"This place is too hot," James groused. "It's summer..."
Meowth lay back, sipping from his tall glass of juice. "Eh," he said, crossing his feet. "It's just fine for me."
"You're a cat," Jessie muttered. "Of course you like lounging around in sunbeams."
Meowth took another sip. "C'mon! Da boss sent us to dis here island for some reason, we can just have fun 'till he explains."
James considered it. "Well, I guess it couldn't – wait."
He squinted out to sea, covering his eyes with one hand. "I see something out there..."
Jessie stepped up next to him. "You're right," she said. "It looks kind of like... well, a big cargo helicopter."
As the object got closer, more smaller specks appeared orbiting around it. It swept overhead, rotors thundering, and at least a dozen small one-man hover-scooters followed it.
The Rocket cell watched as it skimmed low over the forests surrounding the central cone of the island, halted about halfway up, and landed.
"Well," James sighed, picking up his towel. "I guess that's it for our little holiday..."
"No kidding," Jessie agreed.
Meowth gulped down the rest of his juice. "Okay, guys," he said, rummaging in a bag and retrieving some basic equipment – in particular a pair of binoculars and a shotgun microphone. "I'll go see what dat's all about. You keep in touch with da radio."
"Got it," James agreed.
Meowth picked up Abra's Pokéball, and opened it – producing a sleeping Psychic-type. "Oi!" he said, tapping the Abra on the shoulder. "I got a job for you!"
Abra yawned. He cracked one eyelid, snapped his claws, and Meowth vanished.
"Where did you send him?" James asked.
Where he wanted me to. With that, Abra Returned himself.
"Layabout," James muttered. "Right, let's go."
Meowth peered through his binoculars.
There were at least twenty humans piling out of the cargo helicopter, in addition to the ones on the weird flying machines. They were moving to a coordinated plan, and made repeated mention of something called a "Control Gauntlet".
After several minutes, the majority of the humans set off up the road towards the summit. Those who remained, three or four low-rankers by the looks of them, set up a perfunctory guard.
Meowth lowered his binoculars, slinging them around his neck, and did the same with the shotgun microphone.
"Jessie? James?" he whispered into the radio.
"Yes?" Jessie replied.
"Dey've got some kinda control gauntlets, which I guess they wanna use on da Pokémon around here. Dey're headed for the summit, too – I tink dat's all they're here for."
There was a hiss of indrawn breath. "That's not good. Can you follow them, Meowth?"
"Well... about that." Meowth paused. "It ain't gonna be easy, 'cause Abra dropped me so I'm kinda hanging by my bag from a tree!"
There was an ominous crack.
"Oh, great... hold on a minute, guys-"
Fortunately, cats land on their feet.
"They're all waiting in da crater," Meowth pointed out, some time later. "Guess we know what dey're after."
"Yeah," James agreed. "Mt. Ember is famous for Moltres. Lucky the Moltres was out..."
"Well." Jessie shrugged. "I guess we know why the boss sent us here now."
"Too right!" Meowth grinned. "Dis is Rocket turf!"
"That does leave us a question, though," Jessie added. "What do we do?"
The others turned to her.
"We can't just barge in there," she pointed out. "They've got at least a dozen Pokémon – and we'd be coming over the crater lip from a long way off. And they've got those control gauntlets, too – we'd be in trouble."
Meowth pondered. "I tink I got a plan. We're gonna need ta distract them, though."
"How are we going to do that?" James asked.
The other two turned to him, and gave him considering looks.
"Where is it?" Willem asked, looking around. "I thought this was gonna be a simple job!"
"It is," his boss insisted. "We just need to hit the Moltres with enough capture gauntlets – and this is where it nests, so shut up!"
"But what if-"
"There it is!" Donna hissed, pointing.
The boss nodded sharply. "Right – everyone ready!"
Slowly, gliding with a blithe obliviousness of what lay below, the bird of fire circled once and came down towards a landing in the crater.
"Now!" Purple-Eyes snapped.
Over two dozen Pincher grunts stepped out from concealment, pointing their Capture Gauntlets, and activated them.
The Moltres didn't seem to notice.
"What?" Purple-Eyes asked, frustrated. "Try again! Full power!"
Tapping buttons on their gauntlets, the grunts fired again – then stopped, as something suddenly became clear.
That wasn't a Moltres.
"What... the..." Donna gasped. "Is that some guy in a suit?"
Willem's jaw dropped, as a man in a Moltres wingsuit went gliding overhead before landing (with muffled swearing) in the undergrowth nearby.
Then the ground heaved up in the middle of the circle of Pincher grunts.
An Arbok stuck his head out of the hole, and glared around in all directions – fixing the Pinchers with his gaze, preventing them from reacting.
As Purple-Eyes shook off the paralysis and raised his gauntlet, a horrible smell reached his nostrils, and he slumped over. So did everyone else.
"Well, dat went well," Meowth said a bit smugly.
"Speak for yourself," James muttered, pulling twigs out of his hair. "That was a nasty crash – you try it sometime."
"I'd kinda rather not," Meowth informed him. "Right. Steal all their gear an' leave 'em in a pile outside the police station on Knot?"
James nodded. "Makes sense to me. Nice work, by the way, Weezing."
Weezing floated up and down happily. Somehow.
"What about the capture gauntlets?" Jessie asked, poking the pile of them.
Meowth considered, then picked one out of the pile and stuffed it in their backpack. "Weezing?"
"Zing?"
"Zap 'em."
Weezing used Thunderbolt on the pile of gauntlets, turning them into fused wreckage.
"Well, we did try ta capture some, but dey all self destructed," Meowth went on. "Shame."
"Oh, I see," James said, as he bundled up the suit and packed it away. "What about the one you kept?"
Meowth shrugged. "Could be useful sometime – ya know, like dat annoyin' Togepi. Ain't no point wreckin' em all..."
With only her eyes showing over the crater lip, a young Flying-type was watching the trio of Rockets.
That had been... at once strange and really quite moving. Especially how the blue-haired one had taken the trap intended for her.
She ducked down, to avoid being seen, and contemplated what to do now.
"Okay." Norman sat down at the table. "Max? Are you okay?"
"Fine, dad," Max said.
"Really?" Norman asked. "I wanted to check, because – I mean, your teacher mentioned you'd done poorly on a test. That's unusual, Max – I was worried if something was wrong."
"I -" Max began, then stopped. He took a breath, and started over. "Okay. I was – yeah, something is wrong. But... not with me."
Norman nodded. "Do you want to tell me about it?"
"Sure," Max said readily. "It's not bullying or anything – it's kind of weirder."
Another nod. "I'm listening."
"Right. Well..." Max got up, and rummaged around for a sheet of paper and a pen.
Finding it, he started to write.
"What's that?" Norman asked, seeing a list of eleven different type names.
"That's the types I remember Steel being resistant to," Max explained.
"...oh," Norman said, now curious. "Why are Ghost and Dark on there? Those aren't resisted by Steel."
"Yeah," Max agreed. "And I'd think that that was just that I was remembering wrong, except that I also didn't know the Fairy type existed."
Norman's jaw dropped. "But – what?"
"And then, yesterday, May and I called Ash. That's when we found out that – surprise, Ash broke time again and created the Fairy type out of nowhere. And for whatever reason, we didn't notice."
Max shrugged. "That's why I failed the test – but now I can kind of remember being taught about it in class. It's confusing."
Norman shook his head. "I'm still hung up on – Ash Ketchum created the Fairy type?"
"Well -" Max winced. "It is a bit more complicated than that. Something about a Sylveon being at the creation of the world?"
"But how could a Sylveon be-" Norman stopped, took a deep breath, and started again. "Sorry. I – sorry, Max. I shouldn't be pestering you about this. And it's good to know why you didn't pass that test."
Max grinned quickly. "I'll do better so long as Ash doesn't break time again."
Norman nodded, and switched to a safer topic. "Max – I know it's a while, yet, but I was wondering. I know you've got Kris already, but – you do need an official starter. Have you put much thought into it?"
"Well – yeah," Max admitted. "But mainly into Pokémon which we could encounter on the way. I met a Ralts, for example, and I guess I kind of... wondered if he'd be my starter. Same for the Poochyena I met, that kind of thing."
"When did you meet them?" Norman asked, interested.
"Several months after Ash came to Hoenn – after I started travelling with him, not just May."
"Right..." Norman nodded. "Could be tricky, then. Okay. Well, let me know – about all I can help you with that you couldn't catch within a mile of our front door would be a Slakoth."
Max winced. "Thanks for the offer, Dad, but..." he shrugged. "Kind of not what I was hoping for..."
"You mean that Legendary Pokémon stay in touch to that extent?" Professor Oak said, typing away. "Fascinating."
"Yes, quite a lot of us know one another," Suicune agreed, pausing occasionally to let Damos translate. "Us Beasts in particular – we are messengers for Lord Ho-Oh across Japan, so we travel a lot. In fact, a fair fraction of what we taught Molly's friends was simply how to find a lot of the Legendaries that are to be found. Such as, say, Cresselia, or the Hall of Origin."
"Right!" Oak nodded. "And how do you find Cresselia?"
"Sorry, Professor," Suicune replied with a smirk. "That's information which I think the lady in question would prefer kept reasonably private."
Oak sighed. "Oh well, worth a try..."
He finished typing a line, and turned to her. "Actually, that reminds me – why do only some Legendary Pokémon have signature moves?"
Suicune shrugged. "It's hard to say – for some of us, there are moves which simply... fit. They make sense. And we can, albeit with difficulty in many cases, teach them to others who are sufficiently compatible."
"Like Pidgeot, or Togekiss," Oak agreed.
"That's right, though of course I'm using the term we inappropriately – after all, I don't have such a move." Suicune shrugged. "And then there's some Pokémon who are not legendary who do have the moves. It's not really a good determiner of legendary status, but then nothing is... you know it when you see it, I think."
"What about Phione?" Oak asked, and Suicune sighed.
"You always ask the hard questions, don't you?" she quipped. "I honestly don't know if Phione counts. Manaphy insists they do, but others disagree."
Oak contemplated that for a bit.
"If you don't mind my asking," he said, after about a minute, "Why Ash? And – why this time?"
Suicune had been about to speak, but then subsided when the Professor added his second question.
"The first is – because he's just a really, really good trainer, and he deserves it," she said eventually. "Lord Ho-Oh performed a mental link with him, the day he came back, and learned of – and mentioned – a few of his grand achievements. As for the second... I honestly don't know." Suicune rose, and paced around the room for a little. "Or perhaps I do," she said, looking at Oak. "Arceus, creator of us all, chose Ash as his champion. That means that Lord Ho-Oh really realized that Ash was... well, he'd become something quite unusual."
She shrugged. "And he's saved almost every Legendary Pokémon on the map, which is a good track record. He's simply good at keeping us safe."
Suicune then nodded towards Professor Oak. "As, indeed, are you – though you only did it once, you were noble indeed."
The Professor looked a little uncomfortable.
After a minute or so, he spoke up again. "Is it true that you were created after the Tin Tower burned down?"
"It is. Lord Ho-Oh created us then and there, around one hundred years ago. Others of his species may do the same, which is why other Suicune, Entei and Raikou exist, but-" she shrugged. "He never saw the need before then."
She frowned, tapping a paw on the floor. "But I suspect he may have done in Ash's past but our future, had Molly's friends not come along."
"Fascinating."
Damos interjected directly, instead of just translating. Professor? Ash's gym battle appears to be over, and he is requesting to switch some Pokémon around.
Suicune stretched. "It was interesting talking to you, Professor," she said.
"May?"
The young girl looked up. "Oh – hi, Mom!"
Caroline smiled. "How are you, dear?"
May shrugged. "Well, school's been fine, mostly – I mean, I've done all this before, so I've been looking at extra material."
"I see." May's mother began to continue, paused, and tried again. "Do you have a few minutes?"
May gave her mother another look, and then nodded. "Sure thing."
"Right." Caroline sat down gratefully. "Well – dear, I've been a little bit concerned about..."
She sighed.
"Professor Birch has told me you've been dropping by very frequently, looking at his Starters and asking if he's got any new in. I'm afraid it got noticeable enough that he's a bit worried – wonders if you want a Pokémon early and are being frustrated. He even offered to let us fill out the forms to-"
"No!" May shook her head. "No, that's not it at all-"
"May, calm down!" Caroline said, shaking her head and chuckling. "I know it's not – you've been very patient. More than I'd be in your place, I think – to suddenly not be a trainer..."
She stopped, and restarted. "But you're acting different, and people are noticing. So – why?"
May sighed.
"I'm not impatient – not really – but... I really don't want to miss Torchic."
Caroline blinked.
"I know he's – I mean, I'm almost sure he's going to come here," May went on. "Ash has said – the Pokémon he catches turn up in the same place. I guess the timeline's really resilient – I mean, I heard from Dawn that that happened when they had trouble with the past."
Her mother offered no comment on May's absent recollection of a person she'd never met, about a time that hadn't happened yet.
"But... well, it still keeps me awake at night," May confided. "The idea that he'd turn up at the lab in Littleroot... and then that someone else would choose him, and I'd lose him."
Caroline stood, took a few steps closer to her daughter, and gathered her into a hug. "Oh, May..."
"I don't know why," she said, voice cracking a bit. "I – but I don't worry about this with any of the others. Not Beautifly, not Venusaur... just him. And I don't know if-"
Caroline cut off her daughter with a gentle finger.
"It's not a problem, May," she said soothingly. "Starters are special, everyone knows that."
May nodded silently.
After a minute or so, she stirred. "I – thanks, Mom."
Caroline smiled. "Any time, May. I may not be able to help you all the time, but I'll help with what I can."
"This is lovely, Brock," Professor Ivy said, sipping at her glass. "You really do know how to pick a restaurant."
Brock shrugged. "I'm glad you think so, Philena. But it's all been luck, really."
"A lucky man," Ivy said with a chuckle. "So, what brought you to Cianwood?"
"The local gym," Brock explained. "We're staying here the rest of the day to let Ash's Pokémon recover, and then we're heading east – to the Whirl Islands."
"I wish I could come," Ivy admitted, smiling. "It sounds like great fun."
"Yeah." Brock shrugged, and took some more of his food. "Travelling with Ash is sometimes more exciting than I'd like, but it's always a good time."
"Except for when things get too exciting," Ivy quipped. Her expression sobered. "Seriously, Brock, be careful – it was awful watching you going into that tower and not being able to help."
Brock nodded. "I know, and I'm sorry-"
"You don't need to be," she interrupted. "I know full well you're a specialist at this sort of thing now. What's that joke about how a speciality is anything you've done twice?"
That made Brock chuckle.
"How's your research going?" he asked, after a moment.
"Oh, well," Philena made a dismissive gesture. "Its the usual thing – science is 99% perspiration. We're trying to work out how, exactly, Shamouti is so critical to the world environment – which means lots of careful tracking of ocean currents."
Brock swallowed. "You could ask the local Lugia, Ash says he's quite friendly."
Professor Ivy blinked. "...why am I not more surprised that your friend knows Lugia? He's already caught Suicune, you say, so..."
Her boyfriend shrugged. "I just kind of accept it, really... Ash is strange. And after a while that becomes the new baseline."
"Fair point. So, what's it like having a friend with a Legendary Pokémon?"
"Strange," Brock admitted. "She heads off every so often for a minor errand, and Ash has already said that's fine – but she does seem to want to hang around for a while."
Philena nodded.
"And – I'm not sure if you're aware, and do keep this under wraps, but my friend Misty is in the application process for the Elite Four."
The Professor drew in a breath in surprise.
"Yeah," Brock agreed. "You know how people qualify for that? Legendary fights. And Misty already had her first."
"...goodness. How did it go?"
"Raikou won, but barely," Brock summarized. "Actually, I'm wondering if Entei might turn up soon – it's easier to keep a battle like that from drawing too much attention in the nearby reserve."
"Oh, I heard about the reserve!" Ivy smiled. "That's a Ranger area, right?"
"That's right, yeah," Brock agreed. "Most of Shikoku is, though there's a bit you can use Park Balls."
"I might have to go there some day," Philena mused. "I never got around to getting a Pokémon of my own..."
"I've heard there's a lot of choice," Brock said, with a nod. "All kinds of Pokémon – even ones you'd normally meet in Sinnoh or Hoenn. Even starters, for that matter, in the deeper parts."
He took a long, measuring look at her, and she blushed slightly.
"Maybe you'd do well with a Shinx," he said.
"Is that supposed to say something about me?" she asked, chuckling.
"If you want it to..." Brock demurred. "But one reason is that Luxray can see through things, which might help your research."
Philena snapped her fingers. "That's right, I remember reading that," she agreed. "Something about being able to shift object-penetrating radiation back into the visible spectrum?"
Brock nodded. "Yeah, their eyes are specially adapted for it – which means you have to watch out for them if you're healing them..."
"That was wonderful, Brock," Philena said, about half an hour later. "I had a thoroughly good time."
"So did I," Brock agreed. "Wish we could do this more often. Oh – will you be able to take the time around the Silver Conference off?"
Philena frowned. "Possibly – I'll have to check. I can certainly squeeze a few days in, but the whole time... might be harder."
"Please try," Brock requested. "I know where we'll be – even if Ash does get knocked out, which I don't think is likely, he'll stick around to the end of the conference and so will I."
"I see I have to compete with Ash in your affections," Philena teased, then laughed at the startled expression on Brock's face. "Did I get you?"
"You did," Brock agreed.
As they left the restaurant, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Can't wait till next time," he said with a smile.
"See this bit?" Todd asked, pointing it out.
The Sneasel nodded attentively.
"This is the shutter speed setter," he explained. "The faster it is, the less light gets in and the less the object can move. So if I was taking a photograph of a really fast Pokémon like a Ninjask, I'd want to put the shutter speed right up to very fast – but at night it might mean not enough light gets in for a good picture."
He handed the camera to her. "Can you show me a couple of examples?"
Sneasel took it, being careful with the weight, and spun the shutter setter. She held it up, pointing it towards the nearby window, and pressed the button.
Again, this time with the setting about in the middle, and a third time at the other end of the traverse.
"Let's see, then," Todd said, scooting around to look at the back of the camera with her. "Can we see that first one?"
With care due to her claws, Sneasel tapped away at the control pad and pulled up the first photograph.
It was almost hopelessly blurred, only the largest branches of the trees outside showing up as anything other than diffuse blobs.
"That's the one with the slow shutter," Todd reminded her. "The second?"
This one was much sharper. There was still a bit of motion 'blur', but only a little, and it was pretty clear what was being looked at.
"There we go," Todd said, pleased. "Much closer to the best setting here. And let's see the other one?"
This one was very sharp, but not very bright – even the sensitive camera unable to squeeze all that much out of such a short exposure.
Sneasel looked at it, then nodded, and turned the setter almost to the middle.
She hopped up on the windowsill, balancing with a mustelid grace, and snapped off two more pictures.
Paging through them, she showed them to Todd.
"Not bad," Todd complimented, noticing the small flock of Pidgey fluttering around the nearby field. "They've got just a little wing-blur, which looks nice."
Sneasel smiled.
"Oh, that reminds me," Todd said, reaching into a bag. "I got this at the Mart this morning."
It was a magazine, in a clear plastic cover, with a big splash on the front of two Articuno side-by-side.
Sneasel looked at the wrapped magazine, recognizing the photo, and then sliced the cover carefully open with a claw.
Todd opened it, turning the pages slowly. "Whoa... I think they basically made the entire issue be about me... didn't realize that!"
Sneasel stopped him as he was about to turn the page again, pointing.
"Oh, there's you!" he smiled. "Well spotted!"
AN:
This is an unusual chapter – Ashes nowhere to be seen. Instead, I've looked at a fair slice of some of the other people who've been touched by the changes in the timeline.
