"Ah, it's been a while since we've travelled like this, huh, Pikachu?" Ash asked, strolling down a country road with an easy gait.
"Pika pika, Pikapi," Pikachu pointed out.
Ash laughed. "I mean alone! You know, our friends are great, but… Goh's on his journey, and Chloe's on hers, and I'm on mine, and we're just not going in the same direction any more."
After a few seconds, as they reached the crest of a low hill and a junction in the road appeared before them, Ash looked embarrassed. "Speaking of directions, uh… which direction are we supposed to be going?"
Pikachu sniggered. "Pikapi…"
"I know who's going to know!" Ash said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his Rotom Phone. "Hey, Rotom, which way do we go here?"
"That depends," Rotom answered. "Where are you trying to go?"
Pikachu looked at Ash expectantly.
Ash mostly just looked embarrassed.
"I don't actually know?" he admitted. "I was looking to get somewhere to spend some time with my Pokémon, try out some moves, but… I didn't really think about much beyond that."
"Pikapika, Pikapi," Pikachu said, shaking his head.
"In that case, I cannot help you," Rotom said.
"I'll just pick at random," Ash decided. "Come on, Pikachu!"
Pikachu bounded over to him and scaled his clothes in a few seconds, parking himself on Ash's shoulder, and Ash reached up his free hand to caress his best friend. "Decided not to walk yourself if we don't know where we're going, huh?" he asked. "No worries… let's see what's over that hill!"
What was over that hill, as it turned out, was a lightly forested section of countryside with a pair of rivers running through it.
Ash wasn't great at geography, and he couldn't have told you why the two rivers were so close together without just being one big one, but the road ran a winding course on high ground between the two rivers.
There wasn't much to say, and neither Ash nor Pikachu felt the need to, until they reached the point where the two rivers finally combined together into one. There were bridges leading over both of them, and a lake where the rivers mingled before flowing on to an unknown sea, and Ash and Pikachu looked at it for a long moment before exchanging a glance.
"Let's have lunch here!" Ash said.
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed. "Pika-pi, Pikapi!"
"Sure!" Ash said, as Pikachu went off to find some berry bushes. "Let's see… hey, Boldore, mind giving us a nice flat place to sit?"
Boldore emerged, and slammed his claws down onto the ground. He used Stone Edge, making a little stone about the size of a lunchbox slide out of the pebble beach, then gave Ash an expectant look.
"You're right," Ash decided. "It'd be a shame to make too much of a mess of this place, so good work!"
Boldore jumped up, and Ash gave him a hug.
From the ground, because Boldore had flattened him, but he didn't mind.
Most of an hour later, and after Dragonite had given Ash a proper hug as well, they'd all had lunch from the collection of berries Pikachu had found for the group.
There were several other bushes that hadn't been touched, and Ash smiled – then stood up.
"Okay, who wants to do some experimenting?"
"Bulba!" Bulbasaur declared.
"Terrr…" Torterra agreed, sounding interested.
"Well, I was actually thinking about a couple of things," Ash explained. "See… Torterra, what about if you could make it so the ground around you was as dangerous as possible for other Pokémon? It wouldn't help so much with flying Pokémon, but it'd mean you had a good chance against Pokémon who weren't."
Torterra made a considering rumble, and glanced at Bulbasaur.
"Saur!" Bulbasaur nodded.
"Dore-bol," Boldore agreed.
"Boldore, you could help out here, actually," Ash said. "You know your Stone Edge? Well, if we can get Torterra working on something like that, that would be great!"
He turned his attention to Donphan, who was in the middle of playing a game with her trunk and Pikachu's tail but apologized to Pikachu before turning to her trainer. "Doon?"
"Donphan, I was thinking it'd be fun for you and Dragonite to work on a combination move!" Ash said.
"Iiite!" Dragonite said, sounding interested.
"She's got a trick where she spins herself around in her own Hurricane," Ash explained. "And that might be a great way to spin your Rollout up to top speed!"
Most of an hour later, Ash and his Pokémon hadn't really moved on from the lake.
The two ideas Ash had mentioned weren't the only things they'd tried. Like sometimes happened, one idea was sparking off another in a series of experiments, and now Donphan and Dragonite had started playing catch with Bulbasaur as the Grass-type used his vines to correct any mistakes they made in their throws.
There were a lot of mistakes, and Ash thought maybe they were making them on purpose, but it was still fun to watch.
Torterra was more committed to getting the Stone Edge trick right, and he'd moved to a section of the lakeshore that wasn't on the pebble beach or on the path, but it was still ending up a bit of a mess. Pikachu was volunteering to be the Pokémon who ran back and forth, and Ash alternated between calling out advice for one of the Pokémon over there and keeping score of the two girls.
"That's twenty two catches for Dragonite!" he said. "And nineteen for Donphan, and thirty for Bulbasaur!"
Donphan and Dragonite both looked at him, with Bulbasaur dangling from Dragonite's arms before she absently drew the Grass-type into a hug.
"Bulbasaur keeps catching himself!" Ash explained, then Dragonite laughed and tossed Bulbasaur at Ash. He caught the Grass-type, smiling, then got bowled over as something invisible knocked him into the lake.
"Pikapi!" Pikachu yelped, as all of Ash's other Pokémon stopped doing what they were doing at the massive splash.
Bulbasaur caught himself with his vines against a tree, dropped to the ground, and hurried over – then Ash picked himself back up out of the lake, coughing for a moment and giving them a thumbs-up.
"I'm okay, guys!" he said, then frowned. "But… what hit me?"
"Iiite!" Dragonite said, pointing, and Ash looked over at another set of dispersing ripples.
There was something in the water there… then it shimmered, and revealed itself to be a Pokémon.
A red-and-white Pokémon, and a very familiar red-and-white Pokémon at that.
"Latias?" Ash asked, frowning in confusion.
The Dragon-type startled, then let out a cry of pain. She tried to take off, failed, then scrambled backwards through the water away from Ash.
"Hey, don't worry," Ash said, raising his hands. "You're safe here, okay?"
Pikachu's ears twitched.
"Pikapi!" he said, in a note of warning, then did a pose.
"Uh… like Hunter J?" Ash asked, then his face clouded. "Pokémon poachers? Do you think they're nearby?"
"Pikapika, pipi-chuuu," Pikachu shrugged. "Pika-pii?"
"Draa-gon," Dragonite said, approaching the Latias. "ragon-ite?"
Latias looked very confused, then shook her head, and Dragonite looked very downcast.
Ash knew Dragonite well, and sloshed over to pat her on the arm. "It's okay, Dragonite, Latias is hurt, that's all… that's why she doesn't want a hug. And I guess she's scared of the poachers, too, but we can help her out."
"Pika pika, Pikapi," Pikachu advised.
"Dooore," Boldore agreed.
Ash frowned. "Uh… yeah, if we're going to move her out of the lake… Torterra, maybe you can help give her a lift?"
Bulbasaur's vines and Donphan's trunk between them helped to get Latias onto Torterra's back, and the Grass-type carried Latias into the shade underneath some of the nearby trees.
"Thanks, everyone," Ash said. "Uh… that wing looks like it's pretty badly hurt…"
He glanced at Bulbasaur, hoping that he had some advice. "It's important to keep injuries like that still, right?"
Bulbasaur nodded, then held out a vine stiffly and wrapped the other one around it.
"A splint?" Ash asked. "Yeah, got it – Dragonite, can you look for a nice straight bit of wood or branch? Pikachu, were there any Sitrus berries left over?"
"Pika!" Pikachu nodded, loping off.
Latias twisted her neck to look at him, then squeaked in pain.
"Hey, it's okay," Ash said. "We're going to help you, and we'd have done that even before Pikachu worked out there were poachers after you. But now that we know that, we're going to do even more to keep you safe than before. Poachers are terrible!"
He shook his head, distracted a bit. "You know, right?" he asked Boldore, sitting next to him. "Goh catches a lot of Pokémon, but he takes care of the ones who are his close friends, and everyone else… they know they could go if they wanted. And none of them do because the Vermillion Lab is a nice place for Pokémon to stay."
Ash looked over at Dragonite, as she returned with a long tree branch. "You remember, right?"
Dragonite nodded firmly, and proffered the branch. Bulbasaur inspected it, then nodded and tapped Ash's bag.
"Bandages, right," Ash said, getting them out. "Latias? I don't know how long this is going to take to heal, but the best way to make sure it doesn't get hurt more is going to be bandaging it. Is that okay?"
Latias made a nervous noise.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay," Ash said, doing his best to reassure her. "Just let us know if you want to stop, right?"
"Pikapi!" Pikachu called, hurrying over with a Sitrus Berry, and Ash looked up at the worried sound in his Pokémon's voice. "Pika!"
Ash looked, then saw a weird Pokémon he'd never seen before floating high overhead.
"We'd better hide," he decided. "That might be a Pokémon from one of the poachers…"
Whatever the Pokémon was, it either didn't see them or didn't warn any poachers, but a suspicious helicopter came flying over a little later, and then a drone. And another.
They'd managed to get Latias's wing splinted and bandaged, at least, but it was clear that the poachers really wanted her back.
"I think they're trying to find us," Ash said. "Or, I mean Latias, but… we're trying to keep her safe, so they'll have to get through us, first."
Boldore nodded, and the rest of Ash's Pokémon made sounds of agreement.
"Do you have a signal, Rotom?" Ash asked, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"I do not," Rotom replied. "Those drones are not Rotom drones, but they are a lot like them. They probably have cameras."
"Right…" Ash winced. "Thanks for telling me, I guess… we'll have to hide overnight, I think. Maybe Latias will be better then."
He looked over his shoulder at the Dragon-type, who was tucked up underneath Torterra's tree to make her colouring less visible from the air, and winced. "Though, I guess it's not likely… still, we'll see how she feels."
"Pika…" Pikachu agreed.
Ash frowned, thinking, then took out some of his Pokéballs.
"Torterra, Bulbasaur, you two stay out," he decided. "Donphan, Boldore, Dragonite… you should get some rest, in case there's an emergency, and to hide you a bit. Okay?"
Donphan grumbled, then returned herself after the next drone went past, and Dragonite did the same.
Boldore settled to the ground, looking like he was a natural rock, and Ash chuckled. "I guess if you can sleep like that, that's good…"
Whoever the Pokémon Poachers were, they weren't giving up searching for Latias.
Maybe they knew they'd wounded her and she couldn't go far, or maybe they were just trying to keep her too stressed to think straight, but the night was interrupted every hour or so by a helicopter going overhead and much more often by the humming of a drone or the flash of a high-powered searchlight sweeping though the trees.
Ash managed to get some fitful sleep, between Torterra and Boldore, and the trees hid them okay, but by the morning he'd made up his mind.
"This isn't going to work for days on end," he said. "We'll be way too tired. Latias… I've got an idea, but I want to get what you think."
Latias yawned, tried to stretch, and jostled her wing with a hiss of pain. Then she recovered a bit, and gave Ash a questioning look.
"If those poachers aren't going to leave you alone, we'll just have to distract them," Ash explained. "I've got a team with me, we can distract those poachers, and that way we can draw their attention away from you."
"Pikaaa. Pikachu?" Pikacu asked.
"I know, but… uh…" Ash frowned, thinking.
Then nodded. "Yeah, I think this is the best idea. But I want to check with you before doing it, or I'd just be leaving you alone in the woods."
Latias thought about it for a long moment, then nodded.
"Okay, let's get ready," Ash decided. "Torterra, Boldore, Bulbasaur… you all think you're still up to a battle?"
"Saur," Bulbasaur said, with a firm nod.
Torterra rumbled, and Boldore thumped a foot on the ground.
"Then let's go – about, uh, the other side of the path maybe?" Ash judged. "That should be far enough. Then we can make some noise!"
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.
"Latias," Ash added, as he got his Pokéballs ready to withdraw the Rock and Grass members of his team. "Keep a look out, but – if you can, stay invisible, okay?"
She nodded, then shimmered as she vanished. Her splint was still visible, but a minute or so of work with some leaves meant they could bury it underneath, and then she was almost completely invisible from a distance.
Ash reached up to his cap, and very deliberately turned it around.
"We'll show them," he said.
After a couple of minutes of jogging to get clear of Latias's hiding place, another one of the drones came into view, and Ash pointed at it.
"Thunderbolt!" he called.
"Pi-KAA!" Pikachu agreed, blasting the drone out of the sky, and it hit the ground with a crash and a shower of fragments.
"Well, that's got their attention!" Ash decided. "Let's keep going!"
Pikachu nodded, using Ash's cap for support and looking around them, and a minute or so later it was his turn to call out – then lash that drone with another Thunderbolt, knocking it out of the sky.
There was the sound of an approaching helicopter, then someone shouted at him from the woods.
"Beat it, punk!" the man insisted. "Do you have any idea how much those drones cost?"
"No!" Ash replied, grinning and putting both hands behind his head. "But I bet it was a lot!"
"You little-" the poacher snarled, then sent out an Obstagoon. "If you won't leave, we'll make you!"
"Obstagoon's a loud Pokémon," Rotom reported. "It poses and shouts threateningly."
Ash considered for a moment, then sent out Torterra. "Let's do this, Torterra!"
"Obstagoon, Pin Missile!" the poacher ordered, and the Dark-type flicked a barrage of black-and-white spines in Torterra's direction.
"Razor Leaf!" Ash called, and Torterra sent out a shower of sharp, spinning leaves back at Obstagoon. The two attacks crossed in mid-air, weakening one another, then Ash pointed.
"Rock Climb!" he said.
"Obstruct!" the poacher replied, and Obstagoon sniggered as he crossed his arms in a defensive pose before letting out an intimidating shout.
And Torterra thundered past Obstagoon. Because Ash hadn't pointed at Obstagoon, and Torterra had seen that.
"Synthesize!" Ash added, and Torterra glowed green as he healed the damage from the earlier attack.
"What the – Taunt!" the poacher said, and Obstagoon whirled to make an insulting gesture at Torterra.
"Torterra, let's try this!" Ash decided. "He wants an attack, let's give him one! Frenzy Plant!"
Latias was still invisible, but she was worried about how the battles were going.
The ground had shaken more than once already, and loud attacks kept making noise she could hear from here, and – she hoped that the trainer was doing okay.
And not just because he was fighting to keep her safe, either. He'd been kind… and that mattered to her.
There was a loud trumpeting that sounded a lot like Donphan, and Latias hoped that that meant Donphan was winning.
"Great work, Donphan!" Ash said, patting the Ground-type on the head as she recovered from using Hyper Beam.
There hadn't been any other really great ways to deal with that agile Flapple they'd been battling, but Donphan had aimed great and done just what she was supposed to.
They were dealing with more poachers, now, which meant it was working just as planned. While they were focused on Ash, they weren't still hunting for Latias.
"Are you all completely useless?" the first poacher demanded, from his Pokémon, then returned Flapple.
"Apparently," the second one said. "I'll handle this kid."
He expanded out a Pokéball of his own, sending out a Grimmsnarl, and Ash returned Donphan to swap in Boldore.
"How come you guys want to steal Pokémon, anyway?" he asked. "You've already got some cool ones."
"Pikapika, Pikapi!" Pikachu supported him brightly.
That made Grimmsnarl clench his fist, simmering, and the trainer quickly gave an order. "Hammer Arm!"
"Flash Cannon!" Ash replied, and Boldore blasted his opponent with a Flash Cannon. The Hammer Arm made it through anyway, but Boldore jumped just before the impact, and that robbed the attack of a lot of the force it would have had otherwise.
Boldore came right back with a Rock Blast, hitting Grimmsnarl in the face with it, and the Fairy-type wobbled a bit before bowing down in submission.
"This is familiar…" Ash said. "Boldore, look out, that's a fake!"
Grimmsnarl lashed out with two spears of hair, but Ash's warning had given Boldore just enough time to react. He used Stone Edge, launching himself up on a platform, and the hair spears hit the platform instead.
"Now, jump down and Rock Smash!" Ash called.
After the Grimmsnarl came a Pokémon that Ash had never seen before. It was sort of blue and pink, and vaguely familiar, and after a moment staring at it Ash realized it looked kind of like a Porygon, but… smoother.
"Wow, where did you get that?" he asked.
"Like we'd tell you in the first place!" the poacher said. "Porygon2, Thunderbolt!"
Boldore took the hit, and Ash recalled him, then Pikachu made a questioning noise. "Pi?"
"Not just yet," Ash replied. "Bulbasaur, go!"
Bulbasaur saluted with a vine, considered for a moment, then used Razor Leaf at the same moment that Ash called for the command. Porygon2 moved out of the way, retaliating with a Psybeam attack, and Bulbasaur managed to get out of the way just in time.
"Huh, that could be tricky," Ash frowned. "Then… Bulbasaur, Vine Whip, like we practiced!"
"Bulba-SAUR!" Bulbasaur confirmed, firing both Vine Whips at Porygon2, and the virtual Pokémon dodged easily.
"Missed!" the poacher taunted.
"Bulbasaur wasn't aiming for that!" Ash replied. "Okay, Bulbasaur, go for it!"
Bulbasaur reeled his vines in again, and shot at and past Porygon2 fast enough that the Normal-type couldn't generate a Psybeam in time. He disconnected one vine and kept the other attached, swinging in a circle around the branch he'd latched onto, then disconnected that one and aimed both at a different tree.
"What the heck is going on?" Porygon2's trainer asked, much less sanguine now. "Bulbasaur shouldn't move that fast!"
"Leech Seed!" Ash said, as Bulbasaur whipped past the Normal-type, and began rummaging in his bag. "And let's get ready for something really cool, Bulbasaur – begin charging a Solarbeam!"
"BulBA!" Bulbasaur confirmed, still moving on a looping, back-and-forth path, and Porygon2's next Psybeam scored only a glancing hit – a hit which the Leech Seed began to make up for, funnelling energy to Bulbasaur in a steady stream.
"Got it!" Ash reported, slipping the ring on, and watched Bulbasaur charging up – then struck three poses. "Now, up in the air and Solarbeam!"
What came out wasn't Solarbeam. It was Bloom Doom, and the Grass-type attack hit Porygon2 from overhead hard enough to drive the virtual Pokémon into the ground – and, when the blast was over, left a big crater with Porygon2 in the middle of it.
Bulbasaur landed in front of Ash, panting, and Ash crouched down. "Great work, Bulbasaur! How was your first Z-move?"
Whatever reply Bulbasaur had to make went unheard, as a third poacher sent out a Froslass to replace the now-knocked-out Porygon2.
"Pikachu, you've got this one!" Ash said, and his starter leaped forwards.
The sounds had stopped several minutes earlier, and Latias fretted.
She was still invisible, and she was trying her best to move as little as possible so she didn't jostle her wing, but… was she going to be okay?
Was that Ash human going to be okay? Were his Pokémon going to be okay?
Latias hadn't really thought about it until now, but if his plan worked then… she'd never really know.
There was a whoosh, and she stifled a squeak.
Then Ash came running over, accompanied by his smug-looking Pikachu, and Dragonite touched down next to them.
"Hey, there!" Ash said. "So, uh, funny thing…"
He grinned. "After Dragonite beat this Primarina they had, it turns out that there were four poachers but they only had six Pokémon between them! Crazy, huh? Anyway, they ran off calling me a brat, so, I decided that since they'd gone I could come back and check on you!"
He looked over his shoulder. "Well, they might come back tomorrow and look again, but I guess that just means we'll have to stick around here until you're healthy, okay? And, sorry in advance about the food, I'm not a great cook…"
The next few days, for a wonder, passed peacefully. The Pokémon Poachers didn't come back, there was a rainstorm on the second day but it didn't last long enough to really soak the ground, and Ash made sure that only some of his Pokémon were training at a time. Torterra was a focus, the big Grass-type's style settling in with some of the new tricks that working with Boldore and Dracovish and Goodra had brought to Ash and correcting mistakes from Sinnoh, but there was always Dragonite or Bulbasaur or Boldore to back up Pikachu if the Poachers came back again.
And, over the same time, Latias's wing healed. Ash didn't really understand the details of how she'd been hurt in the first place, but that wasn't important compared to making sure she healed, and even without any Pokémon who knew a healing move just having his team around to make sure she could sleep well at night was probably helping.
Plus, it meant she had the food to do it. It wasn't like Ash knew how to work a Pokémon Centre or anything, he'd only done it a few times and usually someone else had been the one knowing what to do, but really having someone friendly there had to help, right?
Ash thought it was helping, and it didn't seem like anyone was telling him otherwise.
After a total of four days, and with care, Bulbasaur helped Ash undo the splint.
"How does that feel?" the trainer asked. "Better?"
Latias carefully twitched the wing, tensing, then sighed in relief when it didn't bring a sudden stab of pain.
"Great!" Ash said, smiling. "That means you should be all set! You can fly now without hurting yourself, right?"
The Psychic-type took off, then stealthed for a moment, and Ash gave a thumbs-up. "Then you should be fine! Just keep an eye out for poachers from now on, and you'll be all set!"
He rummaged in his pocket, and got out his phone. "Uh… where were we going again?"
"You are going to need to tell me that first," Rotom replied.
"Then… I'll just head for the nearest town that's not the one we came from," Ash decided. "And we'll decide from there!"
He waved back at Latias. "Good luck!"
With Pikachu on his shoulder and Bulbasaur by his side, Ash walked to the road, and Latias waved back.
Then vanished.
Then, invisible thanks to her light-refracting feathers, put a claw to her chin… and, silently and stealthily, began to follow him.
She had no idea who she'd just met, but she kind of wanted to see.
AN:
So this is an idea which someone asked me about elsewhere and it wouldn't leave me alone… what I would do if I was doing the structure for Mezase Pokémon Master (Aim To Be A Pokémon Master), the 11-episode coda to Ash's time as the Pokémon anime protagonist.
I've got a full storyboard, and we'll see what happens!