Hello, good people that are reading this right now. I'm back with another chapter!

How am I? I have this Jamie Cullum song whose title I don't know and can't find in the web, so I'm frustrated! And 'K-ON!' is on TV right now. The English-dub is terrible, and I can't get over the Yuri atmosphere -_- And to add to the frustration, my Nurarihyon No Mago torrent still has 1 hour left.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter while I look for that song again.


Evenio

11:30 AM
Indigo Plateau
Practice Field

"Well, here we are." The young man with the spiky brown hair said while stopping. Standing beside him was a blue haired girl with green eyes. "Ready?" He turned around to see the other young trainer trying to keep his Pikachu from getting his bottle of ketchup. "Hey! Do you even want to battle?"

The other person and his Pikachu stopped their friendly fight, turning to him. "Oh, of course! But I need to get Pikachu off the ketchup; he's going to get a stomach ache from all the ketchup." Said the young man while holding his partner Pokémon by the neck. "Pika!" his Pokémon protested. "Later. Now, let's get this started, Gary." He walked to the blue end of the field.

A man wearing a green shirt came out from a gate under the spectators seats. Noticing this, Gary walked up to him and requested him to judge the match, where the man agreed. Then Gary walked to the red end of the field, approaching the blue haired woman. "Can you hold this for me?" said Gary while handing her his sunglasses that was placed on his head. She nodded, and headed to where a blonde woman was sitting, above the gate that the referee came out from. "So who do you think will win, Cynthia?" she asked the blonde trainer. "I honestly don't know. The last time I saw Ash battled was four years ago, and he didn't even stand a chance against me... And Gary Oak is known to be a great trainer, despite his occupation as a Pokémon Researcher. If I battled him, it would be quite a challenge and fight." answered Cynthia. "I see. So we just have to wait and see, I guess?" "It seems so."

The practice field were starting to be filled with spectators who saw the Sinnoh Champion going in. Once inside, they found out that Gary Oak was battling an unknown trainer. Soon, the practice arena was filled.

Murmurs can be heard throughout the arena where people were talking about the unknown trainer who is brave enough to go against Gary.

Both trainers were looking confident, especially after their visit to the Pokémon Center for Gary to change his party while Ash had disappeared somewhere for a few minutes.

"You know?" Gary started a conversation with Ash from across the field. "My party is the exact same team that I had during the Silver Conference when we battled. And we're going to win this easily." Said the researcher with a big grin on his face. "Funny." Ash commented. " I broke my 'one Pokémon' rule for the competition, so I'm in a similar situation."

The referee stood on his usual spot, and announced the match. "This match between Gary Oak and..."

"Thanatos." Ash completed the referee's sentence.

More murmurs were heard from the seats when people heard the strange name.

"This match between Gary Oak and Thanatos will be a three on three practice match! One side will be declared the victor when either side's Pokémon are unable to battle! Begin!" the referee raised both his flags to signal the start of the match.

"Three on three, huh? Well, this should be quick. Nidoqueen, go!" said the trainer in the red corner while throwing a PokeBall. It released the dual type Poison/Ground Pokémon.

"This is for your loss in the Silver Conference, Tauros." Ash threw a similar ball, revealing the normal typed Pokémon.

"Nidoqueen, get close for a Mega Punch!" Gary said while pointing his forefinger.

The Nidoqueen started running towards the horned Pokémon with her hand shining white.

Ash observed the unusual speed and agility of the last evolution of the female Nidoran.

In a split second, the Nidoqueen got in range and launched her fist forward for a Mega Punch. With Ash not saying anything, the Tauros took the hit head on. The fist connected.

Gary's eyes widened at the sight of the Tauros that withstood the power of the attack. "Well, isn't that something..."

"Tauros, lock her arm between your horns." Ash ordered. The Tauros nodded and did exactly like his trainer instructed him to. Tauros moved his head in a circular manner and locked the Nidoqueen's arm. "Now, lift her into the air."

Tauros started to run forward, pushing his opponent backwards while gaining more speed. A second later, Tauros lowered his head, and lifted it again in a much greater speed to which Nidoqueen tried to resist, but failed. Gary's Pokémon was now being thrown upwards. "Nidoqueen!" Gary shouted. "Tauros, use Horn Attack when she falls." Ash gave out another move for his Pokémon. Gary smirked at this, and gave his order. "Nidoqueen, Hyper Beam!" In less than a second, she had fired the Hyper Beam. An explosion occurred and a cloud of dust emerged as Nidoqueen landed safely on her feet, giving a small and short tremor.

After a short while, the cloud began to disperse. Nidoqueen could be seen standing firm in the midst of the dust, however, there was no trace of Tauros still standing. Gary smiled at this sight. "Well? Just like the old times!"

"You sure?" Ash replied. "Do it, Tauros."

A shadow that resembled Tauros was now visible in the disappearing cloud of dust, running at full speed and ramming Nidoqueen's back with his horns. Not expecting the attack, the dual type Pokémon got launched from the attack, hitting the walls of the field. The referee ran up to the Pokémon to check its conditions.

"Nidoqueen is unable to battle! Tauros is the winner!"

"N-No way... Nidoqueen was taken down with one attack!" Gary said in disbelief.

The crowd gasped at the unexpected turn of events, where Gary Oak's Pokémon was taken down very easily by a no-name trainer.

"Tsch. Not bad." Gary clicked his tongue while returning his Nidoqueen. He took another PokeBall and threw it to the field. It released a big blue turtle with two cannons on its back. "Go for it, Blastoise."

Ash quickly returned his Tauros and he spoke to the PokeBall in what seemed to be a thank you for the battle. He took another PokeBall as well and did the same gesture as Gary. He chose the last evolution line of the fire counterpart of the Kanto starters. "Let's make it an epic fight, Charizard." Ash said to the orange lizard. "You're not allowed to fly." The lizard nodded and showed a thumb up, showing his approval at his trainer's challenge.

"Blastoise, Hydro Cannon!" shouted the trainer in the red corner.

"Flamethrower, full power."


11.30 AM
Unidentified Galactic Base
10.00%

"How goes the progress?" asked a man with spiky blue hair, wearing a familiar outfit with a 'G' imprint on his chest.

"It went a little bit faster after it hit the five percent mark, Cyrus, sir!" answered his underling with a salute. He had #27 written on his back. "And now that we have got Celebi, it should go faster, it might even go at triple the previous rate!" added the young man next to him, this one with #3 written on the back of his uniform.

"Very good. Make sure the Pokémon needed the complete the objective are safely secured." Cyrus ordered. "How about the progress on the Grand Conference? Any notable trainers yet?" He stood up from his chair, and went in front of his desk in a military commander style.

"There are a lot of strong trainers, just like we expected, but this is still the preliminaries, sir. So we are waiting for a little bit longer, to see who will really pass our qualifications." An old thick-bearded man entered the room, interrupting the two goons who were about to answer the question. "Although we can save the trouble if we just go for the champions." He added.

"That won't do, Dr. Raito." Cyrus calmly replied while going back to his seat. "Those people have already experienced victories in either a regional league or the Grand Conference, so they at least know how things work in these tournaments. If we do anything suspicious, they will notice. So we need somebody new."

"And I'm saying we just force them with the new hypnotism device the organization finished not too long ago. Saves us a lot of time and trouble." Dr. Raito suggested.

"That will only happen if one of the champions wins the conference. I'd like to do things smoothly, if possible. I don't like any surprises from the machines, they tend to be faulty at critical times. With newly crowned ones, they are mostly oblivious, or I hope they are." Cyrus took a sheet of paper from a pile marked 'Financial Proposals' and started to work on it. "So, what do you think of our candidates?"

The older man walked over to a sofa and sat on it. "Well, for Jupiter, I don't think he will be seeing the finals. For your last minute addition, Saturn, I do think she is more capable, but still not enough to get to the finals, probably only up to the top sixty-four. The trainers in the conference are very strong, and I've noted many who show potential. Organized by regions." Said the Doctor, who stood up and gave his Boss his research results.

Cyrus accepted the papers, and started scrolling through them, reading in his head.

"Johto.

Champion Lance*, E.F Karen, E.F Bruno, E.F Koga*, E.F Will.

G.L Clair, G.L Pryce, G.L Morty.

Trainer Lyra, Trainer Silver*, Trainer Ethan.

Sinnoh.

Champion Cynthia, E.F Lucian, E.F Flint, E.F Bertha.

G.L Fantina, G.L Volkner, G.L Candice.

Frontier Brain Palmer, Frontier Brain Dahlia.

Trainer Barry, Coordinator Dawn, Trainer Lucas, Trainer Paul*.

Hoenn.

Champion Wallace, E.F Phoebe, E.F Sidney, E.F Glacia.

Steven Stone.

G.L Juan, Liza & Tate, G.L Winona, G.L Norman, G.L Flannery.

Trainer Brendan, Coordinator May, Trainer Harrison, Coordinator Drew*, Coordinator Harley*, Trainer Max.

Frontier Brain Anabel, Frontier Brain Brandon*, Frontier Brain Tucker**, Frontier Brain Lucy.

Kanto.

Gary Oak.

Champion Red*, E.F Lorelei, E.F Agatha.

G.L Sabrina, G.L Blaine, G.L Brock, G.L Misty, G.L Erika, G.L Janine.

Trainer Ritchie, Coordinator Solidad.

-"

"Steven Stone. Why is he without title? I know Gary Oak is a researcher." Cyrus asked.

"Well, he is a stones enthusiast. I wasn't sure what title to put." Dr. Raito simply answered. "He's strong alright. He was in a match against Cynthia where the battle ended in a draw."

"I see. And why is there only a few from Kanto? Setting aside the Elite Fours being shared, that is. And you might want to explain the asterisks next to a couple of the names too." The blue haired man raised another question.

"The asterisk indicates that even though those specific trainers are strong, they might not be able to finish the required task because of their personalities. As for the Kanto list, well, that is still temporary, and I'll keep updating the list. However, the trainers on the Kanto list are very strong, very formidable trainers. Gary Oak engaged Steven Stone in a battle once, and lost when they were both down to their last Pokémon. As a matter of fact, I think Gary Oak is battling someone right now, in a practice battle." Explained Dr. Raito. "By the way, the double asterisks mean that they have a terrible sense of fashion."

#3 picked up a remote control and pressed power. A 60 inches flat-screen Television turned on. He scanned a few channels before stopping on channel fifteen. It showed a match where a man identified to be Gary Oak, in the red corner, was battling against a no-name trainer in the blue corner. The stadium is filled with spectators, hoping to attain enlightenment on the researcher's excellent battle skills. The screen showed one of Gary Oak's Pokémon , Nidoqueen, is down, while 2 out of the three revealed Pokémon of the opponent are still fine.

Currently, Gary's Blastoise was fighting it out against a Charizard.

"They've been battling it out for more than 15 minutes now. They're on equal powers. Every attack they launched was cancelled by the other Pokémon." #3 commented.

"Yeah, it seems so. That Blastoise is strong alright. Its attacks aren't normal, they're both powerful and quick." Added #27.

"But something seems off here. Charizard has been dodging and matching up the Blastoise's attacks without flying at all, and it looks completely fine!" #3 remarked.

Hearing this, Cyrus got up from his seat to see the match. He noticed the participants, and then he saw the Sinnoh Champion in the seats. He proceeded to look at Gary Oak, who looked exhausted, just like his Blastoise.

The Blastoise withdrew in his shell and spun, showing his Rapid Spin attack. Charizard didn't move, catching the gigantic turtle in his arms. He roasted the turtle with a Fire Spin before bringing it to the sky quickly, performing a Seismic Toss attack. Launching downwards with great speed, the Charizard released the turtle. When his opponent made contact with the ground, the orange lizard added an extra Dragonbreath to deal more damage. To everyone's surprise, the Blastoise stood up again before the referee could decide that it was over.

The water type tried to do another Hydro Cannon, but missed.


Indigo Plateau
Practice Field

"Darn it!" Gary cursed. "If only the attack could hit!"

Hearing this, Thanatos got ready for a reply. "Your Blastoise is strong, Mr. Oak. Very strong. It was a little bit beyond my expectations. However, Blastoise only have a limited set of times of which he can use his attacks, PP, in short. Once he uses it up, exhaustion awaits, which seems like the case this time. Unlike mine, who have a nearly unlimited set of times."

Gary, not understanding fully, shot back a question. "Unlimited? What do you mean?"

"Your Blastoise can only use a certain amount of water and attacks before it exhaust himself. Now, unlike others, you have trained your Pokémon exceptionally. If I have to do an analogy, Most Blastoise's water source would be as large as one of the three lakes in the Sinnoh region. Your Blastoise, however, have a source as large as all the three lakes combined, from what I can see." He paused for a second, before continuing his explanation.

"What about my Charizard, you ask? His would be as much as an... ocean of lava. What three small bodies of water can do to an ocean of fire? Practically nothing."

Hearing this, many of the crowd started to shout in disagreement. "He's bluffing! He's not sane, just kick his butt, Oak!"

With one started, the others quickly joined. "Yeah! Just take him down!"

"Shut him up!"

"What a cocky person!"

"He's nothing much!"

Looking at the outraged crowd, Thanatos turned to Gary. "Would you like to at least comply to the wants of the people?"

Gary got hot-headed at his friend's explanation and ordered his Blastoise to do his most powerful move without even being asked. "I'll prove you wrong! Blastoise, Hydro Cannon, full power!"

The Blastoise aimed its two cannons at the fire counterpart, and shot two huge, high speed water cannons.

"Take it head-on, Charizard." Thanatos ordered.

Charizard stood there while the Hydro Cannon is heading to him. He stepped forward a step. Once the attack connected to his body, the water evaporated in an instant.

The attack kept on coming, however, to no avail, getting turned into steam by the millisecond.

The arena quickly turned hot like a small sauna.

The Blastoise was running out of gas, and kneeled over in exhaustion.

Many of the people watching rubbed their eyes to see more clearly. All of their attention was glued to the source of the steam.

Charizard stood tall, unscathed and not even a single drop of water was on his body. The flame on his tail was burning crazily.

On the other side, Blastoise, who had been gasping for air because of his exhaustion, started gasped even more violently before dropping. The referee came over to look at the Pokémon, and declared Charizard's win. "Blastoise is unable to battle! Charizard is the winner!"

The crowd started speaking to each other. "... He wasn't bluffing after all, that strong Blastoise fainted out of exhaustion..." "... That Charizard doesn't even show the slightest bit of fatigue..." "...He's strong..." "... Damn strong..."

The Sinnoh Champion was speechless, not knowing what to say at what she saw.

"Now, Mr. Oak, please choose your third Pokémon." Said the referee while wiping his sweat of his face.

"I forfeit."

"Pardon?"

"I forfeit the match. He's clearly far stronger than me. I can't measure how strong he is." Gary said, while returning Blastoise to his PokeBall.

"Very well then. The winner of this match is Thanatos!"

The crowd was silent at Gary Oak's judgement, who they thought was very strong. Serena, who had been sitting beside Cynthia, started clapping. Soon, people followed, and shortly after the whole arena was filled with thunderous claps and cheers.

"You did awesome, Gary!"

"You're damn strong, you with the Pikachu!"

"That was an awesome battle!"

Thanatos looked at this sight and gave a happy sigh and a shrug. Just a minute ago they were calling him cocky. He went over to the Red side of the arena, and offered Gary a handshake, which the latter gladly accepted. While shaking his hand, Gary noticed Thanatos had something in his hand and left it with Gary. While walking away, Thanatos' Pikachu waved to say goodbye.


12:00 PM
Unidentified Galactic Base

"That is your candidate, correct?" Cyrus said to Dr. Raito.

"Yes. His name is Thanatos." The older man replied.

"Good. He's strong, and loyal. I like that." The leader praised. "He's playful though." Dr. Raito added.

#3, who went out to check on the legendary time-travelling Pokémon came back in to the room with worried face.

"What's wrong?" Cyrus inquired.

"Uh, Sir? I've been wondering... Celebi has been repeatedly glowing green from when we caught it." The underling answered while pointing to the room where the Pokémon was held. "Are you sure that's normal?" Cyrus went ahead to the room where Celebi was kept, and saw that the Pokémon glowed green over a set of intervals. "I remember Mars, Jupiter and Saturn saying something similar about the Lake Trios. Do you make something of this, Dr. Raito?"

"I'll look into it, sir. Currently, I think it is practically harmless, though I'm not sure about later on. I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly could." Having said that, Dr. Raito went over to the control panel and printed some of Celebi's data. After that, he gave a slight nod to Cyrus and left the room.

Once out of the room, he headed to the staff elevator. After waiting for a short bit, the elevator arrived and the Doctor went, sighing deeply. "I think I have an idea who got their powers." The elevator arrived, and he exited while whistling an old tune.


12:00 PM
Outside of Practice Field

"Well, isn't this something?" Ash said when he got out of the practice field.

People were gathering around the Sinnoh Champion to ask for autographs, advices and many more. Cynthia looked troubled at the stampede of people that was crowding her. Ash brainstormed for a bit on how to get her out of the mess, and came up with an idea. He took Pikachu, who was on his head, and told it to use Flash. Ash covered his eyes, while most of the people there are blinded by the move. When they were trying to recover their visions, Ash grabbed Cynthia and ran for it, despite Cynthia's small protests.

Once far enough, Ash set the blonde woman down. "How was the trip?" he asked with a bright smile. Cynthia, who was still rubbing her eyes, protested. "Do you have to do it like that? Can't you do it in a more... I don't know, normal way?" "Normal? That word's not in my dictionary." He said with a big grin. He took Pikachu off his head, and placed it on Cynthia's head again. "He looks good there. Matches your hair. Good combination!" He commented. "Pika!" Pikachu agreed with his trainer, nodding along. "Well, let's go, shall we? I want to finish this before dark, so we can talk some more about non-Galactic stuff."


Gary opened the door to his hotel room, and placed his bad on top of his bed. He reached for his pocket and took out the piece of paper Ash had slipped him when they finished their battle. He opened the folds, and read it.

Meet me in Cafe Le Grand at 10 tonight.

-Ash

I guess it's got something to do with more explaining. He thought. Gary went over to the desk and took out his laptop, writing his observation for the day about the village.

Once they were done with the inspection, it was already going to be dark in a few minutes, and Cynthia had to go sort some business with the Grand Conference committee. Also, Ash had to go to the meeting for the first round winners. They parted ways after exchanging PokeNav numbers.


9:45 PM
Charleston Hotel
Lobby

After going through a very boring one and a half hour of speech and instructions, Ash stretched his back and groaned. "Whaaaaaaaat a boring lecture." He exited the hotel, and headed to the meeting place he mention to Gary in the message earlier. He had told Cynthia to come too, so he can set things straight in one go. Pikachu was sleeping on his head because of the lecturer's soothing voice.

In less than 5 minutes, he had gotten to the Cafe. It was the Cafe where he met Gary this afternoon, the one where he knocked the employees. He went inside the Cafe, closing the door a bit too hard, waking Pikachu up. "Pika Pika..." the yellow Pokémon complained while getting up. "Sorry, buddy." The young trainer apologized while petting his Pikachu on the head, who seemed to like it.

He saw that the three workers are still out from the incident earlier today. "Man, don't this Cafe get customers?" He said while trying to make things tidier. "Hey, Mr. Bartender, wake up." He slapped the bartender in the face, but the bearded man still stayed out cold. Just then, another pain struck his head.

"Ugh!" He groaned, while holding his head. "Pika?"

"Don't worry Pikachu, it's just those dizzy spells I've been having for the past week." Replied the young man. Still kneeling, he tried to get up by using the wall as a support. He hit his hand on the wall accidentally, and it produced a hollow sound.

"Hmm?" He knocked the wall to make sure, and it produced the same sound. "This part of the wall is hollow." He punched the wall, breaking it. He checked out the hole he made. In the hole, he saw a plastic container. He took it out, and saw that inside was an old key.

He opened the container and grabbed the object.

When he touched it, the dizzy spell got worse, enough to make one faint.

"Urgh!" he groaned again, dropping the key and the container.

Ash's eyes became hazy and he lost his balance, falling to his knees. When he did, he could not see anymore. "My... My vision!" He shouted while rubbing his eyes.

Not being able to see anything but darkness, Ash panicked. Suddenly, there was a white beam that separated the darkness into two parts horizontally, and now he could see nothing but light. He fainted afterwards.


Ash realized that he was standing, in the same spot where he had picked up the old key. However, the wall was still intact. His body felt light, as light as a feather. He looked around the Cafe, and he noticed a few differences. The furniture looked new, and there were a lot of people there. Confused, Ash went to the receptionist to ask how and when all these people get here so quickly. "Hello, I was here just now and it was empty. Now, it's full with customers. May I ask what time it is?"

The receptionist ignored him and continued playing solitaire on the computer. "Hello?" he waved his hand in front of the other man's face. Again, ignored.

Slightly annoyed, Ash went on and tried to pat the guy on the shoulder, only to have his hand go through the man's body. Ash fell, and his eyes widened in surprise. He noticed that his Pikachu was absent the whole time.

"What the heck? It's like... I don't exist here at all. And where's Pikachu?" He got up, and noticed a newspaper on the bar.

He walked over to check the newspaper. "Hey, this paper's from 20 years ago, who put this here?" Ignoring it, he turned to see two people reading the paper. He walked over to see the paper to see the same date.

He quickly looked around the room again, to see the clothes the people wore.

An epiphany.

"This is... 20 years ago?" he shouted out loud, where no one even flinched at his loud voice.


Done! Hope you like this chapter.

I finally finished the downloads. The song, you ask? Nope, nothing. Curses!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this one, and please review!