A/N: Wow, everyone really went crazy from the last chapter! I'm pleased! :D :D :D

ENJOY!

P.S.: I apologize for the slight delay. My brother's been hogging the computer for the past couple days.

Ketchum City
The Johto region

For ten years, Zander Harrington led Ketchum City like any other typical mayor, and he was very proud of it. For the past couple of years, he oversaw and supervised a number of important events, namely the annual Ketchum Month Tournament competitions. Every time he saw his accomplishments being mentioned and glorified in the local newspapers, it always filled his large heart with gushing pride with every word. So what if the citizens began to put some distrust in his leadership ethic?

Sitting in his large, wheeled armchair in the office he called home, the mayor took a bite out of his thirtieth or so pizza, staring out of his well-cleaned window. The first rays of sunlight had broken over the horizon, illuminating the rooftops of the city he led...his city. Layers of bright, glittering snow coated the rooftops and every other known surface, and the civilians outside wore large coats, but other than that bizarre and unnatural occurrence, everything was going well in Harrington's mind.

"Mr. Mayor?" a voice asked. The mayor turned his chair around, albeit with some difficulty; the sunlight illuminated his fat frame.

"Yes, Stark?" Harrington replied.

Harrington's assistant, a cyan-haired man with three small scars running across his right cheek and wearing a violet cloak, glanced at his employer, his face reading an expression of absolute disgust and distaste for his employer. However, he evidently knew better than to express it openly, so he merely read the clipboard he held.

"Well, we've just got ourselves more noteworthy visitors to our beloved city," said Stark. "We've got May Maple and Dawn Berlitz, both celebrated Coordinators in the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto regions. They are both arriving here with their friends sometime around noon."

"Coordinators, eh? Probably has to do with that Contest I agreed to set up as a side-offer..." Harrington shuddered; he despised Contests, finding them to be nothing more than a nuisance to the naked eye, something only girls and flamboyant boys would have their eyes for. He spoke dismissively, "Anyone else, Stark?"

"Well, there's the famous photographer Trip-"

"Anyone else?" Harrington interrupted, obviously not interested.

Stark blinked, but replied, "There's A-Class Pokémon Connoisseur Cilan Parlet and famed Dragon-type Pokémon specialist Iris Cuasorome-"

"Whatever, just skip ahead to the other news, Stark," interrupted Harrington, rolling his eyes and yawning fallaciously. "All of these so-called celebrities pale real good in comparison to this year's big star, that blue-haired model whose name I kinda forgot."

Stark glared at his boss, again with contempt, but replied loyally, "The weatherman for Johto TV has indicated that these early snows here in Ketchum City are gonna get progressively worse, and that we'll be looking at a severe blizzard by the end of a two-week period. Deputy Mayor Garner has advised that we cancel the Ketchum City Tournament and hold it off till next year because of the worsening weather conditions-"

Harrington's eyes bulged in horror. "WHAT?!" he shrieked loudly, his voice cracking, startling the assistant. "NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! THAT IS OUT OF THE PICTURE! WHO IN ARCEUS'S NAME DOES THAT BASTARD GARNER THINK HE IS, ANYWAY?! HE DOESN'T HAVE REIGN OF THIS CITY; I DO!"

"So...I take it that you will not approve of Garner's suggestion-"

"DAMN RIGHT I WON'T!" Harrington cleared his throat, then spoke more softly. "The Ketchum Month Tournament is Ketchum City's number-one attraction, practically the only thing that keeps this city from going down the Arceus-damn drain! People from around the world gather here to witness not only some awesome Pokémon battles and battling strategies, but the commemoration of our hero of the skies, Ash Ketchum himself! What would Ash Ketchum think if he saw a cancellation take place?!"

"He'd be damn relieved, if I say so myself," snarled Stark to himself.

"I'm sorry, what was that, Stark?" Harrington asked curiously.

"Nothing, Mr. Mayor, sir. I'll inform Garner of your response this instant."

"Good. Thank you, Stark. You may be excused." Without another word, Harrington turned his chair around to stare out of the window again. He smiled as he observed the activities of the civilians in the city streets below. He heard Stark leave his office, almost silently.

"Everything's going just as I want it to go..." the mayor thought as he tapped his fingers against the chair. "Today's gonna be a great month for me...and Ketchum City..."

The sewer systems
Underneath Ketchum City

Enigma smirked as he watched his inferiors make the final preparations on the large suit of armor, the schematics of which he himself had managed to recover from the devastated ruins of the old Sky Soldiers headquarters. It was colored completely in shining gold and seemed to be designed to fit a bird-like Pokémon. The wing armor sported menacing spikes, the tail armor seemed to have large tube-like wires hanging from it, and the helmet held the familiar symbol of the phoenix-like bird's head.

"Construction of the suit is 85 percent complete, sir," a Sky Soldier holding a clipboard informed Enigma. "Completion is estimated to be in over 24 hours."

"Good, very good," Enigma replied. "Pretty soon, the Sky Soldiers will be ready to rise from the ashes and once again seek what is rightfully the world's..."

"Enigma!" a voice called suddenly, resonating through the large chamber. "Enigma, sir! I've got some important news!"

Enigma sighed furiously and turned around as Omicron ran up to him, panting, his bald head shining with sweat. "Oh, this had better be important, Omicron!" he asked, visibly annoyed. "Can't you see that I am in the middle of overseeing the construction of our revolutionary master scheme?!"

"I see that as clear as crystals, Enigma," Omicron replied hastily, "but I believe this'll get your attention."

"Well? What is it, then?!"

"That blimp from Rocket Fashion and Mecha Industries has arrived in Ketchum City. ...They're here, Enigma, sir."

However, a smirk appeared on Enigma's lips. He chuckled maliciously and turned to Curtis and Yancy, who were currently also overseeing the construction.

"Kids?" he asked.

"Yes, Father?" Curtis replied.

"I have a new task for you two." Enigma's smirk widened. "Listen closely..."

Ketchum City
The Johto region

Nate felt the Rocket Blimp land on the ground with a slight, uncomfortable thump. However, he didn't care about the brief dizziness that struck him; all that was on his mind was the shocking revelation he learned just only a few hours ago: he had been adopted by Kelly, the man that he had thought was his father was just an actor, and his true father was the very man he looked up to as his idol, Ash Ketchum.

"I'm the son of Ash Ketchum," thought Nate. "Ash Ketchum...the one who died to ensure this world's continued survival... My survival..."

Suddenly, he heard a knocking noise on the door to the blimp's bedroom. "Nate? Are you in there? ...We need to talk..."

"Go away, Kelly," Nate snapped bitterly.

"Nate, I completely understand if you're mad," replied Kelly. Though he couldn't see her, Nate knew that she was now leaning against the door. "I knew you would be. But just listen to me. No matter what, no matter if we're not blood-related, you'll always be my son, and I'll always be your mom. I just want you to know that. Maybe you'll refuse to recognize that, I'm pretty sure of that. You won't recognize it today, or tomorrow, or the day after. But someday, you'll know that. ...I love you, Nate."

"Really? If you loved me so much, then why did you not tell me this earlier?"

"I told you, the truth would've devastated you so much!"

Nate scoffed angrily. "Well, guess what? I AM devastated! Yeah, I'd say you did a pretty good job in loving me, Kelly!"

There was a brief silence. Finally, he heard Kelly say sadly, "I can see that I'm not wanted right now. I'll just leave..."

He heard a set of footsteps that slowly faded away, until it became silent. Nate sighed and laid back on his sleeping bag, glancing up at the ceiling. He felt some regret at being so hard on Kelly; after all, this was the first time he yelled at her. Just because she wasn't his mother didn't mean he still felt attached to her as a son...

There was another knock. This time, it was Hugh.

"Hey, dude," he said through the door. "Your mom forgot to tell you that we're at Ketchum City, and that we're beginning to get off."

Nate sighed. "Sorry, Hugh. I don't think I'm gonna come along."

"Why, Nate?!" exclaimed Hugh. "You've been looking forward to the Ketchum Month Tournament for so long! I know the past few hours weren't the best for you, but I think your father, your real father, that is, wouldn't want you to be moping around like that. He'd definitely want you to participate in the competition and battle to your soul's content! Come on, Nate, let's go do some Pokémon battling! Like you said, don't dwell in the past, just look forward to tomorrow!"

Nate pursed his lips tightly as his eyes glimmered with tears of sadness. He remembered his father making that exact same statement, like it was yesterday. No, it was not Ash Ketchum, but it was the one man that he thought was his true father...the actor... He can distinctly remember being so impressed with that very sentence that he constantly repeated it to his friends whenever they were down and deep in discouragement...

Now that statement meant nothing now...

"Go away..." he moaned sadly.

He heard Hugh sigh, and then a Poké Ball being activated.

"Unfezant, use Air Cutter on that door!" Hugh commanded. Nate heard Unfezant squawk, followed seconds later by the door being shattered by a stream of light-blue slashes of energy shaped in an X. Nate yelled out in shock and jumped out of his sleeping bag as Hugh and his Unfezant stepped into the room.

"Look, Nate," snapped Hugh, "I know it's been hard on you, learning all of that. But I believe we made a promise a few weeks before we started our Pokémon journey: to face each other in the Ketchum Month Tournament, and battle it out until one of us was left standing as the victor. Now, we've come so far, and there's no way that I'm gonna let something as major as this revelation interfere with that promise of ours! Whether you like it or not, you're getting off this blimp. So, you coming?"

Nate stared hesitantly at Hugh's Unfezant, which glared back menacingly. The brown-haired Trainer sighed heavily and shrugged.

"Does it look like I have any other choice?"

"Is he okay, Hugh?" asked Rosa curiously as she watched Nate walk alongside the rest of the group, obviously keeping a good distance from them. They were walking down one of Ketchum City's walkways as a light snow fell around them; everyone was wearing snow-wear.

Hugh sighed softly and shook his head in response as he stared at his childhood friend in concern. "Obviously not," he replied. "He is taking what happened last night very hard. ...I myself am shocked by the whole revelation. The whole time...I thought Ms. Brown was indeed Nate's mother, and that his father died in a flood. To think, his real father is the very person that we practically worshiped together as kids..."

"I hope he gets better. Poor Nate..." Rosa continued to stare at Nate, pity and concern bubbling inside of her.

Simultaneous to Hugh and Rosa's conversation, the group walked into the downtown center of Ketchum City, which held a large fountain that held a statue of a young Trainer pointing heroically towards Mt. Silver, a determined Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Encircling the fountain were multiple tourists, all of them captivated by the fountain's statue, some of them taking photos. Dawn smiled upon recognizing one of the photographers, who held a particular teal-colored digital camera.

"Hey, Trip!" she greeted, waving.

The dirty-blond-haired man turned around and smiled slightly. "Well, well, well," he said, "I'll be damned..."

"It's nice to see you, Trip!" Dawn exclaimed. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, considering that it's been almost ten years since we battled it out with the Sky Soldiers here, I thought I'd suck it up and come back here. I'm assuming you're all here for the exact same reason." He examined the rest of Dawn's group and spotted Nate, Hugh, Rosa, Kelly, and Hugh's family. "Although...I don't remember them..."

"They're friends of ours," replied Hilda. "They wanted to come here, and we offered to give them a ride."

"Ah, okay." However, Trip continued to stare at Nate, examining his brown eyes. Nate knew exactly why; his eyes reminded the photographer of his true father's...

Noticing Trip's deep stare at Nate, Dawn immediately decided to shift the conversation to another topic. "So Trip, did you happen to see anyone else familiar here?"

"I saw Jimmy and Marina."

Lyra's eyes widened, and she ran up to the Unova photographer. "What, really?! You saw them?! NO WAY! Where'd you see them?!"

Trip pointed off at one of the walkways, where a large crowd had already gathered around a small stand. There were numerous, split-second-long flashes of light that indicated an extremely heavy presence of paparazzi cameras. The others knew in an instant.

"Okay, thanks Trip," Khoury replied. "We'll see ya soon!"

Trip waved halfheartedly as he resumed his curious stare at Nate.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon..." he said strangely. Nate felt himself becoming a little smaller; being stared at by a complete stranger was very intimidating...

He quickly followed the others down the walkway Trip pointed at. As they grew closer and closer, the frantic, excited shouting from the rabid reporters and the jubilant pedestrians grew louder and louder, until the noise hammered away at their eardrums with the ferocity of multiple drills. Nate had to cover his ears, as did Hugh, Rosa, and Carrie. The group edged their way through the audience, to which they saw a woman with light-blue hair and wearing flashy clothing of a pink tank-top and a red skirt with black stripes (despite the cold weather) standing on the stage, alongside a rather fat, balding man who was sweating unusually profusely, and a cyan-haired man with three small scars running across his cheek and a bitter expression on his face, who wore a violet-colored cloak.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of Ketchum City!" the blue-haired woman announced in a microphone, amid the uproarious cheer that had erupted from the huge crowd. "This is Marina Brass speaking! Is everyone ready for an awesome and unforgettable Ketchum Month?!"

The cheer roared again, and Nate felt as if he was gonna go deaf from all of the screaming.

"That's great to hear!" the woman continued. "Now I promise you all, this Ketchum Month Tournament shall be the most exciting one yet! And better yet, yours truly is gonna be sponsoring the competition all month long, so I hope to see everyone over there!"

Again, more cheering from the audience. Nate watched as the fat, sweating man stepped forward to the microphone.

"Marina Brass, everyone!" he announced dramatically. Once again, more cheering. "Just like she said, this year's Ketchum Month Tournament shall be the most exciting one Ketchum City has seen yet! I, your beloved mayor, Zander Harrington, surely guarantee that!"

This time, Nate had braced himself for the uproar of cheer. The person at the corner of his eye moved; Hilda was edging her way through the crowd, along with Dawn, May, and the other members of their group. The Trainer looked around to see where Hugh, Rosa, Kelly, and Hugh's family were; they were all currently standing beside each other as they continued to watch Mayor Harrington make his announcement. Marina was absent on the stage.

Nate promptly followed Hilda through the crowd. With some difficulty due to the crowd's mass, he managed to get through just in time to see Hilda and her group stop backstage. There, Marina appeared, smiling widely. Accompanying her was a dark-gray-haired man who wore a backwards-facing yellow-and-black cap, a hooded red-and-white sweater, and yellow shorts. Nate moved behind a stage prop, closer to the group, and leaned in close to overhear their conversation.

"Oh my Arceus, it's so good to see you guys again!" exclaimed Marina as she hugged Lyra.

"Likewise, Marina, likewise," Dawn replied, hugging her as well.

"So, you guys came too, huh? I didn't think me and Jimmy would be able to return here after what happened-"

"-But we did it," the man named Jimmy completed. He looked at Khoury. "Heard about your proposal to Lyra, man. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Jimmy," Khoury replied. "We're actually gonna hold the wedding at the end of Ketchum Month, over here."

"Really, huh?" Jimmy crossed his arms. "How come Marina and I didn't receive any invitations?"

"Jimmy," Marina said, waving two cards in his face, "we got these a couple of weeks ago. Didn't I tell you that already?"

Jimmy chuckled and rubbed his head nervously. "Apparently so, honey, apparently so..."

Marina sweat-dropped at Jimmy's short-mindedness before looking at the others. "We saw Trip earlier, guys."

"Yeah, we saw him," Hilbert replied.

"Did you guys see anyone else that we knew?" asked May.

"Aside from Trip and you guys, nope. But we did hear on Johto TV that-"

"Gary and Misty are coming here, we know. They're bringing along Max, Molly, Brock, and Holly also. We also know that Iris and Cilan are here as well."

"Iris and Cilan?"

"Yeah, Iris and Cilan. Anyway, how about we do some reconnecting? How about some-"

"NO, NO, NO SHOPPING!" shrieked Hilbert, his voice cracking, causing the nearby Tory and his Plusle and Minum to giggle. "NO SHOPPING! I think we've already done enough shopping back at Alto Mare! Why don't we all just do something else? One that doesn't require a lot of exhaustion and giggling?!"

Hilda glared at her twin brother. "Okay then, genius," she replied. "What do you suggest we should do today?"

Hilbert thought about it for a moment. Then, he smiled and snapped his fingers as he received an idea.

"The Ketchum City Train Tour."

Nate decided to not listen to the conversation anymore, so he turned around and prepared to leave. It was at the exact moment he saw Curtis and Yancy standing in the crowd that was watching Mayor Harrington's speech. The two siblings were watching the mayor at first, but then, both simultaneously turned their heads towards him, as if they had sensed his presence nearby. Nate blinked and shook his head, unsure if they were actually there or if he was somehow hallucinating.

He gazed at the crowd again. They were gone.

Elsewhere, on the top of a bell tower in Ketchum City, a lone Lucario stood silently. It surveyed the civilians down below in the streets, all of whom were oblivious to its presence. It was the same Lucario that was eating Pecha Berries with its companion Pikachu.

Somewhere in its mind, it knew...

Its master's son was in grave danger, and it had an obligation to protect it...

The Lucario jumped off the bell tower and began sprinting through the rooftops.

A/N: Short chapter is short, I know. But we are introduced to more of the show's old characters, and it looks like Jimmy and Marina have been involved with the fiasco ten years ago as well. Of course, the fact that Nate is now in the same proximity as the New Sky Soldiers means that trouble is arising...

I'd like to thank those who reviewed (can't answer reviews right now):

DarkJumper

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Sid (guest reviewer)

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Wow, this is DEFINITELY more reviewers than from the last chapter, or from all of the other chapters! Thanks, guys! Here's your reward. :D

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!