"This is a really big mountain," Ash panted. "With this in one direction and the forest in the other, how do people ever get to Azalea town in a normal amount of time anyway?"
Brock checked the map. "Union cave."
Correct, Dexter supplied. The cave is a route to connect Route 32 and Route 33 without requiring people to go hiking.
"Should have taken it the first time..." Ash said. "Oh well, guess this route has compensations."
"You're telling me." Charizard looked around him, and sniffed the air. "I could fly there from here, actually... but I'll wait."
Ash grinned, and thumped the big orange Pokémon on the side. It did nothing perceptible. "We'll miss you, ya big lunk."
Charizard nodded.
"Hello, travellers!"
Ash kept looking at Charizard for a moment longer, and saw him close his eyes for a moment to steel himself.
Then he turned to the woman standing atop one wall of the canyon.
"Hello yourself!" he called back. "Who are you?"
"Liza," the dragon tamer replied – as Ash had already known. "And you're Ash Ketchum. I've heard about you. You've got a Charizard, haven't you?"
Ash and Charizard exchanged a look.
"Yeah..." Ash said, slowly.
"Right!" She slid down the rocky canyon wall with very little effort, and landed with bent knees. Straightening, she jogged over to Ash and shook his hand. "Sorry, I've been doing this for a while and most people don't have their Charizard out."
Charizard snorted. "Their loss."
Liza looked intent. "Yes, I suppose it is."
"You speak Pokémon?" Pikachu asked.
The dragon tamer's reaction showed she didn't.
"Pikachu wondered if you spoke Pokémon," Ash supplied.
"Right." Liza shook her head. "I'm afraid I only understand Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard – I spend almost all my time around them."
"Neat."
"Well." Liza twirled her cane. "I was wondering if you'd be willing to come to the Charicific Valley with me – it's a place where Charizard train to become as strong as possible."
"Sure!" Ash agreed readily. He shot a look at Charizard, who nodded.
"Well, then." Liza twirled her cane again, and called out to the sky. "Charla!"
Ash sent another glance over at Charizard, who took a deep breath.
Then, with a roar, Charla soared over the wall of the canyon.
She doesn't remember me, Charizard reminded himself.
It was hard. Very hard, to see the Pokémon who had become his mate – who trusted him, fought by his side – seeing him as just another Charizard, and a newcomer at that.
Charizard had known this was coming, though. And he was one of Ash's strongest Pokémon.
Strong didn't just mean being able to beat up other Pokémon.
I can do this.
Misty and Brock climbed aboard the balloon Charla carried behind her. Liza was ready to tell Ash he wasn't going to get a ride, but Ash pre-empted her.
"Should I ride Charizard in?"
Liza nodded. "Good idea!"
As if she wasn't going to insist. Charizard chuckled. "Okay, Ash. Climb on!"
"Just a sec, Charizard." Ash faced Liza. "Mind if Charizard and I... show off a bit? When we come into the valley?"
Liza grinned. "You can try to show off, but Charific Valley Charizard are really strong."
That made both trainer and Pokémon hide a smile.
Beating her wings, Charla took off, pulling the gondola behind her and soaring out towards the Valley. Charizard waited until Ash was fully seated, and then did a running takeoff in the same direction.
Charla didn't fly straight back towards the Valley. Instead, she took her passengers on a dog-leg route, which Charizard paced relatively easily.
Concentrating on flying, he allowed himself to give his other-time mate a look over.
She was a very attractive Charizard. Exactly as he remembered her – strong, fast, and somehow indefinably dainty.
Charla glanced back, and saw him looking. She... didn't approve, precisely, but nor did she look angry about it. She seemed to be still making up her mind.
Fine by me.
Smirking, Charla did a sharp turn to the right, towards the Valley. Charizard matched it, staying in formation, and winked.
He wasn't quite sure if that had won him any points, but it didn't hurt to try.
"Okay, Charizard!" Ash patted his neck, as they came over the valley wall and saw the full glory of the Charicific Valley. "Time to show 'em what you can do!"
Charizard roared. "Sounds good to me! Hold on tight, Ash!"
Ash laughed, and Charizard felt the gentle warmth on his back which told him Ash was using Aura to hold on.
Which was probably a good idea.
"Show 'em your Flamethrower!"
Inhaling, Charizard let his fire build and build. After about five seconds, it was a roiling hot coal in his throat – and then he exhaled.
A rippling stream of flame, fifty feet long and more, erupted forth. It started off thin, then widened and shortened until it was a squat cone bathing an area larger than he was at close range.
Charizard held the flame, turning it back from short to long, and rolled in the air with his wings in. The Flamethrower spiralled out and became a Fire Spin, closer than his normal wingspan but not even touching his trainer, before snapping outwards and dissipating as he spread his wings again and pulled up.
His tail kissed the water of the Valley lake, raising a cloud of steam, and he was up again.
"Nice work!" Ash called, looking down. "You certainly got their attention!"
Charizard glanced down, seeing over a dozen other big dragons following him – assessing his skill and power.
"Then let's give them more of a show!"
This time, Charizard used Dragonbreath. The stream of mystical fire was shorter than his Flamethrower, but glowed brightly even under the sunlight.
Ending that attack, Charizard flew through it, and spat a Dragon Rage ball back at it. That was followed up with an Overheat, which went down to the waters of the lake and flash-boiled a hemisphere into instant steam.
A Fire Blast went up, detonating high overhead in a five-pointed star which faded to a thick cloud of black smoke.
"That's enough of this Charmeleon stuff!" Ash called, laughing. "Show them what you're really made of! Draco Meteor!"
Charizard obliged, punching up his newly learned attack. It wasn't very big, not as Draco Meteor attacks went, but it was still something almost unique – and, to his delight, he heard at least one draconic gasp from below as it rose into the air and detonated.
He dove, flying through the sleet of smaller meteors as they rained down on the lake surface and using all his hard-learned skill to dodge between them.
"Woo-hoo!" Ash shouted, laughing, as they emerged.
Pikachu didn't have much to say, and Charizard quickly checked he hadn't fallen off at some point.
The electric mouse was, indeed, still onboard. He was clinging grimly to Ash's clothes, silent – but clearly opinionated about the wisdom of all this.
Ash noticed it too, and grabbed Pikachu with one hand. "No more acrobatics, Charizard – but you may as well show off."
Charizard's ears perked up. He knew what was coming.
"Blast Burn. Full power."
"Oh, this is going to be good."
Aura built up in Charizard's mouth, and he fired.
A thin line of blue gas shot out of his mouth, spreading as it rose until it became a gigantic globe in the sky.
Charizard's aura coated the superheated hydrogen, keeping it separate from the oxygen in the air and preventing combustion... until he was ready.
Then it caught at his mouth, the fire racing up to the globe overhead. It sped up around the edges of the cone and slowed in the centre as Charizard finessed the combustion, in a way that couldn't really be trusted to work in battle but was just fine for showing off.
After about three seconds, the detonation front had formed a complete hollow sphere, enclosing unburned gas. Then it flashed inwards in all directions, driving the pressure in the core of the remaining fuel higher and higher as the shockwave drove in-
For a tiny fraction of a second, the temperature and pressure in the core of the gas crossed a threshold.
And a tiny star briefly sparked into life.
As it did, it destroyed the conditions required, and so the resultant blast wasn't nearly as powerful as the technical term might suggest. But the technical term was "thermonuclear explosion", so it was still a very, very big bang.
Charizard came gliding down, steering with small movements of his wings, and landed gently in front of Charla and Liza.
Ash disembarked, and patted him on the shoulder. "Nice work, Charizard."
He looked up, and found Liza was nearly touching him. "Erk!"
"What. On Earth. Was that?"
Liza gestured at Charizard. "That was – and I can't believe I'm saying this – a more powerful version of Blast Burn! How did he learn that? This is the only place in the world that teaches even the base move to Charizard!"
Ash gulped. Rumbled.
He exchanged a look with Charizard, then sighed. "Yes, that was Blast Burn. He learned it here, and then we refined it together."
Liza gave Charizard a longer, appraising look, then shook her head. "Impossible. He's never been here before."
"Not yet, no." Ash took a deep breath. "We were involved in time travel. About this time, in the other future, Charizard came here to the Valley to train."
"Is that why he was looking at me like that?" Charla asked. "I wondered – he seemed to know me. But he was sad as well."
"Yes." Charizard slammed a foot into the floor. "Yes – I knew you, Charla. I know you. But you don't know me."
He scowled, swiping at his eye to dash away a tear. "I... I hope you'll come to feel the same again as you did last time."
Charla blinked. "...well, I wasn't expecting that."
"What is this?" Liza asked, looking between the drake and dragoness. "A soap opera?"
"Probably." Charizard snorted laughter, glad for the break in tension. "Hopefully we won't have to fake each others deaths or something, though."
Charla surprised herself by giggling.
After a moment, she subsided. "I don't... okay, we can work this out later."
"I'm glad to have a chance to at all," Charizard admitted.
"So... you're staying here?" Liza asked.
"I wouldn't take him away from here if he wanted to stay," Ash confirmed. He rummaged in a pocket, and plucked out one of the transceivers. "Oh – don't forget this."
Charizard took it, and his Pokéball. "I won't. Call me if you need me, Ash."
"Only if I need you," Ash confirmed. "I'll call you for the League, though!"
"Of course – you're going to need me there!"
Pikachu hopped forward. "I'll miss you, you big idiot."
Ash released his other Pokémon as Charizard bent down and nodded at the Electric-type. "Don't be a stranger, Pikachu. Keep Ash out of trouble."
He looked up to Lucario, and locked eyes with him. "That goes for you, too. Actually, all of you. Ash needs a lot of keeping out of trouble."
"Hey!" Ash laughed.
"Good luck," Ivysaur said, waving. "Don't go all Squirtle!"
Bayleef gave him a confused look, then spoke up herself. "I never really got to know you, Charizard – I think we only met a few times, at the League – but you're a good Pokémon. Enjoy yourself."
"Never fear." Charizard snorted.
Heracross didn't know the big dragon very well either. For lack of anything better to do, he waved. "Good luck?"
And don't blow up too much scenery.
Brock's Pokémon came over then, and then Misty's, and the goodbyes ended up taking nearly ten minutes before everyone had said everything they wanted to say.
Ash got in one last hug. "You're awesome, Charizard," he said, blinking back tears. "See you later."
Then he turned, and followed Misty and Brock down the mountainside.
"So..." Charizard said, once his trainer had gone out of sight. "What happens now?"
"I don't know." Charla frowned. "You were... my mate?"
"Yeah, but..." Charizard's tail slapped the ground, causing cracks. "I don't want it to be just – hey, we were mates, let's do it again... that's stupid."
"I wasn't even suggesting that," Charla replied hotly. "I just wanted to know-"
"Here I go, putting my foot in it again." Smoke seeped from Charizard's mouth for a moment. "Look... let's just start with... I know you, but you don't know me. I'd like to get to know you, because I like you. But you take the initiative."
"Victini's ears," Liza said with feeling. "This is a soap opera. Please tell me you at least have the release-lock on your Blast Burn?"
"Both normal and advanced, yes." Charizard nodded firmly.
"Well... that's something."
"Sunflora..." Ash frowned. "Can't quite remember what it is about this place..."
One of the Pokéballs at his waist flashed, and opened.
"I'd like to give this a try, please," Bayleef said.
"Uh... sure," Ash agreed.
Bayleef walked forwards, and stopped short of the Sunflora. "You alright?"
The Sunflora, Sunny, frowned. "Not really..."
Bayleef sat down next to him. "Mind telling me about it?"
"I guess not." Sunny sighed. "I know this other Sunflora, Gwendela. She was traded to a man called Cyrus, and she's not around any more."
Bayleef nodded sympathetically. "Being apart from a good friend can be terrible, can't it."
She pondered, then smiled. "I know. I'll have my trainer ask about that other Sunflora, and we can talk while he sorts it out."
Her buds loosened slightly. "Maybe this will help. I know Aromatherapy."
Sunny inhaled. "That is a nice smell. What is it?"
"Honeysuckle," Bayleef supplied. "Hold on a moment."
"Oh, that's what I was forgetting," Ash said. "Thanks, Bayleef."
"No problem." Bayleef began to say something else, but stopped. Then she smiled. "I'll stay here with the Sunflora."
"Got it." Ash nodded. "Thanks again. He traded her to the local Joy, right?"
"Right."
Lucario raised a paw. "This isn't... that Cyrus, is it?"
It wasn't.
"That went well," Misty remarked. "Nice work, Bayleef."
"Thanks." Bayleef frowned. "Can I try the next one too? Helping people makes me feel... useful, I suppose."
She shook her head. "There's certainly no way I'm going to be able to catch up to Pokémon like Pikachu and Charizard."
"We might not be the best Pokémon to measure yourself against," Pikachu said tactfully.
Carefully, Bayleef reeled the Oddish back into the bank.
"I know you're feeling confused right now," she told it. "I know a... similar feeling." She glanced back at Ash for a moment. "Wanting to be part of a group you're just not."
"But... can it really be like that?" the Oddish asked. "I feel that I am a Hoppip. Just... not a normal one. Why would I feel that way if I wasn't really meant to be a Hoppip?"
"I don't know," Bayleef admitted. "I'm still working on that one myself."
She sighed. "But it's important to make sure that that isn't the only thing about you. You're an Oddish who wants to be a Hoppip... or you're a Hoppip who happens to look like an Oddish. Oddish is part of who you are, even if it's not all of it."
Oddish looked down.
"How?" it asked. "How do you handle it, then?"
"By being a friend. I do what I can." Bayleef tapped a foot, pondering. "Hmmm... do you know Petal Dance?"
"No..." Oddish admitted.
"Well, then. If you learn that move, which other Hoppip can't learn, you can blow them around when they need it! That's something only you can do."
"I... see!" Oddish nodded, more firmly this time. "Thanks!"
Bayleef smiled. "Oh – and you might want to invest in a parasail, too. Perhaps you can find a friendly Spinarak to spin you one."
"That sounds nice."
"Two for two!" Ash complimented. "What about the next town, think you can do that one as well?"
"I'll give it a go." Bayleef nodded firmly. "After the last one, how hard can it be?"
"...what."
Pikachu nodded. "I second that. What."
"Oh, I'd forgotten this..." Ash said, to which Brock and Misty agreed wholeheartedly.
"Fear not, citizens!" announced a man in a costume. "For GLIGARMAN will save the day!"
Lucario looked interested for a moment, until Pikachu gave him a discreet kick.
"Okay, there's no way I can solve this one." Bayleef shrugged. "Let's keep going."
"Unfortunately," the dojo leader said with a sigh. "Not all of my students are as... dedicated, as I am. There is one in particular who I'm thinking of."
"Who's that?" Brock asked.
"His name is Shingo." Muramasa shook his head. "He feels Pokémon battles are all about numbers and analysis."
The friends exchanged glances. Then Pikachu started to giggle.
"Why is your Pokémon... laughing?" Muramasa asked, frowning.
"...yeah, probably because of me," Ash admitted. "I can't make sense of half the battles I win."
"Numbers! Analysis!" Pikachu repeated, still giggling. "That's just silly!"
Hey!
Pikachu shrugged, the occasional giggle escaping his lips despite his best efforts to return to a sober expression. "Didn't work very well on Pumello, did it?"
...true.
"Okay, I'll sort him out!" Ash said, clenching his fist. "Don't worry, mister Muramasa!"
"If you think you can," Muramasa agreed.
Shingo tapped on his keyboard. "Let's see..."
He blinked. "Oh. Okay, I refuse to fight you."
"What!" Ash asked hotly. "Why?"
Shingo turned the screen around.
Misty read it out. "Ash Ketchum. Winner of the Indigo and Orange leagues, this young trainer is probably insane-" She stopped. "Probably insane?"
"It fits," Brock admitted.
Ash looked hurt.
"The good kind of insane, though."
Ash looked mollified.
Misty resumed. "-probably insane and completely unorthodox, and so are his Pokémon. Half the things they do should be impossible. His preferred style is probably sweeper, but it's hard to tell. His starter Pokémon is a Pikachu. Class – probably A."
She glanced over at Ash, who seemed unable to decide if the description as a whole was a compliment or not.
"Interesting," she said.
"As you can see, my system predicts that I'd lose against Ash," Shingo said. "So I'm not even going to bother trying."
Brock had withdrawn a little way, and was having a conversation with his Pokémon.
As Shingo finished, he walked back over. "I'll challenge you."
Shingo glanced down at the laptop again, then accessed his database. "You're a gym leader. Rock type speciality... hmmm... okay, I should win this."
Stantler gulped.
It had sounded a lot easier to say he'd do this before the reality was in front of him...
"Good luck!" Togekiss called from the sidelines.
Stantler glanced over at her, then took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay."
"Blade!" Shingo instructed. "Quick Attack!"
The Scizor, Blade, flashed forwards. Its pincer extended in a punch -
and hit nothing.
The illusory faun vanished, and Stantler reappeared – stood about ten feet to the right.
"Confuse ray!" Brock called.
"Metal claw!" Shingo ordered in return.
Blade spun, recovering from his overbalancing attack. As he advanced, a beam of orange light shone from the balls on Stantlers' antlers, playing over Blade's eyes and making him blink.
The Steel-type attack arrived a moment later – and hit nothing.
Another illusion disappeared. This time, Stantler turned out to be behind Blade.
"You're doing great!" Brock praised. "Now, Sand-Attack!"
Nodding, Stantler turned his back and kicked up a spray of sand as Blade turned again. The Scizor blinked, squinting around to see where his target was.
"Metal claw!" Shingo said again.
Stantler jumped forwards before Blade could target, and waved his horns in Blade's face. As the Scizor reflexively flinched, Stantler delivered a small kick which barely did anything, then jumped off and cantered away.
"Great work with that Astonish!" Brock called, as Scizor shook his head to steady himself.
"Hit him!" Shingo snapped. "Quick attack! Why isn't this working?"
Scizor blurred forwards, and attacked. This time, Stantler didn't quite get out of the way in time – he cried out, as Blade hit his flank.
"Finally!" Shingo glanced down at his computer, then back up. "That did almost a third of his hit points in damage! Quick Attack again!"
Blade complied, pressing his advantage. The attack was a little wobbly, but it connected, sending Stantler sprawling.
"Stantler!" Brock called.
"One more attack should do it..." Shingo mused. "False Swipe."
Claw glowing, Blade attacked. The False Swipe connected, making Stantler cry out again with the impact.
"Give up," Shingo said. "He's only on one HP now, he's just about to – eh?"
His screen shimmered.
"Stantler," said Stantler, from just behind him.
The illusion faded.
Shingo tried to take in everything at once. First, the Stantler fawn standing next to him, frowning down at the screen.
Then, the screen itself, as it shimmered and changed – Stantler's health bar going from nearly empty to pristine, and Blade's collapsing.
And finally, the battlefield itself. Where – dazed, confused, and chasing an illusion for the last minute or so – Blade had gradually beaten himself silly.
"What?" Shingo gaped. "How did you-?"
"It's Hypnosis." Brock walked over, and scratched Stantler under the chin. "Good work, Stantler! Just like we practiced – and good thinking!"
Stantler beamed, nuzzling into Brock's petting.
"It's because Hypnosis doesn't just put a Pokémon or person asleep," Brock went on. "Stantler can use it to make realistic illusions. Stantler here made sure he wasn't going to be hurt by Blade very easily, then did a little bit of damage, and used that to see what you were expecting to see on your screen."
Stantler said something. Brock listened, and nodded.
"He didn't get it quite right, though. You should have noticed the health bar didn't go yellow or red when it should have."
"I..." Shingo shook his head. "There's no way that should have worked. Blade is powerful enough to defeat you in one blow!"
"And that's the problem with reducing everything to numbers in a computer," Brock finished.
Oi!
"No offense," he added.
"Finally."
Sir Aaron let his remaining Sacred Sword dissolve (the black one had been snapped in half by Dialga's foot at some point) and stood back.
"We're done."
"Good game," Giratina complimented him. "I liked the thing with the swords being boomerangs."
The guardian nodded absently.
"How long did that take?"
Dialga raised his head. "The final battle? A month and a half."
Aaron blinked.
"How?"
The gods of space, time and antimatter were involved in a gigantic fight scene straight out of an anime. Arceus paused. A really, really long anime. Frankly, you're lucky you didn't finish before you started.
"I'm sure that makes sense somehow."
Palkia shrugged. "It makes sense to me."
"You were speaking terribly broken Engrish and riding a Rapidash one quarter your weight, you don't get to say that any more." Sir Aaron sat down. "Okay, what now?"
The heavens opened.
Surrounded by his glittering array of Plates, Arceus himself descended to step lightly on Sekigahara field.
"Impressive, Dad," Giratina complimented.
Thank you. Arceus tapped a hoof. Now, I was thinking about what we could do, and I had a few ideas. It'd be a shame to waste this place, it took a while to think up.
"You created it in thirty seconds," Sir Aaron pointed out.
They were long seconds. Arceus thought for a bit. Okay, new plan.
His hooves slammed on the floor, and the world twisted itself through a four-dimensional knot and back out again-
-and Sir Aaron was standing in a field.
He looked down, puzzled. "What just happened?"
I remodelled. A map landed in front of him with a thwap.
Picking it up, Sir Aaron unrolled it. "This is a gigantic island shaped like you."
Yes. It's called Ransei. Arceus' mental tone contained no particular apology. There's one region per plate. Collect them all!
This is the Normal-type region.
"...so...?" Aaron asked. "Does this mean I have to hit Pokémon very hard with my swords, or...?"
No, you get a starter. Three, actually.
"We are far too powerful for starter Pokémon," Dialga observed. His siblings nodded beside him, Giratina toying with a Griseous Orb held in one pincer.
"Well." Sir Aaron rubbed his temples. "This should be interesting."
AN:
This chapter skips over a few episodes which are character interaction filler (Bayleef is not jealous of Pikachu any more), Team Rocket's fault (someone stole a tank of theirs) or the like... but it also does still look at others.
In particular... sayonara, Charizard, you big awesome dragon you. It won't be the same without you.
(And no, no memory restore for Charla. Some things don't have a simple solution.)
In other news, Stantler gets his baptism of illusion, and Arceus switched to Pokémon Conquest.
