A/N: Thanks for all the support guys! With this chapter, we cross 200k words, and I know length isn't very important when it comes to stories like this, but it's the first fanfic to cross that benchmark. I don't think we'll cross 250k though at this point.
Also, we're 72 chapters in. If I had kept the original way of writing 9 chapters for each of the eight Gym Leaders, this would've been the finale. Of course, I've deviated quite a bit from that pattern.
Gary Oak couldn't believe just how fast Team Rocket was. Every time he came close to catching them and told himself that he finally had them, they somehow pulled out some trick like throwing dust in his eyes and managed to slip away at the last moment.
As he followed them by their tracks, he came across another mound of what were clearly stolen goods.
Something was off about it though… there were far too many gold and silver ornaments to have been from this area. Where did they get all of that?
Even stranger was the fact that he quickly found another mound, and some of the stuff here again was really valuable. He scratched his chin- did they somehow break into the royal treasury or whatever was like that around here?
Come to think of it- did this place even have a royal treasury? Gary guessed that it would make sense, but he wasn't sure.
He could have probably spent years in Galea and he still wouldn't properly understand it and how everything worked.
And this made him think about how he had dismissed all of Ash's efforts… he was probably being far too hard on Ash by blaming him for the state of all the peasants. It was certainly not entirely Ash's fault and he had probably tried everything he could.
After two hours of futile pursuit he was seriously considering just calling it a day and leaving. He had other things to attend to and the sun was coming down.
That is to say, he would have if it weren't for the fact that something caught his eyes.
The tracks that Team Rocket had left strangely enough seemed to now merge over copies of one another- meaning that they had been in this place before, and they all merged so that it was impossible for Gary to make heads or tails of them.
But that wasn't the only thing weird going on- no, it was the weird shimmering that was coming over the air from a huge tree which about as big as Gary's house back in Pallet Town. A normal person would've initially just dismissed it as a trick of the light or maybe just due to hot air currents or something.
But Gary was no normal person. He had spent almost as much time training Pokemon as he had studying the natural world under the guidance of his grandfather, and while optics was certainly not his area of expertise, he knew that there was no easy explanation for what he was seeing.
"Blastoise! Go!" Gary said as he sent out his Pokemon. He grabbed a pebble and chucked it at the shimmering area only for it to disappear mid-air.
His Blastoise pointed to the tracks and after a moment Gary understood what he was trying to tell him.
"I see," Gary said. "All of the tracks are circling around that tree…. which means that either Team Rocket's started worshiping that tree like some sort of crazy cult, or more likely, that they're hiding there and that's their HQ."
Gary grabbed another pebble and flung it as hard as he could. He didn't see where it went, and even weirder than that, he didn't hear a sound as if it hadn't even hit anything.
Most likely, Gary thought, the shimmering was because the tree didn't exist at all and this was some sort of hologram. Of course, that begged a thousand different other questions starting with how on earth did Team Rocket manage to get a holographic generator in the first place.
Rather hesitantly, he began extending his hand towards the tree. He could almost hear his grandfather speaking to him in his head- 'Gary! This isn't the time to use that! Don't put your hand near something you don't understand, you need to take your time and assess the situation here!'
Gary had to admit that his grandpa had a point, but the thing was that despite all the weird stuff that went down in Galea, he had a feeling that no one had seen something like this before.
Plus, Team Rocket had clearly been near it, so that probably meant that it was safe.
Gary first of all put a hand through the shimmering air. His hand went right through, so he guessed he had been right about it being a hologram.
"Hey! Blastoise, come with me!" Gary said and then stepped forward.
He expected to see the tree and maybe Team Rocket hiding somewhere, but somehow, as he walked forward, the forest disappeared and he was standing in the middle of the desert somewhere.
He glanced around as his heavy clothes meant that he burst into perspiration almost immediately. The sun was going down- and as his Blastoise emerged and looked just as confused as Gary, Gary realized he had been wrong.
That had not been a mirage or a hologram.
No. It was a portal.
Immediately, Gary looked back, hoping that there was a way back. Thankfully, there was a small shimmering patch of air, similar to the one he had just walked through, but much, much smaller- just the size of a pocket watch hovering four feet off the ground.
Gary hoped that it would still work and walked to it, and as he did it grew bigger and bigger until thankfully, Gary managed to walk back outside.
Now that Gary and his Blastoise were back where they had started, Gary noticed that the shimmering was organized like the windows of a greenhouse- it was hard to see at first but there seemed to be multiple planes of them angled at each other.
He figured all of this had something to do with everything else going on Galea and this was not something normal.
He had seen enough and was about to turn around and leave the whole thing alone when his Blastoise suddenly turned and grabbed something- something that had come out of a different portal and that something started screaming.
It was James.
"Let me down! Let me down!" he said and then noticed Gary.
"So let me guess this straight," Gary said. "You managed to discover a network of portals, you've been using it for some time in order to steal stuff from various places, but you get caught because you wanted to look back outside and see if the coast was clear?"
James sighed. "How did you know?"
"Basic deductive reasoning," Gary said. "So, do tell me, where do all these portals go?"
"Oh, a bunch of places," James said. "If you just let me down I'll-"
"Nah, I have a better idea," Gary said. "I'll have Blastoise stick your head back in through the portal you came from, and you'll tell your friends that the coast is clear. And if you don't…"
Gary actually didn't know what it was that he would do if James disobeyed, so he left the threat hanging in the air and hoped that it would be enough.
Blastoise stuck James back in the portal so that only the part up till his shoulders was gone.
Gary didn't hear if James had said anything- then the realized that sound didn't seem to travel on its own through whatever these portals were.
Blastoise took James out and Jessie and Meowth walked out only to notice Gary.
"You liar!" Jessie screamed.
"I'm sorry- he threatened me!" James said.
Jessie and Meowth then turned and ran for a different portal as James said, "Wait! Don't leave me behind!"
"No honor among thieves," Gary muttered. "C'mon Blastoise, let's go through the one they went…"
"Wait," James said as Blastoise tucked James under its arm like a human would a parcel. "We don't where that one goes- the two of them probably went in there just because it was closest one they could find. We haven't mapped out all of them yet. It could be dangerous!"
"Well, we'll just see then," Gary said as he moved towards the small shimmering pane of air.
Ash rubbed his head.
He had woken up as refreshed as he supposed was possible after a nap given the fact he was now once again strutting one too many Badges for his own good- but the thing was that he had had a very strange dream. He had dreamed about the place where His Majesty had imprisoned him and saw himself still bound there, but this time he was surrounded by people. People who were wielding sharp stick and were continuously poking him with them- laughing at his misery and how he winced at their blows.
No matter how hard he tried otherwise, he just couldn't take his mind off that prison and the worst part was that several times he felt like he could actually feel the cold chains around his wrists. This had happened yesterday too, but he had dismissed those feelings as him just being jumpy after being captured.
But it was going on for far too long which made him wonder if those chains were cursed or something. It would make sense given the weird vibes they had kept giving him when he had been imprisoned there.
What these feelings did however were cement his conviction that going back to His Majesty to talk it out was a bad idea. So that really only left one other reasonable choice- to go back to the Elite Four and try and free them. And while this path would be fraught with its own risks, he had conferred with Hoopa (who was now out of its Unbound form as it had worn off) who agreed with him.
The problem was that he could not think of a way to go back there without His Majesty catching him.
As a matter of fact, it was kind of a miracle that His Majesty hadn't decided to leave his domain and come across the sea looking for Ash. Or maybe it was less of a miracle and more of the fact that His Majesty probably still thought that Ash was back on the island.
But it would only be a matter of time before he figured out what had happened, and then he would go out and look for Ash. So it was imperative that Ash think of something quickly.
Nothing came to mind. Hoopa was now too weak and didn't have Arthur's help to teleport Ash back. Ash tried contacting Arthur but he had no real means to and it didn't look like Arthur could at that distance anyway.
Their ship, for the moment, was docked at Constantinople and for now not much of interest was going on in the city. People were being reunited with their relatives, and while that did sort of make Ash happy, it also terrified him to think that if something wasn't done soon then this was all soon going to come to an end.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream.
"AGHHH!"
Something landed on deck behind Ash, who whirled around to see a Pokemon and the last person he expected to see now.
"Jessie? Meowth?" Ash asked.
Very quickly, more people popped quite literally out of the sky- Gary along with his Blastoise who was carrying James.
Gary however, managed to grab onto his Blastoise who slowed their descent with a Hydro Pump and so he landed softly.
"What're all of you doing here?" Ash asked, confused and avoiding the spray of water.
"Ash!" Gary said, looking as shocked as Ash was. "Good to see you again!" He then looked around. "Where are we?"
Jessie and Meowth seemed to not really care about the answer to that question and were more concerned about getting away as fast as possible as James moaned about them abandoning him.
Gary began running after them, but Ash merely reached for his Badges. "Bring them to me."
Jessie and Meowth immediately tripped and were dragged towards Ash as if invisible hands were tugging on them.
Ash felt a spike of pain behind his eyes at having to use the Badge's powers, but he ignored it for now. Thing was that it just wasn't about having too many Badges- now that he knew where they came from he couldn't help but feel overcome by revulsion whenever he thought about using them.
"You're near Constantinople," Ash said. "I thought you'd be somewhere else though right now. How'd you fall out of the sky?"
"Portals," Gary said, as if he expected that to explain everything. "These guys know the rest- they've been stealing a lot."
"From refugees?" Ash asked. He shook his head and glared at the three Team Rocket members. "You guys just never learn do you?"
"That wasn't it though," Gary said. "I saw heaps of gold and silver too… wherever they were going I'm guessing they went somewhere where the people were rich."
Gary then told Ash about the portal system he saw and that Jessie and James were apparently using it for some time now.
"Hmm," Ash said as an idea came to his head. "Wait… I think I'll need to ask a few people on this…"
Ash summoned Jenkins to the ship, who was apparently pretty annoyed at this and murmured something about how he had just recently seen his family again and didn't want to be disturbed at this hour- all of which Ash ignored.
"So, who are your best scientists?" Ash asked.
"In what field?" Jenkins asked.
"Uh, you know, portals, the Barrier, that sort of thing," Ash said. "Whatever they're doing, I need you to get them here right now."
Ash then left without waiting for a reply as dinner was being set up and he was feeling strangely hungry today.
Gary on the other hand, who was the only other person at the table and the only other person in the room who wasn't a server, didn't seem to be too interested in eating.
"You've got quite a selection here, Ash," Gary said as he looked at the buffet prepared for them. "Way more than for one person… and way better than what other people have…"
"Yeah," Ash said. "Apparently Selena's region is the best in all of Galea- or at least most people here think so. So, how is Galea? Crazy like I told you?"
"More like really sad," Gary said.
"Well yeah, but you've only seen the bad parts- and the bad parts at their worst at that," Ash said. "I mean, I haven't really gone around Constantinople yet, but I've heard that it's pretty nice."
"Hmm," Gary said.
"So like what's going on everywhere else?" Ash asked. "Are Brock and Misty okay?" He then yawned.
"Yes, I think everyone else including them is fine," Gary said. "And you're feeling sleepy already? Ash, it's barely seven."
"Oh, no," Ash said. "This is I just woke up two hours ago- I had a really long nap of like eighteen hours. I had a long day before that though. So, I've been trying to contact everyone but I haven't had much luck."
"Yeah," Gary said. "Thing is that most of our- wait, I mean, your communication lines were destroyed when all of you must've been afraid Selena was spying on you."
"Oh," Ash said. "Who ordered for that to happen?"
"I'm told that it was you," Gary said. "Gosh, Ash, how do you not remember something like that?"
"Oh, well, see the thing is I might not have been paying attention at the time," Ash said. "And I get a weird headache almost all the time from having too many Badges."
They ate in silence- or that is to say, Gary sort of watched Ash gorge on the food there while trying to not make too much noise but kind of failing at it.
"Hey Gary," Ash said as he was finally done eating. "Would you mind doing me a favor?"
"What?" Gary asked.
"I know this is weird… but the thing is I remember our last fight," Ash said. "And there's still time I think before Jenkins manages to get everyone together. So… I was thinking, I wanted to battle you again. Just once, I mean."
"I don't exactly have a full roster," Gary said. "And we don't have too much time."
"Yeah, I know," Ash said. "But with everything going on- I'd just like a reminder that things used to be normal. It feels like I can hardly even remember everything that's happened before I came to Galea- even our fight is a bit hazy- wasn't it just Charizard and Blastoise at the end?"
"Yeah," Gary said. "Well- if you really want a fight-"
He was interrupted as a messenger came in telling the two of them that Jenkins had assembled the team of experts that Ash had wanted.
They held the meeting in a large room above deck, where Team Rocket was kept tied up. The experts were a group of half a dozen old women and men who more or less spent most of their time bickering with each other but they seemed to somewhat reach a consensus when Ash asked something. Jenkins was also there, looking surly as usual.
Team Rocket, when questioned, pretty much answered everything and Ash believed them. He could've used the Badges to force the truth from them- but given that whenever he did it made his constant headache even worse, he didn't want to go down that route.
"So where all have you been in Galea?" Ash asked. Now this was what he was interested in- was there a portal towards Phineas' domain?
Sadly, Team Rocket had no real answer to this as they had no way to know where in Galea each of the portals took them and all they had were vague descriptions of where'd they been. Ash was looking for something along the lines of 'it was a small island' but then of course realized that even if they wounded up somewhere near the coastline, they would have no real way of telling whether they were on an island or just near the coastline of the mainland.
"So then we'll have to check each of those individually," Ash said. "How many of them are there?"
"Hundreds," James said.
"If I may interject," one of the researchers said, "it would be rather dangerous to attempt to venture into any of these portals blindly. They could lead practically anywhere- and some of these locations would be hazardous- take for example, if you were to accidentally find yourself inside the sun. I do not know if the Badges would be able to protect you then. My guess is that these, ah, criminals, simply were lucky enough not to have wandered somewhere like that."
Ash scratched his head and suddenly spoke, "Wait- I have an idea. What if we were to send a transmitter into each of the portals, and then try to track its signal back to a receiver? We could attach a cord to it so if it comes back fried or crushed we know it won't work- and if we can get a signal, it means it isn't on the island. Signals don't get out from there, right?"
It was an electric moment- not just because Ash had an idea no one else had thought of, but because it was actually a good one.
And so, rather begrudgingly, Jenkins and a few other helpers followed as Ash flew back straight through the portal on Ash's Charizard. Gary was one of those people.
The equipment they had was what looked like a weird radio transmitter connected to a screen, and the transmitter looked like a walkie-talkie which had a rope thread around it.
"So, there are hundreds of these things, right?" Ash asked. "Well, let's get started then."
They went through about fifty before they had any luck. Once, the fished out a soaking wet transmitter along with some ocean water- that portal had led to somewhere beneath the ocean's surface.
They needed a new transmitter after that.
Finally, after over two hours, they managed to find one where the transmitter couldn't be found.
"So, this could either be His Majesty's island," Ash said. "Or it could maybe be somewhere outside Galea?"
"Yes," one of the researchers said.
"Okay, let me see then," Ash said. This portal in question was only three feet above the ground, so he swung up on a branch into it.
He came out two minutes later and said, "Yeah, I think this is it, I recognized the terrain off in the distance."
"Good," Gary said. "So let's go and find the others and we'll think up of a plan-"
"No," Ash said and shook his head. "Sorry, but I'll be going in there alone. I need to go right now Gary, I don't know how long this will be stable or how long it's even going to be there."
"D-don't you want Brock and Misty here?" Gary asked.
"Yeah, I'd love for them to be with me…" Ash said. "But the thing is I don't know how much longer the Barrier's gonna stay up, and- I don't want to risk anyone else. I have the feeling that whatever happens next, I'll have to deal with it myself."
"Then let me come with you," Gary said. "And doesn't someone need to stay behind to oversee whatever land you have?"
"Ah," Jenkins interjected quite eagerly. "Well, I suppose being second-in-command, I can assure you that I will keep order in your absence."
"Yeah, no," Ash said. He took Selena's Badge and handed it to Gary. "I don't even think I figured out what this is called, but Gary, I want you to have it for now. I can't keep carrying these many Badges."
"Seriously, Ash, me?" Gary asked.
"It's called the Inverse Badge," Jenkins said glumly though no one really paid him any attention.
"Yeah," Ash said. "Now listen- I might not be back for a while, so do try to keep things under wraps and tell everyone what's happened up till now. Make sure Jessie and James don't cause any more trouble- and oh yeah, I guess our battle'll have to wait for later."
"Yeah," Gary said.
Without saying anything more, Ash disappeared, leaving Gary alone.
"Oh no," Gary said. "Those villagers must be wondering where I've been all this time!"
And without explaining much more, he ran off back towards where the camp had been set up.
A/N: Thanks for reading guys!
