Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai
Chapter One-hundred and forty-five: Post league labors
The heroes, fresh from their business at Vertress City for the Vertress Conference, were heading towards Nuvema Town to meet with Professor Juniper, who had called for them to come over. The heroes thought that they'd be able to take some time to travel, but a check up call they made at a Pokémon Center on the way to see how Professor Juniper was doing told them that there was actually a fair bit of urgency to their need to come to Novema Town. Dawn, Kenny, and Trip decided to save time in travel by calling out Tsukune, Black, and Deelia and have everyone get on.
After a somewhat short flight, three legendary dragon Pokémon landed in Nuvema Town outside of Professor Juniper's lab. Dawn, Kenny, and Trip recalled their dragons before the heroes all went inside. Upon entering, the heroes were greeted by a somewhat worried looking Professor Juniper. "Thank goodness you kids got here when you did," Juniper said, "Time is of the essence."
"What's going on?" Dawn asked.
"Earlier," Juniper began, "I got a call from my father."
"Ah, Daddy Juniper," Kenny said, "How is he?"
Shrugging, Juniper said, "Considering the fact that he's just discovered the White Ruins near Dragonspiral Tower, he's probably ecstatic."
That got the attention of the heroes. "The White Ruins?" Ash asked.
"Ruins with a clear connection to the legendary Pokémon Reshiram," Juniper explained, "And what's worse the discovery of said ruins, along with the theory of their link to Reshiram, had made the news."
Dawn could now see why Juniper was worried. "Chances are that Team Scorn's going to be paying a visit to the White Ruins."
"Indeed," Juniper said, "In fact, the recently dismantled Team Plasma was also up to no good regarding info like that, but they were all arrested."
"Team Plasma's been dismantled and arrested?" the heroes all cried out in surprised unison.
...
After everyone sat down to discuss things properly, Juniper gave them what all that she knew on the matter; Team Plasma in its entirety had been dismantled and arrested, save for a lead member named Ghetsis who was killed. According to one rank and file member of Team Plasma, a scientist they employed named Colress had secretly betrayed Team Plasma to Team Scorn, giving Team Scorn what all they needed to wholly take Team Plasma out of the picture as a threat. Apparently, it was due to how Colress got a far better deal with Team Scorn than what he could have ever hoped to get with Team Plasma.
As a result, every last Team Plasma member was arrested, aside from the aforementioned Ghetsis who was killed; according to the autopsy, he was killed by someone using a long blade weapon. Bianca instantly offered Admin Swordsman as a suspect, given he owns a longsword and the sector of Team Scorn that he heads up is based in Unova. Ash, Dawn, Kenny, and Trip were all interested to hear that Looker was brought in on things to help manage the arrest of all of Team Plasma, and would also be lending a hand with investigating the activities of Team Scorn.
"...And all of that leads back to the fact that my father had found the White Ruins," Juniper said, "Given how it made the news, I fear that the ruins may be targeted by Team Scorn in the immediate future."
"Uhh, you fear it may be targeted by Team Scorn?" Iris said, "This is ruins directly connected to Reshiram that we're talking about here! They're gonna be targeted by those evil jerks, mark my words!"
Juniper nodded once in conceding the point. "Yes. Anyway, the reason that I tell this to you all is that I hope you kids will be willing to help out in the... very likely scenario... that Team Scorn shows up."
"We... were actually planning on heading over as soon as you gave us the okay to go," Kenny said, drawing nods of agreement out of the rest of the heroes.
Smiling in relief, Juniper said, "Oh thank goodness for that." Juniper then gave the heroes direction to get to the White Ruins located near Dragonspiral Tower, and also offhandedly mentioned a new gym in Aspertia City. Ash, being the gym challenging nutjob that he is, decided that he wanted to check the gym out en route to the White ruins. When Iris tried scolding Ash by pointing out it would waste time that could be used to get to the White Ruins faster, Trip immediately pointed out that they could just zoom over whenever thanks to Deelia, Tsukune, and Black, so some time for sightseeing could be permitted.
As such, the heroes, once they got everything from Juniper, set off on their journey to the White Ruins, where they expected to run into Cedric. As the heroes left Nuvema Town, Kenny mentioned how the first thing that he'll do upon the heroes meeting back up with Cedric is to refer to him as Daddy Juniper to his face, citing that he still owes Cedric for it.
Sometime days after the heroes left Nuvema Town to head to the White Ruins, the mysterious young man known as N was trekking on through in his journey to learn what exactly had happened to Team Plasma, having only vague rumors that Team Scorn was involved in what had happened to them. N was tired though, and after reaching the area of Floccesy Town, he fell to one knee. The long light green haired young man had to catch his breath, pushing himself further than he normally would have in his journey to uncover answers.
N was just about to pass out, when all of a sudden he was caught by someone and helped back up to his feet. "Sorry to intrude," a boy with a Pikachu on his right shoulder said as he helped N back up, "But are you okay?"
"Thanks... for the help," N said, looking and sounding exhausted, "I guess that I've... pushed myself further than I had intended..."
Turning his head, the boy with the Pikachu called out, "Hey everyone, we got a tired traveler here!"
...
A short while later, N had joined the group of the boy with the Pikachu. Said boy, giving his name as Ash, introduced N to the rest of his friends; Cilan, Iris, Bianca, Dawn, Kenny, and Trip. As the lot of them had a picnic lunch where N, after properly introducing himself, was able to revitalize himself with the food offered to him, the heroes explained to N that they were on their way to visit some ruins discovered near Dragonspiral Tower. They had honestly only made one real stop before now, in a place called Aspertia City, where Ash challenged a new gym leader working there, Cheren. Ash was confirmed by the others to have won against Cheren.
"Why did you want to battle your Pokémon against those of others?" N asked Ash, drawing a surprised look out of him and the others.
"What do you mean?" Ash asked.
"Pokémon battles are basically forced fights between friends," N remarked, "I don't really like the idea of forcing one's friends to fight."
"Pokémon battles are... just part of the way of life," Bianca said, "It's not the whole pie, but it is a good chunk of it."
N gently shook his head, as if in some manner of mild disappointment. "I wonder what your Pokémon think about you having them fight."
Holding up a hand, Kenny said, "Some of us have Pokémon who are always eager to get into a scrape."
"And the rest of our Pokémon all understand that sometimes, battling is a necessity," Trip went on, "Especially when it comes to fighting off Team Scorn."
N perked up when Trip had mentioned Team Scorn. "...You guys have encountered Team Scorn before?"
Dawn nodded in the affirmative. "Many, many times, actually. As a matter of fact, we're on our way to the White Ruins discovered near Dragonspiral Tower as we speak. The ruins are said to be connected to the legendary Pokémon Reshiram, and due to how the discovery of the White Ruins had made the news, we're pretty certain that Team Scorn has heard about it."
Taking pause at the mention of Reshiram, N had a flashback to when he encountered Reshiram. He realized then that Reshiram had a desire to burn everything, and if Team Scorn were to get their vile mitts on it, then that vision might very well end up becoming a reality. Given that N hadn't said anything to the heroes, Kenny asked, "Uhh, you okay, dude?"
"Sorry, I was just lost in thought is all," N replied. After getting up from where everyone was eating, N excused himself and tried taking off, saying that he needed to get going. Before he could leave, however, N was stopped by the reborn trainers, who asked him if he at least had any food for himself. After replying in the negative, Dawn as well as the other heroes prepped some food and gave it to him, with Dawn saying it should help prevent him from getting to the point Ash found him at again. Giving a thankful nod, N took the offered food and took off.
Later that night, two Team Scorn grunts, both female, were driving a truck that had a load in the back. These female Team Scorn grunts, Kuro who has black hair in a straight hime style cut that reached her collarbone, and Shiro who has platinum blonde hair in a pixie cut, were talking to one another as Kuro was driving (she was the only one between her and Shiro who could drive) the truck. "Man, I can't believe that the Kunai Sector was the first sector to complete the optional mission available to all sectors to find and capture a wild shiny Pokémon," Kuro said, "Us in the Longsword Sector were really pushing it to be the ones to succeed there."
Shiro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Admin Swordsman was a bit upset that Admin Ninja had beaten him to the punch. Hey, I heard rumor that the grunt in the Kunai Sector to have captured the shiny Pokémon was a former member of the now defunct Team Rocket, and that him capturing that shiny Pokémon helped to earn him the promotion to one of the vacant captaincy spots in the Kunai Sector."
"Yeah, I did hear that the Kunai Sector only had two Captains prior to them catching a wild shiny Pokémon," Kuro remarked, "But now they have three. Speaking of, I heard rumors that the Colress guy who defected from Team Plasma to us might be promoted to a captaincy position and transferred to the Kunai Sector after the mission to get Boss's Assistant Ayane set up to capture Reshiram."
"I can very easily see Colress being given the final captaincy spot in the Kunai Sector if the plan for Ayane to get Reshiram succeeds," Shiro said, "I mean, this is a friggin' legendary Pokémon that we're talking about he-"
Shiro was cut off when Kuro brought the truck to a sudden halt. The reason being is that she and Shiro had driven up to a toll booth. ...Out in the middle of nowhere on the road that they were driving on. The sign at the top of the toll booth said 'Unova Champion Alder Thruway', then the sign listed a toll fee of ten dollars (in prize money) and it said exact change lane under a red light and a green light, neither of which were on. "Alder Thruway?" Kuro said, her tone mildly incredulous, "Now what will that asshole think of next?" Turning to look at Shiro, Kuro asked, "You got ten dollars?"
As the girls in the truck searched themselves to see if they had the money for the toll booth, N snuck up to the back of the truck, thankful that his idea of a distraction actually worked, and used a small device to unlock the back of the truck. Getting into the back of the truck, N found a cage that had a Braviary inside, and it looked like one of its wings was hurt. N unlocked the cage and freed the Braviary, then he led it out of the truck in an attempt to escape.
Surprisingly enough, N and Braviary's escape was aided when Shiro and Kuro, having come up with the ten dollar toll fee, used it to pass through, their sudden driving on ahead making N and Braviary stumble out of the truck. After the truck had gotten far enough, N stood Braviary back up. "I'm glad to see that you're well enough," N said to Braviary as he checked it over, "Although we'll have to address your injured wing at some hey what's that thing around your neck?" N stopped short when he saw a collar of some kind around Braviary's neck, which had a small little block with a red blinking light on it.
Suddenly, N could hear the girls in the truck ahead shout suddenly. "Hey, the Braviary we were carrying got out somehow!" Shiro called out.
"A good thing we have that tracking device on it!" Kuro added, "Let's use the tracking remote to find it!"
Seeing that the truck was backing up, N said, "And now we leave!" Thankfully, given that they had some distance and the fact that the night time darkness made it somewhat more difficult for the truck to navigate, N and Braviary were able to get away.
Meanwhile, the heroes were journeying to the White Ruins along a road. "When can we stop for something to eat?" Bianca asked, "I'm a little peckish."
"There's a nearby Pokémon Center," Cilan assured Bianca, "So we don't have to wait until too much lo-"
Cilan was cut off when N and the Braviary he had rescued came stumbling out from some foliage on the side along the road that the heroes were traveling on. "Hey look, N's back," Kenny remarked.
Seeing the injury on Braviary, Dawn remarked, "And he's made a friend who needs medical attention." Looking to N who was now looking at the heroes, Dawn asked, "I don't suppose you'd like some assistance in getting Braviary here to the nearby Pokémon Center, would you?"
Nodding once, N said, "That would be a big help, yes."
...
Later at the nearby Pokémon Center, the heroes and N got the word on Braviary's condition from Nurse Joy. "He won't be able to fly for a while, at least until his injured wing is fully healed," Nurse Joy said.
Turning to look at N, Ash asked, "What happened? How did you meet Braviary?"
"I had rescued him from a truck being driven by a pair of girls from that horrid Team Scorn organization," N explained. Pulling something out from a pocket, N showed the heroes a collar with a smashed up block bit on it. "This collar was on Braviary," N said, "And the smashed up bit is some manner of tracking device. I noticed it when I was looking over Braviary after freeing him."
"What's Team Scorn up to with Braviary, you think?" Trip asked.
N gently shook his head. "...No clue. I'm still trying to figure out what all Team Scorn has to do with the downfall of Team Plasma."
Hearing N say that he wanted to know what Team Scorn had to do with Team Plasma's downfall got the attention of the heroes, who proceeded to tell N what all they got on the matter from Professor Juniper. N expressed surprise to hear that Ghetsis was straight up killed even, with the autopsy suggesting that he was killed by someone using a long bladed weapon. "...Even I wouldn't have wished death upon Ghetsis," N said, "But he had proven to be a horrid man, given he was leading a horrid group that had horrid aims..."
"N, quick question," Kenny asked, "Team Plasma's stopped for good, but Team Scorn is still active and is up to foul deeds just as heinous, if not more so, than what all Team Plasma was cooking up. That being said, would you be interested in partying up with us, to lend aid in helping to put a stop to Team Scorn's schemes?"
N gave the heroes' group a look of deep consideration. "...Normally, I'd be against it since you all seem to have no objections to Pokémon battles. But I can tell that you all have noble hearts and wouldn't hesitate to do right by Pokémon. Plus, I do owe you since you guys have helped me not once but twice." With a bit of an embarrassed expression on his face, N added, "Plus, I'm out of the food you gave me earlier. I offered some to Braviary because I assume he hadn't eaten, and he ate all of what you had given me, so..."
The heroes then all gave a good laugh that N got in on a few seconds after the laughter had started up. Thus was how N joined the heroes on their journey to the White Ruins near Dragonspiral Tower, in the hopes of stopping what all evil schemes that Team Scorn may have cooked up for said ruins. No doubt that Team Scorn's goal to set Boss's Assistant Ayane up to capture Reshiram would be playing a major role in whatever actions Team Scorn may end up attempting at the White Ruins, so all of the heroes had to make some serious time to reach the White Ruins.
Two days later, after settling some habor-related business while passing through Virbank City, the heroes and N took a break by stopping at a Kanto Fair after passing through Virbank City. "Wow, I would love to check the Kanto Fair out," Ash said as he and the others did a casual walk around without focusing too much on any one bit in particular.
"Is this because of how you're from Kanto, Ash?" Trip said, "I actually traveled through Kanto myself, and it's a rather lovely region. I even met Professor Oak, and he was kind enough to give me a Squirtle."
"Professor Oak gave you a Squirtle?" Kenny said, "Weird. I got my Venusaur Cermit from him as a Bulbasaur."
Shrugging, Dawn said, "I got my Charmeleon Amy from him as a Charmander."
Pointing dramatically at Dawn, Trip said, "Aha! Finally Kenny and I have you beat at something, Dawn!" With a smug look on his face, Trip said, "Tumbler, which is the Squirtle I got from Professor Oak, has already fully evolved into Blastoise."
N seemed amazed to hear that the reborn trainers had such rare Pokémon. "Those Pokémon which are usually given to beginner trainers starting off in Kanto are quite rare. You are very lucky to have them." turning to look at Ash, N said, "You're from Kanto, yes? Which Pokémon between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle did you choose to start off with?"
"Actually, Pikachu here is my first Pokémon," Ash explained, pointing Pikachu out to N. Ash then proceeded to recount the story of how he got Pikachu, showing how a twist of fate brought about by Ash sleeping in late one particular day turned out to be for the best.
The heroes and N then proceeded to tour around the Kanto Fair a bit more until they came across a presentation being done by a cute girl identified as the Kanto Fair Host. She was on stage with a Charmander, Acting on cue, the Charmander proceeded to wow the people watching by doing a spin in place while using Ember, but it soon rendered itself dizzy and knocked over a lamp before falling over itself. Its tail rose up to show that it was at least somewhat okay. Regardless, the heroes and N were all concerned, so they followed things on over to the local Pokémon Center.
...
After having treated Charmander, the Nurse Joy saw the heroes and N and went out to talk to them. "Charmander is fine," Nurse Joy said, "It just needs to rest for a bit. Actually, the Kanto Fair Host girl kind of needs to review the performing of the stunt she had Charmander do." The heroes and N were all relieved to hear that things had turned out to be fine after all. Relieved, they all went out into the Pokémon Center's main lobby to sit down for a drink.
As everyone drank, Ash said, "You know, that Charmander reminds me of my own."
"Hang on," Cilan said, "I thought you started out with Pikachu."
"I did," Ash confirmed, "But I later caught a Charmander who was abandoned by its previous owner." Ash then proceeded to explain to everyone the story about the Charmander he had caught; how it had helped him through many adventures, eventually evolving into Charmeleon but becoming disobedient afterwards, but Ash still used it and it eventually evolved into Charizard. But Charizard still remained disobedient, with said disobedience costing Ash a battle at the Indigo Plateau Conference, his first league conference that he participated in.
"Wait, your Charizard was disobedient?" Iris asked, "How?"
"You had similar issues with Excadrill and Dragonite, remember?" Cilan pointed out, making Iris slump out of embarrassment. Particularly over how Dragonite had previously been disobedient, at one point requiring Dawn to use Palkia to subdue. Thankfully Dragonite, as well as Excadrill, now obeyed Iris without issue.
Turning to look at Ash, N asked, "Did things with your Charizard ever improve?"
Nodding twice in the affirmative, Ash replied, "Oh yeah, Charizard and I now work tight." Ash then proceeded to tell the tale of how Charizard went down to a Poliwrath, getting frozen as a result. Ash stayed up all night caring for Charizard, helping it thaw out, and that ended up getting Ash Charizard's respect back, which then led to them winning a rematch with the aforementioned Poliwrath. Ash then explained that he left Charizard to train in a place in Johto called the Charicific Valley, but all of the training Charizard did there helped out big time to prep Charizard for several battles Ash used it in since.
Dawn and Kenny noted two particular times that Ash had used Charizard; once in Ash's battle at Lake Acuity in Sinnoh where Ash defeated Paul and had started the formerly cruel trainer on his redemption arc (Kenny's term for it), and the other where Ash used Charizard against Dawn in their battle in the final round of the Lily of the Valley Conference. Charizard on both occasions had proven very useful, particularly the battle at Lake Acuity where Charizard had knocked out three of the the six total Pokémon that Paul had used.
After Ash, with additions from Dawn and Kenny, had finished telling the tale, the Kanto Fair Host came up with her Charmander. "I'm really sorry for what all trouble we've caused you guys," said the Kanto Fair Host.
"It's no problem at all," Ash said. turning to look at Charmander, Ash said, "And you be more careful too, alright?" The Charmander gave a happy cry before it and the Kanto Fair Host took off. After they had left, Ash let out a sigh. "All that reminiscing has left me feeling nostalgic and wanting to see Charizard again," Ash said. Then, as if with sudden insiration, Ash leapt up from where he and the other heroes and N all sat. "You know what? I'll get Charizard sent back to me!"
"I think I also ought to get Amy sent to me as well," Dawn said, "She still needs to do some training."
It took Professor Oak a while, but he had Charizard's pokéball sent to him from Charicific Valley in the Johto region. Additionally, Oak was able to send Amy to Dawn with relative ease. And so, after Ash and Dawn rotated one Pokémon each out of their respective parties, they got Charizard and Amy sent to them. The heroes and N then all went outside of the Pokémon Center, where Ash called out his Charizard and Dawn called out her named Charmeleon.
Ash then called out the rest of his on hand team to meet Charizard, and Iris similarly called out her team. Amy, wanting to be cordial, walked up to Ash's Charizard and tried to offer it a handshake, but Charizard didn't even notice her, given that it locked eyes with Iris's Dragonite almost instantly. "Uh oh," Bianca said, "I think that Iris's Dragonite might be misbehaving again."
"No, Bianca," Ash said, able to tell what's going on, "Charizard and Dragonite can tell that the both of them are strong contenders. They just wanna try themselves out against each other in battle."
Dawn nodded in agreement with Ash. "Indeed. And it'd be an invaluable learning experience for Amy, to watch her evolved form in battle." Both Ash and Iris agreed to an exhibition battle between Charizard and Dragonite, and thus the two mighty Pokémon were slated to spar with one another.
Leaning to his side to lean close to Dawn, Trip whispered to her, "You got Tsukune ready in case Iris's Dragonite freaks out again?"
"Oh yeah," Dawn whispered back.
...
Ash and Iris stood opposite of one another on their chosen battlefield before they began the battle. Dawn remembered this battle from the anime in her previous life, and things played out more or less the same. The only difference here is that Charizard's attacks seemed to have hit just a tiny bit harder, maybe due to the extra battle experience Charizard here had due to Ash using it both against Paul in the Lake Acuity battle, and also in the battle that he had with Dawn back during the Lily of the Valley Conference.
Regardless, both Charizard and Dragonite were still more than willing to continue the battle by the time N stepped in to call the battle off, citing that Charizard and Dragonite now had firm respect for one another. "Can I ask a question?" Iris asked after the battle had ended, "How come Dragonite's Dragon Rush wasn't super effective against Charizard, given that Charizard is a dragon Pokémon?"
"What are you one about?" Dawn said, "Charizard is a dual fire flying type." Ash then pulled Charizard up on his pokédex, which confirmed that Charizard is indeed a dual fire flying type.
Snapping her fingers in disappointment, Iris said, "Aww man, and I was planning to get and raise a Charizard of my own..."
Turning to look at Charizard, Ash said, "Say Charizard, you interested in joining me for the rest of my journey here in Unova?" Charizard gave a triumphant cry to show that it was totally on board with sticking with Ash, even loosing a Flamethrower into the sky. Dawn's named Charmeleon also copied the gesture, being so excited to have its evolved form around that Amy herself suddenly began to evolve, much to the surprise of the heroes. After the growing and form changing was done, the white glowing faded, revealing that Dawn's named Charmeleon had evolved into Charizard.
"Wow!" Cilan exclaimed, "Now Dawn has a Charizard too!"
Nodding in agreement, Dawn said, "Indeed, although I would like for Amy to get used to her new form first before I consider using her seriously." Turning to look at Ash, Dawn asked, "What do you say, Ash? You think your Charizard could impart some of what he learned in Charicific Valley to Amy?"
"I bet he won't have a problem with that," Ash said, drawing a nod of agreement out of his Charizard. And so, with two Charizards with them now, the heroes were more than ready to continue their journey to the White Ruins, ready to stop whatever schemes Team Scorn may try to pull there.
END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE
Author's notes;
In case some of you were wondering why Dawn's Charmeleon didn't evolve until this chapter, I wanted to save that for when Ash got Charizard into his Unova team. Anyway, this chapter skims over a lot of post-Vertress Conference episodes in order to get things started on the heroes working to try to prevent Reshiram from falling into the hands of Team Scorn. In particular, this chapter also has N join the heroes, where he'll have an impact on how things go. The next chapter will see how things will continue to go since Team Scorn had usurped Team Plasma and has basically taken their place in the coming events here. Things will get kicked up, so keep an eye out for the chapters to come.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Amy (female Charizard), Germany (male Garchomp), Zancrow (male Volcarona), Leni (female Lucario), Tsukune (Palkia)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Roshi (male Torterra), Android 21 (female Weavile; shiny), Black (Giratina; Origin Form), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Shallot (male Glaceon)
Trip's Pokémon: (on hand) Mr. Popo (male Magmortar), HedonismBot (Magnezone), Myde (male Empoleon), Tsunade (female Gastrodon), Deelia (Dialga), Fourze (male Electivire)
Ash's Pokémon: (on hand) Pikachu (male), Krookodile (male; Sunglasses), Charizard (male), Hydreigon (female), Scrafty (male), Emboar (male)