"This is either going to be really impressive or really stupid," Infernape said. "Anyone want to make a guess?"
"I'm going to go with… both," Gliscor decided. "Because it doesn't have to be an either-or thing, does it? Especially with us lot."
"You make a good point," Infernape allowed, and picked up Gible. "Okay, ready?"
"Ready," Gible confirmed. "This is going to be great!"
"It'll probably work better than Glalie Basketball," Infernape agreed.
Gliscor went flying out into the open space to the right of the path they were on, pulling together a cloak of sand to protect her, then called out. "Ready!"
Infernape focused, took a step, and drop-kicked Gible directly at Gliscor.
"Wheee!" Gible announced, spinning around a few times, then fired a Draco Meteor from very short range.
And missed.
The attack went flying high into the air, trajectories curving, but before it could hit the ground Mewtwo snuffed it out with a pulse of psychic energy.
"Thank you!" Infernape called, as Gliscor caught their teammate and retrieved him. "Okay, so I think what went wrong there was the backspin on it. Let's try again without the spin."
"Wait, hold on," Crobat said, watching this. "You're trying to… basically use Gible as some kind of artillery shell or something? Launch him at a target, then have him fire at close range?"
"You've got to admit, it would be pretty unexpected!" Gliscor replied, dropping Gible back down with Infernape. "Okay, let's try this again!"
"This is actually kind of fun," Mega Heracross said, spinning around and firing a Bullet Seed.
The illusory Wingull he fired at dissipated in a swirl of light, and Stantler nodded. "Yep, that was a hit. Okay, next one is… a Grass-type!"
Mega Heracross turned in the other direction, looked at the half-dozen illusions in front of him, and frowned. "Um-"
The Foongus jumped up and down, then flashed and vanished.
"Fail, I'm afraid," Stantler told him. "Okay, want to try some more?"
"Sure," Mega Heracross nodded. "I forgot that one wasn't a Pokéball!"
As Stantler generated a new set of illusions, Rockruff glanced up at her trainer.
"Is this one of those things that Dexter calls a holodeck?" she asked.
"It's not far off, is it?" Brock smiled. "But I think those are solid, it's more the sort of thing a Zoroark would do."
"I'm really kind of looking forward to the ability to do that sort of thing," Zorua contributed. "Hmmm, I wonder if Zoroark illusions cover taste?"
Rockruff thought for a bit as they walked along, then turned to Zorua. "Can you turn into a Vulpix?"
"What? Of course I can!" Zorua replied, flashing into a Vulpix between one step and the next.
Rockruff promptly licked one of her tails.
"Mostly you taste hairy," she announced.
"I wasn't expecting you to test it like that!"
A few days later, and much higher in the mountains, Dawn shivered.
"I'm pretty sure that kind of use of Aura would be cheating in any fair world," she complained, glancing to her side at Ash.
"What?" Ash replied, walking along next to her. "I don't see the problem."
"We're in a blizzard, Ash," Dawn replied. "I'm following along behind Mamoswine because he's breaking trail for us, Mewtwo is keeping the snow off us, and it's still chilly. And you're just walking along on top of the snowdrifts, looking like it's a fine summer day."
"My fault," Lucario said. "I developed a lot of these not-a-move Aura tricks, and you have to admit they're useful."
"It's giving me good motivation to try learning," Dawn muttered. "And – whoah!"
She tripped on the edge of one of Mamoswine's big footprints, and Absol was there ready to catch her with a paw.
"Watch out," she said.
"I was trying," Dawn replied. "Um… hold on, Mamoswine, you can come back in for now. Do we have any better options to break trail for us?"
"I could use Steelix," Brock suggested. "Or we could wait until the blizzard is over at least, the air might be warmer then and we'd be able to see where we're going."
You're carrying a GPS, Dexter pointed out. You're going the right way.
"I meant more so we took the best trail, to be honest," Brock replied. "We don't have an urgent appointment anywhere, though, so we could be a bit more leisurely about it and just ask Mewtwo for a lift if we do get close to a time limit."
"That's a good point," Dawn admitted. "Why aren't we just asking Ho-Oh or Entei to sort it out?"
"I think they're busy," Pikachu said. "I could be wrong, though."
It must be something nearby, I sent them over to you yesterday evening and they haven't come back yet.
"I think I can see something over there," Ash volunteered. "Let's go have a look."
He trekked over, boots sticking firmly to the snow, and closed an eye to have a quick look with Aura Sight.
"It looks like there's a cave with someone in it," he called. "Hey, um… excuse me, can we come in?
A Froslass came drifting out of the blizzard. "Travellers – ah, yes. Of course. Though… ah… why are you standing on the snow?"
"Oh, well, I can walk on water already," Ash replied. "I decided that since frozen water is harder than normal water, it should actually be easier. So that's what I did."
Froslass looked down, then back up again, and visibly decided not to ask any questions about the content or even existence of the answer to her question.
She shook her head, and looked past him to see the rest of the group.
"I must admit, I don't even recognize some of those Pokémon," Froslass said. "But you can come in, of course."
She drifted to the side, waving them past.
"That looks so much like a welcome-" Dawn began, then paused. "Wait. Didn't you say a cave, Ash? That's a cabin."
"Huh?" Ash asked, looking again. "Oh, yeah. Huh. That's odd."
He closed his eyes. "Nope, definitely a cave."
Froslass raised her arms, preparing a swirling cloud of Powder Snow, and Infernape punched her very hard.
She flew backwards, shaking her head to recover a bit, and Infernape opened the two Pokéballs he was carrying – revealing both Entei and Ho-Oh, the latter of whom swept his wing to the side and banished the snowstorm.
"Nope," Infernape declared, arms crossed. "If you want something, ask nicely. If you offer something, be sincere. And don't threaten my trainer."
"Oh, yeah, that's what this was," Pikachu remembered. "Hey, Absol, how come you didn't warn about a disaster?"
"I think Infernape prepared too well," Absol answered. "This wasn't even a blip."
"In my defence..." Froslass began, carefully, "I didn't know that Legendary Pokémon approved of you. I thought… well-"
Excuse me, Mewtwo requested. I believe you may have failed to go into detail. Why didn't you know that Legendary Pokémon approved of them? I'm here.
"...who are you?" Froslass asked.
Mewtwo shook his head. Bestselling book, years of PR, space program… and some Pokémon don't even know I exist.
"I don't think TV reception is great up here in the mountains," Pikachu noted. "There's Latios, though. He's here… somewhere?"
"Actually, that one's fair," Ash said. "He said he wanted to have some marshmallows, so he's in the bag."
"Well, ah… I thought that all humans were treacherous," Froslass explained. "But I needed your help… so I thought I could trick you into my ice cave, and freeze one of your Pokémon in ice as a hostage."
Lucario raised a paw. "I see a problem with this."
"What?" Froslass asked.
"Two, actually," Lucario explained. "Firstly, a lot of Pokémon could just break out, and more than a few trainers would have other Pokémon able to rescue the one you took as hostage. So that wouldn't work."
He waved his paw dismissively. "But if it did, and you did trap a Pokémon… then what would stop one of the awful Pokémon Trainers you're thinking of from just abandoning their Pokémon and leaving?"
Froslass looked blank for a moment, then crushed. "I… but..."
"Fotunately, we're nice," Lucario went on. "I don't think any of us would mind helping you out?"
"I'm not especially happy about it," Infernape volunteered. "But if it's to help someone else as well, I don't mind. Much."
"Well… it's my son, Snorunt," Froslass explained. "The human I trusted last tried to steal my son away, and now he's gone missing again..."
All right, let's see… Mewtwo said, beginning to glow. We're looking for a Snorunt, and possibly a human of some sort.
He rose into the air, paused, then came back down again. Do you mind lending me Dexter? I think he's better at high altitude searches than I am.
Set up, Dexter declared. Preparing for wide area search.
Some distance away, a Snorunt hurried down a snowy path.
He looked behind himself, hunting for any sign of the Glalie that had pursued him, then turned to keep going.
Suddenly there was a bright flash, and a group of humans and Pokémon appeared in front of him. One of them took off with a singing whirr of wings, but Snorunt didn't really notice that – all his attention on the startled-looking Froslass mixed in with the group.
"Mom?" he called. "Is that you?"
"Son!" Froslass replied with a gasp, coming over to hug him.
"Who are these guys?" Snorunt asked, indicating the group.
"They helped me," Froslass answered. "I told them you were missing, and they found you – really quickly! That purple one just lifted something up in the air and floated around a bit, and now we're here!"
"Neat," Snorunt declared, then gasped. "Mom! The bad man from before, he's after me again!"
A Glalie came flying over the side of the path, horns glowing as it prepared a Hyper Beam. As it was about to fire, however, a shimmering blade of light flicked out at the Glalie and knocked it backwards – sending the Hyper Beam flashing off into the distance.
Should I help? a mental voice asked.
"I kind of want to see if this works," replied the tallest of the humans, one with dark skin.
"Well, that sounds like a snowmobile," the girl added. "So I guess this is Glalie's trainer."
The buzz of the snowmobile rose until it came over the crest of the nearest hill, and slid closer before halting.
"Heh, bunch of stupid kids," declared the man who'd been driving it. "Get out of here, that Snorunt is going to be mine!"
I'm really wondering if my media presence reaches these mountains at all, the same mental voice from before mused.
"Why don't you come over here and say that?" the younger boy challenged, and the poacher snorted.
"Sure, kid, whatever, but Glalie's going to freeze you solid if you try anything."
"I doubt it," said the Infernape standing protectively next to his trainer, then glanced up. "Incoming."
Glalie blinked. "What's that?"
"Focus, Glalie," the poacher instructed. "Don't let them distract you."
"It's really cold up here," Flygon grumbled, wings whirring in the freezing air. "I'm built for deserts, not frozen snow."
"You can handle it," Forretress replied. "You're a big, tough Pokémon. Now, me, I'm not built for the heat, but do you see me complaining?"
"You wouldn't be complaining here," Flygon said with a chuckle, glancing down. "Okay, I think that's the sort of target we're after… let's see if this works."
He dipped a wingtip, spinning over and turning into a dive – all four legs holding tightly to Forretress as they dropped.
"Okay, you're going to want to blow up just before you hit," he advised. "That should make sure you don't hit as hard."
"Got it," Forretress replied.
Then they were low enough, and Flygon let go of his teammate before pulling up hard and passing about ten feet above the ridge crest.
Below him, Forretress exploded almost exactly as she landed – flipping the snowmobile over and making the poacher jump.
"What the hell was-" the poacher demanded, looking back, and saw his wrecked snowmobile. "Now you're for it! Glalie, Hyper Beam them!"
Infernape blurred forwards, flames blazing off the gold armour on his wrists. He jumped up into the air as Glalie charged Hyper Beam, using a two-fisted overhead strike to knock the Ice-type to the ground and half-bury him in the snow, then twisted and fired down a long Flamethrower which kept him in the air for at least another three seconds.
Landing in front of the now-sweating poacher, he tilted his head and waggled his ears.
"...um..." the poacher began, glancing over at his Ice-type in a puddle of melted snow. "I'll… come quietly?"
Some distance away in Hoenn, a bell chimed.
"Oh, that sounds like the Mewtwo Cell again," said the on-duty officer. "Come on, let's look."
"The what?" asked her trainee.
"Oh, right, that's not in the manual… okay, so you've heard of Mewtwo, right?"
"Of course I have, who hasn't heard of Mewtwo?" the trainee said, sounding a little offended. "How is that relevant to anything?"
"Well, he sometimes runs into people who are causing trouble," the officer explained. "And after he dropped the entirety of Team Aqua and Team Magma into our cells, we contacted him and sorted this out. He just puts them in here until we can get the situation sorted out properly and contain them."
"That doesn't sound very much like due process," the trainee said.
"Oh, we don't punish them just because Mewtwo teleported them into a cell," the officer replied. "He's normally good at providing the evidence and stuff… very civic minded of him."
"Ahh, now this is just what we needed after today," Dawn sighed. "And it has the advantage of being real, too."
She looked over at Entei, who was lounging in the corner of the big rocky dome Geodude had raised out of the ground. "It's pretty impressive how quickly a big Fire type can heat up a room."
"Well, even an igloo is pretty warm inside, that's actually the point," Brock noted. "It keeps the heat in, so simple body heat can make somewhere warm enough to be comfortable – though this kind of temperature does need the help of a Fire type to really be practical."
He looked over at Luxio, who was lying on his back and purring contentedly. "I can see your Pokémon approve."
"Yeah, and they're not the only ones," Dawn agreed. "It's good to get a bit of downtime…"
"All right, so here's my idea for an Appeal," Wartortle said, looking at May and her team. "The idea is basically you have a mock battle, but play it off like the effects are special effects – you know, so Blaziken misses the kick but you stagger backwards and Joltik makes a big flash, or you punch at Blaziken and he blocks it but goes sliding backwards. And you hold out your hands sometimes and Joltik uses Electroweb to make patterns on it."
"This sounds like an interesting idea," Joltik noted. "The simulation of a high powered battle rather than the reality of it, and making it just evident enough that the simulation is intentional. So you are a battling Pokémon performing at being a performer performing at being a battling Pokémon, a pleasing symmetry."
"Well, I think it sounds good," Blaziken shrugged. "And if you have Manaphy instead of Joltik, we could make it look like you're using water."
"That would be interesting," May agreed. "I think we'd need to do a bit of work to make sure we got the timings right, but it sounds like an interesting project."
"Hey, why not make it really silly?" Max asked. "Have Ethan project big words in the air over the fight, you know, like 'Biff! Bam! Kerpow!' and stuff."
Wartortle turned her attention to him. "Like what?"
"Well, you know, that kind of campy sixties-" Max began, then paused. "Wait, no, sorry. Wrong company. Forgot about that."
"And well you should be sorry," Wartortle sniffed. "It's a good thing you didn't suggest Blaziken running around very fast while Ethan plays sped up music, that wouldn't have gone down well either..."
"Okay, so I'm pretty sure I understood the thing with learning to stay on a flying Dragon type," Iris said. "That's being really helpful now that I'm a passenger."
"Of course," Denae replied, signalling Salamence to climb higher. "While a lot of things aren't strictly necessary for a Dragon Tamer, having as many skills of that sort as possible is important."
"Right, and I get that," Iris nodded. "But how is this a thing you need to know?"
"It's because Dragon Tamers sometimes fly without a harness," Denae told her. "Which means there's a risk of falling off… and if they do, they need to be able to do the right thing and give their partner time to catch them. Now, with two flying Pokémon that's easy enough, but if you have only one it can be a lot more problematic."
She pointed over Salamence' flank, behind his wing. "There's someone with an Altaria down there to catch you if this goes wrong, and you've got a parachute, but ideally you shouldn't need either of them. Now, when you drop, the first thing you need to do is to get into a good skydiving pose – you've seen it before, but the real trick is to suck in your belly so you make a good arch shape. That will slow you down as much as possible, which is what we're going for here."
"Should I be wearing different clothes?" Iris asked, inspecting what she was wearing.
"No, that should be good enough," Denae replied, giving her a look-over. "The hair is a good step, by the way… okay, we're about three miles up, so you should have at least a minute. Ready?"
"Not really," Iris muttered, then nodded. "Yeah, sure, let's do this."
"All right, when you're ready," Denae told her.
Iris nodded again, took a deep breath, and jumped.
A quite disconcerting minute or so later, she was back on board Salamence with her hair blown back and blinking rapidly.
"So, how did you find that?" Denae asked.
"I… think I'm going to use a harness until I have two flying Pokémon, unless it's a real emergency," Iris replied. "Or at the very least wear a parachute. That was really kind of scary..."
"Then that is what we call a good learning moment," Denae said, with a little chuckle. "Do you want to give it another go?"
"I… don't want to, but I feel I should," Iris grimaced. "Let's do it again."
"Good attitude," Denae told her. "All right, Salamence, back up we go!"
"Well, at least the weather's not so bad here," Dawn said, looking around at the snow-free rock. "Is that because we've gone downwards?"
"A bit," Brock replied. "But we've not gone down nearly far enough to account for it. Some of it is probably different weather patterns, but I think the main difference is just that it's a nice day today."
"That sounds kind of boring..." Dawn chuckled. "But you're the expert. Okay, so… actually, where are we? I don't remember if we took this exact route last time."
"Why not?" Rockruff asked.
"A lot of these rocky valleys just… seem the same to me," Dawn replied with a shrug.
"Not to me!" Rockruff said, jumping into the ground and swimming along for a few feet before springing back out again. "Everything's different! This bit's especially gneiss."
"That was a really awful pun," Brock groaned.
"Thanks!" Rockruff beamed, wagging her tail. "I've been practising!"
"How's the training going, by the way?" Brock added, turning his attention pointedly to Ash.
"Staraptor, Pidgeot and Swellow are out there today," Ash replied. "They're doing practice on flying combat. I think Gliscor's going to join them later, this is good cluttered terrain to practice in."
"Since when do you use words like cluttered?" Pikachu asked.
"Hey, I hear a lot of big words, sometimes I ask what they mean," Ash protested. "It can happen!"
"Story checks out," Lucario noted.
"Where is Gliscor, then, if she's not out with them?" Brock checked.
"I think she's in my bag," Ash replied, indicating the little-on-the-outside pouch. "Torterra is having a ground-type party, and no, I don't know why."
"Oh, is that where Geodude, Flygon and Steelix went?" Rockruff asked. "Neat!"
"And Marshtomp, don't forget Marshtomp," Brock pointed out.
"Right, him too!"
"So, uh… right, right, Dexter," Ash said, before trying to work out the directions. "Are we on the same route as last time?"
Not quite, you're a bit earlier because of fewer interruptions, Dexter replied. So I'm keeping you on schedule by giving you a slightly longer route. Next is Metagross Mountain.
"Metagross Mountain?" Ash repeated. "I don't remember that place. Why is it called Metagross Mountain?"
"I would assume because it has such a big population of Buneary," Pikachu suggested, a little sarcastically. "Or could it be because of all the Metagross?"
Well, the place does have a few Buneary, that's right, Dexter said, making both Pikachu and Ash stare at him. But yes, it's named after the Metagross.
He paused. That's singular, by the way. The Metagross, singular. It's supposed to be shiny, and people go missing up here.
"That… honestly sounds like something we should probably stop?" Ash suggested. "It doesn't sound good, anyway."
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, a silver blur came shooting down out of the sky and landed in front of them with a wham.
A Shiny Metagross raised itself on all four legs, examining the group, and Ash's hand went towards Kari's hilt.
"Hey, Rockruff?" Pikachu said. "This might sound like a silly question, but is there something in front of us?"
"Yeah, a shiny Metagross!" Rockruff replied. "Why?"
"Just checking."
The Metagross swiveled one leg, pointing it at Ash. "Are you Ash Ketchum, Gym Destroyer?"
"Well, yeah," Ash replied. "Though I really do my best not to destroy gyms, unless I'm being asked to."
"No, Ash, your best was Hoenn," Brock pointed out. "You don't try to destroy gyms, which isn't nearly the same thing."
"I think we're getting a bit off topic?" Dawn suggested.
"Oh, right," Ash realized. "Why do you want to know who I am?"
And, just as importantly, how do you know who he is? Mewtwo asked. Most of the other mountain inhabitants we've met in the last few days don't seem to know.
"Intercepting television broadcasts is a simple enough matter," the shiny Metagross replied.
"Are you why people keep disappearing?" Ash asked.
"Indirectly. They come up looking for me, by themselves, in a dangerous mountain range. They want to capture me. I do not appreciate this."
The Metagross slammed its leg into the ground, cracking the stone again. "I am strong. Humans are not."
"You hurt them?" Brock asked.
"No. I transport them twenty miles away and Confuse Ray their memories of events. I am not challenged twice by anyone."
"Have to admit, it's an effective way to make a point," Lucario said, shrugging. "If not to the people you're actually confusing."
"I'm not so sure," Absol replied, tilting her horn slightly as she focused on her disaster sense. "I… kind of feel that by this point Metagross Mountain has become famous enough that people are coming here just to visit you."
She pointed with a paw. "There's even road signs."
Metagross turned, limbs slamming into the ground in a staccato whamwhamwham as it did, and examined the shiny-Metagross road sign.
"Oh."
The Psychic-type turned back to Ash, then, and indicated him with a leg again. "I have heard you are strong. I challenge you to a battle."
It paused, considering, then continued. "You may use your Honedge."
"Wait, wait, hold on," Dawn said. "If using his Honedge is… are you challenging Ash personally instead of his Pokémon team?"
"Of course. That is why I stated that I had heard Ash was strong when other humans were not strong."
Can't fault his logic, Dexter contributed.
Before Ash agrees to this, I as his legal representative have a few conditions, Mewtwo declared.
Brock glanced at Ash. "Mewtwo's your legal representative?"
"Probably?" Ash replied, shrugging. "I don't really know who else would be my legal representative. If Mewtwo wants the job he can have it..."
Firstly (1), the duel in question (henceforth referred to as the battle) should take place under an understanding that no obviously lethal or highly dangerous moves should be used, Mewtwo began. That means nothing too dangerous. If you are unsure if a move is too dangerous, work up to it.
Secondly (2), the battle should conclude either when one combatant or combatant team loses consciousness, is obviously disabled, or yields-
"Okay, how are you doing that?" Ash asked. "Are you pronouncing brackets?"
I haven't even reached the footnotes yet.
"This place always kind of puzzles me," Steelix admitted, prodding the floor with his tail. "You'd think it'd feel more fabric-y. You know, because it's a bag and all that."
Torterra shrugged, the cheerful electric lights strung through his foliage shaking from side to side and throwing coloured shadows on the walls. "Maybe, but I was thinking about that a bit..."
He walked over to the table with the snacks, and took a bite of Sitrus berry before continuing.
"So this is a bag, right?" he said, indicating the walls around them and the floor below them, along with the partitioned off areas for supplies around the edge and the shelf suspended near the opening. "And, from the outside, it's… what, four inches across? Maybe less?"
"When it's closed, yeah," Steelix agreed. "Bit wider when it's open, but it's not right now."
"And that means the flex in the fabric is kind of… stretched," Torterra suggested. "Obviously the fact we're not tripping over giant threads means something else is going on, though… might need to think about that."
"Yeah, that's what I was doing," Steelix commented.
"Hey, dudes," Geodude said, raising his hands. "Tort man, Steelmeister, no need to get all hot and bothered about this. This is a chance to just relax, you know? Be in a room full of Pokémon who understand you."
He snapped his fingers with a tchak of rock. "Specifically, who understand what it's like to be vulnerable to electrocution by Pikachu. For some reason."
"I'm not sure if that's enough to give us all some kind of shared experience," Flygon chuckled. "I mean, I don't think I've ever actually sparred against Pikachu..."
"Then we really need to sort that out some time," Donphan said. "I mean, you can call yourself part of this collection of Pokémon if you haven't been shocked by Pikachu, but it's kind of like… required to do it eventually."
He reached out to get the last can of soda from the pile, opening it with a tusk, and took a drink. "Isn't it?"
"I suppose you could view it that way," Steelix shrugged. "I'm not especially bothered by it, myself."
Torterra chuckled. "Okay, let's see… I think we should probably start the dancing soon. Any thoughts?"
"Sounds good to me," Gliscor nodded. "Gible?"
"Huh?" Gible asked, looking away from Torterra. "What's that?"
"I was asking if you were ready for the dancing," Gliscor supplied.
"Oh, sure!" Gible agreed, nodding. "Who's going to dance with who? I guess Mamoswine is probably going to dance with Torterra because they're the same sort of size?"
He looked around. "Um… is that how it works?"
"Kid's got a point, this place is not babe-alicious," Geodude mused.
Gliscor threw a canapé at him.
"Fair point," Geodude replied, raising a hand. "I correct my statement to this place not being well supplied with chicks."
"I have quite a lot of canapés," Gliscor noted.
"I don't see the problem," Steelix rumbled. "Some of us might be able to dance together, but for most of us it's going to be an individual thing. We are quite different in size and body form… and that's assuming many of us will want to dance. I'm not sure I will."
"That's fine, to each their own," Torterra said with a shrug. "We'll give it maybe half an hour, and then I'll set something else up – like the film projector. I got hold of a big disaster movie about an earthquake."
"Thematic," Marshtomp complimented.
As they spoke, Gible went over to get a can of soda. Finding none left, he frowned before making his way over to the fridge.
"Hey, do you have any soda?" the Dragon-type asked.
The fridge's magnets moved to indicate a nod, and then it opened with a slight sound.
"Thanks," Gible said, examining the contents of the fridge, then reached up to get one of the fizzy drinks he liked.
It was kind of high up on the top shelf so he had to stretch to reach it, but after a moment he snagged it and turned to the others.
"Hey, anyone else want a drink while I'm here?" he asked.
Everyone else turned to look at him.
"When did that happen?" Gliscor asked. "I swear I was looking at him thirty seconds ago and he was a Gible then."
"Yeah, that just happened," Torterra confirmed. "Now I think about it, I did see a glow..."
"What were you doing?" Donphan asked. "Were you getting in a fight with Rotom?"
"No, no problems here," Rotom assured them. "He just came over for a drink, and now he's a Gabite."
Gabite examined his arms. "Oh, okay, I must have evolved so I could get the drink down from the top shelf – that's neat!"
"...that's what you were doing?" Flygon asked. "Seriously, that's what you were doing? Getting a drink?"
"Yeah, why?" Gabite asked. "Do you want one? I could get one for you with my – actually these aren't a huge improvement hands-wise. They're longer but kind of less able to pick things up..."
Experimenting, he began holding his drinks can between the claw and the fin on his hand. "Okay, I think… hmm, might need to get used to that a bit..."
Shrugging, he took the can and punched a hole in the top with his other claw.
"Right, so, uh… now Gible has evolved to Gabite, I guess," Torterra said, summing that up. "So… what now?"
"What music do you have lined up?" Mamoswine asked. "I could do with some music."
Gabite ate his can with an audible crunch.
All right, I think that's all the rules set up, Mewtwo noted. Now, there's one more important question. Do we want to record this?
"I… well, I guess that would just be for us to look at?" Ash checked. "I don't think I'd mind that, at least."
"Indeed, it would be helpful to be able to view the battle from the outside," Kari said. "I might make better assessment of Ash's form that way."
"What do you think?" Ash added, checking with Metagross.
"Sure," Metagross decided. "Apparently I am well known anyway."
"Okay, Kari," Ash said, bringing the Honedge up into a middle guard position with both hands on her hilt. "I guess we're going to find out how well I've been learning what you've been teaching me."
"So it seems," Kari agreed.
Mewtwo raised his hand, then lowered it. Begin!
Metagross moved first, raising a leg and punching at Ash. A visible ripple travelled through the air at him, but splashed off him like water on rock – and Ash swept Kari up, her length glowing with an eerie black light.
He flicked her towards Metagross to send a Night Slash scything towards out, passing through the faint distortion of a psychic shield to hit the steel of its armour, and the Steel-type's eyes flashed.
A Shadow Ball flashed out from its mouth towards Ash, which Ash used Kari to deflect into the side of the path – her body sheathed in the Ghost-type energy of a Shadow Claw to avoid harming her – and produced an explosion and a cloud of dust.
Ash made a little twisting motion with his right hand, letting go of Kari with his left, and the Honedge wrapped the end of her tassel around his wrist. One hand free, Ash began building an Aura Sphere with Kari still held ready to block.
Metagross slapped another burst of psychic force at Ash, and this one did hit him – sending him sliding backwards a few feet, but not affecting the Aura Sphere he was building.
As soon as he stopped sliding, Ash threw the sphere. It shot off to the side, curving to home in on Metagross, and darted forwards. He let go of Kari with his other hand, pulling her along with only the tassel, then flicked his right arm forwards in a punch which hit Metagross' psionic shield with a wham.
Kari came along a moment later, point first and with all the momentum the whipcrack movement could give her. She used Brick Break as she arrived, hitting hard enough to smash through the shield, and Ash flowed forwards into a second punch aimed at Metagross itself.
The Iron Leg Pokémon responded by blocking Ash's punch with a punch of its own, but by the time they hit Kari had landed in Ash's left hand and was using Sacred Sword.
The bang was quite loud.
"Any insight on who's going to win?" Brock asked, glancing down at Absol.
"Well, not really," Absol replied, as Ash opened the distance again and sent a pair of Fury Cutter attacks through Kari in a cross shape. "It's hard to tell this sort of thing at the best of times when I'm not directly involved, especially when neither outcome is really bad as such."
Metagross' legs hit the ground in a staccato whamwhamwham as it followed Ash, leading Ash to jump into the air to avoid a Meteor Mash attack. He landed about halfway up the high ridge on the side of the path, boots sticking to the wall, and Metagross tilted upwards so it could keep Ash in line of sight.
A golden glow built up around Metagross, and it punched the side of the path – breaking off some big chunks of rock, about a foot across, and lifting more than a dozen of them in a psionic field.
One of them trembled, then flew towards Ash, and he adjusted his footing a little before slicing it in half with a brightly-glowing Secret Sword attack – sending both halves of the rock flying off to the side with enough force that they entirely missed hitting Ash.
"That's actually pretty good of Metagross," Dawn said. "It's really taking that bit about appropriate force seriously."
She kept looking, but her next words were directed towards Brock. "Is that the right pronoun?"
"I think so, yeah," Brock agreed. "It's like with Porygon, unless they identify as a particular gender you just use the neuter pronoun."
"Thanks."
Now it was sure that Ash could deal with a large rock being thrown at him, Metagross decided to use all the other ones at once.
Ash crouched slightly, adjusting his grip so he was holding Kari in both hands once more, then kicked off from the side of the cliff as the rocks closed in.
He swept Kari across in an arc, pushing his Aura into her to produce an elongated Sacred Sword which didn't quite turn into a blade beam but which still reached out five feet past her tip, and sliced three of the rocks at once – just before reaching a fourth, using another two bursts of Aura in quick succession to cushion his landing on the flying rock before jumping off it to gain extra height.
The rock he'd pushed off halted, then dropped again, and Metagross destroyed it with a Meteor Mash before it could hit him. The remaining few boulders chased Ash into the air, and Ash unlimbered his staff from his back with one hand while switching his grip to Kari's tassel with the other.
Using the staff not as a weapon but as a counterweight, he spun Kari through a full turn and hit all three remaining rocks with a single Leaf Blade to destroy the lot.
A few seconds later, before Ash landed, Metagross focused in on him and began firing Extrasensory beams up at him. Kari's blade sang as Ash whipped her around to block the attacks, one-two-three, and the momentum they gave meant he landed with a crunch some way away from where the fight had started.
Mewtwo rose into the air so he could still see Ash, Dexter with him to continue recording, and Metagross came stomping rapidly along the path to follow him.
Letting go of Kari entirely, Ash put his hands together to start forming a big Aura Sphere. It got about as big as he wanted before he had to throw it at Metagross, the two-foot sphere of swirling Aura rocketing across the remaining space towards his opponent, and Kari smacked back into his reaching hand as he charged in the wake of it.
"Well, we can still hear it," Dawn noted, putting down a card.
"Yep," Brock nodded, putting down a card.
Dawn examined the cards that had already been laid down, then put down a card. "This is kind of an odd situation, even for Ash."
Brock put down a card. "I'm not so sure it is."
"Why not?" Dawn asked, putting down a card.
"It's because, technically, this is just Ash battling a wild Pokémon with one of his own," Brock said, putting down his own card. "He just happens to be physically holding the Pokémon and running around a lot."
"That's a pretty big distinction," Dawn said, putting down a card, then examined the game so far. "I'm beginning to think a standard playing card deck is no good for snap."
"You're probably right," Brock agreed. "Let's try Karma instead."
Metagross' shield thickened as it put more power into the defensive screen, then expanded outwards with a sudden pulse. Not all the force transferred to Ash despite the earlier Miracle Eye, and Ash stumbled for a pace before recovering and stepping backwards.
The Psychic-type slammed a metallic leg into the nearest boulder, disintegrating it into dozens of smaller pebbles, then sent them all at Ash with a telekinetic shove. Blocking that with a Protect shield, Ash held position for a moment until the attack had spent itself, then closed the distance again and charged Kari with a Night Slash.
Their first strike cut through the shield, and Ash boosted the effect holding him to the ground to stay in place as Metagross hammered a Bullet Punch at him.
Kari swept up to block, and the collision produced a thunderous belling of steel and made Ash wince at the feedback – but they held position, and Ash pushed hard enough to drive Metagross back slightly before the big Steel-type used another leg for a second Bullet Punch attack.
Ash and Kari blocked that one as well with more force, knocking the limb back so it couldn't immediately attack again, then blocked the third blow with a return stroke.
The ground underneath Ash began to crack slightly as Metagross hammered in Bullet Punch after Bullet Punch, and he and Kari matched him blow for blow to block every single one.
Kari pulsed under Ash's hands, warning him that Metagross was preparing something else as well, and Ash dove forwards suddenly as Metagross was about to hit him with a beam attack from its face. The beam went wide, and Ash rolled upright underneath Metagross for long enough to drive Kari point-first into its main body from below.
The impact sent sparks flying, staggering Metagross and preventing it from just dropping on Ash from overhead, and Ash completed his move before spinning around to face Metagross again.
Kari hummed as she charged up for her next attack, and Metagross lifted entirely off the ground with Magnet Rise before spinning quickly around to face Ash again.
"You seem to be panting," the robotic Pokémon said. "Tired?"
"This is a really good workout," Ash explained. "I might run out of Aura some time soon, but not yet."
Even as he spoke, though, his cloak was doing what it was meant to – slowly helping him recharge his Aura, reducing the time it would take for a full replenishment and letting him fight for longer.
"That is good," Metagross declared.
That conversation apparently over, it charged one forelimb up with a Thunder Punch and another with an Ice Punch. Using both hind limbs to push up to speed, it slammed both attacks at Ash at once.
Ash replied by raising Kari briefly, then slamming her down on the ground between the incoming strikes – spiking the Aura he was feeding into her, and making a three-beam Sacred Sword strike flash out at once.
The two side-beams knocked both punches back, preventing them from hitting, and the central attack slammed right into Metagross' X-shaped face plate. It went skidding backwards through the air again, and Ash brought Kari back up again in a diagonal Fury Cutter before converting the momentum into a left-right flick that contained a second Fury Cutter.
"Do not forget your guard," Kari noted, and Ash nodded – bringing her back into a defensive position, a high guard this time, and checking his distance to make sure he could react properly to what Metagross did next.
The Steel-type raised a limb, concentrating power into it, then slammed it down in an Earthquake. The whole area shook, Ash staggered a bit before regaining his footing, and Metagross rammed a Metal Claw attack forwards as Ash was still recovering.
The awkward angle knocked Kari out of Ash's grip, sending her flying backwards, and Ash jumped back to avoid a follow-up swipe and reached for her tassel.
Managing to just barely reach it, he hurled her forwards as hard as he could… sending her flying past Metagross, phasing through the rock and out of sight.
Pressing its advantage, Metagross fired a Hammer Arm attack at Ash – who dodged to the side, delivering an Aura-boosted elbow strike into the side of the limb, then ducked out of the way behind a boulder.
In the second or two he had before Metagross followed, Ash considered the small stones on the backs of his gloves – then decided against it. Then Metagross was stomping around the side of the boulder to follow him, and Thunder Punched at him.
Ash flooded his system with Aura to reinforce it and caught the attack with his hand, wincing at the strength of the blow – then used Counter, propelling all the force of the attack around to augment an overloaded spike of a Force Palm into Metagross' main body.
At almost exactly the same moment, Kari came rocketing back towards them – her entire blade almost too bright to look at as she used Sacred Sword, and hitting Metagross with a whunng that sent sparks flying in all directions.
Then the ground under them gave way.
"I'm not entirely sure what you'd call that result," Mewtwo noted, holding all three combatants in a field of psychic energy to levitate them over the now-collapsed cliff edge. "None of the combatants was knocked out or forfeited, but it definitely falls under the 'supervising Pokémon halted battle for the mutual safety of the participants' category'."
Metagross' eyes flashed a few times, then it nodded. "I concur. The impacts stunned me; I am unsure if I would have been able to levitate away from the fall in time."
"Yeah, and that took a lot out of me," Ash agreed. "I think Kari and I might have been able to work together to slow our fall by scraping down the cliffside, but all the giant rocks everywhere would be a problem..."
"I do not care who would have won," Metagross declared. "I am satisfied."
It looked around. "Could you return us to Ash Ketchum's friends?"
"Oh, hey Ash," Dawn waved, standing up. "How did it go?"
"What I saw was fairly impressive," Lucario reported. "I was watching through the rock, so I certainly missed some, but… like I say, what I saw was fairly impressive."
"Yeah," Ash nodded, panting a bit. "It was a really good workout. There's some stuff I need to work on, but I think I did okay."
"And I fear we must examine the records Dexter has made to be sure, but it seemed to me that you performed well," Kari volunteered. "There is much to be proud of, and little to regret."
Metagross thumped a foot on the ground. "I concur. Congratulations to my new trainer."
There was a pause.
"What?" Ash asked, confused. "I don't think that got mentioned."
"It seemed obvious to me," Metagross replied, main body tilting slightly. "Or is that not how humans normally capture Pokémon? They battle them then they throw a Pokéball."
"There's a bit more to it than that, at least for us," Brock said. "It's kind of… the first important thing we do is to check if the Pokémon even wants a trainer."
"That is not a problem," Metagross replied. "I do want a trainer. This one."
"Wait, weren't you running off anyone who got close?" Pikachu asked. "What's so different about… Ash… okay, can't finish that sentence without laughing."
"I object to people who try to capture me when they are not strong themselves," Metagross declared. "Ash Ketchum is strong by himself."
Before the conversation could continue, a blur went past just overhead with a shoom. Pidgeot slowed and banked, shedding speed in a long turn with wings spread wide, and came down to alight next to them.
"Pidgeot!" Ash said. "Is something wrong? I thought you were going to stay out training with Staraptor and Swellow for a while longer."
"We saw someone," Pidgeot explained. "I came ahead to check if you were busy, and Staraptor and Swellow are following to bring him in."
She used a wing to indicate a path back along the line she had taken to arrive, and not many seconds passed before Swellow came hopping over the next ridgeline in that direction. Staraptor followed a moment later, accompanied by a Skarmory with a rider.
The trio of S-initial Flying-type Pokémon all came down to land at once, and Steven Stone slid off Skarmory's back as the Steel-type alighted.
"It's surprisingly hard to find you," he said, pointing at Ash.
"Sorry?" Ash replied. "I don't think we've been doing anything too unusual..."
"I was probably just not looking in the right places," Steven said.
"Couldn't you just have contacted Professor Oak?" Dawn asked. "I'm pretty sure he knew, and he could have called Ash any time anyway."
"That's a good point," Steven admitted.
He glanced to his right, then blinked. "...where did the shiny Metagross come from?"
"Metagross didn't come from anywhere, this is where it lives," Dawn said. "He lives? I'm not sure how you use pronouns for a Metagross… but it's decided that it wants to go with Ash, because Ash had a fight with it..."
"Well, that's an interesting problem for you to work out," Steven said, reaching into a pocket. "I was actually here to let you know that I finally found a second Mawilite so your Mawile can have one."
"That's great news, thanks!" Ash said, smiling. "Are you sure it's okay for me to have it?"
"Of course," Steven replied. "It's only repaying a favour anyway."
"I'm sure Mawile will be really glad to hear it," Ash said. "She's back at Pallet Town at the moment, but I'll go and visit later to give it a test."
He opened his pouch to put the Mawilite in, but before he could a Pokémon jumped out.
"Hi!" Gabite declared. "I was waiting in there for ages!"
"It wasn't ages," Flygon supplied, sticking his head out of the pouch opening as well. "I was only hovering there for a few minutes."
"...weren't you a Gible this morning?" Brock asked.
"...the thing is," Ash said, trying to find the right way to phase it. "I kind of… okay. So, firstly, I understand that you've decided you want to be one of my Pokémon."
Metagross dipped its headpiece in a nod.
"But, well… I don't know if it's for the right reasons," Ash went on. "Because it seems like you're interested just because I, personally, am good at fighting."
"I would not want to be the Pokémon of any trainer who could not fight," the shiny Metagross declared.
"Yeah, that's… that's the problem," Ash said. "Why is that?"
"It is not a problem, I do not look down on other Pokémon who think differently," Metagross replied. "It is simply my own personal preference."
"But I don't really want it to be that one of my Pokémon respects me only because I can give them a good fight," Ash replied. "It makes me feel uncomfortable…"
He went silent for a long moment, thinking about it, then looked up.
"I did have this idea," he said. "Basically, I was thinking… I catch you, but it's kind of a see-if-it-works thing – a provisional thing – so if we can make it work, that's great. And if it doesn't… well, I guess we work something else out. I mean, Mewtwo has some Psychic Pokémon who help his company do space work."
Metagross considered that, then nodded slowly. "That is acceptable."
"And, uh – there's something else I wanted to ask," Ash went on. "Because it's kind of awkward… how should I talk about you? I mean, do you prefer 'he' or 'she' or what?"
"They is acceptable," Metagross declared. "I contain multitudes."
"Oh, yeah, the four-minds thing," Pikachu realized. "How does that feel?"
"Multithreaded."
"That is a really strange way of evolving," Steven said, not for the first time. "So he was reaching for a drink?"
"None of the rest of us saw it," Flygon answered, Dexter's subtitles appearing below him as he spoke. "But yes, he evolved when he was getting a drink. I don't know why, and I don't think anyone else does either… do you have any ideas?"
"None of them that require using knowledge I have except for what Ash Ketchum is involved in," Steven replied, shaking his head. "I suppose maybe he was just right on the cusp of evolving and that was just the tiny little extra bit of provocation he needed?"
"That does sound kind of likely," Brock agreed. "Though it's not exactly something that's easy to test."
Unless I go back through all the things that have caused some of Ash's Pokémon to evolve, Dexter suggested. And the others nearby, of course. There was that Wailord who evolved because of nothing at all…
AN:
Essentially, this chapter is composed of fillers which got out of hand.
I'd also like to point out that I do write this story quite fast, about a thousand words a day six days a week. I ordinarily wouldn't raise this, but I've had some reviews over the last few days which were getting to the point of being demanding in asking for prompt updates – if anything this would make me slower, as I post updates when they're done rather than hoarding them and this kind of nagging has the risk of reducing my writing speed.
In other words, if I don't update in a while, that just means the next update is going to be one commensurate with the size of the wait.
Sorry to bother everyone!
