Chapter 29 – On the Wings of a Dragon

"I enjoyed travelling with Ash and Riley, and not least because I was away from the League and free in my home region. The League complained of course, but I was still working as a G-Man, helping out the two Guardians with their missions, whether they wanted the help or not." Lance

[14:29PM] – 24th May 2004 – Johto – Safari Zone

Ash came to, with the sun shining in his eyes. He shifted his head, a pain in the back of his neck. There was something sticky there too, and without moving he knew it was blood.

What had they been doing?

He and Riley had been taking down the renegade hunters in the Safari Zone, and everything had been going fine, until another group turned up. There weren't meant to be that many of them!

"Ash..?" It was Riley, and the teen opened one eye to look for his friend. Said blue wearing guardian was tied up to the right of him, arms behind him and roped to a tree with a ludicrous amount of rope. "Are you alright?"

Blinking groggily Ash smiled bitterly. "Do I look alright?" he asked, "Don't answer that."

He could see the relief in Riley's eyes.

"What happened?" Ash asked, trying to move his arms which were tied up. "Where's Pikachu? Where's Lucario?" his eyes then fell on their magnetic belts, hanging on another tree branch in front of them. For a moment Ash stared in horror, at the six red and white spheres clipped to the magnetic strip. His eyes were fixed on the lightning bolt symbol carved onto the one.

Riley winced. "They managed to return him after a while. It only took about half of the Hunters."

"Least they don't have those stone guns." Ash sighed. Then he saw the look on Riley's face. "They have the guns?" he sighed. "How did we get tied up here anyway? Well… I know I got hit with a dragon pulse from that Vibrava…"

"You got knocked out." Riley explained. "They had stun guns and one hit you with it. They got me with one too, clipped me on the side leaving me more paralyzed than anything else."

"How do we get into situations like these?" Ash sighed. "We're smarter than this."

Riley shot him a pointed look, but its effect was somewhat marred by his jaunty hat. "I say patience." He suggested.

"Patience..?" Ash wasn't impressed.

"Only five of your Pokéballs are full." He explained.

The trainer glanced, taking in the full lightning bolt ball (poor Pikachu), the full lights of Eelektrik, Donphan, Tauros and Croconaw. That left Gabite unrecalled. "They didn't…" he began, and the guardian shook his head.

"They daren't touch a guardian's Pokémon. They know that ours will never listen to another trainer, and would sooner die first. It's a wasted investment."

Ash let his head rest back against the tree trunk. "You know I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of miss being stalked by those three rockets. At least they occasionally turned up at appropriate times to help out. This would be one of those times."

"What happened to them?" Riley asked.

Ash shrugged. "They stalked me to Mount Coronet. Noctowl and Snorlax sent them blasting off one day and they never came back. They probably got a job working in a noodle factory, or got sent to Unova or someplace. Who knows?" he shrugged, seemingly unbothered. "Pikachu's just happy they're not around anymore. And I bet Dawn is happy she doesn't have to compete against Jessie in contests. She actually thought we didn't recognise her, when she competed, but it was glaringly obvious."

Somewhere, a mauve haired woman sneezed. A cat hissed at her to be quiet, while her partner just remained stoic, focussed on the mission.

Back to our heroes, Riley was torn between rolling his eyes and laughing. "Have I ever told you that some of your adventures are the craziest things I've ever heard?"

"Several times," The trainer admitted. "Several times… although I think the stuff we've seen around Sinnoh and Johto can match that."

"How long until you think your Gabite turns up…?"

"You're positive that they haven't captured him?"

"Positive."

"Then I'd give it about…" Ash was interrupted by a loud explosion, which he had grown to recognise it was from a hyper beam. "Gabite can't use hyper beam." He frowned, straining to see around the tree.

Riley too, had strained in his bonds to try and see the disturbance. "It's a Gyrados." He told Ash, having a better view than the younger teen. "A red one," he added, sighing. "What's Lance doing here?"

"I like how we automatically assume that it belongs to Lance." Ash gave a nervous chuckle. There was now the sound of gun fire echoing from the campsite of the hunters. His attention shifted to a shape in the shadows, and a blue scythe emerged. "Gabite..?" Ash called. "Is that you…?"

"Chomp."

Ash swallowed. "Gabite…?" he asked, staring up at the pseudo dragon.

"Actually," Riley looked nervous for some reason. "That's a Garchomp. Lance doesn't own a Garchomp, does he?"

"No," Ash shook his head. "Cynthia won't let him. Hey, Garr, buddy, can you cut these ropes for us?"

The large Garchomp cracked his head down to look at his trainer, before moving forwards. For a moment Ash was slightly worried he would lose his head, but then the claws swiped through the rope cleanly and he knew that it was silly not to trust his own Pokémon.

"Garr?" Riley glanced sideways, wincing as Garchomp moved over to cut through the bonds. "Can't think of a better nickname?"

"Not now." Ash snapped. "Great job on the evolution," he congratulated his ground and dragon type. There was the sound of shouting from behind him and he spun around.

"Here!" Riley tossed over Ash's Poké Belt. "Let your rat out and we'll go around and see what's going on."

The trainer grabbed the hated Pokéball, releasing Pikachu in a cloud of red light. The mouse blinked, dazed and shaking and Ash scooped him up, clutching his against his chest. "Can I?" Ash asked his new dragon, who just nodded happily, clacking his jaws together. Ash leapt up onto his back, grabbing onto the notched back fin. "Coming?" he asked Riley, who shook his head, releasing his own Skarmory.

"I'll meet you around." The guardian said, leaping up in a whirlwind of dust. Garchomp thrashed his tail and leapt up afterwards, roaring out a battle cry but it was lost in the sound of the hunters defending their camp.

It was chaos, a few metres to the left. A large red Gyrados was writhing in the centre of the camp, nets catching in its spiky fins. One of the hunters was setting up a large stone stun gun, adjusting the settings. He smirked as something clicked into place, and pressed a large trigger.

The beam was orange, firing out and enveloping the writhing sea serpent. Gradually the scales stopped rattling, and the sound died down as its thrashings ceased.

"No!" Lance tried to throw off the two who were holding him down, a third holding onto a glass container. His eyes flickered to his Gyrados and back to the glass case, a soft blue shelled egg resting inside, with a wing like spiral pattern on one side.

He knew he should have left that damn egg back in Blackthorn, screw whatever the nurse had said about 'walking with it to make it hatch' nonsense. At least there it was safe…

Rope was tied around his arms, biting into the flesh. He winced, growling at the hunters. "You won't get away with this." He snapped, feeling horribly cliché. "I've got two friends who will turn up and…"

"Friends?" one of them laughed. "Oh you won't be seeing them…" he broke off as another grunt ran up to him, whispering into his ear. The first one's face fell, eyes glaring at Lance. "Tie him up!" he snapped. "Guard him!"

Where were Ash and Riley? Why were they not spying on the very hunters they were here to take down?

This was the last time he was going to try and help them out dammit!

[18:20PM] – 24th May 2004 – Johto – Safari Zone

Ash and Riley had moved a short distance away to recover, avoiding the camp for the time being. They had returned then, as dusk fell, releasing their Pokémon to circle around the hunters, who stupidly hadn't even bother moving camp.

"Remember." Ash reminded his Tauros. "You're a wild Pokémon. So just charge through there like you do at Professor Oak's Lab, okay?" There was a snort and a pawing of hooves. Ash smiled. "Good boy. On the signal..."

"What did we decide was the signal?" Riley dropped out of a nearby tree, binocular hanging around his neck.

Ash blinked at him. "How do you forget that…?"

The signal they had arranged was Garchomp, crashing into the middle of the camp from beneath with a dig, and shooting a fire blast towards their stone gun. That was the main target, to destroy the weapon. If Garr didn't manage, then it was the bull's job to ram into it with a wild charge.

As it was, Ash's previous claim that Garr didn't know hyper beam was completely false. The orange beam hit the gun straight centre, and a charging Tauros shattered it into several large chunks.

"Get them!" a Hunter shouted. "Go!"

Pokémon were released in red flashes. Ash's gaze was fixed on the Vibrava which had hit him earlier. "Rai." He said quietly to the Pikachu on his shoulder. "See that thing." He pointed the dragonfly out.

Pikachu nodded his head. "Pi." He agreed.

"When Crocanaw uses ice beam, let it freeze your iron tail and hit it with an ice tail."

Pikachu's eyes sparked at the combination, and Crocanaw, hearing the idea… danced…

"Go!" Ash watched as Pikachu leapt from his forwards, using a tree branch to propel him into the air, spinning in an iron tail. The ice beam clipped him, knocking his flight path a little bit, but he remained on course, bringing the ice tail crashing down on the dragonfly's head.

"Score!" Ash cheered. "Great job guys. Croconaw – go and help Absol and Ursaring. Eelektrik…" he observed his eel that was skipping around in circles. "Never mind…" he sighed, before circling around to help Riley. "Rai!" he called, "Thunder wave!"

The paralyzing wave washed through the grunts, seizing up their muscles and preventing movement. Terra, Riley's Metagross, caught them with a psychic, and they began hovering above the ground. Their Pokémon were hit with a mixture of attacks from Io, Duke and Feral, the Ursaring, Absol and Crocanaw respectively. Any who tried to escape were met with Riley's Salamence, her jaws bared in a snarl, fire fang burning.

"Well that was easier." Riley flicked a bit of debris of his hat. "Not a bad job guys!" he compliments his Pokémon. He glanced around. "What did they do with Lance?" he mused.

"I feel a bit guilty for leaving him," Ash admitted, tending to the frozen Pokémon and releasing them. He ducked out of the way of the thrashing Gyrados who paused, at realising who was tending to him.

"Gya?" he asked. (Where's Lance?)

"We'll get him now." Ash promised, heading towards where they had been tied up earlier.

"Hey!" Riley called after him. "Ash!"

"What?" he spun around.

"Don't tell Lance that we were tied up earlier."

It took a moment for Ash to comprehend this. "Not at all?" he confirmed.

Riley smirked. "Not at all."

Ash rolled his eyes. Sometimes his mentor had such a mean streak. Upon seeing Lance tied up, to the same tree he was earlier, he abandoned all guilt. "Well, well, well." Ash looked decidedly amused at the tied up champion. Oh he was so agreeing to Riley's plan of never admitting that they had been stuck in this position only several hours earlier. "What do we have here?"

"You'd make a great villain if you ever go into acting." Lance jibed, glaring at the smug guardian. "Now stop grinning and untie me already!"

("You liars..!" Lance looked aghast. "You told me that you'd been staking the place out! Last time I check 'stake out' does not equal being tied to a tree."

"We were staked out. There were ropes, pegs…" Ash stopped, a smirk resting on his face.

"What was the egg?" Brock asked. "You said they stole Lance's egg."

The red-head looked really embarrassed at that. "Don't mention it." He growled. "To anybody..!"

"It was his Dratini," Ash explained. "His pair of Dragonair had a Dratini egg and Lance was blackmailed by the scary Nurse Joy of Blackthorn into caring for it. He doesn't like to admit that he actually enjoyed it." His voice dropped to a conspirators tone. "He thinks it ruins his manly image."

"What manly image?" Erika carried on the joke. "Lance? Don't make me laugh."

May opened her mouth to protest, but Brock interrupted. "Was the egg okay?" he asked, desperately.

Lance nodded, holding up his Dratini from around his neck. "See for yourself." He passed the serpent over to the breeder.

"Ti Drat!" the dragon snake cooed.

"Where did you go next?" Dawn asked. "The safari zone is pretty much to the far west of Johto."

"We turned around and came back. We spent some time in Ecruteak and Olivine. Volkner was visiting Jasmine so we popped in to say hi…" Ash paused. "I popped in to say hi." He corrected. "And to show him how Eelektrik was getting on… Riley and Lance followed me."

"What else were we meant to do? Hang around waiting for you?" Lance asked.

"Wait! That was when you entered the tag battle tournament, wasn't it?" May asked him excitedly. "I remember seeing that being aired when I was doing a contest circuit in Sinnoh! You used your dragons and paired up with Ash!"

"Tournament..?" Erika asked.

"Scott of the Battle Frontier was holding a tournament in Olivine, to celebrate the opening of the official 'battle zone' where his brains could hang out, and other trainers could practise. He set up a tag battle tournament and invited us to enter."

"Why didn't Riley enter?" Max asked, still staying as far away as possible from Zo the other end of his sofa.

"He did." Lance said.

"We drew lots." Ash explained. "Volkner and Jasmine were pairing up and so Riley had to make do with another partner." Ash winced. "He dragged Cynthia over from Sinnoh."

"Champion Cynthia?" Max's voice had taken on an air of amazement. "He dragged her over from Sinnoh?"

"Riley's unofficial girlfriend," Ash confirmed. "Yes, that Cynthia; Riley begged her and it turns out she was in Goldenrod anyway, something about MooMoo milk ice cream, so she just popped over."

"I so wish I picked Johto to travel through as my first region instead of Hoenn." Max stared enviously at Ash. The youngster had started out his journey through Hoenn that year, picking up a female Treecko with a love for chewing daisies, and collecting his Ralts. Along with a Slakoth his father had gifted him; he set off to compete in the Hoenn League, eventually placing in the top 32. His other Pokémon included a Mightyena, a Banette and a Breloom.

"You know." Ash mused. "We never had that battle I promised you." he directed towards Max.

The kid looked slightly scared. "Maybe it can wait a few years?" he asked. "I mean… I know I ventured through Hoenn, Sinnoh and Kanto, but my team can still use some building up before I even think about challenging the Kanto elite four."

Ash laughed. "I wasn't talking about my electric team. Maybe the Hoenn lot, Sceptile, Crawdaunt and company..?"

Max still looked apprehensive.

"What happened?" May asked, glancing away from his computer. She blinked, letting out an 'aw' at the sight of Misty, snoozing, her head resting on Ash's shoulder. "Max, go and find a camera." She instructed.

"But sis…!"

"Now," She said, voice still sugar sweet, leaving no room for arguments.

[15:04PM] – 18th July 2004 – Johto – Olivine City – Battle Frontier Exhibition – Tag Battle Tournament

"Why did I agree to this?" Ash rhetorically asked Pikachu who was perched on his shoulder. He stood next to Lance, staring across the field towards a black haired guardian and blonde champion.

"KaPiChu." (Because you're an idiot.) Pikachu said, with all the wisdom of one who had spent seven years with Ash.

"Thanks." The trainer sighed, trying to decide on a Pokémon to battle. "Hmm… I've got it." He clicked his fingers. "Lance hasn't met Shard yet, has he?"

Pikachu almost fell of his shoulder he was laughing so hard.

The referee signalled for the battle to begin. The stands were almost packed with everyone wanting to see the champions battle it out.

"Soar Rago!" Lance threw forth his orange Dragonite.

"Knock them down Terra!" Riley released his Metagross.

"Battle dance Radé!" Cynthia's Roserade appeared in a flurry of petals.

"Take to the skies Shard!"

Lance looked jealously towards the Charizard. "How come you never told me you had a Charizard?" he asked Ash.

"You never asked." The teen quipped. "Shard! Incinerate!"

Lance smirked. "Draco Meteor!" he added to the chaos.

"Protect!" Cynthia called.

At the same time, Riley ordered "Psychic!"

The flaming infernos that fell from the sky paused, before reaching the pair. Then slowly, they began to rise back up. Lance winced. "That's not good." He sighed.

"Blast burn!" Ash called, glancing to Lance. "I'm going all out power if you can keep them off his back."

The orange drake spun around mid-air, wings out furling as he dived down towards Roserade with a snarl, flames curling at his tongue. Metagross, following Riley's orders moved in front. Lance smirked, spotting Ash's plan as the hyper beam fire variant hit its intended target, damaging the steel type and causing it to lose its concentration. The psychic failed and the fiery meteors began to plummet.

Ash hissed in annoyance as Metagross shook off the attack, still battling. Charizard had landed… sort of… and was now unable to move at all.

"Switch," Lance told him. "Now while Roserade is dodging the meteors."

Ash obeyed, recalling Shard in a beam of red light. He hesitated only half a second before throwing out his next choice. "Dual - Tristan!"

His Gallade materialised, spinning his blades. Ash smirked. "I'm talking to him with telepathy." He told Lance. "Just a warning…"

"He can use telepathy?" Lance gritted his teeth, trying to arrange for Rago to get in a position to use blizzard on the Roserade, who was setting up a pollen spore combination. Ash smirked.

At that moment Gallade leapt forwards in a jump, landing on Riley's Metagross and hopping over it, towards where Roserade was sheltering behind the pseudo steel and psychic type. The warrior was charging a focus blast and as he landed, he released it, straight at Roserade.

Cynthia's eyes flashed with annoyance as her grass type was knocked back. "Sludge bomb!" she called, "Then magical leaf!"

Gallade warded off the first attack with a spinning blade, lunging out of the way of the poison type attack with his own close combat. He fell short as the magical leaf hit him. Ash frowned from where he was standing, struggling to see past where Metagross and Dragonite had resorted to trading hyper beams.

"Try teleporting!" Ash mentally called to Tristan, who obeyed, flickering out of sight and reappearing behind Roserade. "Now use fire punch!"

"No need to shout."

Ash glanced at the mouse on his shoulder. "Did you…" he frowned "Say something?"

"Pi!" Pikachu nodded happily, and then paused. "PikaChu Kachu…" (Wait… not out-loud…)

"That's what I thought." Ash blinked. "Gallade teleport!" he caught sight of Metagross switching targets, and along the thoughts of "avoid hyper beam and close combat" he was surprised to see that Tristan had taken that as an order, and had teleported out of the way, reappearing on top of Terra, slamming down in a devastating fighting attack.

Lance called for a blizzard to hit Roserade, and it hit the grass type who took super-effective damage, knocking out the already weary bouquet Pokémon.

"Earthquake..!" Ash was testing out the limits of his mental commands.

"Really..? You really want me to do that?"

"Yes. Unless you can think of something better..?"

"Fire punch!"

"Okay, that'd work."

"Hammer arm!" Riley called upon seeing the fire punch erupt out of nowhere. "Get that Gallade off! Then use Zen Head butt!" The iron leg Pokémon swung around, and Gallade suddenly found his perch was unstable to stand on.

He shifted, trying to regain his balance, but was resorted to leaping off, throwing one last psycho cut at Terra.

"How about you use an earthquake now?"

Cynthia's next Pokémon, a Glaceon, was most alarmed to find the field shaking under her paws. With a cry of alarm she staggered sideways, Ash smiling triumphantly. Gallade though was in trouble, as a hammer arm came crashing down.

"Use ice beam, Leah!" Cynthia asked her ice type, who shot the freezing beam upwards, clipping Dragonite on one wing and sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Gallade!" Ash shouted in alarm, "Focus blast!" he gave up with the mental commands.

The close range fighting attack hit, knocking Metagross backwards and all the way out of the field, hitting the side wall. Riley winced slightly. "Can't you be a bit kinder Ash?" he called, returning his dual type.

Gallade remained standing for only a few moments. "I feel a bit faint." He said, moments before tumbling to the ground.

Ash returned his psychic fighting type. "Great job." He muttered to the Pokéball, before clipping it to his belt and sending out Charizard again. "Burn them down!" he called, as he revitalised dragon let out a triumphant roar.

The fresh snow Pokémon sighed in annoyance, but obeyed her trainer's instructions to keep hitting the Dragonite who had been brought to the ground, one wing frozen.

"Thaw him out." Ash was trying mental communication with Charizard. If it failed, it only worked because Tristan was psychic; if it worked he was going to quiz Riley on aura communications later.

"On it," Shard spat an ember at Rago. "What now?"

"Thrash!"

"Dodge that Ursaring!" Ash glanced wide eyed, trying to keep track of the other three battlers. Rago was still grounded, but shooting an outrage at the newly appeared Ursaring. Charizard had taken to the skies, avoiding the ice beams from Leah, the Glaceon, and firing his own; dragon fire raining back down towards the field.

"Use blizzard!" Cynthia called. "Get rid of that Dragonite!"

The air froze, and Charizard flew higher to avoid the cold, shooting his own fire blast and overheat mix down, trying to number the attack, but the Glaceon had gotten too close.

With a sigh Lance returned his fainted dragon. "I hate ice types." He sighed, throwing out Gyrados. "Flamethrower!"

"Galcee!" With a squeak, Glaceon dodged away from the famed red Gyrados, using quick attack.

"Use thunder punch..!" Riley called, trying to take down the sea serpent.

"Oh no, you don't," Ash snapped. "Drop in an aerial ace and use seismic toss. Flame it."

Lance watched as Shard's snarl grew almost maniacal, the dragon reaching the peak of his flight before dropping like a stone towards the Ursaring.

Riley cursed. "Io! Aim it at Charizard!"

"And burn." Ash smiled, watching the flames cascade down towards the field. Gyrados coated his scales in water, barely feeling them, as Lance asked for another flamethrower of his own towards the dodging Glaceon.

"Use hail!" Cynthia called, hoping that Leah's ability might get her to avoid some of the attacks.

"Ice fang!" Lance ordered instead, Gyrados lunging through the snow, but the image of Glaceon faded into the mist.

The field was now split into two; the swirling icy storm, and the fiery inferno which no sooner reached the ground that sprung back up, a bear tightly in its grip.

"Can you manage a light protect from the thunder punch?" Ash asked.

"I'm already using flame thrower, fire spin and seismic toss. What more do you want me to do?"

"I'm just asking!"

The crowd oo-ed and ah-ed as the Charizard tackled the bear to about fifty metres above the field, before dropping.

"Ursaring!" Riley called out in alarm. "Hammer arm! Get out!"

"Not a chance." Ash gritted his teeth. Charizard was already tired, and this was a last minute option. "How's the Glaceon going?"

"It's not." Lance squinted into the mist.

"I don't think Shard's going to manage this." Ash observed the falling flaming dragon. "But my next choice is Luxray. If you can use rain dance…"

Lance smirked. "I'm on it. Gyrados! Waterfall! Then rain dance!"

Simultaneously, Charizard and Ursaring crashed into the ground, shaking the field. There was a cloud of dust, hovering above the horizontal, and for a moment Riley and Ash stared into it, trying to see the fate of their Pokémon.

"Both Charizard and Ursaring have been knocked out." The referee signalled. "Please send out your next choice."

Riley threw out his Lucario, who was already forming an aura sphere.

Ash smirked. "Go get 'em Lux!"

The battle hungry cat materialised running, the rain sparking against his damp fur. Glaceon had just managed to dodge another flamethrower, when something slammed into her, sending her flying out of the ring.

"What is it with you and throwing Pokémon about?" Pikachu mentally asked Ash, shivering slightly by his neck.

Glaceon blinked, dazed, "Ceo?" (What hit me?) she asked, "GlaLa-Ah Ceo." (Feel like a Wailord).

"Return," Cynthia recalled her dazed, practically unconscious Pokémon. "Okay, now it's serious." She glared at the Luxray. His fur was still sparking and his fangs were bared. "Garchomp battle dance!" she pointed to the shiny Gyrados. "Get rid of the left overs."

Lance curses. "Ice beam!" he called, but Garchomp vanished in a dig attack.

"Ice fang!" Ash called out as well.

"Get in the way Lucario! Aura sphere!"

Lux was charging towards where Garchomp had vanished when Aaron appeared in front of him. The Lucario whirled around with a bone rush.

Lux didn't stop running. Instead he let the static crackle, flaring into flames in a mock flame charge attack. Lucario met it head on, sending both of them flying backwards, fangs gleaming and claws sharp, ready for the next round.

"What?" Lance blinked. "How did he learn that?" He exclaimed. "They can't do that!"

Ash shrugged. "I just sort of go with it." He admitted. "Jump!" he called.

Lux obeyed, leaping into the air just in time to avoid the dig from Garchomp, who snarled at her lost prey. Lucario too had changed targets, throwing a thunder punch which caught Gyrados at a point blank distance, knocking the shiny serpent out.

Lance sighed, recalling him. "I hate double weaknesses." He sighed, before throwing out a three headed pseudo.

Cynthia, Riley and Ash simultaneously balked at seeing the Hydreigon.

"A little warning," Ash winced. "Next time you use that thing."

The champion waved it off. "Surf!" he called.

"Lux!" Ash turned to his electric type who was hovering above the field using magnet rise. "Use thunder on the water."

"Charge them!" Cynthia called. "Dragon rush!"

"Leap up!" Riley called. "Triple aura sphere!"

Ash focussed in on his original target, but patiently waited for Luxray to finish electrocuting the water. Lance had ordered a hyper voice to try and hit the charging land shark, while the aura spheres were falling like rain.

"Hey Lux?" he asked How do you feel about conducting lightning?"

The cat actually paused to consider it. "Will it hurt?" he asked.

"Probably."

"Sure." Ash tried not to roll his eyes at his masochistic Luxray, instead instructing him about what to do. The rain dance was still going, water thundering down. Garchomp hated the rain, but persevered, exchanging blows with the other pseudo. Lucario was keeping his distance with aura spheres and dark pulses. The clouds above were growing dark and rumbling slightly.

"Lance."

"Yes?"

"Get Hydreigon to use protect."

It was the only warning the champion was going to get, as the sky flashed white, and lightning struck down from the sky, crashing upon the water damp field, and lighting up everything in its path, directed by a certain gleam eyed lion.

When the glare faded from people's eyes, they observed a smoking Lucario, and a knocked out Garchomp, although how the electric attack had hit the ground type was still to be determined. Lux himself looked ridiculously pleased, blinking a bit dazed.

"That." He mentally professed to Ash. "Was awesome." a second before falling over in a faint.

("So you and Lance won?" Dawn asked, glancing at the two.

"That battle, yes," Lance nodded.

"Oh don't be modest." May smiled. "You won the whole thing!"

Ash shrugged. "Sure we did," he tried not to dislodge his snoozing girlfriend. "What did you expect?"

"I suppose for you to show a little bit of modesty would be too much to ask for?" Gary sighed, running a hand through his spiky hair.

Ash shot him a grin. "We headed for Ecruteak then, and guess who we bumped into?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell us.")

[15:04PM] – 29th August2004 – Johto – Ecruteak City – Burned Tower

"No legendary beasts here." Lance glanced around at the ash stained wood. "Why are we sight-seeing again?" he glanced over to where Riley and Cynthia were examining the stone floor beneath them. "Oh that's right." He sighed. "We've got the two myth lovers with us." He sighed.

"Let them spend time together." Ash paused next to him, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. "Cynthia's going to Unova to spend the rest of her summer. Then she had to go back to Sinnoh to monitor the repairs at Lake Valor."

"I can't wait until the spring battling season starts up again." Lance sighed. "We just bunk down in the elite rooms with popcorn to watch the battles."

"Really…? You just sit there, watching them twenty-four seven?"

Lance stuck his hands in his pockets, "Of course it's the point we issue elite challenges out for the early summer. Not to mention all that legal stuff about the new trainers for the next year, so it's a break before all that to see how the trainers have done."

"And here I thought you actually did work." Ash looked horror-struck. "But all you do is sit around during the spring conferences, and then travel for the rest of the year on vacation."

"We have to open some of the conferences with battles." Lance tried to defend his position. "Bruno taught his fighting types ice punch as well!"

"Well woe is you." Ash sighed, heading for the stairs to descend to the bottom floor. A Gastly pulled a face out of sight, but Ash ignored it, dropping down to the lower level.

The lamplight from above made looming shadows on the rocky basement floor. Large boulders were heaped along the place. Ash glanced up, seeing the vague shapes of Riley and Cynthia still murmuring over the legend.

He walked forwards, feeling Pikachu's fur spark against his cheek, as he moved towards the centre of the building.

A dark shadow stepped out, head down and Ash stopped suddenly. How did Lance get in front of him all of a sudden? He glanced at the purple hair. This wasn't Lance. The champion was taller than him, a fact he never ceased to rub in his face. Ash glanced down at the Weavile at the stranger's side for confirmation.

"Paul?"

His rival's head snapped up, the same time that Lance walked into the back of Ash. The raven stumbled slightly before turning around with a scowl. "Lance. Can't you at least look where you're going?"

"It's not my fault if you stop in front of me!" the champion complained, glancing past Ash at the purple haired trainer. "Sorry." He said, directing it more to Paul than to Ash.

"Ash…?" Paul glanced at the yellow mouse that waved cheekily at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Travelling through Johto," Ash shrugged. "Riley calls it training. I don't believe him."

"I don't think we've met." Lance held out a hand. "Lance Wataru."

"PikaPika." (I think he knows who you are.) Pikachu chirped.

Paul looked slightly awestruck, but not that much. "Paul Reed." He took the hand, letting go as soon as possible. He still didn't appear like a friendly hug-sort of person then. "I was looking for Champion Cynthia actually." He blinked. "Ran into the wrong champion," he added, gruffly.

There are some people, Ash mused who just didn't change. Paul was not one of those people. In the past, he would have promptly barged past them towards the stairs, after meeting the 'wrong' champion. Now he stayed standing, Weavile looking far-happier than the last time Ash had seen him.

"Why's it always Cynthia?" Lance grumbled.

"She's upstairs actually." Ash nodded upwards. "With Riley... I wouldn't interrupt them for a while though; they're a bit too deep into the myths and legends of this place to hear what you might try to say."

"Why are you looking for her?" Lance asked, curiously, making no attempt to be subtle.

"I want a rematch." Paul answered shortly, glancing at Ash. The guardian knew which time he was talking about.

"Good luck." Ash wished him. "I know you don't want it and probably don't need it, but it's there all the same."

"PiPikachu!"

Paul looked distinctively uncomfortable. "Thanks." He said shortly.

"What are you doing in Johto anyway?" Ash asked, "Apart from stalking the Sinnoh Champ?"

"None of your business," Paul snapped, pushing past Ash and making for the stairs.

Lance glanced at Ash. "He isn't very friendly, is he?"

Ash ignored the champion, pursuing Paul up the stairs. "Don't walk away! Paul!" caught sight of the purple haired trainer. "How did your rematch with Brandon go?"

Riley and Cynthia stopped talking, glancing over to Ash and Paul. The purple haired trainer shrugged sullenly. "I beat him."

Ash sighed. Pulling answers from Paul was like trying to explain physics to his Luxray. "Fine!" he held up his hand, calling over to the pair, "Challenger for ya' Cynth!"

As all gazes turned to Paul, who looked alarmed to be in the limelight, Lance appeared up on the ground floor. "Don't leave me down there." He snapped at Ash. "It's creepy and I feel like I'm being watched."

"You are." Riley and Ash spoke in unison, exchanged amused looks, and then Ash continued. "Morty has his Gastly watch the place. It's been hiding in the shadows since we entered."

"How did you…" Lance began, but stopped. "Never mind; Guardians…" He muttered, with the same tone one would use when complaining about 'teachers'. "Should we go outside?" he asked, ignoring whatever the others had to say and heading outside anyway.

Ash followed, pausing to glance down at the basement area. For a moment he could have sworn he saw three shadows, a flicker of fire, ice and lightning but… that would mean…

Nah… he must have been imagining it.

("Did Paul and Cynthia have their battle?" Dawn asked eyes curious. "He hasn't told me any of this."

Lance shook his head. "They post-phoned it. Paul was redoing the Johto League and the only reason he hung around Ecruteak was because of the rumours that Cynthia was there."

"What about the rumours that the Johto Champ was there?" May teased him, "Did nobody care about you that much?"

"You probably would have been in there like a shot." Max snickered. "Have you told Lance how you…" A stapler narrowly missed the youngster's head and he wisely shut up.

"So where next?" Misty murmured sleepily from where she was buried against Ash. "Mahogany..?"

"Back to Mahogany," Ash nodded. "Riley and I had to shut down some Rare Candy dealers. After that we did finally made it to Blackthorn. I don't really remember much of or travels. It's that tedious sort of thing filled with stupid conversation just to pass the time. Riley was heartbroken at Cynthia heading back to Sinnoh, Lance kept blabbing on about how brilliant Blackthorn City was…"

"I was not blabbing!"

"You blab." May told him, not looking up from the keyboard. "Face it."

"Lance didn't believe me when I told him that Lux invented a way for him to use flame charge by himself."

"I still don't." the champion muttered.

Ash paused. "I think he might have made it up after watching me teach Floatzel how to combine his aqua jet and ice fang. Or maybe Rai's method of using dig and then iron tail on the hole riddled battlefield to create a sort of earthquake, stone edge type attack for any fire Pokémon."

"Isn't that when I got Clair to battle you?"

"Might have been," Ash looked slightly apprehensive. "I can't remember that next bit at all. Just the fact that Eelektrik used thief on my bag at some point to steal the thunderstone, deciding it was time to evolve. Almost gave Rai a heart attack at seeing the thing."

"Well we went back to Blackthorn." Lance told May, "And I asked Ash…"

"Forced me…"

"Asked him to battle Clair," Lance continued. "She was using her strongest team, Kingdra, Dragonite, Charizard, Aerodactyl, Gyrados, Dragonair, and I challenged Ash to use only one type."

"I picked electrics." Ash explained, "Since there was no way I'd let Rai not battle. Lance however…"

"I was under the impression that he had more in his team that he actually did… but he only had four: Arrin, Lux, Rai and Ter. It was lucky that Clair's team had weaknesses to electricity being part flying or water. Either that or he just got Luxray to use ice fang." Lance said, "I just wanted to get a gauge of his battling style against the strongest gym leader."

"That's when out of the blue, he offered me an elite challenge."

[18:48PM] – 2nd October 2004 - Johto – Blackthorn City – Dragon Clan Halls

"I'm sorry." Ash blinked at the champion stroke friend. "I don't think I heard you right."

"KakaChu!" (At last!) Pikachu's ears were upright, entirely focussed on the red haired champion.

"Oh, you heard me." Lance looked so smug, "I want you to battle the elite four."

Ash narrowed his brown eyes at the dragon tamer. Nearby Clair was fuming silently, and Riley had slowly begun to edge away from the gym leader's temper tantrum. "Why?" Ash asked suspiciously. If this was some ploy just to wind up Lance's cousin he wasn't buying it and with someone like Riley for a mentor, who would suggest something 'fun' and it then turns out to be abseiling down a hundred foot cliff, Ash was wondering what the catch was.

Lance raised an eyebrow, "Because I think you're a good trainer. I saw your Sinnoh battles. You're the only one who took down that freaking Darkrai. Cynthia didn't offer that guy a challenge because, well, let's face it. If he had a Latios and Darkrai, what else might he have? Then recently, in that tag battle your Luxray freakin' electrocuted a ground type. Cynthia's Garchomp no less… well… I'd be stupid not to."

"You can just… offer this… out of the blue… to just anyone?"

"Chu!" (Don't complain!) Rai chided me, eyes blazing with excitement.

"Well, not anyone." He seemed not to notice his friend's disbelief. "If a person wins at a League Conference, they're usually offered a challenge. Otherwise a home region can offer a challenge to any trainer who had competed in five plus leagues and come within the top ten in at least four of them."

"I've only competed in four." Ash frowned. "And I came above top ten in only three of them."

"Kanto Battle Frontier counts." He answered without blinking. "As does the Orange for that matter, although most people look down on it because of its different style of challenges. It focusses more on bonds and skills than strategy and power."

"What's the catch?" The trainer glanced at Clair who had stalked off somewhere, obviously annoyed with her cousin. There had been rumours that she had been vying for an elite position for years but because Lance already specialised in dragon-types, she was out of luck until Lance quit or transferred to the Kanto elite.

"No catch." Lance smiled, "A genuine offer, although if you specialised in a type we'd prefer it. Some, like Cynthia and Alder don't, but it's usually preferred, no idea why. The guy who won the Silver Conference when you competed in it… what was his name…" Lance frowned for a moment, "Never mind." He eventually shrugged. "His team was mixed, and we offered him a challenge, and he managed to defeat Will but Koga beat him."

"Was that the Johto challenge?" Ash asked. He had met the elites from Kanto, but not the two Johto exclusive elites.

The red head nodded. "Johto line up is Will, Koga, Bruno, Karen and then me, as Champion, while the Kanto line up is Lorelei, Koga, Agatha, Bruno and then me. Bruno, Koga and I are a part of both – we're still trying to separate them entirely but it's a bit slow at the moment. Who knows? If you are any good, and manage to beat at least three elites… that's the minimum… if the League want to offer you a position as an elite you have to have beaten at least three of them. Well if you somehow manage that then we can shuffle Bruno off to join Johto permanently."

Slowly Ash nodded, taking it in. Riley, who had stood nearby, listening, stepped forwards. "Well I think you should do it!" he announced, eyes twinkling happily. At his side Aaron nodded emphatically, letting out a happy bark.

Ash glanced at him. "You wouldn't mind?" he asked, surprised. "I thought you haven't finished training me?"

He scoffed. "Ash, if there is anything more I can teach you then you could probably work it out yourself. You've been a full aura guardian for months; I just stayed around to pick up some battling techniques from you. Your Charizard taught Salamence how to combine dragon fire and fire blast the other day. Unless you want me to give you step by step instructions…"

"No thanks." Ash hastened to comment. "What are you going to do then? Go back to Sinnoh and become a gym leader?"

This was the end of their journey he realised, and he was going to miss the older guardian. They had been around Sinnoh and Johto together, and now it all ended here, in Blackthorn City.

"Hell no," Riley looked pained, "I need to travel!" the idea of being confined to one space was atrocious. Ash had no idea why he staked out Iron Island like he did then. "I'll stick to what I do best – guardian and all that."

His Lucario let out a happy bark.

"Then, okay…" Ash turned back to Lance, Pikachu leaping to the floor, electricity crackling. Behind him, Infernape chattered happily, and his newly evolve Eelektross did a little dance.

"Challenge accepted."

August 2013 – This totally non-planned chapter turned out better than I thought, with that double battle I threw in because I could. The battle wasn't terribly well written but then again, its hard to keep track of four Pokemon at once. Next chapter Ash sees Misty again, gets love advice from Charizard and begins his elite four challenges!

I totally skipped a Thursday, so thank you guys for still reviewing with such positive feedback! I hope you enjoyed it!

~ Eclipse