Disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Warning: There's a fairly detailed description of someone mortally wounded at the end of the chapter. T-rating probably deserved.

Chapter 6: Reunion

The Forina Valley was one of the most awe-inspiring places in Hoenn, especially when looking out over it from the nearby hills. Pillars, too numerous to count, rose up into the sky, flat-topped, peaked, wide, narrow, all varieties possible within normal physics were present. Yet, memories of two years or so back tainted the place. The destruction the fake groudon had caused was still visible in the clearings it had created, and a long trench indicated where it had walked.

Not for the first time, Ash wondered if life as a trainer would ever stop including legendary Pokémon at every possible turn. Sure, Team Rocket hadn't followed him to Sinnoh – and praise mew for that – but coming face to face with Pokémon so powerful they'd be able to blow him and the town he was in to tiny bits hadn't stopped. At least he only encountered a few of them, and most had actually been sort of friendly.

Of course, the ones that weren't friendly had been the Gods of Time and Space.

He'd counted the different legendary Pokémon he'd run into up until that point during a call with Brock about a week after arriving in Sinnoh – one of many calls back to Kanto. Every last one from Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn had been on the list, except for raikou. It was ridiculous. Sure, legendaries were rare and not one of a kind, but twenty-one in under four years? It was insane.

"Pi! Pi!" came a shout from his best friend, who was perched on top of his head. The rodent's eyes, more adept at picking up movement in the distance, had spotted something, and the pikachu jumped off, running down the hill to a pair of boys. Ash followed at a more leisurely pace, and when he came closer, he saw that they were the boys he was waiting for. Different clothing for Max, perhaps, but those glasses told Ash everything.

It was the first time Ash had seen Danny, since they'd only talked via Pokénav twice. He was pretty tall for a twelve year old, easily a few inches taller than Max was. He looked a lot like his uncle, especially in the colour of his hair and his face, though the spiky hairstyle was obviously different, and he was tall and thin, not stocky like the Professor was.

"Hey Ash!" Max said when the older trainer came close enough. "We thought it was you!" Pikachu was sitting on his shoulder, enjoying a scratch behind the ears.

"Next time, sign a name," Danny added, a smile on his face taking the sting from the words. He held out his hand in greeting, and Ash shook it. Up close, he saw that Danny was only a few inches shorter than he was. "Mister Sinnoh League Champion."

He had not yet gotten used to that particular title, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to. It felt good to hear that. "Yeah! Youngest champion in over ten years!" Max added, as always aware of things like that. Of course, that one had been Steven Stone, the former Hoenn Grand Champion. "The final was great to watch! You really flattened your opponent."

Ash's opponent in the final hadn't been able to send out his best Pokémon due to sustained injuries in the semi-final. The dragonite had taken out three other Pokémon before a primeape had torn one of its wings in a desperate attempt to keep it from flying off again. It wasn't a life-threatening injury, or even an injury that'd keep it out of battling for a long time, but torn wings did not heal in a day and a half, even with the best care medicine could provide.

It was just as well. Ash'd run into a dragonite in a final once before, and that one took four Pokémon to beat. Instead, weavile, croconaw, charizard and pikachu were able to beat the opponent 6-4 in a match that never felt out of his control, except for the one moment the opponent's froslass used Destiny Bond to take charizard out with her. Then he had remembered he still had three Pokémon remaining to the opponent's one. "Flattened is a big word, Max. It's not like he lost 6-0." He stretched, and pikachu took that moment to run up his body.

"Which other Pokémon did you have with you?" Max wondered. "Sceptile and snorlax? Which ones are here now?" Max's enthusiasm hadn't diminished one bit since Ash had last seen him.

"I had bulbasaur and heracross left," Ash stated as he fiddled with the release mechanism on his belt. "And the ones that are here, have a look yourself." Out came weavile and sceptile, then charizard, croconaw and swellow. "So, which Pokémon do you have? Danny?"

Out came Danny's five Pokémon. Aron, gulpin, duskull and mudkip were all Pokémon that could be really good defensively, especially after evolving. Ash wondered idly if Danny knew that. The fifth Pokémon, which came out last of all, caught his eye. "A snorunt? Izabe Island?" Ash guessed, and Danny confirmed it. "Does yours like pranks too?"

Danny looked confused, but Max laughed. "Nah, that's all your glalie. It likes playing, but it's not going to freeze your face unless you ask for it." He, too, grabbed his set of pokéballs. "And here's my Pokémon."

The treecko looked good, and Ash had the idea he'd hear from Max sooner rather than later saying he had a grovyle. The colours were a bit darker than was normal for treecko, which Ash'd seen on his own treecko the weeks before it evolved.. The other Pokémon, Ash wasn't as familiar with, and the last Pokémon was a bit surprising. Ninjask was a Pokémon Ash'd love to use himself, but it was weird to see Max with one. Maybe he should see if he could capture one. "A ninjask?"

"Yep. Evolved like two weeks ago. Super fast and pretty powerful."

"Just not very good against aron," Danny added. "Felt good to win that. It beats my other Pokémon. The speed, man. My Pokémon couldn't keep up at all."

"Why'd you call us here, Ash?" Max wondered. "I mean, it's great seeing you, and I'm not complaining and you're a League Champion—"

"But why am I here instead of in Pallet Town?" Ash finished Max's rambling. The boy looked relieved and nodded. "Can't I just visit friends? Have a little reunion?" Max gave him a look that spelled his disbelief out clear as anything. "No, really." An uncomfortable silence stretched until the sound of a Pokémon battle drifted down the road. "So, any of you want to battle a League Champion?"

The pair opposite him readily agreed, and they got their butt handed to them, but that wasn't a surprise to any of them. Even if Ash went easy on them, all of his Pokémon he had on him competed in the league finals for a reason, and it wasn't because they were weak. They probably exceeded the expectations Ash had of them, but he wasn't sure. Remembering how bad he was as a rookie trainer wasn't hard, but they had a lot more experience to begin their journey with, Max especially.

As the sun fell behind the horizon, Ash excused himself. He walked a good ways before sitting down under an outcropping. He took out his new Pokénav and dialled the number he'd been given earlier that week. "Hello."

"Hello Ash. Did you meet up?"

"Yeah, they're here safe and sound. We'll leave tomorrow morning."

"Good to hear. Have you told them?"

"Not yet. Should I?"

"It may be beneficial. You yourself told me the Maple boy knows what can happen when trainers mess with the natural balance, and Birch told me his nephew would probably go along with whatever Maple does."

"You talked to Professor Birch? But what about secrecy?"

"I deemed it an acceptable risk. Leave those to me."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"According to our intel, Team Rocket has no active projects in Hoenn, and they are reasonably sure only a specific part of the information was taken. This worries me, Ash. By all accounts, the spy had full access and could easily have passed along all information, yet they elected not to. Be careful: the effects might not be the same."

"Understood." On his shoulder, Ash felt pikachu's ears twitch. "I need to go." He ended the call, which had barely taken a minute, and put a hand on croconaw's pokéball just in case. Pikachu jumped down from his shoulder, dropping to all fours, faint sparks erupting from the pouches on its cheeks.

It turned out to be nothing but someone else looking for a quiet spot to make a phone call, and Ash made it back to the camp without any problems. The moment he was noticed by Max, however, a question came his way. "Hey Ash, did you travel with someone in Sinnoh? You never said anything about that."

"Nope. There was someone who started a few hours before I made it to the local Pokémon Professor's lab, but I never saw her."

"And Brock didn't go after you this time?"

"Nah. He's the Gym Leader again. The Pokémon Inspection Agency actually requested him to return. Apparently, his parents were making a mess of the Gym." Ash laughed, remembering the stories Brock had told him. Then, a wave of drowsiness assaulted him, prompting a yawn. "I guess I'm kinda tired. Got any questions you really want to ask before I turn in?"

"You could tell us why you're here," Max began, "and just tell the truth. You're a shit liar, Ash"

"Just give the short version," Danny added. "'m pretty tired too."

Ash shot a look at Max. "Max, I told you about that thing in Johto, with Lance's gyarados, remember? Someone's stolen the technology for that from Team Rocket, but we're not sure what for."

"Forced evolution? We only have unevolved Pokémon, Ash. Except ninjask."

"Yeah, but it's different. We just detected a signal north of here, and it didn't match the records. We need to find out what it actually does, and take out the base it's coming from."

"And why take us along?" Danny asked. He leant forward, trying to see Ash's face through the increasing darkness. "We're rookies. We're no help against criminals. We don't even have fully evolved Pokémon."

Ash laughed softly. "That's no guarantee, Danny. Some of my best Pokémon aren't fully evolved." Pikachu, bulbasaur, the Johto starter trio. "Besides, help is always welcome." Another yawn, fiercer this time. "Enough information?" The other two agreed, and Ash sent out his sceptile. "Sceptile, you're on guard tonight. Think you can handle it?"

The sceptile's vocal reply was the last loud sound that came from the group until early the next day.

~~§~~§~~

Travel was slower than Ash liked, but he discovered, or rediscovered rather, that hiking in Sinnoh and hiking in Hoenn only had in common that there were mountains involved. There was no snow, but the sun beating down on the mountainous paths was just as bad, if not worse. It sapped energy like nothing else, and the hottest hours of the day were best spent sitting in the shade somewhere; walking on a hilly path without cover was the fastest way to sunstroke. Even the other two, who were probably more used to the heat than he could ever be, were struggling with the heatwave that scorched the north of Hoenn.

On the fourth day of searching, near sundown, Ash dutifully checked his signal receiver again. It had been calibrated to pick up on the distinct radio signal that had been Project R's. He knew it wouldn't work perfectly, but it worked well enough. The past three days, the display hadn't shown anything out of the ordinary, the needle hovering in the black zone that indicated that it didn't detect anything. Now, however, the needle had spun. "Hey, stop."

"You got a signal?" Max asked as he leant over to check the display. "That's a signal. A pretty strong one too." He looked up. "It doesn't look like an evolution signal. Pikachu doesn't look affected."

The yellow mouse let loose a quick crackle of electricity to prove his strength wasn't being sapped, and he looked fine, if sweaty, otherwise. "I'm glad he isn't," Ash admitted. "Let's set up camp. I'll let swellow search the area."

As they waited for swellow to hopefully locate the base, Ash let croconaw out of his pokéball. The middle-stage pokémon also showed no signs of being impeded by whatever signal was being broadcast. Ash returned croconaw and let out his other Pokémon one by one. To a single one, they didn't show any sign of sapped strength, general weakness or other signals he remembered from last time. "Any ideas, guys?"

Danny looked up from checking aron's shell. "Aron and mudkip are okay. I really dunno."

"Same for treecko and electrike," Max added, needlessly, as Ash had seen them both move around the camp site a few minutes earlier. "Maybe it's not actually working?"

"Why is there a signal if it doesn't work?" Danny argued. "It's working. We don't know what it does, but it probably works."

Max fiddled with one of the pokéballs on his belt. "Yeah, you're right." Out came baltoy and ninjask, right next to the food Max had prepared for both of them. "Time for foo... baltoy, what's wrong?"

The Clay Doll Pokémon had fallen over, spasming on the ground like something struck by one of pikachu's Thunder attacks. A wave of psychic energy pushed outwards, displacing the food bowls, ninjask and mudkip, and Ash felt it ripple across him from where he was standing, about thirty feet away. "Max, return it!" he ordered, even as a second wave of energy, more powerful than the first, sent one bowl flying off onto the slope of the mountain. "Now!" A third wave erupted before Max could return it, and Ash felt like he'd just been pushed in the stomach, all over. "Everyone alright?" he asked, to various sounds of agreement.

"Was that the signal?" Danny wondered, resuming his check of aron's shell.

"Has to be," Max replied darkly. "I've put baltoy in stasis, just in case."

"Good idea, Max" Ash complimented, which prompted the other boy to meet Ash's eyes. "Easy. We'll get them, destroy the transmitter and baltoy will be back to normal before you know it." Speaking of that, there was something he needed to do. "Guys, I had an idea last night." The look of disbelief on Max's face was all he could have hoped for, as was the genuine smile that slowly took over as Ash explained the idea.

It also looked a bit off for a reason Ash couldn't place.

~~§~~§~~

The sun had barely started peeking around the mountain to the east, directly to their back, when they laid eyes on the entrance to the hidden base for the first time. "A cave? Are you kidding?" Danny wondered, speaking softly, moments before a man, clad in dark clothing, an umbreon beside him, walked out of the entrance, looked around for a few seconds, then walked back into an alcove right next to the entrance. "Okay, that's probably it."

"Ya think?" Max mumbled as he looked off to the side, using small binoculars Ash had given him. "Can't see an antenna or a dish. It's hidden or they're not using one."

"Let's hope they're not using one," Ash stated, unclasping one of the three pokéballs on his belt and releasing swellow. He whispered a few orders to his flying-type, which took off away from the trio's position. "Everyone ready?"

"Yep," Max stated. A soft zip told Ash he'd put the binoculars in his backpack.

"Pi-ka-pi."

"Think so," said Danny as he released his aron and told him what to do.

"Right. Get ready."

Aron slowly walked into plain view of the cave before picking up speed and smashing into the rocks near the entrance, imitating a wild aron digging for the iron ore that made up big parts of its diet.

The guard emerged from his hiding place, the umbreon by his side, but before he could chase off the 'wild' aron, a blur crashed into his back, nearly knocking him out as his head hit the ground, hard. At the same time, electricity lashed out, shocking the umbreon into helplessness.

Ash, Danny, Max, and pikachu climbed over the rock and rushed to the fallen figures. Ash and Danny quickly tied the guard's arms behind his back, while Max and pikachu kept a lookout for other guards coming out of the cave entrance. The guard was conscious, but he only started trying to wriggle out of the ropes tying his arms to his back when Danny had already tied two knots and was in the process of adding a third. "Stop that," Ash ordered as charizard materialised close to them, the fire-type towering over the captive. "Charizard, guard him. Knock him out if he tries to yell for help."

Danny had returned aron, and the four of them quickly ran into the cave, darting into the small alcove they had seen the guard hide in. It opened into a small room with a comfortable chair, a small table and a few possessions strewn around the room. "No cameras?" Max wondered.

"Doesn't look like it." Ash looked around, trying to find something that identified the group they were up against, but nothing was visible. "Let's go."

The path into the mountain's interior appeared natural, carefully eroded by years upon years of pokémon moving around, though whoever was using the mountain as a hideout had put up supporting beams and simple electric lighting, as best they could in a twisting tunnel. Weavile and pikachu led the way, each intent on releasing an attack at a moment's notice, but nobody was encountered until they came to a metal door that blocked the way onwards.

Everyone took a few steps backwards, pressing themselves against the wall. "Ready?" Ash asked, which got him two nods. "Sceptile, go!"

The door was not sturdy enough to withstand sceptile's Quick Attack, bending for a moment at the point of impact before breaking off its hinges entirely. Pikachu and weavile rushed in, followed by their trainer. Ash had a moment or two to check his surroundings, finding himself in a spacious steel-plated room with a high, but rocky, ceiling; computers, desks and chairs extending about twenty feet to his left.

He had no time to see what was on his right before a loud "ka-chu!" echoed through the room, raising the hairs on his neck with static electricity before a gust of greasy energy swept over him: a dark-type attack, weakened by pikachu's Thunderbolt. Another cry from his starter accompanied another Thunderbolt, now offensive, leading to a cry of pain from the other Pokémon.

A mightyena laid prone on the floor, some fifty, sixty feet away, though two more pokémon took up position behind it. Two trainers, clad in the same black as the guard they had captured outside, stood behind them. Behind them was a tank, glass obscuring its contents in the low light.

The left pokémon, an ursaring, lumbered forward, but, at Max's order, sceptile shot forward to meet it. Leaf Blade met a glowing arm, and the two locked into melee combat, each attempting to overpower the other through sheer power.

Ash focused on the other pokémon: a bulky hariyama that ignored weavile's hastily thrown ice shard before trying to fend off the nimble dark-type's slashes. Its right hand burst into flame, but a perfectly timed jet of water extinguished the fire as croconaw took a shot from afar.

Weavile flipped over the hariyama, her claws raking the fighting type's back while a snowy gust blew over its front as Danny's snorunt sent powdery snow at it. Neither attack did much, Ash knew: the hariyama's bulk allowed it to shrug off many weaker attacks without a problem, but weavile could run circles around it for days.

Either hariyama or its trainer recognised the same thing as it started running towards Ash and Danny. It made it halfway through before the idiocy of that plan was revealed: pikachu's ferocious Thunder stopped it dead in its tracks. The moment the electricity stopped, weavile dug her left set of claws into its back, before dancing away as croconaw unleashed another Water Gun. Once that stopped, snorunt sent more Icy Wind at it, which was something that weavile did as well, a moment later.

The hariyama fell, a thunderous thud echoing through the room as the heavyset Pokémon hit the ground, and Ash shifted his attention to the other battle. A glimpse of red in the corner of his eye indicated that the hariyama had been returned by its trainer.

Max's treecko had somehow managed to climb onto the ursaring's head, grasping it with both hands as he absorbed energy from the bear, which was trying to dislodge the small grass-type by shaking its head. One arm hung useless by its side, while the other arm was trying to keep sceptile from landing a Leaf Blade on the bear's torso.

Max ordered something Ash didn't really catch, but treecko jumped off. A moment later, sceptile used the ursaring's injured arm against it, feinting right and landing a vicious Leaf Blade right on its upper arm, where the brown fur was a bit darker than the rest. The bear howled in pain as sceptile dodged out of the way of the flailing uninjured arm. Another order from Max saw both grass-types unleash a hailstorm of Bullet Seeds, and that was that.

The ursaring, like the hariyama before, dissolved into red energy. Before any of the attackers could say anything, hariyama's trainer threw a round object, and Ash had enough experience with criminals of any kind to know what it was. A smokescreen was thrown up, obscuring the view of the rest of the chamber for about five seconds before swellow had displaced enough of it. Ash caught a glimpse of someone entering a side-door on the far end of the room, but the door slammed shut moments later.

Max was closest, running for the door. "It's shut! Sceptile!" He stepped back, and let sceptile ram himself into the door once more, but the door merely budged instead of breaking off its hinges.

"Leave it," Ash countermanded. "We got what we came for." Max turned to him, looking angry, fists balled up. "We did, Max. We got their technology. That's important."

"I guess you're right," Max said, but the fists didn't unclench. Ash didn't blame him. If he hadn't been told specifically that it was the technology, he would've been right behind Max.

A yell from the far side of the room alerted both of them. "Pokémon here!" Danny yelled. "In the tank!"

Everyone ran up to where Danny was. Up against the right wall of the tank, electrodes covering many parts of its body, laid a kirlia. It was only because Ash was looking closely that he saw it breathe at all.

Sceptile broke into the tank, shattering the glass with a carefully applied Leaf Blade before walking in, cutting the wires attaching it to the machine, and then lifting it and bringing it out of the tank.

Up close, the kirlia looked terrible. Every other electrode carefully removed revealed sores or other injuries; some healed injuries hadn't been cleaned, leading to patches of dried blood on its skin; it looked half-starved; and one of its arms was probably broken. Ash was about to capture it and immediately call Professor Oak to get it medical attention when it used telepathy.

"M-Max? I-is that y-you?"

"Ralts?" Max asked, his voice rich with... something. Ash couldn't tell what it was. A moment later, he cried out "Ralts!", kneeling by the kirlia and carefully lifting it into his arms. "Yes, I promised. I'm here now, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay."

Max whispered more soft messages of comfort, softly, gently, and extremely carefully rocking the psychic-type, but midway through one of the motions, Ash saw him freeze. "No! We can get you healed up! You're going to be—" he cut off, leaving painful silence as he alone listened to the kirlia's telepathy. "No, no, no, no, no, no..."

"I'm... sorry..."

The kirlia glowed, motes of light in all colours of the rainbow gently wafting upwards and outwards as the psychic-type just faded away, like smoke spreading in the wind. Max attempted to hug the kirlia, but succeeded only in clasping his own chest. He tried to grab the light, but succeeded only in scattering the motes more. He stopped.

The room was silent but for the sound of sorrow.

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

Name: Ash Ketchum

Age: 16

Region: Kanto

Trainer Class: Ace

Style: Speedsters, Unorthodox

Odds: 21-2

Notes: An outsider in any League he enters, Ketchum defeats his opponents using a mixture of skill and speedy Pokémon. Has earned all seven Kanto Battle Frontier Symbols, reportedly dispatching multiple Legendaries along the way. Other results include winning the Orange League and making top 8 in Johto and Hoenn.

Pokémon to watch: Charizard, Pikachu, Tauros.

From: Pokébet's profile of Ash Ketchum, retrieved prior to the start of the Sinnoh League.

Author's Note: And so fate brought Max and ralts together... For all of a minute and a half. Earlier vaguely plotted ideas had the ralts survive, but from what I've seen, which, admittedly, likely isn't exhaustive, that is the standard, and I felt subverting it could work. I hope I actually did make it work.

Also: Ash, who's going to pop up quite a bit. He missed Dawn because the boat to Sinnoh had to dodge a pack of wailords, and Tobias wasn't present in the League either. Ash did make it to Alamos Town for some or another reason, which is why he refers to dialga and palkia.