A/N: Thanks for the reviews. So, to answer all of your questions:
Ash will get his Charizard back. I'm not so sure about giving him back all of those Pokemon given that there are too many, and that I actually want him to use the Pokemon that he's gotten in this fanfic.
As for Bonnie and Squishy, I'll have to do some research on them for who they are first.
I'm not sure what's meant by the Pokemon that likes surprises thing. Also, though the Champions will be coming, don't worry- Ash is still the main character here. He'll be the one doing most of the important stuff and won't be taking a backseat.
"What d'ya mean, she's the Elite Four Champion?" Gulliver asked, bewildered. "How's that possible?"
"She is not the current one," Wade said. "Again, she is the first one… the one who united Galea together three thousand years ago and the same one that tried to invade Kalos unsuccessfully twice."
"That's not possible!" Celera sputtered out after several moments of silence. "If she was the Elite Four Champion, why did she stay around as a Gym Leader? I thought that wasn't allowed!"
"She was the very first Elite Four Champion," Wade said. "And as I understand it, she is not bound by the same rules that the others are. Now, if you are wondering on the why instead of the how, well, I would have no idea as to why she wanted to stick around as a lowly Gym Leader, but she did. And that is what we have to inform Sir Ash about. He cannot go and hope to defeat her." He then turned far angrier. "And why did everyone here think it was a good idea to let our commander-in-chief leave the country while this crisis is going on?"
"He's going to come back with reinforcements," Misty said. "And hey- if Selena really is as powerful a you say she is, well then Lance, Cynthia, or any of the other Elite Four Champions should be able to take her down."
"Now that is even worse than just leaving," Wade said. "He is going to bring foreigners? Here? Into Galea?" Duke Hamnet, Celera, and Gulliver seemed to agree with the general sentiment of that sentence.
"What's so bad about foreigners?" Brock asked, slightly defensively.
Wade seemed to have realized what he was saying and so quickly changed his tone. "I do not of course, mean to insult you, Brock, Misty, or Sir Ash for that matter. It is just that we, as Galeans, are used to a certain quality or tradition of life, if you will please. An influx of… immigrants, no matter how well-intentioned would serve to throw our life off of balance. Not to mention that our people are already frightened- if they see that there are suddenly huge numbers of foreigners appearing, what would happen? Thee would be mass panic."
"Maybe you should make a giant wall around Galea to keep the immigrants out," Misty said sarcastically.
This was probably lost though on Wade, who replied, "We already have a wall, a spatial-temporal one, to be precise. Now, we need to call Sir Ash back. If none of you wish to talk to him, then I will go myself." He released his Gyarados into the ocean again.
"You probably won't get to him in time," Brock said.
"I have to try," Wade said.
"I have one question though," Misty said.
"Forgive me, but I am assuming that all of you must have several," Wade said as he climbed his Gyarados. "But they must wait for now. I have to move with all haste towards Sir Ash."
"But who's His Majesty, I mean, the Eighth Gym Leader then?" Misty asked. "If Selena is the Elite Four Champion?"
"He is the current Champion of the Elite Four," Wade said. "I myself am not sure on what happened, but he managed to somehow topple Selena using some sort of loophole and has reigned as Champion ever since- though that is a fact that is hidden from the rest of the world. No doubt that Selena is extremely bitter over it and that explains, to an extent, her ire of having someone like him lording over her."
With that, Wade left, his Gyarados moving at breakneck speed as the sun now finally set and left its place in the sky so that the stars could take its place.
Ash saw the starry sky reflected in the water below.
No wait, he told himself. That was impossible. The stars were never reflected into the water.
And that was when he realized just what it was that he was looking at- a school of Lanturn which were floating around and casting light which was coming from beneath the sea, and not above it.
It was so quiet around, and Ash was so alone. He hadn't seen anything or anyone around for miles, and he was traveling way further than he had the last time he had tried to get into Selena's domain. Come to think of it, if the barrier she had made to protect herself was gone, that meant that Ash could sneak in.
But he thought better of the idea, at least for now. For now he was going to stick to his original plan and find a way out of this place. But he did make a mental note to maybe sneak aboard there on his way back.
Looking at the Lanturn made him realize something though- these Pokemon probably had sleep-wake cycles just like all other creatures. And with the sun frozen in the middle of the sky for so long, it must have been really aggravating to them to have their lives ruined like that as night never came for so long. They didn't attack him though, and his Pikachu didn't seem to mind them either and eagerly waved at them.
His Greninja seemed to be fine, even though it wasn't a salt water Pokemon.
After what felt like an eternity, Ash found a point where the stars above seemed to suddenly fuse with the sea below as the two of them met.
Ash felt for his Badges- he had felt far much better since he had given one of them away. Now, he just needed to make a small hole through the Barrier… that is what he thought, when he realized that it was completely unnecessary.
With all the Badges at his disposal, he could actually feel the Barrier and managed to detect that there was already a weak point through which he could and his Greninja could easily slip through.
The only problem was that it was fifty feet above the ground, so he sent out his Fearow and withdrew his Greninja for the time being. It was a bit tricky managing both of them at the same time and he got his shoes wet, but that didn't bother him too much.
As he and his Fearow approached the flaw in the Barrier, Ash braced himself. He was expecting some sort of reaction from the Badges- that they would suddenly give him a splitting migraine or incapacitate him to prevent him from leaving Galea. They seemed to react oddly whenever he wandered into a region that he didn't control since they probably didn't want to leave.
But nothing like that happened, but as Ash went headfirst into the hole, he emerged into a world of total darkness.
There was nothing there. Nothing at all. And Ash and his Fearow were somehow suspended between the two places, so that Ash's head was in the void and the rest of his body was outside.
It was an extremely weird and uncomfortable situation- there was literally nothing there where Ash was, he tried breathing and surprisingly didn't pull any air inside. Okay… that meant that he should have been asphyxiating, but he wasn't.
His Fearow was wailing- it was probably even more disturbed by the whole thing than he was.
"Shh, shh, it's alright Fearow," Ash said while stroking Fearow's neck- with part of his arm here and part of it back in Galea. "This is weird, really, but I don't think that it is anything bad. We'll get through this."
"Pi pika pii pika," Pikachu said.
Fearow calmed down a bit and they entered the place fully. The only light that was there was from Ash's Gym Badges, and there was no window or light coming from where they had entered it.
Somehow they were able to talk and breathe, so that told Ash that this might be something intentionally designed.
Fearow was flying as usual, but the thing was that with there being no wind, there was no way for them to tell if they were still moving or where they were moving.
After what seemed like an hour or so, Ash got fed up of essentially just floating around and pulled out his Badges to see if they'd work somehow.
As he touched one of them, he felt himself suddenly being lurched forward though and there was a tunnel of light in front of him.
Before that though, there was an instant where he felt the Badges flare up . And it was during that second that he saw something, a huge white creature with dark orange eyes watching him.
The creature glared at him. It seemed to examine every single inch of his being, and time seemed to have completely stopped while it was doing it. The Badges seemed to respond to it, and Ash felt as if there were a force sucking him backward.
And then he was outside. The creature, whatever it had been, was gone now.
The sun shone brightly, showing that it was the morning wherever he was.
He looked around, there was no Barrier visible, so was he outside?
It was as he was thinking this that he heard a voice from above.
"Ash!" it called out.
Ash turned his head upwards to see a Charizard… and not any Charizard, his Charizard. And on its back was Clemont!
"We finally found you!" Clemont screamed. He was actually crying at this pont. "Aww, Ash, you don't know ho much everyone's been lookin' for ya. You won't believe everything that happened.
"They're back in Galea," Ash said.
"Galea?" Clemont asked.
"Yeah, weren't you the one who sent Brock and Misty towards Galea with that machine of yours?" Ash asked.
"Wait- Galea is real?" Clemont asked. "As in, you've been there?"
"More than been there, I've been living there for pretty much a year by now," Ash said.
"Huh, it's been about the same time here really," Clemont said.
"Really?" Ash asked. He had been hoping that there would be some sort of a time gap, that would mean that he would have more time to gather people to come to the other's aid as quickly as possible.
"So where are they?" Clemont asked suddenly. "You've seen Brock and Misty? They're not dead?"
"No, they're back in Galea," Ash said. He then looked at his Charizard and said, "Sorry for forgettin' 'bout you buddy. How've you been?"
His Charizard roared.
"Good to know that you're health as usual," Ash said. He then lost the smile he was wearing as he suddenly became serious. "Clemont, I'll have time to explain everything, but I only want to do it once. We need to get to the Pokemon League as fast as possible. There's something I have to tell them."
"Huh?" Clemont asked.
"Where's the nearest Pokemon League?" Ash asked. "Where are we exactly, by the way?"
"A bit off the coast of Kalos," Clemont said.
"Huh, I disappeared off the coast of Kanto," Ash said. "Well, I guess this is good. But how'd you know where to find me?"
"I didn't," Clemont said. "Charizard just took me to you. It seemed to know where to go. By the way, where'd you get a Fearow?"
"I caught one," Ash said. "But like I said before, there's no time to lose. We need to go and talk to someone, maybe Professor Sycamore as soon as possible. And also Professor Oak, Professor Elm, Professor Birch, and Professor Juniper."
"What? Why?" Clemont asked.
"Because," Ash said. "There's an emergency, Clemont. I don't know if you know this, but Galea's barrier is collapsing. We need to do something to prop it up. Else the whole world's gonna come to an end."
"What?" Clemont asked.
"Yeah, like I said, it's a long story," Ash said. "But there are invaders in Galea… well, I meant technically they're not invaders, there are other people in Galea invading Gale and all but, uh, let's talk on our way…"
They headed towards Professor Sycamore's lab and on the way Ash started filling Clemont in on everything. The whole story was huge and it was well over three hours before Ash was finished even though he had tried to compact it as much as possible.
"Whoa," Clemont said, shaking his head. "Wow, you've been really busy haven't you? Huh, so tell me Ash, do your Badges still work here?"
"I didn't bother to check," Ash said. If they didn't, he might as well have given the majority of them to Brock, Misty, and Celera or even Mr. Jennings and Duke Hamnet for all the good they'd do him. He touched one of them and felt a ripple of energy, but it was much fainter than before. "Yeah, I think they do." He then sighed out of relief- it would be much easier to convince people that what he was saying was the truth if he had the Badges and they were working.
"So, you want to bring an army into Galea?" Clemont asked.
"Yeah," Ash said. "A big one… with strong Trainers so we can fight off Selena and her minions. Can we take an army into Galea, Clemont?"
"I'll have to see," Clemont said. "My lab in Lumiose City was destroyed and I didn't really bother rebuilding it, but I think it might be possible to send some more people into Galea."
"Awesome," Ash said. He was relieved… a part of him had considered the whole idea to be really stupid as there was no guarantee that any of it would work or that he'd be able to take people, even if they wanted to help him, back into Galea. "But we'll need to get the people together, and soon."
"You're right about that," Clemont said. He was punching some numbers into what looked like a cross between a calculator and a toaster. "If we don't act soon, the Barrier holding Galea is going to fall apart. And when that happens, it's going to affect all of us. Not just the Galeans."
"Right," Ash said.
"The only problem is convincing everyone else," Clemont said. "I mean, it's all well and good that we know this, but no one really believes me. I've been suspended from my position, and Professor Sycamore isn't on good terms with anyone either."
"We'll get them to believe us," Ash said. "I'm sure of it. But I should probably call my mom first of all. She must be worried sick."
"Yeah, she is," Clemont said.
One thing that Ash had forgotten about though as he had left Galea was Team Rocket. They had somehow managed to skedaddle away after he had defeated Vanessa and no one really knew where they were.
For that matter, they had currently managed to find their way towards Cinnamon City in the south. They had kept to the shadows a lot, but there were hoards of refuges everywhere.
They weren't ones to complain about this, lots of people meant that there were more gullible schmucks that they could loot for food and anything else that they needed.
"Hey James," Meowth asked, his mouth full. "Where d'ya think these people are goin'?"
"No clue," James said, munching on bread and then spitting it out. "This stuff's moldy!"
"Well, more for me then," Meowth said and began chewing it.
"Ugh," Jessie said. They were at the moment hiding in the woods away form a large crowd of people. "Look at most of these people! They stink! They hardly have anything worth stealing…"
"Yeah," James said. "And all their food is stale. Not to mention there aren't any bathrooms around here and I keep finding, well, presents everywhere."
"And a lot of them have worms or diarrhea or somethin'," Meowth said. "We'll probably catch it too."
And so they left.
They weren't really going anywhere, they had no clue as to what was going on, and so they wandered until they saw something weird in a clearing.
"Is that…" James said.
"It can't be," Jessie said, tears in her eyes.
Right in front of them, were an Arbok and a Weezing.
Meowth hurried on over to them to talk to his long-lost friends.
"How did those two get here?" James asked.
"They say they came here when there was some weird light," Meowth said. "A few weeks ago and they've been wandering around since."
"Oh, I thought I'd never see you again," Jessie said and embraced her Arbok and James did the same with his Weezing.
A/N: Thanks for reading. As you've probably guessed by now, I'm far more familiar with the old series than the new one, explaining how Team Rocket gets their old Pokemon back instead of the new ones. I'll try to make a more accurate one with respect to what's currently going on though.
