"Hey, Ash, look!" Misty said, pointing.
"What?" Ash asked, eyes flicking around to try and spot movement. "What do you see, Misty?"
Misty walked over and tapped the sign. "Look!"
"Eggseter?" Brock read off, then groaned. "Ow, that's a terrible pun."
"See?" Misty asked, with a grin. "You're not the only one puns follow around!"
"That's cruel, Misty," Ash said, shaking his head.
"True, though," Lucario noted.
Ash – a reminder. This is where you got Donphan.
"I knew that," Ash replied to his Pokédex. "I don't lose track of things that important!"
Counterexample. Muk.
Ash blushed. "Usually."
"Is that Ash I hear?" a voice asked. "Hey, it is! Hi, Ash!"
Ash turned to look. "Casey?"
"That's me," Casey said, waving. Her Pidgeotto settled to her arm, and she braced it with her free arm to hold the weight. "Ugh... Pidgeotto! That's my pitching arm!"
The avian took flight again, and she rubbed her elbow for a bit before grinning at Ash. "Fancy meeting you here! How are you doing on badges?"
"Six down, two to go," Ash told her. "My most recent one was the Mineral Badge."
"Oh, cool," Casey nodded. "I've got five – I've not done the Mineral Badge, though. How was it?"
"Pretty good," Ash said, then winced. "We broke the gym, though. Same with the gym in Cianwood..."
Casey shook her head. "You have problems."
"I don't mean to!" Ash insisted.
"You really, really do," Pikachu replied. "Sometimes, anyway. Remind me how you beat Chuck's Machamp?"
"...point taken," Ash admitted. "Pikachu just reminded me I dropped the roof on Chuck's Machamp."
"Really, really big problems," Casey repeated. "Anyway – I heard about this thing they do here called the Extreme Pokémon contest. Want to compete?"
"Sure," Ash nodded – then winced. "I don't have a skateboard, though..."
"Oh, that's okay, I met a nice guy who loans them out," Casey said. "Follow me!"
"Here he is!" Casey said, sweeping her hand across the old man and his wife. "This is Mr. Shellby, and this is his wife. Mrs. Shellby."
"Hello again, Casey," Mr. Shellby said, nodding to them. His wife waved from behind the counter. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Ash Ketchum," Casey said. "He's a pretty cool trainer – he's even the current Indigo Champion! But I still managed to beat him..."
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Ash asked.
Casey shook her head. "Nope!"
"Hi, Mr. Shellby, Mrs. Shellby," Ash said. "These are my friends, Brock and Misty."
"It's a pleasure," Brock said. "I've done a bit of training on being a Pokémon breeder, and that means I've done research into the kind of thing you do every day – but I'm sure you're much better at it than I am!"
"Well, there's always something new to learn," the old man said with a smile. "Perhaps I could show you around?"
"I'd like to have a look too," Misty said.
"And me!" Ash chipped in.
Mrs. Shellby chuckled. "I'll make lunch. You show the kids around, Tamazo."
The tour started in the large paddock of the ranch, where several recently-hatched Pokémon played around together from the common to the rarer – Pidgey, Wooper, Happiny, Smeargle, even a Dunsparce (the sight of whom made Ash's palms itch – but he sighed and resisted the temptation)
They were shown how Mr. Shellby fed all those Pokémon, and taken for a quick ride on his Tauros-drawn cart to make the point clear of just how big the ranch was. After that, though, they returned to the house – where Mrs. Shellby reported that she'd like about another ten minutes.
After thinking for a moment, Mr. Shellby showed them into the incubator room – a room with six widely-spaced sets of open shelves, each of them holding hundreds of eggs in a toasty-warm, brightly lit climate.
"Notice all the mattresses on the floor?" Mr. Shellby asked. "Those are there in case a Pokémon hatches and neither of us get to them in time. The idea is, if a Pokémon falls off the shelf, at least they don't hurt themselves. And the large space is because some Pokémon hatch out big."
"I get it!" Casey said. "So, if – say – a Shinx hatched, it wouldn't be as much of a problem, but if a Rhyhorn hatched..."
"Eggsactly," the man replied, to general groans.
Ash, meanwhile, was looking around – wondering and worrying.
He certainly hoped that Donphan's egg was still here, and he'd been betting on it – but-
There! A familiar even blue, and with that glow to it in Aura Sight which meant it was his old friend. Until now it had been hidden by the sheer number of other eggs in the room confusing his senses.
He reached out, touching the blue shell. "It's really-"
"Ash?" Pikachu asked urgently. "Remember what-"
The shell glowed.
Then over a hundred kilos of Pokémon appeared in a flash of light, let out a brief trumpet of happiness, and landed on Ash.
"Ow..." Ash muttered.
"What just happened?" Mr. Shellby asked, coming around the curve of the shelves. "Did a Pokémon just... hatch?"
"That's not a just-hatched Pokémon, is it?" Casey asked, frowning. "That's Donphan – it evolves from Phanpy?"
"Ash!" Donphan said, nuzzling his trainer with his trunk. "It's good to – where are we?"
He looked around. "Is this the day-care you got me from?"
"Pokémon just evolve around me," Ash said, and sat up as Donphan sheepishly got off his trainer. "Sorry, Mr. Shellby, I didn't expect that..."
"Think nothing of it," Mr. Shellby said, waving his hand. "Let's see... D26. That egg wasn't waiting for anyone, so you may as well take him – he already seems to like you."
"He's got that right," Donphan said, as Ash stood. "But why are-"
"We'll explain later," Pikachu told him. "It could take a while, but we will. Don't worry."
"Okay." Donphan nodded, accepting that.
"Well, after that eggscitement, I think everyone should have lunch," Mr. Shellby suggested.
More groans met this suggestion.
"Right," Ash said, some time later. "We should discuss who does this, guys."
"What, precisely, is 'this'?" Entei asked.
"Oh, right." Ash glanced over at Meganium. "Do you want to explain?"
"Sure thing," Meganium said. She nodded over at the town. "They do this every so often – I'm not sure exactly how often, though. The idea is, the Pokémon pull the humans on skateboards. So, last time, I pulled Ash – I was a Bayleef then," she clarified for Entei.
"I remember hearing about that!" Donphan said, eagerly. "That was when Ash won my egg, wasn't it?"
"I thought I did most of the work..." Meganium grumbled good-naturedly.
"Yep," Pikachu agreed. "Bayleef beat Gary's Arcanine."
Meganium nodded proudly.
"She did?" Entei blinked. "Arcanine are very fast... er... how?"
She stopped nodding. "...I'm not sure..."
Donphan frowned. "Chlorophyll?"
"No, I don't have that." Meganium frowned. "Darn it, now that's going to bother me all day..."
"Guys?" Ash reminded them. "Uh... anyway, the problem is... I'm not sure who to use."
"Pick me!" Keldeo suggested.
Donphan raised his trunk. "What about me, Ash? I'm fast – and it would be kind of nice, to win-"
"What about-" Entei began.
Ash started to laugh. "I can see you're all eager!"
"Well, yeah," Pikachu said. He hopped down from Ash's shoulder, and turned to face him. "We like you, Ash. We're all competitive, some of us really, really competitive, and we like to see you succeed."
"Lucario didn't volunteer," Donphan said. He frowned. "Speaking of which, when did you get a Lucario?"
"I simply wish to give the others a chance," Lucario said loftily.
"You seem less surprised than I would have expected that Ash has a Lucario," Suicune mentioned. "Or... three Legendaries, for that matter."
Donphan shrugged. "I'm sure I'll find out the details, and it's not like Ash has ever managed to avoid a Legendary."
"...that's surprisingly pragmatic," Pikachu admitted. "Guess I remember you more as a Phanpy."
"That's okay," Donphan said. "I don't mind-"
"Okay," Ash said. He took a deep breath. "Donphan, I think it's going to be you. Sorry, guys," he added, looking at the rest of them. "But I haven't seen Donphan in nearly two years, so..."
"That makes sense," Meganium agreed. "Doesn't it? Everyone?"
Nods all around, though some of them (notably that from Entei) were quite grudging.
"Okay, Donphan!" Ash said, standing up. "Let's get practicing!"
He paused. "Wait. I just realized. Where are we going to tie the rope?"
"...let's ask Brock," Donphan suggested. "He'll know."
"...so you just need to curl up around this metal axle," Brock said, proffering it. Donphan took it in his trunk, and rolled up around it in a Defence Curl.
"Good," Brock said. He tied a couple of loose knots around it, one on each side of Donphan's body. "See? The knots can slip as the axle rotates, so they shouldn't wrap around it!"
"Thanks, Brock!" Ash said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You're a real help!"
"Neat," Donphan said, a little indistinctly. "Let's try it out!"
Ash nodded. He took the rope, and got on the skateboard. "Ready, Donphan?"
A trumpet of agreement.
"Go!"
Ash's Pokémon watched as Ash, Donphan, a metal axle and a skateboard ended up in a pile at the foot of a hill.
"Kind of glad he's so tough," Lucario admitted, wincing as Donphan bounced to a stop on top of Ash. The impact clearly winded Ash, but he hauled the Ground-type off his chest fairly quickly and stood.
They watched as Ash stretched, reassured Donphan he wasn't really hurt, and then they set off again.
"Hey," Keldeo said to Lucario.
The other Fighting-type looked down. "Yes?"
"I was wondering... well, you're kind of human shaped, right? Could you ride a skateboard?"
"I've been surfing," Lucario admitted. "Not in the last couple of months, though... but I do know how to stay on a board."
"Great!" Keldeo said. "I'll pull, you ride."
"...is that legal?" Lucario asked, curiously. "Dexter?"
Please wait. Dexter's projector flashed, producing an image of a floating hourglass. Downloading... parsing... done.
The hourglass vanished, replaced by Dexter's vaguely avian form. It is indeed legal. Nothing mandates that the rider has to be human, it just says 'contestant' – and since people can borrow Pokémon, that's fine too.
"Great!" Keldeo said. "Come on, Lucario, let's go borrow a skateboard!"
"We might have to make it quite a tough one..." Lucario suggested.
They headed off in the direction of the farm building, leaving the others behind.
"...well, that's going to be interesting," Pikachu said. He blinked. "Dexter? Can you check if Squirtle's available?"
You're going to participate with him, aren't you? Dexter asked. It was barely a question.
"Yeah, kinda," Pikachu admitted.
Okay, give me a minute...
Entei frowned. "Hmmm..."
"I know that hum," Suicune commented.
"Well, I was wondering..." Entei began. "I didn't get a chance to give Ash a race, so..."
Suicune blinked. "You're going to race him when he's on the skateboard? You realize that you're about four times faster than his Donphan at a minimum..."
They watched as Ash and Donphan ramped off another hill, aimed for a precisely balanced landing, missed, and rolled down the hill in a confused bundle again.
"I think we're improving!" Ash's voice carried to them on the wind. "That time we lasted longer!"
"I know I'm faster," Entei said. "So, I need some form of handicap."
He turned to Dexter. "Small computer! Where is the nearest rail yard?"
I'm a- Dexter's vocoder cut out mid-sentence. Pardon?
"What are you planning?" Suicune asked, suspiciously.
"You'll see. Actually, you'll probably need to help." Entei pointed at Dexter. "You as well, I will need to communicate with humans."
"So... I have to pull you," Squirtle said, deadpan.
Pikachu nodded. "That's about the size of it."
"Again."
"Last time you carried me, and we flew half of it anyway," Pikachu pointed out. "Besides, it's not like we'll actually be using the skateboard much."
Squirtle blinked. "Pardon?"
"How far can you do a Horn Drill Break, assuming you don't hit anything?"
The Water-type began to grin, slowly. "You're really going to do this?"
Pikachu nodded. "I'm going to take some poffin made entirely from confusion-healing berries beforehand... but yes."
Squirtle rubbed his palms together. "This changes everything!"
"I really hope I don't regret this," Pikachu said quietly.
The morning of the race, Ash showed up to the starting line in the centre of town with about ten minutes to spare.
"Hey, Ash," Brock said, waving. "Cutting it close!"
"Kinda," Ash admitted. "Oh, are you competing?"
Brock nodded. "I sure am, Ash!"
"Mr. Shellby's run out of skateboards," Casey told him, walking over. "Oh, you're using that Donphan for this."
Donphan waved his trunk.
"He seems nice. What about you, Mr- uh, Brock?"
"Crobat," Brock told her. "Steelix and Stantler wanted to, as well, but Steelix is too big and Stantler is too young."
"Huh," Casey nodded. "Guess you have to think about these things... hey, what the- Ash?"
"Yeah?" Ash replied.
"Are those your Pokémon?"
Ash followed her nod. "Lucario? Keldeo? What are you doing?"
"Participating!" Keldeo said, proudly.
Lucario waved with the hand not holding the skateboard.
"...okay," Ash said. He exchanged a glance with Brock, who shrugged. "I guess that's not a problem... Lucario's the one riding on the skateboard?"
"That is correct," Lucario confirmed with a nod. He set the skateboard down on the other side of Brock from Ash, and Keldeo trotted around to take position just ahead of him.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Ash said, addressing Brock. "Do you know if Misty's competing?"
"She applied," Brock said with a shrug. "Gyarados was all for it, but he's too big to be safe."
Ash nodded. "What about you, Casey? Who are you using?"
"Pidgeotto," Casey told him. "He's faster than Raticate, and Bayleef was training kind of hard earlier – she'd prefer a rest."
"Yeah, I understand," Ash said. "I saw Beedrill's fine, too..."
Casey nodded. "Yeah, he is. And-"
"Five minutes!" the race marshal announced. "Take your places!"
"Whoops," Casey said. "Guess we should be ready... okay, Pidgeotto?"
The Flying-type emerged, took the rope, and flapped up to hover at about chest height.
Brock got ready, too, sending out Crobat and tying his rope around the Poison-type's midsection. "How's that?"
Crobat nodded. "Seems snug."
Ash was just checking the axle Donphan was holding – and glancing over at the way Lucario and Keldeo were handling their own tether, which seemed a bit last-minute – when a familiar voice interjected.
"'scuse us," Pikachu said, stepping around a Raticate and her trainer heading over to the left end of the line, and then taking a place just next to Ash.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Participating," Pikachu explained.
"Hey, I said that first!" Keldeo told him.
"I wasn't here, how was I supposed to know that?" Pikachu asked. As he spoke, Squirtle stepped in front of the Electric-type and proffered his tail, and Pikachu tied a line to it.
"Oh, no..." Brock said, wincing. "This isn't going to go well, Squirtle's in a sporting event."
"Is he really that bad?" Casey asked.
Lucario answered first. "Yes."
"Right." Casey shuffled a couple of steps to the side, further away from Squirtle.
As they waited for the flag, Ash looked around for Misty. She wasn't taking part, so she should be – aha!
It looked like she – and her Pokémon, and for that matter Brock's other Pokémon – were using Steelix to get a good view.
"Hey," Ash said, frowning. "Where are Meganium, Suicune and Entei?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea, brother?" Suicune asked.
"Of course I am!" Entei told her. "Now, you two get on, and let's hurry!"
"Why both of us?" Meganium asked, using her vines to pull herself up onto the old rail push-cart.
"Because otherwise I'd be pretty much sure who'd win," Entei explained. "This way, I've got a proper handicap."
Suicune gave the cart an experimental push with her paw. "This weighs a ton. A literal ton. It might weigh several."
Entei shrugged. "I didn't get my race with Ash, I want it this time. And it's not fair if I just run through at half the speed of sound... so, I am going to pull this."
Frowning, the Water-type Legendary turned to Meganium. "Ever had one of those moments where you realized you were probably the sane one?"
"All the time." Meganium sighed, shaking a small cloud of pollen from her flower. "All the time."
"Three!" the marshal said, raising his flag. "Two! One! Go!"
Several dozen Pokémon started moving.
"All right!" Donphan trumpeted, jumping forwards and rolling up. He started slow, but soon he and Ash were on the move right in the middle of the pack – and speeding up, as they left the starting area and went out onto the course proper.
The dust gradually subsided.
"Why haven't we gone yet?" Pikachu asked, as the last of the slower racers passed around the corner and out of sight.
"You can't rush awesome!" Squirtle told him, already surrounded in a swirl of aura-saturated water.
Several more seconds passed.
"Squirtle-"
"Bored now." Squirtle pointed his right arm forwards. "Horn Drill Break!"
Pikachu held on to the skateboard for dear life.
This turned out to be a decision of questionable merit. At least if he'd fallen off it would have been over quickly.
"Left here!" Brock called, and Crobat rolled and pitched. His two pairs of wings cut the air, rippling as he pulled Brock around in a turn, and he carefully trimmed the change in momentum to avoid sending Brock too far outside his own turn path.
"Great!" Brock added, as they reached an incline. "Now, straight up – the map says it's a straight the other side of the hill, too, so full speed!"
Crobat's wings developed white air shocks on them as he accelerated.
Then Casey drew level with them, her Pidgeotto producing great clouds of dust and grit on the downstroke of his wings. "Hi again, Brock!"
"Hi!" Brock said. He glanced back, trusting Crobat to keep them stable. "Looks like we're ahead of the pack."
"Yeah," Casey agreed. "But I'm not sure where-"
She blinked. "Wait. Do you hear that?"
"...aaaaaAAAAAHHHH!"
Brock, Pidgeotto, Crobat and Casey watched in surprise or astonishment as a huge, translucent, blue cone shot overhead – glittering in the sunlight, and raining down drops of water behind it.
"Is that Squirtle?" Brock asked. "Wait, that must mean-"
He squinted, looking closer.
Pikachu was not having a good race.
His skateboard – to which he was still clinging – was tied to Squirtle's tail.
Squirtle was rotating very rapidly, and moving very fast, and throwing out long streams of water as he Horn Drill Broke his way through the sky.
The result of this was that Pikachu was being soaked in water, blasted with high speed air, and swung around in a wide circle at high speed.
He was, in short, going through a spin cycle.
"I knew this was a bad idea," he mumbled.
Some distance ahead of Brock and Casey, Ash was holding onto a rope with both hands.
"Good work, Donphan!" he called, as they went over a small bump and Donphan decelerated slightly to avoid throwing his trainer into the air. "Just keep up that Rollout!"
"You're pretty fast, kid," a man being pulled by a Tauros said, as the Armor Pokémon caught up to him again. "You're really giving Ushi and I a run for our money!"
Ash shot him a grin. "Thanks," he said, then leaned sharply over as both Pokémon-human teams swerved around another sharp bend. "Whoa!"
The skateboard skidded sideways for a moment, wobbling on two wheels with the wood of the board perilously close to the track, and then Ash pushed down on it as they straightened and the other two banged back down.
Ash's current opponent gave a curse as he went close enough to the side of the track for willow branches to hit him in the face. "Ow! Sunova... hey, Ushi, try not to whiplash me into the bushes, okay?"
Ushi mooed a reply. "Sure. Just make sure you duck more."
Ash transferred one hand off the rope to check the map. "Let's see... Donphan! The next bend is to the right! Don't slow down, it's banked!"
"Got it!" Donphan said, indistinctly. "Right turn coming up!"
Ash braced himself, and they went around this corner at full speed. They slanted over at an alarming angle – probably not as steep as it felt – and then they were out, just ahead of the man and his Tauros.
As they settled down onto the straight, though, Ash's head came around. "Wait, that sounds familiar..."
He risked a glance back.
About a hundred metres behind them, and gaining fast, were two familiar blue shapes.
"Hey, Keldeo, Lucario!" Ash waved, as they got close enough to talk. "How's things?"
"Could be better," Lucario admitted, switching which hand was on the rope and using his heavy tail as balance.
"Yeah!" Keldeo agreed, mumbling slightly. "It took us ages to work out where to put the rope without throttling me, and then I tried using Hydro Pump-"
"It didn't work," Lucario said succinctly. "I could barely hold the skateboard on with Aura, let alone steer, and we nearly... crashed... into... Ash, are you seeing this?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I think that must be Squirtle."
"Oh, sure, he can fly with water jets..." Keldeo mumbled.
"Watch out!" Lucario said quickly, and they barely swerved around a small rock in the roadway. "Keep your eyes on the road!"
"I need to-" Keldeo started, stopped, and then started again. "Sorry, focusing on the race."
He put his head down and pulled harder, hooves hammering the road, and they started to slowly draw ahead of the two humans.
"You're not getting me that easily!" the man said. "Ushi, take this next corner on the inside! Fast as you can!"
Ushi nodded, snorted, and began to drift towards the left.
"Outside is fine, Donphan!" Ash said, holding his right hand out and producing an Aura Sphere. "I'll be fine, just worry about getting yourself around fast!"
"Hey, look!" someone said, pointing.
The table of judges watched a sparkling drill-shape of water coming rapidly towards them.
"The heck?" someone said. "Is that-"
"It's coming this way!" someone else said. "Take cover!"
The judges hid behind the table.
As it happened, though, the drill came crashing in to the ground about twenty metres from the table itself. They got sprayed with water as the pent-up centrifugal energy all suddenly had somewhere to go, and it was several seconds before someone felt confident enough to poke his head over the parapet.
They beheld a Pikachu wobbling in confused circles, a tired but triumphant Squirtle, and a large, damp crater in the middle of the right of way.
"Oh, for..." one of the marshals sighed. "Dugtrio! Fill this in, quick! The racers will be along soon!"
Squirtle looked up, indignant, as Dugtrio filled in the hole in about ten seconds. "The rest of the racers! We were competing too!"
He rummaged in his shell and pulled out his entry form. "See?"
"Well, that..." The marshal rubbed his temples. "Okay, I can't understand you but I get the gist. Come over here, would you?"
Squirtle headed over to the damp, wobbling Pikachu, and guided him over to the judges' table.
Shaking his head, Pikachu downed another Persim berry and felt himself starting to recover. While he was, Squirtle hopped up onto the (righted) table and placed his entry form down. "See?"
Adjusting his glasses, the judge he'd put it in front of scanned it. "I must admit, this is all filled out... but you're disqualified anyway."
"What?" Squirtle said, gaping. "You can't disqualify awesome!"
"It's a skateboard race. Where's your skateboard?"
Squirtle glanced back at where he'd landed. "Uh..."
He leaned over the edge of the table. "Pikachu? Where'd the skateboard go?"
"It exploded halfway through the course," Pikachu mumbled. "I barely managed to grab the rope in time."
"Oh... right," Squirtle said, wincing. He took the form and jumped back down off the table. "Well, so much for that. At least it was fun, right?"
"Ask me when the world is no longer spinning."
"Not far to go," Ash told Donphan. "A few more corners."
"Good!" Donphan said, canting around as they went around a long, shallow curve. "I'm starting to get a bit tired..."
"Join the club," Ushi muttered.
"Not a problem for me!" Keldeo said cockily. "I'm still pretty fresh, because I'm used to running such long-"
Ash heard a snap sound.
"What was that?" he asked, glancing around.
Keldeo's eyes crossed, as he tried to look down at his own mouth. "Uh oh..."
There was another quiet snap, and then the whole rope parted as Keldeo's teeth finally rubbed through one too many strands.
Lucario had been drifting to one side, using the rope as support as he did so, to avoid an obstacle near one side of the track. The rope parting abruptly removed his counterbalance, and he had to push off the skateboard in a forward dive to avoid being carried into the trees.
Rooster-tails of dust went flying up as he used both feet and one hand-paw to brake, discarding the ropes, and the other racers went shooting off ahead and were out of sight by the time he'd stopped.
Keldeo trotted over. "Sorry, Lucario..."
"No, it's fine. Not your fault." Lucario looked around. "Where's the skateboard gone... ah, there we are."
He crouched, paws flashing blue, and jumped fifteen feet into the air. At the apex of his jump, he plucked the wood-metal-and-plastic board from the crook of two branches.
Landing with another flash of Aura, he brushed the board off. "It must have hit a root and been knocked into the air."
"Guess so," Keldeo said, then sighed. "That sucks, we were doing so well..."
Lucario shrugged. "Can't win them all."
He glanced around, then started. "What the – what is that?"
Keldeo followed the direction he was looking. "I don't see – oh, right, Aura." Closing his eyes as well, the Colt Pokémon took a second look.
"That's not normal..." he said. "Wonder how they're managing that?"
"Keep it up, Donphan," Ash said, crouched low to help with air resistance. "Just a bit further. One more corner to go."
"I understand, Ash," Donphan told him. "I'll keep going all the way."
Ash smiled, and glanced around. The Tauros was dropping back a little, sides lathered with sweat, and his trainer was getting a resigned look on his face.
"Looks like Ushi's getting to the end of his tether, kid," the man said. "Running so fast for so long isn't quite what we trained for. You've given us a good race!"
"Thanks!" Ash called back. "Pity you can't make it a photo finish-"
With a triumphant rumbling growl and a squeal of metal, Entei arrived.
"-what the heck!?" Ash said, for once shocked by the strangeness of what he was seeing.
There was Entei.
There was a heavy Rapidash collar around his neck, the kind used for pulling loads.
There were ropes – more like cables – coming from the collar.
There was a large railway handcart attached to the cables, the wheels digging ruts in the grassy field just next to the race track.
And there were Suicune and Meganium on the handcart, both of them clinging to the central support.
"Entei!" Ash called, as they turned onto the final straight. "What's that?"
"Well, I didn't get my race!" Entei explained, seriously. "So I thought that now would be a good time. It is a good time, right?"
"Well – but – what's with the cart?" Ash asked, blinking. Donphan tried to turn to look, then remembered he was pulling Ash and concentrated on speed.
"It's a handicap," Entei told him. "I mean, obviously I'm faster, but what about when pulling this much extra weight?"
"Okay, seriously, Ash?" Donphan asked plaintively. "What's going on?"
"It's going to take a while to explain," Ash said. "Just – it's the final sprint, so I guess full speed ahead!"
"Just what I wanted to hear!" Entei chuckled. He crouched down, paws working away as he accelerated, and the cart increased speed.
Both the passengers held on more tightly.
"Brother?" Suicune asked. "Please make sure we don't crash into anything when we slow down..."
Ash crouched lower over the board, trying to make Donphan's task as easy as possible.
For several seconds, the two teams – Ash and Donphan, and Entei and his two ballast Pokémon – thundered down the line towards the finish. Entei was edging ahead, the axles of his repurposed cart squealing in protest, but Donphan was still close behind.
Meganium's voice rose in a question. "What's that coming up behind us?"
Ash turned to look. "That seems somehow familiar..."
Donphan jolted into the air for a moment as he hit a pebble, landed again, and squeezed out one last burst of acceleration.
As the finish line came up, the white shape which Ash and Meganium had seen got bigger very quickly. Then they passed the line, and there was a sudden roar of sound and air which blew Ash off his board.
Before he had time to position for the landing, Suicune had him. Leaping from the handcart, she kicked off the ground and came up underneath her trainer – letting him fall onto her back, before twisting in the air so she was facing the same way she was going.
That turned it into just running, and she slowed to a walk and then a stop before the end of the finishing area.
Entei, on the other hand, was having considerably more problems. He'd tried to stop, but rapidly discovered that stopping in front of a large railway cart was not a smart thing to do.
That left him running in front of the cart, slowing as it slowed, and he finally ended up coming to a halt several hundred metres away.
The moment he did, Meganium jumped off the cart and dug her roots into the ground, seeming like she'd be there for a while.
"That was – what happened?" Ash asked, looking around.
Then he caught sight of the other finisher. "Casey? Congratulations!"
Casey waved, as her Pidgeot landed next to her. "Hi, Ash! Wonder who won?"
She patted the flank of the Flying-type. "Yeah, he evolved about three corners back. Wow, but he's fast! The whole last bit of the race was just a blur!"
"I can tell," Ash said, sniffing. "I think your wheels are smoking."
Casey looked down, and winced. "Oh, yeah, that could be a problem..."
Suicune used Water Gun. There was a hiss, and the skateboard was very wet.
"Excuse me?" one of the judges asked, clearing his throat. "Do you want to hear how you did?"
"Sure, I guess," Ash agreed. He returned Donphan, who'd rolled to a stop about halfway across the track, and swung off Suicune. "Thanks for the save, by the way."
"Not a problem," Suicune told him.
"Okay," the judge said, as they turned up. "The good news is, you both did the course properly – unlike these two-" he indicated Pikachu and Squirtle, who were coming over to Ash now that Pikachu was better, "-you can both be ranked. So one of you will be first-place."
"Really?" Ash asked, frowning. "I thought Entei was-"
"He never registered," the judge told them. "We're waiting for the photo – ah, here it is!"
The marshal handed over the picture. As the judge examined it, there was a wave of cheering.
Brock came rolling across the finish line accompanied by a wash of wind, a few seconds ahead of the Tauros trainer Ash had jockeyed for position with for much of the course.
"Ah!" The judge looked up from his rulebook. "If we apply that... right. Congratulations, young man!"
"All right!" Ash said, grinning. He then subsided, and glanced over at Casey. "Sorry you came second."
"It's okay," Casey told him. "Really-"
"And, as a special prize donated by Mr. Shellby, you are awarded this Pokémon egg!"
Ash gave the egg an interested look over. It was mostly yellow, with a black circle covering about the upper quarter and a yellow dot inside that.
"...and now I really wish I'd won," Casey said, as Ash took the egg container. "That looks like it'd hatch into a yellow-and-black Pokémon!"
As Ash, Brock and Casey were nearly back to the starting line to meet up with Misty, there was a flash of light.
Gary Oak appeared, his Alakazam's spoons raised and his Arcanine by his side. "Am I too late to register? Sorry, I-"
"You're too late to compete," Ash pointed out. "Race finished twenty minutes ago."
Gary blinked.
"Too late?" Arcanine barked. "I knew it! Umbreon told you you shouldn't have slept in!"
"But – how could..." Gary checked his watch again. "I know the adjustment from Kalos time! The race shouldn't be starting for another... what, ten minutes?"
Brock raised a hand. "I know what the problem is, Gary," he said. "The clocks changed."
Gary blinked, then sighed. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me... how did I miss that?"
Ash shrugged sympathetically. "Sorry."
"Errrgh... right." Gary rubbed his temples for a moment. "Sorry about that, Arcanine. We'll do the endurance race in the south of Kalos instead, when it's on."
Arcanine gave a slightly mollified bark.
"Anyway, since I'm here..." Gary began, then paused. He pointed at Casey. "Is she trustworthy?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Ash nodded.
"Right." He turned to address Casey directly. "Don't talk about this, it's not been published yet."
"'kay," Casey said.
That done, Gary pointed to a ring on his finger. "See this?"
"Did you get married?" Brock asked.
"No!" Gary denied, a little startled. He lowered his voice. "It's a Mega Ring, with a Key Stone."
"Neat," Ash said, looking at it. "It's a lot neater than mine..."
"It is," Gary agreed. "There's a neat thing it can do to any Mega Stone, too – it can identify them. By the way, I've got a Lopunnite and an Absolite I'm not using."
He shrugged. "So if you find any Mega Stones you need identified-"
Ash found the one he'd been looking for in his pouch. "What about this one?"
Gary blinked. "How long have you had that?"
"Since I fought Chuck," Ash told him.
"Right," Gary said, deciding not to question it. He adjusted the Mega Ring, and extended it towards the stone in Ash's hand.
There was a small, unspectacular flash as it made contact.
"You're one lucky trainer, Ash," Gary said, almost conversationally. "That's Heracronite."
"Wow," Ash grinned. "That's cool! Heracross can use it!"
"What's a Mega Stone, by the way?" Casey asked, curious.
Brock spoke up before Ash could. "You know the thing that Ash's Charizard did when he fought three Legendary Beasts at once?"
Casey nodded. "That was pretty cool!"
"Mega Stones let that happen."
"Neat." She frowned. "Can I have one?"
"Not easily," Gary said, coming back into the discussion. "Like I said, we're still doing research."
"Hey, Gary?" Ash asked. "What Mega Stones did you say you have?"
"Weren't you listening?" Gary shook his head. "Right. I've got Absolite and Lopunnite I'm not using, and Blastoisite I am-"
Squirtle burst out of his Pokéball. "Blastoise has a mega evolution? I demand to see it!"
Gary yawned as his translator earbud filled him in. "Dee? Can you send Dexter the pictures we took?"
Transferring.
That done, he pointed. "Okay, Alakazam, take us back to Kalos. If I had to waste getting up at two in the morning, I can at least get back to bed before losing too much sleep."
Raising his spoons, Alakazam teleported himself, Gary and Arcanine back to Kalos.
"You have strange friends," Casey said.
After they'd returned their borrowed skateboards, and Ash had paid for the small one Squirtle had disintegrated, the friends hiked to the edge of town ready to leave.
"See you guys later, I guess!" Casey grinned. "I'll beat you at the League final!"
"As if!" Ash replied with a grin. Then his expression sobered. "Seriously, though, Casey – if you want, you can have the egg."
"No way!" Casey shook her head. "You won it fair and square! Besides, I've already got some cool Pokémon, while you need all the help you can get!"
"Was that an insult?" Pikachu asked, frowning. "It sounded like one."
Lucario shrugged – then his head snapped around at a polite cough.
"Am I interrupting anything?"
Lucario dropped into a brief bow, then straightened. "I am honoured."
"You do have good manners," a female Lucario said, coming out of the nearby underbrush. "Clearly your trainer has taught you well."
"Aren't you the one who broke my arm?" Ash asked.
"You cracked my rib, honours are even." The Lucario shrugged. "Sorry, though."
"Are you here to check up on me?" Ash's Pokémon queried.
"Heavens, no," she replied. "You're clearly fine. No, this is something else."
She straightened, and made eye contact with Casey. "Young one, one of our number has been observing you training for some time now."
"You've been watching me train?" Casey repeated. "Like... baseball scouting?"
"I believe that might be an apt metaphor, yes," the messenger said. "In any case. We have decided... positively."
Ash blinked. "Lucario? Is this-"
"So," the female went on, and beckoned.
Before the eyes of the group, a Riolu emerged from the brush. It seemed a little nervous, eyes flicking around to take in an unfamiliar situation, but was clearly facing down whatever fear she had.
And – immediately recognizable – she was a yellow-and-black shiny Riolu.
Clearing her throat, the Lucario began. "Casey Nanako of New Bark, will you accept this charge:
To educate in the ways of both battle and peace.
To keep morality, and to ensure the same of your charge.
To protect those weaker than yourself, with all the breath you have in your body.
If you so swear, then we beg you accept this scion of one of our noble lines as an apprentice and companion."
Casey gaped. "But – why me?"
The female inclined her head towards Ash's Lucario, a smirk playing across her lips. "You were recommended."
Casey blinked. "Ash? Did you-"
"Yeah, I asked them to take a look at you," Ash admitted. "After the bug catching contest. Lucario wrote a letter."
"I... wow." Casey sat down, a little heavily. "This is pretty huge."
"I felt kind of the same," Ash admitted. "And I was getting an egg."
Ash's Lucario knelt down next to Casey. "Would you like me to give you some advice? I can answer any questions you might have."
"Yeah, sure," Casey nodded. "Just – give me a minute. And I might want to discuss this with my Pokémon, too – can you help with that?"
"I would be willing to facilitate."
The discussion took quite a long time.
Casey was clearly well aware of what a big moment this was, and was acting appropriately – thinking it through, getting all the details, and talking things over with her entire team.
They weren't all of one mind, either. Her Bayleef was concerned that it might put them all – especially Pichu – in danger, while Beedrill and Pidgeot were all for it. Raticate, meanwhile, was more nuanced in her opinion.
In the end, the one who made the choice was effectively Pichu. He wandered off during the discussion, approached the young Riolu, and started to play around with her.
Catching sight of them, Casey smiled. Then her expression firmed, and she took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said, standing. "I'll do it."
"Excellent," the female Lucario said. "May you two have long life and many happy memories together."
With that, she blurred to the line of bushes – leaving Riolu behind, with her new trainer. Ash caught sight of the messenger pausing for a moment, in case they had any further questions, and then she set off for far-off Sinnoh.
AN:
The Eggstreme - sorry, Extreme - Pokémon race. Originally it had Gary in, but he was In Kalos.
The egg is that of a specific Pokémon, but it's one for which there is no official artwork. As such, I used some fan art as the basis – partly because it was well thought out.
Here's the finishing order, by the way:
Squirtle and Pikachu – disqualified
Entei, Suicune and Meganium – not competing
Donphan and Ash – first place (by photo finish)
Pidgeot and Casey – second place
Crobat and Brock – third place
Tauros and (man who may be called Auron) – fourth place
Oh, and since I've had a lot of questions about it – yes, Pokémon Heroes is approaching. It was first broadcast shortly after the eighth gym battle – Altomare was more-or-less supposed to be the friends' quick holiday before the League, I think – so it'll be after the Claire match.
