her help," Brock went on. "She said – for she was skilled enough in the arts of the mind to make her speech understood – that she was but one Pokemon, and that she could not promise that she would succeed. But the plight of the villagers moved her, and so she agreed to help."

Ninetales paced around the stage, approaching Steelix.

"When she approached the terrible dragon, he laughed, seeing only a Pokemon in a cloak." Brock warmed to his story, and Steelix joined in with a booming laugh. "He asked of her – did she really think she could defeat him? He had terrorized them for a hundred years!"

That was Ninetales' cue. She stood tall, and fire washed over her – incinerating the cloak, and producing a puff of white smoke which obscured her for a moment. As it rose and faded, the audience saw her closely for the first time. A marvellously turned out, beautifully groomed example of her species.

"Ninetales threw off her cloak, and revealed her true nature. 'I have lived nine times that long,' she said, and sprang into battle."

Brock fell silent for a minute, as his Pokemon launched into a very realistic fight. Ninetales leapt about the stage, fire spilling from her nine elegant tails and crackling into fireworks-style bangs and bursts, and using the occasional illusion to mislead her opponent.

For his part, Steelix roared and snarled, pantomiming repeated close-but-not-quite attacks on Ninetales. One by one, his double-team illusions were hit and vanished, until there was just his real self left.

"Finally," Brock resumed, "the dragon had lost seven of its eight heads. Only one remained. But Ninetales was tired from her long fight, and the dragon saw a chance."

Ninetales panted, tails drooping and flanks heaving, putting on a very convincing impression of severe fatigue. Some of the spectators gasped.

"The dragon spoke up, voice silky and subtle. It told her that it would leave, and trouble the village no more. It spoke of her clear exhaustion, and how further combat would be to neither of their advantage. If it left now, as it intended, she would be a hero and the saviour of the village."

"Ninetales listened. And when the dragon was done, she said one thing only."

Brock let the silence linger for a few seconds.

"'Then I am saving another village.'"

As soon as Brock said that, Ninetales leapt at Steelix, and there was a dazzling Flash.

When it faded, both Pokemon lay on the stage, unmoving.

"The village found them, the next morning. They gave Ninetales a hero's burial, and remembered her as their patron and saviour."


"I've never heard that one before," Misty said afterwards. "Did you come up with it?"

"No, it's a story my father told me when I was young." Brock shrugged. "I don't know if he came up with it."

"But it could have been made for us," Ninetales said happily, looking at the ribbon tied around one of her tails. "That was fun!"


AN:

Bit of love for Ninetales in this chapter, and the return of Heracross. Also the use of the FEAR strategy.

Man, I've been pumping them out... don't expect that to last, the update rate will drop a bit.