"The water is returning to Alto Mare!"
Welp, it was official. This was the worst vacation ever.
Ash had hoped this standard trip to Alto Mare would be a nice breather before the Johto League came into session, but instead, he got roped into the shenanigans of some Team Rocket agents and Legendary Pokemon, and now there was a tidal wave threatening to wash the city into the ocean.
So that was fun.
Latios called out to his sister, and she nodded. The two had a plan in mind, but Ash could notice that Latios was too weak to continue. If he went into that tidal wave, then…
Ash leapt onto Latios, trying to stop him from going, but unfortunately for Ash, Latios had already begun to dash into the tidal wave. Ash yelped in terror, trying to tell Latios that he was on his back, but both him and his sister were too focused on gathering power to notice him.
Before Ash could make a move to jump off, the Eon Duo made impact with the wave. Ash saw a bright flash of light, and suddenly, everything went black.
Misty, Brock, and their friends from Alto Mare were crying as they placed the newly formed Soul Dew into the fountain of the Secret Garden. Though they went searching for Ash and the twins, they had only found an unconscious Latias and the Soul Dew. Latias herself wasn't able to figure anything out, beyond knowing that Latios had ascended to another plane of existence.
Ash hadn't been found, and neither had Pikachu, who Ash had forgotten to remove from his shoulder before trying to stop Latios. If this were a better day, Misty would have called him an idiot, but right now, she really wasn't in the mood.
A bright flash suddenly emanated from the Soul Dew. As the group covered their eyes, a voice called out to them. It was a deep and raspy one, a voice that hadn't been heard in millennia.
"I shall not be having my Chosen One die a death this pathetic. I shall return him and his partner Pokemon to you." As the lights dimmed, the group could make out four silhouettes forming in the flash. "Though I may have made a couple of oopsies while performing the process. If all goes well, they should hopefully all still be sane. Best of luck!"
The light faded, and the four silhouettes came into view. The group immediately recognized the two larger bodies as a Latias and Latios pair, and the two smaller ones as a Plusle and Minun duo. The four Pokemon blinked as they looked at each other.
The Pokemon began communicating among themselves, and though the humans couldn't understand what they were saying, Latias understood the whole thing.
"Woah, who are you?"
The two Eon Pokemon spoke in unison, flinching at the shared speech.
"Well I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and I'm going to be a Pokemon Master!" The two Pokemon literally butted heads with each other. "Stop copying me!"
The Plusle had begun to gleefully mimic them, pouting as the two fought, while the Minun simply face-palmed. Despite the circumstances, she seemed very nonchalant, almost disappointed, about the whole thing.
Latias, despite the circumstances, paled in horror. If the two Pokemon were being completely honest, which they definitely seemed to be if they were arguing amongst themselves, then that meant that…
"Both of you idiots, can you stop fighting for one second!?"
The two Eon Pokemon turned to Latias, confused, as she sighed. Her brother had just died, the boy she had a crush on had just died, and she really wasn't in the mood for shenanigans.
"Okay, so, which one of you is Ash?" Both Eon Pokemon raised their hands, shooting a glare at each other. The Plusle giggled. "Okay, so before we begin pointing fingers, what do you remember after clinging onto my brother?"
The two Eon Pokemon paused, but the Latios spoke up first. "Well, it was really dark. And then suddenly a light came to me and said something along the lines of "Wow, you really are that stupid, I owe Dialga twenty bucks now," before then telling me about something related to revival and body changes and-"
The Latios looked down at himself, and he soon realized in horror what exactly the voice had meant. "I'm a Latios!?"
Latias sighed as the other Latias in the Secret Garden soon had practically the same reaction. They really were the same, weren't they?
"Okay, so if I've got this correct…" She pointed at the two of them. "Both of you are Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. I don't know how that's possible, but I don't see any other alternative."
The Latias simply blinked at the Latios, and the two shared the same thought.
"So how are we going to explain this to Mom?"
"She's going to kill us for getting ourselves killed again. "
Latias facepalmed, and looked down at the Plusle and Minun duo. Plusle was trying to get into a staring contest with the Minun, who was glaring off to the side.
"So wait, if you're both Ash, then who are these two?"
The Minun perked up, but the Plusle responded first. It leapt onto Latias' wing, and crawled up onto her head and struck a pose.
"I'm Pikachu! The one and only lightning extraordinaire!" Plusle pouted and looked at the Minun. "Oh, and I guess she's also Pikachu. But without all of the spark that makes us the coolllllest!"
The Plusle had continued striking poses through the whole conversation, and Minun just looked like she wanted to die.
"I swear to whatever God there is out there that if you keep this up I am going to stuff your head into the Soul Dew's fountain."
"So….." Brock and the others had been looking at the group with no idea about what was going on. "What exactly is happening?"
Latias sighed. It was time to test how good she was at charades.
"Ok, so."
Latias had gotten the two Ashes and put them in the Secret Garden until she could figure out what to do with them. She couldn't just let them go like this, not when they were hyper rare Pokemon without any idea of their skills.
So, first comes first, how to differentiate them.
"I was thinking that you two should have different names-"
"No way! I'm Ash, and that's that!" The Latios Ash simply huffed as the Latias Ash chuckled.
"Okay, Ashton."
"Okay Ashley."
"Call me Ashley again and I'm going to make sure that the only thing you think of on the way to the hospital is the image of my claw disemboweling your-"
"Calm down you two!" Latias raised her claws, attempting to split the two brawling Ashes apart. "Look, how about this?" She pointed at the Latios. "You're Ash." He nodded as she pointed at the Latias. "And you're Ashe."
The two glanced at each other and nodded. Latias pumped her fist. They hadn't noticed her play. Trickery was the best way to name someone.
"Alright, that's one thing out of the way. Next thing, you two need to learn some of your skills: Adopting a human illusion, and telepathy. Both are powerful skills our species can learn, and it's important that you both inherit our-"
"Alright, I heard the sounds of violence, what did I miss?"
The sounds of the Plusle and Minun entering the area hit Latias' ears, and she sighed. She had told Brock and Misty to watch them, hadn't she? They must've weaseled their way out of that, somehow. She would need to keep note of that for later.
"Okay, you two are less picky than Ash is, I'm naming you two Pluschu and Minchu, take a wild guess about who gets who."
Pluschu chuckled. "I love that name! It's so cute and fun and friendly and sure to be ingrained as the last thought of my enemies who will perish on the battlefield!"
Minchu sighed. "Do I have to be called-"
Pluschu put his hands on her mouth. "Yes. Now, no complaints, or I'm doing the banana split on you again."
Latias was very keen on not knowing what the banana split was, so she just went back to what she was doing before.
"Ok, little rats, I'm having you two accompany these two to the library. Make sure they don't die."
The two gave an affirmative, and went to join up with one of the two Eons. Minchu went with Ash, while Pluschu went with Ashe. Seeing the pairings, Latias soon realized a problem that she had to remedy.
"Okay, thinking it over, I don't trust you four all together in one library. Ash, you go to the library first."
Both Eon Pokemon pointed at themselves in confusion, as Latias sighed. Right, same pronunciation.
"Blue Ash, you go first. From this discussion alone, I trust you more."
Ashe looked like he wanted to fight, as did Pluschu. Latias motioned for Ash to go as she went to talk to the two. As Ash left the Secret Garden, he could hear the sounds of muffled violence behind him. He was extremely concerned, but that concern soon faded as another problem presented itself.
How was he going to get into a library as a Latios in broad daylight?
The Soul Dew sat in the fountain as a brief glimmer of consciousness shone within it. After a moment, the incorporeal form of a Latios soon asserted itself above the gem, glancing around the lush beauty of the Secret Garden. Dying sure was annoying, but it was a good thing he found a back exit they forgot about on the way in.
He wondered how Latias was doing. Probably poorly, given that he just died. Was he still dead? Eh, semantics. Latios is Latios, in his book.
…Wait, were those the sounds of violence he was hearing? In his Secret Garden? Dead or alive, he was going to make sure these intruders paid with their lives.
Latios blazed out of the Soul Dew's fountain towards the source of the noise. He could see explosions and the sound of a Dragon Pulse exploding as his sister called out to the source of the explosion.
"How do you even know how to use those moves yet!? You literally became a Latias TWO HOURS AGO!"
Latios dashed onto the scene, screaming in anger. "Whoever dares defy the Secret Garden's tranquility will have me to answer to-"
As Latios looked at the scene, he found his sister dueling with… another Latias? He looked closer, and the moment he did, he found himself completely and utterly smitten. The Latias was simply the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes upon. Her bloodthirsty expression, not so dissimilar from his own whenever that Yanma came to steal his fruit at dinnertime, heightened her beauty ever further, and the fact she was holding her own against his sister… That meant she was strong too. Strong enough to protect the Secret Garden with the both of them!
Latias simply stared, slack jawed, at her brother, having returned to life, as his face erupted into a massive blush. In that instance, she knew immediately what had happened, and she went from a surprised Dragon Pokemon to an angry one.
"Latios! You immediately come back from the dead, and what do you do!? Do you know how worried I've been!?"
Latios simply stared, lovestruck, as his sister shouted her griefs at him. He simply couldn't turn away from-
A sharp pain pierced the side of his face as he was struck by his sister's claw. He turned to her in complete disbelief. He was quite literally a ghost, how did she even-
"Latios! Look at me, please."
Latios immediately began to apologize to his sister, as Ashe simply looked on in confusion. Pluschu was giggling madly, rolling on Ashe's back in hearty laughter. The two siblings made up, going in for a hug, made slightly awkward by Latias' head going through Latios' ghostly chest. Latias soon backed up and looked at her brother, realizing something.
"Wait, if that voice brought Ash and Pikachu back to life, how come you weren't brought back properly?"
Latios looked like he wanted to say something about Ash and Pikachu, but the two were interrupted as the voice from before breached their minds.
"Being completely honest, I forgot, laughing out loud."
The voice soon faded, and Latias and Latios just looked at each other.
"Yeah, so, a lot happened."
"I see." He trailed off, looking at Ashe. "So, perhaps you could start by telling me who your alluring friend over there is?"
Latias sighed. This really wasn't how she was expecting her brother to come back from the dead, but in any case, she supposed she had to deal with this now-
Wait, hang on, she was already crushing on Ash! He couldn't also crush on Ash! That was just rude!
"Okay, so, Latios, I think we need to have a really big talk about this."
Ash and Minchu had devised a perfect plan. Minchu would sneak into the library, carry out the books, and bring them to Ash on the roof, where he would read them all without anyone noticing. It was genius!
Minchu had already gone in, but she had been gone for some time now. Ash was starting to get worried. Did she fall off the bookshelf? Get caught by a trainer? Did Annie and Oakley strike again? Did-
He turned around and found Minchu staring deadpan in his face. Ash jumped back as Minchu plopped down the book in front of him.
Ash picked it up, and raised an eyebrow. "Minchu, this is a compendium on physics." Ash heaved under the weight of the book. "How did you even carry this?"
"Years of chasing around an idiot has its perks. If it's the wrong book, I'll bring it back, just-"
"Nah, don't worry, I'll just read this while you go searching again. It can't be that boring."
Minchu shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'm going back in, wish me luck."
Minchu darted back into the library, and Ash began reading the book. Seriously, it couldn't be that bad, could it?
Latios wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that this beautiful girl he encountered was actually that boy he had attacked literally yesterday, but being honest? He could make it work. Pretty meant pretty, and Ashe had good character. He was a bit more bloodthirsty than usual, but it was just a phase, right? He knew full well how much it sucked to be revived from the dead.
Latias had tried her hardest to convince Latios not to crush on her crush, but unfortunately, this attempt failed. She sighed. Did they count as different people if they had different bodies? Maybe she should have asked Ash to pick up a book on the logistics of this while he was at the library… which, speaking of, he was taking a while. Was something up?
Ashe had no idea what was going on, and frankly, he didn't really care enough to try right now. He was enjoying that battle! It was fun! He got to battle alongside Pikachu, even if he was a Plusle now, but it still counted! Now he had to deal with trying to start another battle with her again without ticking off her brother. This was going to be a nightmare.
Pluschu wished he had popcorn right now. The drama was intense!
"So…" Latios broke the silence over the group. "I know a pizza place. Want to get a pepperoni and the others while discussing this over a good meal?"
Latias sighed. The two things on his mind weren't "How is my sister doing" or "Is Alto Mare safe" but rather "I love my sister's crush" and "Pizza." She didn't know whether to feel pity or be disappointed.
"Minchu, this is the wrong book, could you take it back and see if you can find the right one?"
Minchu was honestly disturbed. Every time she came back, she had found Ash already done with whatever book she had brought. She gave each one a glance and found herself confused just by staring at it, but every time she quizzed him on anything, he had it down by heart. If he kept this up, she was pretty sure he would usurp Professor Oak's position in the field of science pretty soon.
"I'm pretty sure this is the right one, though. How To Telepathy , seems like it'd be handy."
She handed Ash the book, and he took a look. "Yeah, this looks right. Bring that book back, and I'll read this over."
Minchu sighed. If she wasn't going to be the most buff Minun on the face of the planet by the end of all of this book carrying, she was going to be surprised.
"So… nice pizza we're having?"
It was official. This was the most awkward pizza break Latias would ever have.
Latios had taken the liberty of fetching Brock, Misty, Bianca, and Lorenzo, and needless to say they didn't exactly take the ghost of their deceased friend beckoning them to the Secret Garden lightly. Misty screamed something about going to the afterlife once already, according to Latios, so needless to say, Latias had to go and get them herself anyways so they wouldn't try attacking the poor guy.
And now here they were, as Ash's female dragon self, Pikachu's hyperactive half, her brother's deceased spirit, and the rest of their extremely disturbed friends all sat around eating pepperoni pizza.
"So…" said Bianca, glancing awkwardly at the ghost of Latios, "How's being dead?"
Latios attempted to chomp on the pizza, but failed, given he was now literally incorporeal. "Kind of mediocre, I wouldn't recommend it, if I'm being completely honest."
Brock, glancing at his revived friend, who was happily sharing pizza with Pluschu, looked at Latios, and immediately noticed the look on the spectre's face. It was one he had shown off on many occasions, and all for the same reason. He could tell just from looking that the Legendary dragon had fallen in love with his friend.
"Hey, Latios, could we talk privately for a second?"
Latios looked confused, but nodded as he placed down the pizza that he was still trying in vain to bite into. As he turned around, Pluschu snatched the slice from him as both he and Ashe snickered, though Brock elected to keep quiet about that. He had more important matters to discuss.
The two moved several paces away from the scene, as Brock began to talk to him.
"So, I've noticed you have a crush on my friend."
Latios immediately blushed. "N-no, I d-don't."
Brock sighed. "Take it from me, as someone who's proposed to a ton of people and failed every time. I know exactly what you're feeling."
Latios nervously glanced around, as Brock stared at him.
"Normally, I'd suggest just going up and being forward with them, but Ash is still one of my closest friends, even if there are two of them who are in different bodies now." His look turned intense. "I'm not going to stop you from trying, but what I'm saying is that being upfront with Ash isn't going to work. He's as dense as my Onix, no matter what he looks like."
Latios nervously glanced over to Ashe, who was trying, and failing, to communicate with Misty. He sighed. "What are you suggesting?"
"Try to get to know him first. You may be head over heels right now, but you need to find out if you two actually get along or not first, and that's assuming he even says yes to begin with."
"Hm, well I suppose that-"
"Hey guys, what'd I miss?"
Latios and Brock turned to find that Ash had returned from his excursion to the library, with Minchu on his back. Ashe turned around to greet his counterpart, though the pleasantries immediately devolved into bickering as Ash began to explain aural engineering to his other half. Latios wasn't quite sure what he missed, but he had a feeling this was somewhat typical when it came to Ash.
"Hey, Ash, you learned telepathy! Nice work!" She turned to face Ashe, who was still bickering with his counterpart. "Ok, your turn!"
Minchu mumbled something indiscernible to Ashe about where the book he needed was, and both he and Pluschu immediately flew out of the Secret Garden. Latias looked very concerned.
Latios turned to find that Brock had gone over to greet Ash, who was now fully able to communicate. He weighed his options. Perhaps he could ask Ash for tips? Surely he would know, since he was quite literally the same person as Ashe, right? But then again, wasn't Ash literally identical to Ashe, technically? Did that mean he had a crush on Ash and Ashe? Was he just asking his crush for tips on how to ask out his crush?
Wow, and he thought dying would be the worst of his problems today.
A loud explosion suddenly sounded from afar, sending those gathered into a panic. Ashe blitzed back into the Secret Garden in a panic, Pluschu in his arms.
"Ashe! What happened?"
"Well, Pluschu found the book on telepathy, and I tried it, and I may have accidentally blown up the library."
The entire garden screamed a unified "WHAT!?" as Ashe simply shrugged, lightly blushing in embarrassment. Misty immediately darted off with Lorenzo in order to go assess the situation, with Brock following afterwards.
Latios simply stared at Ashe. A girl who could cause mass destruction simply by thinking about it? He could work with this.
"Okay, here comes the part I've been looking forward to! Illusions!"
Latias happily darted around Ash and Ashe, while Misty, Brock, and Bianca watched on. Lorenzo had been busy with damage control given half of the Alto Mare library burnt down, and Latios had gone wandering around to "Commune with the deceased" about his life goals now, and though Latias wasn't sure what he meant, she felt it was better if she stuck out of that.
"Okay, so just think really hard about how you want to look, and roll with it!"
Ash and Ashe both immediately projected the same image of Ash, with the same clothes and everything, right down to splotches of mud and grass stains. Latias couldn't help but be impressed.
"Hey! You can't just take my looks!"
" Excuse me! Those are my looks! Hands off!"
The two Eon Pokemon began duking it out again, and Latias just sighed. For as daring and bold as they were, they were very dense when paired with themself.
"Okay, Ashe!" The two Pokemon glanced at her. "...The red one." Ash backed off as Latias looked Ashe over. "If I may, I have a suggestion for a nice, diverse look that I've been working on for a while. I was going to use it for myself, but I'm not able to figure out how to use illusions of people who aren't real, so this might serve you better for now."
Ashe simply nodded, and Latias pulled out a drawing of a person that she had apparently designed. Bianca lightly chuckled behind her. Had the two planned it together?
Ashe looked at it, and it depicted a person with long thin twintails, bright red hair, and strange hair tufts that resembled the ones on a Latias' head. As Ashe glanced over the outfit, which resembled a regular trainer outfit, he suddenly realized one thing.
"Latias, no way in heck am I choosing a girl appearance."
Ash teasingly mocked his other half. "Oh come on Ashley, it'll be funnnnn."
"Shut up Ashton, my threat still stands-"
Latias sighed. "Okay, you two, shut up for a second. Look, Ashe, just, at least try it for a moment? I want to see if you can at least mimic things that aren't real, because then me and Bianca may be able to cook something up for you to differentiate you from other you."
"Why am I the one getting the different look anyway? Why not Ash?"
"I, er-" Latias wasn't quite sure how to explain to Ashe that it was solely because she had… let's call it extreme bias, towards Ash instead of Ashe.
Pluschu chose the opportunity to pipe up. "Well, I for one think it's worth a shot anyways. I mean, don't you want to have a cooler look compared to Mr. Blueberry over there?"
Ash looked vaguely offended as Pluschu blew a raspberry at him. He winked at Latias, and she wasn't quite sure how to feel about him as her wingman, but in any case, she was going to work with it.
Ashe simply gave a shrug of defeat, before doing as Latias asked. With a flash of light, where a copy of Ash had stood before now stood an exact replica of the girl from Latias' drawing. Latias grinned in delight.
"Excellent, and looking good, if I do say so myself!"
"No offense, Latias, but you designed that yourself, so you're a bit biased-"
"Shut up Bianca, let me have my moment."
Misty stifled a laugh at Ashe, who was blushing in response to Latias' comment. "I second that, Ashe! You sure rock being a girl very well."
Ashe whirled around to stare Misty, a look of annoyance on his face. "No I don't! Look, first moment I get a better look than this one, I'm-"
"Oh, why, are you scared that you can't rock being a girl as well as I can?"
Though Misty was only lightly teasing him, all nearby could see that a fire had been started in Ashe's eyes.
"Is that a challenge?"
Pluschu began egging Ashe on. "Yeah! Let's show 'em who's boss Ashe!" Minchu and Ash both turned to each other with a look of mild concern over their counterparts' actions.
Misty glanced at Brock for advice, but he was rubbing his head. He had quite literally nothing that could help in this situation.
"Latias, you don't need to worry about a new design just yet, I'm going to show Misty that I can do a better job at this than her."
"Ashe, no offense, but I don't think that's how that works-"
"Shut up Latias, I'm winning right now."
Latias looked to Bianca for advice, but she too had nothing. She sighed as Ashe began proudly proclaiming her guaranteed victory over Misty, as she nervously glanced at everyone for some form of escape from the snowball she had started. Unfortunately for her, Latias was unable to help this time.
It was at this exact moment that Latios decided to rise from the ground like some kind of horror movie monster. "Hey hey everybody, I heard that there was some commotion, so who's down for some pizza?"
Latias glared at her sibling. "Latios, we had pizza literally forty minutes ago."
"You can never have enough pizza, Latias!"
"Bro, no offense, but you're kind of dead. That excuse doesn't work for the rest of us."
"Spoilsport." Latios turned away from his sister, immediately spying Ashe in his human appearance, which caused a heavy blush to form on his face. Latias just sighed. Why was she the only responsible one around here?
Despite some… hiccups, the time had come for Ash and Ashe to leave Alto Mare. Nothing was going to stop them from being a Pokemon Master, even if they were now two different people, or well, Pokemon. She trusted them enough to get by. Well, she trusted Ash enough, anyway.
And so, here she was, on the docks, seeing the group off. Lorenzo and Bianca would have come, but were still busy cleaning up the whole library fiasco. Though Ashe had profusely apologized, Latias still didn't trust her enough with this. Latios had also wished to come, but she used the excuse of "Someone has to guard the Soul Dew" to keep him in the Garden. She knew how head over heels he was for Ashe, and she did not want that disrupting their departure.
"So… Ash." The two Eon Pokemon turned to look at her, and she mentally cursed herself for not pushing for a more diverse name for at least one of them. "...The blue one."
Ashe grumbled. "Why is it never me she's asking about…"
Ash hesitantly stepped forward, moving past the others to greet Latias. She simply stared at him, nervously glancing around before continuing.
"So… Ash. Before you leave, I just wanted to say… or well, I suppose there's an easier way to get across how I feel about all of this." Latias moved a step closer to Ash, tension building between them, before promptly chucking a heavy bundle of parchment at Ashe. "That is the bill for the damages to the library. Next time you're back here, I expect that to be paid in full."
Ashe groaned as Pluschu and Minchu began pawing at the paper, with Minchu trying her best to stop Pluschu from throwing it overboard. Latias turned back to Ash.
"Now that that's out of the way…"
Latias grew nervous, her illusion flickering, as she dived in and kissed Ash. It continued for several seconds, before she backed away, a light blush on her face. The entire group had stopped what they were all doing to look at the dumbstruck Ash. Pluschu motioned his paw towards Minchu, as Minchu sighed and pulled out a piece of cash from who knows where, giving it to Pluschu.
"So that's… um… bye!"
And with that, Latias dashed off, causing a strong gust of wind to blast the group as Ash continued to stare straight ahead. Reality hadn't quite kicked in for him yet.
Ashe sighed. "You know, I'm really starting to feel left out."
Latias was beside herself, back at the Secret Garden. She had done it. She had shown that she loved Ash, even if he was two people now. Now what? She was stuck in Alto Mare as its guardian, without him.
Well, at least her brother was still technically alive, even if he too had a crush on the same person . At least they could share in that suffering.
Though, come to think of it, where was Latios? She hadn't seen him all day. She knew he was a ghost and could go through walls and stuff now, but….
"Latios?"
She called out to her brother, but he failed to appear. It was strange. Normally he'd always show up whenever she called for him, but this time…
She moved around the Garden, but couldn't find him anywhere, no matter how much she called out to him. As she flew about, calling for Latios, the Yanma that liked to steal Latios' fruits decided to show itself, happily gorging on a watermelon.
"Hey, you there, fruit fly."
The Yanma perked up, and cocked its head. "Yeah, what's up, miss?"
"Where's my brother?"
"Oh, the dead killjoy? He flew off some place, saying he was "following his one true love," whatever that meant. Could you leave me be? I haven't had a feast this good in ages ."
As the Yanma went back to its watermelon, Latias paled in horror. He went to follow his one true love, which meant…
"Oh, great, so he tells me all my life "No, you can't leave Alto Mare" and now the moment he sees a halfway pretty girl he immediately goes and abandons his duties. Of course he does. Of course!"
The Yanma looked at the ranting Latias, and back at its watermelon. It had a sneaking suspicion it would be better off eating its watermelon somewhere else before she started throwing things.
The two Ashes, now that they had left Alto Mare, were both dreading this conversation. They would probably have continued to avoid it, had it not been for both Misty and Brock constantly nagging them about the fact.
So here they were, having to explain to their Mom exactly what had happened in the interim.
"Hi Mom!" The image of Delia Ketchum blared to life on the monitor in front of them. Not much had changed back in Pallet, it seems.
"Hi Ash, how's your journey going? And if I may, who's your new friend! She seems cute!"
Ashe lightly blushed as Ash's eyes widened in shock. Right, they didn't just have to explain their new bodies, they had to explain the fact that they had more than one in the first place.
"So, Mom, I was in Alto Mare recently…"
"Oh, fun! I heard there was a big incident there recently, are you alright?"
Ash nervously chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, we're fine, well um, mostly."
Delia deadpanned. "What do you mean, "mostly?"
Ash looked at Ashe for support, but she had no ideas, either. "Well, uh, while we were there, I may have accidentally become two people." Delia blinked. "Yeah, you see, I got cloned, and Ashe here is my new twin-"
"That is not what happened. You see, basically, while we were in Alto Mare, we kind of died-"
"Of complete happiness because Alto Mare was so great!"
"...And when we got reborn something or other messed up slightly, and bada bing bada boom, we became-"
"Absolute best friends! Look at us, we're completely inseparable!"
Ashe looked at Ash with annoyance. "And now we're a pair of Eon Pokemon, Latias and Latios. Any big questions?"
Delia looked at the two with a completely neutral expression on her face. Ash and Ashe glanced at each other. Both of them knew that when their Mom was completely nonchalant about something that they had it coming. Both of them gulped.
"No offense, Ash, but I'm trusting your girl version more right now."
"Drat."
"Anyways, it's good to see you're still in one piece, Ash, though I don't think that phrase really works too well here."
A long pause held between the three of them. "So…. Does that mean you're not mad?"
"Oh, no, I'm absolutely furious." Delia smiled. "You're lucky you're on the other end of the computer screen right now." Both Ashes nervously chuckled as Delia sighed. "I suppose I'll have to start preparing the guest room. I'll also have to ask the Professor about how to take care of your species now…"
The two Ashes paled. They had completely forgotten about the Professor.
"Oh, actually, I'll go and fetch him right now! He's bound to have lots of questions about this whole thing. Be right back, sit tight!"
And with that, the two Ashes, with Pluschu and Minchu on their shoulders, simply stood in silence as they watched their mother dart off. They knew full well the moment the Professor got here that they were going to be asked every question in the book.
"Well…. I think that went pretty well."
"We're so dead the moment we get back to Pallet, aren't we?"
"That's happening with one hundred percent certainty. We have to win the Johto League so we have something to distract Mom with."
"Agreed. Who's the trainer?"
"Want to take turns?"
"Sure. Who's looks?"
"Mine, obviously! I'm the one registered on our trainer ID."
Ashe huffed. "Fine, but I am so getting to be the one in charge if we end up doing another League after this."
"Deal."
The Professor arrived, scrambling into the room and tripping on the way, sending his papers flying. Both Ashes chuckled. The Professor would never change.
"Ah! Ash my boy… er, girl and boy? How are you doing?"
Ashe chuckled. "Well, aside from being brought back from the grave I'd say we're doing pretty well!"
Professor Oak scribbled down some notes. Both Ashes could hear the sounds of their Mom cursing out Muk for ruining the hardwood with its sludge in the background.
"Alright, so I just have a few questions about your predicament, if you don't mind."
Both Ashes looked at each other. They were mentally ready for this.
"Alright Professor, so long as it doesn't take too long."
It had reached sunset by the time Oak had finished with his questions. Both Ashes were exhausted. They had to answer about every part of themselves, and he was especially excited upon learning that they were both hyper powerful Pokemon in disguise. They both promised to perform some physical tests and such when they were back in Pallet, and both of them were regretting the fact that they agreed to sign up for it. Pluschu was having way too much fun at their expense.
At the very least, they had both realized that as they technically counted as two people now, they could carry twice as many Pokemon. They thus had arranged for Professor Oak to send over their remaining Pokemon from the lab, though a new problem presented itself, the problem of who was carrying what Pokemon.
"Look, you seriously can't just keep carrying Phanpy! He's my kid!"
"No, he's my kid, you can't take him!"
Minchu just sighed. She had been trying to resolve these disputes, but it was awfully hard to do so when Pluschu just kept introducing new problems for his own personal amusement.
"So, which one of you is carrying Kingler?"
In exact unison, both of them said "I will!" prompting them to engage in yet another argument with each other. Minchu facepalmed as Pluschu giggled to himself. Minchu had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
Compared to their mother, the Ashes' Pokemon took the news far better than she did.
"So, another average Tuesday with Ash then?" Bulbasaur smirked. "What's new?"
The two Ashes had eventually settled on who was carrying what Pokemon, and now the group of Bulbasaur, Muk, Kingler, Snorlax, Noctowl, Bayleef, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Heracross, and Phanpy stood amassed before them. After a brief explanation, the Pokemon all just sort of accepted what had happened. They had a hunch Snorlax still didn't quite get it, but given that he was asleep most days anyway, it wasn't too big of a deal.
Phanpy, out of all the Pokemon, was overjoyed that he now had "both a papa and a mama" and was currently attempting to snuggle up to the very confused Latias, who was being told by her other half to just roll with it. Ashe, out of spite, had Muk proceed to climb all over Ash. It was one way to get him to stop teasing her about being Phanpy's mom that didn't involve disembowelment, and she really wanted to save that for a special occasion.
In any case, both Ashes were extremely happy to have all of their Pokemon in one place. They hated having to leave any of them at Oak's Lab, and though the Tauros had to stay behind, it was impossible to carry all thirty at once even with both of them working together anyways.
Unfortunately, the reunion was cut short by the sudden sight of a familiar balloon appearing in the sky, as it snatched both Pluschu and Minchu away from the undisguised Eon Pokemon. The entire group whirled around to find none other than Team Rocket in the sky, with both Chus entrapped within an electricity-proof prison.
"Prepare for trouble! We've got your Pokemon!"
Meowth jumped up onto the side of the balloon. "That's right! Sure is confusing how Pikachu is Pika-Two now, but that just means double the Pikachu, double the haul!" He poked the glass holding Minchu, but she just sent him a death glare.
Ashe just raised an eyebrow. "You idiots realize that we're both right here , right?"
Jessie and James gave the two undisguised Legendary Pokemon a once over, and shrugged.
"So? You're still here, even if you are double the twerp. Do you want a medal or something?"
Ashe facepalmed. "Just… nevermind." She glanced at her counterpart, who nodded. Both of them knew what the plan was.
"From what I can tell, the containers keeping Pluschu and Minchu contained are insulated, and thus non-conductive. Given that it looks too hard to be glass, it's probably some super durable type of plastic." Ash sighed. "This is when I wish those two still had Iron Tail to bust it through force."
"Force, you say?" Ashe winked as she roared. Ash had no idea what his other half had done until he looked up at the sky and saw the meteors falling.
"When did you even learn that!?"
"Sheer force of will."
The meteors struck the side of Team Rocket's balloon, causing the container holding Pluschu to fall off of the side and crack open, releasing him. Minchu's container, however, fell back into the balloon, as the balloon began to deflate from being struck with a meteor.
"Team Rocket's blasting off againnnnnnnnn-"
A twinkle in the sky signified their departure, but both Eon Pokemon were concerned. Minchu was still with Team Rocket. They had to find her, and ASAP.
Ash hesitantly looked at the fading glimmer in the distance. "We need to find Minchu, but how? She could be anywhere!"
Ashe shrugged. "I don't know, but we'd best start looking. We've got all of our Pokemon to help us, so-"
"I might be able to alleviate your burden a little."
The two Ashes whirled around to find the ghost of Latios levitating out of the ground. Ash's Pokemon all gasped as Snorlax snorted a little in its sleep.
"Latios? You're not in Alto Mare?"
Latios shook his wispy head. "Nah, I figured you two could use the help adjusting. No real reason other than that, no siree."
Ash squinted. "Riiiiiight."
Latios carried on. "Well, what are we waiting for? We have to go after Team Rocket!"
Minchu wasn't exactly sure what to expect after waking up in the middle of the forest floor, but she certainly wasn't expecting Meowth.
"Ah! It's the Pika-twerp!" Meowth scratched his head. "Or the whatever you are twerp, anyway."
Minchu sighed. First she was kidnapped, and now she was being subjected to the worst fate imaginable. Being stuck with Meowth.
"So, ya wouldn't happen to know where Jessie and James are, would ya?"
Minchu simply shook her head. "And I suppose you wouldn't happen to know where my stupid idiots would be either, would you?"
Meowth sighed. "Seems it's just us two by ourselves then." He looked up. "Still don't know where we are. We're gonna have to work together to find our friends."
Minchu sighed. "We'd best get started then before I get roped into something else with you ." She shot him daggers as Meowth paled slightly.
"Well, alright then. Come on, let's get moving."
Minchu reluctantly followed Meowth. She had a feeling this was going to be a long trip, wasn't it?
"So, uh, Ashe, what do you like to do in your freetime?"
Perfect. Latios knew he had this in the bag. Try to get to know who you're gunning for, and then figure it out. He was following Brock's advice to a T.
Ashe thought to herself for a minute. "Hm, well, I like my Pokemon. And training with my Pokemon. And battling with my Pokemon."
A strong battler and a strong leader in her own right? Latios really was hitting the jackpot if this worked out.
"Oh wow, that's cool. Would you, uh, like to hang out sometime? You know, batting and all?"
Very smooth. He had this in the bag.
"Well, we're hanging out right now, aren't we? I know we're searching for Minchu in the middle of the woods right now, but we're still doing it."
"Oh, I uh, meant in the sense of…" Latios panicked. What could he say that didn't spoil his intentions immediately!? "A more calm environment! Where we get to know each other a bit more privately!"
Latios hit himself on the head. Why did he phrase it like that?
Ashe smiled. "I'd be happy to! You could join up with us if you want!"
Latios cocked his head. "Join up with you?"
"Yeah, as a traveling group! I wouldn't mind having you around, and if I don't mind, the other me doesn't mind."
"Yes!" Latios replied almost as soon as Ashe finished. Getting to travel with a girl as pretty as her? This was a jackpot!
Ashe looked at him funny. "You seem excited. Something up?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just excited to be traveling with a Pokemon as good looking as yourself."
Oh Arceus above, did he really say that out loud? He was messing up the plan already!
"Oh, thank you! You as well."
Oh thank goodness, she didn't pick up on that. This is working out- wait did she just call him good looking? He had a chance!
He felt a claw moving through his body. Turning around, he found none other than Kingler, staring at him with a look of malice.
"Can I… talk to you for a minute?"
Latios hesitantly nodded his head, and Kingler motioned for him to move off of the path they were following. He lightly shoved Heracross over to where Latios was standing before.
"Okay, look, man, I respect you coming back from the dead, but could you like, I don't know, not flirt with our trainer for five minutes?"
"Oh come on, I have not-"
"Latios, you have tried thirteen completely different pickup lines in the span of thirty minutes. It's painfully obvious what you're after."
"Darnit, I must be slipping up."
"You're not slipping up, you're tripping on a banana peel and falling into the fires of Mt. Ember right now."
Latios sighed. He knew romance wasn't easy, but this was taking it to a whole other level.
"Look, what are you suggesting I do, then?"
"Maybe, I don't know, stop? Our trainer is about as dense as Snorlax's stomach, even if you outright confessed your love to their face they probably wouldn't notice."
"I am not giving up when the cutest Latias I've seen in my life is ten feet that way and extra powerful to boot. I've got a good feeling about this."
Kingler laid his big claw on where Latios' shoulder would be. "Kid, how many Latias have you met in your life?"
"Two, my sister and Ashe."
"Exactly your problem. You're so starved that you're thirsting after the first cute girl to enter your line of sight. My advice, pal? There's other Legendary Eon Pokemon in the sea, just bide your time and I'm sure you'll find a keeper for you."
Latios sighed. "Fine, I'll keep that in mind."
Kingler released his grip on Latios. "Good, now let's get back to searching. We've wasted enough time on this as is."
Latios nodded, and as soon as Kingler had gone on ahead, he immediately flew over to where Ashe had moved on to. "So, what's the deal with airline food?"
Latias had been painting with Bianca when she felt a sudden pain pierce her side. There was only ever one moment when she could feel this much secondhand embarrassment, and that meant only one thing.
"I'm going to have to delay this session a little, Bianca, I've got an idiot I need to go and rope back here really quickly."
"...And so that's why I'm called Gunslinger Meowth in Vermillion."
"Wow, seriously? Now I wish I was part of that. A year's worth of ketchup? Now that's my jam!"
As Meowth and Minchu had continued to search for their respective partners, the two had struck up a conversation. As it turned out, the two had discovered they had a lot more in common than they thought.
"Still, Gunslinger Meowth, now that's a cool name. Doesn't beat out Pikachu the Lightning Warrior, though now that I think about it, I'm not sure that title really applies too much anymore."
Meowth laughed. "Ya know, yer pretty friendly when we aren't trying to kidnap ya."
Minchu rolled her eyes. "Gee, I wonder why that could be."
Meowth winked and lightly jabbed Minchu, garnering him a death glare in exchange. "Hey, ya don't need to be so stubborn about the whole thing. We've got a long history together, and being completely honest, I wouldn't mind growing a little closer."
Minchu cocked her head. "A little… closer?"
"Yeah!" Meowth struck a pose. "Because then you could join Team Rocket without you giving us a big fuss!"
Minchu sighed. Yep, she should have expected this.
"Come on you big doofus, let's find our friends already."
"Hey, I've been upgraded from idiot to doofus! I'm improvin'!"
Minchu smiled as he turned around. The sooner they found their idiots, the sooner they could be back on their journeys.
It had become so dark outside that neither group could really continue searching without the aid of Cyndaquil's flames. As none of them were ones to give up, they reconvened and had begun using Cyndaquil as a torchlight. Heracross and Noctowl were on high alert, being the only ones out of the Ashes Pokemon well suited for a nighttime excursion.
Latios had hesitantly followed them. Noctowl had snarkily remarked that a ghost under firelight certainly made him look freaky, which he took some offense to. He was a friendly ghost!
"So, Ash and Ashe, aren't you two a bit young to be doing all of this crazy stuff? I know that I have no right to speak, given I'm around your age as well, but me and my sister were sworn in as Guardians from the moment we were born. You two are just random kids."
Ash turned to look at him. "Hey, we aren't that young!"
Ashe huffed. "Indeed! And as the older Ash here, I say that we're definitely certified for this kind of stuff, regardless of age."
Ash glared at Ashe. "No way are you the older one."
"Am too!"
"And what's your source?"
"Pluschu can vouch for the fact I came into existence first!" Pluschu proudly posed on Ashe's shoulder.
"Pluschu vouches for you on anything and everything. He's not a valid source." Pluschu looked offended, but he was cut off before he could say anything.
"Oh, really? And what source are you working with!?"
"Myself!"
"Yeah well my source is also myself and it's saying that you suck, so suck it, Ashton!"
"Oh, really, are we playing this game, Ashley?"
"Say that again and I'm going to make sure you keep finding your body as the days progress."
Ash looked confused. "What does that even mean?"
Ashe bared her claws. "Do you want to find out?"
The two Ashes began to bicker among themselves as Misty sighed. "At least the racket these two are making will act as a good beacon for Minchu."
Brock chuckled. "It's good to see Ash hasn't changed one bit, at least."
Latios couldn't help but chuckle. It reminded him of his own sister, in a way. When both of them were little, playing in the garden, bickering with each other over the most trivial of things. It almost made him miss being alive.
A sudden scream rippled through the area. It sounded like…. Meowth! If he was here, then that meant they had a good chance at finding Minchu!
The group ran towards the sound, but what they found when they got there was surprising. On the ground in front of them was a KOed Ursaring, with Minchu beaming with pride over its unconscious body. Meowth was cheering her on behind her. Minchu soon caught sight of her trainer, and waved.
"Oh, hey, took you guys long enough. Me and Meowth here have been having a whole party without you."
The entire group sighed, as Ash went over to place Minchu on his head. Both Minchu and Meowth looked like they wanted to say something, but they were soon interrupted by the arrival of two familiar nuisances.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!"
Ashe groaned. "Okay, you two, I have no time for you right now, so if you could just go bye-bye, I'd appreciate it."
Meowth tried to get a word in, but Jessie overpowered him. "Excuse me, twerpette! You're not in a place to be saying anything! Go, Arbok!"
"Twerpette?" Ashe's eyes flared with fire. "Oh, now you're getting it. Do you want to see what your small intestine looks like?"
Jessie and James gulped. Meowth was about to say something, but Minchu interrupted him.
"Don't worry about it, ya doofus. We can worry about our newfound relationship another time. For now, I need to send your friends flying. See you next time, alright?"
Pluschu looked incredulously at his counterpart. "I'm sorry, your WHAT-"
Meowth sighed, and reluctantly gave a thumbs up. Minchu charged, and soon fired off a max power Thunderbolt at the Trio of Team Rocket members.
"Team Rocket's blasting off againnnnnnn-"
Minchu sighed. "Okay, idiots, what took you guys so long? Surely two Pokemon with the speed of fighter jets could find us within no time, right?"
As Ash was about to interject, a sudden draft of wind hit the group. Looking up, they found Latias approaching from above, fury in her eyes.
"Hi everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'm here to drag my idiotic brother back home after his little escapades over here." She glared at her sibling, who had suddenly found that the forest floor was looking awfully pretty right about now.
"Alright, back home with you."
"But I'm a ghost, you can't touch me-"
As he said that, he was cut off by Latias grabbing him by the tailfin and slinging him onto her back. She looked back at Ash, gave him a light kiss on the forehead, and immediately flew back to wherever she had come from. The group stared at the sky as Ash stood there in shock.
Ashe teasingly smirked. "Wow, your girlfriend is scary."
Pluschu giggled. "Technically she's your girlfriend too, y'know."
Ashe's face erupted into a blush as Pluschu began rolling in laughter. Ash still had not registered that reality was real yet.
The group was interrupted by a mysterious presence bursting from the floor out of nowhere. In a fit of panic, all of Ash, Ashe, Pluschu, Minchu, and Cyndaquil fired their strongest attacks at the thing, leaving a sizable dent in the forest floor. The spirit who had risen from the floor reformed almost immediately, however.
"Wow, that's one way to greet a friend." Latios made a motion similar to dusting himself off, though he didn't exactly have anything to dust off.
Ashe cocked her head. "Latios? What are you doing here? Latias just dragged you back to Alto Mare!"
Latios smirked. "Well, you see, I had foreseen that Latias would try to drag me back mid-travel, and thus learned Substitute before we left. The ghost she's carrying is a fake."
Minchu confusedly looked at Latios. "But won't she notice you're a fake eventually?"
"Knowing her when she's angry and judging by the time it takes to get from here to Alto Mare, I'd say she'll notice in about a day or so."
Both Ashes went starry eyed. "Wow! That's such a cool trick! Can you teach us?" The two glared at each other for speaking at the time, as Latios' face erupted into a massive blush from Ashe's remarks. Minchu facepalmed. This guy was hopeless.
Brock stepped forward. "Well, it's getting late. We should rest up for tomorrow. You two still have a Pokemon League to defeat!"
The Ashes nodded to each other. Even if there were two of them now, they were going to make sure the League knew their wrath.
Phanpy was extremely excited. He had a papa and a mama! Sure, they may have been the same person technically, but it was the thought that counted. His papa and mama were the best!
And he was extremely happy, because now that all of his friends were in one place on a journey, they were all spending time together and having fun! And for his papa, fun meant teaching everyone about some really fun stuff!
"Okay everybody! Today I'll be teaching you all about degenerating time loops!"
Phanpy was incredibly excited. Unlike everybody else, he had paid attention to every single one of his papa's lectures on how to master time travel. He still wasn't sure how his papa had learned to do that. According to his papa, he had just "read a bunch of books and it all made sense" but Phanpy didn't pry further. Time travel was time travel, no matter how his papa learned it, and time travel was cool!
Phanpy had already mastered the basics of time travel, though his papa had told him to keep it a secret from his mama and the others. Phanpy wasn't sure why, but he didn't want his time travel rights being revoked, so he did as his papa asked. He had to make sure he was the best he could be for him!
"Now, when you cause a time loop, it can start to degenerate due to a variety of factors, both internal and external. So let me just give a quick overview of-"
"Ash!"
Misty and Ashe had come running over. Ash was confused about the sudden intrusion.
"Something up? I was busy teaching quantum mechanics to our Pokemon."
Said Pokemon were currently all conked out on the floor with the sole exception of Phanpy, who was happily looking up at his papa with undivided attention.
Ashe was looking down at the floor, mumbling something. Misty jabbed her in the side, and she spoke up. "I burnt the water."
Ash blinked. "You what?"
"I burnt the water. It wasn't heating up fast enough, so I added more fire."
"How much?"
"How much heat comes off of a Hyper Beam?"
Ash paled. Misty sighed.
"So yeah, this is why we need you to cover cooking food. Can you handle that?"
Ash scratched his head. "Sure, but why can't Brock do it?"
Misty shrugged. "Apparently he's making sure Latios and Kingler don't kill each other over some petty squabbling, whatever that's about. So you're kind of the next best thing."
"Why can't you cook?"
"I don't want to. Any other questions?"
Ash sighed. "Fine. Other me, can you handle our Pokemon while I'm gone?"
Ashe gave a thumbs up, and Ash went off to deal with the cooking. Ashe looked over all of their Pokemon who were all knocked out on the ground. Her other self really was that boring, huh?
She looked at Phanpy, who looked like he was positively ecstatic to see her. She sighed. Guess this was going to be an "Ashe and Phanpy" day.
"So… Phanpy."
Phanpy excitedly nodded along. Ashe smiled.
"Do you want to learn where the pressure points are on the human body?"
Ash seriously had no idea how his other half could mess up fanning the flames so badly, but here he was.
After roping Misty's Staryu into helping him put that out, he had successfully managed to start a fire of just the right temperature to get the cooking going again. Now he just needed to use the right ingredients, and…
A sudden flash rocked his vision as he looked over and saw Phanpy, who had just leaped out of a portal through time. Phanpy panickedly glanced around before landing on Ash.
"Papa!" Phanpy placed a piece of paper on the ground. "I need you to give this note to mama!"
Ash scratched his head. "Why, exactly?"
Phanpy panicked as his time portal closed. "No time to explain! Just do it!"
Phanpy leaped back through the time portal, leaving Ash confused. What was Phanpy trying to get at?
Ash suddenly felt a sudden burning on his tail feathers. Looking down, he found that the fire had begun to spread while he was distracted, and he had caught on fire.
Well drat.
Ashe and Phanpy stared at the downed Ursaring at their feet. "And that's how you perform hand to hand combat. You with me so far?"
Phanpy eagerly nodded, as he flailed his trunk in preparation for the future battles to come. His mama was extremely good at teaching him all sorts of important stuff! Now he knew that the weak point on his enemies was always down below! Striking there would do crippling damage that would make them suffer for a million bajillion years! It was always fun learning with his mama.
"Alright Phanpy, next time you see papa, I need you to strike him where the sun doesn't shine to show him who the cooler Ash is, you got that?"
Phanpy eagerly nodded. Papa was going to be so proud of him when he had seen how strong he was!
A portal in time suddenly ripped open, and another Phanpy suddenly came whirling out of it. He hurriedly looked at the other Phanpy and Ashe.
"Mama! Past me! You need to go to the campsite before Papa accidentally explodes the whole meal!" Phanpy extended his trunk, carrying a piece of paper. "Oh, also, give this to papa later. Bye!"
And with that, Phanpy disappeared back into the portal. Both Ashe and Phanpy just stared at where the portal had been, confused.
"Do you have any idea what that was about, Phanpy?"
"No clue, but I'm pretty sure I'll figure it out later."
The two paused as Ashe blinked.
"Wait, what did future you say about papa?"
"Look, no offense other me, but I really don't know how you messed it up this badly."
It was official. Ash could not be trusted with the cooking. This meal looked like it came from Muk's large intestine.
"Look, I followed the recipe to a T! I used the Bluk Berries with the Enigma Berries, and-"
Phanpy poked it with his trunk and gagged. "Are you sure you didn't set it on fire like mama did, papa?"
"No, I swear I did this with one hundred percent accuracy!"
Phanpy sighed. He had a feeling the two were going to get into another argument about who was the better one again. This was a bad thing, if only for the fact he didn't have any popcorn.
"Wait! Mama, what about future me's note?"
Ashe blinked, and Ash did the same. "You got one too?"
Ashe nodded, and the two pulled out their notes. After a brief glance, their faces turned furious.
"Ash, you are a stinky doo doo farthead, signed, Ashe." And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh excuse me! You called me a stinky doo doo farthead first ! My note was made first!"
"No it was not! Let me see that!"
"I'm not giving my note to a stinky doo doo farthead like yourself-"
The two erupted into childish bickering again as Phanpy simply stared on. A time portal suddenly opened up next to him, and out of it came his future self and Pluschu.
"Oh, great! It worked!" Pluschu rubbed future Phanpy's head. "This is why you're my favorite teammate!"
Phanpy was confused. "Wait, what's going on?"
Pluschu snickered. "Well, things were getting boring, so I had future you nudge this argument in a slightly different direction with some clever forgery by yours truly." Pluschu winked, and Phanpy pulled out a bag of popcorn.
"This is for you, past me. I wished I had popcorn for this, and thus, I'm here to satisfy my past desires! Have fun!"
And with that, Phanpy and Pluschu wandered back off to the future, their chaos complete. Phanpy just looked at the now closing time portal and shrugged. Guess he knew what he was doing tomorrow.
The Ashes carried on their quest to the Silver Conference, and by this point in time, Misty and Brock were starting to almost become used to the fact that their friend was two completely different people now.
"Look, I'm just saying, I really don't see why you're still doing the whole "Doing a girl better than Misty" thing at this point. Like, what even is the point of-"
Ashe, in a sombrero, suit top, and baggy pants, cut him off. "It's a fashion statement. That's something girls do, right?"
Ash facepalmed. "Look, I'm just saying, I really don't see how that even halfway makes sense."
"It doesn't need to make sense so long as I'm winning."
The fact this conversation had become almost normalized for them was also disturbing them immensely, but the fact they were technically bickering with themself in the first place still somehow made more sense than the entire rest of the whole situation.
Misty whispered into Brock's ear with a small smirk. "Next thing you know, they'll start comparing height and Ashe will start talking about how it makes her superior."
Ashe almost immediately whirled her head around. Misty paled in horror at what she had just unleashed.
"Y'know, come to think of it, I am the tallest one here." She smirked as Pluschu smugly grinned on her shoulder.
Ash was having none of it, and in a flash of light, his illusion dispersed and reorganized itself as an illusion ever so slightly taller than Ashe's. Ashe blinked, and soon did the exact same thing as Ash, now being little over an inch taller.
The two kept going at it, gradually increasing in height, until soon, they were now the size of trees. Misty chose to stop them there.
"Look, can you two idiots stop growing to the size of Wailord!? You're going to blow your cover!"
The two Ashes gave one final glare at each other as their illusions shrunk down to their usual size. Neither seemed ready to give up their spat.
Minchu sighed. "Okay you two, how about you go and say sorry and make up-"
The two Ashes gave a unified "NO!" as they immediately turned to glare at each other again. Minchu was out of options at this point, as if they kept it up, Ashe would be threatening to disembowel Ash again, and no amount of therapy was ever going to cleanse what happened the one time she did do that to someone.
Latios, in his usual quiet manner, had been glancing between the two, and despite knowing full well who he wanted to have win, he knew he needed to resolve this fair and square. If he knew how his sister worked, he knew how the Ashes would work.
"If I'm allowed to suggest something-"
"Can it, Latios!" said the two Ashes in unison, as they proceeded to immediately start arguing about talking at the same time again. Latios facepalmed. This was somehow worse than it was with his sister.
Minchu rolled her eyes. "Whoever listens to Latios last is a rotten egg."
The two Ashes stopped arguing almost instantly as they stared down the deceased Eon Pokemon. This was causing more pressure than it was before, for him.
"So, I had a method of resolving disputes with my sister when I was alive." The two Ashes continued staring at him. Had they even blinked once yet? "And that was to race. It was a very special race. It was a race to see who was the fastest."
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock."
Latios glared at Minchu as he went back to his explanation. "...So I propose this. You two see who's the faster half, and whoever is faster wins the debate. Sound good?"
Before Latios could blink, the two Ashes had dropped their illusions and begun discussing the race criteria.
"Okay, so how fast do we want to go?"
"Fast as we can, obviously. Anything else would be chickening out."
"Alright, you know where we're going. On three."
Latios began to panic. Normally, he'd let this play out, but he had… let's just call it an extreme bias towards Ashe, in terms of this competition. He had to ensure her success.
He knew he could probably catch up to them rather easily, being unaffected by the usual laws of physics courtesy of being dead, but what could he use to stifle Ash? This guy was able to counter anything and everything you could throw at him.
Well, he supposed he had to figure that out. The race was starting.
"And one! Let's rock and roll!"
The two Ashes blitzed off, forcing Misty and Brock to shield their eyes from the amount of dust they kicked up. Thinking fast, Latios snatched Brock's bag and flew off after them. It should hopefully have some stuff that could help him, right?
Digging through the bag, he found some decently strange items. He knew Brock liked Rock type Pokemon, but why was he just carrying rocks in his bag?
Latios used his psychic powers to send a large number of them flying straight towards Ash. However, as if he knew about them in advance, he dodged all of them without a second thought, and fired off a Dragon Pulse at a nearby rock face, sending boulders hurtling towards him.
Latios instinctively stopped. He considered himself lucky that the boulders didn't crush him, as he soon realized that he was, in fact, not alive, and that the boulders wouldn't have affected him. He slapped himself. He needed to be more focused if he wanted his one true love to win.
He dug through the bag again, and found his solution. It would be a little unorthodox, and it would mean Ashe was going to absolutely tear him apart later, but eh, he could make that work. If this strategy meant her victory, it would pay off in the end.
Latios, using his special ghost powers, caught up to the two racing Ashes in no time. Though Ashe was trying, in vain, to blast her counterpart out of the sky, Ash just seemed to know what was coming ahead of time. Latios seriously had no idea how he was doing that.
He called out to Ashe, who turned around, and he threw out his secret weapon. Ashe, who had her mouth open, accidentally swallowed what he had thrown. Latios was starting to have second thoughts about throwing her a Tamato Berry as she suddenly stalled in mid-air, and began choking on it. Her counterpart had stopped to see what was up, but as soon as he was within range, Ashe fired off an absolutely tectonic beam of fire that Ash was barely able to dodge. Latios could see Ash's tail feathers smoking towards their tips.
The three watched the laser fire off into the distance, as both Ashes glared at Latios, who had suddenly found that the sky was looking remarkably beautiful at this time of day. Ash was glaring at him.
"Latios, that sabotage nearly made me lose my butt feathers. That's just rude."
Ashe coughed, still recovering from the berry. "I don't know… I thought it was kind of cool."
Ash condescendingly looked at his counterpart. "But what if it hit something important?"
Latios shrugged. "Relax. What are the odds that something like that would actually happen?"
Latias really was enjoying her day off from guardian duties. Sure, her brother may have decided to skip out on his job, but she didn't exactly have the time nor the patience to go after him. Still, in any case, getting to fly around the peaceful skies of Alto Mare was certainly a relaxing experience.
Latias noticed a bright light suddenly enter the corner of her eye. It had to be one of those passenger airliners. She loved to fly up to those things and say hi. It scared the absolute living daylights out of the pilots, and their expressions entertained her for hours afterwards.
Well, except for the PokeJet Airways Flight 4037 incident. She didn't like to talk about that one.
As she flew closer to the light, she noticed something terribly wrong. There didn't seem to be a single logo on it. That meant bad news… actually, there didn't seem to be any metal, either. What the heck were these airline businesses doing nowadays?
As Latias went directly in front of it to get a better look, she realized that it wasn't really a plane. That was a flaming beam of fire, and it was heading straight for her. She knew exactly what the cause of this was, just from a glance, and she really only had one thing to say.
"I am so killing that guy the moment he gets back to Alto Mare."
"Like, seriously, I doubt it hit anything majorly important." Latios shuddered. "Why do I suddenly feel a strong sense of foreboding?"
"Look, I just think there's been some mistake here."
While on the road to the Silver Conference, the group had accidentally wandered onto the site of a traveling festival, headed up by some mysterious magician named Butler and his assistant Diane. The group, intrigued, had decided to visit.
Of course, what they hadn't expected was this.
"Well my dear," Diane put an arm around Ashe, "You're a master of illusions! I can tell just from a glance! You're simply perfect for the role of a magician!"
Ashe managed to escape Diane's grasp as she backed up. Latios had his claws bared in case he was needed.
"And look dearie, you're so good, you even managed to create an illusion of a ghostly Latios around you! If that isn't impressive, then I don't know what is!"
Latios looked like he wanted to kill Diane right now, as did Ashe, but Brock was keen to mediate the two groups.
"Now now you two, I'm sure we can come to an arrangement for someone as beautiful as the alluring Lady Diane here!" As Brock was about to run through his usual spiel, Kingler chose this exact moment to leave his Poke Ball and drag Brock away from the scene, muttering something about how all of his friends were "hopeless romantics." The others all nervously chuckled.
"Well…" said Latios, shrugging, "I certainly wouldn't be opposed to spending some time on stage with you, Ashe." A light blush grew on Latios' face, but he was interrupted as he felt Kingler's big claw on his back. Kingler simply muttered about how "this job was never ending" as he dragged Latios away as well. Ashe simply raised an eyebrow.
"Well, Kingler aside, I wouldn't mind performing on stage, I suppose-"
"Great! We'll get you all set up, dearie!"
Diane practically manhandled Ashe away from the group as she began to rant to her about stage performances and the like. Latios, who had somehow broken free from Kingler's grasp, began to chase after Ashe. Ash simply shrugged.
"So, who wants to see if they've got a half decent pizza place around here?"
"And now, foul spirit, begone!"
Ashe twirled, and in a flash of light, her appearance changed from that of a princess to that of a knight in shining armor. Wielding a blade conveniently placed on stage, she rushed forward and sliced at the ghostly Latios, who screamed in well acted terror as the blade "sliced through his incorporeal form" as the script put it.
The performance had gone swimmingly, just as Diane had instructed, with the "princess turned knight" defeating the "foul specter" in a round of exuberant swordplay. Ash and the others watched from above, munching on popcorn and watching with focused stares. Kingler had exited his Poke Ball, which according to him was because he was "On guard in case something happened" but Ash had absolutely no clue what he meant by that, so he let Kingler do as he pleased.
"Wow, who knew other me was such a good actor?" said Ash, between fistfuls of popcorn.
Pluschu smirked. "Technically, that means you're also a good actor, Ash." He winked, and Ash's face erupted into a blush. "Don't worry, take it from me, you'd rock that dress she was wearing."
Minchu sighed as Ash died internally from sheer embarrassment. Even when trying to watch a show with her idiot in it, she still had to deal with her idiot's idiocy.
As Latios' spirit "returned to the nether realm from whence it came," Ashe resheathed her blade, turned to the audience, and bowed. A wave of cheers sounded from the audience.
Diane returned on stage, appearing in a puff of smoke. "Three cheers for our beautiful Ashe and her illusionary Latios here!"
Latios reappeared on stage, also bowing, as the audience's cheers escalated. As soon as both had been on stage for long enough, the lights dimmed, and both disappeared as they moved on to the next act.
Backstage, both Ashe and Latios stopped to catch their breath. Making a hasty exit was easier for them, as Pokemon who could achieve blazingly fast speeds than most, but it still took a lot out of them.
"Woo, boy, that was good! I bet Misty is super jealous right now!"
Latios chuckled. "Yeah, I guess she is."
Ashe thought to herself for a moment. "Oh, yeah! That just reminded me! I have a plan to one-up Misty once and for all so I can end our whole little battle with my victory!"
Latios raised an eyebrow. "And what's your plan?"
Ashe smirked. "Girls get super jealous of each other when they have a date, right?"
Latios began to tense up. A date? Did that mean she was interested in someone? Latios was beginning to panic. He was telling himself to stay calm, but it was now or never.
"Er, w-what do you mean by that?"
"It's simple, really." Ashe took a step closer towards him as his nervousness increased. "Would you happen to know any way to contact your sister easily?"
This is the moment he'd been waiting for, and wait hang on what-
"...My… sister?"
"Yeah! Even though it's my other half who's technically dating her, which, I dunno, it's still super confusing, that whole fiasco, but I'm also technically my other half." She winked. "Which means, technically, that I'm also dating Latias."
Latios felt like he was ready to collapse on the floor then and there. She was actually considering dating his sister !?
"I, uh, well, I'm not too terribly sure if-"
The two, mid-conversation, were interrupted by the sounds of an explosion outside. That wasn't in the script Diane had told them. They both rushed over to the stage, only to find none other than Team Rocket, performing their motto live on stage.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"We're here to steal all of your Pokemon!"
The two Rockets had a device prepared that was sucking up all of the audience's Poke Balls. Meowth, meanwhile, had Pluschu and Minchu in two separate containers, though he seemed to be in the middle of chatting with Minchu. Pluschu was looking extremely disgusted for some reason.
Ashe dropped her illusion as she rammed into the Rockets' device. Almost immediately, it began to smolder and spark, with its suction device wildly sucking up anyone and anything, which soon included the Team Rocket Trio as the device self-destructed.
"Team Rocket's blasting off againnnnnnnn-"
Ashe busted both of the Chus out of their plastic prisons, as Minchu sighed. "Man, and I was really enjoying that conversation as well."
The audience cheered for the successful defeat of Team Rocket, as Butler bowed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I must apologize about the sudden intrusion. I must ask all of you to remain in your seats as we begin to return these Poke Balls back to their rightful owners."
Latios nudged Ashe, who remembered to reform her illusion before she forgot. She and Latios both rushed forward and bowed, and began to help them with returning the Poke Balls.
While it was annoying that the dumb trio had to interrupt them in the middle of their performance, Ashe hoped that they stopped causing trouble for a while. It was starting to really get annoying at this point. They really needed to start being someone else's problem for a change.
Latias was having an excellent day. Sure, the massive fire laser wasn't exactly on her itinerary, but now that she could afford another day off from guardian duties, she was going to make sure this one improved from last time, and she had the whole thing planned out.
Bianca had suggested starting up painting as both a hobby and a stress reliever, and Latias was surprised at how effective it was. She was feeling more relieved than she had been in months! Nothing could interrupt her peace and tranquility now!
…Say, what was that dark shape in the sky? It couldn't be a flock of Pidgey, could it? No, it was too… misshapen, for that, and… was it getting bigger?
Latias backed off as the pile of limbs known as Team Rocket crash landed directly into the painting she had been working on. Latias just sighed as she Psychic threw Team Rocket into the sunset. Her painting was crushed now, and Latias knew exactly who the culprit was. She sighed.
"Maybe I should have taken Ashe up on those disembowelment lessons."
Having returned the Poke Balls to the captive audience, Butler and Diane were extremely thankful to Ashe and Latios for their help in the performance. As thanks for their help, the group were given some free vouchers to try out some of the attractions.
Pluschu fell into the apple dunk barrel almost immediately, but outside of that, the group was having a pretty good time. Kingler turned out to be incredible at hitting targets, Snorlax got banned from the high striker after he broke it by sitting on it, and the group soon learned that Misty had perfect aim with the toy guns at the carnival games. The group all collectively vowed never to let her own a real one.
As the group stopped to rest, Ash caught a glimmer of some noticeable red hair out of the corner of his eye. As he turned around, he found out that it was none other than…
"Lance?"
The Johto Champion in disguise turned around, carrying an ice cream cone with a Dratini on his shoulder. He glanced around before approaching the group.
"Ash, it's excellent to see you, though please keep in mind that I'm undercover right now." He made a shushing motion with his finger, and Ash hastily apologized.
As Lance surveyed the group Ash was with, his eyes landed on Latios, who was trying and failing miserably to win a teddy bear via darts. Ashe looked like she was barely staying awake as he went for another round.
"Is that the ghost of a Latios?"
Ash nodded. As Lance was about to say something, Ashe glanced in his direction and waved.
"Oh, hey Lance!"
Lance simply shook his head in disappointment as he waved. His Dratini slid down his arm to go and greet Ashe, who patted it on the head.
"If I may ask, Ash, who is your friend here? I don't recall her from the last time I met you."
Ash rubbed his head, nervously chuckling. "Oh, her? Funny story actually, she's also… kind of… me."
Lance squinted. "She's what?"
Before Ash could answer, the two were interrupted mid conversation by the sudden arrival of a large group of people in red hoodies. Ash didn't know who they were, but Lance's brow furrowed immediately.
One of the hooded people went wide-eyed. "Hey, look! It's the Champion!"
The man at the front, who was much more portly than the rest of them, merely chuckled. "Heh, he probably thinks he's capable of stopping us. Team Magma, attack!"
Lance ripped off his disguise, revealing his Champion uniform underneath. "Team Magma! I've been following your activities in regards to Butler's festival for quite some time. I'll end you here and now!"
Lance threw his Poke Ball, with a bright flash revealing his signature Dragonite. Both Ashes, despite not knowing their enemy, called together their Pokemon, with the exceptions of Snorlax, who was asleep, and Phanpy, who had mysteriously disappeared.
Lance looked to his teammates. "That's Team Magma. They're a group who have been indicted in relation to several crime sprees in the Hoenn region. A subsect came to Johto recently, and I've been tracking them down. Can I rely on your support for this battle?"
Both Ashes nodded as the Team Magma goons sent out their Pokemon, mostly consisting of Pokemon such as Poochyena and Numel. Almost immediately, the battle began.
"Alright other me, let's look at it like this. From what I can tell, they primarily are using Dark and Fire type Pokemon. There's not really a common weakness there, but if we can-"
"Kingler, Hyper Beam! Heracross, Megahorn! Make sure their spleens are on the floor by the time we're done with them!"
Ash sighed. That worked as well, he supposed. He commanded his Pokemon as Ashe had, though minus the bit about their spleens.
Within minutes, their Pokemon, combined with the crushing power of Lance's own Pokemon, had successfully pushed back and defeated the entire Magma Platoon.
"Dragonite, Hyper Beam!"
Dragonite's mouth began to glow with energy as it fired straight into the group of Grunts. The leader of the group called out his Golbat, who aided him in his escape with some effort, but the other Grunts weren't as fortunate, being sent flying by the blast.
"You'll rue the day you defied Team Magma, Lance! You'll rue the day!"
And with that, their leader took to the skies. Lance couldn't help but pity his poor Golbat.
"Excellent job, both of you!" Ashe bowed as Ash gave a thumbs up. "Once my Dragonite's rounded up these Magma goons, I can return to HQ. You've really been a big help today-"
It was at this moment that Phanpy chose to return through a portal in time, landing face first at the feet of his father. He blinked, and then readjusted the bow tie that was now present below his mouth. Lance blinked.
"Oh, Phanpy! That's where you went!" Ash furiously rubbed Phanpy's head, causing him to release an excited toot from his trunk. "Where'd you go this time?"
Phanpy smiled. "Well I went back in time for the funsies, and when I was there, I met these really weird looking people in black outfits who said I was their God or something. I sort of skipped to a few random points in their time stream and helped them out a little bit with some really funky stuff. Something about-"
Lance gasped. "Is… is that… Don Phanpy!?"
Phanpy rubbed his head with his trunk in glee. "Oh yeah, they did call me that! And then they said something about-"
Lance's face turned stern. "Don Phanpy is wanted as the leader of the criminal organization that the G-Men have discovered ruling the Kantonian Government in the shadows!"
Phanpy sat there in confusion. "Oh, so that's what that was about."
Lance threw a Poke Ball, and in a flash, his Gyarados appeared. "I'm afraid Team Magma is small fry in comparison to them. If you're associates of Don Phanpy, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you here and now."
Ash nervously shook his head. "Look, Lance, surely there's been some mistake here-" Ash was cut off as Gyarados' Hyper Beam barely missed his head.
"Stand down now Ash, or else I'll have to make you."
Despite it being an illusion, Ash flipped his cap back. "I'm not letting you take Phanpy!
Lance's brow furrowed. "Then I'm afraid there's no going back now." Lance sent out his other Pokemon, revealing Charizard, Aerodactyl, and Dragonair. "You'll learn to fear the wrath of my Dragons! En garde!"
The battle with Team Magma looked like small fry compared to this battle. Cyndaquil dueled with Dratini, both blasting Flamethrowers at each other, as Bayleef attempted to restrain Gyarados' tail, though that failed as Bayleef was flung into a nearby vending stall. Kingler's attempts to strike Charizard from afar failed, but before it could rush Kingler with a powerful Dragon Claw attack, Snorlax stepped in the way, and began to wrestle with it. Aerodactyl and Noctowl engaged in aerial combat as Muk attempted to weigh Aerodactyl down.
As Brock and Misty threw their own Pokemon into the ring, Lance gritted his teeth. "Normally I don't like to violate League regulations on the six Pokemon limit, but it seems this time, I'll have to make an exception!"
Lance suddenly revealed even more Pokemon from his belt, and Seadra, Hydreigon, Haxorus, and Alolan Exeggutor emerged from the flash. Crobat's attempts to tussle with Aerodactyl failed as Hydreigon rammed into it with a powerful Dragon Rush, while Haxorus made short work of Misty's Corsola and Goldeen. Exeggutor's Dragon Hammer split up the battle between Snorlax and Charizard, allowing it to throw Snorlax off balance and ensnare Kingler beneath its fallen body.
Latios had entered the fray himself, and he was honestly surprised by how well Lance could train his Pokemon. Despite not being fully evolved, his Dragonair and Seadra were making short work of him. And if he wasn't being careful….
And just as he thought that, he was pinned. Despite being a ghost, Dragonair had its tail wrapped around Latios' neck, ensnaring the Eon. He attempted to become incorporeal, but his panic stopped him from thinking straight. Dragonair charged a Hyper Beam at point blank range, as Latios closed his eyes. He had no clue if the attack would affect him or not, which either meant he would either take no damage from this, or….
Just as Dragonair was about to fire, he suddenly felt the tightness around his neck cease. Looking up, he found Ashe, undisguised, gripping Dragonair by the throat. She slammed its head into the pavement flooring of the park, knocking it out once and for all. As she stopped to catch her breath, she smiled.
"Please don't try to get yourself killed again. I know I die on a frequent basis, but that doesn't mean you should too."
Latios grinned as he got up, surveying the scene. Lance's Pokemon seemed to be winning right now, and he could see Heracross and Bayleef knocked out beneath the foot of Haxorus. All of Misty and Brock's Pokemon, barring Onix and Psyduck, were knocked out, though it didn't seem like either of them would last much longer. Snorlax and Kingler were still pinned by Charizard and Exeggutor, and Cyndaquil was losing its one on one with Dratini as Hydreigon prepared to fire a Dragon Pulse at the group dueling with Aerodactyl.
It didn't seem to be going too well for them, but before either he or Ashe could fire off another attack, a portal in time suddenly opened up, revealing Phanpy, though he now had a friend.
"Hey guys! So I told my friends that this big meanie was bothering you, and they said they'd arrange something!"
He smiled as his friend, a Pokemon resembling a Dunsparce, though substantially longer, glared at the battle.
"Oi, idiots! Respect the Don's wishes! We got a Code Alpha on our hands! Take em down!"
From the portal came what Latios could only describe as if the souls of the underworld had come to claim their vengeance on the souls of the living, and he could confirm that seeing as he had firsthand experience. Shadowy hands latched onto Lance and his Pokemon, and in the blink of an eye, all of them were dragged through the hole into the dark void from whence Phanpy came.
"Excellent work lads! Pleasure doing business with ya, Don, though I'm afraid we're going to have to do the usual to your friends."
"Oh, alrighty then Don Dudunsparce! Just don't be too rough with them."
Latios motioned for Ashe to follow him, and the two quickly ducked past a building. A flash echoed out of the corner of their vision, and the two heard the sound of a portal closing. As they rounded the corner, they found Lance and his Pokemon, returned to where they were previously, as were the others, who were all dizzily looking about.
Lance stared confusedly at the scene. "Huh, that's odd. Why do I have so many Pokemon out?"
Ash scratched his chin. "I'm not sure. What were we doing?"
Lance gasped. "That's right! Team Magma!" He whirled around, but found that the Grunts had escaped in the interim. "Drat! Those sneaky scoundrels." He rubbed his head. "Well, I suppose at the very least that they've been dealt with for now. Thank you for your help, Ash."
Lance recalled his Pokemon and walked off, rubbing his head. Ashe and Latios chose this time to re-enter the scene as Phanpy began giggling to himself.
Ash glanced at the knocked out Pokemon on the scene as everyone began recalling them to their Poke Balls. "Huh, this must have been a tougher battle than I remembered." He called out to his counterpart. "We're going to be heading back to the Pokemon Center. Are you staying back for a little while?"
Ashe solemnly nodded. "Yep, unfortunately. This idiot is still trying to snag that teddy bear from the prize stall." She looked back at the partially destroyed stall. "You think they'll still let us participate after we accidentally blew up their place?"
The two chuckled as they departed from the group. Though Phanpy was raising an eyebrow at them, he soon rolled off to follow his father. The moment he was out of sight, the two released their breath.
"See! I told you the shadow government was real!"
"Hey! I never doubted it!"
Ashe blinked. "Wait, you didn't?"
Latios huffed. "Well, I personally subscribed to the "Clefairy are running the government" shtick, but I guess this changes things. How does it feel being the mother of the world's most infamous mafia boss?"
Ashe snorted. "Shut up or I'll show you what your lungs look like."
Latios smiled. "Firstly, I'm a ghost, don't have lungs, and secondly, you're moving to organs that are higher up in my body! Guess I'm improving!"
Ashe smiled. "Well, come on, we gotta win your stupid teddy bear before it gets too late. We're also gonna need to have a talk about the Clefairy stuff because I have been dying to mention this since Mt. Moon."
Latios paused, briefly mulling over her words, as a sly smirk crossed his face. He bowed. "Ladies first."
Ashe smiled. "So you want me to show you what your gallbladder looks like, then."
Latios paled. "Wow, so I dropped that far with just one comment. Frankly, I'm offended."
The pair laughed, though one more question lingered on Latios' mind.
"So about that whole, "one-upping Misty once and for all" thing-"
"I think I'm going to put that on hold for a while, if I'm being completely honest."
Latios blinked. "How come?"
Before Ashe could continue, a time portal suddenly opened up in front of them, and out of it came a Donphan, carrying a small red bundle in a blanket.
"Oh hey guys! Just came to drop in and say hi!" The Donphan looked over the duo. "Wow, it's been a while since I've seen you two like this."
Ashe raised an eyebrow. "Phanpy? Is that you?"
Donphan smiled. "Yep!" He glanced down at the little bundle. "Wow, can you believe that! It's been so long since I was a Phanpy! Now I'm feeling nostalgic."
Latios pointed to the bundle. "What exactly is that thing you're carrying?"
"Oh, this?" Donphan turned the bundle towards the two, revealing the face of an extremely small Latias, who had slightly crossed eyes and a small smile on her face.
Latios raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that. Why are you carrying around a child?"
Donphan looked back at the little bundle he was holding. "Oh, this is my sister! Say hi to your mom and dad when they were younger, sis!"
The little Latias let her tongue drop out of her mouth with a small "mlep" sound. The two Eon Pokemon before her were horrified.
"I'm sorry, but did you just say-"
"...Mom and dad?"
Donphan went wide-eyed. "Oh, wait is this before you two-" He glanced around, realizing exactly where he was. "Oh, woops, sorry about that. Must have overshot my portals a little. My other mom and pops tell me I need to work on that a bit better all the time. My bad, seeya guys later!"
And with that, Donphan dipped back in the portal with his cargo, as the two Eon Pokemon just stood there in shock.
"So."
"So."
"Want to go and get that teddy bear?"
"Please and thank you."
