Drumroll, please! …I said please?
Ash had been a bit stuck on what to do after the gym battle. He felt like the team deserved a bit of a break from training, but not everyone had participated and multiple Pokemon wanted to get right back to work!
It was nice to know that the drive to keep pushing to new heights had stuck but still. Too much work could be bad for you and you could burn out. Supposedly. He hadn't experienced that yet but he knew it was a thing that happens!
They ended up in the training yard after everyone had recovered. It was the closest thing to a modern location he had seen so far. The only hint of the true nature of Rota were the rooftops and buildings that peaked over the walls.
Since Storm had missed the gym battle she was going harder on her training than he had seen thus far. Not to say she had slacked off in the short time he'd had her on the team but she seemed to be pressing herself more than usual.
He decided he had to make it up to her. He wasn't one hundred percent sure of the exact rules of the tournament but he resolved to make sure she got to participate. Eevee too if he could swing it but Eevee had fought in gyms before. Storm needed some proper battle experience.
As immersed in the training as he was, the beeping from his wrist caught him by surprise. Right, the Pokegear could make calls and receive them, he was still getting used to that.
It did make contacting home easier at least. He no longer had to wait until he got to a Pokemon Center, he could just call every couple of days to check-in.
The caller ID said it was Karen, well now he could find out where they had been at least.
"Hi, Karen." He answered the call.
"Are you at the Pokemon Center? We just got back. Did you do the gym battle yet?" She was to the point.
"Yeah, we're back and we won! It was a doubles battle so that was interesting. Where were you guys?" He asked his own question.
"We're back too in the cafeteria-" a voice cut her off, it sounded like Misty's, "Sorry, we're in the 'tavern' Just come meet us over here and we can talk."
With that invitation, they wrapped up the training session and went back inside. They'd already eaten after Nurse Joy had cleared everyone but they could still sit down with the others.
Misty and Karen were at one of the medium-sized wooden tables, with enough room to fit four. Karen looked despondent, head in her hands, while Misty was obsessing over a shiny object lying on the tabletop.
"When did Misty get a sword?" Sunny asked the obvious question.
"Between this morning and right now I'm guessing." Pikachu made an accurate assumption.
"What were you two doing?" Ash stared at Misty's new weapon.
"Knight Combat school." Karen sighed. "There was an option to buy your own sword. Guess who decided to get one?"
Pikachu chuckled, "I don't think there's any need to guess."
"You don't seem too happy about it." Ash prodded Karen's attitude toward Misty's prize.
"That's because I'm a little worried about the twelve-year-old having a sword," Karen complained.
"Why?" Ash glanced back at Misty, cradling the blade, and returned to Karen.
"Because she's a twelve-year-old with a sword did you not hear what I just said?"
"I've been trained!" Misty finally pulled herself away from her hyper fixation.
"One hour and a half training session does not make you- you know what? Never mind, this isn't worth arguing about." Karen groaned.
"What exactly is Knight Combat school?" Ash asked, "Are you two knights now?"
"Isn't Staryu already a knight?" Sunny sounded confused.
"He certainly makes himself out to be…" Eevee carefully allowed.
"It's more of a fencing class than anything else. But with longswords instead of rapiers. I'll admit it was kind of fun though, sorry for missing the battle." Karen elaborated a little bit.
"Just 'kind of?'" Misty sounded offended, "I mean, sure the weapon upkeep part at the beginning was a little dull, but it got a lot more fun after that! Showing us how to get into different stances, two of the instructors even had a spar at the end!"
"That part was pretty neat." Karen agreed. "Don't have too much sword fighting in most Pokemon Battles."
"Oh, and I might have made a new friend?" Misty admitted, rubbing her neck a little awkwardly. "At least she seemed nice and she said she'd eat with us once she finished unpacking."
"Misty made a friend?" Pidgeotto seemed surprised, "All by herself?"
"Hey, that's a little mean isn't it?" Storm protested.
"I didn't mean it that way, I meant that normally Ash is the one making friends and Misty is sort of dragged into the friendship by order of proximity." Pidgeotto elaborated.
"Huh, you're right, Ash is normally the one to get involved first." Selene realized.
If Storm hadn't spoken up in Misty's defense, Ash would have. But he had to concede that Pidgeotto might have had a small point. But Misty seemed to be turning that around recently! Like when she traded numbers with Liz, and now this! That was two in a row! Kind of.
But now Ash was curious about Misty's new friend. "Is she a trainer too? Or one of the locals?"
"She's a trainer, turns out she's here for the tournament just like us. Misty and her just started talking during the class and she followed along with us after. I think you'll like her, she keeps her Pokemon out of their balls too." Karen explained a bit and glanced around. "Oh speak of the dark-type, there she is."
He followed Karen's gaze toward the buffet station and found his eyes drawn to a head of bright pink hair amongst the other trainers present. It looked familiar…
Very quickly it became apparent why he found it familiar as she turned around and Misty waved her down. "Mina!"
Ash started laughing as the girl came over, a small herd of Pokemon following in her wake. What were the odds?
Misty and Karen gave him weird looks, Mina had one too until she got closer and recognition crossed her features. "Ash! What are you doing here?"
"Wait you two know each other?" Karen looked between them.
"We met in Vermillion." Ash managed to control himself for a moment. "At the Pokemon Fan Club, right before we left."
"Mina…" Pikachu got a thoughtful look on his face and then did a double take. "Wait is she the one-"
The Vulpix with Mina seemed to have a similar conclusion and jumped on the table, carefully avoiding plates of food, and looked intently at Ash, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed at him. "Yep, I can smell it."
Sword now forgotten, Misty's face went through a few transformations as she processed this familiarity, until a throwaway comment from Ash snapped back into the forefront of her mind. "'And Mina'" She repeated his words. "WAIT! She kno-" Misty started shouting.
Karen quickly slapped a hand over the younger girl's mouth. "I think we're all missing some context here?"
"Not us," Ash claimed with a sly grin.
Mina, with terrifying accuracy, replicated his expression. "Everything makes sense to me."
"Mhffn mnks enz." Misty's muffled voice sounded from behind Karen's hand. She glared at the blue-haired teen, who quickly drew her hand away and shook it.
"Gross!" She cried and started wiping it on Misty's napkin. "You did not need to lick my hand."
"You didn't need to muzzle me!" She shot back and then looked to Ash and Mina, now sitting down with them. "Could I get some answers please?"
Mina lifted an inquisitive brow at Ash and he shrugged. "They know about me. I trust them." He said simply. If she didn't want to explain herself then she didn't have to. She did just meet Karen and Misty today after all, and the only reason she and Ash knew about each other was because of their own unique circumstances.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt…" She looked around the crowded cafeteria. "Although this might not be the best place for it."
"Good point…" Ash thought about it and had an idea. "Oh! I got it!" He whispered his plan to Mina and she grinned.
"Perfect." In unison, the two younger trainers stood and bolted from the room.
"I'm… what?" Karen stared after them, bewildered.
Meanwhile, the Pokemon began meeting each other.
"Is your trainer also an idiot?" Pikachu asked Vulpix.
"Yep." The fire-type agreed. "Did your's come up with a moronic scheme to become a Pokemon trainer too?"
"Yeeeep." Pikachu immediately found common ground.
Mina's other Pokemon were a semi-diverse bunch, but all Kanto natives. Mankey, Seel, Bellsprout, and Magnemite.
"Observation: Vulpix has information that has not been shared with the rest of us. Hypothesis: if she shared it with Vulpix it must be important, but because she did not share it with the rest of us, it must be personal to someone outside of herself. Conclusion: Pokemon Trainer identified as 'Ash' is also a Pokemon." Magnemite extrapolated.
Eevee stared at the floating steel-type. "I think you missed some details there, that conclusion seems forced."
Magnemite narrowed their eye at Eevee. "Observation: your opinion was not asked for."
Selene took interest in Vulpix. "Oh, so this is a Vulpix!"
Pidgeotto glanced at the fairy-type. "Right, forgot you'd never seen one before."
Vulpix seemed a bit taken aback by Selene's sudden inspection. "What's going on?"
Bellsprout hummed. "Maybe she's a Ditto too?" He wondered.
"Nah, I'm a Clefairy. But my name is Selene." She introduced herself. "It's just we keep running into these guys who are looking for a 'black Vulpix.' They mean Ash but they don't know it yet."
"Oh right those guys," Storm recalled her own interaction with Team Rocket. "Are they still on about that?"
"Last time we ran into them they just went for Pikachu," Sunny mentioned. "They've figured out we know where Ash is, but not that Ash is Ash."
"Your trainer didn't look like a Vulpix though." Seel sounded confused. "Red or black."
"I think that's because he can disguise himself," Mankey suggested and have Seel a light pat on the head. "Like Mina can."
"He uses illusions," Selene mentioned offhandedly as she finished her inspection. "Well I can see the similarities, but I don't think Ash looks too like you in his real shape."
"To be fair Team Rocket are kind of dumb." Pidgeotto reminded her.
She stared and then nodded. "Right, forgot about that part."
This was around the time Ash and Mina returned, looking no different than when they left. The curiosity was present but both sat down without an extra word.
Pikachu looked at Ash hard for a moment, and then at Mina. "Wait, I think I get it. How long do you give the humans?"
"As long as Mina doesn't accidentally give the game away…" Vulpix wondered.
"What was that about? Karen asked. "How did that explain anything? I mean, your Pokemon seemed to have figured something out."
"We needed to double-check something," Ash told her. "Don't worry, we'll explain after we eat."
"Right…" Misty seemed suspicious but couldn't put the last few pieces together. "How did you two meet anyway? You mentioned the Pokemon Fan Club?" She checked with Ash.
Mina took up the slack. "Yeah, it was kind of a chance thing. We were both a bit distracted and nearly ran into each other. Then we got to talking and found out we had a lot in common!"
"How much in common?" Karen almost struck gold.
Both kids smiled at her a bit too sweetly. "Right, I'm calling it, Mina is a Pokemon."
"What?" Mina gasped. "What would make you think I was a Pokemon? I mean, that's ridiculous!"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed, "She doesn't even look like a Pokemon at all! She's just a normal super cute human girl!"
Several jaws dropped. But Pikachu quickly picked his up and started cackling. Mina recovered after a moment and added on. "Wow! Coming from a normal incredibly handsome human boy that's quite the compliment!"
"Thanks good looking!" Ash snapped his fingers at Mina and she flashed him a smile and fluttered her eyes at him.
Misty's mouth worked without sounds for a minute. And Karen pulled herself together. "I… what? Since when did… huh?"
The goofy semi-romantic compliments managed to break Ash and Mina and the two started laughing and hit the table. "The look on your faces!" Mina sobbed, her voice cracking.
"I should do this more often! That was hilarious!" Ash wheezed.
"Alright, you might want to come clean. The short one looks like she's going to explode." Vulpix suggested, referring to Misty.
Indeed, the poor girl was bright red, although her expression remained curiously blank. Possibly due to the mixture of confusion, fluster, and rage, she was experiencing.
'Ash' sat back up and handed off his hat to 'Mina.' "I guess I should properly introduce myself now, huh? Nice to meet you two for real, my name is Mina Copsil, and I'm a Ditto from Cinnabar Island." Her normal voice now coming out of Ash's mouth.
"I want to say I called it but considering you managed to make my brain feel like it was short-circuiting I probably lost the right," Karen admitted. "Still, what the heck are the odds?"
"I don't know actually, Eevee any ideas?" Ash-diguised-as-Mina checked with his friend, his voice returning to normal as well.
"I think I'd need to figure out how many Pokemon can disguise themselves as humans." She thought about it. "Give me a day or two, I'll let you know."
"If I had a Pokedollar for every time I made friends with a Pokemon who was also a trainer, I'd have two Pokedollars. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it's happened twice." Misty finally said. "Is this revenge for missing your gym battle?"
"Nah, that's later," Ash-disguised-as-Mina told her.
"Oh, you did the Gym already? How was it?" Mina-disuised-as-Ash asked.
With that Ash gave the full rundown of his encounter with Gepetto. From running into Banette at the start to the close call at the end with Clefable.
"I wish being normal-type made me immune to being scared." Mina-disguised-as-Ash sighed. "What are the odds he tries to scare everyone the exact same way."
Ash-disgusied-as-Mina gave a helpless shrug. "Dunno, but it might be a different battle for you, how many badges do you have now?"
"I should have had five by now…" She grumbled. "But all the stuff with the Gym Inspection through me off. I'm lucky I managed to battle Pewter before it happened."
The other three trainers winced. "Sorry about that," Misty muttered.
"Not your fault." Mina-disguised-as-Ash waved off making the poor girl cringe harder. "But it meant two of the gyms I was going to challenge I never got a chance to. Thankfully this place is still running.
"Pewter is too actually." Karen pointed out. "Brock's just not in charge anymore."
"Wait, if not Brock then who?"
"I think it's his dad?" Ash-disguised-as-Mina mentioned, "he came back recently and managed to pull out a win."
Talk of gym battles and lack thereof ate up their attention for a while. During the conversation, Misty revealed that until very recently she'd been a gym leader too. After that low, the conversation's spirits rose again as they started talking about the tournament.
"I'm a bit nervous now. Or more than I was." The disguised Ditto admitted. "You guys seem pretty good. I'll have to train extra hard now!"
"That's the spirit!" The similarly disguised Zorua agreed. "I'm gonna get back to training after we finish eating actually!"
"See you in the yard then! Don't worry, I won't be watching you too hard."
"It won't save you from me though." Karen had a positively devilish look on her face. A threatening aura surrounded her. "I'll take my place as champion here."
"I think the victory title is 'Guardian of the Aura.'" Misty mentioned offhandedly, having been the one to read the tournament details in the first place.
Her comment had a peculiar effect on Karen who froze midbite and started choking. The others reached out but she held up her hand and downed her water. She spluttered some more. "I'm sorry, did you say, 'Guardian of the Aura?'"
"Yeah… why?"
Karen stared at Misty, then at the others, and then stood up. "I'll catch up with you in the yard. I need to go scream into the void for about five minutes."
Without another word to them, she walked out of the room.
Instead of going to the training yard, Ash and Misty went to find Karen. They told Mina they'd see her in the training field later but they wanted to figure out what was going on first.
Karen wasn't hard to find, she had just gone to her room. Absol let them in, Ash wasn't a hundred percent sure how given the paws without thumbs but Absol seemed pretty smart so she must have found a way.
As it turns out, 'screaming into the void' meant lying on her bed and screaming into a pillow.
"So… want to talk about whatever it is?" Misty tried, not really sure how to reason with the older girl given the lack of information they had.
"Noooo," Karen whined.
"Does this have to do with the personal stuff you told me you'd tell me about when I was older?" Ash checked.
"Yessss." She hissed.
"Am I old enough now?" He tried.
Umbreon groaned from his spot on the bed. "Oh just get it out. It's not like it's anything bad. Really."
"I expected more decorum from you about this." Absol prodded her teammate.
The other dark-type remained unmoved. "I was there for this, I think she's more upset about the principle of things than anything else."
"Context please?" Ash requested.
"Fine!" Karen pushed herself up. "Let's get this out."
He had been asking her Pokemon but that worked too.
"What's the big deal with the title 'Guardian of the Aura?'" Misty got right to the point.
"Because my family are Aura Guardians." Karen crossed her arms and sat crisscrossed on her bed. "Dad's side is at least. And I'm the disappointment simple as."
Ash shared a look with Misty and then his Pokemon. Seeing if any of them had a spark of recognition from that. "What does that mean?"
Karen sighed. "Lovely, I get to do a history lesson. Alright, so are you familiar with the Pokemon Riolu and Lucario?"
"Yeah," Ash answered immediately as Misty replied negatively.
"They use an energy called Aura to enhance their attacks, among other things. Some other fighting-types can do it as well. But the real kicker is, some humans can do it too." Karen explained.
"Wait humans can use Pokemon attacks?" Misty latched on but Karen shook her head.
"Not that I know of, Aura enhances what you can already do, it doesn't give you new abilities. Enhances your senses and strength, it can even be focused to share with someone else, replenishing them. The humans who can do that are called Aura Guardians, and they're trained to use it with all the bells and whistles." Karen continued.
"So what's the big deal?" Ash tried to figure it out. "You just can't use Aura?"
She snorted. "If only! I had an uncle who had that bad luck of the draw. No, I had worse. I 'supposedly' have a bunch of Aura. Err, well everyone has Aura, just not enough to matter." Her expression soured. "I'm doing a bad job explaining this. All life has Aura, it's basically life energy. Some beings have more Aura than others and can use it. Like Lucario and the Aura Guardians."
"Oh, so when you're sharing Aura like you said you're just replenishing life force." Misty realized. "Huh, kind of like a healing spell."
"Close enough, but back to my point. Mom was not an Aura Guardian, it wasn't too controversial by the time I was born. Apparently, it used to be a huge deal. But when my Dad's Lucario looked at my Aura he said I 'shined bright like a star.'"
"Wait…" Ash was wondering how she knew that.
"Aura Guardians have a certain bond with their partners. Telepathy or something. Nothing like what you do." Karen guessed his questions. "But since I was supposed to be a super aura baby they put me through the training. Except nothing worked."
Karen's face twisted in a weird mix of guilt and anger. "I tried and tried but I could never do anything with it. No enhanced senses, no strength, couldn't get a telepathic bond with Eevee or even any of the Riolu. But that didn't stop them from pushing me."
"I admit it, I got bitter. I got mad and said some things I probably shouldn't have. But I never said anything that wasn't true. Mom died when I was little so it was just me and Dad's side of the family and most of them never got it. Thought I just wasn't trying hard enough. Some were even suggesting going back to the more barbaric traditions to see if that would work." She glared at faces that weren't there.
"So on my tenth birthday, I left. Things were strained and I think Dad thought I'd come around eventually or figure it out. And I never looked back." Karen didn't say anything else.
Neither Misty nor Ash were sure what to say for a moment. Eventually, Ash settled on, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I should be over it. Just some daddy issues that shouldn't even bug me anymore. Not like I've spoken to them in five years now." She rubbed her face. "I mentioned this to Ash but your situation kind of rang some familiar bells to me, Misty. Guess it was already pretty present in my mind. 'Guardian of the Aura,' I'm more annoyed than actually upset I think."
"I can understand that." Pikachu nodded. "I've had that feeling a lot actually."
"Mostly with humans?" Pidgeotto guessed.
The electric-type shrugged, "Yeah, been trying to be better about it. Still, it's really easy for me to start feeling annoyed at them."
"Did screaming into a pillow help at all?" Misty tried.
"Yeah, I think it did. I think I'm over it. Huh, it actually kind of felt good to talk about." She realized.
"Sometimes you just need someone to talk to," Ash repeated the lesson he'd learned earlier on their journey. "But you're feeling okay?"
"I'm fine." Karen insisted, standing up. "You didn't even really need to check on me, I would have gotten it out of my system in a few minutes."
She paused. "But thanks, I appreciate it."
"Not quite what I expected when I mentioned the champion title," Misty admitted. "I supposed it's worth going over the rest of the rules? It occurs to me I'm the only one who read them in depth"
"Might as well, hang on, I think there was a pamphlet around here somewhere. Probably so any visiting trainers that didn't already know would find out about it." Karen started searching.
"I don't remember it being too complex. But I do remember only one Pokemon being allowed per trainer." The water trainer recalled.
"Shoot." Ash drooped a bit. "Well, Storm, good news, you're getting a make-up battle for the gym and then some! We gotta get training!"
Storm seemed pleased by this announcement until she saw the mischievous looks of her teammates. "Oh, this is going to be that kind of training isn't it?"
"It won't hurt if you dodge." Pidgeotto supplied.
"Poop." She drooped and Sunny gasped.
"Bad word!"
Meanwhile, in Ash's room, a certain Pokemon waited with crossed arms, feeling very annoyed.
"Where is he?" he complained. "He was coming this way, and this is his room right?"
His only answer was the silence of the empty room. He waited for several more minutes for grumbling. "Alright, I need a new plan."
To Storm's credit, she never complained. If anything, she was the most eager going through this training. In a way, she felt like she had something to prove. Everyone else on the team had been around for long enough to show their mettle, but this would be her first chance.
Of course, everyone else had their own training as well, but the defensive fighting style Storm was developing made for very convenient training fodder.
Not only was Storm able to work on taking and protecting against stronger attacks, but her teammates managed to get better the more they practiced. It was a bit of a win-win. If she ignored the part where she was pelted with lightning, fire, wind, and sparkles.
Speaking of which, ow.
Despite all the hard work and violence though, Storm felt… perhaps not happy, but content? Pleased?
Eh, whatever she felt, it was better than her old trainer.
Before she'd joined the Squirtle Squad, she'd had a trainer. He'd seemed alright at first, but he wasn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box. The more they lost, the angrier he got, and the more he started blaming her.
She'd tried her best. Time and time again, but his warning always came a second too slow or had the wrong solution. And his move calls? Many mistakes were made there, and she'd stopped listening to them. Which ironically also made him angry that he couldn't command his Pokemon.
In the end, she left him after another night of screaming and a kick to the head. She'd smashed her own Pokeball and booked it.
It was luck and a bit of her own searching that lead her to the Squirtle Squad, and she'd enjoyed her time with them. Ash had been right about dropping trainers in holes not being the most effective strategy, but it had still been fun.
Things had been going well at Cerulean Gym too. She felt a little bad about it getting shut down, but with how things turned out she wasn't sure she regretted it.
Now she had a trainer again, one who literally understood her, and cared about the wants and needs of each Pokemon on his team, and even on others! Asking them if they wanted to battle at all in some cases.
Storm knew that she probably wouldn't win the tournament. She lacked the experience for it, not to mention people like Karen were going to participate.
That didn't mean she wasn't going to give it her all though.
While her defensive measures had been growing over the past day, that did leave a bit of a gap in her arsenal.
"You have plenty of moves." Ash decided once she'd run down the list. "For now at least, it's just a matter of training them up a little bit."
"Not much time for that." She pointed out, there was only a day left.
"Which is why that's all we'll be focusing on. Accuracy and damage for now. We'll try and get a bit more creative in the future but you're right, we're on a time crunch."
They weren't the only ones training, there were quite a few trainers out and about, making their preparations for the tournament. Most of them looked a little bit older than Ash, probably around Misty's age.
There weren't too many familiar faces though, there was Mina, of course, and Misty and Karen too. But there was one more face Ash hadn't expected to see here!
While he might have seen the face first though, he wasn't the first to interact with it, that 'honor.' Went to Karen.
To be fair, it was kind of funny to watch.
"Fair maiden, truly you are the very model of nobility from an age long past. The very sight of you was enough to sweep me off my feet and leave me kneeling in honor of your beauty." Brock, ex-gym leader from Pewter City lavished a completely bewildered Karen with praise.
"I- uh- I mean- uh-" Karen had been complimented on her looks plenty of times before of course, even been on dates. But this was probably the most… poetic, anyone had ever gotten with her. "What?"
"Alright, that's enough bud." A stone hand grabbed Brock by the scruff of his neck and yanked him back. "Sorry about him, he's not actually trying to be a creep, he just gets a bit lovesick whenever he sees a pretty face."
"Is that Brock?" Misty came over to see what the commotion was. Ash had already been approaching when Brock had launched into his declaration.
"Looks like it," Ash confirmed. "I don't remember him doing that last time though."
Brock shook himself at the sound of other voices and switched his attention from the blushing Karen to the two other trainers. He stared for a moment and snapped his fingers, rising from the ground. "Oh hey, Ash and Misty right?"
"You remember us?" Misty seemed a bit surprised.
"For different reasons," Brock admitted. "Ash's 'provisional' badge situation stuck in my head, and I remember you because you ar- were, the Cerulean City Gym Leader."
There was a slight cringe amongst the trainers as that topic reared its ugly head. "I was sorry to hear about your gym." Ash consoled Brock.
"Thanks, but the more I think about it, the more I think it might be for the best. In the long run at least. I had a lot on my plate, but now that I'm not the Gym Leader anymore and Dad is picking up the slack, I finally have some time to… well, figure myself out a bit." Brock explained.
"Does that include propositioning girls?" Misty deadpanned at him.
He coughed and chose not to meet any of their eyes. "I, uh, sorry."
"Are you saying I'm not beautiful then?" Karen seemed to have recovered from her initial shock and was now pressing her advantage. Her usual bravado returned in spades.
Brock turned into a stuttering mess as the tables were turned. Misty giggled, "And here I was planning to chew him out for that. This is funnier though."
"I should feel bad, but I don't," Ash admitted.
"Yeah, Brock never thought he'd get this far. Not that I think he did, pretty sure she's just messing with him." Geodude observed. "Not that you understand me…"
"Oh, I do." Ash shrugged leaving Geodude guessing on whether that was a reaction to him or not.
Once Karen got done with her revenge they talked with Brock a bit. He had felt like a failure after he'd lost the battle with joy and Latias, but with some encouragement from not just his father, but all his siblings as well, he set out on his own journey, one he'd never been able to experience when he was younger.
He'd stayed fairly local so far, still feeling a bit reluctant to head too far from home. He lucked out with the tournament coming up and decided to stick around a bit longer. Doing some actual training with his Pokemon, which he admitted he was rather rusty with.
But he was grateful to have the opportunity. Misty and he ended up commiserating a bit over their shared loss. Despite the girl's initial misgivings, they seemed to be hitting it off.
"This tournament is going to be pretty interesting," Ash noted as he got back to training with his team.
"I wish I got to battle." Sunny sighed. "I know I got the gym battle but this seems like a lot of fun."
"I'm sure there are other tournaments." Pidgeotto comforted. "Are there?" She glanced at the others.
Eevee hummed. "Probably, we could certainly look into it more. We shouldn't just rely on being in town at the same time the tournament is going on though. One of us should do research ahead of time."
"That leaves you and Ash." Pikachu pointed out. "The rest of us can't read."
He got a bewildered stare. "Didn't you help him become a trainer in the first place? How can you not read?"
"With hard work and lots of diligence, you too can stay ignorant," Pikachu said with mock pride.
She rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"We can look into it," Ash confirmed as Storm got back to work. "But let's focus on this one right now, okay?"
When the time for battle finally arrived, there was one last thing they needed to do to get ready.
They needed to get into costume!
"Are you two coming?" Misty prodded Ash and Mina as she and Karen made their way toward the dressing room set aside for participants.
"No need!" Ash grinned and swept his hat off, taking a bow. His illusion shimmered as he did so and by the time he stood back up, he was wearing a completely new outfit. "Call me Ash the Gray!" He handed off his usual hat to Sunny who put it on and puffed out his chest.
"Shieldmaiden Mina of Cinnabar!" The other trainer did a twirl and came to a stop wearing leather and fur. "Ready for battle!"
"I thought you would go for a knight or something," Karen noted as she looked over Ash's robes and pointed hat.
"I figured Misty would go for the knight thing, besides, wizards are pretty cool too!" He grinned. "We'll meet you at the tournament!"
"You know some of the promotional stuff calls it a contest," Mina mentioned as they made their way.
"Like with the appeals and stuff?" Ash felt confused. "I don't remember that in the rules."
"It isn't, but I was confused too at first." She elaborated. "Officially they always called it a contest since they started holding it centuries ago. But when Pokemon Contests started getting big there was a bit of confusion so sometimes it's called a tournament and sometimes it's called a contest."
"That's weird," Ash said. "I guess it could be neat to do a contest though."
"Right?" Mina nodded. "Lots of chances to show off cool tricks and ideas. Especially ones that aren't useful for a proper battle normally."
"How about it Pikachu?" Ash glanced at his partner. "You could finally have a chance to use that Simultaneous Thunderbolt trick."
"Eh…" His best friend shrugged. "I like showing off, but style without substance isn't really for me I think."
Pidgeotto and Eevee both snorted, and he glared at them.
"Well I think it could be fun," Selene claimed. "Champions of the League and the Contest Circuit? We'd be the brightest stars in the sky!"
Meanwhile in the dressing room, as Karen and Misty got into costume, a certain watcher once again found himself very annoyed.
"His friends are here." He glanced at the two girls. "Now where is he? Is he not getting a costume? Does he already have one?"
A frown touched his face. "Is he ignoring me even harder?!"
The battles would be held in a courtyard within the walls of the palace itself. The ground floor was solid stone walls apart from doorways on either side. The next several levels though had balconies and windows for spectators to watch the proceedings.
The grandest viewing spot was a large balcony over the center of the field, with curtains and tapestries adorning it.
The crowd quieted as the referee trumped a horn and began speaking. "And now presenting her royal majesty! The illustrious ruler of Camaron Palace! Lady Irene!"
A blonde woman wearing a flowing gown and a golden tiara stepped onto the balcony. A Mime Jr. leaped from her arms onto the balcony and mimicked her movements as she waved to the crowd.
She raised her arms. "And now in honor of Sir Aaron and his noble deeds: we will begin our annual Pokemon contest!"
With those words, the battles commenced!
Misty was the first member of their group of friends to take the field. Unsurprisingly she had chosen a set of steel armor, although she'd forgone the helmet so she could keep her field of view. As an added bonus it worked well with her new sword.
Her partner for the battle was Staryu, she'd thought of using others but since he was the one who was just as endeared with this place as she was, it would have felt wrong to leave him out.
Also, this was their first battle since Cerulean. After that, they needed to get themselves back in the game.
Their opponent? A man wearing tights and a blue tunic. His Pokemon? A Nidorino.
"Poison Jab that starfish!" The trainer ordered and the poison-type lunged forward.
"Swift Staryu!" Misty called. "Follow up with Power Gem!"
Staryu had Nidorino beat in terms of speed. The other Pokemon couldn't keep up with the water-type, much to both his, and his trainer's, frustration. As Nidorino continued trying to land a hit, Staryu worked on chipping away at his health.
"You have brute force, but lack the grace and refinement of a true knight!" Staryu mocked.
"I am not taking trash talk from a movie character!" Nidorino roared and followed his trainer's command of Dig.
That proved to be their fatal mistake.
Misty grinned. "Water Pulse in the hole Staryu!"
Geysers exploded from the field as the tunnels filled with water and a knocked-out Nidorino crashed to the ground.
Considering their last opponent and the battle that surrounded it? This had been child's play.
Specifically requisitioned ground-types repaired the field and the tournament continued.
Ash got his chance to battle next, he and Storm up against a girl in a gown and her Pupitar.
Storm started to set up her defenses and Pupitar used Sandstorm, filling the air over the field with dirt and grit. "Gah, sand in my eyes!" The water-type shouted.
"Use Light Screen again," Ash called. "Have it push the sand away!"
While necessary to their chances overall, it did leave Storm open to take a view hits. Fortunately, after their training and preparations, they did little actual damage to her.
Combined with her typing advantage over Pupitar, she was able to outlast and out-damage the other Pokemon.
The rock-type did have a few tricks though, including an unexpected Earthquake which left Ash wondering how the palace managed to withstand attacks like that without being damaged.
In the end, though, they were declared the victors.
The real spectacles began once Karen took to the field with Absol at her side.
The disaster Pokemon made short work of their first opponents, a boy wearing a green hat and tunic along with his Turtwig. The poor grass-type barely had a chance to get a single move off before Absol was on top of him with combined Aerial Ace and X-Scissor.
It occurred to Ash that this was the first time he'd seen Karen properly in combat, the closest he'd seen in the past had been at the Team Rocket base but his experience there had been limited.
This proved the level difference between them though. There was no hesitation on her part. As soon as she'd seen her opponent she'd called the two moves and let Absol do the rest. Trusting her Pokemon to execute them exactly as needed.
He probably should have been worried but honestly, it just made him feel more excited. Even if he wasn't that good right now, it showed where he had to get to.
And he couldn't wait.
Despite his hopes though he was the first one to be knocked out of the tournament, by Mina no less!
He'd made it to the fourth round at least, Storm clearing through two more opponents with only a few minor hiccups. But Mina and her Bellsprout proved to be their defeat.
"Powder them Bellsprout and then use Sword Dance!" Mina ordered even as Storm began preparing her usual defenses.
"Pick a status condition!" Bellsprout cackled. "Any status condition!"
Storm tried to clear it away as she had before but the powders just kept coming until finally a Stun Spore managed to start afflicting her. As soon as she was under the effects of paralysis, Mina and Bellsprout made their move.
Not only did Bellsprout have a type advantage but he had also been Mina's second Pokemon after Vulpix, so he had plenty of experience.
Storm put up a good fight, but between being paralyzed, and a barrage of Razor Leaf and Vine Whip, her body gave out when faced with one last Giga Drain.
Disappointed as Ash was with his defeat, he couldn't bring himself to be too upset. Storm had done well for her first proper battles with him and there were worse opponents to lose to than Mina.
Also in the fourth round were Brock and Misty. Brock, with a new Pokemon of his, Zubat.
Unfortunately, that very fact contributed to their defeat. Zubat tried his best but Misty and Staryu took him down and out within a minute of battle.
The older trainer seemed disappointed but was graceful in defeat, congratulating Misty.
Karen, on the other side of the bracket, wouldn't have to fight any familiar faces until the final round, but she made it to the semifinals with little effort.
Misty and Mina's match was a close one, Bellsprout's type advantage once again came into play.
But Staryu made use of his psychic moves to even the playing field.
Bellsprout tried the same opener he had used against Storm, but Staryu grasped the other Pokemon in the grip of Psychic and dragged him across the battlefield to close quarters.
A close-range Swift and Psybeam left Bellsprout a bit woozy and another Psychic ended the match in Misty's favor.
Mina was disappointed with how the apparent ease they had been dispatched with this time. But reasoned that they should have mixed it up a bit since Misty knew what to expect at this point in the tournament.
Karen finally found a proper opponent in her semifinal match. Finding Absol pitted against a well-chiseled Machamp.
Machamp's trainer was a tan girl with gray hair. She was dressed in the garb of a warrior monk, complete with a staff. "Machamp Cross-chop!"
"Push your Danger Sense Absol, don't let yourself get hit!" Karen warned before ordering an attack. "Use Calm Mind and Double Team!"
The logic behind Calm Mind was that it would help Absol keep her head clear in the fight, and allow her to better predict her opponent's attacks with her ability. And Double Team spoke for itself, hard to hit your opponent when you have multiple opponents.
As she hid amongst the Double Team, Absol used one more attack, it would take a bit for it to work, assuming she did it right, but sometimes a glimpse of the future was the key to victory.
That said, victory was no walk in the park. Machamp used Low Sweep to clear the duplicates away, but Absol jumped over the attack and used Flamethrower, bathing the fighting-type in fire.
Machamp used two arms to cover his face, while the other two lashed out in a blind strike, attempting to get a hit on the unsuspecting opponent.
Absol had no way to dodge in the air and was forced to take a hit. But it was predicted, she'd seen this disaster coming and judged it less of one than taking the first attack she'd dodged.
"Use Torment and Swagger!" Karen quickly shouted and Absol rushed back into action.
Dark-type may not have the type advantage of fighting-types but they were never truly at a disadvantage. When the fight gets hard, fight dirty.
Despite her efforts, she wasn't able to avoid every damaging attack, so she had to pick and choose which ones would be worse to take. It was a good thing for Calm Mind, or she might not have been rational enough in the heat of battle to correctly make those decisions.
She was almost done for when Machamp used Seisimic Toss to slam her into the ground, but that was when her earlier planning paid off.
Future Sight burst into existence and smashed Machamp with a beam that held the force of a bullet train. The superpower Pokemon crashed to the ground and Absol surged to her feet and unleashed a final barrage of moves, winning the battle at last.
It was hard to top that spectacle, but the final match between Misty and Staryu and Karen and Absol was still a fight to behold.
Staryu wasn't able to use his psychic-type moves but he still had plenty to work with. A Dazzling Gleam to the face was an unpleasant experience for Absol.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Misty ordered Reflect and Light Screen, good thing too because Absol had been keeping a special move in reserve for either Storm or Staryu, depending on who she would have been fighting.
Thunder blasted Staryu full force. The sheer might of the attack filled the arena with light and bolts danced into the sky overhead. If not for the Light Screen Staryu probably would have been instantly defeated.
Still, that hurt. A lot.
The water-type kept the fight going though. Using Rapid Spin and Water Pulse to help gain some distance. But Absol kept on him like a bad cough.
Absol howled and Stone Edge exploded from the ground. Staryu managed to fire off one last Power Gem, humbling Absol even in victory, before being forced to concede his defeat and drifting into unconsciousness.
"The battle is over!" The referee declared as trumpets sounded. "Karen Yamikage is the Guardian of the Aura!"
Karen sighed and blew a strand of hair out of her eye. "Right, forgot about that part."
"Quite the prize huh?" Misty's grin was perhaps a tad vengeful.
"Shut up." Karen glared ahead.
"I mean, who wouldn't want the honor of your position?"
"I swear brat…"
"No, no, you shouldn't swear. Someone in your position needs to set a good example."
The Guardian of the Aura was a ceremonial position for the festival surrounding the tournament. Karen, as the victor would be standing at the side of Lady Irene for the rest of the evening.
That was it.
Just a title, and standing in one spot for a few hours.
At least the tournament had been fun.
"Where'd Ash run off to anyway?" She glanced around, looking for the familiar boy.
"He said that balls were lame and Mina agreed with him. He mentioned Lady Irene's Mime Jr. and an Aipom inviting the Pokemon to their own party." She shrugged. "That does sound pretty fun actually."
"Shoo!" An old handmaiden waved her hands at Misty. "Stop disturbing the guardian."
"Apologies my lady!" Misty did a slight bow. "I will not distract Sir Karen from her position any longer!"
'Sir' Karen's eye twitched. She debated whether it would have been worth letting Misty win or not.
"Stop looking so angry." The woman demanded, a servant at her side presented a long staff with a crystal at the end. "And take this, it is Sir Aaron's staff."
"Wait really?" That got Karen's attention. She gingerly picked up the staff and froze. A shiver ran down her back and she looked around.
"What?" The handmaiden looked confused at her reaction.
"Nothing just…" She shook herself. "Nevermind."
As the ball continued Karen found her gaze constantly returning to the staff. Despite being in a room full of people, and being in a place of honor. The only eyes she felt on her were unseen.
Something… no… not…
Traitor? Friend? Why?
Rage tried to surge forward but found no hold. There was something but…
Sleep took him once more.
As all the humans enjoyed their fancy ball, the Pokemon assembled to have their own party. And it would be way more exciting than boring ballroom dancing! Definitely more exciting than poor Karen's night was going.
Some of the locals helped guide the merry troop through the palace. Not every Pokemon from the visiting trainers had come, but a good number of them certainly. Ash and Mina's whole teams were there, as well as the trainers themselves. Not to mention team members from Karen, Brock, Misty, and others.
Aipom and Mime Jr. led the way. "I'm so glad I prepared for this!" Aipom claimed.
Mime Jr. looked confused. "We do this every year though."
"Yeah, but I brought more stuff this time!"
Whatever that meant was lost on Ash for the moment, he was caught talking to Zubat.
"So you get around using sonar right?"
"I think that's the word humans use. For me, it's just using the way sounds bounce off stuff to figure out where everything is." The flying-type explained, currently hitching a ride on his conversation partner.
"I could never figure that out. Kind of a rough patch whenever I tried becoming a Pokemon without eyes." Ash mentioned.
"Oh, I had that issue for a while too." Mina slid up alongside them. "I managed to figure it out a year ago. But I might have a bit of an advantage on you there."
"Right, you're using Transform, so you actually get all the biological features." Ash nodded.
"What's having eyes like anyway?" Zubat asked. "I'm supposed to get them once I evolve."
"Color is the big thing there. Hmm, but it's not easy to explain what color is to someone who can't see," Mina noted, her gelatinous form flattening slightly as she thought.
"Oh, I can give it a shot!" Sunny volunteered. "Let's start with red, I know that one the best. Red is heat, like when it's a hot summer day and the sun keeps beating down. And it's the warmth of a campfire. But it's also the wind on a fall afternoon, and the color of the tastiest apples!"
Selene did a little clap. "That was nice Sunny! It sounded very poetic!"
"It could use some refining, but yeah, not bad." Murkrow congratulated the fire-type.
"I think I get it." Zubat hummed. "I guess I'll know for sure when I get some eyes."
"Here we are!" Aipom came to a halt. "Welcome to the coolest room in the castle! Also called the attic. Go crazy guys!" He and Mime Jr. pushed the doors open.
The attic was surprisingly well-kept, not only that, but it was filled with stuff!
Some of it was old dusty furniture and boxes, but they had been strategically placed for optimum climbing and recreation! More than that there were toys! And a big chandelier lighting the place up for everyone.
For several Pokemon the climbing was enough, Mankey was shimmying up and down the makeshift jumble gym alongside some others. Sunny, Seel, and Selene immediately found entertainment amidst the balls of various sizes.
Umbreon, ever the grump stood off to the side. Despite being prodded by the others to enjoy himself, or get involved with one of the games that was being set up.
Speaking of which, Eevee and Starmie went digging through some of the piles of stuff for more sophisticated play material. That being board games. They managed to luck out with a chessboard but were missing a few pieces and trying to make do with ice crystals made by the water-type. They kept melting though.
Several other party games went underway. Storm and Squirtle had taken some of the boxes and were challenging each other to build a taller tower. The Turtwig from the tournament got involved with that. Some Pokemon just started playing tag while some of the more mature ones just began engaging in conversation.
Of the activities though, many found themselves gathered to the grand event of 'Ash and Mina do disguises!'
"Try this one on for size!" Ash flashed into an Ursaring and roared.
"I can do you one better!" Mina Transformed into a Dragonite and took to the air.
"Careful!" Vulpix shouted, sounding very alarmed. "The chandelier."
"Shoot!" She immediately landed with a thump. "Gotta be careful I guess."
"No fair! I can't fly." Ash complained.
"Your illusions are solid aren't they?" Bellsprout asked. "Shouldn't you be able to fly?"
"I've tried." Ash shrugged and swapped to a Pidgey. "Best I've managed so far is a glide. I just can't push myself higher."
"We could try some flying lessons?" Pidgeotto suggested.
He shivered, "would that involve dropping me out of trees?"
"It won't not involve that." She used a double negative.
"Coward." Mina stuck her tongue out and transformed into Lickitung.
"Flying can be fun," Aipom mentioned and transformed into a Swellow.
The other Pokemon stared. "What? You're looking at me like I turned blue." For added, effect, he turned into a Vaporeon.
"Observation: Aipom cannot learn Transform, nor do they have any illusionary abilities. Conclusion: you are not an Aipom." Magnemite dictated.
"Observation: duh." Vaporeon laughed and switched to a Pichu.
"That's not like my Transform," Mina noted, staring intently at the other Pokemon as they changed forms.
"There's a flash like my illusions but it doesn't quite look the same." Ash mentioned, "You're not a Ditto or Zorua then?"
"Oh! Not where I was going with this but I have an idea now!" Pichu clapped. "Who can guess what I really am?"
"Is there a prize?" Pikachu asked, sounding more curious than anything else.
"Bragging rights?" Pichu shrugged.
"I'm down for it!" Mina decided. "How about Ninetales, Vulpix's parents can do some weird stuff."
Her partner shook his head. "Nah, their illusions aren't like that, there's no flash at least."
"Not a Ninetales," Pichu confirmed, flashing into first a Kantonian Ninetales and then an Alolan one.
"This could get confusing," Geodude noted. "With three of you in the room. What do we call you?"
"Hmm…" Ninatales rubbed his chin with a paw. "Good question, can't give you my real name for obvious reasons…" He transformed into an Unown in the shape of an exclamation point. "Got it! Call me Aaron!"
There was a moment of silence. "Like Sir Aaron?" Pikachu asked. "As in, the guy who the tournament was for in the first place."
"...yeah." Aaron sounded a bit put out by the reaction.
"Are-" Staryu spoke up but was quickly cut off.
"No, I am not actually Sir Aaron!" He quickly said. "It was just the first thing I thought of."
"Aaron's good with a lot of things. Names are not one of them." Mime Jr. laughed.
"Quiet you or I'll tell them about the time I had to save you from a cookie jar!" Aaron duplicated his friend and pointed at him.
"A ghost-type then!" Ash tried, reverting to his base form and inspecting Aaron closely. "Like the Gastly line! They can do illusions and stuff!"
"Good guess but no luck!" Aaron turned his attention to the dark-type and as a bonus transformed into a copy of Ash.
The Zorua stared and then laughed. "Wow, that's weird from the outside."
Mina repeated the act and all three Zoruas stared at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles.
Guessing Aaron's true identity took up most of the night, interest waxed and waned as Pokemon turned their attention to other games, but the question remained in everyone's head, and occasionally a guess would be shouted out over the general sound.
"A powerful psychic could make illusions right?" Sunny asked Eevee at one point.
"Huh?" She glanced up for a moment. "I mean, some can? I don't know actually, sorry I'm just a bit distracted." She turned back to the board and hesitatingly pushed a pawn forward.
Her opponent, Psyduck, pushed a castle made of ice forward. "Check."
"Hooooow." Eevee sounded distraught.
Selene leaned over to Starmie, "How is Psyduck beating her?"
"He keeps eating pieces whenever she's not looking." Squirtle squeezed into the whispering. "It's hilarious. She still hasn't figured it out."
"Aaron!" Ash's voice rose up. "Latias! Or Latios!"
"Wrong on both accounts!" Aaron shouted, currently disguised as a Munchlax, and sitting atop the box and furniture pile. The other Pokemon had made it a game of trying to knock him off his throne.
"Latias and Latios can do illusions?" Mina asked Ash, "How'd you know that?"
"I'm guessing really." He admitted. "I met a Latias not too long ago and she was able to use her feathers to reflect light and turn herself invisible. I bet she could use it to do other things too!"
"You got to see a real live Latias!" Mina's beady eyes sparkled with wonder.
"Yeah, I did!" He flashed into the illusion and frowned. "I can't levitate though." He wobbled around a little.
"I apologize mystical dragon," Staryu told him. "I would use my formidable might to allow you the experience, but your true nature prevents it."
"Thanks, Staryu, I appreciate the thought."
Mina whistled. "Well, that's a challenge! But I might have you beat." With that, she took on a new form, and the attention of the room returned to the trainers.
The Ditto let out a screech as flames licked the air, and Moltres stood in the middle of the room.
"By the moon!" Selene gasped.
"Mina's so cool!" Seel squealed his trainer's praises.
"Where did you even see a Moltres?!" Eevee demanded, distracted from her game and allowing Psyduck the chance to chow on a few more pieces.
"Cinnabar is a volcano remember?" Vulpix reminded the group. "It's not often, but everyone once in a while, Moltres will stop by. She's not too bad really, if a little bit intense."
"You two just know Moltres?" Absol demanded.
"More like passingly acquainted." Mina clarified. "She doesn't mind us Pokemon gawking at her. It's when the humans get involved that she either fries them or books it."
"Don't leave me out of this!" Aaron allowed the combined forces of Mankey, Mime Jr., Storm, and Zubat to knock him off his tower. "Hmm, who can I do that will fit in here…"
There was a noticeable chunk of time as he thought about it. "Yeah I think that'll fit, give me some room guys."
With a flash that seemed far more colorful than the others another flying-type legendary stood in the center of the room. It had some similarities to Moltres, but also a lot more plumage and… grandiose.
It took a few seconds before anyone could put a name to it. But before that name was spoken, Ash and Pikachu gasped. "You're that Pokemon! The one from the storm!"
"Eh?" Aaron gave him a confused look.
"First day of our journey!" Pikachu jumped in. "There was this storm and Spearow flock. I managed to blast them all away and the storm started passing. We saw a Pokemon that looked just like you flying past a rainbow!"
Aaron looked between the two with wide eyes. "Isn't that interesting…" While there was still humor and amusement in his tone, there was also an odd edge to it. Like an intellect that liked to work behind the scenes making a surprise appearance. It was gone by the time his next words were spoken. "It was after a storm though? How fitting, I am the storm's end right now."
"Ho-oh…" Umbreon, coming out of his corner stared in awe at Aaron. "When and how?"
"Looong time ago," Aaron told him. "Haven't seen him in an age, but he used to come around here. Mostly to the Tree of Beginnings."
Talk of legendaries filled the party now, and Ash and Mina had to concede defeat. They didn't have anything to top Ho-oh.
Ash had never put two and two together for that Pokemon being Ho-oh and he was kicking himself for it. He knew what Ho-oh was, and had seen carvings and sketches of him. But he had never made the actual connection until Aaron had taken the shape right in front of them.
The party continued, but it was starting to wind down, it was kind of hard to top Aaron's moment of showing off. But the question persisted, who was that Pokemon?
"I think we need to start thinking outside the box for Aaron," Storm mentioned to Ash and Pikachu.
"What do you mean?" Pikachu asked.
"I mean we've been thinking conventionally. The most out-there guess was Ash's but think about it. He's met Ho-oh, and he implied he's met others. What if Aaron is a legendary too?" Storm suggested.
"Which one though?" Ash frowned. It was a ridiculous idea, but he was running out of his own. "Legendaries are kinda… weird."
"Fits doesn't it?" Pikachu made a slight mockery of their host.
"Yes, it does." The unexpected voice of Mime Jr. interjected into their conversation.
"Wait, you know Aaron don't you?" Ash realized. "Do you know what he really is?"
"Yep!" Mime Jr. grinned, "and you're on the right track, and things are slowing down. Not to mention the fireworks will be soon, so I think it's time."
Mime Jr. turned to his friend. "Hey Aaron?"
"Yeah?" Aaron glanced over, from where he was entertaining some of the others with a juggling trick as a Tangela.
"Do I get a guess?"
"That's not fair."
"But do I get a guess?"
"Ugh, fine, ruin the fun I guess." Aaron didn't sound too upset though.
Mime Jr.'s grin split his face. "Mew."
Many Pokemon heard what was going on and turned their attention to Aaron. Who dropped the juggling and took a bow. "And that's game! Enjoy your bragging rights, you cheater."
With that Aaron jumped into the air, flashed, and turned into a pink Pokemon Ash had never seen before. Vaguely cat-like, with large rear paws and a long tail.
"It's been fun everyone! Especially you Ash and Mina! I don't get to hang out with fellow tricksters very often! Hope to see you next year!" And with that, there was a flash of light, and he was gone.
Silence so total you could hear the sounds of the ball on the other side of the castle reigned.
"...did we just meet god?" Pikachu finally asked.
After the dressing room mistake, the watcher had tried calling his new trainer during the tournament and searching the ballroom after but to no avail.
At his wit's end, he decided it was time for the most direct approach he could take.
This was it. No more diversions. No more near misses. He was going to stand here, over the door of the Pokemon Center, and as soon as his new trainer came out he was going to Tackle him and challenge him to a battle.
He had waited so long and been so patient, but at long last his journey would begin!
"Last night was eventful then." Misty summed up as they ate breakfast. "Karen got a haunted stick and Ash met a Pokemon who is either supposed to be extinct or mythical."
"Still… processing that," Ash admitted staring at his food. "Like… there are religions based around Mew. And we just met him. In an attic. And Sunny played catch with him."
"And here I thought we'd spend the morning talking about that staff." Karen sighed. "Seriously, it felt like it was looking at me. Like there was something there. I swear I heard a voice at one point."
"You want to go ask if you can look at it again?" Misty suggested, "Maybe they'll let you keep it until next year."
Karen shuddered. "No thanks, you can go take the spooky stick if you want. I'm fine without it.
"I kinda want to go check out the tree now. Mew- Aaron- he mentioned something about Ho-oh visiting it. I wonder if he lives there?" Ash wondered.
"Not sure you want to do that. It's not an easy road over there and it's protected. Rangers are patrolling the borders of it. I doubt they'd let a group of foreign Pokemon just wander in."
"Pidgeotto managed to fly over." He mumbled and shoveled food into his mouth.
"Just hurry up and eat! I don't want to miss our next lesson!" Misty urged and began whipping her fork between plate and mouth.
Ash was a bit excited about that, knight class should be lots of fun. He hadn't joined the classes Misty had been attending over the past few days, he'd been too focused on training. But now that he had a chance to go he was taking it!
"Hey, Ash." A surprising interjection from Absol got his attention. "When we leave, could you reinforce your illusion a bit? So it doesn't break?"
Confused as he was by the request he agreed to it easily enough and Absol hummed. "Interesting."
"What is?" Pidgeotto asked.
"I was picking up two disasters for Ash. A minor one and then a much bigger one. The bigger one is gone now. My guess is he is either going to trip or get hit with something as we leave. Then it would break his illusion causing a much bigger problem. I warned him though so now that it won't pop it's only whatever was going to make it burst in the first place." Absol explained.
"Been a while since your danger sense helped us out," Eevee noted and got a glare. "I'm just saying!"
Regardless, Ash appreciated the warning, although, it was worrying he was going to get hit with something. Or trip. Especially since it was still going to happen even though he knew about it.
Misty and Karen graciously let him go first. His own team, (the traitors!) didn't even use him as their vehicle! He stood on the threshold for a moment and took a step forward. He glanced around, waiting for-
"AT LAST!" A cry of victory sounded from above and was all the warning he got before a small white and green blob landed on his chest and knocked him off his feet. He looked up and found a stick pointing at his chin.
"FIGHT ME!" Ralts demanded. "I have been waiting days! But you kept ignoring me! No more ignoring me! Battle me! Catch me! And take me on awesome adventures!"
"Uh…" Ash was completely lost. This was the most direct request to join his team he'd received. "How was I ignoring you?" He latched onto something.
"Don't play dumb!" Ralts jabbed the stick at his nose, even as he picked himself up and held Ralts at arm's length. "I've been calling you for days and you never even so much as looked at me! And so I kept trying to corner you and fight you! But you were never where you were supposed to be! No more cornering! Right here! Right now!"
Pidgeotto flapped over and landed on Ash's shoulder. "I know he's trying to be intimidating but this is just adorable."
"I am not adorable!" Ralts cried. "I am powerful and mighty! Now fight me!"
"I never heard you calling me." Ash protested.
"How can you not have heard me!" The other Pokemon whined. "I've been sending psychic messages at you since you got back from fighting Gepetto!"
"Oof, that's just bad luck." Storm sympathized.
"What is?" Ralts glanced at her.
"Just that you picked the worst trainer in the world to try and send a psychic message to. He may look human, but he's secretly a disguised dark-type. He never heard a thing." Eevee helped explain.
Ralts processed that. Then he squealed. "My new trainer is a Pokemon too?! Even better! Now battle! And catch! Let's do this!"
While Karen and Misty had seen the entire exchange, having only parts of the conversation left them rather confused. Ash filled them in and gave Misty his blessing as she was torn between more sword fighting and seeing this battle play out.
He felt a bit bad about missing out on the lessons, but the excitement of a new potential teammate completely overshadowed that. Ralts had to wait a few minutes as they moved from the street to the training ground though.
"I could just catch you, you know?" Ash suggested to Ralts.
"I've been waiting days!" Ralts insisted. "I want a proper battle!"
"Well, given the circumstances, who do you want to battle?" Pidgeotto asked him.
"Oh, that's easy. Pikachu." Ralts answered instantly.
They glanced between the powerhouse of electricity and the psychic-type. "Are you sure?" Sunny checked.
"Positive! Unless he's too chicken!" Ralts stuck his tongue out at Pikachu.
"How old are you?" the electric-type asked in response.
"Six!" Ralts claimed proudly.
"Six what?" Eevee prompted, for once on the same page as Pikachu.
"...I don't see how that matters." Ralts looked away and squirmed out of Ash's arms. "Fight time now!"
"He's certainly eager." Storm chuckled.
Sunny grinned. "I like him."
Pikachu cracked his knuckles and took to the field. "Alright let's go."
"Heck yeah!" Ralts agreed, stuck his stick in the ground, and immediately fired off a Psybeam at Pikachu.
"Woah!" The electric mouse nimbly dodged out of the beam's path, only for it to swing after him, brushing against his tail before petering out.
"Thunderbolt Pikachu!" Ash called quickly, deciding to take Ralts seriously. Underestimating an opponent was never a smart idea.
"Which one?" Ralts mocked as he used Double Team.
"All of you!" Pikachu declared as he used Discharge instead, deciding on the fly.
The fakes vanished and the real Ralts shivered as the shock went through him. "Alright, no more games!" He grabbed his stick again and waved it around before pointing it at Pikachu. "Time to feel the burn!"
A ball of fire appeared at the end of the stick and then exploded forward into an attack similar in appearance to Flamethrower. But with rings appearing around the central flame column.
"Yikes!" Pikachu used Quick Attack to get out of the way.
"Rush him with Iron Tail Pikachu!" Ash ordered and his friend bolted toward his opponent and slammed an Iron Tail into him, following up with an extra Thundershock for good measure.
As Ralts went down, a whisper of "awesome," left his mouth.
With a bit of wind up, Ash chucked a Pokeball at the defeated Pokemon who was immediately sucked in. It only rocked once before clicking, perhaps unsurprising, considering this was the result Ralts wanted.
The team began to celebrate and Ash went to retrieve the ball…
Only for it to vanish.
They stared at the empty spot on the ground before Eevee groaned. "Six Pokemon Team limit. Ralts makes seven."
Oh.
Right.
Oops.
Time to call Professor Oak then…
Tada! Nice and big chapter!
Lots of stuff happened too!
Mina, Brock, Mew, Ralts, Karen backstory.
I had a lot of fun with several parts of this chapter!
So why did it take so long?
Well it's very simple, I knew what I wanted to happen. I had it planned out. I just had to move things from brain to page. That was the hard part.
Anyway, as I said. So much fun. Especially the part with Mina at the start and then the Pokemon having a party and also the Ralts fight.
Yes! Ralts! I actually decided to keep track of all the guesses across ao3, fanfic, and discord.
The results are, Ralts: 16 guesses, Riolu: 6 guesses, Mew: 2 guesses, Hisuian Zorua: 1 guess, Kirlia: 1 guess, Ditto: 1 guess, and Abra: 1 guess.
So quite a few people got it right! Don't feel too bad if you didn't though. I'm actually surprised how many people got it! I was worried I was a little too vague.
I actually planned Ralts before Storm interestingly enough. But I did say I had multiple Pokemon planned to join Ash!
Now let's address the big deal here. I said it when I pointed the group in the direction of Rota I was not going to do a rehash of the movie. But reading the reviews people still seemed really excited for Lucario to show up.
Here's the thing. Ash is not a human with aura, and I don't plan on making his father a Lucario in this fic. So he does not have aura. Karen however…
Alright, this started as a joke in discord, way back when I first introduced Karen. I was brainstorming ways to add depth to her character and the joke came up that Karen is actually the descendant of a line of heroes like Sir Aaron.
And I loved it. It was perfect. Dark-type specialist from a line of good and noble fighters? Delicious narrative irony!
Then I finally started writing this and realized "Oh god this looks like I'm doing a bait and switch."
I'm sorry, I really am, if you were expecting Lucario and the whole thing there. I do plan to come back to Rota in the future but Lucario isn't happening for the moment. I'm sorry if I got you excited about it. I didn't realize how it would feel until I started writing this and I didn't want to suddenly skimp out of Karen's backstory after all the hints I've dropped over the past several chapters.
That's on me I guess. I should have been a bit more explicit that the whole movie plot was not happening in my notes.
Now that's out of the way, let's get to the reviews!
Ozymandias42: Pokemon grew a lot from its beginning, future stuff included in old stuff is juicy, as long as it makes sense. Also yeah, the thing is, I feel bad about taking Misty's gym like that. I really do. On the other hand, this was such an interesting direction to take the character that I couldn't pass it up. I do want to make it up to her though and I have plans for that. Also Mew did make an appearance, as for what Mew will do next? Mew knows!
Fogman66: Winner!
Shanonics6: Also winner! As for the tree, he might be visiting, or he might be moving on. Not easy to visit a protected sight after all.
Talesfanjmf: Glad you liked the battle! And winner!
Browntown747: Indeed, dark-type immunity is both a curse and a blessing.
LEGOBRICK13: You are 100% right about the Let's Go games and you should say it. Hopefully, the Mina interaction at the start of the chapter was everything you wanted! And no, not Riolu, although I understand the logic behind it. I do like Riolu though. Ash's canon one is great.
The one who reads and writes: It actually wasn't too big. At least compared to this one! And we get to meet all of Mina's Pokemon this chapter! Mew made an appearance too. As for the lab situation, that will be sorted next chapter. None of them thought of that little hiccup until a moment too late.
Pokemonever1994: Ash get's a lot of both doesn't he? And yes Gepetto and Banette were very much references to Pinnochio.
GreyNimbus: What makes a good human being really? But Ash is generally a good person and tries his best. Sometimes that's what counts.
PokeDan: *taps foot* You're late! Snowball effect going off the rails. And yes very aware about your feelings on Latias. As for Inspector Joy, we'll see her again later on. Probably. Brock's doing alright. And yes that big column of smoke on the horizon is the burning wreck of the canon plotline how did you know?
That wraps it up, folks. I hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!
Discord: discord gg kESdTfhAwG
TVTropes: tvtropes pmwiki / pmwiki . php / Fanfic / ZoruaTrainer
~FriTik
R&R