8 hours of flight later the Unova Region came into Ash's sight. He yelled to be heard over the wind "We're almost there Garchomp, just a little more and you can have those two Pokéblock that I promised you." Hearing that Garchomp sped up and, not five minutes later, they were on the sandy beach of the Unova Region. As Ash turned back to Garchomp he reached into one of the pockets that his mother had sewn into the inside of his cloak and retrieved the Pokéblock that he had put in there before they left having predicted Garchomp's becoming tired from flying all the way to the Unova Region with Ash on his back. As Garchomp munched on his meal Ash walked up the beach, Garchomp following in his wake. Ash walked up the steps leading to the resort town that he had landed on the shore of and, when he got there, he was astounded by the town he saw. It was a resort town in the truest sense of the word. There were no less than ten high-rise hotels in his sight from the beachfront. Directly in front of him though, was something that gave him great joy, a store that actually sold human food. Ash crossed the street in a rush, followed by Garchomp, and entered the closest store, Garchomp still following.
The person manning the counter looked up at the commotion that he heard from the customers at a Pokémon that they had only seen with one other person, not to mention it being a rather large one at that. The person at the counter asked Ash "Can you please put that thing in a Pokéball whilst in this store? Or at least leave it outside?"
"Why? Garchomp isn't harming anything" Ash replied.
"Maybe so, but it's making the customers uncomfortable."
"Oh, I see," Ash said, he turned to Garchomp and asked "Garchomp, can you wait outside for a bit?"
Garchomp made a sound and then left to stand outside the store. The cashier said "I'm sorry about that, and thank you."
"That's no problem."
"So, what can I do you for?"
"Umm..." Ash said, reading the menu. "How about two battered savs and a small chips?"
"Sure thing" the cashier said, turning around "you're in luck mate, there's only three battered savs left."
"Really?" Ash asked "Where I'm from only a few people know about them, let alone buy them."
"Yeah, well the champion of Sinnoh likes to buy up a lot and then take them up to her villa up on the cape."
"I see..." Ash said "...wait! Cynthia's here?" Ash exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah, d'you know her?"
"Yeah, we crossed paths quite a bit when I was competing in the Sinnoh League a few years ago."
"You competed in the Sinnoh League?" the cashier asked, unconvinced.
"Yeah, sure did."
"What's your name kid?"
"Ash Ketchum, why?"
The man struggled to contain his laughter as he said "you, Ash Ketchum, yeah right."
"What? Why don't you believe me?"
"Because, Ash Ketchum just left here a few days ago, Pikachu 'n' all."
"What?" Ash asked, frowning at learning that there was someone impersonating him.
"Like I said, if you're going to be givin' a fake name, you'd better come up with a different one."
Just then a woman, dressed all in black, with long, blonde, hair entered the store, curious as to who owned the male Garchomp standing in front of the store. She said "Ash?"
Ash turned around and, surprised, almost queried "Cynthia!"
"How are you, it's been a while."
"Yeah, just over two years now."
"Really? Has it been that long?"
"Yeah. Hey, how's Paul doing, I haven't really kept up on the news outside of Kanto."
"He's doing well. As a matter of fact, he just joined the Sinnoh Battle Frontier as a Frontier Brain."
"He's a Frontier Brain! Well, I should've expected him to do something like that."
"By your presence here I take it that you are yet to take Scott up on his offer of becoming one yourself?"
"Yeah, I might after I'm done here, but...until then...nyeh, who knows."
"Who knows? Then you're not participating in the Unova League?"
"I don't really know yet, I just got here from Johto on Garchomp."
"You flew all the way here!" Cynthia exclaimed, knowing what it took to make such a journey, having done so herself a few times.
"Yeah, he's had practice flying all over Kanto these past two years."
"Speaking of which, what have you been up to?"
"Well..."
Just then the cashier butted in, asking Cynthia "Uhh...so you're saying that this kid, really is, Ash Ketchum?"
"Yes. Of course he is" Cynthia replied, looking at the cashier as if he was a fool.
"See, I told you that" Ash said.
"Uhh...then I most sincerely apologise, Ash."
"That's fine, although I would like to know what this imposter was doing here."
"What's this about an imposter?" Cynthia asked, not having come into town when the fake Ash had gone through.
"Well, two days ago someone that called himself Ash Ketchum participated in a battle against my brother to eat for free in his restaurant and won, rather convincingly too, against his Seismitoad and won using only his Pikachu."
"What!" Cynthia exclaimed, knowing that Seismitoad's evolutionary line gains ground-type properties when it evolves the first time.
"Uhh...is there something strange about that?" Ash asked, assuming that, since they were next to a beach, along with the name, that the Pokémon that they were talking about, was a water type.
"Well," Cynthia said, "Seismitoad's also has the properties of a ground-type Pokémon."
"I see" Ash said, finally understanding. "So what're we to do about this?"
"Well," Cynthia stated, "of course we will need to inform the police about this, other than that, there's not too much that you can do right now."
"Well, I suppose so" Ash said.
"Buck up," Cynthia said, "you can stay with me at the villa that the Sinnoh Pokémon League owns whilst they search for him."
"Alright" Ash said and then, the cashier announced "your lunch is ready Ash." Ash turned around and paid the man, having had his money converted over so that it was in the correct currency. "Thank you" Ash said as he handed the money over and walked back outside where he found that his Garchomp was having a riveting conversation with Cynthia's. Ash turned to Cynthia as they exited the store and asked "So, why'd you come here? From what the cashier in there told me, you should have enough food for about three days."
"Well, Garchomp smelled another Garchomp in the area and, since there are no Garchomp occurring in this area naturally, we came out to see who it was."
"I see" Ash said as they walked along the boardwalk, Ash eating and their Garchomp following.
Cynthia's Garchomp called out and Cynthia turned to Ash and stated "Garchomp says that you have something that smells awfully good in one of your pockets." Ash had a sweatdrop appear on his forehead as Cynthia continued "which is truly rather odd, usually she only likes the food that I make her."
"Well, I made a few bars of Pokéblock before I came here for Garchomp for when we landed. I figured that he'd need them to recover his energy from the flight."
"Really? Would it be possible for you to give me your recipe?"
"Yeah, sure, I don't see why not," Ash said, "as long as you give me yours in return."
"Sure thing, although I can also do one thing that will probably help you more in this region."
"Really? Why's that?"
"Well, since until recently Unova has not been open to trainers from other areas they don't know how to make Pokéblock here, of course, this means that there are no Pokéblock making machines."
"Really?" Ash asked, his eyes widening in fear. "So what do they have?"
"They don't have anything."
"What?" Ash exclaimed.
"Berries don't occur naturally here."
"Then what did you mean when you said...?"
Cynthia cut him off before he could finish by saying "well, they don't occur naturally, but that hasn't stopped people growing orchards of them."
"I see" Ash said, and I suppose that the Sinnoh Pokémon League just happens to have one of them?"
"Indeed we do."
"Alright, then..."
"I'll grant you free access to them whenever you need it and I'll also allow you free access to our villa whilst you are in Unova, should you need it."
"Alright, thanks Cynthia" Ash said, his thanks truly heartfelt, having the ability to continue making the Pokéblock that his Garchomp loves to eat.
"Okay then," Cynthia announced as Ash finished his lunch, "here's the police station."
Ash looked up and said, "so it is," as he and Cynthia entered it and went up to the front desk.
They went up to the officer in charge and he completely dismissed them, not even looking up to see them. They weren't very amused by the dismissal of them so they had their Garchomp, that were still yet to be returned to their Pokéballs, and had them roar at the top of their voices, causing the officer to damn near piss his pants. He then looked up at the twin dragon type Pokémon and quickly called out for an Officer Jenny, hoping that there was some law against trying to get an officers attention through the use of some rather dangerous looking Pokémon. When the Officer Jenny arrived at the front desk she looked at the Pokémon and their trainers standing behind them, looking as sickeningly innocent as could be and said "yeah," in a voice that said 'I've seen this all before', "he was dismissing you before he even heard your complaint, didn't he?"
"Yes" Ash and Cynthia both stated.
Officer Jenny rounded on her officer and yelled "Roger! What have I told you about this before?"
"Uhh...pay attention to the charges being pressed?"
"Exactly, and what did you do?"
"Uhh, dismissed them without hearing the charges."
"Grr..." Officer Jenny growled "if you do that one more time, so help me, I'll send you back to the academy!"
"Yes ma'am" Roger, said, not wanting to go back to the academy and thinking, 'right, I'm definitely applying for that transfer.'
"And don't think that I'm going to accept a transfer request from you!"
'Damn that shrewd bitch!' Roger thought
"Now, what seems to be the problem Cynthia?"
"Cyn...Cyn...Cynthia?" Roger stuttered, finally taking a long look at the blonde haired woman that he had been ignoring.
Ash said, "well, Officer Jenny, it seems that someone is going around the Unova Region claiming that they are me."
"What? Why would someone do a thing like that?"
"I wish I knew, but the fact of the matter is that they are and something needs to be done about it."
"Alright, I'll do what I can, but first of all, I'll need you to fill in a formal complaint and then we can go from there."
"Okay, thanks" Ash said, receiving the necessary form from the Officer Jenny.
After Ash handed the form back to Officer Jenny, she said "Well, I'm sorry but I would like to request that you remain here while we search for the impersonator, to avoid any confusion, you understand?"
"Yeah. As a matter of fact, Cynthia has already offered me a place to stay until you do find him."
"Well, thank you. I'll know where to contact you if we need you to come in then."
"Yeah, and thank you very much" Ash said as he and Cynthia turned to leave.
Before they could though, Officer Jenny called out, saying, "OH! By the way..."
"Yes?" Cynthia asked, turning around.
"Can you please return those dragons to their Pokéballs, they might frighten some of the citizens and then I would be forced to arrest you for disturbing the peace."
"Of course," Cynthia said as she looked at Ash. The two trainers took a Pokéball from their belts and pointed them at their Pokémon and, simultaneously, said "Garchomp, return" and a red beam of light shot from the Pokéball to their Pokémon, dragging them back to them. After the Garchomp were back in their Pokéballs, their respective trainers returned them to their belt and then exited the police station and headed to the villa that would be Ash's temporary residence.