"Your mother," Ash said, looking down at his newest Pokémon, "is a fantastic negotiator."
"I'd gathered," Larvitar admitted. "How long do you have me for?"
"Two hours a day until the Conference, all day during, and alternate days afterwards," Ash rattled off. "Well, we've got a week or so to train first."
"I look forward to it," the little Rock-type said with a smile. "Mother taught me some ways to defend myself, but – I have little doubt you'll teach me some she didn't."
Ash smiled back. "I've got a few ideas. Let's see... hey, maybe Primeape can teach you Outrage."
"I... don't think I ever met him," Larvitar admitted. He glanced up at Latias. "Not that that necessarily means anything these days. What's he like?"
"Angry," Pikachu supplied. "Usually, anyway. He has a very focused kind of rage."
"...right." Larvitar considered that. "Why Outrage?"
"It's Dragon-type, so not much resists it," Ash explained. "Only Steel and Fairy, and you can learn Fighting and Steel attacks to handle those."
"Right."
"Oh, you have Hidden Power, right?" Ash asked, snapping his fingers. "Do you know what type it is?"
"No, sorry." Larvitar shrugged.
"It's okay, we can try to work it out. That could be pretty useful. Hmmm..." Ash glanced up as they exited the trees, then got back to thinking. "Oh, of course – Tyranitar are Dark-type. Did you learn any Dark attacks?"
"Bite, yes, but that's about it."
"Still a good start – Lucario knows Dark Pulse, though, he can teach you that. And I can see about getting you started on Aura."
"Can I join in?" Mawile asked. "I want to learn that too!"
"You're better at different moves to Larvitar," Ash told her, smiling. "You're a Fairy-type, though you could probably learn Steel moves at the same time as him. You could even show him how to do Iron Head."
"That sounds fun!" the young Pokémon said. "I get to teach my little brother how to do an attack!"
"I'm years older than you," Larvitar frowned.
"No you're not!" Mawile denied. "I saw, you hatched after me!"
Latias stifled a giggle.
"So, what you do is, you put your head forwards," Mawile said earnestly, demonstrating. Her horn-jaws swung down a little as well, coming to a position alongside her forehead. "And then you headbutt it!"
She cracked the bark of a tree.
Larvitar blinked. "It sounds like there's a step missing. Isn't that just Headbutt?"
"I don't understand the question," Mawile said, frowning. "It's how I do it."
"But you're made of iron. I'm not, so I need to have the Steel-type bit somehow."
"Oohhh, right," Mawile nodded. "I get it!"
Larvitar waited.
"Well?" he asked, after a few seconds.
"No idea!" she said, shrugging.
Pikachu came to the rescue. "I might be able to help you, Larvitar."
"Good," Larvitar said, gratefully. "I could see us going in circles for quite a long time."
"Okay, first I'm going to do the switch from normal to iron tail – just here. Watch."
Pikachu frowned briefly, concentrating, and his tail shimmered blue-white for a moment. "Did you catch that?"
"A bit," Larvitar said, looking closer. "Can you do it again?"
Pikachu complied, and Larvitar watched.
"I think I've got an idea," he said, after a moment. "See if this is going in the right direction."
"Pikachu's really good with them," Misty smiled. She lobbed another ball at Golduck, who deflected it with a pulse of psychic energy.
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I guess it's because... you know, I've never really taken him off my team. He's had the most experience dealing with Pokémon from all over, from Caterpie and Pidgeotto to Pokémon like Iris' Axew."
"You miss them, don't you?" Brock asked, seeing Ash's expression.
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I'm afraid to try and contact them, in case I... well, wreck their lives, I guess. I've been lucky so far, and it looks like very little changes so long as I don't get too close.. but I do miss them."
He sighed. "I was thinking of giving Kalos a try, actually... then, I mean. Just an idea."
"You just can't sit still, can you, Ash?" Brock chuckled.
"Nope!" Ash replied firmly, chuckling. "Where'd the fun be in that?"
He frowned. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Dexter, I've got a training idea for you and Lucario."
This sounds worrying.
Lucario hit the ground lightly as Ash sent him out, and took a slow, deep breath. "What do you think we should do?"
"Well – how's your Mirror Coat, Lucario?" Ash asked, glancing up at the sky – where Togekiss, Crobat, Pidgeot and Latias sparred – then returned his attention to the two Pokémon beside him.
"Reasonable," Lucario hedged.
"Reasonable should be good enough. Okay, here it is – tennis!"
There was a pause.
"I don't get it," Lucario told him.
"Okay, here it is," Ash began. "Dexter, you go over there – bit further, bit further – there. Now, you're going to be firing attacks at Lucario – who won't be dodging."
"I won't?" Lucario asked, then nodded. "Ah. I see."
"Yeah, you're going to be using Mirror Coat to send them back at Dexter," Ash agreed. "That'll give you training at that, and Dexter at quickly switching from attack to defence."
Interesting. My serve.
Dexter unfolded into combat configuration, and Ash prudently moved out of the way.
Tyranitar looked up as the transceiver flashed.
A Pokéball bounced out of it, opened, and released her son.
"Afternoon, dear!" she said, picking him up and giving him a hug. "How was your lesson?"
"I can now headbutt rocks in half," Larvitar told her.
"I knew this would work out well!"
"I'm surprised how big this town is," Ash admitted, looking up at Mt. Silver. "I mean, isn't that a dormant volcano?"
"Volcanoes often have a lot of people around them, Ash," Brock told him. "And it's active – it last erupted during the Shogunate."
Ash winced. "That must have been pretty bad..."
"I remember hearing about it," Misty volunteered. "They had a week or so's warning from the local Xatu, which meant they knew what was coming – and there was only ash fall, no lava."
"Oh," Ash blinked. "That's not so bad."
Misty shrugged. "I guess active volcanoes just have a bad press."
"Well, they can be quite nasty – Mount Chimney..." Brock began, then shrugged. "Oh, you probably know anyway."
"Pretty much," Ash agreed. "Remember the thing with Groudon?"
Brock winced. "Yeah..."
Ash glanced up. "Hey, is that – it is! Look, guys, it's Mr. Goodshow!"
"Who's that I hear?" the spry man said. "Ah, if it isn't the Kanto Champion! Ash!"
The trainer in question flushed. "I... it still feels strange, hearing someone say that – most people don't, and it sounds more like something someone would call Lance."
"Don't be so modest, my boy!" Mr. Goodshow said, coming over and pumping Ash's hand up and down in a ferocious handshake. "Good to see you. Good to see you! I hope you, and everyone else, put on a good show!"
"Badum tish," Brock said, deadpan.
"What's that?" Mr. Goodshow asked, glancing over at Brock for a moment. "Anyway, it's good you arrived so early, there's more than enough time to get everything sorted out. Oh!"
The organizer pointed at Ash. "Now, I saw you on the news a few times! I heard you had Legendary Pokémon, young man!"
"Uh – yeah," Ash nodded, a little embarrassed. "I wasn't going to-"
"I was going to make an announcement anyway, at the start of the conference," Mr. Goodshow overrode him. "It's because of these Mega Evolutions everyone's talking about, so I'll just add Legendaries to the list. No more than one of each without prior agreement!"
Brock blinked. "...that's it?"
"That seems very permissive," Misty added.
"Well, what's more spectacular than a battle with two really powerful Pokémon?" Mr. Goodshow asked, winking. "Now, a little bird told me that you might not be the only person with one of those, so we should get some smashing battles!"
"Uh... okay," Ash nodded. "Sounds fun! I was worried about what I was going to do... though I guess using Pokémon like Entei or Keldeo or Lugia might-"
"Lugia?" Mr. Goodshow asked, delight in his voice. "Wonderful! Simply wonderful! Tell me, young man, what other secret treasures are you bringing to the humble Silver Conference?"
Ash looked a little lost. "Pardon?"
"I think he wants to know what other Legendary Pokémon or Mega-evolving Pokémon you have," Pikachu suggested.
"Oh, right!" Ash said. He winced. "Well, I'm not even sure about Lugia – he said he wanted to come... the others might not."
"And who are these others?" Goodshow pressed.
Ash took a deep breath. "Ho-Oh and Mewtwo," he said. "But I'm not sure if-"
He stopped, seeing the grin on Mr. Goodshow's face.
"This will be amazing!" the man said, beaming. "You'll have to ask – even if Ho-Oh can't compete, he should be there for the opening ceremony! Excellent!"
"Calm down, sir," Brock advised. "You're getting a bit overexcited..."
As he said it, Mr. Goodshow restrained himself with a bit of an effort. "Sorry, I – very sorry about that, I just think this is going to be one of the best Pokémon League Tournaments for a good while. Not just the new scheduling, but this..."
"What's the new scheduling?" Misty asked.
"Oh, it's simple!" Goodshow beamed. "First off, all competitors are entered into a random draw which gives them between one and three matches to impress the judges. They can use one Pokémon each in each of those judged matches! Once that's done, there's a three-trainer round-robin six-on-six, and after that it's a straight elimination tournament! What do you think of that?"
He blinked, seeing their blank expressions.
"...wait, how does that work?" Misty asked. "What about the people with a really good team who get one bad matchup in the first bit?"
"...I'm guessing you don't like it?" Goodshow said, with a sigh. "Oh well. Was it at least interesting?"
"The round-robin sounds alright," Brock told him. "Maybe you could do those, but three-a-side? And then the top one or two go through to the finals?"
"Maybe that does sound better..." Goodshow muttered. "I'll certainly give it a think.. wonder how many..."
He trailed off, muttering.
"Perhaps if-"
"Sorry to interrupt, Charles," a voice interrupted. The friends glanced up, and saw a caped man who was unmistakeably Lance walking towards them. "I'm afraid I'll have to borrow two of your friends here."
"Oh, by all means!" Mr. Goodshow nodded. "By all means."
"Good," Lance said courteously. "Misty Waterflower, Ash Ketchum, would you mind accompanying me?"
"What's going on?" Ash asked, confused.
"Well, I suppose you'd know – it's the selection meeting for the prospective Elite Four candidates, Misty's invited. As for you..." Lance smiled. "I've got a few things to ask you as well, so I thought I'd pick you both up at once."
"Sure!" Misty nodded. "Let's get going, then!"
Much to Ash's surprise, they didn't have far to go.
Lance led them through the streets of Silver Town, past the Ho-Oh Shrine – still quiet, with a few days to go until the ceremonies started – and into one of the better hotels surrounding the Pokémon Centre. They went up two floors, and Lance motioned them into a conference room off a plush corridor.
Inside were several other trainers, all older than Ash and Misty – Ash recognized Lorelei and Bruno, sat next to a projection screen, and Koga who was leaning against the wall.
The others were new to him – a young man in his early twenties with a flamboyant outfit and a Solosis hovering by his shoulder, a slightly older grey-haired woman sat on the far side of the table, and a firey-haired girl who looked to be in her late teens and had a Growlithe by her side.
"And here's our last two," Lance said, as he came through into the room behind Ash and Misty. "Misty's the other prospect, and since Ash Ketchum was-"
He was interrupted by a yelp from under the table.
Ash glanced down, and saw a pair of red eyes staring at him in shock and what seemed to be terror.
"Nope!" said the owner of the eyes, who turned out to be an Absol. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!"
She bolted out from under the table, past her trainer, dove at the window, and bounced off with a reverberating DONG.
"Absol!" Karen called, jumping out of her seat and hurrying over. "What's gotten into you?"
"...what just happened?" Lance asked, bewildered.
Feeling obscurely guilty for how he'd somehow scared the poor Dark-type, Ash sent out Meganium to help her out with Heal Pulse, Aromatherapy, and a nice chat.
"There we go," the Grass-type said, after calming Absol down a bit. "Feel better?"
Absol shook her fur out, still a bit wide-eyed. "I feel a little better," she admitted. "But – what is that boy? I look at him, and it's like he's a walking disaster area!"
"You're not far wrong..." Meganium admitted. "Ash is a bit of a weirdness magnet. What do you actually see?"
The Dark-type took another breath of the soothing scent. "Well, with most people it's kind of... the trouble they'll run into. Minor things today, more major things further out. Very general, though, and it's stronger the more likely something is."
She shook her head. "But looking at that boy, I see a confusing mish-mash of catastrophes overlapping and layered onto one another. I guess, looking more closely, I did panic a bit, but..."
"But?" Meganium prompted.
Absol groped for the words. "It's... they're still further away than I first thought, but they're a lot bigger. I can't actually tell much more than that, the echoes of possibility are all kind of reverberating off one another and confusing me."
"That sounds... painful," Meganium winced. "I hope you feel a bit better now."
"I think I'm just going to not bother looking over that side of the room," Absol muttered. "And try to ignore my subconscious telling me to run away."
"Well, now that that's sorted out," Lance said, with a slight questioning tone.
"She seems calm now," Ash informed them.
"Yes, we're going to talk about how you can tell..." Lorelei muttered. "Anyway. Let's get going. First – thank you all for coming, candidates."
Misty took a steadying breath.
"We're sorry for calling you to turn up so early compared to our original deadline," Lance began. "But fortunately you were all finished with your challenges anyway – sterling work."
Koga nodded silently.
"Thanks," Courtney said, smiling briefly. "It was interesting fighting Registeel."
Lance nodded. "You've all done well – congratulations. Now... there's going to be a total of three slots available. I am stepping down from my current position to revert to Grand Champion, since I only took the fourth seat in the first place in order to make up the numbers."
Nods.
Lorelei spoke up next. "I'm stepping down in order to focus on my writing business, which is really taking off, and – how did Agatha put it, Bruno?"
Bruno frowned. "Something like... she wanted to retire while there were still a few months left in her." The fighting-type specialist sniggered. "She's been going on about that for ages, and she's only just sixty-five."
"Don't you know not to ask a lady's age?" Lorelei asked archly.
"I didn't have to, I worked it out," Bruno replied with a wink.
Lance caught the expressions on the applicants. "I see you're surprised how we're relatively informal in private. We're friends, as well as colleagues."
Misty nodded. "I guess that makes sense."
"So – because there's three people moving, we asked more than the usual number of prospective candidates." Lance looked around the room, nodding to each in turn. "You've all done very well, but I'm afraid we've reached the point we have to select."
There was a shifting, as people pulled their chairs in or leaned a little forwards in anticipation.
"There's a few things we consider," Lance went on. "It's not just your performance when facing your Legendaries, but how hard they were. Similarly, it's the nature of how you helped the Pokémon you did – nothing's a rubber stamp, here."
He smiled. "Team variety plays into it, too – even the Pokémon that aren't of your type, since they show you're able to raise a variety and do it well. So."
Another pause.
"Lance, get on with it!" Lorelei said tartly. "These poor people have been waiting long enough!"
"Karen, of Goldenrod," Lance began, and Karen looked up in surprise.
Lance nodded to her. "You went far afield for your challenges, which is to be commended. Your battle against Lugia was brave and showed inspired strategy, while your decision to travel to Sinnoh to clash with the Darkrai of New Moon Island was one that we did not expect."
He smiled. "And, of course, you did well indeed to prevent that Spiritomb at Lavender Town from panicking. Well done indeed, Karen – you are our first selection."
Karen blinked, somewhat shocked.
Her Absol, now seemingly mostly recovered, padded over – keeping her distance from Ash – and licked her palm, head-blade carefully tilted away from anything vital.
"Thank you," she said, recovering a bit. "Sorry, I'm a little-"
"Understandable," Lance nodded. "Courtney, of Vermillion – you at one point sent us a letter informing us you had declined. Might I ask why you changed your mind?"
Courtney blushed. "I... well, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with it. I'm still not sure, really – but I thought I should at least give it a go. See if I was capable."
Lance smiled. "I see." His expression turned a bit harder. "Unfortunately, while you are clearly Gym Leader material, I don't feel that your challenges were up to the standard of the Elite four – it's a demanding task, working in this Elite Four, as we have to watch over and work within two regions."
Courtney pursed her lips, considering that.
"Thanks for letting me know," she said, eventually. "Sorry, I guess – for wasting your time."
"On the contrary, it's always good to know about up-and-coming trainers. I'll recommend you to Blaine as a possible secondment," Lance consoled her. "Will, of Saffron."
Will faced up, calmly.
"If Karen went far afield, you went to astonishing lengths. How was Unova?" Lance quipped, and the laugh that followed broke the tension a little. "I understand you challenged the Swords of Justice to duels."
"I did," Will confirmed. "I would like to submit my battle against Terrakion for consideration, since I did best with that one."
Ash and Misty exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing – he fought all three?
"Accepted," Lance said promptly. "And your battle in Sinnoh was also a worthy feat – even to find Giratina is a great achievement, let alone battling him."
Will inclined his head in a small nod. "He destroyed me, though," the Psychic-type trainer pointed out.
"That's hardly surprising. I'd be worried if he hadn't," Lance said. "Nevertheless, we consider you to be a skilled enough trainer that we're going to be robbing Sabrina of her most promising trainee – you're second on the selection list."
Will took this fairly stoically, nodding and sitting back.
"Misty, of Cerulean."
Misty swallowed.
"It has been a long time since we had someone who fought the Beasts of Ecruteak for their challenge," he said. "It has also been a long time since I personally witnessed part of any challenge for an applicant to the Elite Four. Your youth tells against you, but your skill and the skill of your Pokémon counteract that. You are our third selection."
"That's..." Misty's voice was brittle, and she stopped speaking for a moment. She resumed, a little more firmly. "That's... thank you. Even after I got the letter, it's still... well, a surprise, I guess." She chuckled, shaking her head. "Sorry, this is a bit overwhelming."
"I'm not surprised," Lance smiled. "You're one of the youngest to get the nod."
"Well," Koga said, pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against. "I suppose that means I don't get in."
"I'm afraid so," Lance nodded. "It's just a case of there being so many good candidates – you're Elite Four material as well, just less so than these three. If Bruno ever wants to retire-"
"Ha!" Bruno laughed. "That'll be the day."
"It'll come to all of us sometime," Lance shot back. "Anyway, if Bruno does decide to step down, or if a space opens up for some other reason, rest assured you'll be called upon."
"Thanks," Koga nodded. "Perhaps it's for the best, anyway, Janine's on the cusp of being ready to challenge for the right to operate Fuchsia but I'd really prefer her to have a couple more years."
"Well, it's nice when things work out," Lance smiled. "Koga, Courtney, thank you for your time – and sorry the journey was wasted."
Courtney shrugged. "I wouldn't say it was wasted, at least I get to stay in a nice hotel during the busy season at Mount Silver."
"Very upbeat of you," Lorelei said, approvingly. "I like it!"
Koga strode from the room in silence.
"I hope he wasn't too offended..." Lance muttered, as the door shut.
"From what I remember, Koga's a bit stoic at the best of times," Misty volunteered.
"True," Bruno chuckled. "Right. What's next..."
Lance glanced down at a sheet of paper on the table. "Right. Now, the switch-over isn't happening immediately, we're aware you all have arrangements to make – for starters, housing, since we do have some connections. In particular – Misty?"
"Yes?" Misty asked.
"As you're a Water-type trainer, you're going to want a place of residence with good facilities for Water-types. You've got a fairly large – but not unreasonable – budget and some leeway on how you spend it, so keep that in mind. In any case, the formal changeover is going to take place in a month or so."
The three newly selected candidates nodded or muttered to themselves.
"Who's going to be handling the challenges?" Will asked. "The Silver Conference starts next week, and it's going to take a while..."
"Well, that's one reason I'd asked Mr. Ketchum to join us," Lance replied. "I'll get onto it in a moment. Don't worry, though, you won't be expected to fight challengers for a while after you're settled in – or, rather, Bruno will be the first challenge they face."
Bruno chuckled. "Wish me luck."
"Actually," Karen said, frowning. "That does raise a question. What order would we normally be expected to battle in?"
"That's up to you to work out," Lance told them. "The most recent set was a rotating one, we took turns, though as the Grand Champion I was always last."
He paused a moment. "Of course, no-one actually got to me... anyway. As members of the Elite Four, you may also join a group called the G-men. It's basically something for us to do the rest of our time when we're not handling challengers, assessing prospective Gym Leaders or training, and it involves trying to pre-emptively handle trouble."
"Lance, you and Bruno were the only two members of the last set who were part of it," Lorelei sighed.
"So?" Lance asked. "I'm making the option available. Any further questions?"
Misty raised a hand. "What about our Pokémon who aren't of our type?"
"Ah, that's an interesting one!" Lance smiled. "I forgot to mention that. The usual practice is that they're available for Gym Leader candidates to use – so your Togekiss would be a prime choice for a prospective Flying-type or Fairy-type leader to take Bruno or Karen on, actually."
"Interesting," Misty nodded. "So that's where the Pokémon I used in my own test came from?"
"Some of them," Lance hedged. "There's a larger number who are just part of the general pool."
Misty nodded, satisfied. "Thanks."
"What he's not telling you is that he raises a lot of them himself," Lorelei chuckled. "All kinds of dragon-types or Dragon egg group Pokémon."
"Lorelei..." Lance said warningly.
"That's why he has to keep buying new capes!" Bruno added, quickly, before his boss could make good on the threat in his voice. "They keep biting holes in-"
"Bruno!" Lance snapped, but too late. The room dissolved in laughter as the nervous new members of the Elite Four pictured it, and after a moment Lance joined in ruefully.
"Well, so much for that," Lance sighed, once they'd got it out of their system. "Does anyone have any further questions?"
None were forthcoming.
"Okay," Lance nodded. "Any further questions, I'll be in town for the next month or so unless things go badly wrong somewhere – and so will Bruno. Misty, could you and Ash Ketchum stay for a minute?"
Karen and Will gave them confused looks for a moment, then shrugged. Karen left by the door, her Absol still avoiding looking at Ash, and Will sent out an Elgyem which teleported him somewhere.
"Is this about me?" Ash asked, as the door closed.
"It is, that's correct," Lance confirmed. "There's two separate issues here. Firstly – I've noticed you seem to get involved in an awful lot of... strange circumstances."
"What do you mean?" Misty frowned. "I've probably been in all of those..."
"Maybe," Lance nodded. "But Ash is usually the one who's more clearly taking major action – we saw his Charizard on the news, and that was clearly mostly his team in Altomare. And he's one of the few trainers we know to have more than one Legendary."
Lance turned to Ash. "So – first question. We know you've got at least four Legendary Pokémon, but how many is it really?"
"Nine," Ash answered. "Lugia, Ho-Oh, Mewtwo – those are ones I just hold the Pokéballs for, I don't use them in battle-" Lance nodded in understanding, and Ash continued. "Latias and Latios I'm training in rotation, we've not worked everything about that out yet. And there's the three Beasts of Johto, as well as Keldeo. They insist I use them properly."
"Most trainers wouldn't need to be forced," Lance commented. "Interesting. And we've seen or heard of you all over the place, usually saving lives or Legendaries – New Island, Shamouti, Greenfield, the Lake of Life, that incident in the Whirl Islands, and now Altomare. There's also what happened at the Lake of Rage, and at Gringey City when you saved one of my clan members."
Ash fidgeted, as the recitation brought home just how often that kind of thing happened. "Yeah..."
"Ash Ketchum," Lance went on. "The annals of the Dragon Clan are incomplete, but I think I have found the reference I want. Are you one of the Chosen?"
Misty blinked, not having expected that question.
"That's right," Ash confirmed. "I didn't know until I met Ho-Oh, but... yeah, I am. And I think Ho-Oh mentioned the Dragon Clan are too."
"Correct," Lance agreed. "Though we barely use the term any more. I see you've been living up to your heritage, and more."
Ash blushed a bit. "Yeah... I just run into things, I guess. And my normal instinct is to... well, help..."
"You certainly run into a lot of situations where you can-" Lance began.
There was a bright blue flash, interrupting him, and all eyes turned to the centre of the table.
"Don't tell him about that, that's... a bit..." Celebi looked around, and sighed. "I was two minutes early again, wasn't I..."
"Pardon?" Ash asked, blinking. "What just-"
"I wanted to make sure things don't go too far off what my plans say!" Celebi said, as the Elite Four members stared. "So far we've kept it all nice and lined up with making sure you get all your Pokémon and meet people when you should... mostly."
"Mostly?" Misty asked.
"May and Max was a mistake, but at least it was a fortunate one!" Celebi told her brightly. "Now-"
"What's Celebi doing here?" Lance asked, shaking off his shock.
Celebi blushed. "Oops... I might have caused more trouble than I was planning to fix..."
"Time travel's involved," Ash said, keeping an eye on Celebi. "When we saved her at the Lake of Life – that battle with the Iron Masked Marauder – we kind of broke time."
Lorelei blinked. "What."
"Okay, so – there was Professor Oak there, as a young boy, because Celebi brought him forwards in time. And there was a bit of a time paradox, and Molly Hale's Sylveon was involved, and..." Ash shrugged. "Long story short, the Fairy-type happened. We altered history a lot."
Bruno blinked. "So you – but wait, the Fairy-type has always been there. It's one of the Eighteen Types, it's why I have a Toxicroak..."
"It's always been there since Molly's Sylveon was at the creation of the Plates," Misty said. "Before that-"
"But that doesn't make sense!" Lance burst out. "How can there have been a Sylveon there if the Fairy-type didn't exist until a Sylveon went back in time? Why are you using the word before?"
"Tell him that if he's got a headache he's getting the hang of it," Celebi suggested. "Oh, you should probably tell him about Galactic, too."
"Right," Ash said, glancing at Celebi again. "Celebi said that if you don't have a headache you're not understanding time travel, basically. She also mentioned a team who are going to cause a lot of trouble in the future – Team Galactic, up in Sinnoh."
Lance sighed. "I can see I'm going to understand less after this meeting than before. Right, Galactic – I'll let Cynthia know, she can keep an eye out."
He turned to Celebi. "What's going on? Why him?"
Celebi frowned. It's because he's the Chosen One, she said, now speaking to Lance directly. Not just 'one of the Chosen' – it's been directly affirmed by a large number of legendaries, including the Creators.
"...when did he meet Arceus?" Lance asked, now completely lost. "When did he meet Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, for that matter? Is this more time travel?"
He has been sent back in time to fix a great wrong, Celebi told him. Too many details are a major problem here – but tell Cynthia this. Keep an eye out for Team Galactic, and for Cyrus – he's the leader.
Lance looked like he was brimming with questions, but clamped down on most of them. "Is that all we can know?" he asked, after a moment.
"And can we be sure-" Bruno began.
I'm afraid it's about all you can know now, Celebi said. I'm sorry, but I've checked. Rest assured, we'll keep Ash running into the major disasters, and he's good enough to solve them.
"Right..." Lance said, sighing. "I suppose that's as much as I'm getting."
Afraid so. Bye!
Celebi vanished.
"...I followed maybe half of that," Lorelei admitted.
Lance sighed, rubbing his temples. "Maybe I'd have been happier not knowing... anyway. Right. There was one other issue I wanted to bring up with you, Ash, and fortunately it's somewhat less grim of a matter."
He managed a smile. "You heard that three of us are stepping down, one way or another – Agatha, Lorelei and myself. You've currently got challenge rights. Well, first – rest assured that if you win the final, your opponent gets the right to challenge too. People with the right can still compete, and it's not preventing anyone from getting a slot."
Misty blinked. "Wait, does that mean I might have to fight Ash at the end of-"
"No, actually," Lance told her. "There's a short moratorium on challenge at the end of the Silver Conference, because of that. The current plan is, instead, to give the current slate of Elite Four members a grand send-off. Four exhibition matches, one for each of us."
He nodded at Ash. "You said you had nine Legendaries available? I think you're a suitable opponent for those."
Ash's jaw dropped.
"It's not a challenge, not formally, but..." Lance shrugged. "It should look spectacular."
Gary squinted through the hail, trying to see the combatants. "Arcanine, you doing okay out there?"
His reply was a flicker-flash of flame, and then a Fire Blast speared out of the snow and detonated on the leg of his opponent – a large, sturdy Avalugg.
"Good work!" he called, as Wulfric's third Pokémon staggered back a bit. "Just a bit more, Arcanine! You're doing fine!"
There was a howl out in the artificial snowstorm that had been raging since Abomasnow had been sent out, and Arcanine charged out of the hail with flame enveloping his legs and spreading to his body.
Avalugg shook itself, eyes flashing, and fired a Water Pulse out towards his opponent. The moment he did, Arcanine jinked – sending up a great plume of swiftly-melting slush as he drifted across the icy floor and out of the way – before blurring forwards in a series of splashes and leaping high into the air.
As the Ice-type lowed deeply and fired a Blizzard, Arcanine's forepaws hit the Avalugg's back. He snarled, gripping on hard as the Blizzard tugged at his frosted fur, and then launched another Fire Blast in at point-blank range before leaping off. Avalugg's next attack – a violent Double-Edge – knocked his paw as he jumped, and he landed a little askew.
Panting heavily and favouring one paw, the Fire-type turned back towards his foe – watching, to spot any sign of weakness.
Avalugg growled one more time, and then slowly slumped sideways.
"Very good!" Wulfric called, as Arcanine sank to the floor himself in exhaustion. "I wondered why you did not change after two, since the hail was taking its toll, but you raise your Pokémon well!"
"Thanks," Gary said, recalling Arcanine for a well-earned rest. "He wanted to see if he could do it, and... well, I believed in him."
"A noble sentiment!" Wulfric declared. "Well, you now have all eight badges! Most impressive, for a scientist!"
Gary winced. "I'm not just a researcher... I mean, I'm studying Pokémon and how they battle, which means being a trainer."
"That is true!" the burly Gym Leader agreed. "Will you be in the League, then?"
"Sounds like fun," Umbreon volunteered. "See how far we get this time, and all that."
"I think.. yeah, I'll give it a go," Gary said. "Seems rude not to."
And, he thought, silently, it might placate Blastoise. He was all sulky that I was going to use Arcanine first...
AN:
Mawile's logic is impeccable.
The Silver Conference setup – I've changed it from the original, because the original was a bit incomprehensible for me.
That poor Absol...
As for the Elite Four stuff itself, it's a bit complicated and a bit info-dump-y but it's one of those meetings where things get worked out. (Congratulations, Misty!)
