Timeless Wonders

by Holdonlupin

A series of connected one-shots leading into a story that follows World Monarch Ash's adventures in the Paldea Region, accompanied by Penny, Nemona, Iono and plenty of shenanigans. What's the worst that could happen? (Ash/Harem)

11. Close all the Doors that you Want

Dang it, I really wanted to get this chapter ready for the World Champion Ash anniversary.

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT 'THE FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE IRREGULAR WITCH' WAS GETTING AN ANIME ADAPTATION?! WHY AM I ONLY FINDING ABOUT THIS NOW?! THE ENDING SONG IS SO GOOD! THERE'S A SEGMENT WHERE THEY SING FRIGGIN SPANISH! WHAT THE HELL?!

---

Nevermind, It's over.

That 'bad thing' I've been mentioning, which almost made me completely stop writing, it's over, done, for now at least.

I'm still not sure if I'll be able of getting back to the 2-3 chapters per month, but well, there's only one way to find out, and that is getting to work, after all, just like you all I also want to see what happens next in my stories, but even then I'm quite exhausted, you'd think that between Kanojo mo Kanojo season 2 and 100 Kanojo I'd have more inspiration to keep writing harem stories, oh, well.

Continuing, there's two points of the story that I should probably clarify before we go further.

1. Unlike the games, every Paradox Pokemon is unique and I'll also try to give each one of them a different version of Quark Drive/Protosynthesis.

2. The whole anime is canon until the finale of Journeys. MPM didn't happen.

With that said, let's get going.

---

Previously on Timeless Wonders, while our heroes were... uh, resting in the Brave Asagi along the Rising Volt Tacklers, the Explorers appeared and ambushed them, with Amethio's Ceruledge creating several shadow portals that forced the groups to split into duos scattered around the ship, and now they'll have to deal with the Explorers one by one.

---

With Dot and Penny.

"You're Murdock's niece, correct?" Penny asked.

"Unfortunately." Dot replied.

"Well, I wanted to talk with you actually." Penny said. "Your uncle mentioned us that you never want to leave your room, why is that?"

"Ugh, he's always saying that to everyone as if he was the victim." Dot replied. "It's all his fault to begin with."

"How so?" Penny asked.

"...That doesn't matter." Dot replied looking away.

"Well, as a former lonely loner and fellow techmaster I think you should talk things out with him." Penny said.

"I've tried, okay?" Dot said. "But he'll never listen to me! He just doesn't understand, do you have any idea of how it feels to know that the one person who can help you with a problem won't do anything about it?"

"Of course I do..." Penny sighed. "And that's exactly why I think you should insist before things get too big to handle."

"... Let's just meet with the rest so we can stop the Explorers." Dot said.

"I'm sorry, nerds, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Amethio said appearing from a portal along Richardo.

"Jim, Shadow Ball!" Dot shouted and her Gimmighoul jumped off her shoulder to then toss the attack towards Ceruledge who simply cut it in half and then dashed towards Gimmighoul with a Shadow Sneak, sending him onto a wall with a powerful kick which left him fainted on contact.

"...Pathetic." Amethio said.

"Leave this to me." Penny said with a Poke Ball on hand to the stand in front of Dot, while she returned her Gimmighoul. "Night Slash!" Penny shouted releasing her Meowscarada who quickly summoned a rapier sword made out of shadows and dashed toward Ceruledge, who blocked her with his own swords to then push her back, but Meowscarada managed to land on her feet, still holding her sword.

"Amethio..." Penny looked at him for a few seconds before adjusting her glasses. "Listen, I-"

"Save yourself the talk." He interrupted her. "I tolerated you and your little squad for Mela's sake, but that was too long ago."

"So just like that?" Penny asked. "You're our enemy now? You're Mela's enemy now? Even though it seemed like you two loved each other so much... why did you run away that day?"

"...Bitter Blade." He answered and Ceruledge rushed towards Meowscarada who jumped onto a wall to avoid the attack and then pushed herself from it to slash down Ceruledge on his chest.

"Answer my question!" Penny insisted. "That was the moment when Mela needed you the most and you didn't even enter her room! Why did you do that?!"

"...Because I failed." Amethio whispered releasing a Corviknight and a Escavalier, which stood by Ceruledge's sides.

"Failed to what?" Penny asked again releasing her Plusle, Minun, Bombirdier and Garganacl.

"I have nothing to explain to you." Amethio replied and his trio rushed to Penny's Pokemon, Ceruledge continued continued to attack Meowscarada, while Corviknight attacked Bombirdier and Garganacl as Escavalier went for Plusle and Minun.

"Helping Hand!" Penny shouted and Plusle and Minun did a short synchronized dance which ended in a high five, after which all of Penny's Pokemon were surrounded by a red and blue aura. Plusle and Minun were then hit by a sudden X-Scissor from Escavalier who then aimed at them while both his spears rotated with a Drill Run, but Plusle and Minun avoided them with a jump and then attacked with Mega Punch and Mega Kick respectively, following it with a double Thunderbolt, which was powered by the Helping Hand and pushed Escavalier onto the floor.

On the other side, Corviknight was attacking Garganacl and Bombirdier with Steel Wings to then kick them away with a Power Trip using his talons, Bombirdier then attacked with a Stone Edge, but Corviknight pushed the rocks back with a Hurricane and Garganacl put himself in front of Bombirdier to take the hit and protect her to then approach Corviknight with a Fire Punch while Bombirdier attacked him with a Lash Out using her wings to slash him, once again powered by the Helping Hand, finishing with a combined hit that sent Corviknight to the floor as well.

Meanwhile Ceruledge and Meowscarada were both slashing back and forth with an impressive speed until Ceruledge felt like he stepped on something and looked at down to see a red flower which suddenly exploded and sent him flying away.

"Flower Trick." Penny smiled while Meowscarada stuck out her tongue and landed a strong slash on Ceruledge's face, pushing him onto the floor along with Escavalier and Corviknight. The three armored Pokemon stood up again and looked back to Amethio who was simply staring at the nothingness.

"What's with him now?" Dot asked.

"Amethio, listen to me!" Penny shouted. "If you really feel guilty about what happened... if you really are still the person Mela fell in love with then it's not too late to stop whatever you're trying to do... you're still important to Mela."

"..." After hearing that Amethio stood still contemplating what Penny told him, but he quickly shook the thoughts off. "I told you to cut it." He finally replied pulling out two Love Balls from his pocket. "You know nothing about Mela and me." He said to then toss the balls releasing a Shiny Gallade and Shiny Gardevoir, both of them wearing a golden ring in each of their hands.

"Let's end this fast." Amethio said and the pair each took one of their rings and tossed them to Amethio, who then pressed the gems on the rings, which then started to shine with a bright white light that caused the whole area to illuminate while Gallade and Gardevoir also shined surrounded by a black light.

"T-That's..." Dot stuttered.

"Oh no." Penny said while her five Pokemon braced themselves after the light died down revealing Gallade and Gardevoir in their Mega-Evolved forms.

"Keep going, guys!" Penny shouted and her Pokemon attacked with Flower Trick, Thunderbolt and Stone Edge.

"Dazzling Gleam." Amethio whispered and Gardevoir and Gallade held their ringed together hands while they put the other hand in front of them, Ceruledge, Corviknight and Escavalier quickly got out of the way before the duo fired off a massive pink beam of energy that broke through the attacks of Penny's Pokemon and hit them all at once in a glittery explosion that knocked out the five at the same time. Amethio then returned all his Pokemon bar Ceruledge, who quickly ran around Dot, Penny and the fainted Pokemon while dragging his sword on the floor, creating a wall of flames to surround them.

"Two techmasters trapped in a fire wall, huh?" Dot asked.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm aware of the irony." Penny said recalling her fainted Pokemon.

"I guess leaving you out of the brawl should be enough for the moment." Amethio sighed holding his head. "If I don't kill you two right now is for the mere respect I still hold for Mela and Murdock."

"What?" Dot asked and Amethio simply stared at her.

"...Try to not end like your mother, Dorothy." Amethio whispered and turned around while Ceruledge summoned a portal.

"You..." Dot had her eyes wide open as she contemplated what Amethio told her while he disappeared inside the portal. "YOU GET BACK HERE!" Dot shouted jumping through the flames and following Amethio into the portal.

"What the-" Penny processed what just happened while she watched the portal close. "Ugh, whatever." She said bracing herself to then jump through the flames as well, running inside the portal after Dot right before it closed.

---

Meanwhile with Iono and Ludlow.

"Perfect! This day just can't get any better!" Iono complained walking in circles while Ludlow was meditating in the floor along Ash's Pikachu. "Next thing you'll tell me is that that girl Conia, who's also busty as hell, likes Ash too! ARGH! W-Why does everyone... P-Penny, Nemo and I are his traveling companions! We're the ones who know Ash the most! We should've gotten his first three kisses! Not Dendra, Mollie and Orla! This all so unfair! ...Maybe it's my fault? ...Penny and Nemo do deserve to kiss Ash, but I... after what I did... ugh, ok, ok, let's try to focus in not dying for now. What should we do, Mr. Drampa?"

"We wait." Ludlow answered.

"Wait for what?" Iono asked

"We wait." He repeated.

"But-"

"We wait." He said again and Iono made a small silent tantrum before sitting next to him on the floor with her arms crossed.

"Something troubles you?" Ludlow asked her.

"...I guess." Iono admitted. "I... I did something really bad, you see... everyone's telling me it's no big deal, but I was the one who did it, I just... I feel guilty." She whispered the last bit while Pikachu jumped to her legs. "Pikachu... unlike Miss Ketchum, you actually have been with us during our whole travel with Ash... do you actually believe the things she said?"

"Pika..." He replied slowly shaking his head.

"...Thank you." Iono smiled to then take Pikachu in a soft hug. "But I still feel bad about what happened, I'm glad Ash and the girls got to pull out the best side of me, but I'm worried about what he would think of who I was before I met him... but he'll surely forgive me, right?" She asked and Pikachu nodded with a smile and Iono patted his head in response. "Maybe the gals are right, maybe I'm worrying about nothing."

"Perhaps you are." Ludlow said and both Iono and Pikachu looked at him. "From what I've seen, the members of your group care a lot for each other, just like we Tacklers do, whatever you've done, I'm sure they all think there's nothing to forgive."

"...Thanks, Mr. Drampa." Iono replied with a smile but the scene was interrupted by a purple portal appearing in front of them, with Amethio and Ceruledge coming out of it.

"Well, what do we-"

"YOU!" Dot shouted coming out of the portal behind Amethio and tackling him to the floor, Ceruledge quickly approached them to help him, but was stopped by a Surf from Pikachu, which pushed him away.

"I told you we had to wait." Ludlow said releasing a Quagsire that used a Liquidation from his fist to push Ceruledge further away while Penny came out of the portal.

"Iono! You guys okay?" Penny asked. "D-Dot! What are you-"

"Answer me!" Dot shouted still restraining Amethio down.

"You get off me before I-"

"Who told you my name is Dorothy?!" Dot interrupted him and Amethio simply stared at her in silence.

"...You don't know?" Amethio asked.

"Don't know what?!" Dot shouted before Amethio let out a chuckle. "What's so funny?!" She shouted again now holding Amethio by the collar of his clothes.

"Precisely that." Amethio replied. "What you clearly don't know!" He exclaimed to then push Dot away, making her fall onto the floor while he stood up again.

"That's enough!" Ludlow shouted pulling out a folding fishing rod and using it to hook Amethio's tie and pull the young man closer to him, while Iono and Penny went to aid Dot.

"Hey, you okay?" Iono asked helping her stand up by grabbing her arms and Dot blushed at the contact.

"Uh, y-yes." Dot nodded vigorously. 'She smells like flowers.' She thought.

"What do you think you're-"

"AMETHIO TA JOLOKIA!" Ludlow silenced him pulling again the rod, getting Amethio's face right in front of his. "I know what you're trying to do! And it's NOT going to work!" He shouted trembling to then tighten his grip on the rod. "...They're gone."

"...I didn't ask for your opinion, Abuelito." Amethio said before grabbing the rod with both his hands and raise Ludlow in the air to then smack him onto the wall, making the elder man fall unconscious on the floor afterwards.

"Ludlow!" The girls shouted and ran to him along Quagsire and Pikachu while Ceruledge approached Amethio, who took a few steps back as he stared at Ludlow while the girls tried to wake him up.

"...Take me with her." Amethio said looking at Ceruledge who stomped the ground and summoned a portal beneath them, with the two falling inside.

"Not again." Dot said to then run to the portal. "I'll go after him! You guys take Ludlow to the infirmary, I'll call Mollie!"

"Hey, wait!" Penny tried to follow her again while Dot jumped inside the portal, but this closed before Penny could reach it. "...What's with this girl?" Penny asked herself before going back with Iono to help her carry Ludlow.

---

Meanwhile with Mela and Murdock.

"Let's get moving to stop them. As long as Amethio is here, I won't be fine." Mela said.

"Hmm... you know the kid from somewhere, don't you?" Murdock asked.

"Amethio... used to be my boyfriend." She admitted. "But we broke up some time ago."

"I see... and now you're blaming yourself for the damage he's causing."

"I guess." Mela nodded.

"Well, let me tell you something, blaming yourself for things that other people do is no good, I should know about that." Murdock said to then sigh. "In the end you can't do more for a person than what that person is willing to do for himself."

"Mr. Murdock..." Mela stared at him for a moment. "I... Mollie mentioned you had some story... as someone who was very close to go... can I ask why were you in jail?"

Mela's question took Murdock by surprise and all he could do was give a worried frown and cross his arms. "Well, I..."

"How about I tell you myself, kid?" Zir asked appearing from a portal along his roaring Rhydon.

"Hmmp, Houndoom, Trailblaze!" Mela swiftly pulled out a Quick Ball and released her Pokemon, who became surrounded by shining green energy as it approached Rhydon in a zigzagging motion to then kick him away with his hind legs, causing a leafy explosion.

"Nice hit! I'm right behind you, girl!" Murdock said to then release his Rockruff. "Use Trailblaze too, buddy!" He ordered and his Pokemon joined Houndoom with the two hitting tackling Rhydon repeatedly with Trailblaze from various angles while Rhydon tried to counter them with Hammer Arm, but was unable to land a hit due to their increasing speed while Zir silently watched the battle from his position until the two dogs joined in a double Trailblaze side by side and pushed Rhydon onto the floor.

"Finish him off!" Mela exclaimed and their Pokemon repeated the move together.

"Fire Punch now!" Zir shouted and Rhydon quickly stood up with both his fists surrounded in fire, stopping the Trailblazes flat by hitting the dogs right on their foreheads to then hold them by their necks and raise them in the air. "Whirlpool!" Still holding them by their necks, Rhydon smacked Rockruff and Houndoom against each other in front of him while his horn started spinning to then shoot a swirling blast of water that pushed the two dogs away, leaving them both defeated.

"Oh, this is personal now." Mela said returning Houndoom to then release her Baile-Style Oricorio. "Icy Wind!" Oricorio quickly took flight and began flapping her wings, creating a cold wind that began to froze Rhydon solid.

"Rock Blast!" Zir ordered and Rhydon joined his hands forming a a boulder that grew in size to then toss it at Oricorio.

"Leaf Blade!" Murdock shouted releasing his Tropius who used the leaves on his back to cut through the rock and then used a Leaf Storm which was joined by Oricorio's Icy Wind, with both moves surrounding Rhydon and finally defeating it.

"That'd be it." Murdock said while grinning. "You just can't stop losing against me, now, can you?" He asked before a portal opened from the roof above them, with Amethio and Ceruledge landing on the scene.

"A-Amethio..." Mela stuttered while Amethio stared at her to then look at Zir's defeated Rhydon.

"Looks like you need help." Amethio said.

"According to who?" Zir asked crossing his arms.

"Aaaah!" Dot shouted falling from the portal as well and landing roughly onto the floor. "Ugh, stupid portals, they make it look so easy in movies." She said to then sit on the floor to find Amethio and Zir looking down on her.

"You're way too stubborn, Dorothy." Amethio said while Ceruledge approached the girl.

"DOT!" Murdock shouted and Tropius rushed towards Amethio.

"Richardo!" Amethio called and his ace jumped above Dot to face Tropius while Dot ran to her uncle and Mela as Ceruledge swiftly defeated Tropius with a quick succession of Bitter Blades, Mela's Oricorio then attacked him as well, but Ceruledge slammed onto her with a Phantom Force and knocked her out too.

"Mela..." Amethio stared at her while his Ceruledge returned to his side. "We need to talk."

"...Where is Slither Wing?" Mela asked clenching her fists.

"Slither what?" Amethio asked.

"Where is Slither Wing?!" She shouted. "Why did you take him? What did you do to him?!"

"Oh, right, the Volcarona." Amethio scoffed. "Like I told you last time, that's none of your business; and that's not the kind of thing I want to talk with you about."

"And what makes you think I'll listen to anything you have to say?!" Mela exclaimed. "You think you can just come back to my life like nothing ever happened?!"

"I'm trying to do this the 'soft' way." Amethio replied to then release the shiny Gardevoir and Gallade again. "I figured you'd be more comfortable with that."

"Huh? T-Those two..." Mela stuttered while both Pokemon gave a small smile.

"You know what to do." Amethio told them and the couple nodded.

"Stay back, girls, I'll try to-"

"Lade!" Gallade interrupted Murdock and with a sudden dash he landed a Focus Punch on his stomach, sending him flying away.

"Uncle Murdock!" Dot quickly ran to him and Mela followed her but she stopped by the Gardevoir who reached out to her and grabbed her wrist, Mela quickly pulled out another Quick Ball and was about to release her next Pokemon, but she stopped to look eye to eye at the Gardevoir.

"Airalin, Marcus... listen, I know you're trying to help Amethio, but this isn't the way." Mela said. "What would his parents think?"

"...Garde." She replied softly placing one of her hands on Mela's forehead, causing the girls' eyes to briefly glow pink, before she suddenly fainted only for Gallade to catch her in his arms and take her in a bridal carry.

"...It didn't have to come to this." Amethio said while getting closer to them along with Ceruledge, softly brushing Mela's hair while Dot was trying to help Murdock stand up. Richardo then created another portal and Gardevoir and Gallade entered it along with Mela.

"Where are you taking that girl to, huh?" Zir asked.

"I just need some private space to talk with her." Amethio replied. "I'll be close in case you guys need help." He said to then look back at Murdock who was standing again after recovering from the impact. "You can handle him?"

"Oh, leave it to me." Zir replied returning his fainted Rhydon and cracking his knuckles as Amethio walked to the portal.

"Hey, you, wait!" Dot shouted standing by Murdock's side and Amethio stopped to look at her. "I'll ask one last time... who told you my name?!"

"...He did." Amethio replied pointing at Murdock, who simply looked down at Dot with a concerned stare.

"What?" Dot asked looking at him.

"Well, until next time." He said walking inside the portal being followed by Ceruledge.

"You? W-What? What does he mean?" Dot asked him.

"Listen, Dot, it's not what you think-" Murdock tried to explain, but he was suddenly interrupted by a punch from Zir right on his face, making fall to the floor again.

"Uncle Murdock!" Dot shouted and went to aid him again.

"Well, you still owed me this." Zir said taking off his shirt to then stand in a boxing position. "Watcha say? For the good ol' times."

"You put an end to the good ol' times!" Murdock shouted to then stand up and toss a punch, but Zir moved away to avoid it and then grabbed Murdock's arm to toss him around onto the floor again, Murdock stood up again and tried to tackle him, but Zir stopped him flat with a sudden side kick landing on his face, making him fall to the floor one more time.

"You've gotten soft, haven't you?" Zir asked with a chuckle.

"Leave him alone!" Dot tried to run to her uncle, but Zir grabbed her by wrist and lifted the girl up. "Let go!"

"If you lay a finger on her-" Murdock talked only to be interrupted by another kick from Zir.

"Please, you really think I'd hurt her?" Zir asked with another chuckle. "I'll just use her as a human shield. Professionals have standards." He said to then start kicking and punching Murdock with his free hand, while holding Dot with the other as the girl tried to free herself.

"You leave my uncle alone!" Dot shouted trying to free herself, kicking Zir without any effect.

"Heh, trust me, Dorothy, this guy isn't worth defending." He replied causing Dot to stop flat her movements.

"Y-You... You know me too?" Dot asked and Zir simply raised an eyebrow to then look down at Murdock, who was doing his best to stand up one more time.

"Wait a second..." Zir trailed off to then hold Murdock by his neck, making him kneel in front of him. "You... You haven't told her anything, have you? ...Not even what happened to her mother?"

"That's what she asked us to do." Murdock replied coughing blood. "Ugh, you know it."

"...I know that unlike you I would've never let anything happen to her." Zir took a deep breath and softly put Dot in the floor to then let go off her wrist yet still holding Murdock by his neck while the girl took a few steps back. "...But she was never mine to protect, was she?"

"She took her choice, Zir." Murdock answered slowly running out of breath.

"Yeah... then don't mind if I take mine." Zir replied to then start punching Murdock's face again while still holding him by his neck, Dot tried to get in the middle, but Zir effortlessly pushed her away onto the floor.

"Dot! Stay away!" Murdock shouted while Zir continued to pummel him.

"Don't worry, Dorothy, after this is done I'll give you some answers myself!" Zir said.

"You leave her out of this!" Murdock shouted before recieving another punch.

"B-But I- ...Tropius!" Dot recovered from the fall and quickly ran to the fainted Pokemon. "Come on! Uncle Murdock needs help!" She shouted unable of getting him to wake up to then look around in hope of anything that could help until she spotted a Quick Ball alone in the floor.

"That's... Mela's..." She trailed off to then run to then ball and open it, releasing Mela's Coalossal, who entered the scene with a roar.

"W-W-We're Mela's friends! We need help!" Dot exclaimed and Coalossal looked at Zir to then shoot a Tar Shot to his eyes, making him let go off Murdock to clean it, while Murdock mustered the last of his strength to stand up and land a strong punch on Zir's face that broke his nose and made him fall to the floor unconcious.

"Was that... soft too?" Murdock asked breathing heavily before kneeling again.

"Uncle Murdock! Are you okay?!" Dot shouted running to him.

"Ha, yeah, thanks for saving me." He replied with a small smile while coughing blood again.

"Uncle... what are the Explorers talking about?" She asked. "Why do the know my name? And Mom... w-what do they mean? Y-You said she died in a car crash."

"Yeah... that's what I told you, right?" Murdock asked before passing out and falling onto the floor.

"...Please help me take him to the infirmary." Dot said to Coalossal who took Ludlow in his arms, Dot was about to lead the way, but she stopped a moment to look at the unconscious Zir.

-Don't worry, Dorothy, after this is done I'll give you some answers myself!-

"...If I'm getting answers." Dot paused a moment before loking at Murdock. "He's gotta be the one to give them to me." She said before leaving the scene along Coalossal.

---

Meanwhile with Nemona and Mollie.

"Pongámonos Quacklocados!" Nemona exclaimed to then pull out her Tera Orb with her braced hand and activate it, but while it was gathering energy, Nemona let out a grunt of pain and had to use her other arm to support it. "C-Come on, just do it." She said to herself before taking the orb with her other hand and toss it to Quaxwell, changing him to a Grass-Type. "Huff... here we go." Nemona said holding her right forearm again.

"What in the-" Mollie wondered while she saw Nemona's brace was seemingly sparking and her right hand was twitching again.

"Ice Beam!" Conia shouted and her Golduck shot the move from the gem of his forehead, but Nemona's Grass-Tera Quaxwell jumped in the air to avoid it and fell down with a Brave Bird, pushing Golduck back.

"Shadow Claw!"

"Aqua Cutter!"

Golduck's claws became surrounded in shadows while Quaxwell's wings turned into two long blue blades, both Pokemon traded slashes back and forth, until Quaxwell landed a cut on Golduck's stomach, making him flinch and taking the opportunity to do a pirouette and slash him several times on his face.

"Keep that spin there! Tera Blast!" Nemona ordered and Quaxwell continued the pirouette which summoned a tornado of leaves around him, which was powered up by the Grassy Terrain set up by Arboliva. "En mi césped no se juega! PERRA!" Nemona shouted and Quaxwell tossed the Leaf Tornado onto Golduck and knocked him out while Quaxwell finished with a pose. "Alright! That's what I'm talking ab- AAAHH!" Nemona suddenly shouted while sparks came from her brace and she had to kneel while holding her arm.

"Nemona!" Mollie shouted getting closer to her while Quaxwell noticed the situation and ran to her as well. "What's happening with your brace?"

"It's nothing! Don't touch it!" Nemona shouted with another grunt of pain while her right hand continued to twitch.

"At least let me see!" Mollie insisted.

"I told you it's nothing!" Nemona replied to then punch the floor with her right hand, hissing in pain before holding her braced arm again while gruntung, meanwhile Conia ran to aid her Golduck.

"Goldie! Are you okay?" She asked softly holding his head and Golduck with difficulty opened his eyes. "I'm sorry, I know you've done a lot today, but I need you to hang on a little more." She said pulling out a Tera Orb. "Let's do this the right way, for our wish."

"Gol... duck." He replied with a nod.

"Nemona, let me see you arm!" Mollie insited trying to take a closer look, but Nemona kept pushing her away.

"You're not my doctor!" Nemona shouted.

"Quax!" The duck called her as well.

"You shut up too!" Nemona replied but the arguing was interrupted by a bright purple light, which made them look to Conia and her Golduck, who was now Terastalized to Poison-Type.

"Time for round two! Use Tera Blast, Goldie!" Conia ordered and her Golduck shot two streams of purple acid from the eyes of the skull on his Tera Crown.

"Look out!" Mollie shouted and the group jumped to the sides to avoid the attack, while the acid kept going and fell on the floor, melting it down and creating a big hole on the fuselage of the Asagi, which led to a direct fall onto the sky.

"Bad moment to be in the basement, huh?" Conia smirked. "Use Surf!" Conia said and Golduck summoned a giant wave from behind him and pushed it to our heroes, Quaxwell quickly used Aqua Cutter to nail himself onto the floor and withstood the attack, but Mollie and Nemona were washed out by the wave, which made them fall onto the hole of the fuselage, with Nemona making a quick movement, but Nemona did a quick movement to stabilize herself and hold onto the edge with her left hand and grab Mollie's wrist with her right hand, while her brace continued to spark. Quaxwell ran to them, but Golduck suddenly jumped above him and landed in front of him, knocking him out with another Poison Tera Blast and making him lose his Terastalization.

"Quaxwell! Are you okay?!" Nemona shouted unable to see him due to their position.

"Don't worry, I got my Drifblim here." Mollie said looking for the Poke Ball on her pants. "I'll just call him and-"

"Golduck!" The Pokemon called them walking to the hole while holding the fainted Quaxwell by his head to then toss him inside, leaving him to fall on the clouds.

"QUAXWELL!" Nemona shouted.

"Drifblim! Got get him. Quickly!" Mollie shouted releasing her Pokemon Who dove down onto the clouds to follow Quaxwell. "Uh... we have a problem." She said looking up at Nemona.

"Well, isn't this a bit of a cliche situation?" Conia asked walking to the edge of the hole to then stomp Nemona's finger, but the girl managed to contain the scream of pain that would've come out.

"Leave her alone!" Mollie shouted. "Your problem is with us the Tacklers, isn't it?!"

"Problem is that we all seem to be in the same boat here." Conia replied to then stomp Nemona's fingers again and this time she screamed out loud from the pain.

"M-M-Mollie, how's your Drifblim doing?" Nemona asked, while her grip on the edge decreased milimeter by milimeter.

"I don't see him anywhere." Mollie replied.

"Ugh, hey, isn't the standard villain practice to conveniently leave us alone and assume we'll fall to our death?" Nemona asked looking at Conia who let out a chuckle.

"Are you really that stupid or do you just pretend to be?" Conia asked raising her knee for another stomp. "Oh, well, any last words?" She asked and Nemona looked around in hope of help, but there were only clouds around them.

"I... I'm sorry, Professors." Nemona set her sight in her brace and took a deep breath before closing her eyes. "Reconocimiento de voz!" She shouted.

"What?" Conia asked.

"I really need to get my Spanish lesson done." Mollie said.

-Voice recognized... User N-3-M-8-N-4- A robotic voice replied coming from Nemona's brace.

"WHAT?!" Both Conia and Mollie shouted.

"Operación Sobrecarga!" Nemona exclaimed again.

-The requested function was locked by users 5-4-D-4 and T-V-R-8 as a safety measure- The brace replied.

"Ya lo se, Hijo de tu Betamax!" Nemona replied with a grunt. "Argh! Emergency code! 9-H-8-R-V-5!"

-Code accepted. Overdrive Mode Initialized- The voice answered again and the brace started to shine with a bright orange light, while zigzagging orange lines began to come out of it and crawled over the rest of Nemona's arm in a vein-like fashion while she screamed in pain again.

"Mollie! Brace yourself!" Nemona shouted.

"For whaaaaa!" Mollie asked before being tossed up towards Conia, with both of them falling to the floor while Nemona held onto the edge with her braced hand to then pull herself up with a front flip, the zigzagging orange lines were now reaching her neck as she breathed heavily and stared at Conia's Golduck.

"So you think you can kick my Pokemon into the either, huh?" Nemona asked while the lines reached up to her cheeks and she clenched her fists as her brace began to steam. "Heh, te haré sentí el peor dolor del infierno."

"Gold!" Golduck shot another Poison Tera Blast, but Nemona avoided it and ran to him at an impressive speed to then land a punch on Golduck's stomach with his right hand, which caused a small explosion that sent them both flying in opposite directions, with Golduck losing his Terastalization and fainting while Nemona landed roughly onto the floor.

"Nemona!"

"Goldie!"

Mollie and Conia shouted and went to aid them respectively, with Mollie finally touching Nemona's brace, which burned her in contact. "Agh!" She complained to the noticed the zigzagging lines were still slowly extending to Nemona's eyes, but stopped before they could do so.

-Core Energy has ran out- The robotic voice talked again. -Initiating Recharge Mode- It said and the lines began to pull back until they were inside the brace again, which stopped shining as Nemona returned to herself.

"Ugh... at least tell me that looked cool." She said sitting on the floor with difficulty while holding her arm. "That was... QUAXWELL!" Nemona shouted seeing Mollie's Drifblim raise from the hole with the fainted starter in his arms. She then ran to him and hugged him with her left arm, while her right arm stayed down, seemingly paralyzed. "Thank you so much!" She said in the verge of tears to then carefully place Quaxwell on the floor and pull out his Poke Ball with her left hand and return him.

"Good job." Mollie said to Drifblim, who floated next to her while she approached Nemona, who was simply looking at the Poke Ball with tears in her eyes. "N-Nemona, you arm, you..."

"Don't worry, it's fine." She replied doing her best to remain calm. "I-I-I just won't be able of moving it for an half an hour or so... are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you." Mollie replied reaching to Nemona's arm again, but she still pulled it away from her. "...Hey, girl, is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Uh, like what?" Nemona asked with a nervous laugh.

"Starting from the crossward puzzle on your neck, then the fact that you tossed me like I weighed nothing, that Dynamic Punch you used on Golduck and that I got burned when I touched your brace." Mollie said. "Just to name a few things."

"Uh, well, hehe, well, that's what something of the survival instinct one gets in life or death situations, you see?" Nemona simply scratched the back of her head while smiling.

"Listen, cut the airhead facade with me, it ain't gonna work." Mollie interrupted. "I'm a medic, I know when a patient is lying... and I recognize a prosthesis when I see it." She said causing Nemona's eyes to widen as she felt her heart stopping.

"I... don't know what you're talking about." Nemona answered.

"Nemo, enough dancing around! I basically saw you turn Super Saiyan!" Mollie shouted to then sigh. "Huh, so this what Orla felt dealing with me, huh? ...Listen, there's no use in hiding it from me anymore, but the way you're acting leaves me to think that Ash and your other friends don't know about it yet, am I right?"

Nemona stared at her in silence and simply lowered her head. "No, they don't... and I... I really hate secrets, but I made a promise... they asked me to not tell anyone about it... and even then, I know my friends won't judge me, I know they would also keep the secret, but... it's difficult for me to bring it up, you see? Ugh, to think I was so angry at Penny for hiding her secret from us..."

"Whatever happened to your arm must have been really bad then..." Mollie said. "But still, what kind of prosthesis is that? Aside from all the superhuman stuff you just did, it looks way too much like a real arm, not only it took me quite a while to realize it, but from what I can tell that also means that your friends haven't noticed it during the time you've been traveling together; I assume it's covered by some kind of synthetic tissue, but that ain't exactly easy or cheap to get; and on top of all that, you seem to be able of feeling pain with it... who made this stuff for you?"

"...That's not important." Nemona replied simply looking away holding her braced arm close to her once again.

"Hey, Nemo, listen, I know I have no right to push you, but if I've learned anything from these last days is that hiding the truth from your friends will only make you hurt even more." Mollie explained. "I understand, PTSD is horrible and all that but-"

"I don't have PTSD!" Nemona shouted. "I-I... I've been doing well, I've been having a normal life after that happened. I'm the happy-go-lucky Nemona! That's what everyone knows! That's the role I play and I'm happy with it!"

"Yeah, I thought I was happy with my 'normal life' as well." Mollie sighed. "But if you keep denying it, when that finally happens, it's gonna hit you way too hard."

"I'll be fine." Nemona simply replied and Mollie was about to continue talking was interrupted by her Rotom ringing and quickly picked it up.

"DOT! Are you okay?!" Mollie shouted.

"R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Rela-a-a-a-a-tive-e-e-e-e-ely." Dot said through a mostly static screen. "Damn it, The E-Explorers m-m-must be h-h-hijacking the signal, l-l-l-l-listen, I'm fine, b-b-but Ludlow and Uncle M-M-Murdock are injured, uncle is spe-e-e-e-ecially beaten up, I'm taking him to infirmary, Penny and Iono-o-o-o-o-o-o must be there with Ludlow a-a-a-already."

"I'll be there in a moment, please, be careful." Mollie replied. "Is there anyone else injured?"

"N-N-Not as far as I know, b-b-but Amethio took Mela wi-i-i-ith him." Dot said.

"HE WHAT?!" Nemona shouted.

"Y-Y-Yeah, I don't know where t-t-t-t-they could be, but from what he-he-he-he said I assume they're still somewhere insi-si-si-si-side the Asagi." Dot continued until the static overshadowed her voice and the call was cut down.

"But why would Amethio take Mela with her?" Mollie asked.

"For nothing good. I'll start looking for them, you go to the infirmary." Nemona said releasing her Pawmot who got worried once he saw her arm. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

"But what about... Conia?" Mollie asked and the girls looked around noticing Conia had already disappeared from the scene.

"She must have sneaked her way out while we were arguing." Nemona said. "Ugh, we don't have time for this. I'll start looking for Mela and Amethio, you go and help your friends."

"I shouldn't let you go alone with your arm in that state." Mollie said. "You said it needed half an hour or so before you could move it again, right? Besides the Asagi is really big and you have no idea of where they could be, it's to dangerous for you."

"...That never stopped me." Nemona said to then run away and Mollie hesitated before parting in the opposite direction.

---

Meanwhile with Friede and Michelle in the bridge of the Asagi.

"Out of all the places in the Asagi, you had to pick the Bridge?" Friede asked.

"Well, this is where it all started for us." She replied. "And where it ended too..."

"No, I'd say it truly ended on that warehouse." Friede replied and the girl seemed to tense for a moment before she let go off the helm to look at Friede directly.

"We both know this story is too far from over." She said.

"Seems like it." Friede replied. "I'd like to say I'm surprised you joined the Explorers, but we both know that would be a lie, Mitch."

"Don't call me that!" She shouted.

"Fine then... Michelle D. Amaras." Friede said and the girl took off her tech glasses to show her purple eyes. "The second-best Dragon Trainer in all of Hoenn after the man Drake Redaka himself... he was the only one who could call you Mitch."

"And he was the only one who could call you Fred." Michelle replied.

"I always thought he just couldn't remember our full names." Friede let out a short laugh. "But you never told us what the 'D' stood for, like, it can't be for Dragon, right?"

"I see you're still a clown." Michelle said.

"I'm giving you the chance to talk this out." Friede said.

"If you had given me the chance to talk when I asked for it..." Michelle took a pause as she clenched her fists. "Drake wouldn't have died."

"...I know." Friede answered.

"Good to hear. Dragon Rush!" Michelle shouted and her Salamence flew at high speed towards Friede and his Pokemon surrounded in purple aura.

"Iron Tail!" Friede replied and his Alolan Raichu spun around and used his tail to block the attack and push Salamence back. "Let's make this showy!"

"God, I always hated that catchphrase." Michelle said and her Salamence used a Zen Headbutt landing on Garchomp's stomach, but the shark managed to withstand the hit and held Salamence by his neck.

"Volt Tackle!" Friede shouted and his Raichu dove down surrounded in electricity while Garchomp held Salamence.

"Thunder Fang!" Salamence opened his mouth and bit down Raichu on his stomach right before he could crash onto him, with both attacks cancelling each other's voltage. "Now Crunch!" Michelle ordered and Salamence tossed Raichu up with his mouth to then bite hard on his tail and swing him around to hit him on Garchomp's face, who had to let go of Salamence and back down while the latter continued to spin Raichu around before smacking onto the floor several times to then toss him away to a wall.

"Dragon Claw!" Friede ordered and his Garchomp slashed Salamence with his fins while Raichu recovered.

"Raichu, use Surf!" Friede ordered and the mouse jumped in the air, forming an orb of water and knocking it away with his tail, the orb exploded in contact onto Salamence and Raichu then started to surround the two dragons with a Volt Tackle. Garchomp quickly understood the idea and grabbed Salamence by his neck again, but this time biting him right under his head as well, so he wouldn't be able of moving it, Raichu then rushed to them with a full-force Volt Tackle that caused another explosion and the wet Salamence fell defeated afterwards, while Garchomp and Raichu shared a high five.

"Looks like you still can't beat me, Mitch." Friede said while Garchomp and Raichu stood by his sides again.

"I hate to admit you haven't lost your touch." Michelle sighed while returning her Salamence to then pull out a Moon Ball.

"Heh, whatcha got there now? A Flygon?" Friede asked with a short laugh. "Throw it at me, Drake me taught me everything there is to know about Dragons."

"Yeah, Drake taught us well." Michelle replied. "But he didn't teach you everything." She said to then open the ball and reveal a bigger feral-looking Salamence covered in feathers with jagged wings and long front arms.

"Fred... meet Roaring Moon." She said while the Salamence let out a fearsome roar.

"...Oh, ok, Roaring Moon, he's shaped like a moon and it roars, that was seriously the best nickname you could come up with?" Friede asked. "And you dare mock my catchphrase?"

---

Meanwhile with Ash and Orla in the Machine room.

"STOP! WITH! THE! GOD! DAMN! IMMUNITIES!" Spinel shouted stomping the floor.

"Professor Turo always said you were a bit unstable." Orla said.

"SHUT UP!" Spinel shouted before taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Ugh, nevermind that, I've been looking forward to this, I don't tend to show up for field missions with these clowns, but I couldn't pass the opportunity of getting some revenge on you for humiliating me in front of Professor Turo."

"I rather remember that as you humiliating yourself." Orla replied with a smug grin. "Either way, you're welcome to try, I already took down Conia today after all."

"Unfortunately for you, It'll take a little bit more than a wrench to deal with me." Spinel replied. "But you do seem to have more than that, Ash Ketchum, I was actually fearing that you'd side with the explorers."

"Uh, thanks?" Ash asked.

"Not a compliment." Spinel said. "When we first heard you stepped in Paldea we were hoping you wouldn't become a problem, but here we are." He said shrugging shoulders. "Still, perhaps I'm overestimating you, I did a quick research on your 'adventure' here in Paldea and I can tell your current team is not fully developed yet, after all you have this curious tendency of 'reseting' everytime you arrive in a new region, had you brought your hardest hitters this would have definitely been a problem for me, so I guess you can say I'm a bit confident with the current situation, but enough of my 'evil monologue' ...let's turn the switch on this instant." He smiled to then pull out a Tera Orb and activate it, Terastalizing his Beheeyem into a Fire-Type. "Tera Blast!" He exclaimed and Beheeyem formed a small sun above him, which then began to shoot fire balls that rained over Ash, Orla and their Pokemon.

"Over here!" Orla took Ash's hand and guided him behind the coal machines to cover from the fire, while Metagross, Lokix and Sawbuck jumped around to avoid the attacks, with Orla's Metagross taking flight onward Beheeyem, but being pushed back by a combination of Shadow Ball and the Fire Tera Blast.

"Charlos, I choose you!" Ash shouted releasing his Armarouge who absorbed the Fire Balls with his Flash-Fire Ability. "Now Armor Cannon!"

"Skill Swap." Spinel whispered while Charlos charged the attack and Beheeyem's eyes illuminated as green light briefly surrounded Charlos.

"What- Charlos, wait!" Ash shouted but Charlos had already fired off his Armor Cannon, which was absorbed by Beheeyem, while the sun above him doubled its size.

"Tera Blast again!" This time Beheeyem raised his hands and the sun above him grew even bigger before splitting into several balls of flames that once again rained over Ash and Orla's Pokemon, they all tried to run away, but the fire balls followed them like missiles guided by Beheeyem's mind and eventually reached and knocked out Orla's Metagross while Lokix, Sawsbuck and Armarouge jumped around to avoid the attack, with Lokix using his back legs to get through the flames while Armarouge shielded himself with his pauldrons and Sawsbuck countered with a Solar Beam from his horns until the fireballs subsided and returned to form a sun above Beheeyem, with Lokix taking a knee exhausted and Sawsbuck and Charlos standing in front of the bug to protect him, albeit both were also worn out from the attack.

"Huh, they're not as weak as expected." Spinel said. "Orla, on the other side-"

"Shut the hell up!" Orla exclaimed recalling her Metagross.

"What? I thought you had already defeated Conia today." Spinel continued with the same smug grin that Orla had done earlier.

"You sure you two weren't friends?" Ash asked.

"Don't tell me you're jealous." Orla said.

"You're just ludicrous, Orla." Spinel said rolling his eyes. "Just because you get those little meaningless victories, you really think you're something, don't you? Heh, I still can't believe a mere mechanic won the spot for Turo's assistant among far more qualified people who were participating for it, and even then, you ended up abandoning your position in the lab, may I ask why?"

"That's none of your business!" Orla shouted.

"Well, if I had to guess there must have been some kind of discussion between you two." Spinel said. "Perhaps he requested something and you didn't want to fulfill it? I mean, we all know he was kinda depressed after his divorce with Sada; and I see there are two big reasons why I imagine he decided to pick you."

"OH, THAT'S IT!" Orla shouted getting out of their hiding place to point at Spinel. "The people who can make fun of my breasts are a very small circle and you're NOT part of it!"

"Yeah, whatever, Tera Blast!" Spinel shouted and Beheeyem shoot the fireballs amining directly at Orla. But Ash quickly stood in front of her with another Poke Ball in hand.

"You're up, Arctibax!" He exclaimed releasing the small lizard who jumped in the way and took all the hits, and although he was damaged, the moment he landed, his back spike began to shine bright red as orange aura surrounded his whole body.

"Thermal Exchange. As expected." Spinel said. "Psych Up." He ordered and Beheeyem extended one of his arms, with the three spots on it briefly shining in white before Beheeyem was surrounded by the same orange aura that covered Arctibax. "Well, that should be enough for the finisher, right?" He asked to Beheeyem who raised his arms forming a another giant sun above him.

"Attack now, guys!" Ash shouted and his four Pokemon fired off a Psyshock, Dark Pulse, Solar Beam and Dragon Pulse, but Beheeyem then tossed the sun at them and they're attacks were absorbed by it as it kept growing in size.

"Rock Tomb!" Nemona shouted entering the room along her Pawmot who jumped in the air surrounded by two rings of rocks which he tossed at the giant fireball, dissipating it and then hitting Beheeyem directly, while Pawmot landed next to Ash's Pokemon and Nemona ran to Ash and Orla, still with her Right arm unable to move.

"How's that for a cool entrance, huh?" She asked trying to look cheerful as always.

"Nemo, your arm! What happened?! Ash shouted trying to approach it, but Nemo pulled her arm away yet again.

"I-It's fine, don't worry!" She shouted holding it again. "Just, uh, a rough fall from those portals, that's all, it hurts a little, but we'll tell Mollie to give me a cast and I'll be fine in no time. But listen, Ash, Mela is in trouble. Amethio took her with him."

"He what?!" Ash shouted. "Then we can lose anymore time with this!"

"Don't talk like I'm some kind of side dish." Spinel replied before the whole machines room shaked, this repeated a few times until a section of the roof exploded, with Friede, Garchomp and Raichu falling all the way to the floor.

"Otro aterrizaje perfecto." Friede said with difficulty to then hear a howl and see Roaring Moon descending from the hole in the floor, with Michelle standing on his back.

"Is that a Salamence?" Orla asked.

"Wait a second..." Ash looked for his Master Ball and released Koraidon, who gave a worried frown once he saw the other Dragon.

'Bramaluna...' He whispered and the dragon roared at Koraidon once he saw it.

"That... thing?" Nemona asked taking a small step back while holding her right arm closer to her chest.

"Is that a Cyclizar?" Spinel asked to himself while looking at Koraidon. "Don't tell me Ketchum also got his hands in one of Sada's abominations... Hey, Michelle, use the coal burners!"

"I don't take orders from you!" Michelle replied.

"Just do it!" Spinel shouted.

"Argh, fine!" Michelle complained to then jump off the dragon's back and land on the platform next to Spinel while Roaring Moon landed on top of a coal burner and began to rip it open with his claws.

"Friede, we need to get it away from there!" Ash shouted.

"Got it. Liquidation!" Friede shouted and Garchomp's dorsal fin was surrounded in blue light before Garchomp made a somersault and curled up to usethe fin as a buzzsaw, slashing the Salamence down and pushing him away.

"Whatever you do, don't let it get close to the coal burners!" Ash exclaimed.

"Why exactly?" Friede asked.

"That Salamence is part of a group of Pokemon related to Koraidon." Ash explained. "They're really dangerous and become even stronger when they're exposed to a strong enough sunlight or heat source."

"Seems like Ketchum is more aware of the situation thank we think." Spinel said after hearing the explanation.

"Like I care, I don't need that boost to beat Friede's ass." Michelle replied. "Dragon Claw!" She exclaimed and Roaring Moon rushed to the group while Garchomp and Raichu fought it back with Dragon Claw and Iron Tail.

"I'll try something else. Beheeyem, Tera Blast on Roaring Moon!" Spinel shouted and Beheeyem began to shoot fire balls to the Salamence, who seemed to move faster with each flame that hit him.

"Guys, we need to stop Beheeyem!" Ash shouted and his Pokemon once again began to attack Beheeyem, which forced him to stop aiming at Roaring Moon and focus his attacks on them.

"We need some more back up, Nemo! You ready for this?" Ash asked looking at the girl expecting a confident response, but he was surprised by an image of Nemona trembling in fear. "Nemo?

---

"But if you keep denying it, when that finally happens, it's gonna hit you way too hard."

---

"P-Pawmot." She stuttered with a broken voice. "Please, p-please, re-return." Nemona then pulled out Pawmot's Poke Ball but this fell off her hand as she continued to tremble to then place her hand over her heart the moment she began to hyperventilate.

"Nemo, what's wrong?" Ash asked and a few tears came from Nemona's eyes as she kept looking at the Salamence.

"P-Pawmot, return now!" She suddenly shouted and the rodent looked back at her, locking their eyes before shaking her head and rushing onto the fight, joining Friede's Garchomp and Raichu against Roaring Moon while using Brick Break.

"Pawmot!" Nemona exclaimed and tried to run into the fight as well, but she was stopped by Ash who hugged her from behind.

"Nemo, what are you doing?!" Ash shouted.

"I can't lose him too, Ash!" She exclaimed bursting in tears and tried to force her way out.

"Nemo, calm down!" Ash continued.

"What's the matter?" Orla asked approaching them as well, while Friede kept his eyes in the battle, while Ash's Pokemon continued to trade long range attacks with Beheeyem, Roaring Moon suddenly made a Cross Chop with two Dragon Claws and pushed Garchomp and Raichu back, but Pawmot took the chance and attacked with a Close Combat pushing the Salamence away as well.

"Paaaaaaw!" He exclaimed running towards Roaring Moon forming a Focus Blast between his hands, Roaring Moon tried to stop him with a Crunch, but Pawmot tossed the Focus Blast right on the dragon's mouth and powered it up with a Double Shock, sending the Salamence flying onto one of the Coal burners and causing it to explode.

"No!" Ash and Friede shouted before Roaring Moon bursted out of the coal burner, shining with a dark orange light, the Salamence then let out a deep roar while black smoke came out from his open mouth and surrounded him, Roaring Moon then forcefully closed his mouth, creating a spark that caused another explosion that pushed back the rest of the Pokemon, to then reveal Roaring Moon now fully engulfed in dark blue flames, with only pitch black eyes and a mouth being notable among the fiery silhouette which then roared at our heroes.

"Nemo, we need your help, you have to release the rest of your Pokemon!" Ash called her again and the girl simply continued to hyperventilate until her legs gave in and both Ash and Orla caught her before she hit the floor.

"I can't!" Nemona shouted shaking her head bursting in tears again. "I can't do it! Not again!"

"I-I got her, you go and help Friede." Orla said and Ash hesitated but let Nemona with her. "Nemo, please, calm down! Ash needs your help!"

"H-H-He-He needs my help." Nemona stuttered again. "They needed m-my h-h-help."

---

"Lycan!"

"Orth!"

"Parce!"

"Goo!"

"Val!"

Voices in Nemona's head shouted keeping her unable to react.

---

"Go and get the data." Michelle said to Spinel. "I'll take care of the rest of this."

"If that's what you prefer." Spinel shrugged his shoulders. "But just for safety..." Spinel snapped his fingers and Beheeyem raised one of his arms, using its psychic power to take Drake's hat off Raichu's head and pull it back to them, making it land on Michelle's hand.

"We wouldn't want to this to get burned between the hustle, now would we?" Spinel asked. "You mentioned this was our pass after all."

"Yeah, it is." Michelle said to then glance at Friede.

"You wouldn't have the guts." Friede said and the girl simply took a deep breath before placing the hat on her head.

"We both know you never deserved it." Michelle said.

"...You're with me, Kid?" Friede asked pulling out a Tera Orb.

"No need to ask." Ash replied doing the same.

"Very well, I guess I'll let you handle this." Spinel said to then return Beheeyem and walk out of the scene.

"Terastalize!" Ash and Friede shouted, tossing the Tera Orbs, with Friede turning Garchomp into a Water-Type and Ash turning Lokix into a Fighting-Type, while Pawmot, Sawsbuck, Armarouge, Arctibax and Raichu stood next to them to face the now flaming Salamence, meanwhile Koraidon approached Nemona who was still shaking in Orla's Arms with her eyes closed.

"Nemona, you have to react!" Orla shouted to no avail. "Nemona!"

---

?-?-?

"Nemona, wait!"

...

"I won't let you hurt my friends!"

...

"BRAAAAAAAAA!"

...

"Quaquaval, Aqua Step!"

...

Mabostiff, Play Rough!"

...

"Farigiraf, Hyper Beam!"

...

"Nemo! Are you okay?!"

...

"No, no, no, there's no pulse!"

...

"Pawmi, listen, we need an electric shock, the strongest one you have. Nemona's life depends on it!"

...

"PAWMI!"

...

"Nemo! Nemo! Nemo, can you hear me? Nemo!" A voice continued to call her until a blurry image of Arven and her Pawmi appeared in front of her. "Oh, thank Goodness, I can't believe that worked, if Pawmi hadn't been here..." Arven's face showed relief, but this quickly turned into one one of anger. "Argh, Nemo, are you out of your mind?! What were you two thinking?! I told you we shouldn't come down here, I told you it was too dangerous!"

"A-Arven, how... h-how's Mabostiff?" Nemona asked.

"Nemona..." Arven stared at her for a moment before looking away. "Listen, try not to talk, save your energy, you're really injured."

"Where's Florian?" She asked trying to move but found herself unable to. "W-What happened? My... My other Pokemon, where are they?" She continued talking with each word sounding weaker than the last.

"Nemo..." Arven placed a hand on her forehead and sighed. "Listen, everything's going to be alright, but I need to you to lay down and stay still, okay? This... this is bad..."

"Arven! Nemona!" Someone called behind them.

---

"I'm sorry." Nemona said with a whimper. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." She repeated while Orla hugged her and Koraidon nuzzled her cheek in an effort to comfort her.

"Liquidation!" Friede shouted and his Water-Tera Garchomp aimed at the flaming Salamence again spinning like a buzzsaw, but Roaring Moon suddenly formed a ball of blue flames in front of him and stopped Garchomp's attack to then rush to him and bite down on his chest with a Thunder Fang, making Garchomp fall defeated and lose his Terastalization.

"What in the-"

"We need to attack together!" Ash shouted and the remaining Pokemon charged against Roaring Moon at the same time.

"I'm tired of this game. Calamity Storm!" Michelle shouted and the Salamence roared expelling a massive burst of flames that pushed the Pokemon back, knocking out Sawsbuck, Charlos, Arctibax, Lokix and Raichu, as well as pushing away Ash and Friede, with Nemona and Orla barely being shielded by Koraidon who quickly opened his wings to cover them.

"Mo..." An injured Pawmot stood up again and looked around at his defeated partners to then look at she still trembling Nemona and then back to Roaring Moon before growling and running towards the dragon.

"Pawmot, wait!" Ash shouted still recovering form the explosion.

"Pawmot?!" Nemona shouted as well, while the rodent jumped up and tried to attack with a Brick Break only to be grabbed by his chest by Roaring Moon's front claw, with the Dragon getting him closer to his face while the flames that surrounded him burned Pawmot who tried to force his way out to no avail.

"MOT!" Pawmot shouted extending his arms towards the dragon and firing two electric beams that hit the Salamence right on his eyes making him screaming in pain, but Roaring Moon then slammed Pawmot onto the floor while still holding him and charged a fire ball attack from his mouth.

"Gaias!" Koraidon quickly rushed in tackled away Roaring Moon, making him let go off Pawmot, Koraidon then tried to attack Roaring Moon with his claws, but none of his attacks had effect.

"Koraidon! Try to use one of the coal burners to power yourself up!" Ash shouted and Koraidon quickly ran to one of the machines.

"After him!" Michelle shouted and the still flaming Salamence responded with a roar to then grab Koraidon by his neck with both his arms before he could reach the coal and then took flight with him. Koraidon tried to set himself free without success until he bit down on one of Roaring Moon's arms, which caused the fire surrounding him to be absorbed by Koraidon's skin. Roaring Moon then crashed Koraidon onto a wall and tried to toss him away, but Koraidon hugged the Salamence's arm with both his upper limbs and then wrapped his lower limbs and tail around Roaring Moon's chest to keep absorbing his heat. Roaring Moon then shaked around to make him let go off of him, but Koraidon kept a tight grip on him, until Roaring Moon took a sudden dive and crashed both of them onto the floor, quickly taking flight again while leaving a seemingly unconscious Koraidon on the floor, albeit the flames that surrounded Roaring Moon had almost completely disappeared.

"Guess that's it." Michelle said with a smirk until Koraidon's body began to shine with an orange light while he stood up again.

"RAIDON!" He exclaimed achieving his full form surrounding the place in a warm aura, but this only caused Roaring Moon's flames to ignite again. "BRAMALUNA!" Koraidon shouted with a roar. "DOWN!"

"...No..." Roaring Moon replied with a hiss, surprising Koraidon.

"...Mashindano?" Koraidon asked and Roaring Moon seemed to smirk in between the flames.

"End this already!" Michelle shouted in an annoyed tone and Roaring Moon dashed to Koraidon, slashing him with several Dragon Claws in quick succession. Koraidon then smacked Roaring Moon away with his tail and he answered by aiming a Dragon Rush at him, only to be stopped by Koraidon who grabbed him by his wings before the hit landed on him, but Roaring Moon set himself free with a spin to then hit Koraidon with a Zen Headbutt. The two then traded Dragon Claws back and forth, but Koraidon seemed to weaken and slow down more and more with each attack he received, while Roaring Moon only impacted him faster and even more relentlessly, until he attacked with a sudden Dragon Rush on Koraidon's chest, forcing him back to his low powered form.

"That's enough!" Michelle exclaimed and Roaring Moon looked back at her. "Lights off, we've lost enough time with this." She said and the flames surrounding Roaring Moon disappeared, the Salamence looked down at Koraidon and seemed to hesitate but flew back to her anyway, letting Michelle jump on his back while Ash and Friede checked on the injured Pokemon, with Koraidon being the only one still conscious, albeit still extremely weakened.

"Well, looks like I finally surprassed you, Captain." Michelle said tipping Drake's hat.

"...This isn't what Drake would've wanted." Friede said.

"He would've wanted me to clean up the mess you made." Michelle said. "And that is what I'm going to do!" She shouted to them stomp on Roaring Moon's back and the dragon quickly rushed towards the group, grabbing Friede by his chest and raising him up in the air.

"Friede!" Ash and Orla shouted.

"I should tell Roaring Moon to burn you to crisp, I should tell him to cut you in half! To feed you your own heart!" Michelle said.

"And what's stopping you from doing that?" Friede asked with a fearless stare.

"...Drake is." Michelle whispered before Roaring Moon forcefully tossed Friede back to the floor.

"Michelle, stop!" Ash shouted while Orla and him went to aid Friede.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm done here for today." She replied with a sigh to then look at Ash. "Listen up, Ash, cause I'm only gonna tell you this once... you don't wanna be part of this, our beef is with the explorers, not with you, so I really suggest you to walk away before you... or your gals end up injured." She stared at him to then tap on Roaring Moon's back, with the dragon then taking flight and leaving the scene through the same hole on the roof that he came in.

"Friede, you okay?" Orla asked helping him stand up.

"Could live with a few less ribs." He replied holding his sides in pain. "Argh, she's gonna use Drake's hat to open the vault and take the keys, we have to stop her."

"And we still have the problem with Mela and I don't even know how the rest of our crews are doing." Ash said holding his Rotom Phone, but this only showed static, he then looked at Nemona, who was simply kneeling on the floor, with her eyes closed and still crying.

"Nemo..." Ash slowly walked to her and took a knee in front of the girl, placing both hands over her shoulders, which caused her to tense up and look up at him. "Nemo, calm down, it's just me..." He talked slowly holding her firmly. "It's just me... The Salamence is gone, it's over, you're safe."

"I-It's gone?" Nemona asked looking around as she slowly regained her composure until she spotted her fainted partner on the floor. "PAWMOT!" She shouted crawling to him and held the rodent close to her, calming down once she felt his heartbeat. "You're okay..." She whispered before starting crying again. "You're alive, T-Thank you so much."

"Nemo, what was all that?" Ash asked walking to her again. "I-I needed your help, why did you just stand there?"

"I-I was..." Nemona stuttered while looking down, hugging Pawmot tightly as her whole body tremble. "I was scared." She admitted looking up at Ash, who noticed sincere despair in her eyes.

"...We've been scared plenty of times during this travel." Ash said. "But we always fight back, specially you... The Nemona I know would never let fear paralyze her."

"Well... sorry to disappoint you, senpai." Nemona sighed to then return her Pawmot and stand up, she then tried to walk away but Ash placed a hand over her shoulder to stop her.

"The Nemona I know would never let fear paralyze her." Ash repeated. "So I need to know why this was different... specially after I went through with Mollie today, I won't stand seeing you suffering like that too... you've seen that Salamence before?"

"I... h-have I?" Nemona asked with a smile while her eyes got teary again.

---

?-?-?

"What should we do with her?" A distorted voice asked in Nemona's head, the girl found herself laying down on a bed inside a completely white room, with her body being fully covered by a white sheet all the way to her shoulders, she tried to stand up, but the pain didn't let her move at all, she couldn't even turn her head, all she could do was move around her eyes until she spotted two blurry silhouettes on the corner of the room.

"Well, we can't just let her go like that." The other silhouette replied, its voice as distorted as the first one. "And obviously we can't just 'get rid' of her, you know who her parents are."

"Hmm, that actually gives me an idea... Do you remember the AI that I was working on?"

"Yes, what's with that?"

"I tried to make a robotic body for her some time ago so she could physically help me in the lab after Raifort left, but I didn't manage to transfer her 'mind' to it."

"You could've asked for my help." It replied and the other silhouette laughed.

"Pfft, yeah, sure. My point is, the robotic body is somewhere in my storage, perhaps we could repurpose some of its parts and give them to Nemona."

"Sounds viable. But a simple prosthesis won't suffice, this is our responsibility, after all... I'll try to link her nervous system directly to it so it functions as a normal arm."

"Well, that's your idea, you sure you can do it?"

"Of course, just give me a day or two, I mean, this will be pretty much a full-on surgery... Where are the rest of her Pokemon by the way?"

"Eh, it was too late for them, Pawmi and the egg in her backpack were the only survivors. We really underestimated that thing, we should be more cautious with the experiments from now on." The silhouette then walked to Nemona and stood next to her, giving Nemona a clear view of the person talking.

"Nemo, you can hear me, right?"

"Yes..." She answered with difficulty. "Y-Yes, I can, Professor Sada."

"That's great, listen, you're gonna be alright." Sada replied to then pull out a syringe with an orange liquid and injected it on Nemona's right shoulder. "It seems like Turo found the perfect way to help you, but we'll have to put a little condition on you, you can't tell anyone about what happened here, so I hope you're good to keep a secret... you can do that, right?"

"...Yes... o-of course." Nemona replied feeling lightheaded and slowly closing her eyes while looking at Sada.

"Good girl." Sada replied with a smile.

---

"Nemona!" Ash called her back to the present again. "Are... a-are you okay?"

"No... N-No, I'm not!" She admitted with a shout to then take Ash in a sudden hug doing her best to not cry out loud while hiding her face on his shoulder.

"Nemo... Please, just tell me what's going on." Ash insisted hugging her as well.

"Ash... B-B-Back when we first met..." She tightened her hug on him while her breathing got heavy again. "Y-You never wondered why an upperclassman like me... would have a team full of first stage Pokemon?"

"...What do you mean?" Ash asked. Nemona then felt a pain in her right arm and looked down at her hand, noticing she could move her fingers again.

"...L-Listen, we don't have time for this." Nemona stuttered separating from him and taking a few steps back while she cleaned her tears. "I... I'll try to find Mela, y-you go and stop that thing, I-I know... I know you can do it." She said to then run out of the scene, Ash was about to chase after her but he stopped himself from doing so and looked back at Orla and Friede, with the woman still having to help him to stand up.

"Well, what do we do now?" Orla asked.

"You take Friede with Mollie." Ash said. "I'll try to stop Michelle from taking the keys."

"And how exactly are you supposed to do that?!" Orla shouted. "Ash, did you not see what just happened? She swept through all of your Pokemon like they were nothing!"

"I know." Ash sighed. "And the same happened last time I fought one of those Pokemon, they're even stronger than what I thought... but Nemona is right, we don't have time, I'll have to find a way, Skeledirge and Pikachu are still somewhere around the ship, I can only hope to find them so they can help me."

"And what if you don't find them?" Friede asked. "What's the plan B?"

"The Plan B is making up a plan B." Ash answered and Friede let out a short laugh interrupted by a grunt of pain.

"Then I'm not letting you go!" Orla shouted to Ash. "D-Do you think this is some joke?!"

"Orla-"

"NO! Listen, at least come with us to the infirmary so Mollie can heal your Pokemon." She insisted.

"Orla, there's no time for that and you know it!" Ash shouted. "Not even you guys know what might happen if the Explorers get their hands in all those keys! Michelle could be in the vault already!"

"Ash, this isn't your fight." Friede said. "You heard Mitch, their problem is with us, those keys are not worth putting yourself in danger."

"That doesn't mean I'm not going to do it." Ash replied. "Maybe this fight wasn't mine yesterday but I'm here now, Mela is already the danger, and your crew and my girls may be too, I'm not going to just stand by."

"Just... be careful, okay?" Orla said placing a hand on Ash's cheek. "I mean, after what happened with Mollie, uh, you and I... we need a more sincere approach to the whole thing, don't you think?"

"You mean an approach where we aren't drugged?" Ash asked with a small smile.

"Uh, yeah, something like that." Orla replied blushing.

"What are you two talking about?" Friede asked.

"NOTHING!" Orla shouted. "A-Anyway..." She looked in her pocket to then pull out her Tera Orb. "Here, since you already used yours maybe this will help you."

"Thanks, Orla." Ash replied taking the orb in his hand.

"Thank me by coming back alive." She replied. "If you're really going after her, do it quickly, we're counting on you."

"On it." Ash said to then look at Koraidon who was still recovering from the battle. "I'm not asking you to fight after that, but do you think you can help me follow them?" He asked and Koraidon nodded to then open his wings while Ash sat on his back before Koraidon took flight, going through the same hole of the roof, leaving Orla and Friede alone.

"Huh, so both Mollie and you went for him?" Friede asked.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Orla said.

"Orla, come on." He simply rolled his eyes.

"L-Look, Friede, t-this is, uh, something recent, you see?" She asked.

"Oh, no, it's fine, I'm happy for you, this ain't awkward at all." Friede said. "It's not like you rejected me last month."

"You can find yourself someone better than me." Orla said.

---

Meanwhile with Conia.

"Two epic losses on a day, huh?" Conia said walking on her own with Golduck's Poke Ball in hand. "Ugh, Jean is gonna be really angry at me, I can only hope the rest are doing better... just hang on a little more, Goldie." She stopped walking to look firmly at the Poke Ball. "This will all be worth it when we get our wish... right? I know we've done some bad things, but... this is all for a good reason... I almost killed and innocent girl a moment ago... Argh! Why am I suddenly overthinking all this?! I'm Conia Insar! I'm a super confident villainess and I can do whatever the heck I want! Who's gonna stop me?!" She exclaimed to the continue walking with her eyes set in her Poke Ball until she bumped what appeared to be a white wall, only for her to look up and see Ash's Skeledirge standing on his hind legs.

"Uh... want some belly rubs?" Conia asked with a nervous laugh. "No hard feelings about last time, right?"

"DIIIIIIRGE!"

"AAAH!" Conia shouted running away while Skeledirge followed her.

---

?-?-?

3 weeks before the incident

"Rowlet, Brave Bird!" Liko shouted facing off against a student in the battlefield of an Academy, with many other students watching the fight.

"Brambleghast, Power Whip!" The other student shouted and several thorny vines rose from the ground, Rowlet did his best to dodge them midflight, but the vines eventually wrapped around him to stop his movements. "Now Shadow Ball!" The tumbleweed let out a grim laugh before launching the attack to the still trapped Rowlet, hitting him right on the spot to then use the vines to smack him forcefully onto the battlefield, leaving him unable to battle.

"Rowlet!" Liko shouted running onto the battlefield to then kneel and pick up the fainted starter in her arms. "I-I'm sorry, this is my fault, you did great."

"No, he didn't." The other student said walking to Liko. "Heh, you couldn't even land a single hit on Brambleghast, quite a Ketchum you are, how can the daugther of the World Champion be so weak? I don't get it. Your Dad must be really disappointed." He said managing to make Liko drop some tears from her eyes while she hugged her Rowlet closer to her.

"Ehem." Someone called behind the student and the kid turned around to see an angry Unovan Samurott growling at him, next to a woman of fair skin and long brownish-purple hair, wearing a simple dark blue dress while having a quite angry look as well.

"Uh... hi?" The student asked before the Samurott swiftly pulled out one of his blades and sent the Brambleghast flying away with a Night Slash. "I-"

"Leave." She interrupted to then look around at the other students. "All of you." The student who fought Liko was the first one to run away after his Brambleghast while the other students also left the scene, albeit murmuring and glaring at Liko, who was still kneeling on the floor while hugging her Rowlet, with the woman taking a knee in front of her shortly after they were left alone.

"...Thanks, Aunt Ann." Liko said in a frail voice simply looking at her fainted Rowlet.

"Are you okay?" She asked helping Liko to stand up.

"Yeah, it... it was nothing." Liko said wiping her tears.

"Nothing? This definitely looked liked something. Why didn't you tell us you were getting bullied?" Ann asked taking Rowlet in her arms and giving him a Revive, the owl reacted shortly afterwards and flapped his way back to Liko's shoulders with a sigh.

"It's not 'bullying' bullying." Liko replied. "It was just something that happened today, uh, just don't tell my other aunts, okay? I don't want them to freak out."

"I guess I can do that." Ann replied.

"Great, let's just go home then." Liko smiled and Samurott approached her to let her ride on his back, once she hoped in the water starter began to lead the way home while Ann staring at them for a few moments before following them.

---

Some minutes later, at the Ketchum residence.

"We're back!" Ann exclaimed walking into the mansion with Liko by her side.

"Welcome home!" Cerah exclaimed greeting the two, wearing her white hair in a ponytail over her shoulder, wearing jeans and a cyan sleeveless shirt and carrying in her arms a baby with black hair adorned by white accents. And on top of all that, Cerah had a noticeable tired look on her face.

"Being a mother is harder than you thought, huh?" Ann asked with a smug grin.

"I'm so sorry about saying you girls were exaggerating." Cerah said while the baby pulled down her ponytail.

"Uh, do you want me to take care of Rosalind for a bit?" Liko asked. "You seem really exhausted."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Cerah replied carefully handing over the baby to her. "You're a lifesaver, Liko."

"It's no problem at all, you know I love to watch over my siblings. I'm the eldest daughter for a reason." Liko replied booping Rosalind's nose, getting a laugh out of her. "Hey, Aunt Cerah, did Dad leave already?"

"Yeah, you just missed him." Cerah replied with a yawn. "His battle against Juliana will start in an hour or so. Iono, Penny, Nemo and most of your siblings went with him. And of course, Geeta and Rika had to go as well as part of the League."

"And Dendra and Tulip accompanied Miriam to her weekly pregnancy check up." Leah said walking to them as well, wearing her usual cafe attire. "You know she's really nervous now that she's on the other side of the road since she was always helping us with our pregnancies, but they should be back in a few minutes. Now come on, dinner's ready, we'll see Ash's battle in the dining room."

"On my way." Liko replied still with the baby in her arms to then walk to the dining room, where she found an adult Marnie sitting on the table, wearing a short black dress stylized with pink flames, with a silver tiara on her head while her Morpeko ate some berries on the table.

"Aunt Marnie! You're back!" Liko shouted to then run to her and give her a hug. "I-I though you'd have to stay in Galar for another week."

"Heh, they gave me some time off, fortunately." She replied hugging Liko as well.

"You deserve it, your lastest battle was amazing!" Lilo exclaimed. "You dominated through the whole thing! Hop didn't even stand a chance, I'm sure you'll stay as the Galar Champion forever!"

"Eh, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea." Marnie replied. "I'm actually considering retiring. I feel like I'm not spending enough time with my family. Ash and I are long due of a date... and of a baby." She said brushing Rosalind's hair.

"Alright, everyone, hope you enjoy the meal." Leah said placing the last plates on the table. "By the way, Liko, how was your day at school?"

"Uh, well, pretty normal." Liko replied with a smile.

"Liko was getting bullied." Ann said out of the blue.

"WHAT?!" The other wives shouted.

"Aunt Ann!" She shouted. "Y-You said you wouldn't tell them!"

"Sorry, but the whole point of this household is that there are no secrets." Ann replied. "We're all with your father for a reason."

"Oh, come on..." Liko simply covered her face in embarrassment.

"Why didn't you tell us?!" Leah shouted. "D-Don't you trust us? ...Wait, i-i-is that the reason why you call us Aunts instead of Moms?" She asked with some tears in her eyes.

"What? No! T-T-That has nothing to do with it!" Liko replied.

"I want names." Marnie said pulling out two long black needles while her Morpeko jumped to her shoulder and changed to Hangry Mode. "Right now."

"I feel like that'd be going a bit too far." Ann said.

"You misunderstand my intentions." Marnie replied with an innocent smile while sharpening the needles against each other. "I just wanna talk to them."

"Hide those things, you're gonna scare Rosalind." Cerah said.

"I-It's seriously not as bad as it sounds." Liko said. "I just lost a battle and they boasted their victory a little bit."

"More like a big bit." Ann replied crossing her arms.

"Liko, why don't you tell us exactly what happened?" Cerah asked.

"Uh, you see, after school this guy challenged me to a Pokemon battle, and well, you know, Rowlet and I are not that strong yet so we lost; and I guess that boy was happy that he defeated the daughter of the World Champion, that's all." She explained rapidly and finished with a nervous laugh. "And this is the first time it happens, it's not like it's recurring bullying, most of my classmates are really kind to me."

"Most, huh?" Marnie asked.

"Seriously, calm down." Cerah told her. "Gosh, had Penny been here she would've already ran to that kid's house."

"Yeah, from what I've heard, last time this family dealt with bullying things didn't end up quite well." Leah sighed. "Listen, it was just a battle, everyone gets happy about winning a battle, but Liko, if that guy bothers you again, promise you're gonna tell us."

"Sure, I promise." Liko nodded to then look down. "Now, uh, Rosalind seems a little tired, I'll take her to sleep, be back in a second." She said to then walk away with the baby in her hands and the wives simply looked at each other.

"Ann?" Leah, Marnie and Cerah said at the same time.

"Yeah, I'm on it." She replied to then follow Liko.

.

"Rest up, gal." Liko said to Rosalind carefully placing the baby inside a crib while she yawned, falling asleep a few seconds later. "Geez, she even yawns exactly like Aunt Cerah. It's adorable."

"Hey, Liko, can I ask you something?" Ann said walking into the room.

"Uh, yes? What's the matter?" Liko asked.

"Something about your story that I think is missing." Ann said. "Why did you accept the battle in the first place?"

"Uh, well, you know..." Liko simply looked around. "Uh, when two trainer's eyes meet and all that..."

"You really think I'm gonna buy that?" Ann asked raising an eyebrow. "You said it yourself, you're not the strongest battler out there and you don't even like Pokemon battles that much, why ramdonly jump into a fight like that?"

"It's nothing, really. Let's go back to the dinner, okay?" She insisted and was about to leave the room but was stopped when Ann placed a hand over her shoulder.

"Liko..." Ann took a knee in front of her so they would be face to face. "Come on, you're not fooling anyone, tell me what really happened... or else I'm gonna call Ash, and you know very well he'd drop everything to come and see you."

"Ugh, fine." Liko replied to then sigh. "Well, thing is...we were all leaving the classroom and-"

---

"Hey, you girl!" The student stood in front of her once the classes were over. "You're the daughter of the World Champion, aren't you?"

"Uh, yes, that'd be me." She replied with her Rowlet on her shoulder. "My name is Liko, nice to-"

"I challenge you to a battle!" He exclaimed with a Poke Ball in hand, gathering the attentions of other students who were walking by.

"Uh... I'll have to decline." Liko replied. "I'm not that good for Pokemon battles, you see?"

"What do you mean? Your Ash Ketchum's daugther, how can you not be good at battles?"

"I'm just not that interested in them at the moment." Liko replied. "Of course I love to see my Dad battle, but I don't feel like they're really my style. Now, if you excuse me, they'll come to pick me up in a moment so I'll be leaving." She said to then walk past the boy.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!" He shouted. "Pfft, no surprise you're adopted. A real Ketchum would never run away from a battle!" He shouted causing Liko to tense, but she kept walking away doing her best to ignore him.

"Well, there you go it, fellas, the fake daughter of the World Champion is just a scaredy Skitty!" He continued and some of the other students began to murmur, but Liko remained calm.

'Don't lower yourself to his level.' Liko thought. That's what Aunt Rika would tell her to do. She was better than that.

"Come on, bro, leave her alone." Another student told him.

"Oh, no, no one turns down a challenge from me... I think I got an idea... Hey, you know what? Perhaps it's for the better that you're not like your Dad. He's just a 15-timing maggot, isn't he? With all those wives he surely doesn't even have time to see you, let alone train you. I bet he doesn't even care about his family!" He shouted the last sentence and caused Liko to stop walking while some of the other students gasped and Liko slowly turned around with a grim look in her face.

"...The fuck did you just say about my Dad?" Coincidentially, Rika was also the one to teach Liko some 'sentence enhancers' as she calls them.

"Uh, huh, h-hit a nerve there, didn't I?" He asked slightly scared of Liko's stare. "So, w-whatcha say? A little battle isn't gonna kill ya."

"Hmm..."

---

"Dad... he's always so kind, always so protective, so strong... he's done so much for this world and its people... even if the boy didn't mean it and he just said it to get on my nerves, the fact that some people still judge our family... still judge Dad... it just gets my blood boiling... so I accepted the battle, I wanted to defend Dad like he's always defending me... and of course, I stood no chance; and that's on me. Aunt Dendra, Marnie, Rika, Nemona and Dad offer me training all the time, but I always decline them and... and I don't even know why anymore, what's wrong with me? I turn 16 next month, I shouldn't be relying on you guys to save me everytime I get into some trouble.

"There's no need to pressure yourself like that, if you don't like battles that's perfectly okay." Ann said. "But, still, if you know that what that kid said about Ash is a lie, why are you getting so fed up about it?"

"Because the other thing he said wasn't a lie." Liko replied. "A real Ketchum would never run away from a battle."

"Liko, you're as much as a Ketchum as all of us are." Ann said.

"Am I?" Liko asked. "It's not just that I'm not blood-related to Dad, but... when I look at my siblings... at how happy he is every time one is born... how happy he is everytime one of you tells him you're pregnant... I can't stop thinking about how different things played out for my Mom and him when I was born..." Liko continued while her eyes got teary again. "I mean... in the end, I'll always be the unwanted baby that Ash had to take care off when he was only 18... because I-"

"That wasn't your fault." Ann interrupted her quickly bringing Liko into a hug. "How many times do we have to tell you? You're not unwanted, Lucca was the most excited person in the world; and when Ash met her and they fell in love, he was even more excited than her, of course, he was exteremely nervous, but he was ready to take responsibility since the very first moment, he was the one who decided to take care of you and we all wanted to help him... and I think we all did a pretty good job raising you." She said to then place her hand over Liko's head to brush her hair. "You're a wonderful girl, Liko, and more than that, you're an inspiration to all of your siblings and to all of us, so please, don't ever look down on yourself... you're the truest Ketchum out here, girl."

"Aunt Ann..." Liko did her best to hold her tears and simply hugged the woman tighter. "Thanks for everything."

"Favorite Aunt spot defended." Ann said with a smug grin and the two shared a laugh before separating. "Now, come on, Ash's Battle is about to begin."

"We can't miss it!" Liko exclaimed and was about to run out of the room, but her scream caused the baby to wake up again and start crying. "GAH! ROSALIND! I'M SO SORRY!"

---

And that's it!

Ha! The Tacklers cooked cooked curry in the anime! I called it! Gooooookaiger!

Well, we're back to updating, let's see how this situation continues. I think I'll do a quick chapter for the 100 NPCs to kinda celebrate the 100kanojo anime and then I'll get back to here, so you guys should expect it by December.

.

What is going on with Nemona?

Will Ash stop Michelle?

Will the team rescue Mela from Amethio?

What is Murdock hiding from Dot?

What is Spinel up to?

And what about Conia and Zir?

We'll see next time in 'Chips in my Pockets, Blood on my Hands'

And as mentioned earlier, this is still a five-parter, with the other two following chapters for now being titled:

No one brought us here but me.

Coming to Step on your Toes.

The current plan is returning to Fighting Dreamers after these two.

.

So, yeah, everyone had a little part in this chapter, but it was mostly Nemona and we had her big reveal, I remember the bionic arm theory being some big stuff last year but I've seen people kinda forgot about it, but I still like it personally and I've been wanting to use it since the first chapter of this story, now you know why Nemo defended the Professors back in EP 3, but what exactly happened that day? And how will that affect Nemona when that confrontation happens?

We'll find out soon enough.

And I decided to give you all a little glance of the future from where Liko came from. But things are, and will get, more complicated than it looks. Don't forget Liko already changed that future by saving Mela... or did she?

Ash and Cerah's daughter is also a reference to someone, can you guys guess who?

On another topic, Dot's name being Dorothy is not exactly a reference to anything, I just think it works as a nickname, you know, Dorothy, eh, the Dub will probably screw me over anyway. They already translated Brave Asagi to Brave Olivine, and yes, I know that's the literal translation, but there's no way in heaven I'm using it.

---

Reviews (Please read them, this is some important stuff regarding the story this time)

Klaus

Glad you like the story! And yes, Nemona is on the way to her big moment, kinda like Penny during the Team Star Arc, but we won't let Iono behind either.

Guest 1

Both Tulip and Miriam are 100% joining, we'll get there.

christianvirtudazo07

Yeah, I've been considering crossposting to Ao3, specially seeing all the bugs that FFN has been having these last months (Where are my views, damn it?!), perhaps I can finally have time to do that now, but I'll have to get used to the platform.

AndyKurosaki98

We'll get the 'how' of Liko in the following chapters.

I like to write Ash as a bottom for the most part, you know?

Yeah, Gravity Falls was the inspiration for that scene, huh, I should've put that in the reference list of the past chapter.

I got something interesting in mind for both Professors, even if I say so myself.

There's still some plans for more smut here and there.

UltimateCCC

Expect the unexpected indeed, or Onix-pected as Miku would say. wink, wink.

Mario 64

Irida will be in this story, but not in the way you think, I got a little idea in my head, you'll see.

KGBeastboy

Dude, that's some crazy level of world building there, that's seriously impressive, you could write your fanfic out of that.

I am planning something with the ancient Poke Balls and Lucius, but kinda like I did with the Tacklers, I'll be my own take on the theme. A little hint: Who have we seen owning a shiny Rayquaza?

I also have an idea for Raifort and the Legendaries.

And an Idea for Perrin too! She could debut here sooner than you think.

My last hint for the Kalos girl: Yon-gō, so it's that, and an Aura User with a hat.

As for Project Voltage, all the designs are great, but I'm not that sure if I'll use any of them, but if I do, Dragon Miku seems like the best option, aside from the design going ridiculously hard, we need to get back to the Miraidon antagonist arc here, right? I suppose Miku could be an AI, we'll see.

Songs have so been amazing tho, 'What kind of Future awaits' is my favorite so far, but I am still a little bummed out they didn't make songs per type, oh, well.

Rezenov

Yeah, I played the Teal Mask and it was great honestly (as if I didn't want to have Carmine join already), but you'll have to wait a liiiiiitle before we get anything from that here in the story.

As mentioned earlier, you guys can expect the Liko situation to escalate soon.

Lacey just set a new standard for what flat means.

Let's see, our Ash as a good harem MC is the 'a bit of everything' type of guy.

Graceful12345

We'll, that hurt a little.

But, yeah, you're right for the most part.

And as much as I love nice reviews, I do need some of these to keep myself grounded.

Now I'll try to cover all the topics you mentioned.

Starting with, what I think is the main weakness of the story right now, the flashbacks, since the first four chapters of the story and basically one shots with no actual follow up in between them, we skipped some things, for example, the gang first meeting woth Iono, now that the story is more linear and cohesive, it fills like some parts aren't there, which may be why Iono feeling guilty doesn't feel as impactful and I wanted it to feel, because we never see that actually happened, when Iono joined the group in chapter 2 she already had a few days traveling with them and we've seen her character progress rather positively since then, we haven't see her 'Past self'. Is because of that kinda things that this story relies on flashbacks so much, to fill in the blanks between the first four chapters, I mean chapter 6 was literally 100% Mela flashbacks, next chapter will have more of those too along with some Amethio and we'll get a flashback chapter for Iono sooner rather than later too.

Next things is, yes, even after 4ish years of constant English writing I still mix up some words. It's kinda both funny and sad, don't you think? No matter how many times I check the story before uploading, there's always some mistake I only notice after uploading, and they kill my soul everytime I spot them. I'm taking Professional English Classes right now though! Hopefully an official title will help me, haha.

As for the size of the harem, yeah, It's getting big too, but that's one thing I like about harem stories, simply playing with absurdity of the concept, I'm fully determined in giving Ash 100 soulmates in my other new story, there won't that much in this story, but it's still well past 10, the same with Fighting Dreamers' harem.

Still, one difference between this story and Fighting Dreamers in the harem handling is that this story started out with the harem idea from the beginning, meanwhile Fighting Dreamers had 36 chapters of just Bea before transitioning into harem, Bea will always have that massive advantage of screentime compared to the rest of the girlfriends. But here we don't have 'one' main girl here, we have 5, Penny, Nemona, Iono, Dendra and Mela, and I'd like to develop those 5 as much as I can before 'officializing' the thing and moving on to the rest of the gals, but I'm confident that I can give every girl nice development before and after joining the family, I mean, at least I believe that the 10 current girls that have joined in Fighting Dreamers were develoved enough to justify their entrance.

So, yeah , all in all, thanks for the review, sincerely.

Dragonkeeper10

All hail the captain!

---

References:

The title of this chapter "Close all the doors that you want" is taken from the lyrics of 'Bringing us home' by Tryhardninja.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm aware of the irony." - T.U.F.F. Puppy.

"...You don't know?" "What's so funny?!" "Precisely that. What you clearly don't know!" - Kung Fu Panda 2.

"I know what you're trying to do! And it's NOT going to work! ...They're gone." - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

"They make it look so easy in movies." -100kanojo.

"I'm trying to do this the 'soft' way. I figured you'd be more comfortable with that." - Invincible.

The name of Amethio's Gardevoir and Gallade, Airalin and Marcus are a reference to the Gardevoir comics made by RakkuGuy.

"Watcha say? For the good ol' times." "You put an end to the good ol' times!" - Sendokai Champions. (SEASON 3 IS COMING! WOOO!)

"Professionals have standards." - Team Fortress 2, Meet the Sniper.

"...I know that unlike you I would've never let anything happen to her...But she was never mine to protect, was she?" - The Mask of Zorro.

"En mi césped no se juega! PERRA!" - Lyrics from 'Plantas' by Luckster, translates to "You don't play on my lawn! BITCH!"

"Ugh, hey, isn't the standard villain practice to conveniently leave us alone and assume we'll fall to our death?" - HISHE, Villain Pub - The Boss Battle.

"I really need to get my Spanish lesson done." - Lyrics from 'Push' by CG5

"Operacion Sobrecarga" is the Latin-American title of 'Power Rangers Operation Overdrive'

"Ya lo se, Hijo de tu Betamax!" - From the Latin American dub of Despicable Me 3, trasnlates to 'I know, son of a Betamax!"

"Heh, te haré sentí el peor dolor del infierno." - From the Latin American dub of Dragon Ball Z.

"Heh, I'll make you feel the worst pain of hell."

"Starting from the crossward puzzle on your neck." - Lyrics form 'The Marvel Musical' by Animated James.

"...That never stopped me." - Finding Nemo. (See what I did there?)

Michelle's Salamence moves: Dragon Rush, Crunch, Thunder Fang and Zen Headbutt are the same moves that uses Drake's Salamence in his Oras Rematch.

"Yeah, Drake taught us well. But he didn't teach you everything." - Kung Fu Panda.

"Let's turn the switch on this instant." - How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno.

'Bramaluna' is Roaring Moon's spanish localized name.

The way Friede's Garchomp uses Liquidation is based on Zyuoh Shark/Sela from Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger.

The way Roaring Moon uses Protosynthesis is a mix of Monstrous Nightmare and Hideous Zippleback from How to Train your Dragon.

'Camility Storm' is a TCG attack in Roaring Moon's cards.

"To feed you your own heart!" - Death Battle, Omni-Man vs Homelander.

"...Mashindano?" - The Lion Guard, 'Competition' in Swahili

"You can't tell anyone about what happened here, so I hope you're good to keep a secret." - Lyrics from 'Your Better Half' by JT Music.

Marnie's future outfit is her Neo Champion Alt from Masters EX.

"I want names. Right now." - Wednesday.

"You misunderstand my intentions." - Injustice 2.

"I just wanna talk to him." - Family Guy.