The friends had a little trouble on the road with some extremely aggressive Durant, which was solved quite handily by Mew reminding them in a cheerful way that the Fire-type existed.

At that point the Durant sort of ran off, which Mew later said was a bit confusing because he was going to offer to teach them Eruption.

"Are you sure that would have been a good idea?" Cilan asked.

"Yep!" Mew replied happily. "See, Durant are weak to Fire. So for every one Durant that uses Eruption, then none of the others can."

Cilan chuckled. "Oh, I see, so it's a bit like getting revenge on annoying customers by letting them season their own food."

"Sure!" Mew nodded. "Except possibly not. I don't really understand how that works."

"Well-" Cilan began, but Ash's voice interrupted him.

"Team Rocket!" he accused. "What are you doing here?"

"That's an excellent question," James replied, putting a finger to his chin. "When you get right down to it, why is anyone anywhere, instead of nowhere? The chances of someone existing are really small, and-"

"We don't need to hear any more of that nonsense," Jessie interrupted. "For your information, twerps, we're here on a nature holiday."

"Yeah, dis place is a big kinda wildlife reserve, or preserve, or, uh, conserve… a wildlife jam," Meowth nodded, holding up a book. "We're goin' through and checking off all the things we see, but so far it's been trickier than I was expectin'."

"Isn't that always our luck?" Jessie sighed. "We haven't seen an Elgyem anywhere."

"And after all those times I was sure we'd seen one in the distance," James agreed. "But when we got closer it was unimportant, and we found we'd been lost by five or six miles."

"Yeah, we still ain't gone to the place we kept thinkin' we was going to," Meowth mused. "Maybe we should go there next an' see what's there, there's loads of tracks leadin' that way."

"Snide observation," their Porygon began. "At some point I will get bored of watching the repeats. Humourous addendum: not this week though."

"Oh, hey, look at dat!" Meowth added, pointing. "Do fossils count? I guess technically it means we've seen a Tirtouga."

"A Tirtouga?" someone asked. "I only caught the end of that – did you say you'd seen, a…"

He trailed off as he emerged from the bushes.

"...what the heck?"

"Is something wrong?" Jessie asked.

"I knew we should have worn Alolan shirts," James sighed. "It'd make it much clearer that we're tourists."

"You realize it ain't very covert to wear clothes dat loud?" Meowth asked.

"Not you, I mean…" the young man pointed. "Isn't that a Legendary Pokémon?"

"Which one do you mean?" Reshiram checked, sticking his head out of N's mane. "Do you mean Ash's phone who is an Arceus, the Mew hovering next to Cilan and trying not to giggle, the Marshadow in his shadow, the Zygarde inspecting that Cover Fossil, me, or the Keldeo whose hair I'm using? Or do you mean Pikachu, Pikachu is also an option."

"I'm having a very strange day," the young man decided, as Mew lost the battle against giggles. "I wondered if-"

"I am sorry to interrupt," Zygarde declared, their green paw on the Cover Fossil. "But I have detected a potential issue which requires attention. Scanning."

Streams of green light flashed out from Zygarde, bouncing around the whole of the area, and then returned.

"Scan complete," they said. "There is a temporal portal in the area, as I already knew."

"Then why did you have to do the scan?" Iris checked.

"Because what alerted me was getting the results of the scan before running it," Zygarde explained. "I have to say, I have been getting much better at handling this kind of thing since meeting Ash."

"What kind of temporal anomaly?" Ash said. "I guess it must be one that connects now and the past, rather than the future and now…"

He stopped, and frowned. "Actually, that's kind of funny if you think about it, that a time anomaly connects two points in time and both those points in time move forwards, I mean. Because if the two ends are in the same place, then it's like it connects to a different time the first time you see it pass than the second time you see it go past, because the amount of time the time connection uses is the same but the time the time connection is measured from is different because you're at other ends of it."

Meowth punched himself in the face.

"Ow," he said, sitting down. "Who knew the Twerp knew Confusion?"

"Astonished riposte: have you met him?"

"I think that was probably Chatter," Jessie frowned.

"Ahem," Zygarde barked. "Temporal anomaly. I am concerned that this may cause problems."

"Hold on a moment," the young man breathed, as Zygarde lowered their paw. "Can I have a look at that fossil?"

Zygarde stepped back, and the man crouched down next to the rock face.

"What is it?" Ash asked.

"This," the man replied, tapping something in the rock. "This is my pendant that I lost when I was a child… I was wandering around Twist Mountain, and I met a Tirtouga. They were my friend, and I gave them the pendant to remember me by, but I've never been able to find them again. And now here they are."

He sighed. "I suppose that means I'll never get to say-"

Iris' Archeops interrupted him by bursting out of her Pokéball.

"Literally fossils can be revived," she said. "I am one."

"Sometimes it even happens by itself!" Ash contributed. "We could ask Professor Juniper to help, though, she's got a machine that does it."

"I support this plan!" James said immediately. "This way we can check off a living Tirtouga!"

Professor Juniper thought for several minutes, but ultimately decided that she was probably going to have to accept this on the basis of science.

The young man – Ferris – watched the whole process anxiously, and the moment Tirtouga had re-formed he took a deep breath.

"Tirtouga," he said. "I'm sorry about how long it took for me to get back to you."

"Who are you?" Tirtouga asked.

Ferris' face fell. "I'm the one who gave you that pendant," he said. "Don't you remember?"

"You don't look the same," the revived Tirtouga said. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, I see," Archeops realized. "Don't worry, this took me a bit of time to work out. Tirtouga, Ferris is what's called a human."

Tirtouga tilted his head.

"I think I get it," he realized. "This is his evolved form, right?"

"That's actually what I'm getting at," Archeops told him. "Humans don't actually Evolve in the same way Pokémon do. Instead they change gradually by getting older, and humans have so much variation it's almost like there's hundreds of thousands of forms."

"But there's millions of humans at least," Iris protested.

"And I've seen plenty of humans who have the more common forms," Archeops shot back. "Like the Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny and Don George forms."

Iris opened her mouth, paused, and looked troubled.

"I don't actually have a response for that," she admitted.

"Why did it take so long?" Tirtouga asked. "It was, um, months at least? Years? I'm not sure but it was a long time."

"Calculating," Arc said. "Estimated time: one hundred and thirty-one million years."

Tirtouga blinked.

"What's a million?"

"Wait, wait, hold on," Professor Juniper said. "I have to ask – Tirtouga is understanding what we say, right? Because this language didn't exist for over a hundred million years after he was fossilized. But if he knows what a pendant is, how does he not know what a million is?"

"Eh, don't worry about it too much," Mew advised. "Humans are just bad at language generally, though Ash is pretty fluent! It's more about concepts, um… if someone said that undécagone was another language's way of saying undecagon, you wouldn't know what that meant until you knew what an undecagon was."

"A million is a thousand times a thousand," Ferris said, trying to help. "You know what a thousand is, right?"

"Oh, I get it," Tirtouga said. "Wow, you look great for being that old!"

"That's your opinion," James sniffed. "Personally I think he's a bit dowdy."

Tirtouga quickly evolved into Carracosta, not for any particular reason except for perhaps being in proximity to Ash, and later that afternoon – with the Rockets having checked off both boxes on their field guide and heading out to see if they could track down the elusive Elgyem – Ferris patted Carracosta on the back.

"I'll miss you," he said.

Ash raised his hand.

"Why?" he asked.

"Carracosta belongs in his own time," Ferris replied.

"Right!" Ash agreed. "Which is now – he was a Tirtouga, lived a full life, or a short life, I don't know, then died and became a fossil, and travelled forward in time to now by being underground for over a hundred million years. If he goes back through the time gate, that just means there's two of him, and there'd be two fossils of him, so you could just dig him up again and revive him again, right?"

Ferris exchanged glances with Carracosta, who shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I'm a turtle," Carracosta replied. "I assumed that I had to go back, but he's got a point."

"We must be getting close to Icirrus," Ash said, as they trekked along a mountain path. "How much further is it?"

Pikachu coughed.

"Oh, right, sorry," Ash realized. "We're probably getting close to Icirrus, unless we've ended up lost."

"That's better," Pikachu told him.

"I would not let you get lost so easily," Arc volunteered. "The city would be where you were going."

"That's an odd way to phrase it," Snivy said. "Shouldn't it be that you'd correct Ash if he took the wrong turning?"

"Yes," Arc replied. "That is what I meant, and not correcting the turning to match Ash's guess."

Cilan laughed. "It's nice that I'm not getting the blame here, even though I've been doing some of the map reading."

"I think you get used to that sort of thing," Zacian replied, with a lupine shrug. "Now, Snivy, let's see you try again. Remember what I told you?"

"Faith and trust and Fairy dust," Snivy repeated, then did a twirl which sent glitter cascading down around her. "It seems a lot harder than you're making it sound, though."

"Well, you've got the Fairy dust down, so it might be one of the other two," Zacian mused.

Then there was a sudden crash from the high side of the path, and two massive boulders came rumbling down the hillside one by one.

"Keldeo, you try to handle one of them," Zacian suggested, drawing her sword from her mane. "Remember what I taught you."

"Right," N said, steadying himself, and his horn lit up with a blue glow. "Sacred Sword!"

A blue line of light flashed out, but destabilized before it reached the boulder.

Zacian flicked her neck, sending out a Sacred Sword of her own that cut the first boulder neatly in half, and the two halves went crashing past either side of them. Then the second one exploded into dust as Zygarde dealt with it with a Thousand Arrows attack.

"Thank you," N told both Legendaries, nodding to them. "Sorry about that."

"It was a test," Zacian replied. "But that does not mean it was one you had to pass, because I did not expect you to – I hoped you would, but only because it would mean you were improving faster than I thought."

"Fear not!" a man announced, leaping over the side of the cliff along with his Beartic, then his slide down the cliffside became much less dramatic and much more desultory. "Oh, I see you're already not fearing."

"Are you Brycen?" Iris asked, lighting up. "You're a martial-arts hero!"

"And a movie star!" Cilan agreed.

Brycen reached the base of the cliff, and dusted himself off. "Well, I don't really think of myself like that… I think it's better to just think of myself as a Pokémon trainer. I don't have any special powers, except the ones I got through training."

"Except?" Mew said, popping out from under Ash's hat. "I like the word except! What special powers do you have?"

Beartic landed with a crash next to Brycen. "He was planning on kicking that boulder in half. I've seen him do it."

"Eeee!" Mew grinned, paws thumping together in glee. "Have you or any member of your family been recognized as Aura users? Because being able to do that kind of thing is exactly the sort of thing Aura users can do! I bet I could teach you how to use Ice Beam or something!"

"And if you can do that kind of thing, you can definitely call yourself a hero!" Iris said. "I call myself a superheroine, and that's mostly by turning into a Zoroark who can turn into any dragon type!"

"Speaking of Dragon types, aren't you a bit leery of Ice types?" Excadrill asked. "Brycen's an Ice type gym leader, and you seem okay with him."

"I've been working on it," Iris told her starter. "We already met a Kyurem once, and I doubt it's going to be the last time!"

Brycen explained that he was here because the mountain was a protected Pokémon sanctuary, and that there were Pokémon hunters around – they were probably the ones who'd set up the boulders as a trap – and by the time he'd finished everyone looked outraged.

N was the first to speak. "Pokémon hunters are morally wrong!" he said. "And they violate… well… the entire Pokémon Conservation Code, but especially clause two!"

"Clause two?" Brycen said, frowning. "I remember that one, isn't it the one about how you're not allowed to test cosmetic products on wild Pokémon without a special waiver and the consent of the wild Pokémon?"

"Okay, not especially that one, but I bet they're violating it anyway," N amended. "But the important part is that… that… if Pokémon are in the rest of the world then they at least know being caught is a possibility, and battling a trainer or running away is the kind of decision they can make! But in a sanctuary like this they're not expecting it, and it's where Pokémon go when they want to avoid being in danger of being caught, so it's a violation of trust and-"

There was a chirp from inside his mane. "You're getting worked up."

N stopped, suddenly losing his train of thought. "...you're new."

A Woobat fluttered out of the greenish mane, followed by the usual Pidove and Reshiram.

"I'm visiting a friend," Woobat explained. "It seemed easier to come this way."

N tried not to giggle, and settled for shaking his head with a smile.

"You're right, it is a terrible thing," Brycen told N, and the others. "I'm here to train, until I feel ready to go back to film making, but I also want to make sure that the mountain's safe."

"My friend Whitney sometimes gets annoyed about gym leaders not spending enough time in their gyms," Ash said, thinking out loud, and Brycen looked faintly embarrassed. "But saving Pokémon from being hunted illegally is a really important thing, and I bet she'd be okay with it!"

"...remind me not to tell her about how much time I spent making movies," Brycen said, then looked up as there was a flash of lightning and red light in the distance. "Something's wrong. Volcarona must be threatened."

"Then let's go and save them!" N said. "Reshiram, Strength!"

The miniaturized Reshiram took hold of N's back, and his turbine lit up. The pair of them lifted into the air, surrounded by N's critter friends, and everyone else started running or sent out Pokémon to help them get there as quick as possible.

"Hey, let that Volcarona go!" Ash shouted.

The Pokémon Hunter turned around. "And what are you going to do, make me?"

"It would be the ideal thing to do," Zekrom announced.

The Hunter sniggered. "Yeah, that's a cute disguise and everything, but you really need to work on your Ash Ketchum disguise."

He waved his hands, as behind him Volcarona tried to burn their way out of the fireproof net despite the influence of a Confuse Ray. "I know it's a trend these days for kids to get a collection of Zorua and try and fake it, after it got out that Hunter J in Sinnoh just abandons jobs if Ash Ketchum is nearby, but…"

"Question," Pikachu said, honestly interested now. "What would it take to prove to you that my trainer actually is Ash Ketchum?"

"Well, I guess I could just say that if you beat my Jellicent, Volcarona can go free," the Hunter suggested.

"And I can use any Pokémon I have available, right?" Ash checked. "Actually, do you have one Jellicent or more than one? Plurals of Pokémon aren't very clear and I want to check if it's a double battle!"

The Hunter looked momentarily impressed. "Okay, not bad, kid. Yeah, I've got two."

"Then, Ibid, can you get Aten for me?" Ash asked.

The Pokédex vanished, and eight seconds later reappeared with Aten's antique Pokéball.

"Aten, come on out!" Ash called.

The Hisuian Zorua appeared, woke up, and glowered at Ash. "I was asleep, and now I'm angry."

"Sorry," Ash admitted. "Would it help if I said I had Ibid get you because we need your help in a battle?"

"Violence qualifies as acceptable penance," Aten agreed.

"And Snivy, Lunar Blessing and then see if there's any Jellicent left for you to battle!" Ash went on.

There weren't.

AN:

Why did Carracosta have to go back?