This is the first of two chapters today.


"I still don't get how come you have so many cool Pokémon so soon!" Barry said, looking at Togekiss as she danced in mid-air – a light dusting of Fairy Wind giving her a beautiful sparkling trail, which she used to sky-write a Pokéball shape. "I mean, Dad let me use some of his Pokémon last time he visited but he decided that was a bad idea! And I don't think it was a bad idea, I mean, Dragonite only knocked over two trees-"

"I remember that one," Dawn pointed out. "And yeah, technically only two trees got knocked over, but that's because the third one got blown to splinters!"

"How was I supposed to know Hyper Beam would do that much damage?" Barry asked. "Anyway, it was pretty cool – and speaking of cool I think I worked out what starter Pokémon I want, because I think your Piplup is pretty neat and I bet Empoleon are really good at going around super-fast! Hey, did Ash ever talk about that Empoleon he battled in Olivine? I saw that one on the internet, it was flying all over the place!"

Barry watched as Togekiss came swooping down overhead, then took a step back as she landed in front of her new part-time trainer.

"Good work," Dawn told her. "I think that's a good opener – maybe we could do something in a double Contest where you do that, and then Piplup comes out of the middle of the ball shape."

Togekiss considered that, and nodded.

As she did, Barry heard a rustling sound.

"Hey, did you hear that?" he asked. "I wonder if it's the Lake Pokémon. Maybe if it's hiding here outside your house then that means it's got a connection to you – do you think that's possible?"

"More possible than I thought last year," Dawn replied absently. "Okay, Togekiss, I think that's enough for the afternoon – want to stick around while Quilava and Mamoswine practice?"

Togekiss nodded, settling back and rearranging her wings so they let her sit down properly.

As Dawn began to get Mamoswine into position, Barry frowned. Then he crouched down, and pulled aside the branches of the nearby bush.

"DAWN!" he yelled. "Come and look! It's Celebi!"

"What!?" Dawn asked, as there was a high-pitched yelp from in the bushes – then a bright flash of green light and Barry fell backwards.

"Nope, Celebi's gone," Barry said, seemingly unfazed by the small explosion that had just taken place in front of him. "Pity, you should have seen it – I got a really good look! I mean, it was only for a few seconds, but it is a time travel Pokémon so I think that's supposed to count for extra."

"Seriously?" Dawn said, blinking. "I mean… sure, Legendaries just showing up, that's one thing. But hiding in our shrubbery?"

"Maybe it likes that kind of plant?" Barry suggested. "That's… a rhododendron, right? Hang on, I need to go ask Mom to plant loads all around our house to attract time Pokémon!"


"Hey, Karen," Misty waved.

"Misty," Karen said. "Did you hear about the new challenger?"

"Another one?" Misty replied. "What's this one, then?"

"Steel type, apparently," Karen told her. "I don't think much of what I've seen, though – he's got a Metagross, but that's about it for well-raised Pokémon."

"I don't know, I started off pretty badly," Misty said. "At least for personal Pokémon, though the gym had plenty more and a pretty good variety… well, it depends on whether he's able to use Pokémon he's never seen before, and use them well enough to beat our own teams."

"We'll see," Karen said. "Anyway, that's not for another few days. I mainly wanted to invite you over this evening – we've got a new film to watch."

"Good?" Misty asked, and saw her friend hold back a snort of laughter. "Right, one of those?"

"It's such a box office disaster that Absol can feel it radiating off the DVD case," Karen said. "I didn't know that was possible, until I looked it up. Apparently this thing was never meant to actually see the light of day – it existed just to refresh someone's copyright option, then someone accidentally released it."

"Well-" Misty began, and a flash of green light deposited something wet on top of her.

"Misty?" Karen asked. "What just… why is there a Buizel on your head?"

The Buizel in question yawned, rolled over, and fell off Misty's now-wet hair. He stopped short a foot or so from hitting the floor as Golduck exerted a pulse of psychic power, and Misty looked at the snoozing Water-type with confusion.

"I… huh," she said, thinking. "Sorry, Karen, I'll be along this evening but I think I need to sort this out first."

What was Ash's future Buizel doing here?


Excellent work, Mesprit stated. Flawless execution. Buizel provided to female companion of Ash.

Both tails flicked to one side. Got the wrong one.

"I panicked, okay?" Celebi said, putting her hands on her hips.

Too late to fix now. Ideal approach? Provide Aipom to Ash. Ensure resolution of situation.

"I know, I know, I've done this before," Celebi told her fellow Legendary. "Okay, this is fixable… now, all I need to do is find Aipom."

She vanished in a flash of light as she timeshifted.


"So, who are you going to use?" Brock asked.

"It depends on the rules for the battle," Ash replied. "But I think Ho-Oh deserves a go – if he's allowed to by the rules."

He waved a hand down at where he kept Dexter, in a pocket of his jacket. "I told everyone today was probably going to be the day, so they're all ready for me to bring them in."

There was a bright flash in front of them.

"Aha!" Celebi announced, looking up into the branches of one of the trees overhanging the path. "Okay, now to find Ash..."

"Celebi?" Ash asked, confused. "What's going on?"

Celebi turned to look at him, then back up into the tree.

Then she waved her hand, and a branch snapped. Something fell off the tree, bouncing on two branches on the way down, and landed squarely on Ash's hat.

Brock had just a moment to see that it was an Aipom, before the Aipom flashed a brilliant white and evolved into Ambipom.

"...okay," he said. "That happened."

"What happened?" Max asked, looking up from a discussion with May. "Isn't that Ambipom?"


"Okay, so… time travel," Ambipom said, sitting on her hands. "Actual time travel."

She nodded to Pikachu. "Okay, you win."

"What's that?" Ash asked, a little confused.

"Wait… I remember," Pikachu said slowly. "I had a bet on with Ambipom, because she didn't believe we'd had adventures that were that crazy."

"You were around for the collapse of space-time, right?" Brock asked. "I remember you being around for that one."

"Well, yes," Ambipom agreed, making a throwing-away gesture with her left tail. "But time collapse is different to time travel, so it didn't count."

"We argued about that one for a while," Pikachu remembered. "The ironic thing is she left only a couple of months before that thing with Arceus."

"That… was actually one of our longest periods without going through a time warp," Ash said, thinking about it. "Maybe the one before we met Celebi the first time was longer."

"Hello!" Manaphy called, no longer able to restrain himself. "Are you Aipom?"

"Ma-okay, when are we?" Ambipom asked. "I recognize about where we are, but Ash has a Lucario and Manaphy is older. Shouldn't Max be older? Are we in the past or the future?"

"That depends who you're asking," Lucario told her. "For example, for you it is the past. For me, however, it is also the past – it is many months before we originally met."

Ambipom's head tilted. "Do I know you?"

"I was shorter," Lucario stated. "We didn't have much time to talk, though. We were busy running away from Hunter J."

The Normal-type stared.

"Are you that Riolu we saved?" she asked, then shook her head. "Okay, now I've heard everything."

"Excellent!" Ho-Oh declared, exploding into the air from his Pokéball.

Then he looked down at Lucario. "How was that?"

"That is about how to do it, yes," Lucario confirmed. "When someone says something that seems appropriate-"

"I think I would like to get an explanation," Ambipom requested, shaking her head. "I'm not really psychologically ready for this. Half an hour ago I was playing table squash."

"Didn't you move onto Pokémon Ping Pong?" Brock asked. "I know that's table tennis, but..."

"I am not a one-note Pokémon."

You have a call, Dexter informed Ash. It is from Misty.

"Misty?" Ash repeated. "Wow… I wonder if Tracey is going to show up before I reach the Battle Pyramid."

He flipped Dexter open, and took the call. "Misty?"

"Ash!" Misty said, her picture appearing on the screen. "You had a Buizel, right?"

"Well, yeah," Ash replied. "Why?"

"I'm pretty sure Celebi just dropped him on my head," Misty replied. "I'm keeping him busy by making him swim races against Kingdra, but I should really get him over to you before he breaks something."

"Well, uh… we're about to head to the Battle Pyramid, does that work?" Ash asked. "It's outside Pewter."

"Are you sure, Ash?" Misty said.

"Yeah, I can see it!" Ash replied, holding up Dexter's camera to take in the sights. "See?"

"...what are you talking about, Ash?" Misty asked. "This is a phone call."

Ash took another look at the screen, and noticed the picture of Misty wasn't actually moving.

"Dexter, is this-"

It's a photo, Dexter told him. I'm surprised it took you this long to notice. It's not even a very new one.

The young trainer couldn't help but chuckle.

"Let's see..." Misty said. "Yeah, there we are. Okay, I'll be over as soon as I've convinced Buizel that this is legitimate."

The next words were only half-heard, Misty speaking to someone else. "Gyarados? I think we need to point out to Buizel that Mega Evolution exists!"

Then the picture vanished, and Dexter emitted a dial tone.

"And yet, somehow, that feels more normal," Ambipom said. "Only… what's Mega Evolution?"

"If you don't mind, I'll demonstrate," Lucario suggested.

He raised his arm, showing the Lucarionite in its armband. "Observe. Magic stone."

Ash unslung his staff, which began to glow – then he stopped. "Wait, we don't need to."

"Why not?" Lucario asked.

"We're going to be battling Brandon today, remember?" Ash said. "I'm pretty sure you're going to get a chance to go Mega."

"An excellent point."

"We should get going," Brock said. "Or we'll end up another day late."


"Okay, so… how did you get to be one of Ash's Pokémon?" Ambipom asked, walking behind most of the rest of the group.

"Were you speaking to me or the Legendary?" Lucario queried.

"Either would do."

"For my part, I felt Ash's Aura flare strongly from miles away, at the beginning of his journey," Ho-Oh answered. "Before then, he was one of the many who we occasionally checked up on – to see whether he had any idea of his heritage. After the time travel… well, it was obvious he had, and he was an ideal choice to capture me and to keep me safe from others who might try."

He flared his wings. "And, though he has at times forgotten that I wish to be his Pokémon in truth, he has been a fine trainer – and teacher, at times."

Ambipom nodded along. "I remember something kind of like that with the Lake Guardians, while I was with Ash and then Dawn in Sinnoh."

"Speaking of Dawn," Lucario said. "I actually think you're her only Pokémon or former Pokémon who hasn't turned up out of nowhere yet – well, counting Buizel as doing it at the same time. She will be starting her journey with her full team already assembled, which is quite unusual."

"Wow, that is strange," Ambipom mused. "It'll be interesting seeing them all again. Wow… Piplup, Mamoswine, Buneary and Pachirisu..."

"And Quilava and Togekiss," Lucario supplied helpfully.

"...okay, I've missed a lot," Ambipom sighed. "And – wait, I asked you a question. How did you become Ash's Pokémon?"

"That's actually quite complicated," Lucario said, as they reached the clearing the Battle Pyramid had landed in. "I was sent as an egg by the Lucario Kingdom, and it happened to be me they picked. So I hatched pretty much instantly because Ash did the same thing to me he did to you."

Ambipom started to say something, stopped, then raised a tail.

"I was going to say this was all ridiculous," she said. "Then I remembered the time-space collapse."

Her tails drooped. "And to think yesterday my main concern was whether to use a knobbly or flat sided bat..."


"The Battle Pyramid," Ash said, as they approached the door.

"We know," May pointed out. "It's not easy to miss."

"No, I meant..." Ash began, then shook his head. "Never mind, I guess I was just saying the obvious out loud."

"It's better than not saying it and it turning out to be important," Brock said. "Now… does this work on a motion sensor?"

Ash walked up to the door, which didn't open.

"Not sure," he said, and was about to knock when the door opened.

Both Ash and Brandon were surprised by this.

"...hello?" Brandon said. "Is there a reason you were waiting outside the door?"

"Yeah!" Ash replied. "I want to challenge you!"

"You could have just… knocked," said the nonplussed Frontier Brain.

"I was about to," Ash countered. "But you opened the door before I could."

Brandon's lips quirked slightly. "Well, I can delay my grocery run a little. I take it you have everything you need to challenge the Battle Pyramid?"

"What do you need to challenge the Battle Pyramid?" Lucario asked.

"The other six Symbols of the Battle Frontier," Brandon listed off. "And your Pokémon with you. That's about it."

"Great!" Ash agreed readily. "Yeah, hold on a sec, I think I have the box somewhere..."

"Come in, by the way," Brandon added, raising his eyes to look at the rest of the group. "How many Legendary Pokémon am I inviting into the building?"

"Three, I think," Brock answered. "Manaphy, Jirachi and Ho-Oh."

"Good," Brandon declared, leading them along a corridor at a fast walk. "All right, Ash, the main arena is through here."

He waved them through another door.

"Is most of this place just one giant arena inside?" May said, looking around.

"Quite a lot," Brandon agreed. "But not all. There are two floors below where we are – that corridor was a ramp."

He walked over to stand at one side of the room. "This battle will be five Pokémon on a side. There are no restrictions on who or what you use."

"Really?" Max asked. "None at all?"

"Correct," Brandon nodded. "This is something I prefer to make clear at the start."

"Uh..." Ash began, raising his hand. "Are you sure about that rule? I don't want to break the Battle Pyramid."

He looked around at the cavernous space. "I mean, there's probably enough room for a battle, but… well, a couple of the Pokémon I want to use fly, and I've broken a lot of gyms and stuff too."

Brandon considered that, then nodded. He walked over to one of the wall panels, unclipped it – revealing controls hidden beneath – and pressed a button.

There was a crak noise, and the Battle Pyramid unfolded like a flower.

"...okay, that is cool," Max admitted.

"I don't usually do it," Brandon said. "Now-"

He stopped. "Is that a Dragonite?"

Ash closed his eyes for a moment, then waved. "Hey, Misty! Sorry, Brandon – I kind of need to sort this out before our battle."

"That's not a problem," Brandon assured him.


"So, Ash, did you decide who to use?" Brock said, as they watched one of Lance's Dragonites come in on her landing approach.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I want to use the first Pokémon I captured… but, well, Butterfree and Pidgeot are busy, and Ho-Oh wanted to get involved, so it's the first available Pokémon I caught this time."

He coughed. "More or less."

Brock thought about it. "Actually, what is Pidgeot doing?"

"Something about babysitting, I think," Ash replied.

Dragonite finally arrived, zooming in and coming to an effortless halt a few inches off the unfolded metal of the Battle Pyramid petal. She snapped a salute, and Ash nodded back.

"I could have done without the barrel roll," Misty complained.

"But I wanted to show off," Dragonite said. "Acrobatics are more fun with an audience."

Misty was about to reply again, but then her backpack shook and she sighed. Swinging it off her shoulder, she opened it and pulled Buizel out by the scruff of his neck.

"He's been impossible!" she told him, as the Sea Weasel's tails flicked back and forth. "I forgot he's only got this timeline so far, so he wasn't impressed by Mega Evolution at all. He's hard to impress, let me tell you!"

Ash chuckled, taking the Water-type from her, and there was a little blue flash.

"Okay, that was odd," Buizel said, looking around. "And you were right. I suppose."

Misty huffed, crossing her arms. "Some Water-types..."

"Time travel, right," Buizel said, getting his bearings. "When are we?"

"I'm challenging the Battle Pyramid," Ash told him. "I've been back for over three years now, and I've got a lot of new Pokémon so don't be surprised."

"Okay, that's just annoying," Ambipom said, walking over. "How can you be this calm about all this?"

Buizel shrugged. "Experience."

The Long Tail Pokémon sighed, scrubbing at her face with her tails. "It's too early in the universe for this."


"Is your errand complete?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "Oh – do I get to know your Pokémon ahead of time?"

Brandon considered that.

"No," he said, taking a Heavy Ball from his belt. "Send your first Pokémon out."

"Right!" Ash grinned, taking his own Pokéball. "Ivysaur!"

"Registeel," Brandon announced.

As the Pokémon materialized, he examined Ivysaur. "Interesting choice."

Ivysaur set his stance, vines coiled and ready.

"Registeel, use Flash Cannon."

"Flash_Cannon()" Registeel confirmed, and a blast of energy reached out towards Ivysaur.

Brandon's first hint this would be an abnormal matchup was when Ivysaur retaliated with Fire Blast.


On an island amidst the Orange Sea, Silver sighed.

"Upset?" Pidgeot asked.

"Kind of," Silver admitted. "But more just kind of…"

He shook his head. "It feels silly to say. I feel resentful, because we don't visit Dad as much as I'd like, and he's off with Mom today."

"That's only natural," Pidgeot told him. "So long as you recognize what it is, it's not a problem… but if you can work it out, then you'll feel better."

Silver rattled his wings, folding them. "Thanks, I think."

He shook his head. "I mean… I know Mom and Dad have their own lives, and that they deserve time together without me in the way. But it makes me feel like..."

The young Lugia stopped, and Pidgeot waved a wing at him.

"You know?" he asked.

"I think I understand, at least," Pidgeot said.

She was about to give some advice, but before she could there was a massive boil of flames from one of the nearby islands.

"Well, here we go again," the Flying-type sighed. "Come on, Silver, let's go sort this out."

"Was that Moltres?" Silver asked, spreading his wings and following Pidgeot into the air.

"That or Zapdos has taken up smoking," Pidgeot said. "Okay, I – wait, there we go."

A flash of stabbing lightning danced across the slopes of Lightning Island, made tiny with distance, and then another gout of flame answered it.

"Pidgeot?" Silver said. "Were you asked to be my babysitter, or theirs?"

"Mostly theirs," Pidgeot said.

For the next minute or so, they just flew onwards – Pidgeot's speed going up and up, until Silver started to lag behind and she slowed her own pace to match what he could manage.

"Silver?" Pidgeot asked, as they got closer. "Just so you know, it's important to start out by aiming for a backstop. That means you don't have to get the aim just right the first time."

"Pardon?" Silver replied, looking sideways at her – then realized what she meant. "You don't mean I should..."

"Today's lesson is how to hit a Moltres with the stop-being-stupid beam," Pidgeot said, then pulled up and away a little. "You fire first, and I'll sort out what you miss."

Silver swallowed, then took a deep breath. The air rushed in, accelerating suddenly as he began to control it and shape it.

The pressure spiked, and the temperature went up and up – until there was a momentary flash of light-

-and he released it in a torrent of brilliant energy, lancing out towards the battling Titans of Fire and Lightning.

His aim was a little off, and the Aeroblast shot past Moltres' shoulder instead of connecting directly. Then he turned his head, steering it in the way his father had taught him, and the beam swept across Moltres once before carving a scar into the tree cover on the lower slopes of Lightning Island.

Moltres tumbled, then began to recover, and Zapdos turned – a moment before Pidgeot hit him with her Aeroblast, knocking him out for the count, and then made Moltres dodge away from the red beam of light.

Straight into Lightning Island, which he hit hard enough to make the trees sway back and forth around his impact point.

"There," she said, dropping back down to fly alongside Silver. "Now, let's get Moltres back home before he wakes up. Think you can help carry him?"


Ivysaur's vines coiled up, and he used them like springs to push off the ground – letting the Charge Beam splash off the floor behind him, dissipating harmlessly.

Flicking his vines around like an artist, he lashed onto Registeel's arm for a moment and used that to adjust his trajectory through the air. The other stabbed straight down, and he used Earth Power – sending a beam of bronze-brown energy along the arena, hitting Registeel in the leg.

"Registeel – lock on, and use Zap Cannon," Brandon instructed.

"target_obj = lock_on('Ivysaur')", Registeel reported, as all seven eyes lit up red and beams lit up Ivysaur in the side.

Ivysaur let go, sending him sailing halfway across the arena before landing with a long skid-and-slide. He glanced down at the red dot, then set his stance.

"Zap_Cannon(target_obj)".

The Zap Cannon crashed home, obscuring Ivysaur in a cloud of dust.

Then, a moment later, a gust of wind from inside the cloud blew that dust away again – revealing Ivysaur was mostly unharmed by the attack, but that there was a glassy shield forming a semicircle that half-surrounded him.

"Sand Attack," Ivysaur explained. "One of my great-nephews is a Pidgey."

"How do you inherit a move from a great-nephew?" Brock asked.

"I'll explain later," Ivysaur said, then fired out a cascade of sharp leaves.

The first ones were normal Razor Leaves – an inch or so across – and spiralled in towards Registeel before bouncing off the steely surface of his armour.

"Registeel – Psy-Beam," Brandon instructed.

"Warning: 'Psy-Beam' is deprecated since Psychic version 1.0.3," the Steel-type stated dispassionately, in a complicated blizzard of beeps and boops. "Using Psybeam. In future, please use the correct function."

A flash of multicoloured psychic energy knocked Ivysaur backwards, sending him tumbling head-over-heels and interrupting his attack.

Ivysaur's Razor Leaves continued to move, however, colliding with one another with increasing frequency – so most of the ones now in flight were tiny fragments, almost invisible except as the occasional speck in the air.

Sliding back far enough that he hit the stands, Ivysaur looked up and grinned.

"Grass Pledge," he announced.

All the fragments of leaves he'd been firing lit up green, and swirled around Registeel. The Steel-type raised one arm, letting them bounce off to confirm they were no threat, then began preparing for another Psybeam.

Ivysaur's vines rubbed together, and he exhaled a cloud of Sweet Scent pollen before blowing it forwards with a Gust. The rapidly-moving vines dipped into the tail of the cloud, and then all of a sudden it exploded.

The wavefront of the blast began at the back, and raced up the pollen-cloud towards the front. It developed a spiral as it went, picking up on the eddy currents from the Grass Pledge, and then the two made contact.

There was a mighty explosion of flame, forming towering pillars that reached up twenty feet into the air and made the spectators reflexively cover their faces against the heat. The floor caught fire, and Registeel vanished entirely inside the maelstrom.

"What was that?" Max asked, shocked.

"Grass and Fire Pledge combining, I think," Brock supplied. "I've seen the other two combinations, but I don't think I've seen that one."

"Hypothetically, the coincidence of circumstances leading to the formation of the Pledge-type combination moves is not unique to the moves themselves," Joltik said. "While it's certainly the case that the Pledge moves are the easier ways to achieve them, and so they're the ones which give those combinations their label, any source of fuel combined with rotation would tend to increase the fury of a fire attack by turning it into a firestorm."

She tapped one clawed foot against the side of her face. "In a similar way, mixing a large moving mass of warm air with water has the potential to produce a powerful rainstorm by introducing humid air into the nearby atmosphere, and providing water to soak plants is a quick way to create a swampy area. It seems as though only the convenience of the move leads to the Pledge combinations being considered unique or even noteworthy."

Max looked up from Kris' screen. "I… think I actually understood most of that."


Ivysaur frowned, looking for clues in the way the flame column was rising. It was still going, but…

Then Registeel stepped forwards, out of the subsiding flames.

The metallic surface of the Golem was glowing a dull red, and giving off a heat-haze shimmer – but Registeel was still active, and that would be enough.

"Ice Punch the ground!" Brandon told it.

"Closing unused Lock-On handle 1," Registeel stated, drawing back a fist which began to glow blue.

"Punch(ice=TRUE)!"

With a crackling slam, the fist hit the ground and sent out a pulse of cold air. The heat drained away in a circle around Registeel, and it stood in the focus of a ring of smouldering embers.

Ivysaur rammed his vines into the ground to produce another Earth Power shockwave. It reached Registeel, making the Steel-type stagger a little – but not fall – and Ivysaur panted, trying to avoid showing how tired he was getting.

"Hyper Beam."

Ivysaur moved immediately, his vines flicking out to pull him clear of the incoming attack, and got a grip on a nearby piece of terrain. The vines tensed-

"Put that on hold," Brandon added. "Use Hyper Beam when you have a clear target… Sandstorm."

"Sandstorm()," Registeel confirmed, and a wave of sand flowed out from its arms. The battlefield was quickly obscured, and Ivysaur could hear Brandon's voice. "Now, close in and use-"

Ivysaur used Sunny Day, dispelling the sand in a moment, and made Brandon pause as he reconsidered the situation.

Trying to do the same thing, the Grass-type got ready for a Fissure. His vines detached from their grip on the terrain, pulled back, and slapped the ground hard – though, much to his irritation, the surface of the Battle Pyramid floor was too hard to allow the Fissure to propagate.

"That doesn't seem fair..."

"Rock Polish," Brandon decided. "Now, Iron Head!"

Registeel began to run forwards, accelerating as it did so and as a stream of white light formed around its forehead. "speed_boost_Rock(3); Iron_Head()."

Ivysaur's vines coiled up, weaving together a series of knots until the whole assemblage formed a single shape – something like a fist, which Ivysaur moved to a little way behind his flower. Then he lunged forwards a step, pulling on the vines connected to the fist – only to whipcrack it forwards in a Focus Punch, hitting Registeel hard enough to knock the Steel-type back three paces and nearly topple it over.

A moment later, Registeel fired its Hyper Beam.

Ivysaur had enough time to feel vaguely upset about that as the wave of light approached.


"So… Ash has Legendaries, huh?" Buizel asked.

"Yes," Ambipom agreed. "More Legendaries than it would take to fill a team, apparently. Latias and Latios, Suicune, Entei and Raikou, Lugia, Ho-Oh and Mewtwo."

"And this guy has Legendaries too," Buizel mused, tails drumming on the ground in a one-two-one staccato pattern. "I wonder… I think this means a lot of Ash's Pokémon are getting to fight Legendary Pokémon today."

The Water-type considered, lost in thought, as Ash recalled Ivysaur.


"Good work," Ash told his Grass-type. "Okay, let's see how you handle Charizard!"

Charizard burst out of his Pokéball, and found himself facing a Regirock.

"What?" Ash asked. "Wait, did you-"

"He changed out Registeel before you said which Pokémon you were going to use now," Brock supplied. "I think it's legitimate."

"That's kind of a pity," Ash groaned.

"No, no, this is fine," Charizard said. "I can work with this."

He flared his wings, rising into the air over the unfolded Battle Pyramid. "My girl would think beating a Steel type Legendary was me slacking off."

A light flickered in his mouth, and he unleashed it with a roar. "Dragon Breath!"

Regirock's arms raised to block the attack, and its lights flashed in a pattern as it did so.

"Ook ook ook? Ook ook! Ook ook ook? Ook! Ook?"

"Uh..." Ash began. "I sort of understood Registeel, but..."

It's an esolang, Dexter told him. Turing complete, but utterly obfuscated. Don't bother trying…

"Shock Wave!" Brandon instructed, and Regirock's arms went forwards as he fired out a beam of blue light.

Charizard dodged to the right, rolling, and the blue light followed him – but it was coming at him from the side, now, and he slammed his tail into it with a sheath of Dragon Tail that broke the attack into fragments and dispersed it. Then he exhaled a roaring gout of Flamethrower, much more diffuse than he would normally use as an attack but spreading out with the wind of his flight to form a kind of flaming sheath all around him.

The ball of fire expanded, becoming more diffuse, but still opaque – and still obscuring where Charizard had gone.

"Stone Edge-" Brandon began, and then one side of the fireball erupted outwards and Charizard emerged. The Fire-type's claws, wings and tail all shone with Steel-type energy, and he hit Regirock like an avalanche – clawing and slamming with his wings to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible, before just abandoning all pretence of subtlety and headbutting Regirock right between the eyes.

As there were seven of them, this required several headbutts.


"Not bad, I suppose," Ho-Oh said, nodding as he considered the durability of the Rock-typed Legendary Golem trying to hit Charizard over the head with a large rock. "Certainly going to be an interesting-"

"Hey!"

Ho-Oh blinked, then craned his head down to look – confirming that, yes, that was Buizel.

"What is it, might I ask?" he said.

"I challenge you!" Buizel announced. "I want to get in at least one big battle today, as a welcome-back-to-the-timeline present!"

Ho-Oh looked up at the fight going on in the arena as Charizard clawed for height, tail smashing away Stone Edge attacks as they tried to knock him down, then thought about it.

"I… suppose we probably have the time," he allowed.

"Good!" Buizel grinned, thumping each fist into the other paw in succession. His tails twisted in anticipation, and he crouched down a little.

Then he took off, an Aqua Jet launching him into the air in a fountain of spray.

"That… is not as new as it probably should be," Ho-Oh noted, then took off as well.


Charizard turned, knowing he was reaching towards the edge of the battle area, and identified Regirock – who still hadn't moved more than a few steps away from the place the battle had started.

The sight made him tilt his head for a moment, then discarded it. It wasn't as if Regirock had any reason to move, not really.

Then Regirock used Shock Wave again, and Charizard rolled as soon as he saw the blue flash in the distance – swiping at it with a Dragon Claw attack, and sending the electricity splintering into fragments which dissipated into the air around him.

Some of the sting got through anyway, but Charizard didn't give it much regard – it wasn't very electrical by the standards he felt were appropriate. Then he was close enough to attack, and inhaled for a moment before launching out a roaring column of flame.

Wings beating hard to keep him up to speed and counteract the recoil from the Flamethrower, Charizard dove a little and turned his head – keeping Regirock in the firing line for the whole of his approach – before baring his claws.

Then he stopped firing – and pulled up abruptly, shooting over Regirock's head and grabbing onto the huge lump of rock Regirock had summoned earlier to attack him with.

Twisting his body into a curve, Charizard pulled up into a tight loop and lobbed the giant rock directly at his opponent on the second half of the turn. There was a wham and a cloud of dust, then Charizard was climbing into the air, and he looked back to see that Regirock had apparently broken the rock in half with his face.

Or possibly his giant shoulders.

Dismissing it as unimportant, though probably pretty cool, Charizard pulled a wingover and dove back down again.

This time, he was only a little way into his attack run before Regirock attacked him – with a thrown rock, one larger than the Titan itself and looking like it was made of granite.

Charizard's reply to that was simple. He clenched his forepaw, and punched the rock so hard it exploded.

The second rock hit him in the chest, making him stumble in mid-air, and he pulled out of his dive shortly before he would have hit the ground.

"All right!" he roared, tail whipping by just above the soil as pebbles rained down all around him. "Let's see how you like this!"

Wings lighting up again with the silver of Steel Wing, he flapped one more time and then tucked himself into a ball – wings first.

A high-speed dragon cannonball hit Regirock hard enough to knock him over like a bowling pin, and Charizard rolled twice along the ground before snapping his wings back out and clawing for height.

"Good one!" Ash called. "Keep it up!"


Ho-Oh considered how best to do this.

He did not want to harm one of Ash's Pokémon – but at the same time it would not really be dignified to just hover there and let Buizel attack him.

And the Water-type would probably consider that an insult, as well.

So he decided it would be best to start small. A few Flamethrowers, to try to convince the mustelid to reconsider.

As he rose to altitude, the Buizel turned – still using a continuous torrent of Aqua Jet to stay in the air, and indeed circling instead of simply hovering in place.

Then Buizel altered his trajectory slightly, and came boring in towards Ho-Oh.

The Fire-type charged briefly, and then exhaled a stream of fire in a Flamethrower attack. For a moment, it hid his view of Buizel – then the Aqua Jet came bursting through the edge of the fire cone, and turned so it was momentarily aimed at him.

Two smaller streams of water separated from the Aqua Jet, and Buizel veered off – climbing into the air and twisting his base vector. Ho-Oh took only a moment to analyze the Water-type attacks, and beat his wings once in a great surge of motion to dodge.

Satisfied he was not going to have any trouble, it was a surprise when water exploded along his side in two places.

"Wha-?" the Storm's End asked, shaking the droplets from his feathers, and then turned his attention back up to Buizel only to see that he was already launching more of those strange projectiles.

This time, Ho-Oh paid attention, and kept one eye on them as he dove to dodge – which meant he saw more details of how the attack worked.

Firstly, they were separate from Buizel's water stream – and they seemed to be like a water packet at the front with a long tail being left behind them. But what was really surprising was that they adjusted their course to chase him.

Ho-Oh put an end to them by hammering them both with a jet of flame, destroying them in a burst of mist, and cast around for a moment before locating Buizel some way above.

"This might be more interesting than I thought," he said to himself, wings sweeping against the air as he climbed.


"Ash, quick question-!" Charizard called as he shot past. The rest of the sentence went unsaid, however, as Regirock threw a Rock Tomb attack and Charizard defeated it by using Rock Smash.

"How does he do that?" Pikachu asked, wincing. "I'm getting a headache, and I'm only watching!"

"It's Rock Smash," Ash replied. "Does it matter if he does it with his forehead?"

He raised his voice. "Go ahead, Charizard!"

"Can I use-" Charizard tried, then had to deal with a Charge Beam. This one was easier to deal with, but it still took him using Dragon Breath in a continuous stream to block it – feeding energy into a chaotic ball midway between the two Pokémon, which then exploded.

"Sure, go ahead and use Blast Burn!" Ash said, working out what Charizard was getting at. "So long as you don't get us or Brandon in danger!"

"Blast Burn?" Brandon repeated. "Regirock, get ready to use Protect!"

Regirock's eyes flashed in sequence. "Ook ook ook? Ook ook! Ook ook! Ook!"


"Did they just say Blast Burn?" Max asked. "I thought Charizard's version of that was really, stupidly powerful… is that dangerous to the floor? Or us?"

"Good question," May agreed. "Can you get Jirachi to keep us safe?"

Charizard flew over their heads, evading a thrown rock, then caught the next one and threw it right back at Regirock.

What's that? Jirachi asked, looking down – though his gaze was drawn back to the Fire-type overhead.

"Would I be able to wish that we'd all be safe from – well, from if that Blast Burn might hurt us?" May asked.

Sure! Jirachi agreed. I think it won't actually activate unless we'd be in danger…

"Okay, then," May said, glancing up as Charizard did a wingover and came charging back down towards Regirock. "I wish that if we might be in danger from the battle, then we'd be protected from harm."

Jirachi's tags flashed.

"...is that it?" May asked.

So far! Jirachi agreed.

Then Charizard's mouth opened, and he launched out a bolt of brilliant flame.


"Now!" Brandon called, as soon as Charizard opened his mouth.

Regirock's arms went out to the side, and a field of translucent energy formed around it – creating a sphere built out of interlocking hexagons.

Almost at the same instant, Charizard's attack hit – just at Regirock's feet – and exploded.

But it wasn't the right kind of explosion. Instead of the incandescent spike of a Blast Burn attack, it was a weaker detonation with five points reaching out in all directions – a Fire Blast.

For a moment, Brandon was relieved that it meant he wouldn't have to replace some of the gym internals. Then he saw what the explosion had actually done, launching Regirock a foot or so into the air, and winced.

Then Charizard shot past, grabbing both of Regirock's arms as the Protect field collapsed, and grunted as he hauled the Legendary Rock-type towards the sky.

"...hey!" he called. "Isn't that stealing?"

"I don't think so," Ash replied. "I think it's something else..."

"Regirock, use Charge Beam!" Brandon instructed, and Regirock complied – blasting Charizard with bolts of electricity, which the tough Fire-type powered through.

They got high enough for Charizard's liking, and he did a backflip – hauling Regirock around in a circle to gain momentum – before releasing his grip and sending the Rock-type sailing off into the distance.

Brandon shaded his eyes, and saw that it looked like Regirock was going to land some way off – outside the area of the unfolded Battle Pyramid.

"Does your Pokémon know that's not out of bounds?" he asked.

"I guess," Ash said, as Charizard dropped into a dive to follow Regirock down. Brandon saw his Pokémon was about to hit-

-then came the Blast Burn, a brilliant blue-white stab which made his eyes hurt even at that distance.

Dust rose up in a cloud, then settled back to the earth again, and when it faded there was no sign of Regirock.

"...what happened?" Brandon asked.

"I think Regirock's ended up in a crater," Ash said, as Charizard came gliding back. "Is that right?"

Charizard said something and gave a nod, which Brandon took to mean that Ash's guess was correct.

"Well, that's no good," Brandon sighed, returning the second of his three Legendary Golems. "I'll just have to sort out your Charizard before we keep going."


Ho-Oh frowned as another four-shot barrage of Water attacks came zooming towards him, then burst them with a jet of flame which made them explode in clouds of mist.

It had seemed like a good idea to go easy on Buizel, but that idea was seeming less and less sensible as the battle went on. It wasn't exactly as if the Water-type was doing much damage, but he was infuriatingly hard to actually hit!

Flaring his wings and drifting higher, Ho-Oh decided to try a different tack. There was Jirachi around, so there shouldn't be a problem if he hit Buizel with a larger or more powerful attack.

So he took a moment to charge up, then unleashed an Inferno. It roared on and on, spreading out across the whole of the area Buizel was flying into, and Ho-Oh felt satisfied as he saw the Aqua Jet vanish into it.

A moment later, though, the Aqua Jet burst out of the flames again – looking distinctly different.

There was a white coating around the outside.

Ho-Oh recognized what had happened almost straight away – ice! The Water-type had used an ice move, probably Ice Beam, and frozen at least some of his watery projectile – which would make it both a better shield, more resistant to heat, and even give him some ablative protection.

Then the 'vehicle' altered course, heading straight for Ho-Oh, and he reflexively let loose a Fire Blast – one which exploded just in front of the Ice Aqua Jet, making Buizel fly through a fireball, but not managing to stop him. The ice was largely melted, but there was still water – and then there was not, as Buizel cut his jet out for a moment.

He passed just over Ho-Oh as the Flying-type banked, and Buizel used the attack again – heading straight down, and slamming into Ho-Oh's back.

"Ouch!" Ho-Oh complained, twisting his neck, and bathed his own back in fire to try and knock Buizel off.

He was getting the distinct impression this was some kind of karma.


"Heatran, I need you!" Brandon called, throwing his Pokéball.

"...wait, what?" Pikachu asked. "Someone actually has a Heatran?"

"What's wrong with that?" Ash asked, as the dual-typed Fire-Steel Pokémon emerged onto the soot-darkened battlefield.

"Nobody has a Heatran," Pikachu said. "They hardly ever show up."

"There was that guy in the Sinnoh League," Ash mused. "But yeah, he had a bad matchup."

"Wasn't it-"

"Excuse me?" Heatran asked, sounding confused. "Wasn't there supposed to be a battle?"

"Good question," Charizard agreed, breathing heavily – taking the opportunity to recover his equilibrium.

"You're right, sorry," Ash said. "Okay, Charizard – think you can handle this?"

"Let's find out," Charizard answered.

His wings rose, and then he took off again – perhaps a little slower than before, but still fast and powerful.

The Flame Pokémon began with an exploratory gout of Dragon Breath, deciding straight away that Fire attacks would probably not help, and watched as Heatran slammed her forefoot on the ground – producing a sudden wall of flame around her, which absorbed the green attack with nary a ripple.

"Heatran, towards the earth!" Brandon called.

Heatran lumbered into motion, and Charizard's wings flicked a little to one side as he controlled his descent – ready to try a close-in attack.

"Heat Wave!"

Heatran paused, then let out an incredible burst of heat – one which made Charizard wobble in the air and veer off, not so much because of the heat itself but because of the pressure pulse that accompanied it.

A little further away, Ash stumbled as the hot air pulse blew into him. His arms went halfway up to form a Protect before he saw it wasn't necessary.

Brandon seemed fine, too, and Ash cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Try coming in at ground level and land!" he shouted.

"Right!" Charizard agreed, and came dropping down fast towards ground level. His wings flared to catch him as he reached the earth, and he spent a moment to steady himself before charging towards Heatran along the ground.

Heatran's reply this time was to slam a forefoot on the pyramid surface again. There was a whang as it struck, and then the same curtain of flame appeared for a second time.

This time, Charizard was closer, and he charged into it – only to be knocked skywards by the sheer momentum contained in the roiling curtain, and snapped his wings out reflexively as he found himself off the ground.

Another Heat Wave followed, this one almost as strong, and Charizard's wings acted like parachutes – bearing him into the air on Heatran's artificial wind – before he managed to control his flight and turn back towards the fighting.

"Flash Cannon!" Brandon instructed, and Charizard coated his wings in Steel of his own – rolling to present only the reflective surface, so the attack punched him backwards but did no major damage.

The problem was, Heatran was getting closer to the edge of the Battle Pyramid's petals every second, and that couldn't be a good thing…


AN:


This is part of why I didn't post one for a while – I wanted to do justice to this particular battle!

Incidentally, Registeel is speaking R – as much as is possible within the bounds of fanfiction dot net, anyway. Regirock, meanwhile, is speaking the Esolang Ook developed by David Morgan-Mar.