Chapter 8: A Change of Plans

"Alright!" Ash said, stopping them in a clearing and releasing Caterpie and Pidgeotto. "So! Brock uses Rock and Ground-type Pokémon! You know what that means, right?"

"Pika-Pika!" Pikachu cheered.

"That's right, special training!" Ash yelled. "Pikachu already knows Iron Tail, but he might be a little rusty, so we'll need to practice that. Caterpie, I'm pretty sure you can learn Energy Ball once you're evolved into Butterfree, so we'll work on that!"

Caterpie trilled.

"Really? Great!" Ash said. "Hm… I wonder…"

"And you're not going to explain any of that, are you?" Misty asked.

"It's nothing," Ash said. "Pikachu, I want you to give Pidgeotto some pointers so it can learn Steel Wing!"

Pikachu saluted.

"There's no use talking to him when he's like this," Misty told Luigi. "So… What are you gonna do while we wait it out?"

Luigi scratched his head. "Well, I'm not sure what I can do… I guess I'll go a bit away and do some training with Bulbasaur."

"Great. Wonderful. Maybe Staryu has an idea…" Misty threw her own Pokéball, bringing out a starfish with a jewel in its center. "Hey, help me keep Ash from injuring himself, okay?"

"Hiyah!" the starfish said… Somehow, as it didn't seem to have a mouth.

"Um. Well, see you guys later," Luigi said, and walked into the forest.

"Good luck!" Ash yelled to Luigi.

Something exploded behind him.

"All right, Pikachu, Iron Tail's as great as ever!" Ash yelled.

"Stop making things explode!" Misty yelled. "You'll ruin my bike! Again!"

Once Luigi was far enough away, he lifted Bulbasaur down to the ground. "Alright, so I need to figure out what you already know how to do, and where your skills might need some improvement."

Bulbasaur nodded. That was about how it went with any new partnership between Pokémon and trainer.

"So… When I get into a sticky situation, my usual style is to keep out of the way, and quickly strike when there's an opening. Dodge and counter," Luigi said. "I usually end up playing support, I guess you'd say, to my brother. So… I want you to try and hit me with an attack, while I try and dodge. I'll also try and tag you, so see if you can tell when that's coming, too."

"Bulba?" Hit him with an attack? That seemed just a tad dangerous.

"If you're worried about me, I'll be fine," Luigi assured him. "Are you ready?"

Bulbasaur sighed, and nodded.

"Right. Let's go!" Luigi leapt straight up into the trees and vanished instantly. Bulbasaur looked left and right for his trainer, but couldn't see any sign of him until he felt a gloved hand brush his bulb, and saw a blur of blue and green flipping over his head and back into the trees.

"Don't rely on just your eyes!" Luigi shouted from above. "Figure out where I am, and predict where I'm going! Every opponent has a tell!" The direction of his voice changed slightly through the sentence, and Bulbasaur launched a leaf right ahead of where he heard him.

"Good! That was close!" Luigi called out. "Don't just use your ears, either! Think about what's unique about you, and use that to your advantage! Everyone's different!"

Unique to him… Well, there was something he could do that other Bulbasaur couldn't. He used Dig. Underground, he could hear the light footfalls whenever Luigi touched down on the ground for a second. Right as Luigi was landing, he burst out from under him, sending his trainer up into the air.

He quickly latched onto Luigi's legs with Vine Whip, and began charging Solar Beam.

"Ha ha!" Luigi said, just before the attack fired. When the beam of light ended, Luigi was there – A bit scuffed up, but mostly unharmed. Bulbasaur released him, and beamed.

"Digging underground, and catching your foes by surprise – Good job," Luigi said. "And then keeping me in place while you charge a finisher – Good thinking!" Luigi sat down. "So… Hmm. You mostly fight at long range, then, but have a couple of tricks for close up – Kind of the opposite of me, so that's good. When we get into a sticky situation, and we will, that'll be a big help."

"So!" Luigi stood up and clapped. "Let's do that exercise a few more times – You'll need to have a good variety of tactics to deal with any foe."

The pattern continued for a few more hours, and every time Bulbasaur figured out something new, Luigi would switch up his own tactics. As it turned out, he was ridiculously fast and very good at dodging. Apart from a few times when Luigi somehow managed to trip over a tree branch twenty feet off the ground, get his head stuck in a rock, or some other impossibly bad stroke of luck, actually managing to hit him was quite a challenge.

When Luigi and Bulbasaur returned to Ash, the former was covered in grass stains (apart from his strangely pristine hat), and the latter was winded from trying to keep up with his trainer's movements.

Misty had an annoyed expression on her face as Staryu helped her tend to Ash. The young boy was singed all over, but seemed in high spirits anyway. "I swear, Ash, you've gone insane since I last saw you. Why on earth did you think that having Pikachu aim at you was a good idea?"

"Well, Pidgeotto's weak to Electric, and Metapod can't do that much yet." Ash said. "I'm the best target. Plus, we've done this loads of times! Just… Not while you were around. Look, Luigi did it too!"

Misty whipped around to see the older boy standing there, even messier than Ash. "Why did you think it was a good idea? I thought you had more sense from him."

"Most of this is actually from me tripping over tree branches," Luigi said. "I had to gauge what Bulbasaur can do, and train him to hit a target he can't see, so I hid in the trees. I'm pretty light on my feet, so it worked out. Next time, we're going to be doing dodge training. I'm going to throw stuff and he'll try and dodge as much as he can."

"Saur." Bulbasaur had agreed to that, although he was still skeptical. Luigi had proven to be superhumanly athletic in every area so far, which meant that it could end up painful. Still, he didn't think Luigi would risk seriously injuring him.

"Oh, hey, look at this!" Ash said, holding up a green cocoon with eyes. "Caterpie evolved into Metapod while you were gone!"

"Evolved?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, Caterpie evolve really quickly," Ash said. "I hope you're there to see it when he evolves into Butterfree! Or when Pidgeotto evolves into Pidgeot!"

"Um, okay then," Luigi said. Bulbasaur was pretty sure that he didn't have a clue what evolution was, which… That was probably to be expected.

"… You're both crazy." Misty said. "And look, it's getting late. We'd better hustle if we want to make it to Pewter City."

"Right," Luigi said, putting Bulbasaur on his head once more. "… Which way is it again?"

"Just keep up…" Misty said, walking off. "We'll be there soon enough."

Ash looked at Luigi and shrugged. Pikachu jumped to his shoulder as he returned Pidgeotto and Metapod, and the unlikely group was on the road once again.

Brock didn't know exactly where he was going, but he knew this was something he needed to deal with sooner than later. Hopefully it would go as well as it had last time, but that time was because of Ash's sheer determination and rampant stupidity. He was taking a bit of a gamble, but it was probably worth it.

He reached the cliff face between Pewter City and Viridian forest, and began climbing his way up the rocks. With little trouble, he soon reached his destination – A stall selling rocks. Brock wondered why he'd never figured this out the first time around, but that didn't matter here and now.

"Ah, hello, Br… Young man. May I interest you in some rocks? They're the highest quality around!" The rock salesman, or, rather, Flint, Brock's father, was nervous.

"Dad."

Flint sighed. "So, you knew it was me…" He removed his disguise, revealing his appearance could best be described as an older version of Brock. "… What's this about? If you want to tell me about how terrible a father I am, I already know it all."

"No, dad," Brock said. "… I know that it's tempting to go on a journey. And I don't blame you for wanting one. You couldn't have known mom would just take off like that. You could've actually come home sometime in the last year, though."

"… You're not mad at me?" Flint asked hopefully.

"Well, not anymore. Maybe a little upset," Brock admitted. "But I forgave you a long time ago. I came here because I wanted to tell you that I'd like to go on a journey. I want to learn to take care of Pokémon, so I can be a Pokémon Breeder, or maybe a Pokémon Doctor. So…"

"You want me to be the Pewter City Gym Leader again?" Flint asked.

"Well, maybe. Forrest has been looking forward to being Gym Leader for years, and I know he's ready. Mostly, I want you to take care of the little ones, be their dad again."

Flint frowned. "It's been so long… Would I even know what to do?"

"Don't worry about that," Brock said. "I'm not leaving quite yet. We'll have time for you to get reacquainted with everyone, and learn everything you've got to do. So, what do you say? Do you want to give this another try?"

Flint smiled at his eldest son. "I think I do, Brock." He laughed, and it warmed Brock's heart to see. "Let's go see your brothers and sisters."

Ash's travelling group had stopped at the Pewter City Pokémon Center for the night. They'd barely managed to make it there before they closed the doors for the night. Nurse Joy ushered them quickly to an available room, after a short conversation with Luigi finding out about the strong family resemblance of the Joys.

Pikachu wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. He'd gotten used to the Joys and Jennys pretty quickly, especially with Brock around. He was more interested in Bulbasaur – He seemed to be deep in thought about something.

Pikachu didn't approach him about it until after Ash was asleep. He hopped up to Luigi's bed, and the older boy began patting his head absentmindedly, which was nice.

"(Hello, Pikachu,)" Bulbasaur said.

"(Hi. He told you his secret.)" Pikachu stated.

"(What?)" Bulbasaur asked. "(How…)"

"(That's good! Don't tell me,)" Pikachu said. "(I want to figure it out in my own way! Is it at least interesting?)"

"(… Yes.)" Bulbasaur said.

"(Alright. See you later, Bulbasaur. I'm going to go explore now!)" He hopped off the bed, waving to Luigi and Bulbasaur before opening the door and heading out into the great beyond… Of the rest of the Pokémon Center.

Pikachu had always loved exploring, just as his parents had. He barely remembered them, but their love of exploring had stayed with him through the years. If only he could somehow tell them he was safe and happy… Relatively safe, anyway.

The first floor of a Pokémon Center was always where the interesting stuff was. Every Center was different – Some had rooms with a lot of workout equipment, some had libraries, he'd even once seen a miniature planetarium.

This center had a small geological exhibit, which was pretty interesting. It surprised him just how many varieties of one mineral there could be. He was walking through the halls on the ground floor when he noticed another Pokémon, sitting in wait of an ambush and staring at his own reflection in a hand mirror someone had left on the floor.

"(Croagunk?)" Pikachu asked. "(Why are you here?)"

Croagunk looked at Pikachu, and stared.

"(… Are you sitting here to ambush Brock when he flirts with Nurse Joy?)" Pikachu asked.

Croagunk, unsurprisingly, gave the same response.

"(More importantly, how are you here?)" Pikachu was bewildered, and somewhat nervous around the odd Poison-type. "(Sinnoh is really far away…)"

Croagunk stared.

"(… Good talk,)" Pikachu said, moving around him. "(I'll just… go…)"

When Pikachu looked back at Croagunk, he'd turned back to the hand mirror. Pikachu shuddered. Croagunk was a friend, but he'd always been kind of creepy.

He walked along a bit longer, and eventually heard Nurse Joy talking to someone. He quickly dashed over to the door he'd heard her in, and stood by it, listening.

"If you needed to talk to Brock, why didn't you just call him?" Nurse Joy asked. "And why call at midnight?"

"It's not easy to contact Gym Leaders," A man's voice. Pikachu recognized it, but couldn't quite place it.

"Even for the Champion?" Nurse Joy asked. Pikachu's eyes widened. "And why-"

Pikachu stumbled through the door in shock, drawing the attention of both Nurse Joy and the red-haired man on the screen.

"A Pikachu?" Nurse Joy asked, leaning down to pick the little mouse up. "What are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be with your trainer?"

Lance laughed. "I know that Pikachu! So, Ash Ketchum is there?"

"Um… Yes, a trainer named Ash Ketchum came in earlier… How do you know him?"

"He's helped me a few times before. Other Champions, too," Lance said. "I, and a few others, have travelled back in time."

"Time travel…" Nurse Joy said. "I know some of my cousins have dealt with that, but…"

"This is different," Lance said. "And, because of that, I'm trying to set up a meeting to assess the situation and discuss solutions. If you could pass on the message, I'd like Ash and Brock to attend, along with any friends they think appropriate."

Nurse Joy sighed. "I'll pass on the message, Lance… Does this sort of thing always happen to Champions?"

"… Mostly when Ash Ketchum is around," Lance admitted. "I didn't realize it at first, but he is quite a trouble magnet."

"I see…" Nurse Joy said. "Well, as long as he doesn't blow up a Pokémon Center…"

Pikachu looked away from Nurse Joy, remembering the time he'd done just that to the Viridian Center. She wasn't paying attention to him, though. Most humans didn't seem to think much of him, or treated him like a child… Which he was, technically, but people still treated Ash with a lot more respect than they did him.

Lance laughed. "I know that Pikachu you're holding causes things to explode by accident on a regular basis. Anyway, good-bye, Nurse Joy. I'll figure out the exact details of the meeting and send them to you by morning. Rest well tonight!"

After saying her own goodbyes, Nurse Joy set Pikachu back on the floor. "Go find your trainer, little one."

"(Sorry about eavesdropping,)" Pikachu said.

"You know, you're awfully cute… Do you remember where your trainer is?"

Pikachu sighed. Yes, he'd only been told by a million humans that he was cute. At least this one was older than him and wasn't attempting to hug him to death. He nodded to answer Nurse Joy's question, that he definitely knew where Ash was. At least he hoped so, Ash had a tendency to get terribly lost even with someone with a decent sense of direction riding his shoulder.

Once he was in the hallway, he noticed that Croagunk and his mirror had both vanished without a trace, which wasn't really unexpected. Pikachu had asked about his habit of vanishing and appearing out of nowhere once, but had only gotten the usual stare as an answer.

When he returned to the room, Bulbasaur was asleep at the foot of Luigi's bed, while the blue-eyed teenager was still awake, and staring at the ceiling. Something was bothering him, just like since they'd met him. Pikachu wished that he just could ask Luigi what was wrong, but the odds of him understanding him weren't good, and the odds of Ash conveying what he said clearly weren't much better.

In the end, Pikachu got into his usual sleeping spot (on top of Ash), and was out for the count.

Ash didn't get a chance for a real gym battle against Brock that morning. In fact, he and Misty didn't even get the chance to go to the Pewter Gym again. Brock was already at the Pokémon Center when they woke up and Nurse Joy had an important message from the Champion himself.

Luigi eventually woke up halfway through breakfast, and quickly proved that Ash was no longer the champion of inhaling as much food as possible in a small amount of time. As they were leaving the Pokémon Center and setting off for Mount Moon, Luigi introduced himself to Brock.

"Um, hi. I'm Luigi. The second Mario Brother," Luigi added. He knew that none of them would get what that meant, but he was used to introducing himself that way. "My big bro got lost, so I'm trying to find him."

"I see… I'm Brock, former Pewter Gym Leader, and aspiring Pokémon Doctor," Brock introduced himself.

"Yeah… They told me a lot about you. Misty talked about your cooking a lot."

"I'm not surprised," Brock said. "When we used to travel together, I was always the one to cook. Ash is actually pretty good, as long as he has a recipe. Misty doesn't cook, though."

"Ah… When me and my bro are on the road, we always work together. Mario's good at getting the fire right, and I do the cooking part…" Luigi trailed off.

"You said he got lost, right? Any ideas where to find him?"

"Wherever there's trouble," Luigi said. "It follows us wherever we go."

Brock looked to Ash. "With him around, that's either going to make things incredibly easy or incredibly difficult."

"The latter," Luigi said confidently. "I know how my life works.

"We might get lucky."

Luigi shook his head. "We won't. Anyway… Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"That's right, you were asleep. We're going to a meeting at the Vermillion City Pokémon Center in a week. Lance – Before you ask, yes, that Lance – wants our help with the whole-"

Misty clapped her hand over Brock's mouth. "We didn't tell him that part!" She snapped at the older boy. Once she removed her hand, Brock stared at her in disbelief (not that Luigi could tell).

"… So you told him everything, except for that one very important detail," Brock confirmed. "… How did you manage this long?"

"Hey, uh, if it's a secret – and I get the feeling it's the same thing they were talking to Professor Oak about – Then I'm not going to pry," Luigi said. "Stars know, I've got my own secrets... As long as I keep mine, you're entitled to yours."

"I suppose that's fair…" Brock said. "… Anyway. The fastest way to Vermillion City is through Mount Moon. The caves can get pretty dark, but it's a fairly straightforward path through."

"Caves?" Luigi asked, memories rushing through his head. "… I'm way overdue to be nearly crushed by ten tons of rock. I'm going to climb over the mountain instead."

"Not a good idea. Mount Moon's a pretty tough climb – The cave system is a lot easier to go through."

"I'm a good climber," Luigi said. "And the cave will certainly try to kill me."

"Caves don't have minds of their own," Misty grumbled. "They can't try to do anything."

"Trust me on this one…" Luigi said, looking to the looming mountain. "The universe will always find a way to cause me pain."

Far away, a wizard puzzled over the unusual data she'd uncovered over the last few days. Something strange had happened, and she was determined to find out what it was. If not what, at least where it was, so she could stop it.

From her appearance, you might not guess at first that she was a wizard. Right now, she was simply dressed in practical clothes for field work, the only unusual thing being that they were pink and purple in color. She did often wear a navy-blue hooded cape, but that was hanging on the wall at the moment, and capes didn't draw as much attention in Blackthorn City as they did in other places. Apart from her striking blue eyes, there was little to distinguish her from any other woman in her fifties.

Her apprentice was working on her own projects on the opposite side of the room. She was a lot younger, only seventeen years old, and much more into the 'witch' aesthetic, with her red hair styled to look like it defied gravity, sporting both a black hat and cloak to complete the look. A Murkrow perched on a chair next to her, keenly observing the potion she was developing.

Lily took a break for a moment to check on her mentor again. She was still completely absorbed in her work, just like she'd been the past few days. At first, Lily was glad for the chance to develop her own potions instead of learning more traditional spells, but after a while she'd began to grow worried.

"Miss Luna?" Lily spoke up. The wizard didn't seem to hear her. "Um, Lunamia…"

"Hm?" Lunamia looked up. "Oh, sorry, Lily. I've been working on this."

"I know," Lily said. "That's all you've been doing for days. Is there some way I can help? Is there anything we can do?"

Luna was quiet, and sighed. "Lily, this is extremely important. I need to know if I can trust you not to freak out."

"Well, I think I've been pretty good about not freaking out, really," Lily said. "Remember the first time I saw you turn into Ninetales?"

"Yes, you did take that quite well…" Luna said. "I did warn you, though. In a way."

"Really?" Lily asked. "All I remember is a joke about being 'foxy'."

"Yes, a very clear warning for what I was about to do," Luna affirmed, smiling. Her expression turned serious again. "This isn't like that, Lily. This isn't anything I've done, and it could be extremely dangerous. I need to be sure that you're absolutely ready before I tell you more."

"Yes, well… I've been with you so far," Lily said. "I'm quite sure I can handle it."

Luna told her.

Lily had been very, very wrong.

"The whole world?" Lily asked again, to confirm that she hadn't heard wrong the first two times. A big part of her hoped that she had heard wrong, and that there wasn't some massive otherworldly power causing havoc and chaos throughout the entire world.

"Yes," Luna said. "I need to figure out how to stop it. I'll need to set things up for you to continue your training without me."

"No, no, that's alright," Lily said. "I'd like to help you. You are my teacher, after all, and I'd finally have the chance to travel around and find new ingredients!"

"That's the spirit," Luna said. "Thank you, Lily. If things get too tough, I'll bring you right back home, got it? Now, get ready. I'll go make my own preparations."

Lily nodded, and began to pack all her materials into her bag. Murkrow helped with some things she forgot, and also brought her some interesting-looking books to help stave off boredom (he was quite helpful in that way).

"Lily!" Lunamia called out "Have you seen my staff anywhere?"

"You left it behind the refrigerator again," Lily called back. She'd never quite understood how her mentor managed to constantly misplace a five-foot-long priceless magical artifact, but that was how it went.

Soon, Lily and Luna were both ready. Luna was wearing her cape now, and had her staff – A long length of wood and silver, inset with a sapphire at the end.

"Where are we going, actually?" Lily asked.

"Oh, that's right – Kanto," Luna said. "I've managed to narrow down the location to there – I believe it's in Pewter City or Viridian City at the moment, but it's a very rough estimate. I can warp us there, to start, but don't expect to be doing that much."

"I know," Lily said. She'd seen her mentor after several successive long-distance warps – Even for someone as powerful as Lunamia, bending space in such a way used a lot of energy, fast.

"Lily, I want to say – I'm glad you're coming with me," Luna said. "Saving the world alone gets, well, lonely."

"Well, I guess…" Lily trailed off. "Thanks, Miss Luna."

Luna nodded. "The warp should only take about five minutes to set up. Sit tight, Lily. We'll be on our way soon."

Okay, so... I have an excuse this time! ... Zelda is half of it. I was able to snag a Switch and Breath of the Wild on launch day. The other half is that I haven't actually stopped writing - By the time of this posting, I'm partway through writing the draft of Chapter 16.

Croagunk. Did you really think time travel was going to stop him from ruining Brock's "chances" with the ladies?

Pikachu likes exploring... And that makes sense for why he'd want to stay at Professor Oak's place, where he has a whole ranch to explore, instead of going with a trainer who for all he knows would just keep him in a Pokeball the whole time. That was a complete accident - I didn't see it coming until I was writing the draft. Originally, I was going to have it so that Gary's opinions on Ash gave Pikachu a poor image of him starting out. This is better.

Alright, so... Lily, from Hocus Pokemon! That one episode where Ash is turned into a Pikachu. I figured that you couldn't very well have Mario characters around without having some magic in the mix.

And... A character I made, as Lily's mentor. I didn't actually intend for their names to be 'Lily Luna', I picked the name before realizing that, but kept it. She's another reason this chapter took a while - I wanted to be absolutely sure whether I wanted to include her. I decided to go for it.

... Also, Lance. Seems that other people remember and are making preparations to deal with the problem at hand.

Next up... Mount Moon. Things aren't the same as before, of course... And, well, you'll see. I don't think this will take three months.

Rocker on: Characters from Mario's world are exempt from type matchups. It didn't stop me from thinking up types from the characters for fun, though! Mario and Luigi are both Fighting/Fairy, Bowser is Dragon/Dark (All three are very powerful with magic, and it gives a huge type advantage to Mario and Luigi). Yoshi would be Grass/Dragon, I think. Grass is his type in Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros Edition, and his special moves incorporate rainbows a lot, which reminds me of Solarbeam. Rosalina would probably be Water/Ghost - Water because Palkia, who has similar powers, is a Water-type;, as well as that being Rosalina's type in P&D : SMBE, like Yoshi is Grass. Ghost because she's immortal. Peach is a tough one - I think she'd be Fairy/Flying, Psychic/Flying, Normal/Flying, or just Normal, though. Well... You'll have to see what happens for that. For Rosalina too.
As for Pokemon characters using Mario items - No. At least, not power-ups. I don't think I'll have a better place to explain this, so here goes. In this story, Mario and Luigi are the first people in history to use power-ups the way they do. No one ever suspected it was possible before they were born. For anyone else, it takes training and focus to use power-ups, while Mario and Luigi can simply touch them and transform, even by accident.
... Mewtwo is in this story. You're correct on some points, but not all of them.