It was later that day. Alcazzar was bathing Falkner's Pidgeot in a special room adjacent to the roof of the Gym. He had already cleaned Dodrio and Hoothoot, and the latter was facing off angrily against Alcazzar's freshly polished Magnemite.
"Now stop that you two." Alcazzar called over to break them up. Magnemite hovered over to where Creekin was snoring and settled on a cushion, keeping its wary eye fixed on Hoothoot. Alcazzar sighed. "I'm sorry about my Magnemite, Falkner. Its attitude still needs some work."
"It's nothing." Falkner replied from the doorway. After their battle, his opinion of Alcazzar had changed - he seemed like an honestly decent guy, and there was no doubt about how much he cared for Pokemon. However, despite his almost unsettlingly cheery demeanour, there was still an indescribable coldness about the man.
"I must say, you have raised this Pidgeot extremely well." Alcazzar continued. "Its plumage is even more lustrous than I had thought!" Pidgeot cawed and spread its wings in appreciation, splattering everyone with a spray of water. Laughing, Alcazzar stood, removing his hat and shaking the droplets from it. With his hat removed, Falkner could see that he had six teardrop-shaped black baubles with golden rings around the bulbs tied into his hair - three on either side.
"My dad raised them." Falkner replied. "By the way - what are those things in your hair?"
"These?" Alcazzar responded, fingering one of the baubles. "Status marks." then, in a voice so low Falkner could barely hear it (and got the impression he wasn't supposed to) Alcazzar whispered "Not that I deserve them." Falkner, realising he had hit a sore spot, decided to change the subject as Alcazzar put his hat back on.
"Anyway, as I was saying, my dad raised these Pokemon. He was the former Gym leader, and left me in charge when he went out to become a Breeder."
"Breeder?" Alcazzar asked.
"You haven't heard of Pokemon Breeders?" Falkner replied in amazement. "Where are you from? You said Whirlport City, but I have never heard of it."
"The region I came from is secret." Alcazzar said mysteriously. "Well, Pidgeot, you are clean as a whistle. Fly around to dry your feathers." He continued, not so mysteriously. Pidgeot hopped out of the water, shaking itself, and took off past Falkner. Falkner stared at Alcazzar, not at all satisfied with his answer. The stony silence was broken by his stomach rumbling. Embarrassed, he put one hand to his belly. It had been some time since he had had a decent meal. Alcazzar laughed. "I could use something to eat as well. I'll head out to town to get some ingredients and then whip up a meal."
"You can cook?" Falkner asked, surprised. Now he felt even hungrier.
"Well, I can put together a halfway decent meal." Alcazzar responded modestly. He headed towards the elevator.
"Wait." Falkner called. "I'll go with you."
A few minutes later, Falkner was beginning to regret letting Alcazzar have the money. "These fruit look really good, but the fruit over here also looks really good." he was saying. "If we have sandwiches we could use this bread, but this pasta looks excellent..."
"Could you just decide?" Falkner snapped. People nearby were sniggering at the tall, intimidating, indecisive figure and the impatient Gym leader.
"OK!" Alcazzar suddenly shouted, startling everyone nearby. "I'll take this, this, this, this and that." carrying heavy bags, he set off back towards the Gym, an exasperated Falkner close behind. They got back to the Gym and Alcazzar, followed by Falkner and Creekin, pulled his cart into the kitchen - a large, little used room, with various tables and surfaces. Falkner saw that perched upon one corner of the cart was a bipedal, tailed Pokemon with two short, fox-like ears on the top of its head, and two eyes like horizontal slits in the middle of its face. It had golden skin lighter around its nose and mouth, as well as dark brown pauldron-like shoulders, and its chest was the same colour as its shoulders. It had three stubby fingers on each hand and three talon-like toes on each foot - two at the front and one at the back near the ankle. Its tail was thick and is the same gold colour as the rest of its body, except for a brown band near the tip of the tail. It appeared to be sleeping.
"Is this your Abra?" Falkner asked. Alcazzar turned from where he had been unpacking the groceries.
"Oh, him? Well, I suppose you could say so." Alcazzar replied. "He's a friend of mine. He looks after this." and Alcazzar lifted the tarpaulin away. Falkner stared. The cart contained various pieces of equipment in one half, and in the other half... in the other half, stacked in metal layers of storage, were Pokeballs.
"There must be more than two hundred and fifty Pokeballs here!" Falkner breathed, backing away and looking at Alcazzar accusingly.
"I didn't steal them," Alcazzar sighed in exasperation, reading Falkner's expression. "About half of them are empty, many of them have been retrofit to hold items instead, mostly Pokemon food, and in the rest are all of my Pokemon. After all, I have been a trainer for eleven years."
"But why are you travelling with all of them?" Falkner asked suspiciously. "The maximum number of Pokemon a trainer is allowed at any one time is six."
"Because if I left them back home in Kherem then I might not be able to see any of them again!" Alcazzar snapped, then slapped one hand over his mouth. This was echoed by Creekin's facepalm.
"Kherem?" Falkner asked in disbelief. "You mean the legendary Kherem region, the place no-one comes back from? The land surrounded by storms and whirlpools that no ship or plane can get through? You mean the fabled Land of Giants? I don't believe you."
"Good." said Alcazzar in relief.
"It probably doesn't even exist." Falkner said, half to reassure himself.
"Couldn't agree more." said Alcazzar, and Creekin nodded furiously. Alcazzar turned back to his unpacking, while Falkner was lost in thought. He remembered something his father had once said about his own father - Falkner's grandfather.
"My dad actually tried to get to the Kherem region once." his father had said. "He flew on his Pidgeot, the biggest, fastest and fiercest Pidgeot in the world. That thing had taken down Dragonite as if they were Hoppip. He washed up in Vermillion City over in Kanto a month later, without his Pidgeot and almost without his life. He said he had been attacked by a Gyarados. A Gyarados with wings." Falkner remembered the silent old man in his rocking chair, staring out of the window, waiting for his Pidgeot to return.
"Something wrong?" Falkner turned to see Alcazzar looking at him with concern.
"Nothing." Falkner snapped, then calmed himself down. "I'll just go and buy some more Pokemon food."
"No need!" Alcazzar said cheerily. "I'll make some for your Pokemon." He rummaged around in his cart and came out holding several Pokeballs. Some of them, Falkner could see, had small grey stones set in them. "Alright, first our starter. Come on out, Cordy, Phio, Parasect!" He threw three Pokeballs, two of which had stones set in them. From those two came small, crab-like insectoid creatures, orange skinned with two large eyes, four thin legs and two large claws. They were Paras, but unlike other instances of the species Falkner had seen which only had two mushrooms growing on their back, the backs of these two were covered in mushrooms. From the third ball came a larger Pokemon that looked very similar to Paras, except that its back had been completely covered by one large mushroom like a shell. Its claws had grown into pincers and its eyes were smaller than that of Paras. It had a small metal box under its head, which appeared to be nailed directly into it. The large mushroom on its back appeared to have smaller mushrooms growing out of it. "Ah, just about harvest time!" Alcazzar exclaimed, and put a bowl down in front of the three Pokemon. To Falkner's astonishment, they began plucking small mushrooms from their backs and putting them in the bowl.
"I've never seen anything like that." Falkner said. Alcazzar smiled and tickled Pari's head.
"You see, normally the mushrooms that grow on Paras's back are slowly taking over its brain, and succeed when it evolves." Alcazzar explained. "The large fungus on Parasect's back can spread spores onto Paras's back to make such Mushrooms grow." now, he tapped the metal box under Parasect's head. "This prevents the fungus from taking over. So, Parasect has control. It spreads spores onto its own back as well as Cordy and Phio's backs, to assist the growth of mushrooms which are very good for you once they have been purified."
"Purified?" Falkner asked. Alcazzar lifted another Pokeball.
"Like this. Chansey, go!" Alcazzar's Chansey was a metre tall pink egg-shaped Pokemon, with hair-like outgrowths either side of its head. it had stubby limbs and a short tail, and a large egg in the pouch on its front. "Hmm, Chansey's egg looks like it is getting too big." Falkner looked at it speculatively. It did seem to be a bit on the large side. Chansey lifted the egg and gave it to Alcazzar, much to Falkner's surprise, and Alcazzar put it on the table. Alcazzar then passed the bowl of Mushrooms to Chansey. "Chansey, use Purify." Alcazzar commanded. Chansey began to glow white, and then the glow spread to the bowl and its contents. It then lifted from the mushrooms, taking with it streams of yellow, purple and blue smoke which dissipated.
"What was that?" inquired Falkner.
"Purify is a move that removes paralyse, sleep or poison effects." Alcazzar explained. "It can be used to heal or to prevent abilities such as Effect Spore." Alcazzar now brought out some of the things he had bought - butter, onion, garlic, flour, stock, and cream, and started making some mushroom soup. He looked over at Falkner. "Could you put some pasta on the boil?" bemused, Falkner did so. Alcazzar then left Chansey stirring and picked up the egg. He put some butter in a frying pan and when it had melted he cracked the egg by tapping it on the side and then opened it above the pan. "When a Chansey's egg grows too big for its pouch, it usually gives it away and grows a new one." Alcazzar said conversationally. "The egg of a Chansey is extremely nutritious. We'll have Egg Pasta as a main course." He left the egg frying and moved over to the Pokeballs, selecting four more. "And for dessert, go Tropius, Nix, Salqu, and Sheleg!" Tropius was a large sauropod Pokemon with brown and green hide. It had large, broad green leaves on its back like wings. It had a long neck and yellow fruit hung down just behind its head. Nix, Salqu and Sheleg were three Snover. Their bodies were white and brown and somewhat resembled a snow-covered fir tree, and while Nix was two thirds brown Salqu and Sheleg were only one third brown. They had two legless feet that slightly resembled tree roots, short, stubby green tails and two small spikes on their backs. Their hands were green with four fingers, and their eyes were large and white with green pupils. Above its eyes its head extended like a hat with three points. Small white berries circled their midriffs.
"So these are Snover?" Falkner said, walking over. "I've never seen them up close before." The three Snover waved in greeting.
"We'll have Tropiusfruit split with Snoverberry Ice Cream." Alcazzar said, plucking some fruit down from Tropius's neck while the Snover started dropping their berries into another bowl. Falkner had to admit that Alcazzar was a fascinating person. He'd never met anyone like him.
"Well I'm full." Declared Alcazzar contentedly half an hour later.
"You call that halfway-decent?" Falkner said. "Can you work here full-time?" Alcazzar laughed at that, then got serious.
"But I did not ask to be your apprentice to make your meals."
"I know." Falkner stood. "There is a large clearing in the nearby forest where me and my students often go to train - shall we go?" Alcazzar nodded, and fetched his cart, stacking several barrels on it. Falkner saw how he got into position between the two bars sticking out of the front, and while facing away from it lifted both bars with a grunt of effort. "Doesn't that get a bit heavy?" Falkner asked. Alcazzar shrugged.
"I'm used to it." Falkner was amazed at Alcazzar's stamina as he pulled the cart all the way to the clearing without seeming to tire at all. As Falkner had said it was a large grassy clearing, clear blue skies above and lots of room - perfect for Flying types. First Falkner released his Pidgeot and Dodrio, then his students released a range of Pokemon - Pidgey, Spearow, Murkrow, Hoothoot, Pidgeotto and Doduo. Alcazzar frowned.
"Is there something wrong?" Falkner asked.
"Hmmm." Alcazzar hmmmed, not appearing to hear him. Then he noticed Falkner. "Oh, nothing." he said. He turned to his cart and removed one rack of Pokeballs along with several of the barrels, looking up at Abra. "I'll train with the flying types here - would you mind taking the rest into the forest to play? I wouldn't recommend letting the Fire types out though." Abra nodded and it and the cart vanished. Alcazzar started opening the Pokeballs one by one - some of them Falkner had seen before, but many of them were completely new to him. "Go, Tropius, Fuma, Hattori, Apep and Serket, Cannoose, Storkoll, Hyraptor, Knightorus, Phroobat, Psywanic, Aerodactyl, and Darkwing!" an assortment of Pokemon appeared, and the ones Falkner recognised were the Tropius from before, two Ninjask zipping around each other, two Gliscor balancing on their tails, the small dark Salamence which immediately headed for the shade and, hovering high, an Aerodactyl. The others were Pokemon Falkner had never seen before - one was an oddly-shaped Bird Pokemon with a black neck, a small tail of feathers poking from the back, a a white stripe across its chest from which its two legs emerged and a black rear with purple tail feathers from which two black and purple wings stretched. This was the one Alcazzar had called Cannoose. It fluttered over him, followed by the white Swanna-like Psywanic, whose wings appeared to come from under its belly rather than its back and who had a yellow mask-like face. His attention was then drawn by a scuffle in the air - a dark blue, black and silver feathered bird with yellow-striped blue upper legs, yellow lower legs and talons and what looked like a helmet was fighting with a larger bird with red fur-like plumage and a hyena like face. "Hyraptor, Knightorus, stop it!" Alcazzar called, and the two reluctantly parted, shooting glares at each other. Falkner walked over to Alcazzar.
"So these are all your Flying-types?" he asked, impressed. "I've never heard of most of them." he glanced up. "Forgetting for now the fact that one of the ones I do recognise is one I'm pretty sure is extinct, I've been meaning to ask you about your Salamence. I've only seen them in pictures, but yours looks different."
"There is a place back home called Void Cave." Alcazzar replied. "It is a place of almost total darkness, far too dark for human eyes to see anything, where light is not welcome and is absorbed. Electric torches run out of battery in seconds, fires go out as soon as they are kindled, and suchlike. Pokemon born there are born different, 'endarkened' so to speak. They usually look darker than normal Pokemon, although some are instead born albino and blind. Though they are not Dark-type, these Pokemon show attributes that would otherwise be seen in Dark-types."
"So you found this Darkwing in such a place? It is certainly powerful. Is it your most powerful Flying-type?" Alcazzar held up two more Pokeballs, and looked at them in consternation.
"Well, there are also these two," Alcazzar answered, "But I'm not sure whether they are a bit too big for this area."
"They should be fine." Falkner said, intrigued - Kherem was known as the land of giants, and he was interested to see what that might entail. Not that he believed Alcazzar really came from Kherem, he reminded himself.
"Ok then." Alcazzar decided, and opened the last two. "Say hi, Skarsenal and Skyarados!" when the flash faded, Falkner saw that they were indeed giants. One vaguely looked like a Skarmory, but it was half again the length of a Dragonair, its wings wide and three-bladed, its body misshapen and spiked, heavily armoured all over with a black chin and neck, red spikes sticking from the sides of its head like the cheek pieces of a helmet, and a large red spike coming from the back of its head. Its talons were also red and tri-segmented. Its head was more rounded than Skarmory's, with triangular yellow eyes and black slits for nostrils and ears. Its silver head peaked at the back above the red spike. Its tail was long, armoured and segmented, silver and wide near the base and black and thinning near the tip, with a silver double-headed axe shaped tail weapon near the end of the black section. It flew up, followed by the amazed gazes of Falkner's students and the frightened eyes of their Pokemon. Falkner wasn't looking at it though. He was looking at the other creature, frozen in shock and horror.
"He had been attacked by a Gyarados. A Gyarados with wings." Falkner remembered his father's words, and was now looking at what was all but undeniable proof of that story, and Alcazzar's origin. Blue scaled and cream bellied like a Gyarados, with massive fin-like wings about a quarter of the way down its length, white towards the tip and blue towards the joints. It had a similar fin sprouting from the tip of its tail, as well as numerous smaller ones. Its head was much sharper than a Gyarados, pointed with a narrow, savage beak-like mouth. Three horns sprouted from its head, one thick and about the same length as Gyarados's in the centre of its forehead, while the two others were extremely long and thin and curled towards the ends. It had a long, curled moustache like Gyarados and two small fins sprouted either side of its head. It was about thirty feet long from chin to tailfin, and it was flying. Falkner stared. Falkner's Pidgeot shot skywards - it had been raised by Falkner's father and had known Falkner's Grandfather's Pidgeot when it was still a Pidgey. It had heard the tale of how it had gone missing, and now it had seen what appeared to be the culprit. So it attacked. The creature turned towards it, and yellow energy began to form in its mouth - the beginnings of a Hyper Beam. Falkner snapped out of his stupor and yelled.
"Pidgeot stop!" Alcazzar turned quickly and snapped his fingers towards Darkwing. Darkwing took off instantly, and sped in a dark blur after Pidgeot. It caught up with Pidgeot and grabbed on to it. Pidgeot struggled against Darkwing who held on tightly and turned towards the ground. At the same time, Skarsenal slammed into Skyarados and diverted its Hyper Beam harmlessly into the air. "Hoothoot, use Hypnosis on Pidgeot!" Falkner commanded with a wince as Pidgeot and Darkwing slammed into the ground, with Darkwing having turned so that it took the brunt of the landing rather than Pidgeot. Hoothoot flapped over to Pidgeot and stared deep into its eyes, and shortly Pidgeot fell asleep.
"Something tells me your Pidgeot doesn't like Skyarados." Falkner turned and looked up at Alcazzar's serious face.
"Skyarados?" Falkner asked, still shaken.
"You don't have them in these parts?" Alcazzar asked in surprise. "They are the final evolution of Magikarp and the terrors of the skies back where I come from. I raised this one from a Magikarp, so it is pretty tame." Skyarados settled next to him, the earth shuddering slightly around it, and dipped its head towards him in apology. Alcazzar tickled it behind one headfin with a smile, and it cheered up. "However, it retains the hot temper its species is famous for. It is a terrible name I know, 'Skyarados', but it is a flying Gyarados and apparently its cry sounds like 'Skyarrr' although I can't say I've ever noticed that much of a similarity." Alcazzar turned towards Falkner. "So why was your Pidgeot so angry?" Falkner explained about his grandfather, and Alcazzar's expression mellowed in sorrow. "I see." He turned towards Skyarados. "I think it'd be best if you fly off by yourself until things have settled down." Skyarados took off and quickly faded from view. When Alcazzar turned back to Falkner, the Gym Leader was shocked by the pained expression that flashed across his face. "My parents went missing and my sisters and grandmother ended up stranded in a faraway land because the craft we were on was driven into Rayquaza's altitude territory by attacking Skyarados. It attacked us and the Skyarados, and in the ensuing fight the craft was damaged. My parents fell from it and were never seen again, my brother and I were washed up on the beach of Whirlport city."
"And that is in Kherem. Which is where you are from." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes." Alcazzar replied in resignation.
"How did you get out of there?"
"I hitchhiked."
"What?" Falkner asked in astonishment. Alcazzar sighed.
"Legendary Pokemon have the power to travel between Kherem and the outside world. Other Pokemon can't, not even through teleportation. So we found a Mew."
"A Mew?" Falkner repeated in disbelief.
"Yes. My family has always been linked to the Pokemon legends, and so I found a ruin at the top of The Ancestor, a mountain near Whirlport city, where Mew appear momentarily once every fifty years or so. I went up there with my cart and Abra, and brought offerings to Mew. When it appeared and teleported away, we sort of hitchhiked on the teleportation using Abra's own Teleport, and ended up in New Bark Town."
"That is amazing." said Falkner. Alcazzar laughed in embarrassment.
"Shouldn't we get on with training?" Alcazzar asked. Falkner nodded.
Falkner and his students were doing their usual training regimes, such as practice battles and move polishing. Every so often they would glance over at Alcazzar. He was a blur of motion, running back and forth between his different Pokemon. "Cannoose use Dark Pulse! Psywanic and Phroobat, Psychic! Hyraptor use Thunder Fang, Knightorus use Close Combat!" and other commands. He would also occasionally stop and frown over at Falkner and the student's Pokemon. At one point he walked over to Falkner, whose Pidgeot had since woken up and was battling a student's Murkrow. "Excuse me, but what moves can your Pidgeot use?" Alcazzar asked.
"Quick Attack, Wing Attack, Agility and Whirlwind. Why?" Falkner responded.
"I thought so. Your only ranged attack is Whirlwind, and that doesn't even cause damage." he beckoned to one of his Pokemon. "Storkoll, over here." It was about Falkner's height, mostly white feathered but with cream coloured hips, long black legs with red feet and yellow talons. The top edge of its wings were also red, as was the areas around its eyes. Its beak was golden, thin and downwards-hooked, its wings were striped white and black and it had a black stripe running over its head from its beak to the back of its neck. The oddest thing about it was that it was covered in pipes - golden pipes stretched back from its beak under its eyes and ended behind its head, and two silver pipes stretched around the top of its neck under its head just below the golden pipes. Two brassy pipes like trumpet barrels curved from beneath these and faced in the same direction as its head. It had short white chimney-like pipes running down its back and its tailfeathers were two curved brass pipes with a silver one between them. "Meet Storkoll, my Fire-Flying type." Alcazzar introduced. Steam huffed from its numerous pipes. "Don't be like that." Alcazzar scolded, and the steam stopped. Falkner's Pidgeot, having defeated the Murkrow, now landed next to him and looked at Storkoll curiously. "Watch this, Pidgeot." Alcazzar said. "Storkoll, Heat Wave!" Storkoll opened its beak and an orange glow began to coalesce in it. Steam billowed from its pipes as it released the attack, and a scorching orange haze was fired from its two forward-facing pipes and its beak. The grass in a line in front of Storkoll turned to ash and was blown away by the Heat Wave. Alcazzar turned to Falkner. "I reckon your Pidgeot could learn that move. At the moment all of your attacks are direct attacks, and none of them will do much against many opponents, like Steel types or Ice types." Falkner looked at Pidgeot, and they both nodded. He looked back at Alcazzar with a slight scowl.
"Which of us is the apprentice?" Falkner asked, and Alcazzar smiled. Then he looked around the clearing with a frown again.
"What do you really want to be?" he asked. Falkner looked up at him in confusion. "Do you want to be a Flying Pokemon Master?" he clarified.
"Of course."
"I'm not so sure." Falkner glared at Alcazzar.
"What makes you say that?" he asked, keeping his anger in check.
"All you and your students have are Bird Pokemon." Alcazzar explained. "There are many other Flying types - look over there." he pointed over to where his two Gliscor and his two Ninjask were battling. "Just something to think about." They continued their training for a couple of hours, with Pidgeot trying to focus its energy while using Whirlwind under Storkoll's tutelage. Falkner kept mulling the question Alcazzar had posed over in his mind. He turned when he heard cursing and saw that Alcazzar was trying to get the top off one of the barrels he had brought. He finally succeeded and poured Pokemon food onto a blanket he had spread on the ground. "Break time!" he called, and his Pokemon flew over to it and started eating as he struggled with another barrel. He gave up and just hefted the metal barrel towards Skarsenal like a Caber tosser throwing a log. It snapped it up happily. "I made plenty, so you can have some too!" he called over to Falkner and the students, who wandered over with their Pokemon. Alcazzar gave up on trying to open the remaining barrels, and whistled loudly. Shortly afterwards Creekin came out of the woods followed by a small round blue Pokemon with green leaves sprouting from its head and tiny blue feet. Creekin easily emptied the remaining barrels onto the pile. "I made it especially for Flying types." Alcazzar explained, and the Pokemon certainly seemed to be enjoying it. He looked over at the Pokemon that had followed Creekin. "Well hello there. You must be an Oddish!" Alcazzar exclaimed. He rummaged in one pocket and brought out a few pellets of Pokemon food. "Here is some Grass-type food for you!" he said, offering it to Oddish who curiously nibbled one before exclaiming in happiness and hurriedly eating the rest. "I always have some on-hand for Creekin." Alcazzar explained to Falkner. Creekin headed back to the forest while Oddish stayed near Alcazzar.
They continued like that for the rest of the week, with Alcazzar making the food for both people and Pokemon. Every day they would head out to the clearing, and Oddish would come dashing out of the woods to find Alcazzar. Pidgeot began to get the hang of Heat Wave, and Falkner kept puzzling over Alcazzar's question. They often talked, but avoided Alcazzar's origin as a conversation topic. At one point, their discussion turned to interesting Trainers.
"The challenger before you was certainly an intriguing one." Falkner said. They were having pudding, which was Chocolate Cake with the last of the Snoverberry Ice Cream.
"Really?" Alcazzar responded, clutching his head from brain-freeze.
"Yes. Ash he was called, from somewhere in Kanto. He had an impressive Pikachu and Charizard. They appeared to gain strength simply from his encouragement."
"Interesting." Alcazzar agreed. "Ash. Ash. I think I've heard that name..." He suddenly rushed out of the room and returned shortly afterwards with a massive but worn book. He opened it in his lap and rummaged through the pages. "This is a collection of Pokemon legends, and an heirloom of my family." Alcazzar explained, and one hand came up to fiddle with the baubles in his hair. "Let's see, Musketeers, Lake Guardians, Regis, ah! here it is! Shamouti Island!" he moved his bowl out of the way and plonked the book down in its place, his finger running across the page. "The prophecy of Shamouti Island: Disturb not the harmony of Fire, Ice, or Lightning, lest these Titans wreak destruction Upon the world in which they clash, though the Water's Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail thus the earth shall turn to Ash." he read aloud, before looking up at Falkner. "That is the first verse of the prophecy, and I'm sure that the 'chosen one' in the second verse is linked to this Ash. See," he said, turning the book towards Falkner, "Ash starts in a capital letter, therefore I'm sure it is a person, item or place rather than what it seems. Falkner looked at the old, crinkled page, and saw numerous annotations, some so old as to be nearly faded and some new. One of the newest was a connector between the words 'Ash' and 'Chosen One'. The older ones contained speculations about the identities of the other figures in the text, and looked like some kind of generations-long argument.
"I heard about something which happened over in the Orange Islands." Falkner said after a while. "Apparently someone was trying to capture the legendary Pokemon Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno, and they started fighting and were stopped by some kids and a Lugia."
"I KNEW IT!" Alcazzar yelled, and Falkner nearly fell off his seat. "I knew it meant Lugia and the Legendary Birds! Just wait 'till my Grandfather hears about this-" he said, before sobering.
"If you ever get home." Falkner finished. He yawned - it had been a tiring day. "Anyway, I doubt that has anything to do with Ash, though he was an interesting boy. I'm off to bed. We're going to be cleaning the Gym tomorrow."
"Sounds good. It'll be my last day here." Alcazzar said, and began stacking the plates to wash up.
It was noon the next day, and Alcazzar was hanging upside-down from a beam trying to keep his hat on with one hand and dust with the other. He lost his grip and fell headfirst into a bucket of water. Creekin sighed and went back to cleaning, while several of the students sniggered. Alcazzar got to his feet and picked his hat up from where it had fallen, taking the bucket off his head, shaking his hair and putting his hat back on. Above them, Storkoll and Pidgeot used Heat Wave to meld two broken sections of pipe back together.
"Your Pidgeot has really mastered Heat Wave." Alcazzar congratulated Falkner. Just then, a small blue bullet cannoned into Alcazzar and knocked him over into another stack of water buckets. He stared in amazement at the Oddish sitting angrily on his chest. Falkner laughed.
"I guess Oddish missed you." Falkner said. Alcazzar laughed and gave Oddish some Pokemon food.
"Do you want to come with me Oddish?" Alcazzar asked, and the Oddish jumped up and down happily. Alcazzar went over to his cart and picked up a Pokeball, dropping another in the process. Oddish skipped over to it happily. "No wait Oddish don't!" Alcazzar called, but it was too late. Oddish had been caught.
"What's wrong?" Falkner asked as Alcazzar picked up the ball. He held it out to Falkner, who saw it was one of the ones with a shard of grey stone embedded in it.
"What is that?"
"This is an Everball." Alcazzar answered. "That shard is an everstone, which means that the Pokemon caught in this ball won't evolve."
"Ah." Falkner said, understanding. "So it will be an Oddish for as long as you have it."
"Exactly. I wonder if it wanted to evolve." Alcazzar mused, and Falkner was reminded of Alcazzar's question. "What do you really want to be?" he had asked. Falkner had puzzled over that question for a week, and had finally made a decision.
"Alcazzar, you remember the question you asked me?"
"Of course." Alcazzar replied, not surprised in the least.
"I've decided that I want to become a Flying Pokemon master, not just a Bird Pokemon master. Bird Pokemon will always be my favourites, but I realised I need to accept that other kinds of Flying types are just as good."
"Excellent." Alcazzar said.
It was later that day, and Alcazzar was preparing to leave. He stood by his cart outside the doors of the Gym. The students were sorry to see him go, and wished him luck on his journey. Falkner stepped forward and held out a hand. In it, something silver gleamed.
"Forget this?" Falkner said, giving it to Alcazzar. It was a small badge shaped like a pair of wings. "The Zephyr badge." Falkner said.
"Thank you." Alcazzar said, and lifted something shrouded from his cart. He removed the cloth and Falkner saw it was a greyish-blue Pokemon egg in a glass case with a gold-coloured base and tip, with a Pokeball on top. "This is for you."
"There is really no need-" Falkner began, but Alcazzar pushed it into his hands.
"I insist." he said. "Is it not a tradition for the student to give his master a gift at the end of his apprenticeship?"
"You and I both know that I was the apprentice here." Falkner snapped, then softened. "But thank you." Alcazzar smiled, tipped his hat, and departed. In the gold base of the Gligar Egg he had given Falkner, in a compartment that would only open when the egg hatched, was a Razor Fang and an inscription saying "Not all that flies has feathers."