A/N: Julie Togepi, no, Shedninja is a Pokemon that exists. It evolves from Nincada when you get a Ninjask if you have an empty space in your part and an empty Pokeball. It has only one hit point though, and a special ability called Wonder Guard (I'll explain in the fanfic also). It isn't that well-known though, it took me several years before I looked up how to get one.

"And in short, the food's gone, sir, and we can't seem to do anything about it sir," Mr. Jennings said. He had recovered well enough to function, though he was barred from doing any strenuous activities and had to rest fourteen hours a day. He had been summoned to Cinnamon City, where Ash had set up his headquarters.

The week following Thomdolt's defeat had been busy. First of all, Ash was left to deal with the pollution everywhere, and to his dismay he found that even with both of his Badges, the pollution's damage seemed to be almost permanent in some areas. Worse yet, a mysterious fire had broken out and taken out most of their food supplies. This, coupled with the fact that the soil was not fit for farming even if Thomdolt hadn't been pouring in poison in it for decades, meant that the food reserves in Thomdolt's territory had run out fast.

And unfortunately, this meant that they had to be imported from the regions which had been formerly under Marley's control, stretching their food supplies thinner than before. All in all, they were in a worse state regarding their ability to feed their subjects from before.

Ash had hoped that having Thomdolt's domain meant that the other Gym Leaders would have to buy stuff from him, but they all seemed to have stocked up on stuff they would need long ago, and while they would eventually need supplies, it would be long after Ash's people had nothing to munch on.

"Then what should we do about the letter?" Ash asked.

Once Ash had won, the other representatives of the other Gym Leaders who had come to negotiate with Thomdolt regarding prices had immediately fled across the border. All of them, except for one. He was a young man who was decidedly nervous that Ash might incinerate him, since Ash wasn't bound by the treaty that forbade the Gym Leaders from attacking each other's messengers without provocation, but he seemed quite relieved when Ash let him go across the border after he handed Ash a letter.

To Sir Ash,

I ordered my servant to give this to you in case you defeated Thomdolt. Now that you have been victorious, I know that you must now have designs on my territory as well. I say that we therefore, accept the inevitable that the two of us will have to fight it out. As such, I have decided to invite you to my villa for dinner, and after that, we can have our battle. My villa is located not far from the border; it is only about half an hour away. We can meet on May 6th, two weeks from now. You can bring a few of your officers if you want, but I do request that you not bring too many- while my food stores are abundant, they cannot feed a small army.

Signed,

Freyja, The Third Gym Leader

Beneath this there was a small prismatic seal that looked like a small doughnut.

"Is it even real?" Ash asked.

"The seal is that of a Gym Badge," Mr. Jennings answered. "And the Badge's shape does match that of what I've heard Freyja's Badge is supposed to look like."

Ash rubbed the seal with his finger, and he felt a strange vibrating sense, and it caused his own Gym Badges to twitch.

"Okay, so if it's real, it is a trap, right?" Ash asked. "Why has she gone and invited me instead of staying away like Marley and Thomdolt did? Or is she really, really, strong?"

"As far as I remember," Mr. Jennings said, "she only won her Gym Badge because of her Shedninja."

"I faced one," Ash said. "What's so special about it?"

"It possesses an ability called Wonder Guard, sir," Mr. Jennings said. "Basically, Shedninja is a very fragile Pokemon; a single hit is enough to topple it. But, Wonder Guard protects it from all attacks that are not super effective against it. As it is a Bug and Ghost type, only attacks that are Rock, Flying, Fire, Dark, etc. are going to defeat it. If you don't have one of those attacks, then you are doomed against a Shedninja."

Everything made sense to Ash. "Then why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I apologize, sir, for my error, but I did not know that Thomdolt would have one," Mr. Jennings said. "Shedninja are quite rare, and I did not know that Lady Freyja had gifted one to him. And there were other things to try and teach you, and an esoteric Pokemon that you'd probably never meet was not at the forefront of my mind."

"When I tried using my Pokedex during the battle, it didn't work," Ash said. "Why?"

"Oh," Mr. Jennings said, "I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier sir, but using your Pokedex in a Gym Battle would no doubt count as cheating."

"I've used it in battles before," Ash said.

"Perhaps, but the rules are different here," Mr. Jennings said. "So you cannot rely on your Pokedex while fighting the Gym Leaders."

"Okay, so what do we do about the invite?" Ash asked. "It has to be some sort of trap, but it seems like the easiest way to get in her domain."

"Hmm, true," Mr. Jennings said. "The thing is, from all the rumors I've heard, Lady Freyja has been characterized as a sort of, well, dunce as well as quite eccentric. Though it cannot hurt to be careful."

"I'll need Pokemon for combating Shedninja then," Ash said. "I have Fearow and Gastly already."

"You can borrow my Arcanine then," Mr. Jennings said. When he saw that Ash was about to protest, he added, "I can't really battle now, and you don't have a Fire type. Plus, it will be good against a Shedninja."

With that matter for the while decided, they next moved on to trying to supply enough food for everyone. Ash decided to use his Badges to their full extent, went outside the city, and tried to grow crops using them.

It worked. Sort of. Growing things that normally took several months to grow was hard, and several hours later, he had enough to feed Cinnamon City for three days.

In other words, doing that was out of the question for a long time.

Mr. Jennings was privately actually thankful that so many Pokemon had died due to the pollution, which meant fewer mouths to feed, but he also felt disgusted with himself for thinking so, and also remembered that this meant that the bodies were so poisoned as to not be edible.

So, they improvised. They started chopping down trees in Marley's old domain to make room for some more farmland, though they had to be careful not to do so much as to hurt the Pokemon. They brought in Combee hives around Cinnamon City and began harvesting them for honey.

They also tried contacting Wade, the Fifth Gym Leader, hoping that if he was really the one who had sent Ash there, he might also know a way for Ash to go back, or maybe just trade some goods for some seafood. But, no replies came to any of their messages.

There was no point being roundabout it. The only thing left to be done was to continue their conquest.

They did find something rather interesting in the place where the envoys from Selena had been staying. They had been in quite a hurry to leave, and had forgotten some papers.

"Why did they all run away?" Ash asked.

"Propaganda, you know, they think that you're like some sort of cruel barbarian," Mr. Jennings said. "Hmmm, these papers are regarding a business transactions made for siege machines."

"Who is she planning on attacking?" Ash asked. "I mean, the obvious answer is us, but she can't, right?"

"That's the mystery," Mr. Jennings said. "It's odd, she also has ordered several parts for ships designed for naval warfare. Could she be going up against Wade? No- that too would be against the treaty. I don't trust that woman and her schemes though, no doubt somewhere she's still plotting against us."


With Thomdolt gone, Selena and Linnea were discussing terms regarding what they should do next on the phone.

"Freyja's the only thing standing in between the pretender and my realm," Linnea muttered.

"Yes, but now that child has to feed double the people with almost the same amount of food," Selena said. "And he will soon realize that regardless of how terrible Marley or Thomdolt were, they could always keep the peasants fed. Once hunger starts to strike everywhere, it will weaken his rule as riots break out."

"You're forgetting that if he takes my territory from me," Linnea said, "then he will reverse this entire scenario on its head and it will be your people who will starve."

"My reserves will last for several years, thank you very much," Selena said. "And I think Vanessa will be able to help me tide over a bit should that come to pass."

"So what is Freyja planning?" Linnea asked. "Has she sealed off her domain?"

"I have bad news on that front," Selena said. "She has instead invited the pretender to come to her domain and actually fight him." She held up a copy of the letter that Ash had received. "Fool. She thought a written letter would mean that I wouldn't be able to get my hands on the message."

Linnea's jaw actually dropped. When she found her voice she said, "Is that total idiot really serious? She's going to challenge him head-on? Does she somehow have Thomdolt's venom?"

"Well, he didn't give it to me, so I don't think he'd give it to her either," Selena said. "And she can't be dense enough to think that poisoning him would even work, he must have all of his meals tasted by now."

"Has she thought of some amazing battle strategy then? Have you lent her some Pokemon?" Linnea asked.

"No, and I can't contact her either," Selena muttered. "She won't pick up my calls."

"Then what's she thinking! That, that," Linnea stuttered, thinking of a correct word to describe her feelings for Freyja. "I need to make preparations to receive the pretender immediately."

"I still don't understand how she became Gym Leader in the first place," Selena said. "She hasn't the common sense to be a fisherman's wife, let alone one of us!"

"There's nothing left to do then but make preparations," Linnea said. "And what of His Majesty? An entire two domains have been lost, surely he must act now?"

Selena shook his head. "He is as unresponsive as ever. It's like trying to talk to a wall."

"And what of Wade?" Linnea suddenly asked. "He almost controls the entire ocean! That amount of fish could feed-"

"Wade is not doing anything," Selena said. "He hasn't replied to the pretender and is almost as unreachable as His Majesty. And I am beginning to doubt his guilt to some extent... he has not ceased stating that he had nothing to do with this Ash."

"Then who did it?' Linnea asked. "It must have been a Gym Leader, no?"

"True, but who is left?" Selena asked. "I might have doubted Freyja seeing that she seems to be currently almost handing over her Badge on a silver platter to him, but such a schemes is much beyond her. The only other likely candidate I can think of... is His Majesty, though I don't know why he would ever do something like that."

"His Majesty?" Linnea asked. 'I know you don't like him, but he seems more of the type to do nothing rather than something like this."

"Hmm..." Selena said. "We can only wonder."

A/N: I've noticed how in the anime, Ash usually takes out his Pokedex during battle... sometimes even during official Gym Battles and Pokemon League battles. It always struck me as strange that Ash could look up what his opponent's Pokemon were in the middle of a fight, I mean that's kind of like flipping through your textbook during the middle of an exam.