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 eighty: Scornful Stretches
The heroes were making their way to Snowbelle City, where the eighth and final gym that Ash and the reborn trainers could challenge was located. The reborn trainers, before the group left Anistar City, rotated their parties around to be more general rather than geared to fare against a single specific type of Pokémon. "So guys, I was thinking," Kenny began, "When we get to Snowbelle City, how will we-"
Kenny was cut off when he and the others heard some cries; turning to see, the heroes spotted a heard of Dodrio running past them, and a Grovyle was chasing after them. The Grovyle came to a stop, and Sawyer came running onto the scene, panting a bit out of exhaustion. "Sawyer!" Ash said, getting Sawyer's attention, "What are you doing? And what's with the herd of Dodrio?"
"Team Scorn," Sawyer said, immediately putting the heroes on the alert, "They tried capturing that herd of Dodrio. I wanted to try catching a Dodrio as well but I only wanted to catch one then I would have been done. But Team Scorn wanted the lot, wouldn't let me catch one for myself. I was forced to flee, and all of the Dodrio fled along with me as well."
"Where's Team Scorn now?" Dawn demanded more than asked.
Before Sawyer could answer, a series of attacks from Pokémon hit the ground near the heroes and Sawyer, creating an explosion that caught their attention. Looking over, the heroes and Sawyer saw that a large number of Team Scorn grunts come running their way, enough so that the grunts outnumbered the heroes and Sawyer two to one. Pointing at the horde of Team Scorn members coming their way, Sawyer said to Dawn, "Does that answer your question?"
The horde of Team Scorn grunts almost reached the heroes and Sawyer, but they all stopped short when they heard a male voice call out, "Hold!" The Team Scorn grunts came to a stop upon hearing that male voice call out, a voice that sounded familiar to Ash and the reborn trainers. The grunts parted way as someone came out from the back of the group to greet them, and it was a person who Ash and the reborn trainers knew well but wasn't expecting to run into anytime soon, not that they would want to run into him casually.
"Well now, twerps," James, formerly of Team Rocket but now of Team Scorn, said as he, with Jessie and Meowth behind him, confronted the heroes, "It certainly has been quite a while."
"It's the guy Team Rocket member!" Kenny said, "I forget his name!"
"It's James, you idiot," Trip said dryly.
Pointing at James, Kenny loudly and angrily demanded, "What do you want with us, James you idiot?"
"I see you're about as smart as that annoying Sandslash of yours," James remarked to Kenny, then to the heroes as a whole he went on, "And for the record, all I was doing was leading the men with me in capturing that herd of Dodrio that ran past here. Team Scorn needs a greater number of Pokémon."
"Let me guess," Ash said, a clearly unamused scowl on his face, "You and the rest of Team Scorn plan to sell them on the black market."
"For your information twerp," Jessie snapped, "Team Scorn actually planned to keep the caught Dodrio. Admin Hero said so."
Dawn's interest was piqued by Jessie mentioning the head of the Team Scorn sector native to the Kalos region. "What does Kaito want with the Dodrio?"
Jessie arched a wry eyebrow. "Kaito? That's Admin Hero's real name?" Briskly shaking her head, Jessie said, "I don't know why Admin Hero wants the caught Dodrio kept, I'm just following along." Jessie's eyes drifted to where Ash stood. "...Although since you twerps have kept us from getting the Dodrio, I think Admin Hero may be willing to settle for the consolation prize of the twerp's Pikachu."
"Old habits die hard, I guess," Meowth said with a shrug, "I guess we'll have to keep you twerps busy. I just can't help but wonder what Admin Hero is up to." Then, at James's command, the horde of Team Scorn members rushed in to attack the heroes and Sawyer.
Meanwhile, over in an abandoned lab area, Third Captain Jun and Second Captain Erik were looking around, supervising their grunts while their respective Captain's Assistants were leading the lesser grunts. "Since we've taken Team Flare out of the picture so they couldn't interfere with Team Scorn plans," Erik began, "We can just slide on in and take up what all Team Flare left behind."
Jun nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, and it turned out that Team Flare had a LOT of money stored away. Money that all now belongs to Team Scorn."
"You know, I've been wondering about that actually," Erik began, his tone casually conversational, "What was Team Flare doing with so much money? They weren't as big name as Team Rocket was when it was around, Team Flare certainly was nowhere near as large as Team Scorn. So what's the deal?"
As the two captains talked, a pair of male Scorn grunts came walking up. "Sirs," the first male Grunt began, "I was told that Captain Xander and Admin Hero were also going to be acting, but none of us have seen either of them."
"Oh, Xander and Admin Hero are leading another mission in another area," Erik explained, "I don't know all of the exact details, but from what I was able to gleam, they might be gearing up to track down a particularly powerful Pokémon."
The two male grunts both looked surprised by that. "What sort of Pokémon do you think it is, sirs?" the second male Grunt asked, "Assuming that they ARE dealing with a very powerful Pokémon, that is."
Shrugging indifferently, Jun replied, "I dunno."
...
In an open rocky area, a large number of Team Scorn grunts tried corralling the legendary Pokémon Zygarde, while Hero, Admin, Asami, and Rina all stood back and watched. Asami and Rina, both clearly frightened, hid behind their respective officers. Xander and Hero, despite how they would staunchly protect their assistants, were still a little apprehensive themselves. "What in the name of all that is good is that thing?!" Xander exclaimed as he pointed at Zygarde, "Seeing that thing on the loose makes me wish I had a weapon to protect myself with! I'm feeling a spear would suit me best."
Hero grimaced as he saw the men under him and Xander fall back one by one after they were wiped trying to corral Zygarde. "That there is a Pokémon that makes me wish we had Boss's Assistant Ayane here to help us out. She's the only one in Team Scorn who owns a Pokémon powerful enough to go toe to toe with a... a beast such as that thing."
As the First Captain and the Admin watched on, a female grunt came jogging up to them. "Sirs," the female grunt said, "At the rate things are going here, that Pokémon will wipe us all out, even if you guys and your Assistants all joined in. I think that, with all due respect, our best option right now would be to fall back."
"Yeah, I was about to order that very idea," Hero said, understanding that things here were a wash, "Tell the men to shift from focusing on fighting to focusing on escaping. We're pulling out." The female grunt nodded in understanding before she jogged on back and informed the fighting men to focus on creating an opening to let them all get out of there. The grunts, relieved that they didn't have to fight anymore, had their Pokémon use attacks on the ground in front of Zygarde, kicking up a cloud of dust that distracted Zygarde and allowed for Team Scorn to flee unseen.
When the dust settled, Zygarde looked around and, seeing that the humans who bothered it were all gone now, decided to go back to where it came from, figuring that the attack was little more than temporary entertainment.
Meanwhile, the heroes were able to drive off James, Jessie, Meowth, and the rest of Team Scorn that was with them. "Well now," Sawyer said, panting a bit hard out of exhaustion, "That was some decent exercise."
"I still can't help but think that we, once again, were dealing with a distraction mission while a real mission was going on in the background," Dawn said to the heroes as her named Infernape Chi-Chi came walking up to her, "It's Team Scorn's forte, you know."
"Still, all of that battling has got to be good practice for the gym in Snowbelle City," Kenny remarked.
Sawyer perked up at Kenny's mentioning of Snowbelle City. "That gym is strong," Sawyer said, "Too strong. I don't think any of us are ready for it yet." Taking out his map, Sawyer went on, "However, I recommend that you guys check out Terminus Cave along the way to Snowbelle City. It's a good place for training, the Pokémon one can find there are all really strong and can't be found anywhere else."
The reborn trainers all already knew about Terminus Cave; in their previous lives, Terminus Cave was the place in the XY games where one can find Zygarde. They doubt that Zygarde could be found there now, and Dawn was getting a sinking suspicion that something was up, that something that should have happened hasn't happened yet for one odd reason or another.
"Thanks for the advice," Dawn said to Sawyer, "I think we will check out Terminus Cave."
"What do you mean we aren't ready for the Snowbelle City gym yet?!" Kenny exclaimed incredulously, "I'll have you know we-"
"-Will be checking out Terminus Cave anyway," Dawn interrupted, cutting Kenny off and getting him to settle down. The heroes said their goodbyes to Sawyer and parted ways with him. They then proceeded to make their way to Terminus Cave on the way to Snowbelle City. Along the way, the heroes passed by Alain, the guy who uses Mega Charizard X, but neither he nor the heroes noticed one another in passing.
Later, as the heroes continued to make their way, they were resting in an open field where they set up some picnic tables. While the heroes were setting up lunch, Bonnie was brushing Serena's Eevee's fur. After a bit of brushing, Eevee leapt from Bonnie's lap and began dancing around happily. As Eevee gave happy cries while dancing around, Serena giggled cutely. "Eevee must really like the brushing you did, Bonnie," Serena remarked.
"Yeah," Bonnie said, "I bet that-"
"Quill!"
Bonnie was cut off when she and the others heard a random Pokémon cry sound out in the distance, but it was getting closer. Turning to see, the heroes were surprised to see a wild Quilladin, using Vine Whip in the shape of a heart it aimed at Eevee, rushing right towards the group but focusing mainly on Eevee who was understandably nervous. However, everything came to a screeching halt when Eevee blocked the Vine Whip with Protect.
"Hey look, a wild Quilladin," Trip said, "And it has its Vine Whip attack in the shape of a heart."
Dawn arched a wry eyebrow at Quilladin. "...Given it's aiming the Vine Whip in a heart shape at Eevee, my guess is that Quilladin's in love with Eevee." Serena's Eevee gave a surprised cry upon being told that Quilladin was in love with it. After settling down, however, it turned its head away from Quilladin in a manner to show that it was snubbing Quilladin.
Quilladin, heartbroken by being rejected, fell to its hands and knees as it despaired over the rejection. "You could have been a bit more gentle in turning Quilladin down you know, Eevee," Bonnie scolded.
"Eevee is still rather on the skittish side of things," Serena said, "I'm pretty sure it can't handle a relationship right now, especially with an evolved and most likely older Pokémon such as Quilladin." Indeed, Eevee moved to hide behind Serena's legs, somewhat cowering from the dejected Quilladin.
As Clemont's Chespin moved in to console Quilladin, the heroes heard a cry in the distance sound out and, turning to see, they spotted a wild Flareon. Quilladin saw the wild Flareon and instantly ran over, getting over the rejection from Eevee by focusing on an Eeveeloution. However, the wild Flareon fired a Flamethrower at Quilladin, who dodged and as a result Clemont's Chespin got hit. "Hey! What was that for, Flareon?!" Clemont yelled, "Go Luxray! Use Wild Charge on Flareon!"
Luxray, cloaked in violently surging electricity, rushed in and rammed right into Flareon, hitting it hard and throwing it into a tree where it took another hard hit and fell to the ground knocked out. As Luxray, blue sparks of electricity dancing over it as damage from using Wild Charge, panted a bit with exhaustion, Clemont went in and threw a spare poké ball at the defeated wild Flareon, successfully capturing it. "You caught the wild Flaeron, Clemont?" Bonnie asked, more surprised than anything. And Bonnie wasn't the only one; the rest of the heroes were also surprised by Clemont capturing the wild Flareon.
"I'll make Flareon apologize for hitting Chespin unprovoked when both of them come to," Clemont said, looking to see where his Chespin laid in defeat. Looking at the poké ball that held his newly caught Flareon, Clemont went on, "Also, it never hurts to have more Pokémon to help out with the fight against Team Scorn."
"True that," Kenny nodded, right before Quilladin gave a shocked cry before fainting, making the heroes worry for it.
...
When Quilladin came to, it saw that Eevee, Flareon, a Glaceon, and a Leafeon were all looking down at it. Quilladin got up and sat on the ground, looking at the Eeveeloutions and Eevee. The Leafeon then reached up and licked Quilladin on the side of its face. "Yeah, the others here were worried about you, Quilladin," Ash spoke up, making Quilladin turn to look at him, "And don't worry, we got Eevee, Flareon, Glaceon, and Leafeon to all agree to play nice."
"And before you go trying to flirt with Shallot and Fena," Kenny said to Quilladin, "Because it's clear you have a type and it's Eevees and their evolutions, just be aware that Shallot there-" Kenny paused to point at his named Glaceon "-Is a boy." Quilladin turned to look at Shallot who nodded in confirmation. "But Dawn's Leafeon Fena there is a girl," Kenny went on while pointing at Fena.
Turning its attention to Fena, Quilladin saw her and instantly fell in love with her. Looking around, Quilladin saw a patch of flowers, so it got up and ran over to the flowers, picked some, then came back and presented a small but cute bouquet to Fena. Sniffing at the bouquet Quilladin brought her, Fena gave a happy cry before she started to, to Quilladin's mild confusion, eat the flowers. After eating them, Fena gave another happy cry before she proceeded to lick the side of Quilladin's face. Despite Quilladin being confused by Fena eating the flowers, it was clearly nonetheless happy that an Eeveeloution was finally returning affection to it.
"Hey Quilladin," Ash said, getting Quilladin's attention, "Would you be interested in coming along with me? We could always use a good Pokémon, and you coming with me will have the benefit of getting to hang out more with Dawn's Leafeon there."
"You wanna capture Quilladin, Ash?" Serena asked, looking surprised.
Ash nodded in the affirmative. Quilladin, after giving the notion a bit of thought, decided to accept Ash's offer. As a result, Ash ended up catching the Quilladin. Thusly, the heroes got more Pokémon friends, which was bound to be a boon to their efforts in Kalos against the region's native sector of Team Scorn. Dawn, Kenny, and Trip also wondered when Team Flare was going to show up, or were they eighty-sixed by Team Scorn like what happened to Team Plasma over in the Unova region? Either way, the heroes were able to continue their journey, wondering just what awaited them next.
And what Pokémon someone in their group would be catching next, as well as who will catch it.
Later, the heroes stopped off at a Pokémon Center so that Clemont's Chespin and Flareon, along with Ash's Quilladin, could be looked at by the Nurse Joy. While there, they helped a girl who found a Mega Stone out of a sticky situation and, when Professor Sycamore showed up with a boy with a Makuhita that needed medical attention, the good professor was able to determine that the Mega Stone that the girl found was an Audinoite, and suggested to Nurse Joy to have her Audino hold it.
When a surprise rush of injured Pokémon came in, Nurse Joy decided to Mega Evolve her Audino who, with its strengthened healing powers, was able to take care of all of the hurt Pokémon, even those of the heroes. After witnessing the wonders of Mega Evolution yet again, the heroes took off after giving their regards to Sycamore, excited for what all else laid in wait for them as they continued to make their way to Terminus Cave along the way to Snowbelle City.
...Little did the heroes know that they would have a... strange... adventure along the way.
...
Sometime later at night, the heroes aside from Dawn who wanted to do something private were in sleeping bags, looking up at the night sky as there was a meteor shower. "We're gonna have to make wishes now," Serena said, "If you make a wish on a shooting star, it'll come true."
Ash gave an amused chuckle before saying, "Well you can probably guess what my wish is. To meet a lot of strong trainers."
"I wish to find the perfect cringe with which I can sustain my life-force," Kenny declared.
"I wish that I can become a trainer soon," Bonnie said, "And also for Clemont to find a wife."
"I wish that Bonnie would stop trying to find a wife for me," Clemont said dryly.
"I wish to know what exactly Olympia meant when she said I'd encounter life-bringing rains," Trip remarked, "Also to know what was meant by the predictions she had for Dawn and Kenny."
Serena, with a bit of concern in her expression, said, "I wish that I'll get the three Princess Keys I need in order to qualify for the Master Rank Showcase in time."
Chuckling, Kenny commented, "Dawn's missing out on some primo wishing action here. That's what she gets for having to go download a brownload in the woods."
"Dawn did not go off into the woods to answer a call of nature," Trip said dryly, "Now let's all get some sleep. We need to get up early."
"A good thing I got another alarm clock after Kenny's Houndoom broke my last one by blasting it with Flamethrower," Clemont said as he took out a store bought alarm clock that he didn't modify in anyway, set it, then put it down as everyone settled into their sleeping bags and soon all fell asleep. As they all slept, the heroes began to dream their dreaming dreams.
...However, as the heroes slept, a wild Darkrai appeared and, seeing Ash's Pikachu who was asleep, decided to use its powers to put Pikachu into the dream of Serena's Eevee who was also asleep. For no particular reason.
...
When Pikachu came to, he saw that he was in a well lit manor dining area. Sitting at the table were Serena's Eevee dressed as a noble daughter, Clemont's Flareon and Dawn's named Leafeon Fena both dressed as noble women, and Kenny's named Glaceon Shallot who was wearing blue body armor with pauldrons. Pikachu walked over to the table where Eevee and the Eeveeloutions were all dining.
Seeing Pikachu come up, Eevee began talking. In human talk, surprising Pikachu. "Oh, there you are, Pikachu," Eevee said, "You're just in time to join us for the dining party."
"Pika?" Pikachu replied, sounding confused.
"He can't talk," Clemont's Flareon said, "Must be because he's still half asleep, I bet."
Fena looked to be about to speak up, but was cut off when Shallot noisily tore into a strip of jerky, as if he hadn't had anything to eat in a while. "Umm, I'm actually kind of surprised you're eating jerky, Shallot," Fena remarked.
"Shut it, Fena," Shallot said, "I haven't had any meat in a month!"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!" a random cry sounded out, resonating with aroused, sensual pleasure.
Briskly shaking his head, Pikachu said, "Pikachu pika-pi?"
"How do you get out of here?" Clemont's Flareon said, "Oh, well it's really quite simple. All you have to do is-"
...
*THOOM*
Pikachu, as well as everyone else, was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of battle going on. "We're under attack!" Kenny yelled, "Quick, throw a distraction at the attackers and let's-"
"Is Dawn battling a wild Darkrai?!" Trip yelled, cutting Kenny off and making everyone turn to see that, indeed, Dawn was currently battling a wild Darkrai, having Tsukune attack it with as little letup as possible. Darkrai was bathed in a swamp of fire from Tsukune's Flamethrower before the named Palkia, at Dawn's order, conjured and cast a Spacial Rend at Darkrai, hitting it point blank and throwing it against a tree. Darkrai then fell to the ground and passed out, clearly not in any condition to be getting up and going anywhere.
As the rest of the heroes got out of their sleeping bags and got closer to see what exactly was going on, Dawn took out an Ultra Ball, expanded it, and threw it at the Darkrai while shouting, "Go, Ultra Ball!" The Ultra Ball flew at Darkrai, bumped into it, and took it inside before falling to the ground with a slight clink. The Ultra Ball then proceeded to shake around for a little bit, making Dawn and the others watch on out of nervousness as the Ultra Ball tried to work its magic. Dawn was prepared to have Tsukune fire another attack at the Darkrai if it managed to break out of the Ultra Ball.
But that woud never have been necessary, as the Ultra Ball made a 'ping' sound, indicating that Dawn had successfully caught the wild Darkrai. "She... she did it," Ash said, "...Dawn caught Darkrai."
"It was using some weird power on you guys while you were sleeping," Dawn said as she went to collect the ball that held her new mythical Pokémon, "I caught it in the act after I got back from a secluded area in the woods I went to so I could pee without anyone seeing me."
"Now that you mention it," Ash said, "I did wake up from a weird dream where Tierno and Clemont were sumo wrestling each other. Clemont won despite being nowhere near the same size as Tierno."
"I had a dream where I was playing Poker with Cell, Kermit, and Shallot," Kenny said, "They were talking and everything. I also heard Zarbon moan at one point."
"I had a dream where Max asked me to marry him and we had the prettiest wedding ever," Bonnie remarked.
"I had a dream where I received great acclaim for an invention I made," Clemont said.
"I had a dream where I was part of a jury on a trial for a captured high ranking member of Team Scorn," Trip commented.
"I..." Serena said, blushing a bit out of embarrassment; she did have a dream, but in it she won all the Princess Keys she needed, then she won the Master Rank Showcase and became the Kalos Queen, then Ash who somehow became a region Champion asked her to marry him. Not wanting to say ANY of that out loud, Serena instead said, "...I had a dream where my Pancham and Kenny's Scizor fought over a golden Poké Puff that I made."
Turning to look at Dawn, Trip said, "I guess you challenging and sub sequentially catching Darkrai cut it off from screwing with our dreams. By the way, since you caught Darkrai, what will you name it?" Dawn first checked Darkrai out with her pokédex to get the lowdown on it; Darkrai was genderless, had a modest nature, and the ability Bad Dreams. Taking a look at the Ultra Ball that held her new Darkrai, Dawn said, "...I'll name it Tobias."
"Oh ho ho," Kenny said in an amused tone, "I see what you did there." Gesturing to Dawn, Kenny said, "Anyway Dawn, before we fell asleep, we saw a meteor shower and made wishes on it. You missed it, but what would you have wished for?"
"To get the power necessary to bring Team Scorn to kneel," Dawn replied.
Gesturing to the Ultra Ball that held Dawn's named Darkrai, Trip said, "Well I think that you catching Darkrai is a step in the right direction for that. There's also how Ash had caught Moltres recently."
"Team Scorn better watch out," Bonnie said, "Because we'll make them regret ever becoming bad guys." The heroes, after getting over the excitement of Dawn catching the Darkrai that was messing with the others as they slept, all settled back down for sleep, hoping they'll still be able to get sufficient shut eye before they all had to get up in the morning to continue their journey to Terminus Cave on the way to Snowbelle City.
END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHTY
Author's notes;
This chapter covers what would have been Team Flare's first appearance but Team Scorn did to them what they also did to Team Plasma, also the heroes passed by Alain who will show up again. The heroes also decide, on Sawyer's advice, to check out Terminus Cave. After that, the heroes encounter the wild Quilladin who crushed on Serena's Eevee, and Ash ends up catching the Quilladin; the wild Flareon from that episode is also caught by Clemont, thus giving the heroes some decent Pokémon in Kalos to help with fighting off Team Scorn.
After that, the Mega Audino episode is skimmed over, the Litleo episode is skipped entirely, and then the events of the weird dream episode where a wild Darkrai shows up are covered, mainly because Dawn ends up catching that Darkrai. With multiple new Pokémon in their corner now, with one of said new Pokémon being a mythical, the heroes are able to press onward in their journey in the Kalos region. Don't adjust your set, because the next chapter will see Ash's Frogadier achieve the destiny that has been awaiting it all this time.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Tobias (Darkrai), Germany (male Garchomp), Fena (female Leafeon), Leni (female Lucario), Tsukune (Palkia)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Roshi (male Torterra), Ban (male Sabeleye), Goofy (male Houndoom), Shallot (male Glaceon), Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Black (Giratina; Origin Form)
Trip's Pokémon: (on hand) Fourze (male Electivire), HedonismBot (Magnezone), Myde (male Empoleon), Kululu (male Greninja), Deelia (Dialga), Todoroki (male Goodra; alpha; Hisuian)
Ash's Pokémon: (on hand) Pikachu (male), Trevenent (male), Steelix (male; shiny), Frogadier (male), Talonflame (male), Quilladin (male)