"We're off the map, aren't we?" Brock asked, looking down at it and then around at their path.

"Yep." Ash tapped his pocket. "Blame 'dex, he's been giving me the turnings."

For good reason, Dexter confirmed. We do still have to go some places we got lost last time... and here's one reason.

"What?" Ash asked, glancing down.

"Hi!" someone said, running up. "Have you seen any Cyndaquil?"

"Oh, right." Ash switched his attention to the kid. "No, not seen any. Are they around here?"

"Yeah!" the boy replied. "But you're not getting one!"

"Why not?" Ash asked. "What's wrong with-"

"I'm getting a Cyndaquil, and I'll fight you to make sure you don't get one!" he snapped.

"Sounds good to me," Ash said promptly, and tapped Pikachu on the side. The little mouse looked up at him, then nodded and jumped down from Ash's shoulder. "Bayleef, want to give this a go?"

"Sure," the Grass-type said.

Koji blinked, a little thrown. "Uh... yeah!"

He released his Sandslash.

"Get that Bayleef!" he ordered.

Sandslash nodded, and charged forward. His claws glowed for a Slash.

Bayleef stepped back smartly, and used her vines to block the attack. "Are you alright?"

The Sandslash frowned at her, confused.

"Sand-attack!" Koji ordered.

Bayleef closed her eyes to block the sand.

"In front!" Ash said, switching smoothly to telling her where her foe was, and she sent her vines out in a wide circling motion to the front. One snagged on something.

"That's him!" Ash added, as the vine went taut.

"Got it!"

Razor Leaves whipped out, some of them connecting with the Sandslash. Bayleef opened her eyes again as she felt her vine break, and frowned.

"I'm trying to be polite, believe it or not. I know it's a battle, but you could at least do me the courtesy of answering my question," she admonished.

"Battle is for battle. Talk has no place there," Sandslash said.

Bayleef thought about how that had been said, as she whipped her head around to avoid a Poison Sting.

It had been... uncomfortably quick. Rote, almost.

"What place does talk have, then?" she asked. Her foreshortened right vine snapped out, threatening his left side, and he swiped at it with another Slash.

"...I-" Sandslash began, then shook his head. "That doesn't matter."

"Of course it does!" Bayleef replied. She winced as her remaining vine was shredded near the tip by a Fury Swipes, and began to release Sweet Scent.

Sandslash sniffed it, then sneezed, and backed a little way out of the cloud.

"My trainer and I talk all the time. His other Pokemon talk all the time. Talking is important – I've learned that lesson, and it was a hard one..."

She sighed, then used Razor Leaf to block a storm of Swift stars.

"I guess my point is..." Another Fury Swipes came in, this time connecting and scoring long lines down her flank. She kicked out, knocking him away, and released Stun Spore to force the Sandslash to keep his distance. "My point is, you remind me of some other Pokemon I've seen."

"What's taking you so long?" Koji snapped. "Use your Fury Swipes properly, you stupid Pokemon!"

"And now I'm sure." Bayleef used Power Whip, tripping Sandslash, and walked over while slowly healing herself with Synthesis. "Sandslash... your trainer isn't a nice human."

Sandslash glared up at her. "Koji is a strong trainer!"

"That's not what I said," Bayleef replied, as Sandslash rolled upright. "Not all strong trainers are nice, not all nice trainers are strong."

She glanced over at Ash. "I'm lucky to have one who's both."

Sandslash looked terribly sad for a moment. Then he slashed out, and Bayleef was forced to fall back or be hit.


Pikachu ran along, sniffing the ground.

Where was that familiar scent...

There!

He followed it as it grew more recent. At first, all he could tell was that there was a Cyndaquil... then, as he closed in, he could smell first that she was the right gender and finally that she was in fact his old ally.

"Hello?" he called, looking around as he reached a clearing. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to hurt you..."

Another sniff. "Cyndaquil?"

"What do you want?"

The voice didn't quite come from anywhere.

"Cyndaquil," Pikachu began, then stopped. He took a breath. "This is going to sound strange, but I know you. I know you don't know me – not yet."

There was no reply.

"I can prove it. You were hatched with a brother and a sister, about... two miles south of here."

"Anyone from nearby would know that."

Pikachu flipped an ear. "True. But I'm from Kanto. Anyway... you're not very active at the moment. You tire easily. You've got a lot of trouble using fire attacks, at the moment... and, for some reason, you know Agility. Your goal in life is to be able to use fire-type attacks when you need to, and... I think you also once said to have a safe home, with good friends."

A pause.

"Assuming I believe you, how do you know me?"

"I will know you – in the future." Pikachu winced. "I know. It sounds ridiculous. And I don't have proof with me, but I know where there is some."

Another long pause. Then Cyndaquil emerged from behind her tree.

"Where is this proof, then?"

"My trainer. Ash." Pikachu shrugged. "He's currently battling to make sure a rather horrible trainer doesn't get you. Since he knew you in the future-" Pikachu noticed Cyndaquil about to ask a question, "-please don't ask, the tenses are a nightmare – he can... sort of remind you. It will be as though you lived both lives."

"If it helps..." Pikachu hesitated, then went on. "When you are reminded, you will be able to use fire attacks with ease – and you will be a Quilava. I hope you'll agree to follow us – he was your trainer, back in the future – but if you say no to either this or that then both Ash and I will respect that."

"...I see." Cyndaquil considered that. "So long as he does not capture me against my will, then."


Both panting, Sandslash and Bayleef stood across from one another in the road.

"You're useless!" Koji ranted. "You'd better win this, Sandslash, or..."

His voice trailed off.

"Or what?" Bayleef asked.

"No food," Sandslash answered without thinking. Then he flinched, as if that had been the wrong thing to say.

"Your trainer is horrible," Bayleef concluded.

"Hey, wait..." Koji looked up from the battle. "Where's the Bayleef's trainer?"

"I give in!" Ash said brightly, from where he was sitting behind Brock, Misty and Lucario. "Mind you, I haven't seen any Cyndaquil."

He stood. "Just this Quilava."

Quilava's mouth quirked in a smile as she looked at the boy who had intended to catch her.

Then stuck out her tongue.

"What? But... Sandslash! Get them!"

Sandslash gave his trainer an incredulous look. "I'm exhausted!"

"Don't give me that look!" Koji scowled, and took out his net. "Fine! I'll catch it myself!"

Misty blinked. "Wow. Obsessed much?"

"It seems to be a theme with Ash and Fire starters," Pikachu mused. "Remember Charmander? We may have saved Quilava from a similar fate."

Koji swung his net at the unconcerned Ash.

The net promptly snapped in half.

"I would not advise that," Lucario advised, lowering his glowing palm. "Perhaps you should go, and treat your Sandslash better. Maybe then, you will be a trainer worthy of him."

Koji gaped. Then, with fumbling fingers, he returned his Sandslash and fled.

"I don't think I've ever thanked you before for making sure he didn't catch me," Quilava said. "So... thanks."

Ash let her down. "No problem."

Then he sighed. "Hopefully he'll improve, though... that poor Sandslash..."


That night, Ash called his Pokemon together for a talk.

"Okay, guys," he began. "And girls."

Quilava smirked slightly. Bayleef glanced over at the Fire-type, then smiled as well.

"First – one of the things I want to make sure happens is that you're all trained as well as you want to be." Ash nodded over at Lucario and Pikachu. "I mean, these two are already ridiculously good."

"Thank you for the compliment," Lucario said.

"What about me?" Heracross asked, frowning. "I thought I was alright..."

"Oh, you are," Ash agreed readily. "It's just... Pokemon like Pidgeot, Charizard and Pikachu have fought actual Legendaries in the past, and Lucario probably could."

"Thank you for the reasonably confident estimation," Lucario almost-repeated, in the same tone of voice as his first comment had been.

There were scattered chuckles at his deadpan tone.

"Anyway." Ash shrugged. "I'm probably not going to use them in most Gym battles, for example – make sure the rest of you get a fighting style developed with good depth, and also that I know what you can do... and can help you."

He nodded. "Heracross, for example – you're my first choice for some things, like fighting Darkrai..."

"How did that fight go, actually?" Heracross asked. "I was asleep for most of it..."

"You never saw the video?" Pikachu asked. He turned to Ivysaur. "Why didn't you show him the video?"

"I was too busy trying not to have my sap drunk, that's what!" Ivysaur replied.

"Oh, man..." Pikachu shook his head. "Ash, we need to find some way to show everyone that."

"What's this?" Quilava asked. "I heard about it, but I don't see what's so-"

"We're getting off topic," Ash interrupted. "Basically, there was a guy called Tobias at the Sinnoh League who had a Darkrai and was using him first."

"And you wouldn't?" Pikachu teased.

"No – if I had his team, I'd use the Latios first." Ash shrugged. "Or whatever else he has, I don't know what there was. Anyway – Pikachu and Lucario don't need as much training."

Quilava raised a paw. "What should be my style? I've not battled much since evolving."

"Hmmm..." Ash thought back. "What moves do you have that have changed since last time I used you in battle?"

"Well..." She thought. "Not many... but Flame Wheel is different now."

"Cool!" Ash said. "Let's see!"

Quilava stood up, and her flames burst into life. One forefoot went down, under her body, and the other stretched out. Her back feet dug into the ground.

Then she pushed off. The moment her back feet were off the ground, she rolled into a ball, and her flames blazed up brighter. For a few seconds, she rolled slowly forwards...

Then spun in place for a second, and went rocketing off.

Bending into the turns, she accelerated, and did three laps of the group before skidding to a stop... overbalancing, and flopping over onto her back.

"Not bad," Ash said, helping her up. "You okay?"

"Still a bit dizzy..." Quilava admitted, shaking her head. "I need to work on that."

"Quilava!" Misty called, from the other side of the clearing. "Oh, well... hey, Kabuto? Want to practice water gun?"

The fossil clicked, and fired water from its concealed mouth. The stream extinguished some of the smouldering grass.

"Nice work – now, do it again!"

Ash and the others watched for a bit as Misty followed her newest Pokemon around letting it put out the nascent fires.

"Okay, cool, we can work with that," Ash said, getting back to the topic. "Bayleef?"

"Well... I'm not all that good at fighting, not really," Bayleef admitted. "I can do a good Slam, but most of my talent seems to be in healing."

"That's fine, really," Ash said readily. "Someone needs to be able to, the kind of scrapes we get into. But – still, I'd feel more comfortable if you could hold your own."

"Got it. I'll try."

"Heracross..." Ash shrugged. "I think the main thing that you need is experience – and possibly a few ranged attacks."

"Right." Heracross nodded.

"And as for you, Dexter," Ash added.

Yes?

"You kind of need the opposite – close in attacks."

"Um... Ash?" Quilava asked. "Why are you talking to your Pokedex?"

She blinked. "For that matter, why is it talking back?"

I'm a he, not an it. Now, anyway. Dexter materialized. Ta-dah.

"Huh. Okay." Quilava shrugged. "Fair enough, your Pokedex is now a Pokemon."

"What about Kingler and Muk?" Pikachu asked.

"Good point – I really need to use those two more," Ash agreed. "Kingler's best in and under the water, though... and I don't really know what to do with Muk."

"Wonder what he's doing now," Pikachu mused.


Oak Labs:


"No!" Professor Oak cried, staring at the CCTV monitor. "Not the TMs!"

Muk flowed over the box of new, freshly-recoded Technical Machines.

"Oh, why me?" Oak asked of the air.

Those are cracked, you know, Damos reported. They can still be used again.

"Are you volunteering to clean them up?" Oak asked.

There was a crunch noise.

Is he... Damos' electronic voice took on a startled note. Eating them?

Muk mumbled something that sounded a lot like the Muk for "Cooookieeeeees..."

Oak sat back on the chair. "Do we have any Pokemon that could stop him?"

I already alerted Tracey, so yes.

On the screen, Scizor ran in and started trying to save as many TMs as possible from the ravenous Muk.


"I'm sure he's doing fine," Ash said. "Right. Who's working with who?"

Whom.

"That's what I said," Ash agreed. "Whom's working with who."

Ow. That was worse than the first time.

"Perhaps I should work with Quilava," Pikachu suggested. "When I use Iron Tail, I often do a forward spin with it."

"Sounds good." Ash stood. "Hey, Heracross, want to try to learn Aura Sphere?"


"How curious..." Kurt said, looking the GS ball over. "It's remarkably strong, and an excellent example of the craft...but I don't know how or why it could be this strong. Or why it doesn't open, no matter how hard I try."

"We were kind of hoping you'd be able to help with that, yeah," Ash admitted. "No ideas at all?"

"Not really, no." Kurt shrugged. "Sorry. I can spend a few months studying it, that might turn something up.

"Go ahead," Ash said, though he had his doubts. It hadn't worked last time, after all.

"Hmmm..." The Pokeball maker frowned. "It seems a shame to send you away without any progress... perhaps we could do a deal? If you collect some Apricorns for me, I'll make you some Pokeballs."

"That'd be great!" Ash said. "Sure! How many do you want?"

"Well..." Kurt pondered. "For every three Apricorns, I'll give you each one speciality ball I've already made. That way you won't have to hang around here for weeks."

"Makes sense!" Ash shook his hand. "Let's go get some Apricorns, guys!"

"What's this we business?" Misty asked after him.

"We'd better get going," Brock told her. "You know what he's going to-"

There was a loud explosion.

"Too late."


When the friends reached him, Ash was underneath a Forretress, with a scorched tree next to him and a small circle of blackened grass around them both.

"Hi, Brock!" he said, voice a bit muffled. "Can you get her off me, please? I can't breathe..."

Brock tapped Forretress on the carapace. "Is that you?"

"Brock!" Forretress said, rolling off Ash (who turned out to also be quite scorched). "How are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess," Brock said. "Did you fall out of the tree onto Ash?"

"I did, yes," she agreed. "Fortunately, I was just a Pineco at the time, so I didn't crush him... sorry about that, by the way."

She paused.

"Wait. Did you just understand me?"

"We'll explain later," Brock said. "Right now, we've got some Apricorns to pick."

"Apricorns to pick? That I can help with!" Forretress headed over to a nearby tree. "How big an explosion do you want?"

"Let's start with 'tiny' and work up from there," Misty suggested.


"Well, there we go," Brock said, looking at their prizes. "One Fast Ball, one Lure Ball and one Level Ball each."

"Actually, guys," Ash said, glancing between his friends. "Want to swap?"

"What for what?" Misty asked.

"I'd kind of prefer the Fast Balls," Ash admitted. "Because – you know."

"Right." Misty nodded. "Well, I don't see any reason why not... which would you rather have, Brock?"

"I guess the Level Ball," Brock decided.

"Sounds good to me."

The exchange thus made, Ash shrunk down the three Fast Balls and stowed them carefully away.

"One day, huh, Ash?" Pikachu asked.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Here's hoping."


A huge container ship shivered, as its engines swung it round to point west.

Laden with hundreds upon hundreds of containers, it was one of the links in the chains of world commerce. Carrying cargoes far too large for Pokemon transit, it served industries across the world.

For a long, winding hour, it nosed slowly up a muddy river estuary. Past first the sweeping tidal flats where Water- and Ground-Types lived, then into the villages and towns which dotted the estuary.

Eventually, and after a voyage which had totalled a little over four days, the ship came to rest alongside a vast pier, nearly forty kilometres upriver and almost into the city proper for which many of the goods were intended.


"The engines have stopped," Virizion said. "Finally."

"Does that mean we're there?" Terrakion asked.

He looked around at the games of battleships, chess and the like which were scratched all over the floor and walls.

"Why did we have to go this way, Keldeo?" he added.

"Because I could only get so much money," Keldeo replied. "Air freight costs too much."

"An impressive effort, nevertheless," Cobalion stated. "Now, we should make our way to the location as fast as possible. How far is it from here to Johto?"

Keldeo checked the atlas. "Uhh... a bit further than we were before."

"Say what!?" Terrakion yelped. "Did we just go directly away from Johto?"

"Kinda, yeah," Keldeo agreed. "But – look, I looked up how much it would cost for us to get shipped to Johto, and it was way too much. Plus, it'd mean more like three weeks in a box."

"I... had not expected that," Cobalion admitted. "What do we do now?"

Keldeo laid out the atlas, and the others crowded around it. "We walk."

"How far?" Virizion squinted at the maps.

"Six thousand miles," Keldeo stated. "But at least it's not across the pole."

There was a grating sound outside.

"Sounds like they just took away the one next to us," Keldeo added. "Ready?"

The Swords of Justice nodded.

Keldeo paused.

It felt so cool to be telling the Swords of Justice what to do – even if it was just because he was the one who'd done the research.

"Now!"


The big crane smoothly lowered a yellow standard container, belaying the cables holding it up, and then released it once it was sitting on the pile of other containers.

"Good work," the foreman radioed. "Now, get the green one next to it."

"Got it, sir-"

There was a loud screeeech of tearing metal.

The end of the green container burst open, and four blurs shot out. They stopped just long enough for the astounded foreman to see they were a lot like Ponyta or Rapidash – and then vanished at such a speed that he didn't even see which direction they went.

"...well," the foreman muttered. "That happened."

"What was that?" asked the man on the other end of the radio.

"Got no bloody idea," the foreman admitted.


"Which way now?" Cobalion asked, some minutes later in a small copse.

A Pidgey flew down, and he absently shook his head to prevent it landing on him.

"This way," Keldeo said confidently, gesturing south. "There's a tunnel to Kalos. From there, we head east."

"And this is the quickest way to Johto?" Terrakion asked, as they began to canter towards the white cliffs.

"No, it's the most affordable way," Keldeo answered him. "It was hard enough to get the money for one ship journey... you three can run on water, right? Otherwise it might be tricky to get across the Sea of Japan..."


AN:

Well, Ash was without a Fire type for not very long.

There really is quite a trend of the Fire starters Ash gets being trained by abusive trainers. Cyndaquil is the only one to escape this, but not by much.

And yes, I made Cyndaquil/Quilava female. Partly to get a better gender spread than there was in Kanto. Forretress, on the other hand, is female in the games.

As for the Swords of Justice and Keldeo – they just landed in London Docks, and are headed for the Chunnel.