There is only one chapter today. It's a doozy, though – chapter 100 is the entirety of Pokémon Heroes.
Just FYI.
"Well, here we are," Misty said, looking out towards the peaceful city. "This is a nice place – all the canals..."
"You Water Pokémon trainer, you," Brock laughed.
Misty chuckled, nodding. "I guess so... oh, you've got the presents, right?"
"Of course I do," Brock replied. "After organizing holiday presents for all my siblings, Ash is easy to remember."
Their boat heeled over slightly, as it headed in towards the docks.
"We should get ready," Misty suggested.
"Good idea," Brock agreed. "Can you send out Togekiss to look for Ash?"
"Right." Misty released her Fairy-type, who took up station alongside for a moment before soaring skywards and orbiting overhead.
Misty peered out towards Altomare a moment longer, smelling the sweet sea-breeze, then followed Brock to go and get their stuff.
"Hey!" Ash waved from the quayside. "What took you guys?"
"We don't have a supersonic Flying-type, Ash!" Misty called back. "We discussed this, remember!"
Ash chuckled, hoisted Pikachu a little higher on his shoulder, and came over to the gangplank. "How was the trip?"
"Fine," Brock shrugged. "Nothing particularly unusual happened – Misty did give this Water specialist a few tips, I think she's got a fan-"
"Hey!" Misty said.
"If you do make it, you're going to have to deal with fans, Misty," Ash said. He glanced a little nervously around at the docks, noticing that several people were looking at him. "I know I'm starting to have to..."
"Yeah, good point." The Water-trainer sighed, then perked up. "Okay, that's enough of that. Where's the Pokémon centre?"
"Uh..." Ash frowned. "This way. I'm pretty sure."
"Dexter?"
He's right.
Once they were walking, Brock raised the next question. "So... have you managed to find-"
"No," Ash sighed. "I've been looking, too. But even with Aura sight, no sign of either Latias or Latios."
"How is that possible?" Misty wondered. "Unless they were never coming out... couldn't you just go to that secret grotto?"
Ash shrugged. "I don't know where it is. We were only there a couple of times, and it was years ago."
"That could be a problem," Brock winced. "Pikachu, do you remember?"
"I'm afraid not, sorry." Pikachu shrugged. "I was kind of preoccupied."
"Great..."
"I guess the best thing we can do is wait for trouble to find me," Ash suggested. "It usually does."
"I suppose you're right."
Brock and Misty exchanged a glance, and Brock spoke up. "Hey, Ash..."
"Yeah?"
"Don't forget – you're thirteen now! It's not every day that you become a teenager!"
"Most people only do it once..." Ash chuckled. "But yeah, good point. Suicune pointed that out too, I just..."
He shrugged. "I worry, I guess."
Misty punched him in the shoulder. "Come on! Hey, tell you what – bet you can't win the Tour de Altomare!"
"...who with?" Ash asked. "I mean, Suicune's just plain cheating... she's faster than most Flying-types..."
"What about Keldeo?" Brock suggested. "I'm sure he'd enjoy it."
Ash frowned, then nodded. "That does sound like a good idea – thanks, Misty!"
Ash's birthday meal wasn't something the friends made much of a production out of. They'd been on the road together for years, and each of them had had their turn – and it was often just a particular favourite of the person, made by Brock. (Or, if it was Brock's birthday, something put together by Ash and Misty from a cookbook, with great care and the odd scorched thumb.)
They still had a nice lunch, though. Altomare had such good restaurants it would be rude not to.
"So," Misty said, over the dessert. "How did you do?"
"How what?" Ash asked, looking up from passing Mawile his spare strawberry.
"Raikou," Misty specified. "How'd you do? Did you catch him?"
Ash nodded, fighting a grin. "You bet!"
"Wow," Brock said, shaking his head. "All three, huh?"
"Yeah." Ash shrugged. "But Raikou's mostly been back at Professor Oak's the last couple of days, it's a bit crowded in Altomare."
The others nodded, understanding. They both had Pokémon who were best kept out of crowded city streets.
"Oh – that reminds me," Misty said. "Brock, the presents?"
"You got me presents?" Ash asked, a little surprised. "I mean, to have now, instead of-"
"I know, I know, we usually sort it all out just before the League," Brock agreed. "But we saw a couple of things we thought you'd like!"
He took a small wrapped box from a bag. "Here's mine – well, we all discussed it."
Picking it up, Ash undid the ribbon and tore the wrapping off.
Inside was... nothing.
"Huh?" he said, looking up in confusion.
Brock chuckled. "Told you he'd fall for it, Misty..."
Misty rolled her eyes. "It's the ribbon the box was wrapped in. It's a brand new Expert Belt."
"Oh, right!" Ash said, pulling the ribbon out from under the paper. "So this is what they look like when they're new... all the ones I've seen have been old..."
Brock nodded, pleased at the reaction. "We thought it would be good to get you something any of your Pokémon could use, rather than just one."
Mawile looked up from her strawberries. "Ooh, that does look nice..."
"It's a good reason to train, then," Ash suggested. "This helps Pokémon battle."
That was a revelation to the young Mawile. "Nice looking things help Pokémon battle?"
Pikachu removed his Light Ball, showing it to her. "This has been helping me battle for nearly two years now."
"Cool!"
Misty pushed her box across the table next, and Ash opened it more carefully – checking to make sure there was nothing on the box that might be the actual present.
This time, however, there was something in the box. It was a small amulet, which on investigation turned out to be a locket.
Opening it, Ash saw a picture of himself on one side and Charizard on the other.
"That's kind of nice," he said, frowning. "But why-"
The picture on the right changed to show Meganium.
"-wha?"
"It's got a memory card in," Misty told him. "It cycles through several different pictures. We put a few on there, but you could have your entire team."
She shrugged. "It seemed nice, especially since your team's far too large to have them all on hand at once any more."
"Yeah, I like it!" Ash grinned, putting the chain around his neck. "Thanks, Misty!"
He frowned. "Now I need to work out what to get you guys for your next birthdays..."
"Attention!" a PA system announced. "The Tour de Altomare will be starting in fifteen minutes. Will all contestants please proceed to registration if they have not already done so!"
Ash blinked. "Uh oh... come on, Misty, let's go!"
"So, how does this work?" Keldeo asked, standing on blue-glowing hooves on the water's surface. He looked a bit dubiously at the rope tied around his midsection. "I hope this works better than it did back in Eggseter..."
"It's a Water Pokémon race," Ash told him. "Each person's pulled by one Water-type, and they have to follow the circuit through the canals back to here."
"Right!" Keldeo glanced both left and right, noticing the other Pokémon floating in the water. "I'll do my best!"
One of the race officials came over to Ash, sculling a small coracle. "Excuse me, young man?"
"Yes?" Ash replied.
"...is that a Water-type?"
"Water and Fighting type!" Keldeo said helpfully. "Hi, I'm Keldeo!"
"Right, thanks for the confirmation." The official glanced through his paperwork. "Ah, I see, originally from Unova. Thank you."
"I'm on there?" Keldeo asked. "That's quite impressive."
"We do – wait a minute..."
The official looked at Keldeo. "...I just realized you were the one speaking."
"It's Aura," Ash explained.
"Right..." The hapless man glanced over at Ash. "You seem to have an Electric-type with you."
"Ballast?" Ash asked.
"You'll pay for that..." Pikachu muttered.
"Seriously, no, he's just here to be another passenger," Ash told the man. "And an excuse if we only just lose."
That prompted a smile. "I see. Well, it's not long before the race starts, and that all seems in order..."
"Hey, Keldeo?" Pikachu asked, as the marshal sculled back to shore. "Are you just going to run across the water?"
"Nope!" Keldeo replied. "By the way, do you mind getting wet?"
"...uh oh." Pikachu clambered around to Ash's back. "I'll just stay here for a bit..."
Brock leaned over the edge of the bridge, quickly finding his two friends – Ash was easiest, with Keldeo standing on the water in front of him, but he was only a little slower to find Misty.
She was using Kingdra, who seemed just about small enough to fit easily. Gyarados was probably too big, and as for Kabutops...
Given the town's history, not a good plan.
A ripple ran through the stands as the countdown started. Three Natu statues unfurled, one by one, and then the wings of the big Xatu at the bottom of the pole opened.
Almost immediately, there was a huge cloud of spray from Ash's end of the line. Keldeo rocketed forwards, passing under the bridge in seconds, and two other indistinct shapes sped past not far behind.
"Whooaaaaa!" Ash yelled, one arm up in front of his face to block the spray. "Keldeo, what the-"
"I'm using my water jets for propulsion!" Keldeo replied, voice almost lost in the roar of spray. "They can lift both me and you at once, so they're easily able to tow us!"
Ash had his eyes closed, since that let him see better. "How fast are we going?"
Unseen by him, Keldeo frowned. "Uh... I think we're going at about sixty knots!"
"Is that fast?" Ash asked. He shook his head. "No, wait, I know it's fast!"
He leaned over as Keldeo took the first turn, a great crescent-shaped wave of water blasting out during the turn.
"I feel sorry for all the spectators..." Pikachu said. He blinked. "Hey, Ash... we're not right out in front!"
"Really?" Ash asked, startled. He glanced behind, and saw two other racers keeping pace.
One of them was easily recognizable – Misty. The other one he didn't know, but they had a Sharpedo.
He turned back to the front, wobbling a little as Keldeo took another turn, and concentrated on not falling off.
"Wow, Ash, overdo it much?" Misty asked, staying just out of the spray zone.
"You know this kid?" the racer next to her asked.
"Yeah, we travel together!" Misty explained. She jinked to the side, and took the turn on the inside. Her skiff swung wide as Kingdra hauled around the corner, but didn't quite hit the outer edge of the track.
Her fellow competitor slowed down a bit for the turn, then accelerated again.
"Is that a Sharpedo with Speed Boost?" Misty asked, noticing something about the way it was managing its speed.
"Yeah!" the other racer said, pleased someone had noticed. "You've got quite an eye for Water Pokémon!"
Misty shrugged, then yelped and leaned far over as a tight corner came up.
Managing to take it without falling over, she saw that the next section was a long straight.
That would be a problem – the Sharpedo would be best on the straights. At the same time, this one was wide, so the spray was less of a problem...
"Kingdra, left a bit!" she called, aiming to try and get alongside Ash.
I'm still not comfortable about this, Latios said through their bond.
Oh, come on, brother! Latias whined. You said it was okay for us to come out here during the festival!
I did, yes, Latios agreed with a mental sigh. Just remember not to do anything suspicious.
Okay, Latias said, a little reluctantly. I'll be a good girl and stay out of the way. Seriously, we're the same age, why are you so boring sometimes?
Someone has to be an adult, Latios explained. Again.
He bobbed back and forth, invisible with his light-bending feathers in stealth mode, and hovered a little higher. Come on, you wanted to watch the race and I think it's coming past-
Then there was a great wave of water which washed into their side canal, soaking both Latias and Latios.
"Gah!" Latios squeaked, shaking the water off his feathers to try and make sure they could stealth him properly. "What just-"
He focused, and switched to telepathy. What just happened?
I think that was a Keldeo! Latias said excitedly. That's one of the ones that boy who has Legendaries is supposed to have! Come on!
Wait! Latios snapped – too late.
He rolled his eyes, then sped after his sister.
"Wait, I think-" Ash cut himself off, turning to look back and see if he was right.
No sign. They must have been going too fast, or maybe he'd been wrong in the first place. But he could swear he'd seen a shimmering light in his Aura sight – a completely unfamiliar colour, as well, pinkish-purple-blue which didn't look like any type he'd ever seen before.
Maybe that meant it was one of Latias or Latios, then. Thinking about it, he'd never seen what a remindable Dragon-type looked like, and the pinkish part of the hue could have been due to the Psychic-typing.
"Ash, look out!" Pikachu said quickly.
Turning back, Ash ducked as Keldeo nearly pulled him into a flock of startled-looking Pidgey. There was a comparatively wide turn next, and the Legendary leaned hard into it along with his trainer.
"I'm starting to think we should charge for washing all their walls..." Pikachu quipped.
Latias! Latios called, skimming invisibly through the sky. Latias! Where did you go?
A mental giggle was his main reply.
Latias, this isn't funny! Latios said. He closed his eyes, and borrowed her sight for a moment.
He got a view of a red-headed girl and a twentysomething man with bronzed skin, either side of Latias' head – and, out ahead, a huge plume of spray.
That's not very fair, brother! Latias twitted him, as he opened his eyes again and dove towards the front of the Tour de Altomare.
As he levelled out about ten feet above the water, Latios caught a glimpse of the boy in first place making a wide turn.
Huh. He does have a Keldeo.
Shaking his head and refocusing, Latios looked for his sister.
No sign of her.
LATIAS! Latios snapped. Get back here! This isn't funny!
I beg to differ!
Another flash of sight-sharing, and Latios located where Latias had gone this time – she was going through a back canal which would join up with the race again.
She'd made a mistake, though... by following the race directly, Latios could come out in front of her.
Folding his invisible wings back, he accelerated, shooting around the corner just ahead of the second- and third-place racers.
Ash's eyes flicked back and forth as he tried to keep track of everything. "I saw one of the Latis earlier, Pikachu – keep an eye out! Either Latios or Latias, but I don't know which one!"
"What's that?" Keldeo asked, glancing back. "Ash, did you say-"
"Look out!" Ash warned, and Keldeo turned his attention back to the race just in time to avoid hitting a house.
Ash leaned to help him turn, then glanced up at a flicker of movement.
Nothing- but-
Switching to Aura Sight, his suspicion was confirmed. There was one of the Eon Pokémon – and it was shining just like everyone he'd reminded had.
He still wasn't sure which one this was, though.
Then another blue-purple-pink blur shot out of an alley just ahead, and Ash flinched reflexively. He knew that both Dragons wouldn't try to crash into him – or anyone – but-
Keldeo started his next turn at just the wrong moment. Ash's foot slipped, and he came crashing off the skiff in a plume of water.
"Ash!" Keldeo called, braking as Pikachu landed on his back. Two other skiffs went shooting past as he slowed, and he hurried over to where his trainer had hit the water. "Are you okay?"
Latias slowed, looking down. Had she managed to startle-? But – how? She was invisible!
Latios grabbed her around the waist. Latias!
But – I wasn't-
This is too risky! Latios said sternly. I said we could watch the race – from a distance! Not take part!
I wasn't going to! Latias protested. Much! But – that boy, Ash, he fell off because of me!
How? Her brother asked, and she didn't have an answer. Come on, we're going. Now.
Latias huffed. Fine.
What were you going to do, anyway? Latios asked, as they zoomed off to somewhere less crowded.
...pull him, Latias admitted. Pull the rope, I mean. Just enough to make sure he gets back to first place!
And that's your idea of being not obvious? Latios sighed. Latias, I don't enjoy these rules. They're there for a reason.
"I know, I know," Latias sighed, vocalizing this time. "But they're no fun."
Ash hauled himself out of the water. "Ow..."
Glancing around, he saw no sign of the Latis. "Oh, come on!"
"What is it?" Keldeo asked, a little anxious. Pikachu hopped from his back to Ash, and the trainer grabbed the wayward skiff.
"I saw Latias and Latios," Ash explained. "Both of them. But – they're gone. That's..."
He shook his head. "Never mind, we've got a race to win!"
Keldeo nodded firmly, as Ash remounted the skiff and took the tow rope's handle. He tilted his hooves back slightly and restarted his Hydro Pump, and they sped off towards the finish line.
"Ash has the worst luck with this race..." Misty muttered to herself. "Okay, Kingdra! We can still win this!"
Kingdra tilted forwards, pulling her harder through the water, and she crouched over slightly.
The announcer started talking about how it was the last turn, and she winced – glancing over at her opponent, she could see that he was only slightly behind.
That Sharpedo of his would do better than her on the final straight-
"Kingdra!" she said, suddenly remembering. "Don't take the turn at full speed, I'm going to give you something!"
"Okay!" Kingdra replied, slowing slightly for the turn.
Misty reached up, and pulled the Mystic Water pendant off her neck. Reaching forwards, wobbling slightly as they banked, she tossed it to loop around Kingdra's neck.
The mystical object flashed once, then began to glow.
Kingdra steadied down onto the final stretch, and his fins whirred – faster, now, as the Mystic Water amplified his strength.
There were several confusing moments of jockeying for position as they sped out of the turn, Sharpedo waving back and forth to try to prevent Kingdra coming alongside, but then they were coming up on the bridge-
There was a camera flash, and Kingdra slowed down.
The Sharpedo trainer wobbled and jumped clear of his own skiff, sending out a Swellow as he did so, and the Flying-type caught him and let him down into the water gently.
"And it looks like that one's going to go to the judges, folks! Misty and Jakob are in first and second, but we don't know which one's which! Looking at the replay..."
The announced paused, and when he resumed he sounded a bit offended.
"And the replay shows they were absolutely neck and neck. I guess they've both won?"
Misty shrugged, retrieving her Mystic Water. "I'll take it!"
Ash and Keldeo came speeding through in a giant plume of spray, which subsided as Keldeo switched from Hydro Pump to running and then to walking. "Sorry, Ash..."
"Don't be!" Ash replied, as they came to a stop. "I'm the one who fell off, not you..."
He sighed. "I just wish I'd managed to warn Latias and Latios. I guess we'd better go looking as soon as possible."
"So you saw them?" Misty asked.
"Yeah," Ash confirmed, with a nod. "Both of them – Latias and Latios, though I couldn't tell quite which was which. And – I think I can give both of them their memories back."
"Is that such a good idea, with Latios?" Brock asked, as they walked – keeping a surreptitious eye out for anyone else who might be trying to listen in on them. "I mean, when you think about it, what he experienced last time was basically horrible pain and then dying."
Ash winced. "Yeah, I know... not sure if there's a good answer."
"What's the plan, Ash?" Pikachu asked.
"Good question," Ash sighed. He shook his head. "Okay, let's see... they might be invisible, or disguised as humans. You two know what Latias' disguise was, right?"
"I think..." Misty frowned. "Yeah, it was a girl, right?"
Ash nodded. "I think I can spot her with Aura Sight – well, I saw them when they were invisible, but..."
"Well, I'm pretty sure Crobat could spot her," Brock suggested. "And Misty, do you think Togekiss could?"
"Maybe if they were invisible..." Misty hedged. "I'm not sure about disguised. She can pick up emotions..."
"I guess we'd better split up," Ash suggested, getting nods from both of the others.
"Latios..." Latias wheedled.
"I know you want to go to the festival," Latios sighed. "You've told me enough times. But I still think it's not safe!"
"But I've been waiting for weeks!" Latias complained. "You said yourself that the festival would be the best time to go out, because we wouldn't be as likely to be noticed!"
Latios sighed, but didn't answer.
"Come on!" Latias insisted. "I'll be careful – I'll stay disguised as a human, and I'll not talk to anyone, and I'll stay in crowds – or near a canal so I can escape if I need to!"
"Latias, this isn't a game of-"
"You promised, Latios!" Latias whined. "You did!"
The blue Eon Pokémon sighed again.
"...fine," he said, reluctantly. "But come straight back here as soon as you're done, and don't stay out too long."
Latias beamed. "Thanks, brother!"
She headed over to the grotto's exit, and then shimmered as she folded light around herself to appear like a slightly altered version of her friend Bianca.
"I'll bring you something!" she called.
"Remember you're supposed to walk! And don't forget yourself and speak-" her brother replied, but she was gone before he could finish the warning.
Latios rolled his eyes. Sisters...
Ash soon found himself with little idea where was the best place to look.
Altomare was full of plazas, little back streets – both at and above the water level – and areas dissected by canals and only joined together by the occasional bridge.
For lack of a better idea, Ash decided to focus on the plazas he could find. He glanced around every so often, using both regular sight and Aura sight, and moved around regularly to try and cover more ground.
"See anything, Pikachu?" he asked.
"Nothing much," Pikachu replied. "Wait – at the top of those stairs!"
Ash glanced at Pikachu to see where he was pointing, then looked up.
There was a momentary sign of movement.
Closing his eyes, Ash spotted a fading shimmer of purple-pink-blue.
"I think you're right!" he said, starting forwards – walking quickly, but not running. "What did you see?"
"A girl – the same disguise Latias used," Pikachu reported.
"Okay, thanks. Good work, Pikachu!"
Ash reached the stairs, and pelted up them. He could still just about see the shimmer of Latias' aura, but it was fading quickly.
Togekiss floated back down to Misty, shaking her head.
"No luck?" Misty asked.
"No luck, sorry," Togekiss sighed. "I couldn't feel anything that might be Latias or Latios. No invisible emotion sources in the sky."
"Well, thanks for looking," she said, shrugging. "I guess we should just keep our eyes peeled."
"Got it." Togekiss gained height a bit, and floated along just behind Misty. "What should I be looking for?"
"That's it, I'm not sure..." Misty sighed. "I have some idea, but... wait!"
A girl had just come out of one of the nearby doorways. She looked just right – her hair had a pair of tufts which Misty remembered the human disguise of Latias having.
Hoping they could get this all sorted out quickly, Misty hurried over. "Excuse me, miss?"
"Yes?" the girl replied, turning. "Oh, you're the girl who drew first place in the Tour, aren't you?"
"That's right," Misty confirmed, hiding her disappointment. She remembered Latias couldn't speak – so this couldn't be Latias.
"Why did you call me, anyway?" the girl asked, now a bit curious.
"Oh, sorry, I thought you were-" Misty stopped. "Well... Latias..."
"You know about Latias? You know she sometimes looks like me?" the girl – Bianca, Misty remembered – asked, startled. "How?"
"...it's a long story," Misty said, before shaking her head. "Never mind that – if you know Latias, and Latios, then we need to warn them. They could be in danger!"
Bianca frowned. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't," Misty admitted. "But this is really important – someone's going to try to take the Soul Dew."
The young girl swallowed. "Well, if you know that much you're either a master criminal or you're trying to help... okay, follow me!"
Misty nodded. "Right. Togekiss, can you find Brock?"
"I'll certainly try," Togekiss said, dipping her wings and spiralling into the sky.
Latias hurried along the raised walkway, trying to avoid feeling too stupid.
She'd noticed the boy – Ash – and wanted to get a good look. But Ash had noticed her, somehow, and now he was coming after her.
The question Latias wanted answered, though, was why. Not only had he spotted her – and she was sure she'd kept her disguise up, so she'd just appeared to be a girl – but why had he come running after her?
She turned a corner, finding some steps, and took them at speed – taking care, even so, to make sure her cloaking illusion used the steps properly.
"Hey, wait!" the boy called after her. "I just want to talk! It's important!"
Latias wondered why she hadn't just gone invisible. Or abandoned her disguise, vanished into the canal, and come back out in the secret garden.
Maybe it was that... she did want to see what he wanted. A boy who had several Legendary Pokémon, who used them openly... there had to be something special about him.
And his Keldeo had seemed to care for him. He couldn't be one of those horrible trainers Latios told her about.
Perhaps that meant there was a way she could leave the garden. Safely, and for good – or, for long enough it wasn't just a taste of something she craved.
Latias realized she'd already come to a decision. She stopped, abruptly, and spun around to face Ash.
As soon as she did, Ash slowed down – going from a run to a walk, and panting slightly.
"Uh... thanks for slowing down," Ash said, sounding uncertain. "Why did you-"
He shook his head. "Never mind. Latias, you're-"
"You know who I am?" she asked, startled into forgetting one of the rules Latios had drummed into her. Then she gasped, realizing she'd just confirmed it for him.
"Yeah," Ash nodded. "You're Latias, disguised as a human. And you're in danger."
"Oh?" a smirking female voice said. "How touching."
Latias looked past Ash, and realized she'd missed the approach of a motor boat with two young women in it. They were looking straight at her, with predatory grins.
"Uh oh..." Ash's Pikachu said, cheeks sparking. "Thunder!"
There was a flash, and an Excadrill materialized on the prow of the boat. It blocked the Electrical attack with sharp, metal claws, and grinned.
Ash grabbed her hand. "Come on, we've got to-"
And then there was a confusing swirl of sensations and memories.
Her brother... dead? Had- did- was going to have died?
Ash and Pikachu helping – another version of the Tour De Altomare, where Ash was using Totodile -
Latias felt her illusion dissolve as she lost focus, trying to work out what had happened and what hadn't.
"Get them, girls!" one of the women in the boat ordered, and Latias felt the sudden smashing pain of a Dark Pulse.
Ash blinked, realizing he'd accidentally passed on memories to Latias – then blanched, as no fewer than five Eeveelutions came swarming out of the boat and began to attack.
Oakley sent out her team as well, and Ash caught sight of a Beedrill and a Bisharp before Annie came towards him in a forward roll and kicked him in the chest – sending him skidding backwards, and losing his grip on the stunned Latias.
A bolt of electricity crashed into the Espeon attacking Latias, who yowled and turned her attention to Pikachu, and Ash ducked a sweeping kick before releasing most of his own on-hand Pokémon.
Pidgeot was just too big for the cramped canal, but the rest of them-
"Should have stayed away, hero," Annie taunted him.
Ash's arm came up in a block, knocking her punch aside, and he shoved into her with his shoulder before she could follow-up with a snap kick.
Lucario ran forwards across the water, all four paws glowing, and volleyed in a Mach Punch at the Excadrill.
Claws coming up, Excadrill blocked with a musical crash of steel on steel, and stabbed forwards with his head spike before launching himself forwards in a Drill Run.
Lucario flinched as the drill-shaped attack scraped up his side, and retaliated with a quick Aura Sphere. It shot off towards Excadrill, who hit the wall and drilled into it to escape.
Emerging a second later, he threw two bricks at Lucario, who blocked with lightning-fast paw strikes and lashed out with a kick. Excadrill swiped at his calf as it came in, and then there was a sudden eruption of water from one of the other fights which slapped into both of them.
Lucario recovered first, and stepped up to land a palm strike. It crashed into the wall just next to the evading Excadrill, and the mole promptly slapped his clawed paw on the wall to fire off an Earth Power.
Wincing as he slid backwards, Lucario braked with a foot. He pivoted, launching a sweep kick at Excadrill, and the mole vanished into the wall again.
Emerging a little higher up the wall, the Excadrill threw more hunks of brick at Lucario. He frowned slightly as the Fighting-type smashed them to pieces, then blocked a follow-up Force Palm and swiped out again with his metallic claws.
The clashing of steel continued for a few more seconds, and then Excadrill burst out in a Drill Run. He hit Lucario twice – once on the elbow and once on the shoulder, and turned to come in again.
He met a Fire Punch coming the other way.
Lucario ran after the mole as he tumbled, and added a Force Palm to finally knock him out.
A red beam lashed out to return the Excadrill as soon as he was done, and he turned to see what was going on in the rest of the fight.
Pikachu's cheeks sparked once, and he opened up on the Espeon with a blast of Thunderbolt.
He remembered this cat from last time. She'd hit Ash with a Psybeam, and had Ash not already been so freakishly tough that probably would have seriously injured him.
Espeon shielded herself with a Light Screen, tail snapping across to establish it, and then added in a Psywave from her forehead-gem.
Pikachu gritted his teeth, then pushed out a shield of electricity when the Psywave let up for a moment. The electricity interfered with her Psywave, and he broadened it out into a full Counter Shield to make sure she couldn't hit him easily again.
"What on earth-" Espeon began, then intensified her shield as Pikachu slapped an Electroball out at her. The electrical explosion reached around her Light Screen, and she broadened it frantically to ensure she wasn't hit.
Tail lashing, she pounced forwards at Pikachu – electing to attack him directly, rather than handle his electrical attacks at range. She fired out a Confusion as she leaped, and Pikachu's Counter Shield rippled for a moment before she hit it.
The electricity of the shield grounded in her fur – then a sudden wave of water from the canal hit her, conducting the electrical attack into her more harshly than she'd been expecting.
Her eyes glowed as she regenerated the damage, and her claws swiped at Pikachu.
Much to her surprise, the Electric-type blocked her first swipe and caught her second.
"Thunder!"
There was a sudden BANG as Pikachu discharged thousands of volts into her.
Espeon was thrown backwards by the blast, bounced and rolled to a stop, and came to her feet just in time to leap clear of a Volt Tackle.
Her eyes glowed again, and she battered at him with a wall of psychic force.
Pikachu skidded to a halt, abandoning his Volt Tackle, and then launched another Electroball forwards. This one hit a wider, stronger Light Screen, and he frowned in concentration.
His feet stuck to the floor, paws glowing blue, and he resisted the battering of the psychic surge for a couple of seconds before lunging forwards again – cheeks blazing up brighter than before.
This time it wasn't an electrical attack. It was at least four, arcing and snapping in wildly different directions before joining up behind Espeon.
She glanced around, and began trying to establish another Light Screen behind her before the combined attack struck home. She was mostly successful, and the Shockwave merely made her knees tremble and her hair stand on end.
At that point, Pikachu pushed his paw into her shield. Pulsing a needle of Aura into it, he broadened the spike out and popped her Light Screen like a balloon.
His Thunder attack finished the job, and he smiled for a moment before looking for the next opponent.
Quilava glanced a little nervously at the water to her right, then set herself – facing her opponent.
She wasn't very familiar with this Pokémon. She'd gathered it was a Bisharp – learning the name of a Pokémon wasn't exactly hard, you just had to listen to the sounds instead of the words – but beyond that she knew very little.
"So, what-"
The Bisharp lunged forwards, sword-like arms flashing for her neck. She yelped, balled up, and flashed into fire.
That seemed to ward him off, but a Night Slash came in a moment later and she had to dodge awkwardly back.
Looking closer, she came to a decision. This Pokémon was all sharp edges, and so she couldn't use her Flame Wheel to any great effect.
That meant she'd have to switch styles.
Rolling back a bit, she uncurled and gestured with one paw. Her quills flickered up, and she eyed Bisharp – looking for an opening.
It wasn't long in coming. Bisharp lunged forwards, arm-blades flashing, and Quilava retaliated with a stream of fire in a Flamethrower.
She rolled sideways out of the way of the first Night Slash, ran forwards underneath a second – briefly ending her Flamethrower as she did so – and then spun in her own length and launched a cinder-strewing Flame Charge at Bisharp's exposed back.
The attack connected, and seemed to do damage – but a moment later a wave of water hit them both. It blasted Quilava sideways, extinguishing her flames and sending her into the wall with an oof of pain.
Bisharp came off much the better of the sudden blast of water, and spun, using Swords Dance to power up before diving to hit Quilava again.
Quilava leaped forwards out of the way of the sword-slash, glancing in all directions to check where everyone was.
Another swipe, and Bisharp forced her to back against the wall again. Fortunately, it was a blank wall – no openings on it.
Ash was just about-
There!
She inhaled, and fired the most tightly focused Lava Plume she could manage. Bisharp was caught in the fringes, staggering backwards briefly with flame licking over his exposed blades, and nearly fell into the canal before rallying.
The blast of fire also left black scarring on the canal-side path and in a long teardrop-shape reaching up the wall Quilava had been backed against. She was just about to jump clear when a scorched Ariados landed on her.
Bisharp stepped forwards, wavering but not yet down, and his arm-blade produced a shimmering white extension – Guillotine.
He wound up to hit her neck as she struggled free-
Then a Sacred Sword hit him from behind.
Keldeo jumped into the water as soon as he emerged, getting some fighting room. He charged up a Sacred Sword to attack the Umbreon going after Latias, but was forced to abandon his plan when a stream of Sticky Web nearly hit him in the head.
Jinking back out of the way of the shower of spider-silk, he saw an Ariados focusing on him. A shower of poisonous needles came next, and Keldeo blocked them with his blade before retaliating with a ranged Sacred Sword.
The attack whistled in on Ariados, who sprayed a continuous stream of more spider silk at it and made the attack weaken itself cutting through all the gunk. Scuttling out of the way, Ariados fired more poisonous shots at Keldeo, forcing him to focus on defence.
A second wave of sticky web came lashing out, and this time Keldeo was still blocking. It covered him with the gunk for a moment, but then Suicune blocked one of the attacks aimed at her with a huge spherical wave of water.
It washed out across the whole fight, knocking both her opponents back, and Keldeo benefitted too – it washed the webs off, letting him canter clear of the follow-up Venoshock attack.
"Thanks!" he gasped to Suicune, skating sideways on the water and aiming for a good target. He fired a Focus Blast to try and knock Ariados into the water, but the arachnid Pokémon scuttled backwards and up onto the wall – using his height advantage to pepper Keldeo with pin missiles and needles.
Keldeo switched to an Ice Blade, which hit Ariados' foremost left leg and seemed to freeze it slightly. The Bug-type side-walked higher-
And got hit by a sudden blast of flame from below.
Keldeo glanced down. Quilava!
She looked like she was in trouble, though – his opponent had landed on her, making it hard for her to get away.
Scowling, Keldeo charged forwards. He powered up his Sacred Sword, and brought it down in a diagonal cut which hammered Bisharp to the floor and unconsciousness.
Both their opponents vanished in red light, and Keldeo turned to face the rest of the battle just as a Moonblast came the other way. It smashed him backwards, making him lose his concentration on water walking, and he sank up to his knees before reflexively activating his Hydro Pump jets.
Suicune emerged, landing with feline grace on the water of the canal, and oriented herself.
Latias was under attack by several Pokémon at once, and she gathered herself to spring to her aid – but then she was hit by an explosive Seed Bomb on the side of the muzzle, and she shook her head briefly before turning her attention to the Pokémon on the footpath.
A Leafeon stood there, already firing another of the explosive seeds, and Suicune batted it out of the way with her paw. It hit the water hard, plunged a little way beneath it, and detonated.
Riding the swell, Suicune produced a ball of swirling cold in her mouth and fired it. Leafeon jumped aside, tail lashing, and Suicune corrected the Ice Beam onto her.
The Grass-type flinched backwards, a frosting of ice forming by the time the attack ended, and Suicune prepared a follow-up. Latias was in trouble, but not yet subdued, and if she worked quickly-
Leafeon's eyes flicked to the side. It was just enough warning for Suicune, who saw the incoming Beedrill out of the corner of her eye.
She pulsed out a huge wave of water with Hydro Pump, which intercepted the Beedrill and made its Poison Jab discharge into the water instead of into her flank. Suicune's water-purification power quickly neutralized the poison, and an additional effect of the spherical water-shield was that it knocked Beedrill violently backwards.
Turning her attention back to the now-bedraggled and soaked Leafeon, Suicune fired another Ice Beam. This time Leafeon seemed to be more ready for the attack, jumping over it and firing a shower of Razor Leaves back at Suicune.
Suicune darted to one side, ducking most of the Razor Leaves and freezing a few with an Icy Wind, then got hit in the side by an Electroweb from the Beedrill.
Wincing, she fired another Icy Wind – this one got through to Leafeon, knocking her out – and turned to focus on the Beedrill.
"Stupid stone!" one of the criminals said, shaking something in her hand. "Annie, you said this was-"
"I'm a little busy right now!" Annie replied, still engaged in close quarters combat with Ash.
Suicune blinked, noticing the band around Beedrill's stinger. Was that a-
Happily, it looked like they couldn't work it. How fortunate.
Ducking another Electroweb, Suicune fired a stream of water and knocked Beedrill backwards. A stream of Bubblebeam followed, and knocked Beedrill out entirely.
Turning, Suicune prepared to help Latias, but saw she was too late – the Eon Pokémon had been neutralized by a Cofagrigus, and a fraction of a second later a Moonblast whistled past her face to hit Keldeo.
A blaze of multicoloured light went past in the other direction, and smashed into the Umbreon standing over Latias – knocking her out with a bang.
Latias hit the floor hard, as the Umbreon hit her with another Dark Pulse which blew her backwards and interrupted her levitation.
Still shaken from the experience of having a whole new set of memories, she scrambled for an attack she could use to help her out. Psychic-type attacks were no good-
She fired a Dragon Pulse, hoping that would help, and a Sylveon darted into the way and took the attack without flinching. The Sylveon then lashed its tail and pounced on her.
Somewhat to Latias' surprise, the Fairy-type Pokémon kissed her on the neck. Much more to her surprise, it hurt – horribly, as though it was pulling her strength out through her feathers.
Panicking, Latias released a pulse of psychic energy. It knocked the Sylveon back, but at the same moment the Umbreon came in and bit down hard on her leg.
Latias tried to throw the Umbreon off, and largely succeeded – though her situation didn't improve even then, as a Glaceon stepped up next. Tail and ears swirling in an artificial wind, the icy vixen hit her with a point-blank Blizzard.
Stunned, battered, drained and now chilled, Latias was reacting more than thinking now – trying to do something, anything, which would make the attacks stop. She formed a Safeguard shield, driving all three Eeveelutions away, and looked for Ash-
And got hit by a draining, deadening Curse.
The Cofagrigus who had hit her with it laughed, shadowy arms reaching out for her, and Latias reached deep. Remembering an attack she'd only managed to use once before, she gathered together a ball of mist as the Cofagrigus snared her wings and arms.
Umbreon fired a Dark Pulse at her, and she sank back towards the ground – but kept that attack going. It reached full power, and she fired.
A blur of motion sped into the way of her attack between her firing and it reaching the target, and she stayed conscious long enough to see a Shedinja absorb the attack without a ripple.
Then darkness closed over her.
Seeing Latias collapse made Ash all the more determined to get past Annie.
The Rocket agent was a quick, slippery opponent, and kept trying to use cheap shots – sharpened stiletto, a quickly thrown rose, even a web gun – to wrest the initiative away from Ash.
Ash had only managed to land a solid blow on her once. Despite that, though, he was pushing her back, and he could see it wouldn't be much longer before he could slip past her and get at the downed Dragon-type.
What he'd do then, he wasn't sure. But it would probably involve throwing at least one Eeveelution into the canal, possibly all three.
"Annie!" Oakley called. "Back here!"
"Trying to! This kid is-" Annie began, and then there was a tearing sound as a Signal Beam went past the battling humans.
Unnoticed by any of the other participants in the chaotic waterside fight, Dexter had managed to set up and fire a Signal Beam at the Umbreon. He'd been a moment late to help Latias, but it was still welcome.
Before he could get off a second attack, though, a Kirlia jumped up onto the bow of the Rockets' motorboat and fired a Moonblast at Keldeo.
"Get us out of here!" Oakley snapped, grabbing a Pokéball from the seat beside her and returning the Umbreon.
Nodding, Kirlia spread her arms. Suicune pounced, but a moment too late – both Rockets, all their remaining Pokémon and Latias vanished in a flare of light.
Ash panted, feeling bitterly disappointed. He noticed absently that his clothes were soaked – the blast of water from Suicune had been noticed but not really thought about during the intense hand-to-hand battle he'd been engaged in.
"What do we do now, Ash?" Keldeo asked.
Ash slumped. "I don't... wait. Follow me!"
He set off at a run.
His Pokémon exchanged glances, then headed after him.
Brock glanced up as Crobat came back down. "Nothing?"
"Nothing!" Crobat replied, orbiting his trainer. "Everyone here's the same shape they seem. Sorry, Brock – maybe they're just not in the public places."
"I guess we can hope that Ash or Misty found one of them," Brock said, shaking his head. "Where-"
He paused, glancing around the large open space they were in. "Wait a minute... that's the museum, right?"
"I suppose it must be," Crobat said, looking at it. "Unless this place has an extremely large and ornate bike shop, or something..."
"That might be our best bet!" Brock started forwards, and Crobat dropped a little to hover alongside. "I think the curator knew – knows – Latios and Latias."
"That sounds right..." Crobat agreed, frowning. "I think."
"It's at least somewhere to start," Brock shrugged.
It took him a minute or so to reach the museum across the large, open plaza – it was less crowded than it had been an hour or so ago, as people went in for lunch, so Brock could follow a much straighter path.
The museum itself was, as Brock remembered, a little palatial. Beautiful stained-glass windows encircled the building, which had a high top surmounted by a spire, and ornamental towers guarded the main entrance.
Inside, Brock looked around for the man he remembered meeting here years ago. It was frustratingly hard to remember what he looked like, so Brock was forced to rely on the hope that he would know the man when he saw him.
Despite his preoccupation, though, the D.M.A. was a fascinating sight. It was much bigger than he'd remembered, all dark metal and complicated mechanisms, and lit an eerie green by the light coming through the stained-glass windows.
"This thing's huge," Crobat said.
"Yeah," Brock agreed.
"That's the D.M.A," a voice said. "The Defence Mechanism of Altomare."
Brock turned to the speaker, and blinked as he recognized – Lorenzo, that was his name!
"It was built to-"
"Sorry," Brock interrupted. "Can I have a word?"
"Well, sure!" Lorenzo said, readily enough. "What do you want to know?"
Brock spoke quietly. "Latios and Latias are in danger."
Lorenzo's reaction was quite impressive. His eyes widened, but apart from that he showed no particular surprise or recognition of the news. "You mean the defenders of Altomare?"
"I mean Latias and Latios – the ones you know. My friends and I are here to-"
"Okay, come with me," Lorenzo said, urgently. He guided Brock out through one of the side doors and into an empty backroom.
"What's that about Latias and Latios being in danger?" he asked, once the door was shut.
"There's some agents coming – we think – to try and capture Latios or Latias. We need to warn them," Brock said succinctly.
Lorenzo examined him for a long moment. "Suppose I believe you. What then?"
"We head for wherever Latias or Latios is and warn them – fast," Brock said promptly. "We've been looking, but no luck so far."
A frown. "Hm. Well, Latios can take care of himself, but I'm not so sure Latias can... right, we'd better go. Latios can decide if you're trustworthy. Follow me."
Brock returned Crobat and followed, out through two more back rooms and through a small door letting out onto the canal.
"Quagsire, can you pull us?" Lorenzo asked, releasing his Pokémon. "You know the way."
Quagsire nodded placidly, and took a painter rope attached to the nearest gondola.
"Get in," Lorenzo nodded. "It's safe, don't worry."
Brock duly got in, and the Water-type started to pull them off.
A few seconds later, Brock looked up at a familiar voice. "Togekiss?"
"Brock!"
The Jubilee Pokémon came swooping down on him, pulling around in a turn to come alongside. "Misty found the girl – Bianca! They're headed for the garden!"
"Good!" Brock said. "Can you tell her I'm headed there too?"
"Sure!"
Togekiss orbited once more, then set off again.
"What's that?" Lorenzo asked, blinking. "Headed there too? Did you understand what that Pokémon said?"
Brock nodded. "My friend Ash taught me how to-"
Lorenzo nodded, as if this made sense. "Oh, right, you're friends with that Ash Ketchum. That explains everything."
"Even-"
"Everything," Lorenzo repeated. "That kid's been on the news."
A few minutes after Brock and Lorenzo were out of sight, there was a bright flash in the main room of the museum.
Two women and close to a dozen Pokémon materialized, some of them unconscious.
As the few people in the museum looked around in shock, Oakley pointed. "Get them out of here!"
Sylveon and Glaceon nodded, darting forwards. Glaceon fired a shower of Ice Shards which peppered the ground near one group, startling them and making them run for the exit, and Sylveon went the more direct route of firing a blast of weakened Fairy Wind which physically propelled the victims out the door.
One trainer, however, refused to be intimidated. "You're not going to get rid of me!" he called. "Klang, get them!"
The Steel-type materialized, fired a Flash Cannon at Sylveon, and abruptly found itself confronted by a Shedinja which absorbed the beam of focused light. The ghostly Bug's eyes glowed, and it launched a wave of flame from Will-O-Wisp at Klang.
Startled, the Klang was unable to get out of the way in time before the ghostly flames struck home, flickering on all its exposed surfaces as they washed over it.
Thus weakened, the Steel-type was easily driven out the door by Glaceon and Sylveon between them.
"Okay, Annie," Oakley went on, once the door was closed and she'd locked it. "What the heck was up with that?"
"What was up with what?" Annie asked, defensively. "Ow, my shoulder..."
"That kid!" Oakley snapped. She glanced at Kirlia, noting with approval that the Psychic-type was healing up Espeon with a Wish. "I know we heard he was tough, but thirty seconds! That was half our teams – and he nearly got you too!"
Espeon got back up, shaking her head, and glanced around. She took in the situation, noting the new surroundings and – with relief – the lack of Pikachu.
"Well, excuse me for trying to actually fight him!" Annie said, huffing. "And if you had managed to use that Mega Stone-"
"Don't blame me for your-" Oakley cut off her statement, and sighed. "Right. We've got Latias. Now, all we need is the Soul Dew."
"Where are we going to get it?" Annie asked. She glanced at the doors. "We don't exactly have long before someone comes and tries to get in, and we don't know where it is."
"We don't," Oakley agreed, with a wicked grin. "But she does."
"...oh," Annie said, nodding. "Right. Now?"
"Give it a few minutes," Oakley suggested. "I want to have Umbreon back and healed first, and probably Ariados too so we can take her out of Cofagrigus' wrappings.
Latias blinked, twitching slightly.
She could remember pain-shock-darkness, but beyond that it was... indistinct-
Latios! Latios had been... he'd died...
But... Latias could still feel him at the other end of their bond. She reached for it, and stabbing pain flashed through her as two alien presences drove into her mind.
Her half-dreaming consciousness was a whirl of images and sensations. A horrible nightmare, from when she had realized Latios was gone – sulking, because her brother wouldn't let her out to play – training, in the hope that she would be safe – long hours in the garden, painting – being told about the Soul Dew – Bianca – hearing about Ash, who trained Legendaries – how to use the D.M.A – the Soul Dew – the Soul Dew, resting in its plinth in the garden – the Soul Dew – Latios!
With a half-panicked surge of mental muscle, Latias threw the intruding minds out of her own. She began to hyperventilate, and closed her mind as much as she could. The probes came back, but this time she was awake enough to notice and resist them.
The cold feeling of Ghostly energy which had surrounded her abruptly abated. She shook her head, opening her eyes and rising from the floor, and then a Dark Pulse smashed into her from the same Umbreon as before.
Already weak, that nearly knocked her out again. A spray of web from a familiar-looking Ariados followed, and pinned her to the floor.
Kirlia looked up at her trainer, and waved her hand.
"Did you get the location of the Soul Dew?"
A nod.
"Great!" Annie enthused. "That's the best-"
"And how to use the D.M.A?" Oakley interrupted.
Another nod. Kirlia spoke to the other Pokémon for a moment, and they hauled the immobilized Latias into a circular incision on the ground.
"Right!" Oakley grinned. "Umbreon, Sylveon, Shedinja, keep an eye on that Latias. Come on, Annie, we're going to get that Soul Dew right now!"
Ash slowed to a walk as he went through the iron-arched plant trellis, turned right, and faced a blank wall.
Closing his eyes, he saw the reality. The wall was an illusion – covering the entrance into Altomare's hidden treasure, the secret garden.
"Ash!" Pikachu called, panting, as he came hurrying up behind followed by the others. "What just – why are we here?"
"It's the entrance to the garden," Ash explained.
Pikachu blinked, and glanced back at Quilava. "I did hear that, right? Ash just said he found the garden?"
"I heard," Quilava agreed. She shot Ash a look. "How!?"
Ash blinked. "I... I'm not sure, but-"
I have a hypothesis, Dexter interjected. Ash – were you thinking about where you were going?
"Well... no?" Ash admitted.
Ah, there we go. You're overthinking things, that's part of why you get lost. If it's familiar enough you don't have to think, you're fine.
"Okay..." Ash said, turning that explanation over in his mind. "Okay, I guess."
He nodded, then stepped forwards – directly at the blank wall.
Keldeo flinched slightly, then blinked, as Ash's form was outlined by a greenish shimmer. "Oh, that's cool! It's an illusion!"
"Yeah, it is pretty cool," Pikachu agreed. "Wait 'til you see what's inside..."
"We can save recreation for a later date," Lucario suggested. "Our main priority is finding Latios and warning him, and then finding out where Latias is so as to help her."
It wasn't the first time Ash had seen Altomare's secret garden, but it was just as amazing as when he'd first entered.
The garden was set in a circular depression, ringed by an arched walkway, and – whether illusion or something else – there were trees, tall ones, visible over the walkway and blocking out the surrounding buildings.
Inside the tiered depressions, accessed by steps or by steep turfed slopes, was a dense network of trees and lawns and pools, with the occasional fountain scattered around under the cool shade. Stone walkways gave access to much of the garden, and there were statues visible in a few places.
Closing his eyes, Ash took the whole place in again in Aura sight for a moment. It was really soothing – if he didn't know better, he'd assume he was in the wilderness rather than the heart of a city.
Beautiful.
"Amazing place, isn't it?" Pikachu said, coming up behind him, and Ash knelt to let his Starter get on his shoulder.
Then there was a blur of motion.
"What are you doing here?" Latios shouted, speeding in with his feathers tuned to invisibility. Ash ducked aside, and the Eon Pokémon shot past him before turning in a breathtakingly tight turn to come around again.
"Stop!" Pikachu called, jumping off Ash's shoulder once more to interpose himself between Ash and Latios. "We're here to help! Latias is in trouble!"
Latios screeched to a halt in mid-air, inches from hitting Pikachu.
"Latias is – but – how do you know?!" Latios asked, startled. "How are you even here?"
"We ran into Latias," Ash explained. "And some Rocket agents did too, and they ambushed us. We weren't able to get through to help-"
"So you failed-" Latios stopped. "How did you just-"
"Latios, I understand your concerns," Suicune said, startling the Dragon-type by speaking up from about two feet away. "But Ash is a trustworthy trainer, and we should focus on how to save your sister."
"Where did you – Suicune?" Latios asked, thoroughly confused. "Wait. You said Ash?" His head went back to looking at Ash. "Are you the trainer my sister keeps going on about? I didn't know you could understand- but if you are, that means-" Back to Suicune. "Are you one of his Pokémon?"
Suicune nodded. "I offered him the challenge, he took it up, and I was caught. It has been fun so far."
Latios shook his head. "Sorry, I'm a bit – Latias! Where is she?"
"The Rocket agents got her," Ash repeated. "They managed to knock her out and then teleported – we don't know where."
Latios winced. "Okay, I think I can try and find where she is."
His eyes flashed, and he activated sight-sharing – extending it to Ash and his team, now all gathered around.
What Latios saw was not encouraging. The view through his sister's half-lidded eyes was of the museum from ground level, with a watchful Umbreon standing before her – and, a moment later, there was a clunk and three pairs of rings rose up from the floor, carrying Latias with them.
"The D.M.A is already activating!" Ash said. "That's not good-"
Latios blinked. "How do you know about the D.M.A?"
"Time travel," Pikachu informed him. "It is a very long story."
"I... suppose it must be," Latios admitted.
"We know where Latias is," Lucario stated. "We should hurry there, before-"
He paused. "Wait. They have a teleporting Kirlia, and I can't see her. Do they know where the Soul Dew is?"
Ash paled. "Latios, end the sight-sharing! We have to-"
The psychic connection collapsed. Latios sent a brief pulse of reassurance to his sister, who seemed groggy and uncertain, then a thunderclap punished his ears.
"La!" Kirlia stated, dropping her trainers and two of her fellow Pokémon in the secret garden of Altomare – right next to the location she'd extracted from Latias' memories.
"There it is!" Annie said, grinning, on seeing the glittering Soul Dew under a small caged pool. "Let's grab it!"
Oakley nodded, reaching in. The gemstone seemed a little warm to the touch, and it took her considerable effort to pull it out.
"Come on, hurry up!" Annie hissed. "I don't think we're alone in here!"
With a twik sound, the Soul Dew came free of its holder.
"There!" Oakley said, holding the gem up. "Got it!"
Annie took it from her hands. "This is so beautiful!"
"It's not just that which we want!" Oakley reminded her. "That gem of ours is the key to ultimate power!"
Both of them looked up at the sound of a distant shout.
"What was that?" Annie asked.
Excadrill ran forwards, claws ready – then an almighty blast of lightning cannoned into him, actually knocking him backwards and sending him skidding along the floor.
Oakley saw the Pokémon charging down the path towards her, and reacted instantly. "Kirlia, get us-"
The Fairy-type's arms spread, and they vanished about a second before an Ice Blade and a blast of high-pressure water went through the space they'd been occupying.
"No!" Pikachu cursed. "This is... no! I won't let it happen again!"
His cheeks sparked emphatically as he said that, and Suicune gave him a slightly worried look.
"Pikachu?" she asked. "You realize you just hit a Ground-type with a Thunder attack?"
Pikachu's ear twitched. "Yeah, so? That happens."
He turned to Ash. "We've got to get to the museum as soon as possible! If we get there – fast – then we can stop the same thing happening to Latias that happened to Latios!"
"I know-" Ash began.
"What happened to me?" Latios asked, with a horrible sinking feeling.
Ash winced. "It... wasn't good. I can show you, but... it's kind of your choice."
He took a deep breath. "You died."
"I..." Latios took a moment to process that, then his expression hardened. "Show me. If it will do anything to help my sister, I'd gladly pay that price."
Ash reached out, and touched the downy feathers on Latios' side.
There was a blur of sensation and memories.
An almost identical version of the last two or so years, though without Latias becoming interested in recent months in finding out about the trainer who travelled with Legendaries.
A different version of this meeting in the garden, with Ash coming in later and his sister being the one to vouch for the young trainer.
That night, those same women attacking Latias – he got in the way – the DMA – pain and struggle, and then a death-ride into the maw of an oncoming tsunami. Breaking it, saving Altomare.
And a couple of years of vague sensations, what was left of his spirit slumbering in the new Soul Dew.
It all took only a moment to play out.
Latios took a long, deep breath. "Right. Let's-"
"Ash!" called two voices, almost overlapping.
Ash's head flicked from one side of the garden to the other. "Brock? Misty?"
The two gym leaders came running over, followed respectively by Lorenzo and Bianca. "What happened?" Brock asked.
"I found Latias, but those Rockets found her at the same time!" Ash explained. "We couldn't stop them from taking her."
"Didn't they have an Ariados and an Espeon?" Misty asked.
"They had significant reinforcement," Lucario stated. "Four other Eeveelutions, an Excadrill, a Kirlia, a Cofagrigus, a Shedinja, a Bisharp and a Beedrill."
"...ouch," Brock said faintly.
"And they just appeared here – by Teleport – took the Soul Dew, and left before we could stop them," Ash went on. "We've got to get to the DMA as soon as we can!"
"You're all very knowledgeable about this," Lorenzo said, curiously. "How so?"
"Time travel," Ash said. "We'll explain more later – Latios, have they worked out how to operate the machine?"
Latios' eyes glowed, and he sight-shared again.
This time, it was worse. The DMA was clearly active, with the machinery whirling around to bring the control chair down to floor level, and at a request from Latios their view turned to show the Soul Dew in its slot.
The view collapsed, and Ash clenched his fist. "We'd better hurry. What's the quickest way?"
"The quickest way I know is through the canals, but I'm the only one who can take that route," Latios frowned. "And if they could beat me last time, and now – no, I need help."
"I know the quickest way!" Lorenzo said. "Well, it's not quite the fastest, but the city's going to be on lockdown once the DMA activates so it's the best we can do. Follow me!"
"At last," Oakley said, clambering into the control seat. "That was a lot harder than it could have been, but we're all set!"
"What's so great about this thing, anyway?" Annie asked. "I mean, it's the most powerful weapon in the world – what does that mean?"
Oakley chuckled, stretching out her arms to the gesture panel. "Oh, lots of things. Let's start with – this! Lockdown initiated!"
There was a grinding sound, and a dense network of steel bars closed over the doors. All over the city, similar grids of bars formed out of the stonework, startling the tourists and locals alike as they found themselves abruptly locked either inside or outside.
"Now, time to clear the streets!" Oakley went on, accessing submenus. "Hmmm... that's interesting. Did you know Altomare is built on limestone, Annie?"
"No?" Annie volunteered.
"Well, it is! Watch this!"
Oakley made a grand gesture, and Latias screeched as the DMA drew heavily on her energy.
And, all over the city, exposed bedrock trembled.
The group came hurrying back out of Altomare's hidden garden, and Lorenzo pointed. "This way!"
His route led them along two corners to a small dock, where a gondola was moored. As they filed down the steps, a set of steel bars ground down – separating Ash, Misty and Bianca from Brock and Lorenzo.
"Hold on!" Keldeo said, lighting his Sword. A few quick slashes, and the bars collapsed.
"Good one, Keldeo," Ash grinned.
Suicune stepped onto the water. "Would you mind if I pulled?"
"Pardon?" Lorenzo asked, frowning. "I didn't quite catch that..."
Concentrating, Suicune repeated herself. "Would you mind were I to pull? I suspect I'm the fastest one able to."
"Oh – of course!" Lorenzo agreed.
"I see you got that Aura trick working," Brock complimented, as the rest of the group piled into the boat.
Suicune waited until everyone was in, then leaned forwards and began to accelerate the boat – quickly going up to about as fast as the racers had at the Tour de Altomare.
"Left here!" Lorenzo called. "It's the main canal, it leads right where we want it to!"
Suicune replied by curving into a wide left turn, following Lorenzo's instructions, and then her head snapped aside – focusing on movement overhead.
"What is-" Ash began, then saw – a large, leathery-winged Aerodactyl with glowing white eyes coming in.
"That happened last-"
Pikachu fired a blast of lightning into the sky, hitting the Aerodactyl. It wobbled in the air, steaming, but rallied.
A second blast finished it off, sending it crashing to the water in a plume of spray.
"Was that the Aerodactyl from the museum?" Latios asked, skimming invisibly alongside.
"I think it was!" Lorenzo frowned. "But why would it be here?"
"The DMA can animate them!" Ash said. "There should be a Kabutops as well."
Ash had barely finished when something came bursting out of the water, swiping at Suicune with clawed arms.
Lucario fired a Flash Cannon at it, knocking it back and plunging into the water. "Armaldo," he reported – then saw the look on Ash's face. "What's wrong?"
"There wasn't an Armaldo last time," Ash explained. "This is bad."
Latios shot upwards into the air, producing a wash of wind. He came down a few seconds later, and decloaked – looking worried. "There's several Fossil Pokémon in the streets," he reported. "And I saw ripples heading our way through the water – lots of them."
Ash made a quick decision. "Suicune, we're going to need to carry on on land! It's too easy to ambush us on the water!"
Suicune nodded, slowing to bring their gondola to the nearest docking point. The impromptu team de-boated, and a moment later a white-eyed Omastar came rearing out of the water to pull the gondola apart.
It got about halfway through doing that before Keldeo fired a Sacred Sword, slicing the Gondola neatly in half and knocking the Omastar back into the canal.
"Latios!" Ash said, getting his attention. "Were the fossils just coming after us?"
"I – no!" Latios realized. "They were everywhere, and there were people running from them!"
"Right." Ash glanced at his pocket. "Dexter, we need my entire team – everyone who's available."
Understood.
Grant looked around, keeping close to the walls. "Marill – see anything?"
"Mar!" his Marill replied, shaking his head.
"Great..." the trainer sighed. "The heck happened?"
Marill shrugged. "Rill..."
A roar alerted them both.
Startled, Grant looked up – hoping against hope it was another Anorith, like the one they'd beaten earlier.
It wasn't. A huge Tyrantrum was coming storming down the canalfront towards them, accelerating steadily and roaring as its white-glowing eyes fixed onto him.
Marill jumped out in front of his trainer, inhaling and readying a Bubble attack – unlikely to do anything worthwhile, but better than just waiting-
There was another roar, this one from overhead, and a big orange Charizard swept down the street. It fired a burst of orange light which split into a shower of meteors, backwinged as the Draco Meteor spread blasted the Tyrantrum in the chest, and then sped forwards again and slapped it in the face with an Iron Tail.
Roaring, the Tyrantrum snapped at the irritant, and got a face full of Dragon Breath for his trouble.
"Whoa..." Grant breathed, and then decided to run while the big dinosaur was distracted. "Come on, Marill, we're leaving!"
"Right-o,chaps, tallyho!" Noctowl announced, his form wavering as he formed a Double Team effect. Rising, he caught the attention of an Aerodactyl and an Archeops, both of which came swooping down on him.
The Rock/Flying types passed right through their respective targets, collided with a crash, and dropped several hundred feet before recovering and pulling out of their dives.
"Pity that didn't work better, but oh well," Noctowl muttered to himself, spinning off another illusion – then the Archeops was hit by a wave of air which hammered it into the ground, and Pidgeot swooped past the crash site before climbing fast.
"Lovely weather for the time of year!" Noctowl pointed out, rolling to one side and avoiding an Archen. "Not that you're bothering to notice... manners, I do declare!"
His eyes glowed, ensnaring the Archen in a bubble of psionic force, and he swept it around before releasing it on a downwards trajectory.
A couple of hundred feet below, Butterfree slipped sideways and out of the way of a shower of Rock Slide-created rocks. He spread his wings, powering up, and then launched off a Solarbeam at the Aerodactyl on his tail.
The Grass-type attack made Aerodactyl flinch slightly, but it wasn't as effective as it would be on some Fossils. Eyes flashing with a spark of rage behind the blank white, it lunged forwards and was promptly hit from below by a Fairy Wind.
"I could have handled that," Butterfree commented to Togekiss, performing a banking spiral and getting the Aerodactyl in his sight-line. A psychic bubble enveloped the Rock-type, and it went crashing into the water of a canal.
"I'm helping, that's all..." Togekiss pointed out.
Pidgeot swept past them, focused air swirling under her wings, and bored in on a small flock of Archen. An Ominous Wind boomed out at them, knocking them around and making a couple of them drop towards the ground.
"Nice work, Olympic!" Keiran called. "Now, over there!"
"Baay!" his Bayleef nodded, and vines lashed out towards an oncoming Cranidos. They pulled on one leg, making the saurian Fossil wobble, then abruptly switched to the other and sent it tumbling into the canal.
"Great!" Keiran enthused, glancing around.
The other trainers helping keep this area safe all seemed to be doing okay. He'd never met them before, but their Pokémon – a big, burly Rhydon, a lightning-fast Floatzel and a Pokémon he'd never seen before which seemed to be a Fighting and Flying type – were working pretty well with Olympic, allowing him to concentrate on just one entrance to the square.
Then Olympic frowned, and called for Keiran's attention.
"What is it, boy?" Keiran asked, worried by the tone of voice his starter had used.
Olympic nodded to the waterfront, and Keiran looked closer.
Nothing.
Then, a series of purple tendrils appeared over the canal wall. As they rose, they revealed themselves to be attached to about a dozen Cradily, all with blank white eyes in place of the normal yellow.
"Uh oh..." Keiran muttered. "Olympic, do the best you can! Guys? Anyone here know an Ice move?"
"Floatzel has Ice Shard," one of the others volunteered. "But that's a lot of Cradily-"
There was a sudden blaze of fire and flame, sweeping along one of the roads into the plaza, and then a blue sphere of brilliant light shot forwards and hit the foremost Cradily.
The firey blur slowed, skidding to a halt between the plaza and the canal, and shot a Fire Blast at the crowd of Fossils.
"...that's Entei..." Keiran heard himself say, a little numbly. "That is actually Entei."
A Fire Spin roared out, and then Entei jumped aside from a barrage of Ancientpower – except for one, which he smashed to pieces with a blow of his paw – before lunging in and hammering one of the crinoid Pokémon with a fire-based body blow of an attack.
Over the course of about twenty seconds, Entei hammered the fossils flat. He glanced around briefly once that was done, and pelted off again.
"Thanks!" Keiran heard one of the others call, and Entei shot a smiling glance before continuing.
Now there was a lull, Keiran could hear the battles going on elsewhere – the occasional crash or bang, as attacks hit home, and the roar of water from somewhere else.
Then an Archen swooped down, and it was back to the battle.
"...pardon?" Ash asked, blinking.
"I said it once already!" Squirtle complained, then sighed. "Right. For the second time! Here is my plan. We are about a mile from the museum – we need to get there as soon as possible, and the streets are full of Fossils."
"That bit's not a plan," Misty pointed out.
"I was getting there, as you know!" Squirtle said, a bit huffily. "Anyway. My plan is this! Bull-Dozer!"
"That's just a word," Ash said.
"No, it's two words, one awesome idea! Show him, guys!"
To Ash's surprise, his quintet of Tauros trotted forwards.
"Right!" Squirtle began pointing. "You go there! You there! And you there! And you two on the outside!"
The hyperactive turtle jumped up onto the one in the middle, and posed. "That's five Tauros! One Squirtle! And one thousand pounds of sheer awesome!"
"...I don't get it," Brock admitted.
"Oh, you will," Squirtle promised. "Right! Ivysaur, right side! Totodile, come up here on the left!"
Ivysaur glanced at Ash for confirmation.
"I guess we should see what he means," Ash decided. "Go ahead."
Nodding, Ivysaur hoisted Totodile up with his vines and then pulled himself up.
Bianca had been looking at the spectacle without speaking for some time. "I have no idea what's going on here," she said eventually.
"The bounds of brotherhood are wide! A team, a herd, they're all the same – organized dedication and fighting-"
"Can you get on with it?" Ivysaur interrupted. "Because I think they've seen us."
Squirtle sighed. "Fine, then, we'll just do it the boring way. Three! Two! One! Outrage!"
All five Tauros reared up. "What are we?" the one in the centre called.
"Annoyed!" one said. His fellow Pokémon chimed in with "Angry!", "Just plain mad!" and "A bit ticked off!"
"And what are we going to do about it?" the middle one went on.
"Wreak havoc!" came the response, this time in unison, and the bulls drummed their hooves on the floor for a moment.
"And when do we do that?"
"NOW!"
And then the whole assemblage set off at a ground-trembling run.
Ash, Brock, Misty, Lorenzo, Bianca and all the Pokémon watched in shock as all five of Ash's Tauros, with supporting fire from Totodile and a resigned-looking Ivysaur, charged straight down the main thoroughfare of Altomare and sent Fossil constructs flying like poorly-made skittles.
One of them was running on the canal. This did not seem to concern him.
Lucario was the first to recover. "I suggest we hurry after them," he said.
"Right!" Ash shook his head, recovering from his surprise, and set off at a run. "Come on, guys!"
Brock and Misty exchanged a glance, then sent out the remainder of their teams. Misty helped Bianca onto Gyarados, Brock helped Lorenzo onto Steelix, and they began to hurry after Ash and his Pokémon.
"This way," Lorenzo's Quagsire said, gesturing. "It's one of the important canal junctions."
"Good to know," Seaking nodded. She noticed an oncoming Tirtouga, and lowered her head to bore forwards in a Drill Run.
The impact resonated through the water, but the Tirtouga wasn't out for the count just yet. It swiped at Seaking with a scaly arm, knocking her backwards.
"Look out!" Chinchou called, flashers sparking, and launched off a bolt of electricity at the Tirtouga.
It went entirely into Seaking's horn.
"...I really need to work on my aim," Chinchou sighed.
They were interrupted by a half-dozen Omanyte, which jetted over and began firing Spike Cannons at them. Quagsire fired a Water Pulse, ducked a blundering rush by the Tirtouga, and barely avoided being hit by a Relicanth which shot through their formation.
Corsola returned fire with her own Spike Cannons, supplementing it with a Bubblebeam, and then used Mirror Coat to deflect a sudden Ancientpower from one of the Omanyte. As she did, the Tirtouga came in again, and Chinchou charged forwards to deliver a physical Spark attack to the revivified turtle.
There was a crackle-bang through the water as the two Water-types collided.
Kingdra came charging around the corner, glowing a faint green from his Dragon Dances, and bounced from Fossil to Fossil delivering slamming blows with his tail. Most of the Omanyte went down, as well as the Relicanth, and Kingdra then engaged a Carracosta which had reared up out of the mud.
Quagsire hit a Kabuto with an Earth Power, turned, and raised an eyebrow slightly. "That's a new trick, there."
"Thanks! Now – oh, right, Shock Wave!"
Two bolts of electricity snapped off Chinchou's flashers. One of them came too close to Seaking and was drawn into her Lightningrod, but the other steered clear enough and wove unerringly around Kingdra to hit his burly opponent.
Corsola turned frantically back and forth, trying to keep track of everything at once. "Seaking, behind you – a Kabuto! And-"
She swam upwards, ramming her head into a second Relicanth and making it slow down suddenly.
"Zap it, Chinchou!" she called.
Chinchou nodded, and fired another Shock Wave.
"This is not ideal," Ivysaur muttered, vines wrapped firmly around the Tauros he was riding.
"Hup, two, three, SMASH!" the Tauros chanted, in unison with the others. "Five, six, seven, BASH!"
Ivysaur looked around, spotting one of the kind of targets he was after. A big Bastiodon, snorting and lowering its head to get in the way of the quintet of Tauros.
His flower opened slightly, pulling in energy from the sky, and he then shot a Solarbeam forwards – aiming it just a bit off-centre, so the dazzle didn't make anyone in Ash's team lose focus.
It hit the Bastiodon hard, making it take a step back, and then Ivysaur followed that up with a shower of Magical Leaves.
Ivysaur wasn't actually doing all that much damage, not to such a tough Pokémon – apart from anything else, a lot of his coverage moves were melee-only. But he was making it unable to set itself for the charge, making it tilt its head back-
Then two Tauros ran up its face and down the other side.
"That was quite impressive," Ivysaur said, then saw an incoming Aerodactyl and fired an Ancientpower at it – hammering it to the ground in a tangle of limbs and wing membrane. It shook its head, eyes glowing white as it stood, and then it got run over by the herd of Tauros too.
"This is fun!" Totodile announced, shooting a Hydro Pump at the nearest Armaldo. "Whee!"
"Speak for yourself..." Ivysaur said, teeth clicking together as the vibration shook him. "Squirtle, what exactly gave you this idea?"
"I've been working on it for ten months!" Squirtle replied, grinning. "Why else do you think I've been riding all the Tauros at once?"
"You are a scary person to be friends with..." Ivysaur sighed. "At least it's better than the alternative."
"Hey, look!" Totodile said, pointing. "Birds!"
"Those are Archen," Ivysaur corrected him. "...wait. Why are they flying?"
Totodile shrugged. "I just guess it makes sense! I mean, they were skeletons in a rock until twenty minutes ago, why shouldn't they be able to fly?"
He frowned, and fired an Ice Beam at one. It hit the ground with a crash. "Problem solved!"
Ivysaur declined to comment, and began looking instead for a better target.
Was that a Tyrunt coming out of that alleyway? Excellent.
"Totodile, to your left!" he called, and indicated the target with a barrage of Razor Leaves.
"Is it always this chaotic?" Lorenzo asked, clinging to one of Steelix' spines.
Brock shrugged, as his big Steel-type powered up the landward side of the thoroughfare. "Sometimes it's this bad, sometimes it's a lot quieter."
"Never been boring yet, though," Ninetales said, noticing a Lileep approaching. Flames curled off her tail and lanced forwards, knocking the Grass/Rock type Fossil to the flagstones and scorching its protrusions.
Stantler jumped off, galloping alongside for a moment, then pulled a little ahead. "Jump Kick!" he announced, and rammed his hooves into the shield on a Shieldon.
Pushing off again, he landed on Steelix' neck and panted for a moment.
"Big wave coming from here!" Crobat called, circling an alleyway ahead. Geodude peered forwards, then cracked his knuckles.
"Okay, let's see if this works! Stone Edge!"
The paving slabs just by the entrance to that alleyway heaved up, and then crashed aside. A mound of earth formed, making a barrier several feet high, and Geodude gestured once more to send it rumbling back down the alley.
"Looks good!" Crobat reported. "Oh – look out, a Cranidos got past-"
Ninetales' Energy Ball and Forretress' Flash Cannon hit at the same moment, sending the Cranidos flying backwards faster than it had been charging forwards.
"Boys," Ninetales chuckled, and Forretress did what was as close as she could come to a shrug. The Bug-type then swivelled, and fired another Flash Cannon – skywards, this time, and knocking an Archeops low enough that it hit a building and slumped to the ground.
Pinatubo sent up another blast of flame, which knocked the oncoming Anorith backwards and flipped one of them over.
"Now, Chompy!" Rosalind called, and her Aron pounced forwards to hit the immobilized fossil with an Iron Head attack that sent it bouncing away and against a wall.
"Good!" the young trainer said, glancing back and forth. "Now – Pinatubo, there!"
The Typhlosion hunched down, neck-ruff blazing, and launched an Ember forwards to block off the next few fossils.
Then there was a roar, and something big and bipedal and with a hardened, spiked head came around the corner at speed.
"Uh – Chompy, can you-" Rosalind asked, glancing at Pinatubo. Her Fire-type didn't have any good moves to handle a Rampardos, and Chompy was still young...
Chompy gave a determined nod, and jumped forwards. His Iron Head attack collided with a BANG with the Head Smash coming the other way, and the Aron hit the floor in a painful-sounding clatter of metal on stone.
The Rampardos roared again, head coming up for long enough for Rosalind to see its blank white eyes, then charged forwards once more.
There was a sudden flash of blue behind the Rampardos-
And then a wave of water came from Rosalind's right, hitting the Rampardos in the side and carrying it bodily into the nearest wall.
Startled, Rosalind and Pinatubo turned to their saviour.
It was – Suicune. Standing there, calm as could be, before firing a volley of Bubblebeam at the Rampardos to keep it out for the count.
"You should try to find others who can help," Suicune said, and somehow Rosalind understood. "There are many fossils, and your Typhlosion will not be capable of stopping them all."
Rosalind nodded, numbly, and then Suicune ran off – jumping out onto the water, and crossing it as easily as if it were dry land.
As she shook her head, recovering her equilibrium, she heard a loud voice.
"Attention! All those trapped in buildings, stay calm and remain inside for now. Those outside, try to group together under the protection of trainers."
The loudspeakers paused for a moment. "The nearest safe place is the junction between the Verde canal and the Fourth Street."
Deciding to take the advice, Rosalind rummaged for her map. So, she was near the Bridge of Birds...
Skimming along behind the friends, Latios was only half-concentrating on the outside world.
Latias, we're coming! Just hold on!
Brother? I- Latias seemed to shake herself. I'm scared, Latios. I don't want to-
Don't think about it, he told her. Use my eyes. Focus on that – we're coming to save you, sis.
He felt Latias reaching out, so she experienced what he did.
There was a moment of silence in their bond.
What the... what's going on out there, Latios? Who's that riding a Keldeo? What are all the Tauros doing? Where did the Steelix come from?
She sounded confused and startled by the scale of what she was seeing. That was good, in Latios' opinion – better that than scared.
Ash is coming, that's what. Him and his friends. Latios waved his wings left and right slightly, and then ducked under a crashing Aerodactyl. And he's got a lot more firepower than last time.
You remember last time? Latias asked. How?
Ash did it – he did it to you, too. That's how you remember. Latios paused. Sis, I'm sorry for leaving you before.
It wasn't your fault! Latias snapped back, then recoiled. Sorry, Latios, I'm just – all the time, I was so... and then...
Latias... Latios paused. I was wrong too. Neither of us are strong enough to keep ourselves safe, let alone Altomare – we should have been learning. I should have taken Rayquaza's offer – I should have done something to make sure we couldn't be...
He shook his head, invisibly. It doesn't matter. We're coming to save you, sis.
A mental caress. Thanks, brother.
Latios felt Latias relax away from him a bit, breaking the sight sharing. I'll fight as hard as I can to make sure they can't stop you, she promised.
Stay safe, sis, Latios told her.
Then he noticed something, and blinked.
"...what's that coming in towards the museum?"
Lucario glanced up, then looked towards the building. "It looks a lot like a pair of parachute canopies..."
Annie frowned, a bit worried by how her sister was acting.
She didn't seem to be very interested in making sure the jewel was alright. She was tapping away at her keyboard, saying things about revivification and enhancement that Annie was having trouble following.
Well, in between the bouts of maniacal laughter, that is. Those were a bit worrying too.
"Oh, this is outrageous!" Oakley said, making a fist-clenching motion. "Absolutely... gah! Attack, you stupid fossils!"
"What's wrong, Oakley?" Annie called up.
"Those stupid brats! No matter how many reinforcements I throw at them, they're just coming through them!"
She pointed at something on the screen. "And how does that make sense? They're running on the water!"
"Well-"
Annie's comment was interrupted by a loud crash from overhead. Both looked up, startled, as chunks of lead and glass rained down from a shattered window.
Two shapes landed on a catwalk up near the roof.
"Prepare for trouble, because this isn't a game!" one of the silhouettes announced.
"And make it double, because you're ruining our good name!" the other said – a male, this one.
"Annie?" Oakley asked, quietly. "Who are they?"
The duo overhead didn't seem to notice. "To protect this city from devastation!"
"To help us save our reputation!"
"To denounce the evils of idiots in our way!"
"To extend out our strength and help save the day!"
"Oakley... I have no idea," Annie admitted.
"Jessie!" the woman overhead called, seemingly in answer.
"And James!" her compatriot added.
"Oh, right!" Annie said suddenly. "These are those guys who did all those boring lectures."
"Team Rocket will blast you off at the speed of light!" Jessie said, sounding annoyed.
"Surrender now!" James agreed. "Or prepare to lose this fight!"
There was a pause. Then one of Jessie's Pokéballs opened.
"Wobuffet!" the Pokémon inside reported.
"...I've never seen anything so stupid," Oakley said slowly.
"Okay, now it's personal!" James said. "Growlie, get them!"
Growlie materialized and pounced straight off the catwalk, fire lashing from his fur. A Fairy Wind hit him as he fell from the Sylveon, but he more-or-less ignored it and hammered home a Flare Blitz into Annie's Leafeon as the nearest target.
The Grass-type bounced off the wall and collapsed to the floor, and James' Arcanine looked around for the next target. Cofagrigus' spectral hands reached for him, and he dodged aside before ducking under a Psybeam from Espeon and barraging Shedinja with Embers.
While that was going on, James released Weezing as well. The Poison-type floated skywards and began firing attacks down, making Espeon switch from trying to catch Growlie to focus instead on keeping Weezing from getting off too many Sludge Bombs.
Jessie's own contribution to the battle was just as significant. She sent her Arbok out, and it darted down to shower Cofagrigus with poisonous stings before chomping home with a nasty Crunch. The Dark-type attack connected with Cofagrigus, making the Ghost shudder and phase partly solid again, and Arbok stabbed his tail in to inflict some poison while it was possible.
"Annie!" Oakley called. "Stop them!"
Ariados went down in flames from a Fire Blast, and then Espeon managed to get a grip on her Poison-type opponent. She hit him with Extrasensory twice, and he crumpled to the floor before fainting and being returned.
That was about the point Growlie's luck ran out, too. He overextended going after Bisharp, and Kirlia caught him in a psionic bubble. Frowning, she did the same to Arbok, holding the two of them in the air.
Sylveon fired a Moonblast at Jessie and James, which Wobuffet blocked and returned via Mirror Coat. The attack hit Glaceon in the side, not knocking her out but severely injuring her, and for a moment there was an uneasy silence.
"Umbreon!" Annie said. "Dark Pulse, he can't Mirror Coat you!"
Umbreon nodded, firing. Wobbuffet grinned, blocking it, and was just about to use Mirror Coat aimed at the Sylveon when Growlie and Arbok cannoned into him from a psionic shove. Their momentum carried all three Pokémon and their masters back out the window.
"And that takes care of-" Annie began, and then there was a huge flash outside the window.
To their shock, a Moltres climbed past the window, James on her back and Jessie safely held by her shoulders, and a thundering roar began to shake the building.
"Why do they have a Moltres?" Annie asked. "What's that noise?"
Scowling, Oakley glanced at the monitors. "They've got a cargo plane! With hover jets! That's – where did they get that?"
She watched as Moltres deposited her cargo inside the open door, then came flying back out and speared flame down into the museum. Espeon and Kirlia established Light Screens over the window, blocking most of it, but the temperature got uncomfortably warm.
Oakley clapped her hands and made a grand gesture, pulling up a great wave of water from the nearby lake and hurling it at Moltres in the form of a waterspout.
Latias screeched in pain, ignored by both the sisters, as the DMA drew out more of her energy to fuel itself.
The fire-type dodged, but she and the aircraft both had to gain height to avoid it, and Oakley capitalized on that by sending every Flying-type she had access to at them to keep them busy.
A dozen Anorith fountained up out of the water.
Snorlax picked one, wound up, and punched it so hard it hit a building opposite.
"Good," he declared. "Next please."
"I'm trying," came Kingler's muffled voice. "It's a bit hard to aim these – whoa, big one!"
Another blast of water from a Crabhammer, and this time there was a Carracosta. Snorlax hit it with a pair of blazing orange beams from his eyes, but the shelled Pokémon endured the attack fairly easy and hauled itself up onto the road.
Muk used Mega Drain, Giga Drain, Shockwave, Focus Blast and Thunderbolt, and Carracosta fell limply back into the water. In a different canal.
"Good," Snorlax said solemnly. "We are a good team."
"Next one's coming up!"
Primeape exploded around the corner, volleying in powerful punches to the five Fossils trying to break through a barricade. Two of them collapsed, and the remaining three – a Rampardos, an Armaldo and a heavily-armoured Kabutops – turned, white eyes glowing blankly as they regarded Primeape.
"Fire, left!" he called. "Ground right!"
Quilava made a screeching turn around the same corner, nearly hitting the wall as she turned, and rammed home a Flame Wheel into the Armaldo. It staggered backwards, and Quilava hit it again – focusing her attacks on the one she was most able to harm.
Donphan followed a moment later, driving his attack into the Rampardos to Primeape's right and knocking it over. He bounced off, rolled back into a ball in the air, and hit it with a Magnitude attack which shook the street.
The Kabutops, however, seemed made of sterner (or possibly just more durable) stuff. It slashed out at Primeape, and he retaliated by punching up under the scythe blade aimed at him – knocking it off course and up into the air.
Barely had that happened when another blade came whistling in from the other direction. Primeape handled this one by the simpler and more satisfying expedient of punching the Kabutops directly in the face, knocking it over backwards and making the scythe miss.
Not letting the fossil get its feet under it, Primeape exploded forwards and delivered another blow – this time to the chest of the Fossil Pokémon. He grabbed one of the ones he'd knocked out before, a Shieldon, and began using it as an implement to pound away – alternating between hitting the chest, and hitting one or another of the arms to keep them from attacking.
"Now!" Quilava called, and Primeape jumped free a moment before her Solarbeam hit the stalled Kabutops.
Landing with feet apart and one arm down, the primate Pokémon launched himself forwards in another sprint to the next turning.
Quilava and Donphan spun up and followed, only marginally slower.
"Get the Ice-type, Nile!" Ingrid called, and her Feraligatr ducked a blast of ice from an Amaura. The big Water-type growled defiance, before grabbing the Amaura in her jaws and giving the fossil a rattata-killing flick over her head.
There was a faint crash as it hit something the other side of the square, and Ingrid winced. "And watch out for the buildings!"
Nile glanced back at her and shrugged, before lunging forwards and chomping down with an Ice Fang on a Tyrunt.
She glanced up at the sound of a roar, and paled slightly. A whole group of bigger fossils were headed for her team – more than Nile could handle alone.
"Look out!" she called, and Nile kicked the Tyrunt out of her way before launching forwards a Hydro Pump. The attack went off course, drawn into the Storm Drain of a Cradily, and she hissed. "That's not good..."
There was a crackling BANG.
She blinked, as an Omastar came flying into the square followed by a trail of crackling lightning. "Wait, what's-"
A purple-yellow blur bounded over a fallen food stand, slowed briefly, and hit a Bastiodon with an electrical globe that sparkled like starlight. Bastiodon staggered, and the blur pounced forwards – hitting the Bastiodon again with a BANG before kicking off its face to crash into the side of an Aurorus.
"Is that Raikou!?" she asked, glancing at Nile, and the Water-type shrugged.
Booming laughter echoed around the square as Raikou hit the Aurorus with an Electrical attack, before unlimbering something from his back and smacking it in the face with what appeared to be a large bundle of signs.
Glancing over at them for a moment as the Aurorus crashed to the ground, he threw one of the signs to the floor. It hit with a clatter, and Raikou pushed off to knock a Kabutops to the ground with another of those huge blasts of electricity.
Ingrid could read the sign from where it had landed. "'I've got this under control'?" she read. "Eh?"
Another booming laugh, and Raikou hit an Armaldo with his shimmering-iron tail. It folded over, hitting the ground hard, and Nile contributed by blasting it with a Hydro Pump.
Screeching, an Archeops shook itself out of a pile of rubble near the middle of the square – apparently having revived itself after being shot down earlier. It ran four steps with an ungainly gait, took off and turned towards the direction of the main square of Altomare, and an enormous bolt of lightning from Raikou hit it.
It promptly crashed into the canals.
Sparks snapping from his fur, Raikou glanced around one more time. He hit the Cradily with a Rock Smash, taking it out of the battle, and then pelted off to help someone else.
"...that happened," Ingrid said faintly, looking at the pile of neutralized fossils.
Nile grinned.
"Not much further to go," Misty said, as Mega Gyarados swam towards the museum at high speed – covering the seaward flank.
He'd already flattened at least four Pokémon she was sure were supposed to be Sturdy in a single blow... which was interesting, but probably something to concentrate on later. For now, she was trying to make sure she was giving good cover for Ash.
She'd already noticed he was keeping several Pokémon out of the fighting – Lucario and Pikachu were the most obvious ones... well, apart from Keldeo, who he seemed to be riding... but she hadn't seen a few others, so she guessed he was making sure he had a full team ready for the fight in the museum.
"How common are Mega Stones?" Bianca asked.
"I don't think they're very common," Misty hedged – she'd of course had to explain what the heck was going on when Gyarados went Mega - "but we've run into a couple, so I guess they're not too rare either. Somewhere middling, I suppose."
Bianca nodded. "Got it."
"Oh – over there!" Misty added, pointing. "There's a big Omastar!"
Barely had she spoken when Kabutops dove off Mega Gyarados' back, plunging into the water with a crash. He swam over to the Omastar with swift strokes, and brought his twin scythes down in a cross-cut Leaf Blade which knocked it out in one devastating blow.
"I've never liked Omastar," Psyduck muttered. "Too many sharp bits."
Politoed shrugged. "I'm sure they're nice if you get to know them."
Kabutops jumped back up onto Mega Gyarados' scaly back, looked around for a moment, and plunged off after a Relicanth headed for them with blank white eyes.
"Make sure not to get too far from us!" Misty called after him. "You look like just another fossil to anyone overhead!"
"I'd bally well say not!" Noctowl said, curving into a spiral around them for a moment. "'scuse me, just recuperating for a moment – all the flying ones are going after that hovering aircraft, the bounders."
That said, he swooped up. "So we're going after them! Tallyho!"
Politoed frowned briefly, then blasted a Hydro Pump at an incoming Armaldo which knocked it back under the water. "Starmie, can you-"
Starmie spun once. "Hiyoh!"
As the Armaldo came up for a second run, the starfish engulfed it in a bubble of psychic force which kept it from escaping. The Water/Psychic type then electrocuted it with a Thunderbolt before hitting it with a Water Pulse to finish the job.
Psyduck wobbled as Mega Gyarados shifted. "Careful, we're on the-"
He glanced up, and blanched. One of those Archeops from the snarling aerial battle overhead had been knocked out – and it was coming directly for them.
Reaching into his mental reserves, he pulled his headache back to the fore – drastically increasing his psychic powers, at the cost of an enormous and painful headache. His eyes flashed, and he shoved at the Archeops to try to deflect it.
For a moment, he had it under control. Then the Archeops' eyes snapped back open, and it beat its wings to force itself down faster – slipping his control for a moment, as it moved far faster than he was expecting.
The Fossil bird came diving down on a genuine attack run, now. A violet and yellow aura began to build around it, as it used Giga Impact, and the task of stopping it got exponentially more difficult.
Psyduck pushed harder, determined not to let Archeops hit them.
He didn't care how much it hurt. He didn't even care just how hard it was to push past the energy of the Giga Impact to get at the Pokémon underneath.
All that mattered was making sure Misty – and Gyarados, and Politoed, and all his friends – were safe.
There was a timeless moment of crystal clarity-
And the Archeops went flying back into the air, hit an Ice Beam from Totodile, and splashed into the water some distance away.
"What just-" Misty began, then stopped. "Uh... do you feel okay?"
I feel.. fine, actually. Better than-
Starmie floated down, using its gem as an impromptu mirror.
...huh, Golduck blinked. That's new.
"Congratulations!" Politoed grinned.
These seem very peculiar, Golduck muttered mentally, inspecting his webbed hands and feet. What are they for?
"Swimming!" Misty informed him. "Now you've got no excuse not to learn!"
Just watch me...
The quintet of Tauros came thundering up to the doors of the museum, trampling a final line of Shieldon underhoof, and slowed – panting, as the fatigue from their charge began to bite.
Squirtle jumped off. "Okay, nice work guys! That was awesome!"
"I'm sure it was," the lead Tauros nodded, flanks heaving. "But next time we train, we do it with big, beefy weights so we build up more stamina!"
"No complaint here!"
"Thank goodness..." Ivysaur muttered, jumping hastily to the ground. "It's over."
Ash and Keldeo arrived in a clatter of hooves, Lucario skidding to a halt a few paces behind with Pikachu on his shoulder. As soon as they were stopped, Pikachu transferred himself to Ash. "Phew. Are we ready?"
"I don't know..." Ash muttered, looking at the doors. "These weren't sealed last time – look out!"
A wave of water came crashing over the side of the museum plaza, and then abruptly halted in place.
There was a sudden feeling of pressure, and the wave thundered back into the sea.
I can handle the waves, announced a mental voice that was almost but not quite like that of Psyduck. I might need help with the Fossils, though.
Ash blinked, on seeing who'd been speaking. "Psy – no, Golduck! You evolved?"
I'm as surprised as you are. But – look!
Everyone looked, the humans dismounting as their rides reached the steps.
There were a lot of Fossil Pokémon coming towards them. By the looks of things, in fact, most of the remaining fossils in the city were headed their way.
"Ash, you and Latios go save Latias!" Misty told him. "We can handle ourselves out here – right, Brock?"
Brock nodded firmly. "Right, Misty. Let's do this!"
The sound of engines grew briefly louder, and a Victreebel landed next to them with a slightly mushy sound. That was followed by a familiar-looking Scratch Cat, who nodded to them. "Jessie an' James said we was surplus ta requirements," he explained. "Jessie's flyin' da plane, an' James is directin' everyone else firin' out the doors an' stuff. Well, an' flyin' escort."
"Oh, so that Moltres was yours," Ash nodded. "I did wonder – cool, we can use the help!"
Victreebel saluted with his lash-whip spike. "Glad to help."
He lumbered down the steps, placing himself ready. It didn't take long for the help to be needed, as a large number of Kabuto, Omanyte and Anorith came scuttling over the lip of the plaza – with a Tyrantrum in the distance just one of the visible reinforcements on the way.
Keldeo, for his part, was facing away from the oncoming hordes. "Right!" he said firmly, flashing over to Resolute Form and taking a swing. "Secret Sword!"
The armour behind the wooden doors flashed sparks as Keldeo cut into it, but he managed to cut a line through it on the second swing. Two more cuts, and he had a rough outline of a door.
Ash sent out his full team for the fight inside. "Okay, everyone ready?"
Nods all round.
"Right. Go for it, Keldeo!"
Keldeo spun on his forehooves, and lashed out with a kick at the weakened section. It resisted only for a moment, then blew inwards with a BANG.
"Oakley, what's going on out there?" Annie asked. "I thought this thing was-"
"I'm trying!" Oakley snapped, gesturing frantically. "But this is just... gah!"
She looked down through her control panel at Oakley. "Not only are there all three Legendary Beasts out there, but that Ketchum kid and his friends just fought their way to the museum!"
Annie blinked. "But that means-"
A triangular section of the museum door exploded inwards.
"Why doesn't this thing have close in defences?" Oakley asked, annoyed. "You'll have to stop them, Annie!"
"Right!" Annie nodded, glancing around.
Kirlia had finished healing Umbreon and Sylveon from the hits they'd taken, but at least three Pokémon were still unconscious.
Well, that would have to do. "Get him!" she said, pointing at the boy – Ash. "Stop them!"
There was a brilliant flash of orange light from that side of the room, and Annie threw up her arm for a moment.
When she lowered it, Ash's Heracross was – different. More muscular arms, different horn, all kinds of minor differences. And he looked a lot tougher.
"What the-" Oakley spluttered. "That's not fair! Our one didn't work!"
"You were just using it wrong-" Annie began, and then things got loud.
Lucario crouched briefly and launched himself forwards, aiming a punch for the startled Bisharp. He got about halfway before there was a flash to his right, and the Kirlia materialized before hitting him with a Fire Punch.
Rolling with the blow, Lucario spun and braked his momentum with a forepaw as he slid along the tiled floor. There was an earsplitting BANG as Pikachu opened fire, and then Lucario was concentrated wholly on the battle with the Kirlia as she teleported over and attempted another Fire Punch.
Lucario dodged swiftly to his right, evading the attack aimed for his shoulder, and punched up with his right fist under his supporting left arm. His opponent flickered away from that one as well, appearing behind him, and got in a hit before he sprang back to his feet and lashed out with a kick.
That blow connected, but only for a moment before Kirlia flashed away again.
For a fraction of a second there was no sign of Kirlia, then she materialized behind Lucario and fired a Dazzling Gleam at him.
The sound of her feet on the floor was just enough for Lucario to get warning. He spun on one foot, paw already glowing for a Flash Cannon attack, and fired just before the Dazzling Gleam hit.
Both combatants were knocked backwards by the attacks hitting them. Lucario went over sideways from the blast of the Fairy-type attack, flinging out his free arm to brace himself, and slid along the floor for a moment before coming back to his feet.
For her part, Kirlia was too concentrated on her attack to manage a teleport. The intense light of the Flash Cannon hit her a little off-centre, spinning her around once and knocking her back into the wall.
She shook her head for a moment, looked up, and teleported out just before Lucario hit her with a pair of Metal Claws.
Using the momentum of his swipe, Lucario spun and put his back against the wall to avoid her teleporting behind him again. He scanned the room, absently assessing the situations his allies were in, then looked up and had his answer.
Kirlia was using the overhead catwalks as a place to recover and plan. He charged a pair of Aura Spheres, one in each paw, and fired them upwards to break the one she was on in two places.
Unfortunately for him, the Psychic-type noticed. She flashed out just before the Spheres hit, and Lucario turned his attention back to the floor just in time to catch an incoming Fire Punch.
This time, his retaliatory kick connected, and Kirlia was sent flying backwards before recovering and using a Light Screen to block his Flash Cannon.
Fortunately for Lucario, the overhead catwalk made a grinding sound just before its weakened section finally snapped off. He had enough time to reach up, blocking the heavy steel material, and throw it off to one side to avoid it getting in the way. He blinked, as – by sheer luck – the metallic object landed right on top of an exhausted-looking Umbreon, which had picked a terrible place to hide in the shadows.
Kirlia used the distraction to wind up and fire a Psychic pulse at him. Wincing, Lucario endured the attack and turned back towards her, before lunging forwards with both sets of Metal Claws forming from his hand-spikes.
She teleported out again, and Lucario dove forwards to arrest his movement with both palms against the floor. He coiled up like a spring, then uncoiled and pushed backwards – unbalancing it, so his right arm pushed more than his left.
The unorthodox move let him hit Kirlia with an Iron Tail as he spun, knocking her to the floor, and she got up a little slower than she had been as he landed with his back to the wall.
Scowling, she disappeared once more.
Lucario's paw went out to his right, catching her incoming Fire Punch.
He smirked, and Kirlia had just enough time to realize what was going on before the Dark Pulse he'd been charging fired. That scrambled her teleportation for a crucial moment, and he followed up with a paralyzing Thunderpunch and a final Flash Cannon.
As his opponent hit the floor, clearly out for the count, Lucario glanced up to check on the rest of the battle.
Pikachu's first big Thunder attack was blocked by the same Excadrill from before, this time keeping his right set of claws firmly on the ground to channel the electricity away from him.
Deciding to sort the Ground-type out first, Pikachu ran forwards. His paws shimmered with blue as he readied a Force Palm, and the Excadrill went from nervous to alarmed as he realized just how unconventional an Electric-type Pikachu really was.
Excadrill brought up both sets of claws in a blocking position, managing to intercept Pikachu's Force Palm, and slammed his feet into the ground for a Bulldoze.
Pikachu's response to this was to jump over it, keeping in the air for the moment the attack was actually firing, and he fired another Electric attack as he came down – a Thunderbolt, this time, which skirled over Excadrill's claws and headspike without doing anything damaging.
That seemed to reassure Excadrill slightly, and he launched forwards into a Drill Run which took him out of the way of the descending Pikachu before curling around in a tight circle and boring in directly on his opponent.
Pikachu dodged aside from the first Drill Run attack run, charging and firing a small Aura Sphere, and hissed as Excadrill drove underground and the Sphere burst on the surface.
A moment later, Excadrill came boring up out of the ground, barely missing Pikachu with his Dig attack, and swiped out with his claws a couple of times. Pikachu stepped back, giving ground, and was about to retaliate when a burst of bluish energy scythed along the ground nearby.
"Careful, Keldeo!" Pikachu called, getting a "Sorry!" in return, and his Force Palm was just a moment too late to catch Excadrill. The mole burrowed underground again, and Pikachu focused.
Aura Sight was enough for him to see the speeding Ground-type, who emerged a few metres away before spinning into another Drill Run and coming in on the attack.
This time, Pikachu hit him with another Thunderbolt.
This time, it worked. The shocked Excadrill wobbled, losing track of his spin, and drilled a furrow in the floor of the museum that missed Pikachu by at least a foot. He braked with a horrible screeching of claws on stone, swiped at Pikachu's speculative Zap Cannon and managed to block that one, then lunged close-in with his claws flashing.
Pikachu was unable to quite dodge all of them. One swipe scored thin red lines down his side, and another came close enough to trim his fur but didn't quite draw blood.
Cheeks sparking, Pikachu gave ground once more and rammed a pair of Aura Spheres together. The cloud of small blue seeker spheres which resulted barraged Excadrill from all sides, halting his forwards rush and making him stagger.
Pikachu nailed him with another Thunder, sending him collapsing to the ground, and panted – then looked up, confused, as something clattered to the floor from the main DMA mechanisms.
Keldeo galloped forwards, and fired a scything Ice Blade from his horn as he ran at the Espeon in his way.
Her tail snapped across, producing an intense Light Screen, and the Ice-typed attack splashed off. Her eyes glowed, and she fired a beam of multicoloured energy from the gem on her forehead.
Keldeo swung his Secret Sword down to block, wincing as the attack connected – then a sparkling ball of energy hit him in the flank, making him stagger sideways as the Sylveon joined the fight.
"Take this!" Houndour called from behind, and Beat Up duplicates descended on Sylveon and Espeon. The Fairy-type popped them with a quick Dazzling Gleam, but her ally seemed to be having more trouble.
Trying not to let the Sylveon have time to help her friend, Keldeo launched forwards another Ice Blade – aimed at her this time. Unfortunately, the Sylveon was quick-witted enough to get out of the way, and avoided being hit by the Ice attack – though it did hit Ariados as it started to recover, quite firmly returning it to unconsciousness.
"What's the plan?" Houndour asked, glancing up at Keldeo. As he did, the Sylveon finished off getting rid of his Beat Up duplicates for the Espeon.
"Go for the Espeon!" Keldeo instructed. He reared back, and fired a blast of water from his hoof at Sylveon – knocking her backwards, before the Espeon formed a shield to protect her.
Shaking the water from her fur, Sylveon launched a shower of Swift stars at Keldeo. The Water-type blocked them with his blade, eyes flicking from one star to the next to make sure he got all of them, then yelped as a Moonblast followed the Swift attacks.
Ducking down low, Keldeo evaded the powerful Fairy-type attack – not noticing as it blew the lurking Umbreon backwards towards the DMA machinery – and swung his horn to fire off an Ice Blade at Sylveon. She dodged, running around to his side, and he was forced to turn to follow.
Meanwhile, Houndour focused mainly on keeping the Espeon occupied. He Snarled at her, the pulse of Dark-type energy battering her Light Screen, then interposed himself to stop a Psybeam hitting Keldeo and formed more Beat Up copies – this time of Meganium, Keldeo himself, Pikachu and Lucario.
The quartet of Dark-type spectres got in a hit each, with the copy of Lucario managing two, before Espeon swept a Signal Beam around herself to clear the doubles out.
Grinning, Houndour pounced forwards while the feline Psychic-type was occupied. He feinted left, then right, and managed to slip in under her guard to bowl her over with a powerful kick.
Rolling back upright, the Espeon fired a Signal Beam at him. He jumped to one side, wincing as the Signal Beam hit one of his white bones before he got clear, and hit her in return with a burst of flame she couldn't fully shield against in time.
She began to charge another attack, and he slipped in quickly to headbutt her in the jaw before she could finish the process.
"Sucker..." he chuckled, dodging out of the way of a retaliatory paw swipe.
As he did, Keldeo was trying to hit the dodging Sylveon. He fired off two more Ice Blades, one of which clipped her tail and the second of which went uncomfortably close to Pikachu.
"Sorry!" he called, wincing, and evaded a second Moonblast before closing the distance on Sylveon and switching to physical attacks. He scored a hit with his hooves, catching Sylveon in the side and rolling her over once, but she came quickly to her feet and managed to evade the Scald that Keldeo sent her way.
Glancing over at Houndour's fight, Keldeo saw an opening. He spun, kicking out at Sylveon – who jumped back, her Moonblast fizzling – and fired a blast of water at her from his rear hooves. That sent her further backwards, spluttering, but the important bit was that it sent Keldeo jetting forwards.
He launched an Ice Blade at Espeon as he approached, hitting her in the side as she focused on preventing Houndour's Inferno from reaching her, and the shock of the impact left her unable to get out of the way of a follow-up Dark Pulse from Houndour.
"Thanks!" Houndour yapped, and returned the favour by hurrying over towards Sylveon. He ducked a Fairy Wind attack which only managed to clip his tail, feinted right, and hit her with a hasty Overheat.
Finally pushed beyond endurance, Sylveon collapsed.
Meganium hung back, trying to keep an eye on the whole fight.
She'd jump in if one of her friends was in too much trouble, but her main role here was something else entirely. As the Pokémon who could heal out of Ash's team, it was her job above all to revive Latias once she was freed from the DMA.
Shivering, Meganium remembered what Ash had said about it. Latios, much the stronger of the two Eon Pokémon, had been so drained by his long spell in the DMA last time around that the effort of stopping the tsunami had killed him – and Latias had survived.
This time, it was the weaker – Latias – who was in the machine. And that was scary.
The ground shook as someone outside used something powerful, and the roar of a Tyrantrum was abruptly cut off by what sounded like a yelp. Meganium itched to go out and help – but that wasn't her job. She was needed here.
Looking back over to the DMA, she winced again at the sight of Latias contorted in pain. There was a metal-rending crash from inside the museum, and her eyes flicked to the source – that was Lucario, but he was alright. Good.
Then a shower of icy shards came at her from her right, impacting on her skin almost before she noticed them. Crying out in shock and pain, Meganium turned – vines lashing out – and saw the Glaceon from earlier.
It hadn't been knocked out, like she'd assumed. A blast of cold air washed out from the Ice-type, battering her vines aside, and it fired an Ice Beam at her.
Meganium fired a blast of petals, which managed to mostly intercept and interrupt the Ice Beam, and stepped back warily looking for an opening.
The vulpine Glaceon didn't seem inclined to give her one. Building up a storm of ice, it readied an all-up Blizzard to throw at Meganium.
Dexter's projected form flickered as he tried to interface with the ancient technology in the DMA.
It was dizzyingly complex, but more importantly it was almost completely different to the computing structure he was used to. There were hints of something familiar – and it was, at least, Turing-complete – but apart from that it was frustratingly hard to make much headway. He was having to essentially perform digital first contact, writing new interface protocols from the ground up.
Wait...
Now that was familiar. He'd last run into it over a year ago on J's floating battleship, but the structure was familiar. And that had interfaced into much more modern systems... like... so!
Dexter glanced up briefly as something exploded. Seeing it was only Heracross, he returned his attention to the DMA.
Ah! The interface protocol he'd run into back on J's battleship did work. That let him use it to convert commands in his own machine language to whatever this used, which was very helpful.
A few more seconds, and he was past a layer of rather rudimentary ICE and into the system.
Unfortunately, it looked like most of the power feed measures were mechanical. Who came up with this thing?
This is an affront to proper systems design... Dexter muttered out loud. A battered-looking Umbreon pounced on him, and he fired a quick Signal Beam to knock her away towards the back of the museum before returning to his task.
It looked like the system which interpreted the gesture commands was very complex and very easy to shut down. That would, at least, prevent any more power draw.
Dexter didn't exactly need to carefully weigh the pros and cons of doing it. He deleted a line in the parser software, and Oakley started screaming and banging on the controls as they hashed and began to show gibberish.
Now, could he shut down the mechanism animating all those Fossils?
Dexter dove back into the code, looking for whatever it was sending that on.
Mega Heracross found himself facing two opponents at once, who both charged him as soon as he was halfway to the DMA.
The Beedrill came in first, spikes ready, and made to hit with a Poison Jab from all three at once – then buzzed in shock, and dove out of the way of a stream of Pin Missiles fired from Mega Heracross' left arm.
Recovering, the Beedrill tried to come in again from a different angle, and Mega Heracross discouraged him with a large rock from the other arm.
"Okay, how does that even make sense!?" Beedrill asked, exasperated.
Bisharp didn't have any useful insights to volunteer. He decided to contribute instead by attacking directly – bringing his bladed arms up and bringing them down in a Dual Chop.
Mega Heracross punched the arms as they came down, knocking them back and ruining the attack, before kicking the Bisharp unceremoniously in the chest and firing another Rock Blast at Beedrill as he tried to exploit any distraction.
This Rock Blast exploded on contact, knocking Beedrill back and some distance into the air.
Breathing space thus gained, Mega Heracross proceeded to hit Bisharp again as he got up. The blow sent the Steel-type skidding backwards a few paces, and he gave a steely-faced frown before swiping at Mega Heracross with a Guillotine.
Mega Heracross stepped back, firing a few Pin Missiles at Bisharp as he did so, and successfully avoided the Guillotine. He had a bit less luck with the abrupt Psycho Cut, which extended from Bisharp's arm blades and hit his chest-plate.
"Take this!" Mega Heracross announced, pulling back his right fist. It clunked, the chunky forearm section spinning around once, and then Mega Heracross delivered a devastating Focus Punch which knocked Bisharp against the far wall and clearly out for the count.
Beedrill buzzed in again, and got hit by another Rock Blast which took him out too.
On the whole, Mega Heracross thought, that hadn't gone too badly. He glanced around for somewhere else he might be needed.
"That's not nice!"
Glaceon's Blizzard fizzled out, as both she and Meganium looked in bafflement towards the speaker.
Mawile stomped forwards, hands on hips and looking very cross. "Miss Meganium is lovely and nice! And she wasn't fighting you or doing anything wrong, so you shouldn't attack her!"
Glaceon blinked. "But... this is a battle..."
"And Miss Meganium wasn't taking part!" Mawile scolded. "You're being very naughty!"
Shaking her head, Glaceon seemed to recover her equilibrium a bit. She looked down her nose at Mawile, and rolled her eyes. "Right, I'll handle you first."
Ice began to gather around her muzzle as she charged an Ice Beam.
"Mawile, look-"
Mawile's false-jaw swung forwards, glowed white, and headbutted Glaceon hard enough to knock her into the wall.
"...out?" Meganium finished, more uncertainly, as Glaceon slumped into unconsciousness. "Was that Iron Head?"
Mawile shook her head. "I said you were being naughty, naughty Glaceon. You should have listened!"
"Where'd you learn that, Mawile?" Meganium asked curiously.
"Mister Scizor was doing it at Professor Oak's place!" Mawile explained brightly. "And Mister Raikou helped explain how it was done!"
"...I'm not sure if that counts as a good influence or a bad..." Meganium said with a frown.
Latios skimmed invisibly through the room, coming to a halt just in front of the sphere which had held him in another timeline – and which now contained Latias.
Sis, we're here! Latios called, gaining her attention. Don't worry, we'll get you out of that thing!
Latias nodded, weakly, then her eyes widened. Latios, look out! Behind-!
Latios whirled around, and a pair of ghostly hands clawed at him. He pulled at them, struggling free of the Cofagrigus' first attack, and it hissed menacingly at him.
The Ghost-type didn't look very healthy, actually – the sarcophagus-shaped central body was battered and damaged, and purple lightning shot across the surface every so often. It looked like it was afflicted by some quite nasty poison, actually.
But, poisoned or not, it was still quite capable of fighting. Ghostly arms whipped out at Latios again, and he backed out of the way – since the Ghost could clearly tell where he was, he dropped his invisibility to focus more fully on the battle.
Flames shot from the Ghost's eyes as it used Will-o-Wisp, and Latios dodged to one side. He considered diving forwards in a Tackle, but realized that the Ghost-type was immune to attacks like that.
What does this Pokémon do, Latias? Latios asked, looking for advice.
It grabbed me and paralyzed me! Latias replied. It kind of... drained my energy, and knocked me out.
Right! Latios said, frowning. We'll see about that!
He feinted left and dodged right, avoiding the grabbing hands again, and heard a shout of rage from the woman operating the DMA. It sounded like the systems controlling it had gone a bit haywire, actually, and the whole structure shivered a bit.
Latios darted out of the way as Cofagrigus nearly managed to grab him, skimming right next to the Ghost and avoiding a burst of flame, and blocked the next attack with Safeguard. As he did, he racked his brains – what was that move he'd worked out once?
It was something about...
Latios! Latias called, as his distraction cost him. Cofagrigus grabbed Latios' left wing with a long arm snaking around the entire structure of the DMA, and hauled him in close.
Closing his eyes, Latios really hoped he'd remembered this right.
He opened them again, and two rings of multicoloured energy pulsed out from them. One went wide, hitting the DMA machinery, but the other one connected with Cofagrigus – apparently finally enough to knock the Ghost-type out.
What was that? Latias asked, sounding a little better now.
Psywave, Latios answered. I've only used it once before – that was decades ago. It took so long to remember how to...
He shook his head. How are you feeling?
Better, a bit, Latias confirmed. It's stopped-
She cut off mid-sentence, and winced as a new pulse of energy ran from her to the machine.
Latias!
Latios glanced back and forth between his sister and the DMA, and noticed something strange.
Part of the machinery, up where he'd hit it with Psywave, was rattling. Loose.
He floated a bit closer, keeping one eye on his exhausted sister, and as he did a stuck hatch opened fully and two small spheres clattered to the ground.
"Okay, seriously, what's up with this kid?" Annie asked, mostly to herself, as she evaded a kick from Ash and grabbed her remaining net gun from her belt.
Ash swung his staff in an arc, intercepting her arm as she brought the weapon up. It hit her in the elbow, and the net gun fell from nerveless fingers to clatter on the floor. Wincing, Annie gave ground and shifted her guard to her other arm.
"Oakley, can't you help over here?" Annie called. "Doesn't that machine have some kind of setting to – whoa!"
Ash feinted low, then rapped her shoulder with the brightly-glowing head of his staff.
"Ow!" Annie snapped. "You brat!"
"Annie, there's no setting to-" Oakley began, then there was a shattering sound from her control panel. "What? What just happened – where'd the controls go!? Work, you stupid-"
She hit the projectors with her fists, enraged, and something went clunk.
Annie wasn't having a much better time of it. Ash pressed her harder and harder, using his staff to extend his reach, and knocked away her grapple when she tried to get at it.
Finally annoyed beyond endurance, Annie overextended – just slightly. The punch she'd overcommitted to went a little wide, and Ash helped it on its way with an elbow strike before hitting her in the vulnerable knee with the butt of his staff.
"Argh!" Annie shouted. "You little-"
Ash punched her in the face.
"That felt way too satisfying," he said, shaking his head. "Guys?"
He glanced around, seeing that just about everyone else was finished. Even as he watched, Heracross transitioned back down from Mega and Pikachu blasted the Excadrill into unconsciousness about halfway back to the door.
There was a clattering sound from the DMA. "What was that?" Ash asked, surprised. "Dexter, did you-"
Not me, Dexter reported. Though the power reserves just stopped growing.
"Ash, we need to get my sister out of there!" Latios reminded him. "If you think that'll help, then fine, but remember what happened to-"
He stopped, thrown, and did a double-take at the base of the DMA.
"Why is that sphere glowing?"
Lucario hurried over. "I handled the Kirlia – Ash, why is your staff glowing?"
Ash glanced down, noticing that the capstone on his staff hadn't gone quiescent when Heracross had reverted. Instead, it was glowing more and more brightly – gold, then silver, then fusing into the familiar blazing orange light of-
-the flash of orange light died down.
"What was that?" Latios asked. "There was a bright light, but where did it come from?"
Latias gasped. Brother! You're- look!
Latios shared his sister's sight for a moment, and his jaw dropped.
His entire shape had changed.
The fins from his upper back had moved, or fused to his arms – he wasn't sure which – and he now found himself with a pair of broad, streamlined fins on the outer edges of his arms. If he held them right, which would mean his claws pointing behind him, they seemed like they would form a kind of wing surface.
A pair of fins like he'd had before were still there, but on the base of his body instead of the top, and there were minor changes to his head as well – the horn-tufts slightly different, two small spikes on his cheeks.
Most peculiar, though, was his colour. He was purple.
"What just happened?" he asked, out loud.
"You Mega Evolved!" Ash said, looking from his blazing staff to Latios. "But that must mean – and where's the Mega Stone?"
"Look," Lucario said, pointing. "One of the spheres that fell out of the DMA is gone."
"That must be it," Ash nodded. He blinked. "Wait – this means we can break down that forcefield! Latios – uh, I mean, Mega Latios-"
"What is Mega Evolving?" Mega Latios asked. "I've never heard of – wait, is that what your Heracross was doing? What Misty's Gyarados did?"
"That's right," Ash confirmed. "It means you're a lot more powerful now, but it's temporary. Usually it requires a strong bond between the trainer and the Pokémon, but..."
Mega Latios blinked, then frowned. "We can discuss it later. You said we could break down the forcefield?"
"Right!" Ash nodded. "There's a really powerful move Latios learn – I saw it in Sinnoh, it's called Luster Purge. If you use that, you should be able to break down the field!"
"Luster Purge..." Mega Latios repeated. "It sounds..."
The name seemed to speak to him. To something deep inside his psyche, something which was so deep it seemed inherited.
He inhaled, and the power seemed to come to him as he did. Energy, a deep purple like his current form, flowed towards him as he turned and took aim.
Latias, get to the bottom of the bubble, he said softly through their bond. I don't know how big this is going to be.
Latias did so without complaint.
Then the Luster Purge fired.
A beam of intense pink-white-purple energy erupted out from his mouth, and tore through the shield like a soap bubble. Two of the three rings clattered to the floor, a hole melted in one side of their metal, and the third one fell a moment later.
Ash caught Latias as she slumped to the floor. "Meganium, can you heal her?"
"I'll certainly try," Meganium said, hurrying over. She exhaled softly, a sparkling pink pollen building up in her flower, and then shook it towards Latias.
As her brother watched anxiously, Latias inhaled the glowing pollen. She coughed weakly, then her colour improved and she seemed to become more animated.
"Thanks," she said, taking another breath and rising slightly off the floor. "I feel a bit-"
Then there was another bright flash of orange light.
When it faded, it was Mega Latias hovering there.
She looked a lot like her brother, right down to the purple colour of her highlights. About the only difference was the colour of her eyes, which were a bright yellow-orange rather than Mega Latios' deep near-red.
"Latias – are you okay?" Mega Latios asked, concerned.
She smiled – and it seemed much more certain than before. "I feel great – better than I have since all this started! Better than-"
Mega Latias paused, not wanting to say it. Better than since you died.
"Why were there two Mega Stones in the DMA?" Lucario asked, curiously. "I mean, obviously Ash's staff is acting as the keystone here, but where did the Mega Stones-"
I can answer that one, Dexter said from his position over in a corner. The DMA, at least this time, was built to reverse the normal process of gaining energy for a Pokémon via Mega Evolution. As far as I can tell, the more affection the operator feels for the Pokémon used as a power source – the better the whole thing works, and the less pain and suffering it causes.
He paused. Speaking of which, I think I may have tripped an ICE program.
"A what?" Ash asked.
Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics. It realized I was hacking it, which is... bad.
"How bad?" Mega Latios asked, not happy at the sound of this new threat.
It's going into an emergency lock down mode. That means it's going to try to destroy the DMA – and the Soul Dew – to prevent it from being captured.
"That's terrible! How do we stop it?" Ash asked.
The main calculation mechanism's about twenty feet down through solid rock, Dexter told them. I'm not sure if-
"I know!" Mega Latias interrupted. "Brother – can you do that Luster Purge again?"
Mega Latios nodded. "Why?"
"Uh – Porygon? Where's the mechanism, exactly?"
Dexter floated quickly over to a point a little off-centre on the main floor. Directly under – here.
"Right!" Mega Latias grabbed her brother's finned arm. "Fire your attack straight down there, where the Porygon just showed us!"
I have a designation, you know... Dexter muttered.
"Right!" Mega Latios said, understanding. Dexter got out of the way, and Mega Latios charged up his Luster Purge a second time.
He spotted his sister doing something similar. "What are you doing, Latias? A Luster Purge as well?"
"Nope!" she told him, teasingly, sounding more like herself than ever, and he smiled with relief.
Then he fired – straight down.
The blast of purple and pink energy went straight through the museum floor. It smashed through the underfloor crawlspace, then burned through foot after foot of rock layered with ancient armour before finally petering out.
Then Mega Latias fired.
Unlike her brother's Luster Purge, Mist Ball was an altogether more subtle attack. There was no ravening blast of energy, just a globe of misty, compacted material which travelled at a comparatively leisurely velocity.
It then exploded, making the whole building shake on its foundations and sending a fountain of pulverized rock dust back up through the irregular hole Mega Latios had made.
The DMA seized up, twitched, and went quiescent.
We did it, Latias said, transitioning back down. Her brother did the same, exhausted, and the two of them floated limply to the floor.
The sound of movement made Ash look around.
Oakley's control pod had opened out, and she was leaning out – groggy, probably because the DMA had been flailing wildly around for the last couple of minutes and giving her a wild ride.
"Ow..." she muttered. "Hey, what's with the-"
As she reached for the dimming Soul Dew, Pikachu blasted her with a Thundershock.
"Not. Happening," he said, firmly.
Ash hurried over to inspect the battered gemstone. "Ouch..."
"How is it?" Latios asked, nervously. "That does not look-"
"I think it was pretty close to giving up," Ash said, kneeling in front of the holder. "Hold on, I think I..."
"Ash... what are you doing?" asked Pikachu, worried. "That looks familiar..."
"That's because it is," Ash replied, still concentrating. "It's what I did at Cameran Castle, to heal the Tree of Beginning."
He managed a grin, nodding to his worried Starter. "Don't worry, I know when to stop..."
As he spoke, the Soul Dew's glow began to brighten. It started out a deep, flickering purple, then as Ash poured Aura into it the purple lightened and cleared to become a modest, ocean-blue.
It was nowhere near the brilliant, shifting sky-blue it had been earlier that day, but it was certainly an improvement.
Ash finished his careful nourishing of the gemstone. "Good," he said, standing up – and wobbled, nearly falling over again.
Lucario was there in a moment, and supported some of his weight. "Careful, Ash – you put a lot of your own strength into that."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I guess..."
He double-checked his gloves were on, then picked the Soul Dew up – careful to make sure he wasn't accidentally touching it with his skin, in case that was bad for it.
"Let's get this home."
He looked around, ignoring the damage done to the museum – that didn't matter at the moment. "Uh – hold on a moment. Pikachu? I think the one in the control pod mentioned that she had a Mega Stone? Can you look?"
"Sure," Pikachu said, scurrying over and hopping up into the control chair. A few seconds of rummaging, and he had a Mega Stone – and a Key Stone – secured.
Ash took them. "Thanks – guess we could have a use for these sometime. And – hey, Latias, Latios? Maybe you should grab those Mega Stones you were using. I know they were part of the DMA, but you could probably use them better."
"That sounds better than leaving them lying around," Latios agreed, picking up the blue-marked Latiosite. His sister's Latiasite was almost the same – both had greyish-purple main stones with purple flecks, but the centre of her Mega fleck was a bright pinkish-red which matched her feathers.
"Let's go," Ash added, stepping away from Lucario now he felt a bit more steady on his feet.
Emerging from the museum, they found what looked a lot like a small warzone.
The fossils had disappeared with the shutting down of the DMA, but the evidence of battle remained – scorch marks, cracked stone, scored or melted pathways through the plaza tiles, water and mud all over the place, and one of the big pillars fallen and shattered.
"Hey, that's my one!" Latias said, feeling vaguely hurt, and that got everyone's attention.
"Ash! You're okay!" Brock called, a grin lighting his face. "And Latias, and – everyone's fine!"
"We are indeed," Latios said, with a smile. "Rather better than I was when this happened before."
He frowned, reminded. "Before – the sea! Is it going to-"
No, it's not.
The mental voice was one quite familiar to most of those present.
I handled the wave for you, Mewtwo said, floating down to a landing a little way in front of Ash. I also made sure that all the buildings with people in were unbreached by the fossils, that trainers knew where to go to link up with other trainers, and incidentally that the number three hover-jet on Jessie and James' new aircraft survived ingesting an Archen.
"Wow, thanks!" Meowth said, blinking. "Ya know, dat's a really nice-"
Abra materialized, picked up Meowth and Victreebel, and vanished.
I think I can guess what he was going to say to finish that, Mewtwo mused. Right, let's go somewhere more private.
There was a bright flash-
And the plaza was empty.
In Altomare's secret garden, everyone appeared in a bright flash on one of the larger lawns. Several Water-types landed with a splash in the lake.
There we go, Mewtwo said, dusting his hands off. Piece of cake.
"How'd you teleport Houndour and I?" Ash asked, curiously. "For that matter, how am I hearing you?"
Miracle Eye, Mewtwo explained. It's really quite simple. Anyway, I believe you have-
"Right," Ash agreed. He took the Soul Dew, walked over to the metal cage with Latias and Latios hovering around him, and placed it carefully in the water.
It flashed, then began to glow more brightly. The fountains started to let out water again, flowing into the canals, and Altomare somehow felt right again.
"Phew," Ash added, slumping back to sit down. "I think we need a bit of a rest, after that..."
Not surprised, Mewtwo agreed. I'll be over here if you need me.
There was another flash, and Mew appeared.
Hello, Mew, he added, a little warily. Nice of you to join us.
Mew ignored him. Hello! The playful Legendary said, waving cheerfully at Mawile. You're new!
"I'm only young!" Mawile nodded. "So that makes sense. What's your name?"
I am Mew, only young one, Mew informed her, and got a giggle in return.
Mew floated up a few inches, and faced Ash. She is adorable!
Ash chuckled. "Yeah, I'm glad to have her."
"Uh... Meganium?"
The Grass-type looked up from where she was soaking up the sun's rays. "Yes?"
Latias looked nervous, rubbing her hands together. "Um... Pikachu told me I should talk to you about... something..."
Meganium looked Latias over for a moment, then sighed. "Sit down," she suggested, using her vines to tap the slope next to her.
Latias nodded, a quick, jerking motion, and settled to the grass.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
"Uh... thank you for healing me," Latias said.
"It was no problem," Meganium told her. "Really. But I don't think that's what you wanted to talk about, is it..."
"No," Latias admitted. She swallowed. "Pikachu told me..."
Latias gathered her courage for a moment, then took the plunge. "He said you'd had a crush on Ash."
Meganium nodded, slowly. "I did. And – I guess you did. Or do."
"I-" Latias frowned. "It's hard to tell what I think. I've got... two sets of memories, and they're all confusing. I have one set where I saw Ash walking in the street, and... and I was attracted to him, a bit. And then he saved my brother, and I was so grateful to him. But... I guess I..."
She shook her head. "And then there's a second set, where I'd heard about Ash before he got here. He'd been in the news, as a skilled and famous trainer, and..."
Meganium waited a few seconds. "And what?" she asked, gently.
"And... I guess he meant freedom," Latias explained simply. "He's had Suicune for months now, other Legendary Pokémon for some time – at least, that's what I understand – and... I've never been allowed to be visible in Altomare, let alone leave, so..."
"...so you were a bit attracted to him, and you liked the idea of leaving – for a while, at least," Meganium filled in.
Latias nodded. "And then... this." She gestured around the garden, and Meganium took her meaning. "He saved my life. He literally rode to the rescue on a legendary Pokémon... and now I don't know what I think."
A moment later, Latias felt a pair of vines encircle her. Gently, just enough to let her know they were there.
"I know the feeling, Latias," Meganium told her, giving Latias a hug. "You want my advice? Talk to him about it. Maybe not now, but soon."
Latias nodded. "Thanks," she said, voice a little raw. "I think I will."
"You okay, Ash?" Misty asked.
Ash looked up, a tired grin on his face. "Yeah," he said, with a nod. "Yeah, I feel... great, really."
"I can see why you would," Misty agreed. "I mean, not only is it your birthday-"
"Did Brock ever tell you what I did for my birthday when I was fighting the Battle Frontier?" Ash interrupted.
Misty blinked, thrown. "Uh... not really, no."
"I didn't do anything," Ash explained. "Didn't really do much in Sinnoh, either. And... well, Altomare was why."
He sighed. "Last time... Latios died. I mean, I know the Entei in Greenfield died last time, but... it was my birthday, and I couldn't save him, and..."
"Ash..." Misty began, worried.
Ash rubbed at his eyes. "I'm alright," he said. "Really, I'm alright – I mean... Misty, have you noticed that things seem... harder, this time around? Ever since Shamouti, at least."
"Yeah, now you mention it," Misty nodded. "There were three Beasts at Greenfield, not one, and the Marauder had a lot more firepower."
"Right!" Ash nodded. "And – this time, it was harder than last time... and we won. We did better."
He sat back. "That's why I feel great."
"I can see that, I guess," Misty agreed.
She glanced over, and poked Ash. "Hey, get up, Ash!"
"I wasn't asleep..."
"Latias and Latios are coming over," she said, nodding.
As Ash sat up again, Latias reached them. "Uh, Ash?"
"Yeah, Latias?" Ash asked.
"I... thank you, for saving me," she said. "And... can we come with you?"
Ash blinked. He was about to reply, but Latios spoke up first.
"Latias – I appreciate that you want to leave Altomare. I won't stop you – it wouldn't be right, you have a chance to leave safely and do what you've dreamed of. But... this is our home, and our purpose is to protect the city. If you leave, I'll stay to keep it safe."
Latias shook her head. "No! Latios, I want you to come with me! I – don't want to lose you again."
The male Eon twin blinked. "Again – oh. Oh. Sorry, Latias, I didn't-"
"I know you're alive, now," Latias said, hugging him. "But – I feel so afraid. I didn't really appreciate you enough, and now – and – I'm afraid that if I go alone, you won't be here when I come back-"
Her voice caught for a moment.
"Latias..." Ash said, wincing.
"And-" Latias went on, swallowing. "I – how can you protect the city? How can either of us? We just got shown that neither of us is strong enough! We should be stronger, strong enough to protect ourselves or we're just a liability to Altomare!"
"I know, Latias," Latios agreed, bowing his head. "I was a complete fool. I should have agreed to Rayquaza's offer of training when he made it, decades ago. But... I didn't want to be away so long, and I wanted your childhood to last a little longer. I had to grow up too fast, sis... I wanted you to have the time to play."
"Exactly!" Latias said. "But Ash – even Pokémon like... have you seen what Pikachu can do? What Lucario can do? We'd be safest with him – and he could help us learn to defend ourselves!"
Ash frowned. "Hold on... I think I've got an idea. Misty, can you get Bianca?"
Misty blinked, unsure what Ash was going for, but nodded. "Sure."
She looked around for the aspiring artist, and saw her having a talk with Mewtwo on the other side of the garden. "Be back in a few minutes," she informed them.
"Right. Do you know what Mega Evolution is?" Ash asked, addressing the Eon twins directly.
"I... have some idea," Latios said, slowly. "It's what happened to us in the museum?"
"Right," Ash confirmed. "Heracross can do it, Misty's Gyarados can do it, and my friend Gary has a Blastoise which can do it. It's a big powerup for the Pokémon which gets it."
He indicated the staff on his back. "This is my Key Stone – a trainer needs three things for their Pokémon to Mega Evolve. A Key Stone which they have, a Mega Stone which the Pokémon has – a different one for each Pokémon..."
Latias glanced over at where they'd put the two stones from the museum, and Ash nodded. "Right. And the third thing is – a strong bond between trainer and Pokémon. That's it."
"Right," Latios said, nodding.
"Wait – you said trainer," Latias frowned. "How did it work with us?"
"Well, clearly the Pokémon doesn't actually need to be caught by the person using the Key Stone," Latios mused. "And as for the bond – yes, I can see how that would work. Ash saved both our lives, sister – I remember the effort and sacrifices he went through to save me."
Latias considered that, then nodded. "Right."
"So, my idea was-" Ash began, then noticed Misty returning with Bianca. "Right. Latias, Latios, can you get the stones from the museum?"
Latias nodded, zooming over to where she'd left hers and picking it up. Latios was a little slower, but they were both back by the time Bianca got there.
"Hi – Misty said you wanted a chat?" Bianca asked. "What's this?"
"Okay," Ash said, rummaging in his pocket and laying his staff on the grass. "Bianca, can you hold this?"
Bianca took the gemmed earring with some confusion. "Sure... uh, why?"
"Oh, I see where this is going," Misty smiled.
"Bianca – just think about Latios," Ash told her. "I know you've grown up knowing him, so I'm sure there's some good memories-"
"Right," Bianca said, still a little uncertain, and closed her eyes – thinking of the time she'd shared with the Eon Pokémon.
The first time she'd done a picture of him, with crayons and scrap paper, and he'd made squeaky noises of delight over it – one of the times he'd been as exuberant as his sibling.
The time she'd fallen into a canal, and Latios had been there almost before she'd hit the water – pulling her out, invisibly, and placing her back on the canalside as gently as a breeze.
And – the indescribable relief, when she saw both Eon twins emerging from the museum. Tired, but hale and whole.
There was a flash of orange light. Startled, Bianca opened her eyes – and saw the earring in her hand shimmering with light.
And Latios was... purple.
"What just happened?" she asked.
"It's Mega Evolution," Misty told her. "It's a way a Pokémon can become much more powerful by working with someone who cares for them. Ash, that's a great idea!"
Ash nodded. "Right. So – Latias, would you feel leaving Latios was safe for him if he was able to do that?"
Latias blinked. "I... actually, yeah," she admitted, as Latios shifted back down from Mega. She thought about it a bit longer. "I mean, I guess I'd feel he was safe if Latios was able to transform – but Bianca had better not let him out of her sight!"
"Bianca, what do you think?" Ash asked her.
She just looked a bit confused.
"...Ash, she didn't understand what Latias said!" Misty reminded him.
"Oh, right!" Ash chuckled nervously. "If you had that earring on you, and Latios or Latias was with you with their Mega Stones, then they'd be safe. Would you be willing to do that?"
"If it would keep Latias and Latios safe – then yes," Bianca nodded, understanding. "Wait, does this mean that you might be taking Latias away? I guess she's always wanted to – but she is my friend, and-"
"I may have a suggestion," Suicune volunteered, moving closer. "Sorry to interrupt, but – for we three of Ecruteak, Ash already has the system that we may leave whenever we wish. Perhaps one of you at most should be with him at any one time – but perhaps, if training is the intent, you should both spend some time with him."
"So Latias and Latios kind of commute?" Bianca asked.
Latias frowned. "I... guess that sounds fine," she admitted. "Latios?"
"It does sound sensible," Latios nodded. "It would ensure we were both safe, better able to protect Altomare – and had the chance to train, to become stronger."
"Great!" his sister beamed. "That's settled, then!"
She blinked. "Wait. Does this mean Ash has to catch us in Pokéballs?"
"That's a tough one..." Misty said. "If we left one of Dexter's transceivers here, then you two could swap places whenever you wanted to – if you were both caught."
"It's really your choice, though," Ash added. "I've made really sure with all the Legendaries who I've-"
"All the – how many do you have?" Bianca asked, then shook her head. "Never mind. I don't think I can handle many more shocks..."
"So, how are you getting along with Electrike?" Norman asked his son.
"Pretty well!" Max replied, stroking the stiff fur of his Electric-type. "I kind of think I should give him a nickname, though... any ideas?"
"Nicknames are a pretty personal thing," Norman said, frowning. "I wonder if-"
There was a clatter on the stairs as May came running down.
"Ethan just spotted – you have to see this!" she said, scooping up the remote control and turning their TV on.
"...the situation in Altomare seems to have largely stabilized. The marauding Fossil Pokémon from earlier have now vanished, and thus far all indications are that there were no serious casualties from the incident.
All indications are that this unexpected good news is due to the efforts of trainers – both local and those in town due to the Altomare festival – who fought off the strange invasion with great dedication.
In particular, all three of the Beasts of Johto were seen roaming the streets, rescuing those trainers or groups of trainers who were in trouble. Since Suicune and Entei have previously been confirmed to be caught by a trainer, the indications are that Raikou was present for the same reason."
"Wait..." Norman said. "Didn't you say Ash had caught Suicune?"
"Hang on, they're going to show it again," May told him. "Look!"
Jaws dropped as the shaky camera-footage was played. Taken from the second floor of a building looking towards the museum, it showed the friends' charge in with the Bull-Dozer, Mega Gyarados, the sheer number of fossils, someone who seemed to be Ash riding Keldeo towards the museum, and then there was a flash towards the right of shot.
The camera moved to show a Moltres materializing from a Pokéball, a hovering aircraft under attack by Aerodactyl and Archeops, and then a Pidgeot boomed past barely below the sound barrier and launched in a Sky Attack to clear the air around the hovering plane.
"...the heck?" Norman asked weakly.
May frowned. "Huh, more spectacular than usual... "
The footage wound on for several more minutes, capturing a huge battle around the museum, and then the fossils abruptly vanished.
There was a momentary shot of Mewtwo, and then everyone vanished.
"...when you get a chance, can you call Ash?" Norman asked. "I'd kind of like to know what the heck was going on there."
"Do you think that went alright?" Jessie asked, as their transport aircraft headed east towards a pre-arranged airstrip.
"Well, I don't know," James replied, steering them up a little to avoid some turbulence. "I guess we didn't manage to stop Annie and Oakley, but the Boss mainly wanted us to be seen – and we certainly were."
"Do you think we helped?" Meowth asked. "I mean, I kinda did a bit, an' Victreebel knocked out dis whole line o' Carracosta, but what about you guys in da museum?"
"Probably," Jessie nodded. "Growlie did a lot of damage – knocked out their Leafeon and Shedinja, I saw that – and I'm pretty sure Arbok managed to poison the Cofagrigus. He couldn't get through to the Sylveon, though."
"Growlie hit the Glaceon," James reported. He frowned, and increased the pitch on their piston engines a little. "Didn't knock her out, though, which might be a problem."
"What were Annie and Oakley tryin' ta do, anyway?" Meowth asked.
"Take over the world?" Jessie guessed. "That's the usual."
James frowned. "Wonder what's going to happen to them..."
Giovanni walked into the room, and sat down. For a long moment, all he did was look at the two humiliated agents.
"Can you give me one good reason why I should not have you both killed?"
"Sir, we-" Annie began.
"Do you have any idea how much you have cost us? How much your little scheme would have cost us if it went through?" Giovanni shook his head. "You've managed to single-handedly undo two years of patient PR work. Two years. I suppose I would be impressed, if I thought you meant to do anything like this."
"I-"
He continued talking over them, not deigning to notice that they were speaking. "As it stands, I have to convince several highly placed people that supporting Team Rocket initiatives is in their best interests. The legal ones, at that. It is only because you failed that I can salvage anything from this. That and that one of my top teams was visible in the area helping to stop you."
He fell silent for a second. Annie and Oakley didn't speak.
"Yubitsume. All of it. Both of you. You're not allowed Pokémon any more, you're assigned to grunt work, and if you make anything approaching a slip one more time then you will consider that merciful."
He stood, leaving the room without a word.
Gary came down to breakfast, squinting in the morning light. "Thanks for letting me use the spare bedroom, Professor Sycamore..."
His fellow researcher nodded, pushing a cup of coffee across the table. "I heard you getting up – here."
"Thanks." Gary took a swig, sighing. "Ah, that's nice."
"You'll like this, too," Sycamore winked, putting a magazine down on the table in front of him.
Gary glanced up at the title. "Pokémon journal? I mean, I do read it – everyone does – but-"
He paused mid-sip, eyes widening, as he spotted the cover splash.
Mega Evolution – examples and details
Below that was a big picture of a Mega Lucario, with smaller images all around the edges.
"What!? Did we get pre-empted?" he asked, shocked.
Sycamore shook his head. "I know a couple of guys who work at the journal, I showed them the paper early. We got the news late yesterday it passed peer review, and they managed to get it into this month's issue. Nice work, right?"
Gary put his coffee down a bit hard and opened the journal, glancing at the contents before leafing through to page 53.
Mega Evolutions – observations, conclusions, mysteries and further directions of research
Oak, Sycamore et al
"...I mean, wow..." he said, blinking. "This is... well, this is huge."
"I know, right?" Sycamore chuckled. "It's out there, now – enjoy it, Mr. Oak! I've only been in Pokémon a few times... but anyway, this means there's lots more research to be done. There could be whole papers on individual Mega Evolutions, now... and we're at the forefront!"
He waved his empty mug around, punctuating his sentences. "It's wonderful, isn't it! All that research to be done!"
"And I can use Mega Blastoise openly, now," Gary nodded. "It's pretty... huge?"
Sycamore looked up at the abrupt change in tone. "What is it, Mr. Oak?"
Gary nodded to the muted TV. "I think my friend Ash just got in trouble again."
Reaching for his pocket, he took out Dee's main body. "Can you call Ash?"
Placing call. Dee paused. Line busy. I think it's Ethan – that means May saw the news first.
"What have you done this time, Ash?" Gary sighed, rubbing his temples.
AN:
Phew!
There were a few experimental bits in there, and the whole "One big chapter" thing is experimental too. Let me know how I did – with the film as a whole and with this format in particular.
The idea of it being Ash's 13th birthday was because it fit with the timescale I've been using – and because of how it also explains why his other birthdays weren't celebrated afterwards. (Kind of a traumatic event.)
Jet-powered Keldeo is something I worked out a while ago. Given the amount of power he clearly uses in the Kyurem and Keldeo film, his minimum over-water speed with Ash is something like 70 mph—nothing to sneeze at – and that's a lower estimate!
The sisters, Annie and Oakley – they kind of brought reinforcements.
Pikachu's ground-type thing... yeah, that's an ongoing issue. I'll explain later.
I tried to fit in everyone in the teams of all three – Ash, Brock and Misty – except for a few unreachable at this time, like Lugia, Ho-Oh or Lapras.
Motto credit to Leonite.
And – yep, of course I had to have Mega-Eons. Not long until Hoenn...
