Traveler

by The Straight Elf

Ash Ketchum has been determined to become the best since he was a toddler. He has his eyes set on a charmander, but a twist of fate led him to the humble Nidoran. Note: Mix between anime and the games.

16. Chapter 16: The Storm

A/N: Thanks for the feedback last chapter! You guys are awesome. Anyway, here's Chapter Sixteen, enjoy!

It was a good day. The sun was bright but not hot, the air wasn't bitter with cold, and there were plenty of wild pokemon playing in the area. Ash had a smile on his face as he watched Sneasel run off into the woods after some unfortunate pokemon. Plume would stop him if he tried to take it too far, but Ash trusted Sneasel to restrain himself from slipping into a blood rage now.

This was his fourth day of travelling. Ash estimated that he had three days left. He'd made good progress so far, and the weather had been in his favor. Sneasel had done quite well in all of his matches so far, so overall everything had worked out wonderfully.

He didn't have any of his other friends out. Plume lazily drifted high above him, but he didn't have Nidoking or Torrent travelling beside him. Ash wanted to give Sneasel the chance to battle more, and that turned into a surprisingly difficult task when other trainers saw that he had a Nidoking or Kingdra.

Ash figured he would stop to take a lunch break soon. He'd been walking for hours now, and he'd only had a light breakfast. The food he'd bought from Vermillion had run out yesterday, so he was stuck eating ordinary, dull trainer meals. That was unpleasant, but it wasn't a nightmare. After a few days he'd get used to trainer meals again.

But for now he was keeping an eye on the road. He'd heard from a few other trainers that there was a vast, ongoing migration of electric-types to the northeast. They were probably searching for that freak storm that had been going on for the past few weeks. It would be nice to catch one. His battle with Surge had given him a desire to train one of his own.

As he stepped down the worn dirt road, he wondered just what was fuelling that storm. His mind immediately jumped to the Creature, but he shot that down. It would have taken too much power to fuel the storm for around two months, especially when the Creature was needed for Team Rocket's missions.

There were several pokemon that could manipulate the weather, but only one that had any reason to be in Kanto: Dragonair. It would take a large group of them to fuel a storm like that, which was unheard of, and Ash couldn't even begin to guess at their reason. But it was the only logical explanation.

Ash remembered Professor Oak being really excited about some other pokemon that could manipulate the weather on an impressive scale, although he couldn't remember its name. It was an artificial pokemon that had been created a few months before he had started his journey by some scientists in Hoenn, and his mother had been just as ecstatic as the Professor.

He shook himself out of those thoughts. Ash needed to focus. If he was lucky he would be able to get an electric-type before he hit Celadon City. That would be nice.

But for now he decided he would stop for lunch. Sneasel growled as he voiced that thought. He was a growing pokemon, and he looked forward to eating just as much as Ash did.

XX

The suburbs of Celadon were exactly as he remembered them. A few pikachu and rattata sniffed around and ran whenever they saw a human presence, but for the most part it was clean. Children played everywhere, and watchful growlithe and other easygoing pokemon kept vigilance over their charges dutifully.

Sneasel got a few odd looks, although a few children came up to pet him. Ash managed to warn them off before an accident happened. His friend was still too unstable to risk letting him around children, or any foreign human, really.

He got a few wary glances from the police that wandered around. Ash couldn't say he blamed them. They didn't like unfamiliar pokemon out anyways, and dark-types tended to cause more trouble than they were worth. Sneasel was rather comfortably hooked to Ash's back, however, and Ash knew he could control his friend should anything go wrong.

Not that Sneasel would need it. He'd calmed down a bit, even as he grew more independent. Nidoking and Torrent's stern eyes and lessons had kept him from doing anything dangerous.

It took him about half an hour to reach the Pokemon Center. The sprawling surburbs took a while to navigate, even with his prior experience.

"Hello! How can I help you?" Nurse Joy asked brightly. Ash smiled and dipped his hat to her before he replied.

"I just need a key." He said politely. Nurse Joy smiled and handed him one. Ash gave a nod of thanks before he walked off. The trainer glanced around the atrium, not surprised in the least by how many people were hanging around. Erika might not be at the top of many trainer's battle lists, but Celadon was a major hub. The presence of the Department Store didn't hurt at all.

He checked the news before he left. It was important to stay informed now.

"Tensions remain high in Kanto as Pokemon League forces continue to raid Team Rocket bases. Raids in Pewter City led to clashes in the streets between Rockets and Pewter City gym trainers." A pretty anchor said sadly. "As more and more reports of civilian and League casualties come in, there has been a public outcry for the League to ramp up its efforts. In a speech last night, Champion Lance urged civilians to stay calm. He has assured us that the League is doing everything within its power and that Team Rocket is on the precipice of destruction."

Ash smiled as he turned away. That was all he needed to hear. He couldn't hold his annoyance at the people trying to get the League to do more – they were already devoting an immense amount of resources to stopping the terrorist organization. When Lance was forced to rise off of his throne in Indigo Plateau, things were going to get serious.

Hopefully the League would be able to finish Team Rocket off soon. It had lost several Executives over the past few months, so they couldn't be as stable as they were before. Plus they had been prevented from expanding into the Sevii Islands. Team Rocket was still dangerous, but it seemed reliant on the Creature to protect itself.

He shook himself out of his thoughts. The League was handling everything. Right now he just needed to let go for a bit and get ready for the Conference. Things were looking good for him so far, and he was confident that he could at least reach the Finals if he put some more effort in.

The trainer suddenly smiled as he walked out of the Pokemon Center. He might not get the most fulfilling of battles when he challenged Erika in a few hours, but he would give Plume a chance to get her payback. Infernus would probably have fun as well, especially if Erika sent out her Tangela. Plume would easily overpower it, but there just wasn't enough room in the gym for her to maneuver effectively. Plus, Ash knew just how fast Tangela were, at least in regard to their reflexes. It wouldn't be too difficult for it to snatch the handicapped Plume out of the sky.

But that would come later. For now, he had two very important stops to make.

XX

"Can you tell the Chief that Ash Ketchum would like to see her, please?" Ash requested politely to the young Jenny at the front desk. He supposed that the other attendant was off today, or perhaps had a different shift.

He'd made sure to recall Sneasel before entering. Pokemon generally weren't allowed to be released in important League buildings. They were way too big of a security risk.

She glanced up and narrowed her eyes at him. "What business do you have with the Chief? She's pretty busy, you know. Team Rocket's been pretty active as of late." The teenager paled. "Oops. I'm not supposed to mention that. Do you mind keeping quiet about it?"

Ash smiled. He wasn't sure why, but he felt oddly cheerful today. It was as though something had been taken off of his shoulders. The lightheartedness was probably thanks to the good news about Team Rocket. They couldn't hold out much more, even with the Creature's assistance.

"I won't say a word." He promised. Ash's smile grew wider. "Of course, I might be more inclined to keep that promise if you sent a message up to the Chief. I might be able to help her with her Rocket problem if she really needs it."

Jenny raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh huh. Sure you could. A newbie trainer will have the Rockets quaking in their boots." Nevertheless, she called up the Porygon and had it transfer itself to the Chief's room. After about a minute, it returned. "Well, that's a surprise. Head on up. I'm guessing you know the way."

Ash nodded before he walked over to the elevator and took it up to Chief Jenny's office. It was rather fast, so he didn't get too bored before it came to a stop with a soft beep. He stepped out, only to hear Chief Jenny's mid-rant.

"—damn it, I don't care!" She snapped. Jenny was glaring at her computer screen, where she was presumably on a call with someone. The Chief had earphones in, so he couldn't make out the other side of the conversation. It seemed that she hadn't noticed his presence yet. "Tell Erika to get off her ass and do something! We're the only city with a major Team Rocket presence now. We need more resources."

Jenny's eyes twitched as whoever was on the other end of the line replied. Ash was rather glad that she hadn't seen him yet. It looked like she wasn't in the best mood.

"I don't care about the damn perfume line." She hissed. She was squeezing something that Ash recognized as a stress ball. Jonathan had to have one back in school after his Murkrow incident. "We have more important problems…yes, yes. Again: I don't care." Jenny suddenly looked up and saw Ash. She gave a sigh of relief. "You know what? We can continue this later."

She scowled as she cut the call. "Kid, if you ever go into law enforcement, make sure you're under a gym leader like Surge or Koga."

"I'll make sure to remember that." Ash said carefully. "What was all that about?"

"Erika." Jenny grunted. She leaned forward against her desk and rubbed her temples. "She's good enough at maintaining order in the city and keeping things steady, but she's awful at fighting the Rockets. For some reason, she thinks that just because they aren't doing much in the open they aren't a threat. I think she's been around the fumes in her gym for too long."

Ash snorted. "Didn't she get a visit from Bruno?"

"How do you know –," Jenny began before she sighed. "Never mind. You seem to get into everything. Like the incident at Viridian, for example." She said knowingly. Ash frowned. "Anyways, she did. Erika actually stepped up efforts, but she's not doing enough. We're still waiting on the requisition of dark-types in case that thing appears here."

He nodded. "Is she fighting them herself?"

"Some. I have to admit, she's pretty powerful. A stronger trainer than I am, anyways." Jenny said through grit teeth. "I doubt she compares to someone like Lt. Surge or Sabrina, but she can hold her own quite well. When she's awake, at least." She scowled, although her expression softened. "Well, enough about my troubles. What are you here for?"

"Just wanted to drop by." He shrugged. "I'm going to the Department Store after this, and then I'm going to challenge Erika to a rematch."

The Chief gave him a smile. "Make sure to crush her, alright? She needs a shock to her system. It'll keep her from dozing off. In fact, you should use that magmar I gave you." Jenny grinned. "From the way you talked about it last time, it's a pretty strong fighter. It could cut Erika down to size."

Ash laughed. "He'd have fun doing it. I'll make sure to use him at least once. I don't think my Pidgeot will work too well against her Tangela."

"That Tangela is a monster." Jenny said with an expression rife with distaste. "I don't know how it hasn't evolved yet. She took down two Rocket Elites with that thing. It's fast."

Chief Jenny's position on Erika was strange, Ash noted. On one hand she strongly disliked Erika for her weak leadership abilities and apparent dismissal of Team Rocket as a serious threat to the safety of Celadon. On the other she respected Erika as a powerful trainer. Her conflicting opinions probably made her a bit more annoyed with Erika than she normally would be.

"I've got a Tangrowth." Ash replied. He lightly tapped Tangrowth's pokeball. "Nobody really appreciates how powerful they can be. He's only lost a few battles since I got him."

The Chief was about to say something when her computer started beeping. Ash assumed that she had a call waiting for her.

"Sorry, but I've got to cut this short." The Chief apologized. "Erika's calling me personally. It looks like I offended the gym representative worse than I thought." She said with a dangerous smile. "Good luck on your journey, and make sure to beat Erika senseless."

Ash nodded with a grin and started walking out. As he opened up the elevator, the Chief said something else. "And Kid, try not to get into too much danger. I saw the video of Viridian. That was enough danger for a lifetime."

"No promises." He said tightly. The memories of Viridian had made him tense and tired. "Bye, Chief."

She just nodded at him before she sighed and answered the call. Ash couldn't hear anything she said before the elevator took him back down to the base floor.

XX

As he walked up the long flights of stairs to the floor with TMs, Ash looked out at the selection of items on each level. The store was bursting with customers today, so he didn't want to get caught up in the elevator lines.

He suddenly stopped. Had he really just seen that?

Ash walked back down the stairs and went out to examine the very odd product he'd just seen. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a large rack filled with capes – capes that were exactly like Lance's.

"Have you ever wanted to feel like the Champion?" A tall, grinning man that bore a disturbing similarity to Lance said in the small screen beside the cape rack. His hair was a bit off, and he wasn't quite as muscular as Lance, but he looked the part. He even had the same outfit Lance wore during League matches. "Well, here's your chance. Celadon Department Store offers genuine replicas of Champion Lance's cape, great for any trainer with the right amount of flair. With its fire and lightning retardant material, you'll be training dragons in no time!"

He snorted in amusement and wished that he could download the video. Ash didn't know if he would see Lance or Steven before the Conference, but he'd definitely be telling them about this. At least Steven would think it was funny.

Ash just laughed again before he headed off. Genuine replica? What had the advertisers been thinking? That wasn't exactly going to convince him to buy their product, not that he would buy it anyway.

The trainer shook off his amusement and walked away from the cape rack. While it was a good laugh, he needed to focus and get his TMs. It would be nice to give them to his friends today and get them acclimated to the new abilities.

He began his ascent again. It was a long way to the TM floor.

XX

The Department Store had as good of a selection as ever. There were dozens of TMs to examine, but Ash had already glanced at his friends' move pools to know what he needed. So he quickly skimmed over the selection and picked the TMs he wanted out, although he kept a keen eye out for any that might prove particularly useful in the future.

Ash had more money than he knew what to do with, so he didn't pay too much attention to the cost of the TMs. He'd spent quite a bit since Lance added forty thousand to his account, but he'd earned even more through his constant battles. Now that he tended to only battle stronger trainers he got much more for winning.

He glanced down at his selection. Each of the disks shimmered slightly in the light as he spread them out.

For Nidoking, he'd gotten Poison Jab. He released a thin layer of toxins from his thick armor during battle, in addition to the poison he produced in his spikes and horn, but Poison Jab would allow him to temporarily release poison from his claws. That would be an incredible boon during battle, especially since it involved a much smaller risk of severely hurting his opponent than if he stabbed them with his horn and pumped them full of poison.

Ash bought Plume the TM for Steel Wing. She had much more firepower now that she knew Air Slash, and she could easily dominate most opponents with her incredible speed and the sheer force her speed gave her physical attacks, but this would let her have a fighting chance against rock-types. When she managed to master Hurricane, Plume would have enough offensive power to contend with the rest of the team.

He frowned at that. Plume was more than capable of fighting off average and strong pokemon, but she just wasn't able to match the kind of opponents he faced now. The gym leaders' pokemon were just too powerful. Hurricane would even the odds, but he needed to start investing more time into perfecting Plume. Ash knew that she had the strength and willpower to match any opponent, he just needed to hone her and teach her more powerful attacks.

Torrent didn't need any TMs. There weren't any that he could really use. Ash knew there were quite a few moves that he could still learn, and most of them were extremely powerful, but they hadn't been made into TMs yet. Some moves were guarded jealously thanks to their extreme difficulty to learn, and some were just too rare for a TM of them to be profitable. Others just didn't translate well from the data in the TM to pokemon's brains.

Dazed would be getting Focus Blast. While it was a fighting-type move, it wasn't based on actually fighting. It was used by focusing the energy within a pokemon's body and unleashing it. He supposed that it harnessed the energy that Bruno and his pokemon manipulated so well. It would give her a strong defense against dark-types and give Sneasel something to think about.

There wasn't much he could buy for Infernus or teach him. He knew all of the moves he really needed and would learn the attacks that would give him a real edge in battle from Blaine when they went to train with the fire-type Master in a few weeks. Ash grinned at the thought of that. Once he beat Koga, he would return to Cinnabar and give Infernus the tools to become even stronger.

Just because there wasn't much, it didn't meant there wasn't anything. The magmar entry on the pokedex mentioned that they had limited psychic abilities. Ash had noticed it before, particularly in the gym battle with Sabrina. Infernus had proved to have a moderate resistance to psychic abilities, although he couldn't harness the potential very well. It was more like a passive resistance.

But there was one vitally important move that could make Infernus much more adaptable. And the best thing was that Ash didn't have to buy it. It might be possible for Dazed to teach it to him, although the path would likely be difficult.

Ash was torn about what to get for Bruiser. The only TMs his friend needed were the ones Ash had already bought. He was hesitant to buy a copy of the TM. He'd kept the ones he'd already used in his TM case, so he figured he could just see if he could trade them in. It was annoying that Silph Co. had engineered them to be good for one use only.

Tangrowth would be getting Solar Beam. It was just too powerful of a move for Ash to ignore, and he could only imagine the kind of devastation Tangrowth could wreak with it. Tangrowth were amongst the most powerful of grass-types, and even a weak grass-type could use Solar Beam to great effect.

"Sorry, buddy, but you don't get any yet." Ash said apologetically. Sneasel hissed and leapt down from his shoulder to peer at the shiny disks. He knew better than to touch them, but his predator instincts were drawn to the bright objects. "Nidoking and Torrent can teach you what you need to know."

He had a small smile on his face as he took his purchases up to the counter. Ash had his TM case out already so that he could just go ahead and put them in.

"Hey, how's it going?" The man at the counter said as he took the TMs and began scanning them.

"Good. You?" Ash replied as he was handed back the first of his new TMs.

"Well enough." The man shrugged. He glanced at the TM case. "Say, do you have any other TMs in there?"

Ash nodded slowly, not really sure why it was relevant. "I was going to trade some of them back in. I've already used them."

"I've got good news for you, then." The man said with a grin as he handed the last of Ash's TMs back and deducted the charge from his trainer account. Ash narrowed his eyes and listened attentively. "Silph Co. made a deal with us. For a fee, we can reactivate TMs permanently. It's pretty awesome, right?"

He grinned and nodded. As long as the fee wasn't too exorbitant, this might save him quite a bit of money. "Why haven't I heard about this? I would think that everyone would be pretty excited."

"It's exclusive." The man whispered conspiratorially. "How many badges do you have? I'm only supposed to do it for trainers with six or more."

"Eight." Ash said proudly. He pulled out his pokedex and showed his I.D. to the man, which proved the validity of his claim. Trainer Cards were the real way badges were tracked. The physical badges worked as well and served as a back-up, but they were mostly a formality and tradition nowadays.

"Great! This is actually my first time to do this." The man admitted. "Anyways, the price is two thousand for each TM you want reactivated. A bit expensive, but it's worth it. Especially for the more useful ones."

Ash nodded. That was definitely true. It was still cheaper than buying them all over again. He opened up the TM case and glanced at the ones he already had: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Blizzard, Aerial Ace, Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Shadow Claw, Double Team, Teleport, Brick Break, and Sludge Wave.

He couldn't afford to reactivate all of them. That would just be too expensive. It would completely drain his funds since he'd already bought the new TMs.

So he just picked out the ones he saw being the most useful. Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Teleport, and Brick Break. After he'd set the selected disks on the counter, he placed Solar Beam and Focus Blast with them. The rest he carefully slid into the TM case before Sneasel could try and play with them.

"This'll take just a moment." The man told him. Ash nodded and the man went over to an odd machine. He placed them in one at a time. After they were all in, a small light inside of the machine flashed several times. When it stopped, the man removed the TMs and handed them back to Ash. "There you are."

"Thank you." Ash nodded as he slid them into the TM case. Sneasel playfully tried to bat at the disks, but Ash was too fast for him.

"Do you mind keeping quiet about this?" The man asked. "Silph doesn't want to be mobbed about this. It's experimental. I've heard that it won't be available to the common public for another two years."

"Of course." Ash replied before he placed the TM case into a storage compartment. He shared another nod with the helpful man before he walked away. Now he had everything he came for.

Ash grinned as he took the elevator down to the first floor. It was time to make good on the promise he'd made to the Chief.

Erika was waiting for him.

XX

He gagged as he entered the gym. The stench of dozens of gloom made him want to rush out and abandon the rematch altogether. It was hard to believe that anyone was capable of making perfume out of it. Nevertheless, he stayed strong. As he knew from prior experience, the smell would dull after a few minutes.

A young woman glanced up at him from the receptionist table. "Oh, hello. You don't look like you'd be interested in trying any of our perfumes. I'm guessing you're here for a battle?"

Ash nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak quite yet. In fact, he was fairly certain that he would be able to taste the smell of the gloom if he opened his mouth. Erika probably wouldn't be too happy with him if he got sick in her gym.

"Name?" She glanced at the screen.

"Ash Ketchum." He coughed out. The smell was starting to grow dull, so he began to breathe in through his mouth. His tongue felt as though it were coated in the stench.

"It says you've already been here before." The girl said in confusion. She looked up at him. "Are you looking for a rematch?"

He nodded.

"Huh. Don't get too many of those." She muttered. "Most people don't come back to this gym, for some reason." The girl said sarcastically. "Well, the last challenger just left a few minutes ago. I don't see us getting another one, so head on in. Erika's waiting. I assume you know the way?"

He nodded again. She waved him away and he walked through the same hallway as last time. In just about thirty seconds he'd reached Erika's gardens.

Ash vaguely remembered where he'd found her last time and mentally traced his steps. He smiled at the grass-types that gathered around him and even leaned down to pat some of them, although he made sure to avoid any of the pokemon that could release poison.

Erika was asleep when he found her. She was laid back against a rather large Venusaur, who rumbled at Ash menacingly. It gently prodded Erika awake with a vine, and its manner suggested that it was very close to the gym leader.

"What is it, Venusaur?" She yawned. Erika stretched before she looked up at Ash with bleary eyes. "Oh, hello. I'm sorry, I must have dozed off." The gym leader examined Ash carefully. A spark of recognition flashed in her tired green eyes. "I remember you. Are you here for a rematch?"

Ash nodded. Erika sighed and stood up gracefully. She glanced at the hulking Venusaur she had been resting on. "Come now, Venusaur. You need a good workout."

Venusaur grunted and lumbered behind the two as they began their walk towards the battlefield. It seemed to have a few battle scars from a previous battle, so Ash assumed it hadn't been cleaned up yet. Erika probably hadn't expected another battle.

"Thank you for defeating the Rockets in the Game Corner." She said demurely. "They were a great threat to the security of Celadon. Organized crime dropped sharply. I hope to see the same skill you displayed against them in our battle."

"You will." Ash promised. He wondered if she knew about his other encounters with Team Rocket. She hadn't given him any sort of indication that she did. "Three-on-three?"

She considered briefly as they stepped onto the torn dirt of the battlefield. "That is acceptable." Erika replied. "Take your position. Challenger, choose your pokemon."

Ash smiled softly as he strode over to his box. Psychic barriers flared up around the field as a bright, shimmering wall before fading into transparency. Erika took her own position, and whistled. Venusaur roared at Ash as it lumbered onto the battlefield, untouched by the barrier. It was meant to keep things in, not out.

He released Plume without hesitation. She shrieked her arrival as she materialized in a flash of scarlet light. Her massive wings spread outward and she cried out again before taking to the sky. There was no ceiling over the battlefield, thankfully. As long as Plume stayed within bounds there would be no issue.

Still, he knew that Plume might not have the easiest time here. Back when she was a pidgeotto she was able to easily maneuver through such a tight battlefield. Now, her massive wings and body would be somewhat of a hindrance. It wouldn't be such a problem in the Conference, where the battlefields were almost ridiculously large, but here it was an issue.

It was only a minor problem. He had planned for it.

"Venusaur, Vine Whip." Erika said softly. Venusaur grunted and launched two massive, thick green vines toward Plume. She easily evaded them by flying higher, and even then she took a moment to use Air Slash in order to slice the vines into pieces.

"Good job." Ash shouted encouragingly. Venusaur roared in pain as it withdrew its vines. Unlike Tangrowth, Venusaur could actually feel them. It only took a few days for them to regrow, but it wasn't as smooth as Tangrowth's recovery. "Air Slash! Follow with Aerial Ace."

Plume screeched before barreling toward the pained Venusaur. Mid-dive, she flapped her powerful wings and sent another blade of air into Venusaur. It grunted and glared up at her with red eyes.

"Solar Beam." Erika smiled, a bit colder than what Ash remembered. She underwent a marked change during battle. "Then you need to use Sleep Powder."

Venusaur wasn't very impressive compared to Gyarados or Surge's team, but it was well trained, at least in regards to harnessing energy. Ash would admit that much. Certainly capable of crushing Team Rocket. It proved that assessment by firing a Solar Beam after taking only a second to gather up the required solar energy.

Still, Ash didn't know what Erika was thinking. All Solar Beam did was force Plume to veer to the side. Venusaur apparently wasn't capable of maintaining the Solar Beam for very long. It couldn't even try to trace Plume with it. The behemoth simply fired a single blast of energy toward the maneuverable Plume, who dodged it without even trying.

"Leaf Storm." Erika ordered. She appeared to have stopped bothering with Sleep Powder. At the same time, Ash called out, "Aerial Ace!"

Venusaur sluggishly responded to the command, probably still in pain from its vines being severed. It shook its body, causing dozens of large, razor-sharp leaves to fall out. They were caught by a summoned wind and glowed brightly as they began to swirl in a tornado-like fashion. Ash noted that it was weaker than Tangrowth's Leaf Storm.

Unfortunately, by the time that had happened Plume had appeared behind it in a blur of motion and slammed into the thick creature. Venusaur grunted and followed Plume's blurred form as best as it could. Particles of bright white energy slowly collected around its massive flower and were drawn in to the plant, providing it with all the energy it needed to fire another Solar Beam.

The Leaf Storm collapsed as Venusaur focused on using Solar Beam instead. A white beam of bright energy shot towards Plume, but she swerved out of the air again. Ash frowned. Venusaur was skilled at harnessing the energy, but it was only a somewhat strong pokemon, like the ones Erika had used for his first gym battle.

Did Erika not take him seriously, or did she just not care?

"Plume, Air Slash again. Finish it off." Ash scowled. Even the soothing aroma of Venusaur's flower didn't keep his annoyance at bay. "Hit it with Whirlwind if it survives."

"Sludge Bomb." Erika sighed. Ash stared at her in confusion. She wasn't even watching the battle. His fists curled in annoyance, but he didn't say anything.

Venusaur roared as it closed its eyes. It reared up on its hind legs and shot a huge glob of murky sludge into the sky. Plume casually ducked underneath it and flapped her powerful wings. A blade of air slammed into Venusaur's exposed stomach and threw it backwards.

Ash was actually quite impressed. Venusaur might not be the best fighter, but it was heavy. He hadn't expected Plume to be able to throw it nearly five feet with a single attack, although Venusaur's stance had certainly helped her.

Before Venusaur could even try to retaliate or pick itself up, it vanished in a burst of red light. Erika frowned at the pokeball and placed it into a fold of her robes.

"That was rather rude. Venusaur needed some practice. He just evolved yesterday." She frowned. Her verdant green eyes flashed. "I suppose you want a real battle, then? You have improved quite a bit, but I have as well. Vileplume, go!"

A massive Vileplume appeared on the battlefield. The large flower on its head released a powerful aroma that made Ash feel as if he were floating on a cloud. Ash knew that he should have identified it as completely disgusting since it smelled just as bad as the flower of a gloom, but there was something addictive about it.

He suddenly scowled and shook himself out of it. Erika wouldn't beat him by releasing a drug into the air.

It smiled and waved at Plume as the massive bird landed. Plume shrieked back and prepared to take to the skies again.

"Dear Gloom evolved, you see." Erika said with a bright smile as she gestured to the smiling Vileplume with an elegant gesture. "She has become much stronger. Let us see if your bird is able to match her."

"Take to the skies." Ash commanded. "Play it safe."

Plume shrieked before she took off. Vileplume frowned and shook its stubby arm at her. The powerful grass-type shook its body and sent a massive cloud of toxic pollen wafting into the air. Ash scowled. While Plume could easily blow it away, the pollen would make it difficult for Plume to get close.

"Sunny Beam!" Erika shouted. It seemed that she was dropping her ordinary veneer of perpetual calmness. "Wide Leaf and Petal Dance."

Vileplume cried out and squeezed its tiny black eyes shut. Ash had to shield his eyes as the sunlight intensified to an almost painful degree. If it weren't for his cap he wouldn't be able to see at all. That would be brutal for Plume. She relied on her keen vision quite a bit. Being blinded would throw her off guard.

"Plume, end this! Air Slash." Ash shouted. "After that, Whirlwind!"

Plume shrieked and struggled in the air. She was still moving far too fast for Vileplume to keep track of her, but Ash could see that she was having difficulty. They needed to end this fast.

Despite her discomfort, Plume managed to find Vileplume. She shrieked and sent a blade of air flying toward Vileplume. The grass-type squealed and leapt out of the way, but it wasn't able to avoid the Whirlwind. Vileplume was sent helplessly careening thanks to the powerful gale of wind. It just didn't have the mass to resist the Whirlwind.

But it was still able to fight. Vileplume expertly shook its petals in midair and sent dozens of sharp leaves spinning through the air. Ash assumed it was what Erika had called Wide Leaf. The leaves covered an immense amount of space, and he saw Plume slow for a moment as one sliced into her hard body.

"Keep it up!" He shouted, eager to finish this. "Air Slash, finish it off with Whirlwind."

Plume screeched as she sent yet another blade of air slashing through the air. Vileplume cried out as the blade slammed into its fragile body and hurled it roughly into the ground. Nevertheless, the Vileplume continued to follow Erika's order. It still had some fight in it.

Vileplume growled in a starkly unthreatening manner as the opening on its flower stretched widely toward the sky and hundreds of small pink petals spiraled out at an incredibly high velocity. Plume was moving too quickly for Vileplume to get good aim, but Ash knew that Petal Dance was dangerous. At the speed they were going, the iron-hard petals would easily knock Plume around.

The grass-type seemed capable of keeping the Petal Dance up forever. It never seemed to tire as it slowly rotated its body in an attempt to keep up with Plume's erratic patterns. Vileplume wasn't able to trace Plume accurately thanks to its massive flower blocking its vision at most angles, but the swirling petal covered an extremely large area.

"Stick to its blind spot." Ash commanded softly. He trusted in Plume's hearing, and, judging from her sudden adjustment to stay behind Vileplume, it was well placed. "One last Whirlwind. Finish it with Quick Wing."

Plume shrieked and paused just a moment to send a huge blast of air towards Vileplume, which picked up the tiny grass-type and caused it to fly backwards. It gently fell to the ground thanks to its flower, and took Plume's brief moment of vulnerability to aim its Petal Dance at her with perfect accuracy.

Ash frowned when several of the petals that continually streamed from Vileplume's flower slammed into Plume. His friend managed to recover from the speeding projectiles, but it looked like several small patches of her feathers had been stripped. He had to hide a smile. The wound to Plume's vanity was far worse to her than the pain itself. It would rile her up much worse than any attack.

When Vileplume suddenly launched a Solar Beam at her, Plume casually vanished out of the way with Quick Attack and appeared briefly before flickering toward Vileplume. All Ash could make of her during the Quick Attack were two bright wings, shimmering with energy born of her Wing Attack.

Vileplume cried out as Plume slammed one of her wings straight into the grass-type's fragile body. While it would be devastating if Plume had used it conjunction at her normal speeds, the sheer force the velocity given to her by the Quick Attack imparted upon Vileplume was enough to instantly hurl the grass-type into one of the psychic barriers surrounding the field.

A smile spread across Plume's face. "Good job, girl! I couldn't have asked for better."

Plume shrieked and landed onto the rugged battlefield as Erika sighed and recalled Vileplume. She puffed her chest out proudly and cooed at him as they awaited Erika's next pokemon. Ash was fairly certain of what it would be, and wasn't too certain about Plume's capabilities in defeating it.

Tangela tended to be one of the exceptions in regards to grass-types' weakness to flying-types. Normally, the weakness was borne of grass-types being unable to effectively fight back against flying-types. They tended to fight with close range attacks, or at least ground based ones. Not many grass-type moves were capable of reaching high enough to actually hit a flying-type. Flying-types were able to stay far away from most grass-type's attacks and abilities and could strike without fear of repercussion.

But the tangela family was different. Even a tangela's vines could extend to fifty feet, although they began to lose most of their effectiveness at about thirty, and Ash wasn't even sure how far Tangrowth's could stretch. They were ideal for snatching flying-types out of the sky and had access to Ancient Power to neutralize most flying-types' effectiveness.

In other words, Erika's Tangela was capable of fighting Plume quite well. Physical attacks were too dangerous for Plume to risk lest she be torn out of the air, and it could pull its light body out of the way rather easily with vines. Ash actually noticed several odd indents throughout the field that would be ideal for vines to grip around. Tangela's reflexes were just too fast for Plume to come near, even at the incredible speeds she could reach.

Perhaps she would be more effective if she was actually capable of using her speed to its full potential, but the tight space forced upon her by the gym's limits worked against them in that respect. Plume was handicapped.

His fear was confirmed when Erika's large Tangela appeared. It gurgled in a manner markedly different from the noises Tangrowth had made before he had evolved and stared at Plume. Now that he had possessed a tangela of his own, Ash was well aware that the creature in front of him was a rather impressive specimen of the breed. It looked to have been blessed with incredible natural strength.

"It's the bird again." Erika said distastefully. "Snatch it out of the sky before it can get up. Slam and absorb."

"Plume, are you ready?" He asked tersely. Ash received a determined shriek in response. Despite his trepidation, Ash grinned. Even if Plume didn't win this, she would do her very best. That was all he could ever ask for. But he would do his best as well. This fight would require unconventional tactics. "Air Slash."

She didn't even hesitate to follow his command. Tangela gurgled in that distinctly foreign voice as the blade of air slammed into it and knocked it over. Plume immediately took to the air and blasted Tangela with a powerful gust as she did so.

"Whirlwind." Ash muttered. "Hit it with Air Slash when it's distracted."

Plume deftly avoided the grasping vines Tangela managed to send after her and flapped her massive wings once toward the spherical grass-type. Tangela made an odd sneezing noise as it fell over, although its vines managed to push it up quickly.

It wasn't able to recover before the Air Slice cut into its form. The condensed blade of air sent the small grass-type flying backward, although it used its vines to deftly catch itself. Tangela growled and shot a powerful Solar Beam at Plume.

Ash frowned when Tangela managed to keep the Solar Beam up for more than twenty seconds. He didn't bother giving any commands during that time. Plume didn't need to be distracted by him when she was avoiding an attack as powerful as that Solar Beam.

Tangela certainly had power. Solar Beam was less intensive than Hyper Beam, but still incredibly powerful. To keep it up for that long meant Tangela had exceptional strength in its small form. The intensive training Erika had probably put it through only helped in that regard.

"Ancient Power." Erika snapped. Her bright green eyes seemed annoyed. "Solar Beam before you catch it."

The grass-type hissed back at her. Glowing spheres of light formed on dozens of its vines. It hurled half of the spheres into the air, but the other half were thrown at various spots around the battlefield.

"Agility." Ash called out. There was no point in trying to hide what he was doing at the moment. It would be what Erika expected, anyway.

Plume vanished. She wasn't left as a blur of motion as she was when she used Quick Attack, she was almost invisible. His eyes simply weren't capable of easily tracking her enhanced speed. Agility had propelled her to almost ridiculous levels of speed, although the strain using the technique for extended periods of time would be almost as dangerous to her as getting hit by Tangela's Ancient Power.

Well, maybe. The giant chunks of stone Tangela was telekinetically hurling toward her were probably more dangerous than burnout. They'd easily knock her out of the sky.

But the massive projectiles were a greater threat than he had anticipated. Tangela had gotten rid of the uneven stone and earth and had just closed its large, saucer-like eyes. It used Ancient Power again, but this time it shot every single one of the energy balls into the ground.

Ash was aware that his jaw had dropped as Tangela ripped more than half the battle field up and hurled it into the sky. He could tell that Plume would have difficulty avoiding the earthen projectiles, so he figured that it was time to try something out. It was dangerous, but so was getting hit by Tangela's attack.

"Quick Attack." He shouted. His fists clenched as Plume's flickering form simply vanished, too fast for the eye to catch. In the next instant, her large, proud form slammed into Tangela. Ash's grin showed a bit more teeth. Tangela might have almost absurdly fast reflexes, but Plume, enhanced by Agility and Quick Attack, was unstoppable. The grass-type gurgled in surprise as it was hurled into a psychic barrier.

Plume slowed when Tangela was temporarily incapacitated. Ash shouted out a congratulations before she hurtled up into the bright blue sky. He really was proud of her. That technique had to be incredibly draining, but she still managed to keep it up. Maybe he'd have to train her more extensively with it. Her lack of offensive power would be completely offset by the sheer speed she would gain.

Erika's pale face was twisted into a scowl. Ash was actually surprised by how much annoyance was held within the expression. "Hyper Wave."

"Agility." Ash called out. He assumed Erika was about to use some variant of Hyper Beam. Plume was obviously exhausted, but he would like to see if she could take Tangela out as well. It would have to be done quickly, however. She couldn't keep an assault up for long.

As Tangela looked up into the sky and gurgled, which elicited particles of brilliant white energy to slowly collect in front of its mouth, Ash considered ways to defeat it. Normally he would rely on powerful elemental or psychic attacks, but that course of action wasn't an option with Plume.

Blunt force did little to Tangela's protected body. It could slow it down, but it didn't do much damage to the spongy creature. He'd have to rely on Air Slice or Plume's rarely utilized talons to take Tangela down.

He turned away when a tremendous blast of energy lit up the battlefield like a second sun. Ash hissed in pain as his eyes were blinded with twinkling stars. The ground shook slightly, as though a great roll of thunder had split the atmosphere.

But the energy Tangela utilized was still bright enough for him to make it out through the stars, even if he couldn't make out anything else. It was obviously a Hyper Beam, but it was as though Tangela had poured a dangerous amount of energy into it. The beam didn't simply travel forward, but sizzled through the air in the form of a cone, which allowed the powerful attack to cover the entire sky in the hot energy.

Ash glanced up at the sky worriedly when he heard Plume shriek in pain, even if he couldn't hope to make her form out. Her lustrous plumage was hidden from him by the slowly fading light that dominated his vision. The trainer did his best not to stumble from the effects.

"Air Slash!" He cried, hoping that his friend hadn't been knocked unconscious by the attack. Ash couldn't even see her, so there was no way he'd be able to recall her if she fell. As a pokemon, Plume was extremely durable, but a fall like that could very well break her wing or cause other serious damage.

The trainer gave a sigh of relief as he heard Plume weakly shriek an affirmative. Now that his sight was slowly being restored to him, he glanced at Tangela. It had at least a dozen vines out, all in a last hope to defeat Plume. Ash noted that it was sagging slightly, which gave his suspicions about Hyper Wave's energy cost more merit.

He managed to make out Tangela's form suddenly flying backward as a blade of compressed air slammed into it, but he also caught its dexterous vines snap toward a large, dark shape and drag it to the ground. His fists clenched and a scowl marred his face as he heard Plume screech out in pain before she went silent.

"Recall your Pidgeot." Erika said in cool amusement. "Tangela has it wrapped up. She won't mind slamming it."

Ash bit back a venomous retort as he did what she said. Had Plume made any sort of noise, he would have tried to have her fight back. There might not have been any truth to Erika's words had the flying-type been capable of responding.

"You did wonderful." He whispered to the pokeball. Ash placed it back onto his belt before he unclipped his next choice. It was time to follow through on the promise he'd made to the Chief.

He didn't say anything as Infernus appeared on the field. There was nothing to say. Infernus' furious roar and the heat he could feel from his friend's summoned explosion of lava was all he needed.

"Oh dear." He heard Erika mutter. There was trepidation in her normally gentle voice. "Tangela, Ancient Power."

"Fire Blast." He growled, a good bit of cold anger leaking its way into his tone. Ash wouldn't deny that he was feeling a bit vindictive toward Tangela. With how weak it was, Infernus probably only needed to get near it to cause it to faint. A Fire Blast would give him a measure of revenge for Plume, however.

His vision was clear enough for him to make out the bright light that suffused Infernus' front as he spat a roaring fire ball out of his mouth. It crackled angrily as it ignited through the air before it hit Tangela's tired form and exploded in a loud roar. Ash grinned as he felt the intense heat even through the psychic barriers. Tangela's form simply fell over, its body full of glowing embers.

"It seems that you have improved more than I have." Erika remarked drily as she recalled her smoldering Tangela. She stepped out of the Gym Leader's box and gracefully walked over to him. Ash wiped the scowl off of his face. It was always best to be polite. "I suppose there wouldn't be much use for you coming back in the future, would there?"

"I doubt it." Ash replied tersely as he silently recalled Infernus. Erika ignored the tension in his voice and simply smiled, although it was difficult to discern thanks to the stars still twinkling in his vision. They had mostly faded, but there were quite a few hanging on.

Erika folded her hands together. They disappeared underneath the sleeves of her kimono. "You are quite the trainer, I admit. Your pokemon are powerful, but they lack grace. That Pidgeot of yours needs training. It was powerful, but now that I've seen your Magmar I expect more."

Ash was silent. He took a deep breath at the slight to Plume and clenched his jaw. There was nothing to be gained from being acidic and rude. "I'll take that into consideration. But I should go. There's a lot to do."

"Be on your way, then." Erika said dismissively. "I should return to my nap."

He nodded and bid her farewell before walking out of the gym. Ash needed to drop Plume off at the Pokemon Center. In the meantime he needed to consider which of his pokemon could use which of the rebooted TMs. They could each gain quite a bit of diversity if he used them.

XX

Plume was fine. They just gave her a revive before releasing her to Ash. She had a few bruises, but nothing that would inhibit her fighting. He'd just make sure to be gentle with her for a few days.

"Sneasel, calm down." Ash chided as the dark-type growled and chased after a rattata poking around in the grass. Sneasel hissed quietly and sadly returned to Ash's side. He stared off at his prey and silently retracted his claws, although his fangs were still bared. "Good. If you keep on behaving, I'll let you get your TMs soon."

That excited Sneasel more, and he immediately clambered up onto Ash's back so he could lick the trainer's cheek. Ash laughed and lightly scratched underneath Sneasel's feather. "Calm down, buddy. I need you to stay away from these attacks, alright? I'm not sure how good of control they'll have for the first few attempts."

Sneasel hissed his understanding before he deftly leapt down from Ash's back and raced off toward a pond. Ash grinned, both in amusement over Sneasel's antics and at the fact that they had reached his favored training spot near Celadon.

He glanced over to his left and saw the massive field he had trained Dazed in teleportation at about a quarter of a mile away. Ash smiled fondly at the memories before he checked on Sneasel. The dark-type was entranced by his reflection in the clear, smooth surface of the pond. Sneasel would gently poke his reflection with his claw and jump away when the water shook.

Ash snickered before he began to release his friends. Nidoking appeared first and took his place by Ash's side. The trainer patted his friend's thick shoulder and received a light tap on the chest in return. He smiled before he continued.

Plume cooed at him and hopped over. He gently stroked her glossy crest before she nipped his hat and fluttered up to a branch, one of the few that was capable of supporting her weight. Nidoking's steadying hand kept him from stumbling backward from the intense winds she kicked up.

"Thanks." He told Nidoking before he released Torrent. The gigantic dragon-type bowed his great head to Ash before he levitated to the left of the human. Ash grinned and dipped his own head in return, which brought out a low rumble from Torrent's chest.

Dazed appeared next. Her eyes smiled at Ash before she shuffled over to the shade of a large tree about ten feet away. Ash gave her a friendly nod. That was all she needed as a greeting.

Infernus snorted as he was released and curled up on the ground when he realized there was no opponent to fight. He only took the time to blow a tiny stream of flame at Sneasel, who leapt up in surprise from his staring contest with the water and hissed at Infernus, before he became completely lost to everything save Ash's voice.

Tangrowth hugged Ash before he waddled over to see what Sneasel was doing. Ash suspected that Tangrowth would have a new pastime if he realized that he could see his reflection in the mirror-like surface of the water. He'd grown out of climbing trees every chance he got.

"I've got some more TMs for you." He announced when his friends had focused their attention onto him. Ash figured that he'd tell them about the reactivated TMs when they had gotten used to the ones he had already bought for them. It was dangerous to upload more than two or three TMs at once to a pokemon, and he really didn't want them to focus on learning to use more than one move at once.

The news excited his friends, which wasn't particularly surprising. Most of them had learned the most powerful moves that they would learn naturally in the wild, and the easy addition to their repertoire of attacks would provide them a quick boost in strength.

Ash hurried up and removed the TM case so that things could progress. He glanced up and gave Nidoking a nod before he recalled his friend. The process was quick now that he had performed it several times before, so in just a few seconds Nidoking's pokeball was placed securely into the case's indention.

It glowed a violent purple as the data from the TM was transferred into Nidoking's mind. When the glow of the Poison Jab disk faded away into nothingness, Ash removed Nidoking's pokeball and let his friend out. Nidoking crushed his claws together and grinned as he felt the new knowledge slither through his thoughts.

Next was Plume. Her pokeball glowed a dark, metallic silver for several seconds as she learned Steel Wing. Ash was rather anxious to see just how powerful she could make it. If Plume was able to get some momentum behind her attack, he doubted that even a Rhydon would be able to stand up to her.

Ash went ahead and recalled Torrent. When he was buying TMs he hadn't thought that the dragon-type would receive one, but now that he'd reactivated some his decision had changed.

Torrent's pokeball glowed a light, icy blue as Ice Beam was transferred into his mind. Ash figured that Ice Beam would give him a bit more versatility. Blizzard was all well and good, but it focused too much on brute power and the sheer area it could affect rather than precision. In the Conference, Torrent would need precision against agile foes.

Dazed was after that. Her pokeball simply shined a pure white before he was able to recall it. Fighting-type moves based on the use of energy were much simpler for psychics to learn than the physical moves. It wasn't difficult for her to understand.

A small smile threatened to break his stoic expression as he recalled Infernus and placed him in the TM case. He was extremely glad he'd checked up on Infernus' moves before buying TMs. Ash would never have thought of using this TM on him otherwise.

Infernus' pokeball burned a soft, shining pink as the data for Teleport was transferred into his brain.

Ash laughed wildly when he saw the data take hold. It had actually worked! Infernus wouldn't be so vulnerable to long distance attacks anymore. He didn't expect Infernus to be able to use Teleport very often, but when he did it would be devastating. That kind of mobility would let him easily avoid attacks that would ordinarily hurt him badly, although, again, he expected Infernus to only be able to use it once or twice. His brain just hadn't developed to make use of active psychic powers.

Tangrowth gurgled happily before he was recalled. He knew enough to recognize that he would receive a new attack in a few moments. Ash quickly inserted the Solar Beam TM and watched as his friend's pokeball shined a bright green before returning to its ordinary coloration.

The grass-type hopped up and down excitedly when he was released, but calmed down when Ash raised a hand. "Slow down, buddy. We still need to test it out."

Nidoking stepped up when Ash nodded at him. "You know what to do. Poison Jab!"

His friend snarled and stepped forward. Nidoking's large, dull claws glowed purple as poison began to leak out of the surrounding flesh and covered them in a clear sheen of venom. A few drops of it fell onto the grass below, which rapidly turned brown and shriveled.

"Good." Ash said with satisfaction. He crossed his arms. Nidoking could technically learn the attack without a TM, but it was much easier this way. His body had simply developed to a point to where attacks his previous evolutions could learn were much more difficult to learn. The improvements on his physiology weren't without their drawbacks.

Ash glanced about the area for a sufficiently large boulder Plume could practice on. He laughed when he saw a familiar, deformed rock – the same one Infernus had practiced Brick Break on before he melted most of it. "Plume, Steel Wing."

Plume shrieked before she took to the air. Ash patiently waited, and he wasn't disappointed when he saw her large, powerful form in a blurred dive. Her wings were outstretched, and both glowed brightly with a fierce white light as she focused energy into them.

She carved straight through the boulder. Ash blinked in surprise as the top half went flying, spraying rubble and dust throughout the area as Plume took to the skies once more.

He hadn't expected it to be that powerful. It wouldn't do the same thing to a rock-type, of course, but at the very least it would let Plume actually hurt them. They wouldn't be practically invincible against the great bird anymore. She had a weapon.

"Good girl!" He called up. Plume shrieked back in joy, although she never came down. She simply circled high above them, exultant in her new strength. Ash looked over at Torrent. "Ice Beam on the boulder."

Ash shivered as all of the warmth in the area drained away. Torrent was covered in a veil of wispy frost as icy energy collected in front of his snout, his scarlet eyes bright and shining with glee at the amount of energy drawn into the attack. Infernus glanced up from his nap in annoyance and rapidly beat his tail to create some comforting warmth. He spat a bit of flame, but Nidoking casually stepped in front of it.

Five arcs of bright, icy energy shot forward with perfect precision, born from Torrent's natural skill and the long practice of firing jets of water. Each landed on the sliced boulder perfectly and covered it with a thick shell of craggy ice. Ash barely had time to blink before Infernus angrily bathed the rock in flame, which broke the boulder down to nothing but hot, sluggish liquid in a matter of seconds.

He sighed and motioned for Torrent and Dazed to put it out. Torrent quickly shot a weak Hydro Pump at it to cool it down before Dazed enclosed it within a psychic shell. Ash nodded his thanks before he rolled his eyes at Infernus and continued.

"Now that that's over with, Dazed, Focus Blast on that boulder." He said drily as he pointed at another large, moss-covered stone. Dazed nodded and silently placed her hands together. A ball of blue energy, powerful enough to have a smaller, white ball at the center, formed between the appendages.

Dazed easily pushed her hands outward. The energy ball followed her motion and slammed into the boulder at an incredible speed, almost too fast for Ash to follow. Ash was rather pleased when the Focus Blast caused the rock to explode outward, although it did make him flinch out of reflex. Dazed was quick enough to foresee the result of her attack and erected a psychic barrier around the boulder the instant the Focus Blast had been released.

"Thank you." Ash said gratefully. He glanced over at Infernus. "Your turn, Infernus. Teleport."

Ash could see the surprise in his friends' eyes as Infernus leapt up to his feet. His eyes were black with amusement as he stood on his pile of smoldering ash. Infernus closed his eyes and roared before he flitted out of existence. Moments later he appeared in front of Ash with a cloak of flames encasing his body. His friend looked tired, but was too exultant in his success to care.

Infernus looked up into the sky and roared as he shot a stream of flickering blue flame into the atmosphere, leaving black smoke lingering in its wake.

"Good." The trainer said with a maniacal grin. He could only imagine the kind of damage Infernus was capable of now. That mobility would certainly be put to good use. But for now he just glanced about at his friends. "Tangrowth, it's your turn."

The large grass-type made another odd noise before he waddled over next to Ash. All he had to do was point at another of the massive boulders that decorated the area for Tangrowth to know what his target was.

Tangrowth closed his big, friendly eyes. Particles of energy slowly gathered in front of his face and slowly coalesced into a great ball of energy. As soon as it grew to a sufficient size, he launched the powerful attack straight into the boulder.

Ash hid his eyes in pain as the solar energy tore through the air and left the area a few degrees warmer than before. It was an incredibly huge amount of energy that Tangrowth had just harnessed, and it showed in what had happened to the rock: the boulder was shattered by the concussive force behind the energy blast, and small fragments of the stone were fused together.

"That was amazing!" Ash exclaimed with a maniacal grin. He patted Tangrowth's arm and got a hug in return. The trainer laughed wildly, he could only imagine the kind of enemies Tangrowth could face now. He calmed after a few moments of laughing, which had attracted odd, worried stares from his friends. Ash smiled at them before he began to give out instructions. "Everyone, go practice. You need to master those moves."

"Infernus, Dazed, stay with me." Ash said as the rest of his friends wandered off. Nidoking stayed with him as well, a large, powerful presence at his side. Poison Jab was rather simple for him to learn, and it didn't require much space to use safely. "Dazed, I need you to teach Infernus how to teleport. Make him efficient."

Dazed nodded and glanced at Infernus. The fire-type snorted and followed Dazed with powerful, smoldering strides. Ash trusted Dazed to choke out any fires that sprung up. He'd be there to supervise, regardless.

"Sneasel, come over here!" Ash called out. In mere moments the lithe creature had rushed over to the trainer and leapt up onto his back. He winced in surprise as Sneasel roughly hooked onto his shoulders, but didn't show any other sign of pain. "Nidoking, I need you to teach Sneasel how to perform Ice Beam. Get him ready for it."

Nidoking grunted and clapped Ash on the shoulder before he snarled at Sneasel. The dark-type hissed back and cheerfully leapt from Ash's shoulders to Nidoking's thick armor. It had enough segments that his wickedly sharp claws could easily hang onto it.

Ash watched his best friend lumber off to the pond before he turned and walked over to where he assumed Dazed and Infernus would be practicing. Perhaps the field would be somewhat dangerous for a rather powerful, very temperamental fire-type to be training in, but Dazed and Plume could keep it under control.

He set his face into a determined frown. There was work to be done, and not a lot of time to do it. Ash expected this to be their only day spent in Celadon. The trainer wanted to head to a new destination the next day.

XX

Ash took one last look at Celadon's sprawling suburbs, the large buildings of the city itself prominent against the city's skyline. It was a nice city, he reflected, even if it did contain his least favorite gym leader. Still, Erika herself wasn't too bad. She just didn't have the right mindset for battling Team Rocket and could be a bit condescending.

He knew he'd be aching for the idyllic city soon enough, however. His next goal was Saffron City, which he wasn't particularly fond of. Ash had several reasons for returning to the most influential city in Kanto. For one, he wanted to check on Sabrina and see her psychics. Perhaps they could drudge up useful information about the Creature from his mind, although he didn't actually know if that was within their abilities. The trainer was hardly an expert on human psychics.

The other reason probably wouldn't come into play. Ash really wanted a rematch with Sabrina. His second gym battle with the powerful psychic had been amongst the most intense of his career, rivalled only by his battles with Pierce and Giovanni.

While he doubted he would be able to face her anytime soon, he might as well drop in to say hello. It had been a month and a half since the battle with the Creature, so she should be out of her coma by now. The news hadn't said anything about her condition, but he'd missed a lot while he was travelling.

Ash knew that his friends were ready for Sabrina, even if she had trained extensively before her coma. None of his friends were equal to Alakazam, but together they would make it fall. They'd trained hard over the months since their battle and had shed blood and sweat in their effort to become the best. Perhaps he wasn't there yet, but his friends had put themselves on the path.

He glanced out over the dusty, worn trail. Sneasel had already raced down it and looked to be chasing a Raticate. That probably wouldn't turn out too well, but he'd leave them be for now. It was part of the learning process for the young pokemon.

Tangrowth, who he decided to let out and roam the area alongside him, gurgled in concern and used his powerful vines to chase after the two squabbling pokemon. Ash and Nidoking just rolled their eyes and started walking.

XX

The journey was as easy as ever. Most trainers had begun to stay in the cities so they could repeatedly challenge the more difficult gym leaders until they obtained victory, so the roads were a bit more deserted than usual. Others had retired to popular training areas so that they could battle other trainers.

It all showed just how soon the Conference really was. Back when he'd first began his journey it had felt like it would never arrive, but he was able to feel it looming closer and closer. The Conference still wasn't for another four months, but every trainer that wanted to go, which was a vast majority of them, had begun to buckle down.

He looked forward to the Conference. Ash was secure in his skills, although he knew he had a long way to go before he was a Master. Bruno had proved that when he'd casually defeated Ash's entire team without trying. But he knew he was strong. It showed in the legions of defeated trainers he left in his wake. The Conference was just his chance to prove it.

But for now he had to focus on travelling and becoming stronger. Saffron might not be the perfect place to prove that, especially since he still wasn't sure about Sabrina's condition, but at least it put him at a crossroads to pursue that goal.

If he headed south he could be at Vermillion in about a week, probably less if he hurried. That would let him head down to Fuschia's rugged territory, where he could certainly find strong trainers. Or else he could just head to the city itself and battle Koga again. He knew the man would put up a good fight. After that, perhaps he could try the Safari Zone. While he was happy with his team, it never hurt to pick up an extra friend.

To the north was Cerulean. Ash wasn't sure why he would go there. It was full of ponds, lakes, and other aquatic bodies that he could train Torrent in, but Torrent didn't need it. He could train anywhere now. Besides, the Sensational Sisters didn't provide quite the draw to him as they did to Jonathan.

There was no way he was returning to Celadon for a while. Erika didn't attract many powerful trainers, and there were too many Rockets lurking in the city for him to stay safe. Ash doubted that Team Rocket knew what he had done to them, but he'd rather avoid them in an urban setting. Team Rocket was laughably weak in a straight fight, aside from Executives and Elite Agents, but their strength was in the shadows. It was difficult to defend against a threat when they outnumbered you ten to one and ambushed you.

Ash wouldn't be heading to the east anytime soon. The only center of civilization was Lavender Town, where ghosts walked the world without fear. It was a nice town, and he wouldn't mind paying his respects to fallen pokemon, but Lavender Town wasn't high on his list of priorities.

A ghost-type would be nice, but they were too difficult to control and potentially malicious. It could take him months to get the specter to see him as its equal, much less its trainer. They were belligerent. Ghosts' unruly behavior was notorious, which was one of the reasons Agatha was so highly respected. Only dragons were more difficult to train.

But his main concern with the east and northeast of Kanto rested in the freak storm that was slowly gaining strength in the area. It had expanded to be a steady forty miles wide, and experts were baffled. At least it had stopped moving. The storm had centered on a single area.

Ash suspected the Creature had something to do with it, although the only reason he could fathom was to attract electric-types, which were still migrating en masse to the storm. It was just too powerful for a normal pokemon, or even a large group of them, to be the cause.

He stopped thinking as he walked into the busy Pokemon Center. There were at least a hundred trainers stuffed into the large building, which made him think Sabrina was conscious again. Saffron City wasn't much of a draw for trainers otherwise. Silph Co. was getting some attention thanks to word of some top-secret project being leaked, but nobody knew enough about it to bother travelling to the metropolis.

The trainer tapped the shoulder of the person in front of him when he stepped into the line. It seemed that they would have a few minutes to wait before they reached the counter, so Ash figured it was best to get some information.

"Yeah?" The short, blonde trainer replied with an annoyed grunt. "Whaddya want?"

"Why are so many people here?" Ash questioned. He pointed at the masses of people standing around, laughing, and watching television.

"You know the gym leader, Sabrina?" The teen questioned. Ash nodded. "Well, she's in that coma. But the League can't allow the gym to shut down, so they just shoved the top psychic at the gym into the position until they can get a real replacement."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "So they're just swarming here to get the badge?"

"Well, yeah. It's the only chance most of us have to get the Marsh Badge. I'm not gonna let a good opportunity go to waste." The teen shrugged. He looked at Ash seriously for the first time and noticed Sneasel, who flashed him a malicious grin. "Wow, that thing would tear through the guy they have working it right now. You should hit the gym tomorrow."

"I already have the badge." Ash informed him. The teen just looked at him in disbelief before he shrugged and turned back to the female trainer he was talking to before. He couldn't make out any of their words, although he made out a sarcastic tone and a few amused giggles.

Sneasel growled with impatience and began to unsheathe and retract his claws in a quick pattern. Ash just sighed when he realized that he would be dealing with a very bored Sneasel for the next few minutes. His friend didn't mind crowds very much, since the dark-type usually took it as a chance to steal everything he could reach, although Ash made sure that never actually worked out, but there wasn't anything exciting going on.

Nurse Joy looked at him oddly when he finally reached the counter. Sneasel was perched on top of his hat and wrapped around his head, since he'd finally gotten too big to stay on Ash's hat easily. "Can I help you?"

"Just a room." Ash requested. Sneasel snickered at something and started poking the top of Ash's head with his paw, which made Ash scowl in annoyance. Nurse Joy just seemed vaguely amused as she handed over a card key. "Thank you. Have a good day."

When he left the line, the first thing he did was pull Sneasel off of his head. The dark-type growled, but obediently clung to his back instead. Ash sighed in relief when the annoying taps were gone and slipped his key into his pocket.

"Could you stay off my head?" He directed at Sneasel. The dark-type snickered, but didn't do anything else. Ash sighed. "Whatever. At least you're just annoying me."

Sneasel tapped the back of his head in agreement. Ash sighed again and readjusted his pack before he left the Pokemon Center. The dark-type hissed in annoyance as he was knocked off balance and forced to cling onto the back of Ash's shirt tightly, but just continued to poke Ash as a form of revenge.

XX

He had a fond smile on his face as he stepped into the simple beauty of the Saffron City gym. Its gentle, sweeping architecture seemed to welcome him in with a pulse of familiarity as he crossed the threshold. The psychics were not in the atrium when he arrived, which was a bit odd.

"Hello, Trainer Ketchum." An old man with a short, well-trimmed gray beard said to him. Ash snapped his gaze to the side, where the man had seemingly stepped out of the nowhere. The old man raised a hand in a placating gesture, causing his soft blue robe to ripple like water. "I apologize if I startled you. Please, follow me."

Ash did so, albeit with a degree of suspicion. It was odd that there wouldn't be a single psychic in the atrium. They seemed to tend to the gym itself. "Are you the gym leader?"

"Temporary gym leader, Trainer Ketchum." The Psychic said gravely. Ash couldn't find it in him to be surprised that the old man knew his name. He watched as the Psychic gently waved his hand when they approached a large, shimmering door. It smoothly slid open underneath the psychic influence. "Lady Sabrina will be returned to her power soon enough. She has awakened, but she is still weak."

His face was split by a grin. "That's great news! Do you know when she'll be better?"

"Soon." The Psychic replied enigmatically. Ash sighed at the answer. Psychics weren't known for being upfront, as he'd learned through his experiences with the Saffron gym leader. "She has told us to bring you to her."

"How long has she been out of her coma?" Ash asked, a curious note in his tone. Everyone he'd spoken to seemed to be under the misconception that Sabrina was still unconscious.

"Since yesterday. Her body is weak, but her mind bursts with vigor." The Psychic revealed as he opened another set of doors. Ash could feel the temperature grow colder as they continued through the long, smooth halls of the gym. "She is drained, but she is aware. Her mind has recuperated quite well from the shock – the Creature, I believe you call it? – inflicted upon her. When we received her and her apprentice, their minds were broken. Their wounds have been healed for the most part."

Ash frowned worriedly. "How is Will?"

"He rose three days ago. The Creature saw him as an afterthought to Lady Sabrina, thus he was defeated without difficulty. Lady Sabrina had to be broken." The Psychic replied in an eerily calm manner as they turned left into a room.

Two children, dressed in the flowing robes of Sabrina's acolytes, stared at him in awe as he entered. They suddenly clutched their foreheads and stared up at Ash with agonized eyes. Ash stepped backward in shock as their eyes released a steady stream of icy blue energy, the same color as the Creature's.

Burning blue eyes stared coldly at him from behind an inky black visor, energy no mortal should control swirling around the Creature in a vortex as the world –

Sneasel hissed and touched him directly with a soft paw, which negated the foreign psychic influence that forced the flashback. Ash breathed heavily and silently thanked Sneasel for his assistance. A light sheen of sweat covered his body from the memory – or was it a nightmare?

He reached forward to help them when he had gotten over his shock, but the Psychic held him back with a deceptively strong hand. A moment later the two women vanished into nothingness. Ash glanced up at the Psychic, whose worn face was suddenly tired. His body trembled, as though the old man had just completed some strenuous exercise.

"I apologize." He rasped as he slowly shuffled forward, the Psychic's age apparent on him for the first time. Ash walked beside him in concern, ready to help the older man if he needed it. "They were not supposed to be here. Your mind was marked by the Creature in ways I cannot explain. Only Lady Sabrina properly understands it."

"Could you try and explain it?" Ash asked. He lightly scratched underneath Sneasel's feather, which made the dark-type purr in content.

The Psychic sighed. "The Creature is powerful enough to leave a mark on your mind simply by using its power near you. All of the beings present during the battle have the same signature branded upon their mind. Lady Sabrina and Will were powerful enough to remove it themselves, and those with the mental fortitude can ignore it. I can say no more."

Well, that explained why the man hadn't started glowing the moment he'd seen Ash. It wasn't too much of a surprise that the man was able to protect himself from the signature. He was the strongest psychic at the gym apart from Sabrina, at least if the blonde trainer had told him the truth.

His guide opened one last set of delicately carved doors. "Go in. Sabrina awaits you. Recall the dark-type. It will disrupt the healing."

Ash nodded and recalled the annoyed Sneasel, but uncertainty grew in his mind. He assumed that Sabrina's body had been healed, but was her mind back to normal? It would be disturbing to see a different Sabrina.

Nevertheless, Ash stepped into the room. As he stepped in, a cold weight settled onto his shoulders. It was different than the energy that permeated the gym itself.

The floor was marble, and the walls were of the same silvery material as the rest of the gym. While it was beautiful, the room wasn't homely. It was cold, more like an office than a room.

The only furniture inside of the room was a small, clean bed. Two psychics sat by it with closed eyes. Energy gently pulsed beneath, but they didn't acknowledge him in anyway. Both women were still as he slowly walked into the room.

Ash frowned when he saw Sabrina. She was pale underneath the covers. Her presence was usually imposing, even when she did not intend for it to be so. Sabrina was one of the most feared gym leaders in Kanto, the greatest human psychic in the world and amongst the strongest people Ash knew of.

Now she just looked small.

He stepped closer. Ash still had no idea what he was supposed to do. It would have been nice for the Psychic to give him an instruction other than to simply walk in. The trainer glanced down at the psychics beside Sabrina again.

One suddenly clutched the sides of her head. Ash flinched as her eyes suddenly burned an icy blue, a far cry from the soft, soothing pink of before. Memories and nightmares, a few one and the same, flashed through his mind as –

The roar of water and the screams of –

He fought it back, but only found himself in reality long enough to realize that the other psychic had succumbed to the dark influence he brought with him as well, although –

Icy blue eyes stared at him behind the visor, careless of the boy in front of it, focused only upon the Champion behind him. It raised its arm, alit with energy, and –

Ash scowled and forced it back again. The energy of the room pulsed as it became stronger and stronger, driven by the raging emotions in the area as well as the power inscribed upon Ash's mind. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Sabrina's closed eyes burn with the same icy blue energy. That meant –

Pain. The Creature's cold, taunting voice wracked his brain as it tore his mind apart simply by making contact. Energy coalesced into the Creature's hand, bright and more powerful than anything Ash had ever seen, and it seemed bored as it prepared to –

He gasped as reality solidified around him. Ash numbly realized he was on the cold marble floor and stood up on trembling limbs. The effect wasn't just psychological. Being touched by the psychic power was as much physiological trauma as it was mental in this case.

Ash habitually brushed nonexistent dirt off of his pants as he regained his footing. He drew in a long, trembling breath before he opened his eyes. The trainer hadn't even realized that he'd squeezed them shut.

Both psychics were crumpled on the ground, he noted. Ash's hand uneasily moved to Dazed's pokeball. She would be the most help in this situation. But he remembered what was far more important: Sabrina, in her vulnerable state, had been warped by the signature the Creature had unconsciously branded him with.

Guilt rose in his stomach as he realized what might have happened. He couldn't force himself to look at Sabrina for a few seconds. Her mind had been recovering, and he had exposed her to the influence of the same monster that had done this to her in the first place. If he'd set her back…

When he finally managed to look at Sabrina, he was surprised, to say the least. She was not curled up in pain and confusion or even unconscious. The gym leader was awake, although she looked exhausted.

"Wha—?" He began, confused. Ash had no idea about the events that had just occurred. Logic told him that Sabrina should be hurt right now, or at least confused.

"Hello, Ash." Sabrina said monotonously as she propped herself up on weak arms. Her eyes flashed a bright, warm purple for a moment. Her hair, slightly ruffled from the bed, smoothed out. Aside from the slight atrophying of her limbs and body, which had somehow been slowed to barely noticeable levels, she looked as she always had. "I apologize, my vision has been erratic as of late, else I would have been awake already."

He blinked. Ash began to open his mouth to ask his questions, but Sabrina seamlessly cut him off.

"They assist my recovery." Sabrina explained. "To resist your brand was a test. It is a shame they were overcome. I had prepared them for this moment and warned them of the difficulty that lay in resisting the brand."

"You knew what this would happen?" Ash asked. His head was spinning. Dealing with Sabrina was never easy.

She gave him a drily amused smile. Ash figured she knew what he had thought. "I know many things, past, future, and present. Without the physical world to distract me, the sight is amongst the most trivial of my powers."

Ash frowned. Did she know how the raid at Viridian would end?

"No. The Creature," she said, adopting Ash's name for it seamlessly, "warped my vision. It is too powerful. I knew that a being of immense strength would be present to brand us with its power, but I did not know how it would end. The Creature disrupts the laws when it acts."

"What laws?" Ash demanded. He winced at his tone. It was rather rude, and Sabrina didn't deserve it.

"I have said too much." She replied softly, a bit of regret entering her tone. Sabrina lowered herself back onto the bed. Her bright red eyes were weary. "Know that the Creature is more powerful than you believe. It is restrained at the moment, both by technology and its convictions."

He looked at Sabrina disbelievingly, even if he knew she spoke the truth. Ash couldn't picture it being stronger. It had effortlessly defeated the greatest trainers the League could throw at it. His blood ran cold at the thought of it being capable of that while held back. But how did –

"It entered my mind." Sabrina stated matter-of-factly, although her face paled at the memory. It was one of the few obvious displays of emotion Ash could remember from the powerful psychic. "I received glances, for lack of a better term, at its consciousness. Information it couldn't hold back. The Creature is powerful, but inexperienced."

Ash looked at Sabrina eagerly, ravenous for information about the Creature. Maybe she'd picked up a weak point, or some way to destroy it.

"No." Sabrina said with a shake of her head. The energy in the room pulsed with her regret. "Nothing so direct. It will only be of use to the Champion and the League."

He nodded with disappointment. The lack of information was disheartening, to say the least. Ash noticed that Sabrina's eyes were dipping with exhaustion. She might have emerged from the coma, but her body was still frail. The gym leader needed to rest. "I should go."

Sabrina didn't seem surprised. "Yes. I must rest and recover my strength. Team Rocket encroaches upon my borders, and I will not be as lenient with them as before."

Ash blinked. He remembered the images released into the news of the Rockets that had invaded Silph Co. a few months ago, right after he'd left the city for the first time. Quite a few had permanent brain damage, and most were hospitalized for weeks before their trials could occur. The trainer could only imagine what she would do to them now.

Her lips curled upward, despite the stern set of her face. She didn't remark on his thoughts, however. Sabrina simply laid back in her bed and glanced at him with impassive red eyes. "Prepare yourself, Ash Ketchum. The future is unclear."

He didn't bother asking her to elaborate. From the few encounters he'd had with Sabrina and other psychics, they were frustratingly vague. Ash would only be able to guess at her meaning until the events actually came to pass.

Sabrina's lips twitched again, but her eyes finally closed. Ash took one last glance at the psychics still on the cold marble floor. They were beginning to wake up. He figured that he'd just tell the temporary gym leader what had occurred before making his way to the Pokemon Center.

Before he left the room and the cold energy that dominated it, Sabrina spoke once more. "I apologize that I am not in sufficient condition to conduct a gym battle. I enjoyed our last match."

Ash glanced back and nodded. There was no need to tell Sabrina that he would return to battle her again. She already knew the answer better than he did.

He found the Psychic waiting outside the doors. The old man frowned when he saw Sabrina's attendants struggling to rise, but didn't say anything. Apparently Sabrina hadn't seen fit to warn him.

"She is awake?" The Psychic questioned. Ash nodded, and the man smiled in satisfaction. "It is good to know that Lady Sabrina's sight was not diminished by her injuries. Soon, everything shall fall into place."

The trainer nodded distractedly. He took one last glance at the cold room he had left behind before he followed the Psychic out of the gym. It was a shame that he hadn't been able to battle Sabrina again, but he suspected that it was for the best. Ash only wanted to battle Sabrina when they were both at their peak.

Besides, Sabrina's warnings echoed in his mind. He needed to be ready, and it was hard to do that if most of his friends were unconscious.

XX

Ash glanced over at his friends as he dialed his mother's number. It had been a few days since he'd called her, and she was probably waiting on him. He'd be leaving the next day anyway, so he might as well call his mom while he wasn't dirty and tired.

His friends were arrayed around his room. Nidoking was curled up on the floor beside him, although his bulky form barely fit in between the wall and the bed. The poison-type's large head rested contentedly on the bed, right next to Ash. He idly patted Nidoking's tough hide as the PokeNav rang.

Torrent levitated by the window that looked out onto the bright city. He barely fit in the room, but they managed to squeeze him in. The dragon-type alternated his gaze from the entrancing lights and sounds of the bustling city outside and sadly at the large aquarium in the room that was still much too small to fit him.

Dazed, as usual, stood in the darkest corner of the room. Her humanoid form was barely visible, although her long white mane gave her presence away. She watched Ash carefully, but just as much of her attention was focused upon holding herself back from leaving and numbing her hunger.

Hypno had adapted well to cities and urban life. They had a massive supply of sustenance available in the form of the thousands of dreamers present and could slip in and out of areas with ease. In massive cities like Saffron, they and drowzee were amongst the most common pokemon, although their numbers had dwindled after dark-type pokemon like houndour and houndoom took up residence.

He knew that Dazed had particular trouble resisting the temptation. She had only fed on the other members of their team for more than a month, which had started to take its toll on the powerful psychic. Her powers were still overwhelmingly strong, but they were waning.

Sneasel had begun to venture away from Ash on more occasions and had even begun to slip away from the trainer at night to sleep on his lonesome, so he hoped Dazed's needs would be filled soon. If Sneasel decided to sleep over with Tangrowth as it looked like he would, then Dazed would be fully restored by the time the team arrived at Vermillion.

Tangrowth, as he'd mentioned, was lying back against a wall. His saucer-like eyes were closed, which left nothing but a gaping void between his vines. He gurgled softly in his sleep, and some of the vines curled around Sneasel protectively, although the dark-type hissed in annoyance at the contact.

"Ash!" His mother exclaimed. She clasped her hands together in excitement. "It's been so long. How are you? Are you in Saffron?"

"I'm good, and I made it to Saffron today." Ash replied with an easy grin. "I'll be leaving tomorrow. Has anything happened over in Pallet?"

His mother shook her head. "It's been normal. Professor Oak's been stressed out of his mind lately, though. Between Team Rocket," her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, although they returned to their normal shape in a few moments, "and that project for Silph Co. he hasn't had any free time. He's only off for lunch."

Ash hummed in agreement. He could understand the stress the Pokemon Professor was going through, if not the full degree. Professor Oak was still incredibly important in the League, even if he didn't work directly for them, and probably spent quite a bit of time helping with the Rocket situation.

The Professor could probably destroy the entire organization if he ever met them in a fair fight, he thought as he remembered the pokemon that had appeared at Nidoking's evolution party. As the images of the massive Charizard and even larger Dragonite flickered through his mind, Ash wondered again just how far Professor Oak had gone.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I'll be gone for a week in December, from the fifth until the twelfth." His mother spoke up. That caught Ash's attention, and he looked at his mother's image with confusion. "I'm going to visit Spencer and Molly over in Greenfield."

Ash nodded in understanding. It had been a while since either he or his mother had seen the family friends, and he'd heard something about Spencer's wife disappearing a few weeks before he'd started his journey. His mother and her constantly upbeat attitude would probably help the two out a lot.

"Are you sending Bruiser and Seeker up to Professor Oak's?" Ash asked as concern for his friends sprung up. He thought he saw Seeker flutter around in the background, although the motion was too fast for him to be sure.

His mother smiled. "Yes. Professor Oak said he'd be happy to take them! He said Pikachu and Arcanine were having some trouble with a few mankey and primeape in the area, so Bruiser'll be a great help."

"That sounds good. I'll try and get to Pallet Town before you leave for Greenfield." Ash promised. He didn't know his schedule yet, but if all else failed he could call Professor Oak and get Alakazam to help him. Oak had said he was trying to keep her from becoming complacent.

"Just make sure to call me before you get there!" His mother laughed. A smile made its way on his face. "But don't interrupt your journey on my account. I know these last few months are really important for trainers."

He nodded and made sure to remember her words. Ash would make sure to get to Pallet Town, even if he didn't really have to. By that point it would have been three months since he'd seen his mother or Professor Oak in person.

"Have you been alright lately?" His mother suddenly asked, concern evident in her voice. "You've been looking worn down ever since…you know."

Ash frowned. He hadn't mentioned the disruptive nightmares to his mother, especially since they'd been less and less frequent. He certainly hadn't thought that they'd had any noticeable effect on him, least of all his appearance. While he really didn't want to lie to his mother, he didn't want to make her worry either. She had enough going on.

A ring on his PokeNav saved him from that dilemma. Ash frowned when he saw it was an unfamiliar number, although the identification code showed that it was from the League. "Mom, could you hold on for a minute? Someone's calling me."

"Of course! I'll be waiting." She said cheerily. Ash was sure that she wouldn't be nearly as upbeat if she knew that the call was from the League. His mother was rather terrifying when they were mentioned. She wasn't happy with them enlisting Ash to help out with the Rocket problem.

"Hello?" He asked as the screen cut to a rather impressive office. It wasn't familiar, although he had to admit the rather impressive collection of draconic artifacts such as fangs, scales, and claws tipped him off to the caller's identity. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw who was sitting in the large, stone throne behind the desk. "Lance?"

The Champion grinned wildly. He looked much better than when Ash had last seen him. There was no evidence of the bandages and casts he was covered in at the hospital, and everything about him seemed robust and powerful. Ash saw a small, pudgy creature with dark blue coloration and a red underbelly sitting on his desk. It growled contentedly as Lance absentmindedly scratched the large fin on its head.

"Hello, Ash." Lance said with a friendly nod. He wore a formal, crisp uniform, which Ash recognized as the one he wore during formal League battles. His cape still hung around his shoulders, which unconsciously brought a smirk to Ash's face as he remembered the advertisement. "Have you been well?"

Ash nodded. "I'm good. Everything's calmed down a lot since Viridian." He grimaced. Memories ran through his head, which made his heart rate skyrocket before he took a few deep, calming breaths.

"If only I could say the same." Lance sighed. He brightened up after a few moments, although his demeanor remained serious. "You're in Saffron, correct?" When Ash nodded, he continued. "Good. When you're done there, could you go to Vermillion?"

"Sure." Ash replied. He was heading there anyways. Fuschia was his next target, and Vermillion was the most reliable way to get there unless he took a boat. "What do you need me to do?"

A frown crossed Lance's angular face. "Surge is going to investigate the storm in northeast Kanto. He needs assistance, but I can't spare any League forces. I assume that you are up to the task?"

"Of course!" Ash exclaimed. He might have a few misgivings about the source of the storm, but he was willing to help however he could. At the very least it might distract the Creature from protecting Team Rocket – if it was even the force behind the storm. "Do you need me to teleport there?"

"No. Surge still has his own preparations to make." Lance explained. "Try to get there within a week. By then Surge should be ready. The storm is merely an oddity at the moment. Should it become threatening, I will have Sabrina teleport you."

Ash dipped his head in understanding. "I'll leave tomorrow."

"Thank you. When you return with Surge, I'll add twenty thousand dollars into your trainer account." Lance's eyes glinted with amusement for a moment. "Make sure to call me when the job is complete. I have an opportunity for you that you won't want to miss out on. Good luck."

The trainer's expression sparked with interest, but before he could ask about the opportunity, Lance cut the call. He stared at the screen before he called his mother back. Ash wasn't sure how good of a conversationalist he would be after the Champion's call, but he could at least listen.

XX

Sneasel snickered as he froze the water in Ash's water bottle, and the noise grew even louder when he poked Ash painfully in the side with his sharp, hooked claws. Ash, who had been about to drink, sighed in annoyance. He looked over at Infernus, who had curled up in a pile of smoldering ashes. Before he could get the fire-type over to discipline Sneasel, he suddenly realized that Sneasel was about to get his comeuppance in a different manner.

Dazed had started forward in annoyance at his little prank, but Sneasel disappeared in a burst of darkness. She met Ash's eyes, and he gave her a short nod. Sneasel had been pushing the limits lately. He had been vicious toward most of the team since they'd set out for Vermillion the day before, and had even reacted with hostility to Ash.

It looked like he was starting to go through puberty. Pokemon went through it rather fast since they were mostly developed within their egg, but it would be a dangerous month or two. Sneasel would enter a state of hyper-aggressiveness for the duration, although it could be mostly curbed if he nipped it in the bud right now. And after all the trouble Sneasel had put Dazed through, he figured she should be the one to do it.

His other symptoms included a minor increase in muscle and bone density, which would put him up with the other adults of his species and make him a bit tougher and faster. It would also make him ready for evolution into a Weavile, although Ash didn't see that happening anytime soon.

For Sneasel to evolve, he'd either require a Razor Claw, which was an artificially produced item designed to trigger the signals in his cells that would trigger evolution, or train for several months in an extremely cold area. He'd probably go with the Razor Claw when he thought Sneasel was ready. After his experience in the Seafoam Islands, he had no desire to be in the cold.

But that could come later. For now, Sneasel needed to be taught his place. Ash had been fairly stern in disciplining him over the month and a half since Sneasel had hatched, but that wouldn't be enough to curb his aggressiveness during his short puberty. As loath as he was to admit it, he'd have to be harsh.

Sneasel silently stalked Dazed. He gracefully circled around Infernus and his ash pile before he suddenly dashed toward Dazed with his claws unsheathed. The dark-type hissed as he leapt at her, only to sink his claws into thin air.

Ash crossed his arms and watched with a sad frown as Dazed controlled a log with Psychic and hurled it into the aggressive dark-type. Sneasel yelped when he was suddenly hit and went flying, but he managed to hook onto a tree and growl at Dazed before he disappeared.

Dazed was too fast. As Sneasel leapt out of the shadows behind her, she teleported a few feet away, right in front of Tangrowth's sleeping form. The others had begun to stir from their slumber now, so the battle had an audience.

Sneasel hissed and blew a gust of icy air towards Dazed. The frost left small crystals of ice in its wake, most of which were carried along with the breeze. Apparently the dark-type expected Dazed to teleport away, so he began a quick rush in order to attack the psychic.

The dark-type was rather surprised when Dazed chose to take the attack head on. She simply closed her hands together, formed a ball of iridescent blue energy, and shot the Focus Blast straight through the gust of air. Sneasel whined in pain as the fighting-type attack slammed into his small body and exploded.

Ash covered his eyes, but Dazed had raised several shields around the rest of the team so that they wouldn't be hit by the blast. Nidoking grunted in annoyance at the bright psychic energy and sat up, although he stayed close to Ash. It was good that the fight wouldn't be too destructive since Sneasel didn't have any powerful attacks yet. If it was, Nidoking would have put a stop to it already.

Sneasel slammed into a tree thanks to the concussive blast. He growled pitiably as he struggled to his feet, but Ash could see fear in his narrowed scarlet eyes. It had taken much longer than Ash had expected it to, but Sneasel had realized that Dazed was much more powerful than him.

Dazed charged up another Focus Blast, but Sneasel dipped his head and took a knee. He was suddenly tired and weak, unwilling to take another brutal Focus Blast for his pride. Sneasel was a cunning predator at heart. It was much more important to avoid injury than to suffer for his own defiance.

When Dazed looked as though she would hit him one last time, Ash stopped it. "Enough." The trainer said sharply. "Sneasel, you need to keep yourself under control. I know you're angry a lot, but it'll pass in time. Stay focused."

The dark-type hissed at Ash in understanding. He slunk away into the shadows. Ash managed to make out a ripple of movement near Tangrowth, and the grass-type's affectionate gurgle told Ash that Sneasel had finally decided to stop sleeping with him. It looked like the team's baby was growing up.

"You can eat my dreams." Ash told Dazed. He laid back down on his sleeping mat, a little sad. It was good that Sneasel seemed to understand that his behavior needed to be curbed, but he felt like their relationship had changed. Sneasel wasn't a baby that needed to be nurtured anymore. He was becoming an adult, a full member of the pack.

Dazed smiled at him with her knowledgeable eyes, but he could see that there was empathetic sorrow for what he had realized. Ash knew she didn't like Sneasel, but Dazed was adept at detecting emotions, although she wasn't the most expressive individual. She could feel what he felt, if to a lesser extent.

He laid his head back against Nidoking's chest, who gave a low, happy grunt that made the ground around the duo shake. Ash smiled and affectionately patted his friend's bulky shoulder before he closed his eyes, protected by his friends.

Thoughts swarmed and roiled within his mind, however, and he did not fall to sleep immediately.

It was strange to realize that the disruption Sneasel had brought to the team's status quo was slowly coming to an end. He was becoming another member of the team, if one that needed quite a bit of practice and intensive training to match the others. Everything was settling back into place.

He heard Dazed shuffling about before he finally managed to fall to sleep, the blackness washing over his mind before he drifted off into unconsciousness.

For the first time in a long time, he slept a dreamless sleep.

XX

It took five more days to reach Vermillion. Ash travelled at a hurried pace. Although he made sure to give Sneasel plenty of practice against trainers on the road, he still reached the warm city with plenty of time to spare.

Sneasel had taken his words to heart. For the first day or two after the fight with Dazed he was a bit subdued and cold toward the others, and actually stayed around Tangrowth most of the time, but he returned to a relatively normal state after. Dazed simply had to glare at the dark-type with glowing eyes to enforce his good behavior. He hadn't stolen anything or attacked another member of the team since that night.

Ash didn't like using fear to keep Sneasel on a good path. It was a low thing to do, but it was necessary. Sneasel's pokedex entry had frequently mentioned that his species only respected strength and cunning. The behavior was much less prevalent in properly trained members of the breed, but during their short period of puberty Sneasel's instincts essentially ruled him. To maintain his obedience, Ash had to keep his respect.

He'd noticed a change in Tangrowth as well. The grass-type was a bit more protective over Sneasel than usual, although he wouldn't stop Ash or the others if Sneasel needed to be reprimanded. But he was much quicker to gurgle angrily should he believe the others took it too far. Tangrowth simply tapped Ash on the forehead with a bit more force than usual.

He hadn't said anything to his easygoing friend yet. Ash hoped that it was just a phase Tangrowth was going through, induced by the minor injuries the pokemon he had more or less adopted was incurring whenever he took things too far. If things continued, he would intervene.

The rest of his friends were doing fine. Nidoking and Torrent had continued to teach Sneasel the exercises required to focus his energy and manipulate ice, which managed to placate the dark-type. Ash figured that if it could teach him control and focus, it was worth teaching.

Dazed wasn't fully healed, but she looked much better now that she was able to feed on Ash's dreams again. Ash couldn't believe that he didn't notice how haggard she had looked. Her mane had become lank and her short yellow fur was dull and lacked its former luster, but the healthy glow was returning quickly. He wondered if she'd manipulated his perceptions to keep him from worrying about her. It was a common behavior of protective psychic-types, Ash had read.

Plume just seemed happy to be with the rest of the group. Ash felt a bit of guilt about leaving Bruiser and Seeker alone for so long, but according to his mother they were incredibly happy and content. Nevertheless, he always diverted a few minutes to speak to his friends after he and his mother were done talking.

But he made sure to pay quite a bit of attention to Plume. She was incredibly close to mastering Hurricane. At her current rate of progress, she would be able to perform the attack perfectly after a week or two. As of now she could easily blow down a few trees.

He made sure to pass by the gym before he went to the Pokemon Center. Surge should know that he had reached Vermillion. Ash figured that they'd leave tomorrow, although plans might change. Lance hadn't told him much about the job, after all, nor what preparations were being made for it.

"You here for a battle?" One of the tough gym trainers snarled at him as Ash walked up to the gym doors. Several of the trainers waiting in line glared at Ash. Ash looked up at him impassively and thought the trainer was the one that had taken over the gym for Surge after their battle. The bulky man squinted in recognition. "Wait, you're that kid who beat Surge, right?"

Ash nodded. "I need to see him."

The gym trainer nodded and looked over to his counterpart. "Hey, Berna, keep the little brats out of the gym would ya?" He said as he pointed at the long line of trainers Ash had skipped by. "Surge told us to let the kid in."

"Got it." The tall woman growled. She glared over at one of the trainers who began complaining. "Shut up, runt. Maybe if you knew how to battle Surge would let you in the gym."

Ash didn't hear any more of the conversation as the gym trainer took him inside. The gym was as pristine as ever, with the notable exception of the field, which was torn up with large ruts that looked as though a young onix had made them. A short trainer about his age was battling Surge and Raichu with a Scyther.

"Scyther, use your Quick Attack!" The boy cried. He pointed dramatically at Raichu. Scyther growled before it blurred forward.

"Thunder Blast." Surge yawned. He seemed rather bored, although he laughed raucously as Raichu's cheeks sparked and bolts of brilliant lightning shot out and covered the entire field, too fast for Scyther to dodge. The bug-type was briefly illuminated as electricity crackled through its body before it simply dropped to the ground. "Kid, get out of here. Come back when you've actually trained that Scyther."

The trainer clenched his fists, but recalled Scyther and left the gym. Before the next trainer was called in, the gym trainer called out for Surge.

"What is it?" The giant snapped before he saw Ash. "Ah, the runt's arrived! Jack, you've got the gym for the rest of the day. You know the drill: blast 'em with Electivire. Let him do what he wants."

"Yes, Sir!" The gym trainer shouted with a salute. As Surge and Raichu walked over to Ash, Jack called out, "Next challenger!"

Raichu nimbly climbed up Surge so that she could sit on his shoulder. Thanks to the man's incredible size, the large mouse didn't look out of place in the least. She chattered at Surge excitedly, and the gym leader scratched behind her oddly formed ears with a smile.

"Let's go. I've got something to show you." Surge said flatly. His demeanor was grim and oddly subdued.

Ash nodded and followed the massive man out of the gym. The trainers waiting to battle the gym leader gawked at Surge as he walked out. Surge just put on a mean grin and Raichu sparked menacingly. All of the trainers that had battled him before backed away nervously, while the ones that hadn't just looked confused.

"What is it?" Ash asked curiously. Surge had never been like this, not even when he'd met him in the hospital after the St. Anne. That had just made him angry, even if the sorrow was evident if one knew where to look.

"You'll see." Surge grunted. He looked down at Ash, who barely came up to the gym leader's waist. "I guess I should start telling you about the job. Lance contacted me and Brock the same day as he did you. I've got the preparations ready."

He blinked. "Brock's coming?"

"Yeah. We would have used Giovanni," Surge spat the name in disgust, "since he was the ground-type leader. Most of Brock's pokemon have got a resistance to electricity, if not outright immunity. That Steelix of his will be a damn good transport, if nothing else."

"We aren't teleporting?" Ash questioned. It seemed like a fairly important mission, at least when he looked at the kind of money Lance was throwing at him. He had thought time was of the essence.

Surge shook his head. Raichu growled as she was forced to cling to the thin fabric of the man's shirt. "Teleportation doesn't work past Lavender Town. We sent a few Rangers to scout it out, but they could only teleport a few miles into the storm before it just stopped working. That doesn't happen often, and it's one of the reasons Lance saw fit to send gym leaders to assess the situation. We don't usually go on grunt missions like this."

"What do you think's stopping the psychics?" Ash asked. Even though his mind was filled with potential explanations, he didn't understand the theory behind psychic-types enough to come up with a good one. "It's just a storm, even if something else is fuelling it."

The gym leader paused for a moment in surprise. "You picked up on that? Most of the idiots I talk to just think that it's a freak occurrence, brought on by too much manipulation of the weather. The League thinks differently."

"The Creature." Ash muttered. His fists balled tightly.

Surge nodded. "That's what you call it? It's as good as anything the League's come up with. We know that the storm isn't natural, and the only thing that could potentially keep up a storm for that long is the Creature. The psychics being blocked just gives more proof to it."

"What are we supposed to do, then?" Ash asked as the warm, salty ocean and its softly lapping waves came into view. "There's no way we can take it on."

"All Lance wants us to do is investigate." Surge grunted. He angled to the left, close to the port. Ash felt a bit of fear rise up in his stomach as several cruise ships came into view. His fists involuntarily clenched, tight enough to leave slight traces of blood on his nails. "If we see that thing, we leave."

They were silent for another few minutes. Ash was lost in his thoughts and preparations, and Surge just had a hard look on his face that grew darker and darker as they moved on.

When they stopped, Ash recognized where they were. This was where the St. Anne had set off on its last voyage. He took a few deep breaths to get the rush of icy water and screams of the dying out of his head.

There was a massive statue in front of them. It showed a large ship, the perfect replica of the St. Anne, atop a large wave of marble. On the wave, which was ten feet high and nearly fifteen feet long, thousands of names were inscribed.

"Memorial to the St. Anne Tragedy. Dedicated to men and women unjustly killed." Ash read in a tight voice as he saw the script just above the names. A lump developed in his throat. He had to force himself to not touch the monument. The trainer glanced over at Surge, who had his arms crossed and a determinedly stoic expression. "How many names?"

"Three thousand eight hundred and eight." Surge sighed. Raichu patted the side of his head affectionately and chattered in an attempt to cheer him up. The gym leader smiled slightly and scratched her ears. "That's not counting the pokemon. There are still divers searching for pokeballs."

Ash was silent for a few moments. "Thank you for showing me this. I had no idea it existed."

"You're welcome." Surge said in a tone that could almost be mistaken for soft. He patted Ash's shoulder, which unintentionally sent the trainer stumbling forward. "I figured you deserved to see it. Are you coming back?"

"I'm going to stay here for a while." Ash said quietly. He stared at the names immortalized in stone, well aware that he could have been amongst their number. He would have, had Torrent not found strength in his desperation.

"I understand." Surge said gruffly, but in a manner that told Ash that he understood all too well. "We're leaving tomorrow. Meet me outside my gym at six o' clock in the morning. I'll explain more then."

Ash nodded silently as Surge walked off. He idly noted that Surge could be surprisingly quiet when he needed to.

He felt all of the emotions he'd felt in the wake of the tragedy return in full force. Ash scowled as pure rage and sorrow, alternate emotions that fit far too well together, surged upward. The lump in his throat grew, but he didn't acknowledge it. What he acknowledged were the names of those that Team Rocket had killed, all in the name of playing with their new toy.

But there were no tears.

He'd outgrown that. All he wanted was for Team Rocket to fall, no matter who dealt the blow.

XX

Ash felt better by the time he stood outside of Surge's gym the next morning, five minutes before he needed to. Seeing the Memorial had drudged up some feelings he would rather have forgotten, but it was refreshing, in a way. He hadn't dealt with it in the months since the tragedy, and finally seeing the evidence of the horrific night made him feel like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

"Sneasel, calm down." He said soothingly. Sneasel was incredibly hyper this morning, probably because of the cold, crisp air. It was probably the coldest Sneasel had ever been. The dark-type hissed understandingly, but kept on hopping up and down by his feet. Every now and then he'd sniff the air and bare his fangs. Ashs assumed he smelled a rattata or other urban pokemon.

He snapped his head to the gym when the door suddenly slammed open. Surge walked out and motioned for him to come in. "I've got to modify your trainer privileges before we leave and brief you on the mission."

Ash followed Surge into the gym, which was rather warm and bright compared to the streets of Vermillion, which were still dim and misty with a bitterly cold atmosphere. He rubbed his arms and restore some feeling back into them, but Sneasel wasn't so happy with the insulated gym. The dark-type growled and leapt up onto Ash's shoulder, although soon he would be too big to comfortably do so.

Surge directed him into a room that was mostly empty, save for a large computer and a trading machine. The massive gym leader sat down in a chair that was clearly made for him and powered up the computer. Raichu awoke in the corner and skittered over to Surge, who absentmindedly pet the orange rodent.

"You said you didn't have an electric-type, right?" The older man growled as the computer's screen sparked to life. Ash nodded. "Well, if you want one this mission is the time to get it. Almost every electric-type in Kanto has migrated up to the stormy areas. I'm giving you an extra pokeball slot so that you can catch one and not have to bother trading it out."

"Thanks." Ash said gratefully. He looked at Sneasel oddly when the dark-type deftly leapt off of his shoulder, but sighed when he saw his friend trying to sneak up on Raichu. "Sneasel, don't do –"

He was cut off by the crackle of electricity and the smell of ozone. Sneasel blinked once before he collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap. Ash sighed and recalled his friend, whose thick fur was standing up on end in a comical manner.

"Good girl, Raichu." Surge laughed uproariously. Ash was relatively certain the gym leader had just woken up everyone in the adjacent buildings. Raichu made on odd noise that Ash assumed was laughter before she climbed up onto Surge's shoulder. The massive man didn't even seem to notice. "Runt, what's your I.D. number?"

Surge typed rapidly as Ash called off the numbers he had memorized. As part of their training, potential trainers were required to know it in case their pokedex was destroyed or inaccessible. It was a basic safety measure, although it took Ash a moment to recall it.

"And it's done." Surge grunted. Ash was surprised at how fast he could type. His fingers were just as large as the rest of him, but it seemed that he hadn't lost any dexterity from it. "I went ahead and extended the time you've got for your Sneasel another two weeks."

"How long do you think this will take?" Ash asked with a frown. He still had another few weeks with Sneasel before he'd have to see about swapping his friends out.

Surge stood up and shrugged. "We're going to a decoy power plant in the northeast of Kanto. That's where the League placed the epicenter of the storm. It's normally a journey of about two weeks, but the storm wrecked everywhere it touched. I'm thinking it'll be three."

He nodded. It was no surprise that it would be such a long journey. Decoy power plants were made specifically to keep electric-types from ravaging the power plants humans depended on and cities. They were usually in locations far from civilization and tended to be incredibly expensive to maintain. But the investment was well worth it.

"Can we use any transport?"

Surge laughed condescendingly, although not mean-spirited. "Runt, the only thing we'll be riding is Brock's Steelix. Let me explain the situation." He stood up and started pacing in front of Ash. Raichu adopted a stern expression and sparks flew from her cheeks. Ash could easily see his background as a decorated member of the League's forces. Maybe he was an ACE trainer.

"The storm spreads eighty miles in any direction, and grows larger every day." Surge barked. "Its effects have spread to Lavender Town and, in a matter of days, Cerulean City. Almost every electric-type in Kanto is within its boundaries, and they have been reported to be more aggressive than usual. According to some spooks, there are hurricane force winds in the five miles outside of the eye. Tornadoes are commonplace. As of today, the League has demanded an evacuation of the area, and they've sent a request for castform from the Hoenn League."

Ash blinked. He hadn't realized things were so bad. The news hadn't shown off how extreme it was, although he'd known that a storm raging for that long couldn't be good. But Surge had just made him see how serious it was.

"How are we supposed to get to the power plant if the winds are that strong?" Ash questioned worriedly. "We can't fly in that kind of weather, and it sounds like most pokemon wouldn't be able to handle the storms."

Surge grinned wildly and pulled out a strange pokeball. It was purely white except for its ring. He tapped it and released a strange pokemon. It was tiny and looked as though it were made of gray clouds. "This is Castform. It's the first of the bunch to be delivered from Hoenn. It normally just changes form with the weather, but has a pretty strong affinity for manipulating it as well. Castform is our best shot at calming the storm around us."

Castform squeaked in agreement and floated over to Ash. Its body was wispy and translucent, solid but only to the loosest definition. The strange pokemon stared at him before Surge returned it to its pokeball.

"If that fails, we'll just ride in Steelix's mouth or tunnel." Surge said in a disgruntled manner. He didn't seem any more pleased about it than Ash. "If it comes to that, survival is the goal."

"I can see why Lance wanted two gym leaders and a trainer with eight badges for this." Ash said softly. He hadn't thought it would be so dangerous.

Surge squinted at him. "You aren't thinking about backing out, are you?"

"Of course not." Ash replied with a maniacal grin. This would probably be safer than anything else he'd done for the League. Besides, it would be interesting to travel with a human for once, especially one as strong as Surge. Brock didn't seem too bad either. "This'll be fun."

"Good to hear!" Surge boomed. The serious persona he'd adopted for the conversation slipped away, showing his true colors. "Let's be off, runt. We need to move fast."

Ash nodded and followed Surge as he suddenly moved and took a long stride out of the door. This would be an interesting experience, to say the least.

XX

Ash sat down beside the campfire and squinted at the horribly familiar can that Surge was opening. His mouth immediately went dry and he felt a reflexive urge to heave overcome him.

They'd just stopped travelling. Surge was a harsh taskmaster, although he at least understood Ash's weaker physical state and gave a few allowances to stop and eat. Aside from the short breaks, though, they'd travelled nonstop for nearly fifteen hours. Their pace was a bit more intensive than what he was used to, although not too bad.

It wasn't too demanding for Ash, who had gotten quite a bit of endurance from trekking across Kanto, but by the end even his feet were sore. He had no idea how Surge was still laughing and easily pushing on, especially since the man didn't seem to leave his gym all that often.

His friends still hadn't adjusted to Surge's presence. Plume swept over them in concern every now and then, and suspiciously eyed Surge and Raichu whenever she landed. Surge just tossed a few scraps of food her way and laughed at her threatening shrieks.

Torrent, who Ash had elected to walk beside him, simply kept a constant vigil over Ash. He and Raichu seemed desperate to battle each other, but Surge wouldn't hear of it. Ash wasn't too anxious for the battle either. With the kind of power both of the potential combatants were packing they'd wipe out everything around them before it was over.

"Please tell me that isn't what I think it is." Ash said disdainfully as he laid back onto Nidoking, who was curled up on his side. The poison-type respected Surge thanks to their battle so long ago and seemed almost happy to see the powerful gym leader again, which Surge had reciprocated.

"You've had the broth?" Surge snorted in amusement. He easily poured the contents of the can into a bowl and hung it on a wire over the flickering campfire. Infernus growled from next to Ash. He wasn't happy about his position being usurped. "Best food for the road. The Broth of Champions, as Bruno calls it."

Ash rolled his eyes. "You have a different standard of good. I only had to eat it for about a week and I still can't get the taste out of my mouth. I'm fairly certain it's made from grimer."

"Of course. They're the secret ingredient." Surge said seriously as he added a bit of water to the thick blob of gelatinous goo that lay prostrate in the bowl. "No other way to get that texture."

He shuddered and began unwrapping his own food, which was a bland but ultimately better choice than the black broth. It didn't need heating, so he contentedly ate while the rest of his friends tore into their own piles of food. Nidoking lazily moved every now and then, but had already wrecked his own immense stack.

"So, where are we meeting Brock?" Ash broke the silence. He relaxed and watched in disgust as Surge scraped some more of the black broth out of its can and into the bowl. Nidoking rumbled in amusement at his revulsion.

"Berge Town." Surge replied. He carelessly batted Raichu's dexterous paws away from the can of his disgusting meal with a massive hand. The gym leader suddenly snorted. "I hope he didn't pass through Cerulean. I'm not sure the idiot could handle being around the Sisters."

"What do you mean?" Ash perked up. Brock seemed nice, and so did the Sisters, although outwardly they were a bit airheaded.

Surge cocked his head and stared at him with bemused blue eyes. "Have you never talked to the kid?"

Ash nodded slowly, his brow furrowed in confusion. Brock was probably amongst the most normal of the gym leaders he'd met. The Sisters…well, that didn't need an explanation. Surge enjoyed beating trainers and their pokemon black and blue, Erika was just odd, Sabrina was the most powerful human psychic and made his brain tie itself into knots half the time, Koga was a ninja, and Blaine had an awful sense of humor. Giovanni didn't count.

"Kid's more hormonal than Erika." Surge snorted. "I've got to warn Holly whenever he comes to Vermillion. Every Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny in Kanto knows him by now."

"Really?" Ash remarked. One eyebrow was raised. He was rather surprised that the friendly, level headed gym leader would act like that. "Why was he at Vermillion?"

Surge answered as he took the bubbling broth off of the fire. Ash fought down the urge to wretch when the rancid aroma wafted over to him. Nidoking started coughing. His strong sense of smell wasn't always a boon.

"I trained him." Surge said. A shadow cast over his hard face. "His father was supposed to, but I'm not going to get into that."

Ash quieted down and silence reigned for a few more minutes. He was too tired to really make an effort to speak, and when he was done exhaustion overcame him.

He couldn't help but be intrigued by the new information about Brock, though. It was strange to realize that people could hide such drastically different sides of themselves from view. Maybe he'd learn more when they actually met up with the teenager.

XX

Surge's prediction was right on. They arrived at Berge Town in exactly a week. The weather had begun to foul during their third day of travel, although it hadn't shifted to an actual storm yet. It was just more proof that the storm was unnatural. Its effects were spreading out to cover more and more of Kanto every day, although the storm itself advanced at a far more sedate pace.

"We need to hurry." Surge grunted as they entered the town's limits. It was quite small, consisting of only five thousand residents, but it was still larger than Pallet Town. "We're supposed to meet Brock at the Pokemon Center. The kid's probably about to get punched out by Nurse Joy."

Ash nodded and followed Surge's massive form as he confidently strode through the grey streets of Berge. It was quite empty, despite being one of the last bastions of civilization before the wilds of northeastern Kanto began to encroach. Only a few passerby greeted them, and even then they walked past the outsiders at a fast pace.

"And here we are." Surge announced with a boom. Startled passersby looked at them oddly before they continued on their way. Ash grinned and shook his head. While he and Surge didn't talk that much on the road, he'd learned a lot about the man, if from body language and unspoken communication rather than concrete conversation.

Surge was loud, brash, and could be cruel to trainers he deemed weak. Ash had noticed that even at the gym, but after seeing him challenged by trainers on the road that didn't recognize him, the gym leader simply had Raichu blast their pokemon until they were nothing but a smoking heap. After that he took as much of their money as allowed and sent them on their way. The gym leader had no time for games.

But he could be quiet and contemplative at times. It wasn't a common thing, but sometimes Surge turned his thoughts inward. He'd revealed quite a bit about the other gym leaders to Ash, who devoured the information about the important figures.

None of it was really important, and Ash doubted if Surge even meant to say much of it. Most of the information just slipped out, like Brock's father being absent, or Blaine being involved with cloning research a few years ago. It was rather interesting, nonetheless.

He snapped his thoughts onto a more important topic when the two entered the Pokemon Center. It only had three or four people aside from them in it, but everyone's attention was focused at the counter.

A tall, broad shouldered teenage boy was on his knees. He clasped a bemused Nurse Joy's small, slender hands into his own and serenaded her with flowery words. Nurse Joy blinked helplessly, but her blue eyes lit up when she saw Surge. The nurse glanced at Surge hopefully before she nodded at Brock.

"This is how you handle an idiot teenager." Surge growled in amusement. He cracked his knuckles. "Make sure I never have to do this to you."

Ash watched with disbelieving eyes as Surge casually strode up to the unaware Brock and picked him up by his collar. Brock froze, and Ash suspected that the rock-type gym leader knew exactly who had arrived.

"Hey, Lt." Brock laughed nervously. It was a far cry from the stoic, strong teenager that Ash thought he'd known. "You're a bit earlier than I expected."

"Yep." Surge leered. He twisted the hanging form of the teenager around and stared Brock right in the eyes. "What did I tell you about annoying the good Nurses?"

Brock barely smiled. "Don't?"

Surge nodded with a horrible grin on his face, the one that terrified most of the trainers that had challenged his gym. "Raichu, will you do the honors?"

Raichu rubbed her paws together in glee as she jubilantly nodded. She whipped her tail around, which sent sparks flashing through the air, and touched the live wire to Brock's shoulder. The teenager twitched violently as a small current of electricity passed through his body, although it was only enough to jolt him. It would leave him in pain for a while, but Surge wouldn't actually hurt him.

The gym leader dropped Brock to the ground, where he landed with a dull thump. "A pleasure doing business with you, Macy. I'd hoped to get here before he could bother you."

"Thank you, Lt." Nurse Joy smiled demurely. "I've heard plenty about him from my cousins. He doesn't mean any harm."

"It's not befitting of a gym leader. Even a hormonal one." Surge grunted. He lightly kicked Brock, who groaned miserably. "Get up, you baby. I bet the runt over there would be tougher than you."

Ash grinned as Brock groaned and mumbled something unintelligible in response. Surge shrugged and walked over to him. He called back to Brock, who was starting to stand. "We'll be waiting at the gates for you, lover boy!"

Surge waved a goodbye to Nurse Joy before he walked out the door. Ash obediently followed, barely able to repress his laughter before he left the building as well. Even the gray veil of clouds that only allowed the dimmest of light to reach the earth didn't hamper his amusement.

"He'll learn one day." Surge grunted. He cracked his knuckles and laughed maniacally before he scratched Raichu behind the ears. She chattered and licked the side of his face. "At the very least he'll stop messing with women like Macy."

"You know her?" Ash asked. Sneasel poked his head out of Ash's pack in annoyance when he felt a few raindrops go through. He hissed and plugged the tiny hole in Ash's pack with a thin layer of ice before he vanished back into the dry interior. It was barely large enough to fit him anymore, but the dark-type made due.

Surge glanced at him as they started walking down the long, straight road. "Of course. She's in Vermillion's territory. I know all of the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys." His eyes hardened. "You've got to know the people fighting for you."

Ash nodded. Surge had imparted several lessons like that on him. Know your troops, be fair with punishment, and stay resilient in the face of the worst calamities tended to be the main ones.

"We need to pick up supplies." Ash stated as a Poke Mart came into view. Tangrowth was consuming much more food than usual. He wasn't able to make up for it with his photosynthesis anymore. The never ending wall of dark clouds was responsible for that. Infernus couldn't even come out anymore thanks to the constant threat of rain. It wouldn't exactly hurt him, but it was pointless to release him when he would be so badly weakened.

"We've got time." Surge grunted. "Brock won't be able to reach the gates for about twenty minutes. Raichu put a little more juice in than necessary."

Ash laughed at Raichu's smug expression as they entered the store, which was quite warm and dry. It was probably the busiest building they'd seen in the small town, and it looked as though everyone was trying to stock up for the storm. From what Ash had heard, most of the scattered homes and tiny settlements in the wilds of northeast Kanto had lost power. The storm was dangerous, and on top of that the electric-types that swarmed the area had no regard for the humans.

Sneasel shattered the thin layer of ice covering the bag and stuck his head out suspiciously when he detected the new area. He sniffed a few times before he hissed in annoyance. Ash soothingly reached back and pet his thick black fur, despite the awkward angle. It calmed the dark-type down enough for them to stay inside.

"I'll get medicine." Surge growled. "You get the food. My team will eat anything. They took to the broth about as well as you did."

Raichu shuddered, and Ash gave her a half amused and half pitying look before he walked off to fight through the mass of people in the store. It was too bad that they needed to separate. The crowd fearfully backed away from Surge wherever he went, even if they didn't recognize him.

He sighed and shook his head. This needed to be done quickly.

XX

"Did your rodent have to shock me that hard?" Brock complained as he walked up to the two at the edge of town. His hair still stood straight up and his mouth was set into a frown. The gym leader froze when he saw Ash. "What are you doing here?"

"Lance wanted me to come along." He explained. Brock nodded in understanding. The rock-type trainer didn't seem too surprised. "I guess he wanted some variation."

Brock smiled and extended his calloused hand, which Ash gladly shook. This was the Brock he remembered. "Well, it's good to see you again." He directed a dirty look to Surge. "It's definitely better than meeting that maniac."

"Don't blame me for what you brought on yourself, brat." Surge said with a dangerous grin. Raichu crossed her stubby forelegs and sparked threateningly in tandem. "Maybe if you stopped acting like a love-struck punk I wouldn't have Raichu jolt you."

Ash watched in amusement as Brock colored, although the older boy grinned as well. It was clear that their words didn't have too much of an effect on each other.

"Let's get going." Surge growled. He took charge of the situation whenever possible. The man was a natural leader, and Ash wasn't about to get in a squabble with the man over that. Surge actually knew where they were going.

They started off at a good pace, although Brock struggled to keep up at first. As the electricity left his body, his movements grew easier and easier, and the strength built up from long days of traversing the rugged territory of Pewter became apparent to Ash.

For the first few minutes it was silent. They were just focused on moving as quickly as possible. After that, however, Surge finally broke the silence. "So, how's that useless old man of yours?"

"He has the gym." Brock replied bitterly. Ash paid quite a bit of attention. It felt as though he were listening in on something private, but he just wanted to learn. Knowledge was power. "It'll probably be in ruins by the time I come back. There's no way he can control the kids."

Surge grunted with what Ash thought was an annoyed tone. "Kick his ass, then. Get some of that pent up anger out of your system."

Brock just laughed, and Ash figured he'd stop listening. This definitely wasn't any of his business.

He just focused on the road. There would be plenty of time to get to know his two travelling companions. Right now it was just time to move.

XX

Three days, later, they reached the edge of the storm. It was nothing but light rain, but there were other threats that went along with it. A few hours after reaching the steady drizzle, they met their first pack of roving electric-types.

Raichu hissed to Surge, who raised his hand for the group to freeze. He whispered, "Electric-types."

Ash responded immediately by releasing Nidoking, Torrent, and Dazed. Nidoking roared uncomfortably as the rain pattered against his thick armor, but didn't complain too much. He just took up a defensive position next to Ash. Torrent, who would be able to manipulate the rain to his advantage if necessary, took up Ash's other side. Dazed calmly raised shields around the vulnerable humans. Sneasel leapt off of Ash's back and prepared to viciously attack whatever threatened them.

Brock released a large Rhydon and Golem. Ash supposed that the narrow path they were on was just too small to safely release Steelix.

"AET." Brock ordered calmly, even as the silhouettes of dozens of electabuzz and elekid became visible on the sides of the road. Both rock-types snorted and took up their positions on opposite sides of the road without hesitation.

"We don't have time for this. Raichu get them to back off." Surge snarled. Raichu, whose cheeks crackled with energy, hissed and shot tiny threads of electricity toward the electabuzz. One, who was much larger than the others, although not bulky enough to be an electivire, stepped forward and shot a blast of electricity back, although Raichu prevented it from harming Surge.

Ash wasn't quite worried. That was simply how electric-types that weren't of the same species tended to communicate with each other. Electricity held a language foreign to none of their kind.

"Get ready." Surge grinned wildly. His eyes were screaming for a fight. "It's about to get fun."

Everything disappeared in a flash of brilliant light a moment as the herd attacked. Rhydon was the primary focus of the attack, thanks to the attracting materials that made up its horn. It disappeared for a moment as thousands of volts were discharged at its body, but Rhydon simply grunted in annoyance before its smoking body became visible.

A sudden glimpse of inspiration flashed through him as Raichu, Golem, Rhydon, and all of his friends save Dazed rushed into battle, although Nidoking stayed close by. They were outnumbered at least ten to one, but it was still a horribly uneven fight against the herd.

He glanced at the ground which showed that Dazed, who was focused entirely on keeping herself and the humans shielded from the unnaturally strong electric attacks burning through the air, had extended the shield to cover the ground underneath her charges in a shimmering veil.

After Nidoking easily shrugged off the combined blasts of electricity from a number of electabuzz and elekid, Ash called out, "Earthquake!"

Nidoking bared his fangs and grunted as he stamped on the ground. The earth rippled like water as energy travelled through it and carved small fissures in every direction. Their foes collapsed as the powerful attack hit, which was precisely what Ash needed.

Ground-type attacks tended to do quite a bit of damage to electric-types. The tremors and powerful force that accompanied most of the ground-type attacks tended to interfere with their ability to manipulate and discharge electricity. As a reflexive action, they accidentally lost control of the organs they stored their electricity in and release dangerous amounts of electricity into their own internal organs, where electric-types' resistance to electricity wasn't effective.

Combined with the fact that most ground-types possessed a thick hide that either dulled the shock or had specialized systems that channeled electricity through their hide or armor and out of their body, ground-types were by far the most effective weapon against the dangerous electric-types.

After the herd was temporarily stunned, their pokemon made short work of the large group. Torrent casually took small groups of the aggressive pokemon down with his powerful Blizzard or Dragon Pulse, while Sneasel casually raced amongst the young, unpracticed elekid and preyed upon them. Nidoking wasn't capable of doing much without potentially hurting their allies or killing members of the herd, so he acted as a sponge to keep the bright, oddly powerful blasts of electricity away from the other members of the team.

The humans simply sat in the middle, protected by Dazed's powerful shields. Ash and Brock let out a steady stream of orders, but Surge just laughed uproariously as Raichu casually took on three of the larger electabuzz at once. Every now and then one of the herd would fire a potentially lethal blast of electricity toward them, but it didn't affect Ash aside from blinding him for a moment.

By the time a minute had passed, most of the herd had been defeated. The prideful pokemon fought on, however, until only four of the electabuzz remained.

Ash saw his friends encroaching upon the conscious electabuzz and noted that Sneasel was nowhere to be found. He whistled loudly to attract the dark-type. While Sneasel was handling his puberty quite well, without supervision he might give in to the predatory instincts so prevalent in his mind.

Sneasel suddenly appeared beside him in a rush of darkness. His friend made sure to keep away from the psychic shields lest he disrupt Dazed's attempts to protect the humans, but Sneasel's appearance attracted the attention of one of the remaining electabuzz.

The trainer squeezed his eyes shut as an immense blast of electricity, unrefined and driven by pure rage, incinerated a path in the air before it made contact with Dazed's barrier. Ash went deaf as a thunderclap rolled through the world, although he heard a strange sound like the shatter of glass beforehand.

He didn't have time to ponder his thoughts before he was thrown to the ground amidst an explosion of energy. Ash's back slammed to the earth as the sharp aroma of ozone shot through the air, a result of the electricity's ionizing path. The trainer's heart sank when he realized that the new, much more powerful smell was due to the fact that Dazed's shield had shattered under the power of the lightning strike.

Ash opened his eyes and pulled himself up, but froze when he saw an Electabuzz hurtle toward him in a blur of motion. It was clearly using Quick Attack, and was so fast that none of his friends could have stopped it before it gained some measure of vengeance against the humans that had devastated the herd.

None of his friends aside from Sneasel, anyway. The dark-type was just as fast as he bravely leapt in front of Ash. His sharp, hooked claws were unsheathed and raised. Ash's eyes, still somewhat weak from the explosion, were able to make out a slick red substance on the deadly instruments.

He didn't have time to think about that, however. Electabuzz didn't stop as it rushed toward Ash, and simply slammed into Sneasel. Although the dark-type did his best to sink his claws into the electric-type's thick fur and the flesh beneath, Electabuzz made an odd whirring noise and released an immense discharge of electricity from her body. Sneasel held on for a few moments, but the energy released into his frail form was just too much.

Sneasel's distraction had given Ash and his pokemon time to react, however. Even as the large Electabuzz stood over him and raised one of its large fists, which was alit with dancing arcs of electricity, an Ice Beam from an enraged Nidoking and an exceptionally powerful Hydro Pump from Torrent slammed into the feline creature.

Ash had a wild grin on his face as he saw the powerful Electabuzz crash to the ground several feet away. It scrambled to its clawed feet and beat its chest. Electabuzz growled defiantly and shot large bolts of electricity toward its attackers, although it barely affected either of his resistant friends. He noted that Surge and Brock had realized the situation was under control and were finishing off the last of the enraged electabuzz.

His eyes widened in fear as he saw a very angry, very protective Nidoking rush toward Electabuzz with his long horn lowered. Poison bled from the tip, each drop enough to put a pokemon like Electabuzz in the Pokemon Center for a day. Torrent was far more calm, but still angry enough to decide against stopping Nidoking.

So he put his own plan into action. Just before Nidoking would have gored Electabuzz through the chest, Ash hurtled one of his five remaining Ultra Balls at Electabuzz. The rainy area was briefly alit with a bright flash of scarlet light as the helpless Electabuzz was sucked into the powerful device.

Normally, Ash would have been worried. Electric-types were notoriously difficult to capture since their natural charge was enough to disrupt the delicate mechanisms of the pokeball during the capture process, but Electabuzz had been badly stunned by Nidoking and Torrent's attacks. It probably wasn't even coherent.

He wiped some of the mud off of his forearms as he watched the Ultra Ball anxiously. Ash grinned happily when the device finally clicked, signifying that the capture was a success. Nidoking roared at the device furiously, which caused the mud and earth to shake violently.

Ash's eyes widened as Nidoking snorted and lowered his horn to the Ultra Ball. Just as he began his attempt to destroy the device and the Electabuzz contained within, a sharp command from Ash cut him from his rage.

"Nidoking, calm down!" Ash snapped. The haze that turned Nidoking's warm eyes into animalistic slits vanished instantly. Nidoking breathed heavily, but was calm enough so that Ash could put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, buddy. I'm fine."

The poison-type grunted and nuzzled Ash affectionately, although he took care to keep his deadly horn away from the trainer. As his adrenaline faded, the poison secreted by glands throughout his body stopped production. Rain quickly wiped it away, although Nidoking and Ash ensured to keep contact to a minimum. It was dangerous to even touch during or after a battle, but in this case it was necessary.

"Thank you." Ash said with a soft smile. "But please don't do that again. I don't like seeing you like that. You aren't you."

Nidoking growled understandingly and nodded, but Ash wasn't sure if Nidoking would actually try and keep that vow. His species had a highly developed protective streak to begin with in order to keep their herd safe, and Nidoking was more devoted to Ash than most would be. No matter what Ash said, the trainer knew that Nidoking would always respond to situations that threatened Ash's life with lethal force.

Torrent levitated over, and Dazed shuffled to him as well. Ash smiled and nodded to them in thanks before he picked up the Ultra Ball. He examined it for a moment before he looked to Torrent. "Could you wash this off for me, please?"

The dragon-type nodded, although he seemed to think the task beneath him. Torrent gently sprayed a stream of clear water onto the device and removed the mud that clung to its underside. Ash thanked Torrent before he clipped the ball to his belt. It had come with four additional spaces just in case a trainer needed to reach for a pokeball at an instant's notice.

He would speak to his newest teammate and introduce it to his friends later. Right now he needed to make sure everyone was okay.

"Nice catch." Surge said approvingly. He looked over at the numerous unconscious elekid and electabuzz with disdain. "What a bunch of weaklings. They could have at least given us a good fight. I would only use a few of them in my gym."

"Why were they so strong?" Brock questioned as he walked over. His Golem and Rhydon seemed to have been recalled after they defeated the last of the electabuzz. "Even the elekid packed a fair punch."

Surge shrugged. "The storm. They seem a bit stronger than they should be even with the storm powering them up, though. I don't like it."

"I thought you said they were weak." Ash remarked with a raised eyebrow. He didn't speak that much around the others, so they paid him more attention than usual when he did.

"They are." Surge growled. Raichu nodded in agreement. "They weren't effective. This must be a new herd. Their attacks weren't coordinated well. An experienced herd with an electivire at their head would have shattered through those psychic barriers like they were nothing. Idiots didn't even think to take out the trainers, even with all that extra power."

Dazed's eyes narrowed at the perceived slight to her abilities, but she calmed down when Ash placed a soothing hand to her shoulder. He squeezed it slightly, and received a smile from Dazed's eyes in response. She still glared at Surge, though. The gym leader didn't care or notice.

"What should we do with the herd?" Brock asked. He stood up from where he was examining a particularly beat up elekid. Ash frowned when he realized it had a few gashes in its small body, clearly from Sneasel.

He glanced around for the dark-type. In the excitement, he'd forgotten his friend. Ash felt a bit guilty, but just recalled the unconscious Sneasel when he spotted him, with his fur straight up and smoking slightly, on the ground next to Nidoking.

"I'm recalling you, alright?" He told Torrent and Dazed. They nodded understandingly before they disappeared in a flash of light. Nidoking stood at his side, the friendly presence comforting to Ash.

Ash tuned in to the gym leaders' conversation again.

"Leave 'em. None of us did lethal damage." Surge sneered. Raichu snickered and whipped her cordlike tail around, which only added to the sharp smell of ozone. "They'll probably disband. I think the Runt caught one of their leaders, or at least one of their strongest fighters. It held out against ground-types, which gives it a point in my book."

He frowned at that, but shrugged it off. Sneasel probably didn't have time to actually kill any of the elekid, although he hoped that his friend would have adopted some sense of ethics to stop himself as well. That was unlikely, to say the least, but he could hope. The worst he could spot was a few cuts on their small bodies.

"We need to move on." Surge growled. "The fighting will've attracted other pokemon. I don't want to battle a swarm of supercharged magnemite."

Ash repressed a shudder at the thought and shouldered his pack. Brock did the same, and they fell in line behind the powerful gym leader.

Magnemite not be all too impressive on their own, but in groups they could be devastating. They were generally harmless, but every wild pokemon he'd seen in the storm had been aggressive, if not intent upon injuring the trainers.

He frowned. It almost reminded him of the Seafoam Caverns, although to a lesser degree. While the pokemon that hid in those deadly halls of stone and ice were monsters that attempted to kill him at the slightest provocation, the pokemon here simply seemed annoyed.

Surge had mentioned that storms and all of the charged energy in the air made electric-types more aggressive. It played with their emotions, so it was only logical that a storm this massive would have a huge effect on the wild pokemon exposed to it. Still, a few suspicious thoughts flashed through his mind as they set off down the ravaged road of mud.

XX

"We're going to look for people toughing it out through this storm." Surge shouted to Ash over the howling din of the wind outside. The storm had unexpectedly picked up as night fell, so they were forced to take shelter in a cave. It was large enough to comfortably hold all of them, but small enough that Infernus' mere presence would keep them comfortably warm.

Ash nodded and began to stand up, but Surge raised his hand. "You stay here and get to know that Electabuzz. Your life might depend on it when we get further in, so make friends. But we've got to get the order to evacuate out. Communications are shot."

The trainer frowned, but accepted it as the two gym leaders walked out the cave's maw. He couldn't say he was too disappointed in being passed over. It didn't look like a fun job.

He gave a last wave to match Brock's before he stood up and moved to the back of the cave. All of his friends were already released, so he didn't have to release them and give them orders. They knew what to do.

Nidoking and Dazed took up their positions by his side, where he faced the end of the cave. Plume couldn't move around in the cramped quarters of the cavern, so she simply cooed softly at him as she pecked at the pile of food he'd given her. Nidoking automatically adjusted himself to protect Plume from any stray bolts of electricity that might be hurled around. Dazed had already raised a shield in front of Ash.

Tangrowth gurgled happily as he walked over next to Dazed. He tapped her on the forehead with a vine and hugged Ash. While Ash just laughed and squeezed his rubbery arm back, Dazed's glowing eyes flashed with annoyance. She normally had a good tolerance for Tangrowth's antics, but not at the moment.

It probably didn't help Tangrowth's case that Sneasel was standing on top of the grass-type's head, supported by several of the thick vines. Sneasel snickered and pointed at her, only to receive a minor jolt from a watered down Thunderbolt by Nidoking.

Infernus snorted and casually punched Sneasel off of Tangrowth's head as he passed, although Tangrowth caught the dark-type before he fell and gave Infernus an uncharacteristically dark glare. He'd never really forgiven Infernus for that prank he'd played on the grass-type when they first met.

Torrent levitated behind Ash, his regal presence meant to dissuade Electabuzz from even thinking about attacking. He could fire a powerful Hydro Pump and knock her out cold in an instant. The sheer force behind the blast of water would probably cause some bruising, even if he made it as weak as Ash had ordered.

"Alright. Try to look nonthreatening." Ash said sternly. Infernus blew a plume of fire and smoke in amusement. The trainer just rolled his eyes and sighed. "Here it comes."

Electabuzz was mostly recovered when it emerged from the Ultra Ball. It growled cautiously, but didn't attack when it realized just how badly outmatched it was. Ash knew it had power, but it wasn't stupid. He knew that Electabuzz likely had a temperament similar to Infernus, although more irritable and less prone to unprovoked violence. Perhaps his same method would work on Electabuzz, although he doubted it would be easy.

"Hi. My name's Ash Ketchum. Do you know what's happened to you?" He began. Electabuzz nodded and growled back, a deep, powerful noise that was quite impressive. Ash could see why Surge had pointed it out as a leader. "I'm going to scan you with a device, alright? Don't worry about it. It won't hurt you."

Although Electabuzz eyed the pokedex suspiciously and sparked a bit, it didn't try to pull anything. It was more focused on the friendly vine Tangrowth had extended so that he could touch her. Tangrowth had a rather weak sense of sight, but his sense of touch was very developed. Most of his vines had little to no feeling, but a few of them were specialized to allow Tangrowth to feel out his environment.

"Give Electabuzz some space." Ash chided gently. Tangrowth gurgled as he sadly recalled his vines. Now that Tangrowth wasn't blocking his view, he raised the pokedex.

"Electabuzz, the Electric Pokemon." The cool, mechanical voice droned. "It is normally found near power plants, where it feeds upon electricity. They can wander away and cause blackouts. Electricity runs across the surface of its body.

This Electabuzz knows the moves: Quick Attack, Thunder Shock, Low Kick, Swift, Shock Wave, Thunder Wave, Thunder Punch, and Thunderbolt. Its ability is Static, which will cause the opponent to become paralyzed when they make physical contact with the pokemon."

Ash whistled. Surge was right. Electabuzz was tough, even if it was probably behind the rest of his friends. Aside for Sneasel and Seeker, anyway. Bruiser would probably have a tough time fighting it as well, especially with Static. He'd seen it in action a few times before, and it could be worse than being poisoned by Nidoking or burned by Infernus.

"I know you probably aren't happy about being separated from your herd, but I'll try and make it up to you in any way that I can." Ash said softly. Electabuzz nodded slowly. It didn't seem particularly attached to the herd it had left behind. "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I'm a pretty strong trainer. One of my friends can teach you a lot, and I'll do my best to make you the strongest you can be. Will you join me?"

Electabuzz nodded with hesitation. Ash held back a sigh of relief. He glanced over at Dazed, who barely nodded at him. That meant Electabuzz wasn't just playing them like Infernus had done. Thanks to Infernus' fledgling psychic abilities, Dazed wasn't able to understand his emotions or intent. His newest friend lacked that resistance.

"Well, I'll make introductions." He began. Ash pointed at Nidoking. Electabuzz's eyes narrowed as it recognized one of its attackers. Nidoking glared back. The poison-type wasn't happy about Electabuzz's position on the team. "That's Nidoking."

"Plume." He said. Nidoking reluctantly stepped out of the way so that Electabuzz could see the flying-type, who cried out in greeting. Electabuzz whirred softly. It was a much better reception than with Nidoking.

"Torrent." Ash directed. Torrent blinked in acknowledgement at Electabuzz, who dipped its head. It was clearly caught up in Torrent's regal aura. Electabuzz seemed much calmer than before, he noted. Perhaps being away from the influence of the storm had helped return her to normal.

"Dazed." The psychic-type nodded at Electabuzz, who whirred back. Although it was a short interaction, at least they didn't seem to have a problem with each other. Dazed didn't even seemed annoyed at the electric-type for breaking her shield.

"Infernus." Ash said softly. Infernus snorted and roared at Electabuzz, who whirred back angrily. As Infernus shot a stream of flame toward Electabuzz, the electric-type shot a huge bolt of electricity back in return. The trainer scowled and motioned for Dazed to stop it. She casually erected a psychic bubble around both of the attacks and easily snuffed them out.

Ash scowled. "That's enough. Infernus, I expected better from you."

Infernus growled, but dipped his head in what Ash thought was the closest his friend had ever gotten to shame. He snorted disdainfully at Electabuzz, who whirred back furiously but had a cooler head than the fire-type. Ash would have to keep an eye on those two once they were done with this job.

"Tangrowth." He said after taking a breath. Tangrowth happily gurgled as he snaked a few vines over to Electabuzz. Although the electric-type seemed a bit annoyed by the way the vines curiously poked and prodded her, she kept calm and let Tangrowth finish his inspection. Ash smiled gratefully at Electabuzz, to which it whirred back softly.

"And Sneasel." Ash pointed. Electabuzz took a moment to realize what he was pointing to, but cocked its head oddly when it saw Sneasel happily standing on top of Tangrowth's shell of vines. Sneasel hissed a greeting. The trainer assumed it was somewhat insulting, because Electabuzz shot a spark at Sneasel, which caused all of his fur to suddenly stand on end. He growled angrily and did his best to fix his fur, although Tangrowth helped with his grooming as well.

What tipped him off more was that none of his friends attempted any sort of retaliation.

"There are two more members of the team, but they aren't with us." Ash explained. Electabuzz nodded. He looked at it thoughtfully for a moment. His most recent teammates hadn't received nicknames for whatever reason.

Tangrowth couldn't remember his and he wanted Sneasel to grow up before giving him the option. Sneasel would only pick once he had fully developed.

But Electabuzz seemed fine with being a member of the team, happy even. Like most of his early friends, he thought that it was ready right now. If Electabuzz wanted one, of course.

"Say, do you want a nickname?" He asked. Electabuzz frowned for a moment before it nodded hesitantly. Sneasel suddenly stopped his attempts at grooming and stared at Electabuzz with jealousy.

He took a moment. There were plenty of generic names for electric-type pokemon that he wanted to avoid. Jolt, Bolt, Shocker, and everything similar was rather boring.

So he tried to think of what his first impression of Electabuzz, aside from the explosion and thunderclap. The harsh scent of ozone flashed in his memory, aided by the constant strikes of lightning outside. It was sharp and strong, just like Electabuzz.

"How about Oz?" He suggested. At the very least it was better than some of his other nicknames. Electabuzz shrugged before it nodded. Ash grinned. "Well, we've got a while before my friends come back. I guess you can just talk to the others, if you want."

Oz nodded, but stood around awkwardly for a few moments. Torrent and Tangrowth finally took pity on her and walked over. Nidoking, normally one of the most welcoming members of the team, just eyed Oz with distaste and stuck by Ash.

He frowned. That might be a problem. Ash would work on that later. But for now, he realized that he'd forgotten something extremely important.

Ash glanced at the pokedex's scan of Oz. He'd forgotten to check the gender. The trainer sighed when the pokedex identified Oz as female.

"Oz, do you want to change your name?" He called out. She glanced over at him oddly. A current of electricity passed through her fur as she squinted at him. Ash elaborated. "I didn't know you were a girl."

Oz shrugged and turned away. Ash blinked. Apparently she liked her new name.

He saw Sneasel sneak a glance at him and realized that he had another problem to take care of. Ash whistled softly, which automatically brought Sneasel over to him. The dark-type easily leapt off of Tangrowth's head and dashed over, although he looked at Ash with slightly hurt red eyes.

"You're disappointed you don't have a nickname?" Ash said softly as he kneeled. He looked Sneasel in the eyes. The dark-type nodded hesitantly, obviously uncomfortable with communicating his emotions. As a rule, dark-types were loners. They usually didn't have strong bonds with each other, even amongst pack based pokemon like houndour or sneasel.

Ash put a hand on Sneasel's small, muscular shoulder. The dark-type eyed him carefully. "Listen, you'll get a nickname if you want one. I just want you to be mature first, so that you can pick one you'll like for the rest of your life. Does that make sense?"

Sneasel nodded and growled his understanding. He seemed a bit happier, if more thoughtful. Ash smiled at him as Sneasel ran off and tried to sneak up on Infernus, who had curled up in the corner of the room. The trainer didn't even have to watch to know how that would end.

He walked over to one of the stone walls and took a seat, suddenly tired. It had been a long day, but at least he had a new friend. Nidoking curled up beside him, and Ash absentmindedly ran his fingers over Nidoking's rough plates of armor. The poison-type rumbled happily in response, although every now and then he would shoot dangerous glares at Oz.

Ash sighed and ignored it for now. They could fix this if it turned into a real problem. Nidoking was mature enough to get over it himself, given time.

For now he just had to wait. Surge would probably give him a few tips for training Oz. After seeing the man's Electivire in action, Ash would be glad for the help.

XX

In a week and a half, the trio had almost reached the Power Plant. The storm had become so violent that their progress had slowed to a snail's pace, and even Surge wasn't able to tough out the powerful winds and heavy rains. What they'd been in when Ash caught Oz was just the outer shell, and it was barely comparable to the horrible storm they faced now.

The storm hadn't been the only thing slowing their progress. They spent quite a bit of time spreading word of the evacuation to anyone stubborn enough to brave the storm or unable to leave without assistance. Two days had been devoted to gathering several dozen trainers and settlers they'd found lost in the wild and sending them to Vermillion. It just wasn't safe to be out here. At least the settlements could pool resources. Several Rangers they'd found were assigned to the group.

They faced about a dozen attacks a day, although the powerful trainers always managed to fight the pokemon off. Most weren't as strong as Oz's herd, but were still dangerous. As they treaded further into the storm the electric-types seemed to get stronger and stronger.

Fortunately, the same applied to Surge's pokemon and Oz. Raichu was probably capable of levelling a small town without too much trouble and Oz grew more and more wild. She just didn't have the discipline that Surge's pokemon did, and Ash was eventually forced to keep her in her pokeball. It just wasn't safe for the half-mad pokemon to be out. Her normally calm disposition had soured to the point that she'd attack anything in sight.

In contrast, Infernus was pathetically weak now. Ash would only let him out in a cave, but the sheer amount of water and the huge floods that drowned the area meant that he could barely keep the cave warm. He eventually kept his friend in his pokeball. The trainer wouldn't let Infernus suffer like that.

Despite the miserable experience, Ash managed to learn a bit about training electric-types from Surge. It wasn't much because the group had become practically silent over the grueling journey, but at least he had some information. Most of it consisted of Surge telling Ash how to find legal ways for Oz to feed, how to let her discharge excess electricity outside of battle, and exercises that would increase her already impressive endurance. While it was basic, it was important. Ash wasn't sure he would have retained much else. The days blended together monotonously.

"We have to finish this tomorrow." Surge said tiredly. They were around a tiny campfire Raichu had lit for them with a few sparks. It was horribly smoky and inefficient thanks to the wet wood, but it was warm. A miserable Plume cleared the smoke out every minute or so. "The storm's too bad to survive if we don't hit the power plant tomorrow. There's no way we can make it on foot."

"I think it's time for Steelix." Brock coughed. They'd all suffered a bit of sickness from the terrible conditions. There was plenty of effective medicine that kept them from feeling too cold and promoted blood flow, but the cold and wet was just too constant and strong.

The teenaged boy was shirtless, as were the others. Ash had already changed into his fresh set of pants and his laundry was laid out next to the campfire with the others. It would smell awful, but he could just buy new clothes with the hefty paycheck Lance was giving him.

Surge had them drying out their shoes each night as well, as well as their clothes. He'd told them both horrible stories about moisture in boots causing flesh to rot off after extended periods, although Brock seemed to already know about it. Drying their clothes was just common sense.

Lightning struck again, but they barely noticed it. It was common enough thanks to the sheer density of the bands of electric-types and the power of the storm. Ash didn't bother counting how many times it struck in the course of a minute anymore. He would have lost count by thirty seconds.

"Yeah." Surge grunted. He was the only one that didn't shiver. Raichu cuddled into the man's chest, desperately seeking warmth. "It wasn't able to get through the mud last time without freaking out. You'd better make sure it grows a pair and digs deep. We won't survive the winds about five miles in. I know Castform won't make it."

Sneasel growled and burrowed into Ash's side. Although he loved the horribly cold temperatures the storm brought with it, he hated how wet it was. Aside from trying to get dry, Sneasel had taken it upon himself to keep Ash as warm as possible with his thick fur. Of his pokemon, Ash only felt comfortable releasing Sneasel and Torrent. If there was any other way to get the smoke out, Plume would still be in her pokeball instead of in the cave.

"How will we know where to surface?" Ash chattered. The heat from the fire warmed his skin, but his bones felt like ice. He hadn't been this cold since the Caverns, although this was nothing compared to them. Overall it was just as miserable, however. At least the Caverns didn't have rain and wind.

Brock glanced at him in concern, which made Ash frown. While Ash toughed it out as well as the gym leaders, the trainer knew he couldn't keep it up for much longer. He had a strong will, but his body was far weaker. He had been lagging behind a bit, and he was sicker than the others.

"Drink some of this." Surge growled as Brock reached for the medicine. He reached into his pack and withdrew a silvery flask and a blanket. Ash caught the flask and stared at it with an odd expression. The trainer wasn't exactly sure about drinking the liquid inside. He gratefully accepted the blanket, however, and Surge handed another one to Brock. When Surge caught Ash's hesitance, he sighed. "It'll make you feel better."

Ash shrugged and unscrewed the cap. He waterfalled a small mouthful of it and his eyes widened. The alcohol didn't exactly taste good, but there was something in it that made warmth shoot through his body. While he knew it was mostly an illusion, since alcohol restricted the blood vessels, he didn't care. It made him feel truly warm, and he almost took another drink.

Brock plucked it out of his hand before he could, however. "You don't need any more of that." He said sternly. By now, Ash knew better than to go against him. Brock had quite a bit of practice dealing with his younger siblings and would always win the argument.

"Thanks." Ash said. He sounded normal this time.

"I'm not going to let you die on me." Surge said with a half grin. "Not after the shit you've survived. You'll go out in a better way than hypothermia."

Ash blinked, but laughed a few moments later. Sneasel climbed up into his lap from under the blanket. "So, how are we going to get into the power plant?"

"Steelix can detect electromagnetic fields." Brock explained. "The power plant should be full of electric-types that aren't tough enough to survive easily out in the storm. They'll produce enough to be like a second sun to Steelix. We'll just go up through the floor. There's no way we can remain outside."'

Surge grunted in confirmation. "If worst comes to worst, we can surface and use Castform. Little bastard's been a great help so far."

That was definitely true. While any attempt Castform made to change the weather was instantly neutralized and replaced by more dark clouds, the creature was great at causing lightning to strike far away from the group, although Ash didn't understand the exact mechanics behind it. He'd mostly learnt biology from the pokedex archives, and even that he only had a tenuous understanding of.

"Go to bed." Surge said exhaustedly. The effort to lead them and keep them on the right path was showing its wear on the ordinarily exuberant man. Even giants had limits, it seemed. "I'll put out the fire."

Ash nodded and walked over to his sleeping mat, which was next to Plume. She cooed worriedly at him and nuzzled his shoulder before he smiled at her and recalled the flying-type. He didn't want her to worry.

Sneasel whined as Ash recalled him. While he was sure that the dark-type and his thick fur would be nice, the blanket would suffice. Besides, he was already stressed and tired out. He didn't need nightmares as well.

XX

"This sounded a lot better on paper." Ash muttered as he stared into Steelix's gaping jaws. He'd only woken up a few minutes ago, and now he was having to do this. Brock looked at him from inside the steel-type's cavernous mouth.

"Just get in. We have to get moving. There are twenty miles to cover, and Steelix is going to be hurt by the end of it." Brock replied irritably. Ash sighed and climbed in, helped by a boost from Surge.

It was surprisingly dry. Ash supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised. Steelix ate earth, metal, and stone. The behemoth's massive jaws just had to be open to obtain its meal, which went straight down to its stomach. Steelix had an alien physiology, the details of which Ash wasn't sure of. Steel-types tended to have quite a few additional organs to accommodate their diet.

When Surge climbed in, Steelix closed its jaws. Ash breathed deeply as they were entombed in total darkness. The world suddenly rumbled as Steelix began to move. There was a bit of resistance that sent them backward, and for just a moment he worried that they would fall into Steelix's stomach. With the kind of acids required to dissolve metal, that wasn't a place he wanted to fall into.

Brock held him back, and motioned to the wall of metal that had shot down to protect Steelix's throat. "Don't worry about falling in. That flap is usually meant to keep water and dangerous pokemon from getting into the stomach, but it'll work just as well for us."

Ash nodded and resolutely held on to one of Steelix's large, blunt teeth as the creature tunneled through the earth. He didn't know how fast they were going, but the minor resistance of thousands of tons of dirt and stone was easily swept away by Steelix's immense strength and control. No movement was wasted.

"How fast is Steelix going?" He called out over the rumbling of the earth and the grinding of Steelix's segments. In the cramped quarters, it was easy to make out.

"Average speed is thirty miles an hour." Brock replied. Ash couldn't see what he was doing in the complete darkness of Steelix's maw. The sharp smell of iron pervaded it completely. "Dig is a pretty useful move. It augments his natural abilities and lets him push the dirt out of the way."

He voiced his understanding and just held on tightly. Ash couldn't say that it was the most comfortable way to travel, but it was certainly better than fighting through the surface. At this point the entire area was covered in water, aside from a few islands. Swarms of magnemite were everywhere and slowly coalesced into even larger swarms. Other electric-types had to take shelter to survive.

Aside from the dangerous magnemite swarms that brought immense lightning storms in their wake and made Ash's hair stand on end, the surface was plagued by large tornadoes, far greater than Torrent could hope to produce. It was only Castform that was able to calm the twisters and at least divert them, if not cause the forces of nature to dissipate.

While Steelix was certainly a fast way to travel, it was an insanely dangerous method. Riding anywhere but on top of its head on the surface could result in the rider falling into the crevasses between the beast's segments and get ripped to shreds as it moved. Being inside could easily result in asphyxiation or accidentally destroy entire segments of the surface by causing sinkholes and the collapse of unsteady buildings. There was a reason Steelix and Onix tended to stay a few hundred feet below the surface.

But they were desperate. If they didn't use Steelix, there might not have been an environment to destroy.

Ash was quiet as they tunneled through the earth. He knew what their mission was now. It had changed. They knew that the situation was bad near the storm, but they hadn't thought it would be this destructive. While they had gone into this thinking that they would simply check the power plant out and leave, that wasn't possible anymore.

If the storm continued to ravage Kanto, the region would shut down. Communications in and out of the storm were completely shot, teleportation was impossible, and the environment was ruined. There was a chance to save the situation before the unnatural storm reached the major cities and caused untold destruction, and they had to take it.

Their mission was to find the source and destroy it. It didn't matter if the Creature was the one sustaining the devastating weather, they would fight it. They couldn't escape unless the storm was disrupted, and all they cared about by now was finishing this mission.

He sighed and closed his eyes as Steelix sought their target. It was getting quite hot thanks to geothermal energy. There was only a limited supply of air in the cavernous maw, and Ash wondered if they would have to surface before they arrived at the power plant.

"We're going to need our full teams for this." Surge spoke up. Ash looked toward the direction of his voice and listened intently. "If we manage to surface inside the power plant like we're supposed to, we'll let them out right then. The plant will be crawling with electric-types, and if they're as aggressive as the last few we'll need every fighter we can get."

Ash nodded in assent. If the power plant was dry, Infernus would be useful. Plume would still be inside of her pokeball, however. With the kind of power the electric-types were throwing around she would be useless.

He was worried about releasing Electabuzz. While the boost in power would be quite useful to her, she was unstable. She would be a liability, so he resolved to release her in only the most extreme circumstances. Surge and his powerful, disciplined team would probably be the main fighters. Brock and Ash would focus mostly on protecting the humans and soaking up damage from the electric-types.

"Don't hold back, Runt." Surge directed at Ash. His tone was serious and held none of the joking Ash had grown accustomed to. "We don't want to kill these pokemon, but if we have to we will. They're too dangerous while under the influence of this storm and its master. One wrong step and we could all die."

Ash scowled but voiced his understanding. Surge's words were true, even if he desperately hoped to avoid the deaths of any pokemon. They weren't in control of their actions right now. It was the storm making them deadly.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence. They knew what they had to do and how to do it. Ash made sure to take as few breaths as possible. It was getting harder to breathe as Steelix tore through the earth. He thought that he could feel the immense steel serpent angling upward, which made him grab onto its tooth even tighter.

After an untold amount of time spent in total darkness, Brock spoke. "We're nearly there. Get ready to jump out."

Ash clasped his hands together and had a determined scowl on his face as Steelix suddenly surged straight upward. He held on tightly to avoid falling against the flap of metal, although he nearly lost his hold when Steelix burst through the earth with a mighty roar of grinding metal.

He winced as he slammed against the tooth that was about as large as he was. Ash would definitely have some bruises tomorrow.

All thoughts vanished when Steelix lowered its head to the floor and opened its maw, which revealed a white hallway that was lit by bright lights, although they flickered constantly.

"Get out!" Surge roared. He released all of his pokemon as he leapt out. A pikachu growled and leapt at him, but Surge expertly caught it. Although the pikachu's body exploded with energy, Surge's gloves were resistant enough to keep the voltage from hurting the giant. A moment later the man threw pikachu into the wall, where it was zapped by an angry Raichu.

Ash released Nidoking, Torrent, Dazed, Infernus, Tangrowth, and Sneasel. They quickly realized what was going on, although Nidoking stood by Steelix's open maw and protected Ash as the trainer jumped out.

He quickly moved to where he would be protected by Dazed's shields, but blanched as he saw dozens of electric-types racing toward them, minds filled with nothing but anger. They didn't like their home being disturbed. Ash was sure that many more would appear shortly.

"Steelix, block the hall! The rest of you, hold off the electric-types!" Brock shouted. His face was hard and set, a mirror of Surge's. All of his pokeballs released their contents onto the other side of Steelix's massive body, which was curled up in a pile of rubble and earth.

Brock stood by Ash as the battle raged. Dazed stayed with them and protected the vulnerable humans with a shield of shimmering energy, although it strained under the constant rain of ruthlessly powerful bolts of electricity. His hair stood straight up, although his hat kept it from being noticeable.

Surge backed up to stand with the other humans, although Raichu stayed out in battle. His electric-types were simply devastating to the horde of furious pokemon. Although their attackers were powered up to be a match for Surge's pokemon in an ordinary situation, Surge's pokemon had gained just as much strength from the storm.

While Ash's pokemon did their share in holding back the tide with well placed Ice Beams, Flamethrowers, Stun Spore, Blizzards, and gusts of cold air, Surge's team did the real damage. Surge had a wild grin on his face as the humans watched his pokemon casually take on the horde.

Raichu and Electivire were particularly dangerous. Each fired off Lightning Bolts large enough to blast through most of the hall with terrifying ease, with neither showing any sort of strain. Jolteon growled and fired hard, sharp bits of its fur into its opponents, which usually stabbed straight into their shoulder or chest before it paralyzed them and neutralized most of the electricity fired in return with a shield of arcing energy.

"Damn it!" Surge suddenly roared. Ash's eyes widened as he spotted what had elicited Surge's statement. A large swarm of protective magnemite had raced into the hall and looked as though they were ready to kill.

"Fire Blast!" Ash shouted. Infernus, who looked to be having the time of his life, roared and reared his head back. An instant later he spat a huge ball of fire into the midst of the swarm, which exploded. While the magnemite held devastating power at their disposal, they hadn't gained anything defensively. They were helpless to resist the heat and the force behind the explosion that sent most of the swarm straight into a wall, where they collapsed to the ground helplessly.

Most of the electric-types were stunned by the explosion, even if they weren't hurt as badly as the swarm. They stumbled backward, momentarily helpless. Surge took full advantage of it. "All of you, Lightning Bolt!"

Ash squeezed his eyes shut as Surge's pokemon each released the immense beam of electricity. He heard pained screeches from the horde as they were overloaded with their own element. When it quieted, Ash opened his eyes and saw that most of the horde had been knocked unconscious by the three Lightning Bolts.

"Good. We've got to get a move on." Surge growled as he took in the piles of unconscious electric-types. "I need to get to the generators to see what's going on. At the very least we can cut the supply of power to the plant and snap some of these pokemon out of it."

"Do I need to move Steelix?" Brock asked shakily. Ash suspected this was one of his first real battles. The others probably hadn't been as intense as this.

Surge shook his head. "We aren't going that way. It'll take us outside. Leave Steelix here and keep any others from following me and Ash. You don't have the firepower to press forward like we do."

"Understood." Brock replied seriously. He released two more of his pokemon. One was a large, ancient creature with a blue dome atop its head while the other was a Rhydon. "Rampardos, Bruna, you're coming with me. Fight off every electric-type you see."

The two massive creatures grunted in response and took a position in front of Brock. "Good luck, you two. Stay safe."

"You too." Ash nodded before he followed Surge. The massive gym leader had released two more pokemon. One was a large canine with blue and yellow fur while the other was a gigantic Electrode. Both followed Surge loyally, although their power was displayed through the arcs of electricity racing over their bodies.

His friends took up their positions around Ash. Sneasel followed right on his heels, barely noticeable amongst the larger, more powerful battlers. Nidoking and Dazed took his sides, while Torrent floated a bit behind him. The dragon-type was high enough to easily blast any attackers with an Ice Beam without hurting his teammates. Tangrowth followed a bit behind. Infernus stood behind Dazed with a wreath of flames around him.

"Team Rocket isn't here." Surge sneered. Ash looked over at him. After fighting the horde of powerful electric-types, which had certainly done a number on his friends, he wasn't surprised. The organization wouldn't be able to survive here for long. Nothing would. "Maybe they set up a machine or used the Creature, but we won't find any around here."

Ash nodded silently. There wasn't much to say. They just needed to keep fighting.

"There are more pokemon here." Surge warned as they stepped through the silent halls. There were scorch marks everywhere, and the machinery that had been here before was disrupted. Wires hung from the ceiling, likely torn out by scavenging pikachu. "But we aren't too far. To get to the control room, take a left at the end of this hall, then a right, then head straight down. It's where the generators are as well."

"Why are you telling me?" Ash questioned. Did Surge think something would happen?

"Just playing it safe." Surge replied. His voice echoed throughout the long hallway unintentionally. "There are dangerous pokemon here. You need to know."

The trainer nodded with a frown, although he didn't say anything else. Tension pervaded the air. He could hear electric-types rummaging around and the crackle of electricity from elsewhere in the power plant, but there was no attack on the two.

Surge and his pokemon stayed in front as they took a left, but they suddenly froze. Ash stopped as well. Infernus and Nidoking stepped out to see what was wrong, but Dazed instantly raised a barrier around Ash and Surge.

"Lightning Bolt!" Surge shouted. Ash's eyes widened imperceptibly when he realized that there was fear in his voice. He squeezed them shut when the massive blast of electricity ripped through the air in a blinding flash of light, but opened them as soon as possible. The gym leader motioned at him to go. "Ash, get out of here! I'll hold them –"

Dazed's barrier shattered as an immense explosion wracked the area. Ash hissed in pain as he was hurled into a wall, where he fell down to the cool tiles of the floor. His ears rang slightly as he struggled to pull himself up. He winced as he felt pain shoot throughout his back whenever he moved.

His friends were fighting. Dazed silently pulled him to his feet with a flicker of energy, and Ash managed to see an immense battle between his and Surge's pokemon and another horde of electric-types. This one was smaller, but no less dangerous.

He paled when he spotted Surge's form crumpled on the floor. As fear shot through him, he looked at Dazed, who had erected another barrier around him. "Get him out of the fighting."

Dazed nodded. Her eyes flashed and her pendulum swung toward her. Surge's massive body, which had quite a bit of blood gushing out from small yet deep cuts, quickly levitated over to him. Ash knelt by the man's unconscious form and sighed in relief when he realized Surge was breathing.

"Can you do anything about the wounds?" Ash asked hopefully. He didn't even care about the battle at the moment. With the help of Surge's empowered pokemon it would be a breeze. Even the electrode or voltorb that had exploded right next to them would be easily dispatched by Nidoking.

The psychic shook her head. Ash wasn't surprised, but sighed despondently nonetheless. He would have to wait until the battle stopped. Surge's pokemon could get their trainer to Brock. Brock was the one with most of their medicine and supplies. All he and Surge had brought were Paralyze Heals and potions. It was assumed that Dazed could protect them for the most part.

He glanced at the battle and saw that it was mostly over. While electricity still crackled through the air, it was mostly on the part of Surge's team. They fought ruthlessly from what he could see, each attack enough to do major damage to another pokemon.

Ash suddenly saw Tangrowth hurled backward from a blast of electricity, the force behind it too powerful for the grass-type to resist. It seemed that most of his pokemon had managed to stick behind Surge's to avoid getting hit, but Tangrowth was unlucky.

Tangrowth was recalled just before several more bolts of electricity exploded at his former position. Each were powerful enough to finish him off for good had Ash not acted quickly.

"Dazed, knock them out." He snapped, fury pounding in his mind. Dazed nodded silently. Ash walked out behind her and his shield and watched with satisfaction as her eyes exploded with bright blue energy. An instant later all of the opposing electric-types were frozen in an aura of psychic power. Surge's pokemon were ruthless in dispatching them with Lightning Bolts, their strength so great that they could easily fire off the hyper beam variant one after the other.

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Tangrowth's near death had sent a shock through his body. Adrenaline pounded in his blood and numbed his pain, but he realized that he had to change up his team. Some of his friends simply couldn't survive the ruthless power of the resident electric-types.

When he opened his eyes, the battle had ended. All of his pokemon watched him attentively, and Surge's team was huddled around his body. Electivire whirred angrily and electricity crackled through its fur, but Raichu simply curled up on Surge's red chest and whined. Jolteon paced anxiously, followed by the canine. Electrode sparked furiously, but didn't look as though it would explode.

"Take him back to Brock." Ash ordered. Electivire whirred at being commanded by someone beside Surge, but Raichu hissed and motioned for the hulking electric-type to pick Surge's body up. His voice wavered a bit. "He should be fine, just make sure Brock gets to him as soon as possible."

Raichu chattered worriedly and leapt up onto Electivire's shoulder. The electric-type was large enough to cradle Surge's immense body, although it put an obvious strain on the large creature. Electivire started moving, protected by several vengeful electric-types.

Ash watched them take the corner before he turned to his friends. He didn't need any of Surge's pokemon. They could fight just as well without the other team's distraction. The trainer frowned as he looked over his friends. Each had taken a hit, aside from Dazed and Sneasel.

Nidoking looked fine. His incredible resistance to electricity was enough to weather the greatest of the electric-types' assault. He had a few scorch marks, but was otherwise unscathed.

Torrent looked a little worse, but mostly fine. His bands of armor negated most damage from elemental attacks, plus he was naturally tough. There were a few nasty hits, but he could easily weather on. Not much could take a dragon-type down.

Dazed was safe. She mostly negated electric attacks with her shields and had stayed out of the crossfire for the most part. Ash knew she would stay out of trouble and could be an invaluable fighter against the electric-types besides.

Infernus simply looked angry. Flames licked over his body and cast a dark glow about him. His eyes were dark with fury and Ash could tell that he ached to finish this fight. It was obvious that he'd taken quite a few hits from the empowered electric-types, but was too tough to simply give up. Infernus never accepted defeat, and he'd fight on until there was nothing left to fight.

Sneasel had evaded the blasts of electricity. He looked completely fine, other than his fur standing straight up. But Ash kneeled down in front of him.

"Sneasel, I'm recalling you." He said seriously. The dark-type hissed and shook his head. His feather twitched. "You can't fight these pokemon. You're strong, but one hit could kill you."

Even though the dark-type hissed and did his best to convince Ash otherwise, he was recalled. Ash wouldn't let one of his friends meet their end in this power plant. Surge and Tangrowth had come close enough.

"I'm releasing Oz." He told Nidoking. The poison-type nodded, although his narrowed eyes showed his displeasure. There was no love lost between the two. "Grab her when I release her, but don't hurt her."

Nidoking snorted. The others cleared a space for Oz as Ash released the electabuzz.

Oz howled in fury as she was released. Lightning appeared in her fists and she prepared to attack everything in sight and begin a rampage. Before she could even begin, however, Nidoking grabbed her roughly. She struggled, but Nidoking's immense strength easily stilled her.

"You need to calm down." Ash said seriously. He stepped close to the electric-type. "I know you're angry and powerful right now. But I don't need the anger. Tangrowth has been badly hurt and I need your strength. Calm down."

Although Oz whirred and struggled for another few moments, she calmed down after she began to discharge immense amounts of electricity into Nidoking. He easily weathered the storm. When Oz seemed to be back to normal, Ash ordered Nidoking to let her go.

"That's better." He said soothingly. Oz nodded and bared her fangs, although not in an aggressive manner. "Let's go. Every electric-type here is an enemy. They feel the same anger you did. Be prepared."

She nodded and took point. Ash smiled and motioned for his friends to assume their positions as he recalled the instructions Surge gave him. He was rather glad the gym leader had that little burst of inspiration.

Ash took a deep breath and began to move. He didn't know how much further they had to go, but they needed to hurry.

XX

His skin tingled in a painful manner as the team reached the doors that would lead them into the control and generator room. He took a deep breath and looked back at his friends, who seemed just as determined as he was.

None of them were badly hurt. Although they'd had a few more run-ins with small packs of angry electric-types, which mostly consisted of pikachu, electabuzz, and voltorb, along with the odd swarm of magnemite, they had evaded damage for the most part. They all had a few new burns, but Dazed had done a wonderful job of shielding the team and had disabled the more potent enemies.

He suspected that they'd left around fifty electric-types in unconscious heaps behind them. Nidoking had been forced to use Earthquake several times now, although Dazed had teleported the team a few inches above the ground as he did so.

Of his friends, Infernus had taken it the worst. He'd been in the front of every battle. Infernus had easily torn through every rogue pokemon they fought, but had taken many wounds in the process. He would certainly have a soak in magma when it was safe. Ash didn't even know how his friend managed to stand after the wounds he'd sustained, much less carry on and fight.

Oz had done well. She managed to block quite a bit of electricity with the incredible power she possessed, although she'd fly into an uncontrollable rage every few minutes. Ash managed to snap her out of it by getting Nidoking to grab her and absorb some of the excess electricity.

Ash took a deep breath and stopped his recollection. He was a door away from potentially stopping the storm. Although he didn't know what he had to do, he was determined to find out. There was something in there, probably put in place by the Rockets. Whether it was a machine or the Creature, he would do his utmost to destroy it.

"Let's do this." He said softly. Dazed's eyes flashed as she blasted the doors open, which resulted in a sound much like a thunderclap.

His breath was stolen from him as he entered the room, which bore no sign of the destruction the rest of the plant had suffered. He looked around and noted that everything was working perfectly, just as the plant had been designed to do.

Ash frowned when his pokemon fell to their knees. Nidoking kept his mighty head directed at the floor as he kneeled to the presence in front of him. Torrent, Dazed, and Oz did the same, although Dazed kept her eyes focused on Ash.

The only one who refused to submit and stood alongside Ash was Infernus. His friend stared up at something with nothing but bloody determination in his eyes. Just as Infernus would never submit to any foe, he would not submit to anything that others saw as greater.

He followed Infernus' defiant gaze and froze when he saw the object of his friends' prostration.

The power plant's ceiling had been destroyed, which showed Ash the black clouds that swirled above and dominated the landscape for miles. They were curiously calm, and no rain or wind slipped through the gaping hole into the power plant.

But that wasn't what had snatched their attention.

A swirling shell of electricity, circling in an unnatural sphere, was on the top of one of the machines that was directly beneath the destroyed roof. His eyes widened when he saw the form of a massive bird hunched up inside of the sphere, so large that the avian creature put Plume to shame.

He could feel a gaze like a thousand bolts of lightning set its focus upon him. The shell suddenly surged upward in a beam of pure energy, a great column that was visible for miles around. Ash squinted, but refused to look away as the form of the dreaded creature was revealed.

A great bird looked down its spear-like beak at him. While hunched, it was about two or three feet taller than him. Its legs, bereft of any sort of protection from the harsh elements, were as tall as Ash and ended in wickedly clawed talons that gripped the machine so tightly that it bent inward under the great force.

The bird's eyes emanated a great golden light that made Ash feel as though he had been thrown into an electrical socket. Arcs of lightning ran through its feathers even in its passive state, and the aura it emanated was far greater than even Torrent's. Whereas Torrent's presence bespoke of dignity and wisdom, the bird's aura bespoke of power and primordial strength.

It suddenly straightened its posture and unfurled its great, spiky wings. Ash unconsciously backed away as dozens of lightning bolts descended from the stormy heavens and struck the creature, summoned by its smaller movement. The bird squawked, and thunder boomed in tandem. He could hear the storm roaring outside, along with the boom of countless bolts of lightning.

He stared at it as the bird squawked again, and the thunder shook the earth for miles around. Its long, narrow beak opened and closed once more, and he heard the explosion of lightning. Electricity exploded from its body with every slight movement, even when it didn't attract a hundred lightning bolts. All he could smell was ozone, which was a scent he would be happy to never smell again.

Ash couldn't believe it. Before him stood one of the Legendary Birds of Kanto, the second he had seen in his journey as a trainer. It was a bit smaller than Articuno at only eighteen feet high, but felt even more powerful. Nothing could have prepared him for seeing another of the primordial avian creatures.

Zapdos didn't attack him, unlike Articuno. It simply looked down at him with its alien, glowing eyes and let loose a thunderous squawk every now and then. His friends remained in their worshipful positions, aside from Infernus. But even Infernus knew better than to attack the great creature.

Its large, spiky feathers seemed to surge as it squawked again. Lightning surged around it, and Ash finally grew brave enough to speak.

"You need to leave!" He shouted. His voice echoed around the chamber, which was silent aside from the crackle of Zapdos' feathers and the roar of the storm.

Zapdos' glowing eyes pulsed, and Ash groaned in pain as it let out a shriek, one that was so much more than anything Plume had ever made. It was less a sound than an expression of the displeasure of a force of nature. Thunder rolled through the facility, and the lights flickered for a moment. When they finally failed for a few moments, the lightning surrounding Zapdos was bright enough to illuminate the entire chamber.

"Leave!" Ash demanded, supported by Infernus' defiant roar. The rest of his friends seemed helpless to resist Zapdos' might aura. "You're destroying Kanto!"

The Bird stopped at that and cocked its head at Ash. Its eyes pulsed with ancient, powerful energy and it opened and closed its beak. More lightning danced across its body, completely harmless to the Legendary.

But it made no attempt to leave. It simply regarded Ash as Ash would regard an insect. To it, Ash was so far beneath its notice that he might as well have been a caterpie.

He clenched its fist as it squawked something at him. The force and energy carried with the powerful expression made him stumble backward, but he refused to back down in the face of the powerful creature.

The storms had to stop. They had shown no sign of weakening, and with the power Zapdos emanated just by existing he didn't see the storm faltering any time soon. But if he couldn't convince the bird to leave and take its deadly storm with it, he would have to try and convince it by force.

It was a doomed prospect, and he knew it. But there was nothing else he could do in this situation. Electric-types could communicate with each other through electrical signals, but he suspected that even attempting to communicate with the great bird would result in permanent damage to Oz.

But he had to do something.

"Infernus, Fire Blast!" He shouted. The air stood still for a moment as his team realized what he had ordered. Ash could tell that they stared at him in shock and horror.

Infernus, however, gleefully carried out the command. He happily spat an immense fireball that burned its way through the air until it dissipated mere feet from the force of nature before them. The magmar growled in frustration when the Fire Blast was destroyed by the bird's presence, but didn't focus upon his failure.

Zapdos' eyes suddenly exploded with energy. Its body no longer consisted of flesh, blood, bone, and feather. It was lightning and storm clouds, given form by energies far beyond Ash's understanding. The Legendary stared down at Infernus furiously, and for a moment Ash thought that he had condemned his friend to death.

Zapdos squawked, but it wasn't even recognizable as mundane sound. Thunder tore through the earth and shifted stone and soil and lightning crackled from the sky and struck the great bird. Its eyes pounded with its yellow energy and a tiny arc of lightning separated from the storm that composed its body.

Before it could smite Ash and Infernus into nothingness, two Ice Beams, a concentrated Psybeam, and a blast of lightning, empowered by Zapdos' presence, shot toward it. Zapdos didn't even feel the attacks as they were disrupted by the field of electricity around it, but was aware of their presence.

Something changed in it. Although it was still Lightning and Storm made manifest, its earlier anger seemed to be tempered by something else. Zapdos was silent as it cocked its great head of lightning and darkness and examined Ash and his friends.

Its eyes, alit by an inner storm, dimmed. Ash's breath was stolen from him as he watched the great bird slowly transform from the titan that could destroy the power plant with a beat of its wings into the majestic bird he had first seen it as.

Zapdos' eyes were still bright as it suddenly gave a tiny flutter of its wings. Five tiny arcs of electricity jumped from its spiky feathers and crackled toward each of his friends. Ash watched in horror as all of his friends, even Nidoking and Torrent, collapsed to the ground. Infernus' body went slack, despite his sheer will to fight on.

Ash felt like rushing down to his friends, but a quick glance showed that they were all breathing. He took a deep breath and met Zapdos' burning eyes once more. The trainer ignored the lightning that surged through his body simply by seeing the bird's power and continued to stare at Zapdos.

It sent another roll of thunder crashing through the world as it squawked yet again, but Ash felt a knife of fear twist into his gut when its eyes grew brighter. He expected a bolt of true lightning to strike down from the heavens and reduce him to ashes for his insolence, but nothing came.

Zapdos thundered at him one more time before it beat its wings and took to the stormy skies. Ash crushed his hands to the sides of his head as hundreds of bolts of lightning split the sky and the earth groaned underneath the energy released by a single flap of the mighty creature's wings.

His teeth rattled and his bones shook, but after a few moments he steeled his will and looked upward just in time to see Zapdos enter the storms as the focus of countless blasts of electricity. A few more rolls of thunder pounded the earth before they slowly grew more and more distant. After ten more seconds, they disappeared entirely.

Ash stared at the sky for moment in disbelief at what had occurred. It was hard to believe that he had seen a second of the Legendary Birds, much less that he'd seen the Bird of Lightning. Zapdos was said to only appear in storms of lightning that covered the entire earth, which certainly seemed to be the truth. He wouldn't have minded if the legends mentioned that Zapdos caused the storms as well.

It was hard to believe that he was so lucky. Not many trainers saw a single Legend in their life, let alone two in their first year of training. He wondered if all Legends were as powerful and majestic as Articuno and Zapdos.

Articuno had frozen an entire cavern system while asleep and proved capable of conjuring a blizzard simply through beating its wings. Zapdos had created a storm that threatened to encompass all of Kanto without putting effort into it. It was disturbing, in a way. Creatures that he couldn't even begin to understand held so much power over the world and nobody could do anything about it. The Creature seemed capable of going toe to toe with them, but he didn't know for certain.

Not that he wanted the Creature anywhere near the Birds. He didn't want the Creature to defeat one of the majestic Legends. That wouldn't bode well for anybody.

Ash sighed and shook his head. There were more important things to worry about. Surge was badly injured, there might be electric-types roaming the power plant, and he didn't know how long it would take for the storm to dissipate. His foolish attempt to stop the storm might not have saved anybody. Zapdos might have taken it somewhere else.

He returned the friends that had stood up to a Legend in his defense and walked out. Hopefully he wouldn't encounter any angry pokemon on the way. They probably weren't thrilled with Ash for removing the source of their unearthly power.

XX

As it turned out, he had nothing to worry about. Any pokemon he crossed simply seemed confused, as though they had left a dream. A few had growled at him if he drew too close, but for the most part they left him alone.

Now he, Brock, and the unconscious Surge were in the power plant's rather dull atrium. It was just another hallway, but one that led to the outside. Appearances weren't too important in a power plant built solely for pokemon to feed in.

"He's going to be alright." Brock announced as he stood up from the injured Surge. Raichu and the others of Surge's team quickly rushed over to their trainer and stood by his side. "That Voltorb did a number on him, though. He needs to see a real doctor when he gets back to Vermillion. There's shrapnel inside of him that I might not have gotten and some of his burns are too severe for the potions to heal completely."

Ash sighed in relief, although unease settled in his stomach. How would they return to Vermillion? It was dangerous to travel since the storm hadn't dissipated yet, and he wasn't sure how they were supposed to traverse the lakes the storm had created in the first place. Northeastern Kanto might as well have been an ocean, albeit a shallow one.

He voiced his thoughts, to which Brock laughed. "The storm's already weakened. I haven't heard any thunder in a long time, and it sounds like the winds are dying down." Brock's tanned face grew serious. "What did you find? I can't imagine Team Rocket being able to maintain a machine in these conditions."

The trainer paused, unsure as to whether he should tell Brock about Zapdos. He knew the League wouldn't hold it accountable or try to track it when they were already busy with the Creature, but he wasn't sure that the truth should be revealed. Some might see the power of the Legends as a threat.

In the end, he told the truth. "Zapdos."

"C'mon, tell me the truth!" Brock laughed. When Ash just stared at him, his face fell. "You're serious?"

"Deadly."

Brock sighed and massaged his temples. "I don't even know what to say, Ash. That's going to have to stay on the low. I'm not sure whether anyone would believe us in the first place."

"You're a gym leader." Ash replied confidently. "They'll have to."

The rock-type leader smiled. "Maybe. I'll have to think about. Lance and the rest of the Elite Four will, but some people won't be so amenable. It'll take some work."

Ash nodded. He figured it was time to ask how they'd get back.

"Teleportation." Brock told him. A grin was on the older boy's face when he saw Ash's expression. "Well, that or we ride Steelix back to civilization then teleport. There's no way we can get through otherwise unless you want to fly."

He shrugged. Plume would probably be happy to take him, but the storm was still too dangerous at the moment. It was the reason why they hadn't opted to fly on pidgeot in the first place. The storm made it incredibly risky to fly in and to think about flying above the clouds was just idiotic. They'd go unconscious in a few minutes.

"Look, I'll take care of Surge." Brock said kindly. "You've been through a lot. Go rest. There's not much you can do anyway."

"Alright. Wake me if you need me." Ash replied. Although it couldn't have been more than two or three hours since he'd woken up, he was exhausted. At the very least he could get a nap. He'd make sure to revive his friends when it was done. By then some of their damage should have been healed.

XX

He looked at the sky in amazement. Brock had told him that it had cleared up, but he couldn't believe that he could actually see warm, blue sky. After weeks of dull grey it was wonderful, just as great as when he'd seen it in the Caverns.

There were still dark clouds, but for the most part it was a calm white. The change was astounding. It looked like Zapdos had decided to take its massive storm along with it. Ash could just hope it decided to slumber somewhere that it wouldn't hurt anyone.

Ash figured that he might as well check and see if communications were up now. Without the swarms of magnemite and the constant lightning, signals might be able to transmit.

For now he decided to try and call Lance. When he called his mother he wanted to have plenty of time to catch up. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to get to their home before she left for Greenfield. It was almost December.

He quickly dialed the Champions number and waited patiently for Lance to pick up. It only took a few seconds before the screen flashed to life and showed Lance's concerned face.

"Are all of you alright?" Lance demanded. His face seemed far less tense than the last time Ash had spoken to him, even through his worried expression.

"Brock and I are fine. Surge got hurt, but we just need to get him to a doctor when we get back to Vermillion." Ash explained. Lance nodded and some of the worry left him, although he looked curious about Surge.

Lance suddenly grinned wildly. It made him look much younger. "I don't suppose you've heard the news, right?"

Ash nodded cautiously.

"I'll send you a few files. But I figured that I should tell you that the money will be added to your account shortly." The Champion told him. That put a smile on his face. He wasn't exactly greedy, but he thought he deserved the money after the trials he and the others suffered through. "But I think I should tell you about the opportunity I mentioned while telling you about the job."

That got his attention. Ash stared at the screen curiously. The last reward Ash had received from the Champion after a job well done had hugely advanced his career as a trainer. Hopefully this one would do the same.

Lance was obviously trying to keep a grin down when he continued. "There's a ship ready to take you to Knot Island when you get back to Vermillion. I've sent the ticket to the gym. It'll tell you everything you need to know about the ship."

"Why am I going to Knot Island?" Ash asked with narrowed eyes. He never thought he'd return to the Sevii Islands. "Are there more Rockets?"

"Nothing so boring." Lance laughed. He crossed his arms and met Ash's eyes. "I'm asking you to come train with me."

XX

And there it is! I'm sorry for taking so long, but this was a hard chapter to write. I've looked forward to writing this for months now, and nothing ever came out right on the first try. Plus I wrote the last half of it in two days. My hands hate me…

Well, I hoped you like it!

Make sure to review!