Not far from Indigo Plateau, Moltres soared.
Flames chased off the back of his wings, feeding him a thermal he used to stay effortlessly in the air, and far down below Pokémon trainers hurried along Victory Road towards the Pokémon League.
Moltres liked the Pokémon League. Not so much because of the battles, although they could be fun to watch, but because his preserved flame was the one they used to light the torch.
There wasn't anything wrong with being possessive about that sort of thing, in his mind, and he permitted himself a slow, dignified nod.
"Moltres!"
Moltres looked around, surprised, then did a slightly faster and considerably less dignified double-take. "Zapdos?"
"I thought it was you!" Zapdos said, swooping around him. "Remember that time we worked together to scare off that guy who was trying to climb your mountain, what, two years ago?"
"I remember that, yes," Moltres agreed. "But where have you been? You just outright vanished one day."
He blinked. "To be honest, I thought you'd moved. Did you move?"
"Kind of," Zapdos said. "You know how I mentioned I found a way to get tasty treats, once?"
Moltres nodded, slowly.
"Yeah, that kind of escalated," Zapdos went on. "I've got a trainer now. It's kind of fun, and the cooking is amazing."
The Fire-type blinked. "You've got a trainer? Really? I thought that just wasn't on. There's that man Articuno keeps visiting, but…"
"Oh, no, honestly the Pokéball thing isn't much of a big deal," Zapdos replied. "There's this Pikachu on my team who disagrees, though."
"But what about the inherent, noble dignity of a Legendary Pokémon?" Moltres asked.
For some reason, that led Zapdos to laugh so hard she nearly fell out of the sky.
"Yikes, there's a lot of matches," Ash said, watching on the waiting room TVs. "How many are there?"
"Now, I'm not exactly a mathematical genius," Pikachu said, twitching his ears. "But there's two hundred and fifty six trainers in the tournament, and each knockout match knocks someone out. So… two hundred and fifty five."
"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," Ash agreed. "Wow. No wonder they have to have them in different arenas…"
One of the trainers on the Ice field withdrew his last Pokémon, and something went bing. Ash looked up to see what number was lit up, then stood. "That's us!"
"Right…" Josh said, checking on his Pokéballs – each one marked with a sticker. "First step, pick a Pokémon suited to the battlefield."
He took a Pokéball, waiting for the signal, then sent out his Sneasel. "Go!"
On the other side of the arena, Ash sent out Clefairy.
"Fairy type," Josh told himself, remembering his lessons. "Weak to Poison and Steel… Sneasel, Metal Claw!"
"Dodge behind the ice!" Ash replied.
Josh frowned. "Wait, you can-"
He interrupted himself, shaking his head. "Of course you can dodge."
It all seemed a lot easier at Pokémon Tech on the battle simulator, but he still had the advantage.
"Metronome!" Ash called, and Josh frowned.
"Uh, wait and see what attack it is!" he said.
Sneasel crouched on the other side of a hunk of ice, claws ready, then a barrage of seeds began flying towards him and exploding.
"It's either Seed Bomb or Barrage," Josh decided. "Metal Claw!"
Sneasel's claws dug into the ice and he broke into a run, ducking away from one Barrage ball and leaping over another. A third came hurtling in as he jumped up to attack, and Sneasel swiped the Barrage Ball in half with his claws – sending the two halves fizzing away to behind him before they detonated – and hit Clefairy a glancing blow with his Metal Claw attack.
"Gravity!" Ash said, and a sudden pulse of enhanced gravity snatched Sneasel down to the ground. The same pulse sent Clefairy floating up into the air, and her wings fluttered slightly to keep her there.
"Again, and sideways!" Ash called.
"What?" Josh asked. "Can you even do that?"
Apparently you could, as Clefairy waved her hands and changed the direction of the altered gravity. Sneasel was suddenly faced with climbing a steep icy wall, and used all four sets of claws to build up speed as he charged in for another attack.
This time Clefairy curled into a ball to avoid the worst of the attack, and when she came out of her curl her fingers were twitching from side to side again.
"Get out of the way!" Josh said.
It didn't help.
Clefairy unleashed a torrent of tricolored blue-white-and-red light that hit the ice Sneasel had dodged behind, shattered it to powder, and hit Sneasel with the same force.
A faint snatch of music seemed to hang in the air for the long seconds of the attack, until it faded and left Sneasel out for the count in the middle of a patch of shattered ice.
"Ever seen that one before?" Pikachu asked.
"Nope," Ash replied. "The Pokédex doesn't have a clue either."
Clefairy floated back down to land on an ice rock, recoil energy fizzing around her, and Ash cupped his hands around his mouth. "Do you need a rest?"
"Non, non, on ne passe pas," Clefairy replied.
Josh recalled his Sneasel and switched out for another Pokémon, this one a Mawile.
"Watch out, don't get fooled," Ash called. "And – use Gravity to boost your jump! Then, Metronome!"
"Ash is using Metronome kind of a lot," Brock frowned. "I guess that's because Clefairy doesn't know all that many moves that are good against his opponents."
"Allegedly," Misty said.
A whirl of petals came down from where Clefairy had bounced to, peppering the grass around Mawile without actually doing her much damage, and she frowned. "Well, at least Ash has something to work on with her."
"Get in close!" Ash called.
Clefairy's hands twitched to either side, and she used Gravity. The sudden pulse gave her a remarkable acceleration, and she hit the ground just in front of Mawile with enough force to crack the ice – and her fingers already glowing as she used another Metronome.
"To-ge-to-ge," Togepi chanted, her fingers starting to go back and forth as well, and Misty returned her.
"Sorry, sweetie," she said.
Then Clefairy exploded, sending out a torrent of flame and a shock wave that sent most of the ice rocks on the field sliding off in all directions.
When the cloud had cleared, both Pokémon were clearly out.
"...and that's why," Misty added. "Ouch."
The next day, on the water field, Ash raised his hand.
"Were those real Pidgey?" he asked, as his opponent finished a display of magic tricks.
"What?" Mandi said, thrown. "Of course they are – why would you think anything else?"
Ash shrugged. "Well… you know, magic and illusions and stuff can be confusing."
He still wasn't sure. Magicians could be tricky, after all.
"Please send out your first Pokémon!" the referee instructed, and Mandi sent out an Exeggutor.
For his part, Ash sent out a Pokémon he thought would work well in the water. "Dratini!"
"And you were asking if my Pidgey were real?" Mandi said, as Ash's Dratini dove into the water with a plop, then shook his head. "Whatever. Exeggutor, use Psychic on the water!"
The water began to swirl, and after a few seconds Dratini's head popped up above the water.
"Try and counter the spin!" Ash called. "Twister!"
"All right!" she replied, twirling her body, and the water seethed as the two counter-rotating swirls began to interact.
"Egg Bomb!" Mandi added. "Blast the water!"
Dratini wove in and out of the blasts, doing her best to avoid catching one of the depth-charges too closely, and Ash watched closely – paying as much attention to the water currents as he was to her or his opponent.
"Now!" he called. "Ride the current and jump out!"
Dratini accelerated, following the same eddy that Ash had noticed, then sprang out of the water.
"Fire Punch!" Ash ordered.
The Dragon-type flipped around and coiled her tail like a spring, ramming into Exeggutor with a slam and a flash of flame, then sprang off and back into the water.
"Next time, catch him in Psychic," Mandi instructed.
"Her," Ash corrected.
"Catch her in Psychic," the trainer amended.
"Circle around!" Ash called. "Don't let them know where you're coming from!"
Dratini sped up, and Exeggutor began throwing Egg Bombs into the water again. The water had stopped churning from Psychic, but Dratini was still moving quickly – then she zigged when she should have zagged, and got blasted up out of the water.
Exeggutor's eyes glowed, and he caught the Dragon Pokémon in Psychic.
"Dragon Rage!" Ash ordered.
"Hypnosis!" Mandi replied.
Dratini launched out a jet of purple flame that singed across Exeggutor, but her opponent had already started using Hypnosis – and the Dragon Rage got weaker, before fizzling out entirely.
Then Dratini glowed white, Shed her Skin, and evolved into Dragonair.
"Dragon Rage again!" she shouted, and blew Exeggutor off the platform into the water.
"Wow," Pikachu said, as Dragonair flew back over and Ash gave her a pat in congratulations. "I think that's the first time one of your Pokémon has ever evolved where we can see it."
"Mankey evolved," Ash replied. "No, wait, that one was Mew… actually, that means Dragonair's only the second time one of my Pokémon has evolved."
He recalled her. "Have a good rest, okay?"
Mandi sent out his second Pokémon, a Seadra, and Ash replied.
With Dratini.
"...uh…" Mandi said. "Didn't you just evolve that one? Or is it a different one?"
"That was my cousin, actually," the Dratini replied. "I'm kind of jealous now. But only a bit."
"Agility!" Mandi added, deciding that it didn't really make much difference what the Dratini was saying, and Seadra accelerated.
"Dragon Dance!" Ash called. "If they want a race, give them a race!"
"What I want to know is what his third Pokemon's going to be," Mandi murmured, as two almost-invisible blurs criss-crossed the arena, then raised his voice. "Seadra, Laser Focus!"
"Watch out!" Ash called. "Dodge onto the platform!"
"Dragon Breath!" Mandi called.
Dratini was just hopping out onto the platform when Seadra popped up at the other end of the field, fins waving, and shot a pin-point blast of Dragon Breath. The jet of green flame hit Dratini dead-centre, hurling him into the air in a column of spray.
"Hit him again when he comes down!" Mandi added.
When the Pokémon didn't come down, he looked up instead.
And saw Dragonair.
"What?" he asked. "Didn't this literally just happen?"
"Dragon Tail!" Ash ordered, and Dragonair blurred down before smacking Seadra out of the water.
He followed up with a Thunderpunch, and Seadra landed with a heavy splash.
Misty face-palmed.
"I just had this feeling about what Ash's third Pokémon is going to be," she said.
"Ooh!" Eevee gasped, bouncing up and down on Brock's lap with her Everstone jingling. "I know! I know!"
Ash recalled Dragonair, and sent out Dratini.
Which evolved to Dragonair before Mandi had even finished sending out Golbat.
"Oh, come on!" he said. "That one didn't even do anything yet!"
"I've just discovered a whole new dimension of hugs!" Dragonair cheered, and sprang skywards. "Hello Golbat! Would you like to make friends with me?"
On the way back to his room after the battle, to swap out for a different set of Pokémon, someone intercepted Ash.
"There you are," he said. "I wanted to say I was impressed."
Ash looked up at the man, and blinked as he recognized who it was. "Lance? You're the Grand Champion, right?"
"Correct," Lance agreed. "As a Dragon Tamer, I wanted to give you my compliments. Not many trainers can find and train three Dratini, especially not at the same time."
"Oh, huh," Ash frowned. "Are they rare?"
Lance could honestly say that was not the answer he'd expected.
"...yes," he said eventually.
"Only, I've still got twenty-six back at Professor Oak's ranch," Ash went on. "They're really affectionate!"
"...twenty six," Lance repeated. "You've still got twenty six."
"Yeah, I only had twenty-nine Safari Balls left at that point, but the lucky thing is there weren't any Dratini left when I was done," Ash clarified. "Otherwise I'd have been splitting them up, which seems kind of mean."
Lance had actually been planning to give Ash an open-ended job offer, but he didn't remember that for some time afterwards.
"Keep up that Withdraw!" Ash's opponent called. "I know it's a powerful Pokémon, but they can't do anything if they can't get past your shell!"
"Yeah, you don't need to remind me," Ash said, frowning. "Okay… Suicune, Water Pulse!"
Suicune moved slowly forwards, hitting the Withdrawn Cloyster with a barrage of Water attacks, and Ash pointed. "Now, Aurora Beam!"
"Do you actually have a plan?" Pikachu checked.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is going to work," Ash replied. "Another Water Pulse – keep swapping that and Aurora Beam!"
The Water-type kept pelting her opponent with attacks, first soaking Cloyster and then freezing the water, and each wave of attacks thickened the icy sculpture building up around her opponent.
"How are you doing?" Ash added, in a pause between attacks. "Keeping up?"
"I'm getting a little out of breath," Suicune admitted. "Normally I don't have to do attacks like that quite so often… normally I'm targeting something that doesn't just ignore the attacks."
"Right, that means it's time for a change!" Ash told her. "When you do this next bit, break the ice only down the middle! Rock Smash!"
The Water-type took a few paces first to build up speed, then darted at her opponent and smashed into the ice. It broke away entirely around the seam of the shell, but remained in place on the sides – making it look like Cloyster had massive extra-sized ice shells on top of its normal ones.
"Now, get in close!" Ash added. "Use that extra ice as footholds and prise Cloyster open!"
"Wait, what?" Pete said. "That's – Cloyster, Toxic Spikes!"
Cloyster's shell heaved open, sluggish from the weight of extra ice, and scattered a layer of poisoned caltrops on the grass in front of its shell opening.
What it didn't realize, though, was that that same extra shell weight was going to make it harder to close in a hurry.
"Extremespeed and Rock Smash!" Ash interrupted himself. "Quick!"
Suicune blurred in, paws glowing, and jumped clear over the Toxic Spikes. Her paws glowed as they made contact – with the inside of Cloyster's shell – and she blasted it halfway across the arena.
"Not bad," Pikachu said, as Suicune followed up to check if Cloyster was still in the battle. "Are you going to leave her out?"
"No, I'm switching her out," Ash replied. "She needs some time to recover after that. Suicune, come back!"
Pete already had his next Pokémon ready, and Ash switched from a Safari Ball to a Pokéball before throwing it out onto the field.
"...huh," Pete said, looking at his next opponent.
A Magikarp.
"Carp," it said, as Pete's Persian looked first at the Water-type and then at his trainer.
"I guess… wait," Pete frowned. "I've seen this kid's matches. Either that's about to turn into a Gyarados, or it's got something even more insane going on."
"Now!" Ash called.
"Carp," Magikarp agreed, flicking itself up on its tail, then used Extremespeed.
Persian was ready for a lot of things, but being smacked about the head with a supersonic fish was not one of them.
The Normal-type rolled over twice before getting to his feet and sliding, snarling in annoyance.
His foe simply bounced up and down innocently.
"Be careful, but go in close," Pete ordered. "Slash!"
Persian's claws sprang out as he got closer, but Magikarp reacted first.
And used Double Kick.
"...what is happening," Pete asked, plaintively, as Persian ran around in circles yowling.
The Magikarp was still doing damage, though… partly because it was using Bite. On Persian's tail.
"Tail Whip!" he ordered. "Fling it off!"
Persian twisted his entire spine, convulsively Tail Whipping Magikarp off, and it flew into the air.
"Flamethrower!" Ash called.
Magikarp used Flamethrower.
"That was fun!" Zorua enthused, after the match. "The trick is to stay in character!"
Pikachu raised a paw, looked at Zorua, looked at Ash, and lowered the paw again.
"Fair enough," he decided.
AN:
I mean, Zorua has a point.