As Ash put the Pokeball containing Psyduck away, the third phone began ringing.
"An unknown number," Ash said and picked up the receiver anyway.
The screen flitted to show a man with silver hair who sort of reminded Ash of Steven except that his eyes were a deep blue and he seemed to have some sort of medieval armor on. In the background, there was a room barely visible with some papers scattered around.
"Um, who are you?" Ash asked.
"So you're the child," the man said. "I am Wade, the Fifth Gym Leader, and wielder of the Torrential Badge."
"Huh?" Duke Hamnet said and once again began craning his neck before realizing that it was futile.
"Right, conference call," Ash said while punching in the right buttons. "So, uh, Mr. Wade, what brings you to call me? After all this time, you know… " Ash trailed off as this was sort of sudden. Not to mention Ash had imagined Wade as being like a surfer dude and couldn't figure out why he was wearing armor- because that couldn't have been comfortable.
Wade squinted. "I didn't think it was necessary. And I certainly had nothing to say- I had assumed that Selena would be efficient enough at getting rid of you."
"Uh…" Ash said. "Does this mean that, well, you didn't bring me here?"
"NO!" Wade shouted and banged his fist on the table. "I am tired of saying it over and over again!"
"And the Pokedex?" Ash asked. "You had nothing to do with that either?"
"What's a Pokedex?" Wade asked.
"Never mind," Ash said. "So, then, uh, why'd you call anyway?"
Wade leaned closer to the camera. "I can only assume that with Linnea defeated that you now want to come to my domain?"
"Not really," Ash admitted. "I mean we have the food we need, and there's no real need for us to attack you."
Ash was telling the truth. With the immediate problem of getting some food gone, their next goal was to strike directly at His Majesty. Wade controlled most of the seas around Galea, but the portion that surrounded the Eighth Gym Leader's territory belonged to Selena, and to get to her, they had to get through a narrow strip of territory that belonged to Vanessa, the Sixth Gym Leader.
In the whole plan, there was no reason to go through Wade's domain. As a matter of fact, attacking Wade would be a waste of time since it wouldn't help them accomplish anything with getting to His Majesty, who was the one who knew what had happened and had spearheaded the Gym Leaders in a battle against the Elite Four.
Ash explained all of that, and added, "So you see, there's really no reason for us to fight, even if you weren't the one who sent me here."
"That's where you're wrong!" Wade said. "You are a menace to all of us, child. By your selfish actions, you've broken the peace that we've kept for so long and unraveling the barrier so that you can go home is going to end up killing us all!"
Ash rolled his eyes. "Everyone says that. But no one says why or how. I was hoping His Majesty or whoever would tell me, but all I got was a napkin with the word 'Detist' written on it."
"Desist," Mr. Jennings corrected and then Wade said, "Sounds just like that guy."
"And what do you mean by peace?" Ash asked. "Linnea just wiped out several hundred thousand people!"
"Accidents happen," Wade said.
"Several hundred thousand people!" Ash repeated.
"Which wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for your interference," Wade said.
"Well, you're talking as if everything was perfect before I came along!" Ash said. Duke Hamnet, Mr. Jennings, and Gulliver all nodded. "I've seen what you guys did to your subjects."
"I… do admit that my, ahem, colleagues did some rather reprehensible things, but it was all for the greater good, I assure you," Wade said. "And it matters not if you won't come to strike at me! Then I will simply hunt you down!"
His entire demeanor changed from slightly antagonistic to full-blown terrifying in a matter of seconds.
It would have been quite the threat, if it weren't for the fact that Gulliver piped up and said, "Uh… Lord Wade, I think you've forgotten that you can't. Truce and all, right?"
Wade was dumbfounded. "I forgot about that!" He whispered to himself, "But there's a loophole… but then I'll have to ask Selena about it…"
He logged off.
"Well, that was almost as awkward as the message from His Majesty," Ash said after a period of silence. Not sure of what to do next, he decided to see what the Psyduck was like.
He released the Pokeball to reveal a typical Psyduck, which at once waddled over towards Gulliver.
"No there, lil' fella. You're Sir Ash's Pokemon now," Gulliver said and pointed to Ash.
The Psyduck turned its head and continued staying near Gulliver.
"Uh, sorry 'bout this," Gulliver said. "I actually think it kind of likes me. I didn't even have to battle it, it just came with me quietly. Now go on, now, shoo."
The Psyduck got more and more agitated and then started crying.
"Okay, that's enough now," Ash said. "Uh, Gulliver, thanks for all the effort and all, but if it wants to be with you, then it should be."
"Um, but the thing is I pretty much caught all of the Pokemon by friendin' 'em," Gulliver admitted.
"Well I guess you can open up an aquarium then," Ash said. "Like really, it's great that you did all of that, but I guess I'll just look for another Water type."
"Okay," Gulliver said after he had pacified his Psyduck.
"So, about our expansion," Ash said, "I mean, I know we've just barely finished off Linnea, but don't we need to keep moving though? I, um, don't want to be stuck here forever." Ash hoped the last sentence didn't sound too obnoxious or rude, it wasn't that he hated Galea, in a way it seemed to be like the other regions he had visited, albeit pretty messed up along with that. And he kept wondering when he'd finally get home.
"We can move on to Vanessa, but the thing is," Duke Hament said, "Well, she's a bit of an oddity. She's not a skilled fighter like Wade. I've never personally met her though, but based on the rumors I've heard she's kind of-"
"Like Freyja," Mr. Jennings said.
"Ugh," Ash groaned and slumped in his chair at the very thought. 'Ugh' pretty much summed up his feelings very accurately.
"Well, Lady Freyja hated her though," Duke Hamnet said. "All I've personally heard is that she's eccentric, a pathetic battler, and she seems to scorn talking the other Gym Leaders as much as His Majesty."
"And let me guess," Ash said. "She has some sort of special rule that she'll abuse that will make beating her pretty much impossible?"
"Her special rule is that if you want to fight her," Duke Hamnet said. "She can choose to face you either in a Pokemon Battle or in a Pokemon Contest. And she is a terrific Trainer at Pokemon Contests."
"Oh," Ash said. He had, once in a blue moon, tried his hands at Pokemon Contests, but he hadn't gotten very far. "Ah- that's going to be a problem."
"Pokemon Contests work a bit differently here in Galea," Gulliver said. "I think you told me 'bout them once, and there are some new things. No one really cares about them much besides from battling."
"True," Duke Hamnet said. "But I heard they originated in the same region that Vanessa rules long ago."
"So I'll need to start practicing for that," Ash said.
"So, James, tell me again, why have we been wandering around in the skies for the last four hours?" Jessie asked.
"Well then Jessie, we've lost sight of the twerp and his Pikachu for quite some time," James said. "And there are rumors on the street that he's somehow gone missing, which means of course that all of his other Pokemon are undefended and up for the grabbing."
"Meowth, that's right," Meowth said, cleaning his teeth with his claws as he spoke. "But what's up with all the radio equipment?"
"Oh, I was looking for some clues," James said while wearing a Sherlock Holmes getup and taking a puff from a fake pipe. "And apparently a Team Rocket satellite interrupted a broadcast from Professor Sycamore. The admin in charge dismissed it as being useless-"
"Of course they did," Jessie snorted. "No one but idiots are sent into that division."
"-But I went combing through them for some more intel and noticed something… very interesting," James said. He then played the radio conversations.
"It looks like they're talking about some magical place?" Jessie asked.
"Galea," James said. "And that is of course, where it sparked my imagination. Think for yourselves, Team Rocket is known throughout the world, but not in this land. We could establish a new base… and a whole new region to plunder!"
"It sounds like crackpot to me though," Meowth said. "And why exactly did they send out a nursery rhyme in the first place?"
"I did manage to deduce that it could be a trick," James said. "But then I realized that a personality as renowned as Professor Sycamore couldn't possibly be making something that big up. And so, I managed to get the records on the Lumiose City Gym and its blueprints, which is where they were broadcasting initially. All we have to do is sneak in, and then plant a bug plus maybe snoop around to see what we can find. Then we can get back to stealing Ash's Pokemon."
"Why not keep intercepting what they do using our satellites?" Jessie asked.
"Well, Clemont seems to have done something with the Gym's wiring lately and it's messing with trying to track anything in the area," James explained. "however, sadly, this plan will involve-"
"Don't say it," Jessie muttered under her breath.
"-going under the sewage system!" James said.
"Oh no," Jessie groaned. She had just gotten her hair done.
"So, Clemont, are you sure that it should work better this time?" Professor Sycamore asked.
"Sure, Professor," Clemont said. "I talked with Bill from Kanto and Lanette from Hoenn, this next machine combines the same technology we used to send those messages and the Pokeball matter-to-energy conversion technology. I just might maybe be able to send something there. I want to try something like a rock first, but the big problem is that we'll have no clue if what we sent ended up there or on the dark side of the moon."
"So, it's still like a one-way window?" Sycamore asked.
"Pretty much," Clemont answered. "But it took a lot of time to get the whole thing to work, Professor, and I had to pretty much reroute half the Gym's circuitry. It means half of my stuff isn't working too…"
"Don't worry, this should only be a few days," Sycamore said.
"But the problem is, we haven't, in any way, gotten any closer to figuring a way to get Ash out of this place," Clemont said.
"One step at a time, Clemont. One step at a time."
A/N: Thank you for all of your reviews last time.
First up, as you can see, Ash doesn't have a Water Pokemon. I'm okay with importing his Greninja for now, but I should point out that I won't be doing his Charizard or Sceptile just yet. Thing is that a part of this was to be a challenge, and if Ash suddenly had all his strongest Pokemon (Charizard took on an Articuno once) it would kind of take that away. But... that might change as his battles get tougher.
Secondly, I should just say that I did not think of Vanessa's special rule just so that I could get someone who was good at Contests in Galea for convenience to the plot. While thinking up of special rules for the Gym Leaders, I just knew that one had to be that you'd have to play a Contest against them. After all, they don't get much importance in the video games.
Before saying who's going to come to Galea, I should probably point out DaniJIE mentioned romance wasn't necessary to this story, and I do kind of agree. I mean, it wouldn't be bad to have a bit of romance and I wouldn't mind writing some, but the main focus of the story will still be on Ash Ketchum and the Gym Leaders.
Brock seemed like a natural choice simply because he's almost always there for Ash. With Vanessa, it does seem to be good that someone should come in who knows a bit about Contests. Dawn and May I decided against since they seem to pair better with other characters and I just kind of didn't really want to write them in.
Now, problem with Serena is that mainly I have very little idea on how I would write her as I haven't seen the anime much past Diamond and Pearl. Reason for Serena is that while she isn't the only one with affection for Ash (as DaniJIE astutely pointed that out, but those other characters like Angie aren't all that memorable as they were only there for one episode) and she's been there for a season.
As for Misty, yeah, the original trio was great, but from what I understand among everyone it seems to be Serena who would care the most (being Ash's childhood friend, and yes, while their feelings are slightly one-sided, that's probably all we can expect from Ash anyway) and would probably be searching frantically. The others seem to have mostly moved on with their lives and gone on their separate paths. Though I should note that I don't really feel that much one way or another about shippings, and as I've mentioned before, while there might be some changes depending on who the character I bring in is, it won't change the basic underlying story or how the plot commences very much.
Sorry that this chapter was a bit short, I wanted to be sure about who I was bringing in order to write the next one. To answer Skitty4 (thanks for all those reviews by the way) Ash's friends are going to be coming in pretty soon... like next chapter to be exact.
As such, I'd think it would be cool if you guys would vote between Serena and Misty on reviews.
And finally, thanks Julie Togepi, DaniJIE, and Skitty4 for all your reviews!
