"The Safari Zone," Ash announced. "...we are actually in the Safari Zone, right?"

All signs point to yes, Dexter told him.

"I've always thought this place is really fascinating," Brock said. "And all the more so when you think about it… it's not a place for all Pokémon, it's a place specifically for Pokémon which are not generally okay being available to be caught, or around humans. And for rarer Pokémon which need the help to build their numbers back up."

He shrugged. "I don't think the rest of the world isn't doing a good job, it's just… nice that there's places like this. And there's the bigger reserves which are handled by Pokémon Rangers, but this is a different thing and it's nice."

"You've got that right," Misty agreed.

Then a helicopter landed next to them, which was quite loud.

"Excuse me?" the pilot asked, opening the door. "You're the first people we've seen so far who might be able to help! Our son's missing, and we think he might be in the area!"

"Missing…" Ash repeated, vaguely remembering this but not the details. "What happened, again?"

"We were on a round-the-world trip, and… well, there's no delicate way to put this," the pilot admitted. "I dropped him out of the helicopter."

He got out, as did his wife. "We found his parachute, and we hunted for weeks, but… there was never any sign of Tommy himself."

"Hmm," Ash frowned. "Did you ask the local Pokémon?"

"How?" the man replied. "We never saw any once we landed, we don't have any ourselves… and we eventually had to leave, because to keep searching was impossible."

"But we've never forgotten him," the woman agreed. "We've always paid attention to the news from this area… my husband's learned to fly a helicopter himself so we could search for as long as we needed to…"

"Well, I guess it makes sense to ask the local Pokémon now," Ash decided, one hand going to his belt. "Uh, let's see…"

"Kangashkan herd, right?" Pikachu asked.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Ash agreed. "If there's a Kangaskhan herd around here, they'll be really organized and one of them might remember what happened. How long ago was it?"

"...five years," the woman said. "He's eight now."

"I am a very persistent trainee!" the man agreed. "I eventually passed!"

"I'm starting to wonder if the kid was safer being dropped out of the helicopter…" Pikachu opined.

Ash sent out Pidgeot. "See if there's a Kangaskhan herd nearby?" he asked her.

"On it," Pidgeot confirmed, taking off with a swoosh of wings, and rose in a spiral.

"My word!" the man gasped. "That's a magnificent Pokémon!"

He frowned. "You know, dear, now that I think about it, maybe we should have got a Pokémon! I'm sure there must be one large enough to carry people. Then we could have searched sooner."

Pidgeot came back down. "Saw one," she said.

When they reached the Kangaskhan herd – on land, because bringing a helicopter to a Kangaskhan herd was a good way to not have the herd there any more – Ash stood back, and sent Pikachu and Riolu to negotiate and explain the situation.

"You must have an excellent bond with your Pokémon," the woman said. "How do you know they'll get it right?"

"Pikachu and Riolu are both really dependable, but most Pokémon are willing to help in situations like that," Brock explained. "And Ash is really good, he can consistently understand what his Pokémon mean."

"I'm working on expanding that to all Pokémon, but I'm not quite there yet," Ash admitted.

Brock and Misty were at the point where they could usually hold a conversation with their own Pokémon, but they kept dropping out at odd times. It was like the difference between being able to ride a bike and being able to ride a bike while doing something else, or… something like that.

Pikachu came bounding back over. "That's definitely the kid," he reported. "In the herd leader's pouch, just like last time. She said he fell out of the sky, but… she'd appreciate some kind of proof, and even then she's not sure she'll let the kid go."

He shrugged. "He doesn't remember either of them. Wasn't that true before as well? It's been ages."

"Right," Ash said. "I guess… so it seems like your son's actually with the herd, the herd leader adopted him."

"Tommy!" the mother said, immediately.

"But he doesn't remember you," Ash went on.

"What?" the father asked. "That's – that's so sad!"

He looked around. "He must have amnesia! And the cure for amnesia is a hit on the head!"

"The cure for amnesia is not a hit on the head!" Misty said. "I should know, I have a Psyduck and it happens to him all the time. It doesn't make him remember things, it just makes him get a really bad headache!"

"Plus, uh…" Ash began. "He was three. Maybe that's why he doesn't remember you?"

He frowned, thinking about it.

There was something that might work…

"Pikachu, can you ask them if I can come over and look at Tommy? And, you two, you should know that the Kangaskhan parent's been looking after him for longer than you did."

"And better," Misty muttered.

"So… it probably means you can't just assume he'll want to leave them and live with you again," Ash finished.

That seemed to be a good point, for the parents, and they started a whispered conversation as Pikachu returned again.

"That's fine," he told Ash, and Ash steepled his fingers together.

"Let's see if I've got this right."

Ash's realization, one that he double-checked with one of Sir Aaron's notebooks, was that part of the Aura purge technique was about intensifying old memories.

And it was only part of it. It wasn't the whole dive into the mind. It was complicated, and nearly useless except when someone had genuinely forgotten something important, but Ash had remembered that… baffling as it sounded… the 'hit him over the head' plan had actually worked last time.

So he did have amnesia.

And, well… that was what this was able to do.

"This is going to help you, okay?" Ash asked. "It's hopefully going to help you remember what happened before you met Kangaskhan. It won't hurt, or, it shouldn't and tell me straight away if it does so I can stop, and it'll just mean you remember something new. You won't forget anything."

The boy looked up at his foster mother, who nodded her approval, then repeated that nod to Ash.

Ash put his palm on Tommy's forehead, and concentrated.

Tommy blinked a few times. "Uh… why they drop me?"

"I think your father's an idiot," Pikachu summarized.

Kangaskhan said something, and Pikachu nodded. "Yeah. He should know them, at least."

As it turned out, though, Tommy wouldn't have to make the decision between knowing his old family and the Kangaskhan who'd brought him up.

Perhaps recognizing that it would either be a difficult choice or one they'd quickly lose, Tommy's parents had decided to live in the Safari Zone themselves, helping to keep the Pokémon safe and learning from their son about how to do that.

And, most certainly, not dropping anyone. Off cliffs, out of helicopters, or anything else.

"I guess that worked out?" Ash said, a bit hesitantly, as they continued on through the Safari Zone. "That was weird."

"Those people were weird, is what you mean," Brock replied. "Though there is one good thing I've noticed so far… without Team Rocket trying to poach Pokémon, the local rangers aren't quite on super high alert."

"Good point," Ash admitted, remembering several times he'd been held at gunpoint, then frowned. "Wait, hold on…"

He closed his eyes.

"Can you see something, Ash?" Pikachu checked.

"Yeah, I can see Normal types," Ash confirmed. "Pure normal type, anyway. And there's three of them."

"Weird number," Riolu said. "Which Pokémon are these?"

"It might be some of the Tauros?" Ash guessed. "I wonder where the other twenty-seven are… and apart from that, I can't think of any Pokémon it might be, except for Ambipom maybe but we met her somewhere else in Kanto, I… think. That or someone's really lost."

He shrugged. "Well, I should go and explain and see what's going on! You guys coming?"

"We're not letting you get lost without us," Misty said.

This is around the time you got lost even with him, Dexter supplied helpfully. I wasn't going to bring it up just yet, but you went all over the place… you even visited a lab with someone who makes Porygon, and I'm looking forward to that to see if there's any improvements I can get.

"Improvements… that sounds good, but we should talk about that later," Ash said. "I don't remember this Porygon guy."

"Me neither," Pikachu said, flicking his ears.

Must be the flashing lights, Dexter decided.

"Anyway… Charizard, Pidgeot, let's go and see who that is!" Ash decided, sending out both Flying-types.

As it turned out, it was a whole herd of Tauros.

All of whom made snorting noises as Ash landed Charizard in front of them, and the one right at the front was one of the three that was glowing in Ash's Aura Sight.

"Tauuuu-ros!" he said, drumming his hooves on the ground. "Taur!"

"Okay, he's challenging me to a fight," Charizard provided.

"Thanks, Charizard," Ash replied. "Hey, this is going to sound weird, but… is there more than one herd of Tauros in the Safari Zone? Because I should be seeing about thirty Tauros, but I only see three of you."

That was a weird enough statement that it seemed to break the Tauros out of their ready-for-a-fight mode, and they switched to milling about a bit uncertainly.

"You're going to have to explain in more detail, Ash," Pikachu said.

"Right," Ash decided. "So… it sort of involves time travel? I caught three of you in Safari Balls, along with some other Tauros, and now I've come back in time and I can let you remember it. One of the Tauros, I'm not sure which, helped me beat a Dragonite and a Metagross!"

Tauros conversations continued.

"They're saying they don't think there are any Tauros in the Safari Zone apart from them, and that if any of them could beat a Metagross then that other Tauros herd which might not exist would definitely have taken the best stampeding spots," Pikachu provided. "Now the leader's asking you which ones you can do that to."

"That's the leader, right?" Ash asked, pointing at the one at the front. "He's one of them."

He held out his hand, and the Tauros trotted forwards curiously until Ash touched his horn.

Then he snorted.

"Wow," he declared. "This is weird. I only remember doing the Dragonite. It's Tauros over there who did the Metagross, and Tauros there who was Gary's Nidoqueen and the Swap Meet battle."

Pikachu started sniggering.

"Wow," he said. "I know it's disrespectful, but… even Ash couldn't keep you straight."

"The herd is one, and one is a small and slightly less efficient herd!" Tauros said. "Hey, Tauros, Tauros, he's on the level! Come on over and join in!"

"This is so weird," one of the un-remindable Tauros declared.

"Yeah, but if he's recruiting I want in," another un-remindable Tauros said, as Ash reminded Tauros and then Tauros. "Anyone else?"

One other hoof went up.

"Hey!" an Officer Jenny said, as they approached the Safari Zone entrance. "No cattle rustling!"

"We're not rustling," said a Tauros.

"Does it count as rustling if the Pokémon all want to join me?" Ash asked. "I guess I could technically say no but that might not be a good idea."

All five Tauros snorted in unison.

"I wanted to ask for some Safari Balls to confirm it," Ash added. "And I'm not sure what Professor Oak is going to think…"

Professor Oak was extremely upset at having to take care of five rowdy Tauros, at least until he found out it had been thirty last time.

Following Dexter's convenient map of where they'd been after Ash got his Tauros, the friends took a trip along Cycling Bridge to run an errand.

The errand happened to be flying Full Restores from one end of the bridge to the other, as emergency cures, but since they did remember that there'd been a Pokémon in a bad way last time not having the emergency cures would have been worse. So that good feeling more than compensated for the lack of glamour.

Then it was to the laboratory of Dr. Akihabara, south of the Safari Zone. Which only went to show how lost they'd been.

The moment Ash rang the doorbell, it opened, and the slightly manic Doctor peered at him.

"Hmm," he said. "So, you're the visitor Professor Oak said I was going to have?"

"I guess," Ash replied. "Most people just ask if I'm Ash Ketchum. Hi, I'm Ash Ketchum!"

"Delighted," Akihabara said, adjusting his glasses. "Did you bring the specimen?"

"Uh," Ash said. "I brought Dexter? He's a friend, though, not a specimen."

Akihabara looked momentarily distracted. "Ah, yes, of course. Come in, come in."

He ushered them through his house to the laboratory at the back, strewn around with bits of electronic paraphernalia and with a large door marked with an I-O symbol in one corner.

Ash took out his Pokédex, and Dexter manifested around it.

"Fascinating!" Akihabara declared. "Absolutely fascinating!"

He wheeled over a large machine, tapped a few commands, then picked up something like a soldering iron and touched Dexter's nose with it.

Dexter flinched away from the impact. Hey! Ask before you run an integrity check!

"Yes, yes," Akihabara said. "Hmm, fully self-sustaining… it appears that this really is an independent development of a Porygon. Absolutely fascinating."

"Hey, you'd better start talking about Dexter like he's actually here!" Ash warned. "Dexter's a Pokémon, he deserves respect!"

"I…" Akihabara said. "Um. He? I missed that before."

I have known I was male for longer than I have known I was a Porygon, Dexter stated. Another Porygon instantiated on the same hardware is female, they are designated as Dee.

"My word," Akihabara breathed. "So this isn't a unique event?"

Correct. However, we cannot battle effectively because our Pokédex cores are fragile and there is no dedicated projector, making our forms weak. Do you have any way of helping with this?

Akihabara frowned. "Hmm. Do I have a way of helping with that… ah! Yes!"

He pulled out a drawer. "I know it's here somewhere… and, here we go. Yes, I have a hard light projection system, with several projectors. It's one of the early forms of the Pokémon Transfer System, you see. Every great project begins with workable prototypes, and before Lanette solved the checksum problem for long range digital teleportation we were left with other systems more capable of handling interruptions in signal."

Ash raised his hand. "I have no idea what that means."

"Same," Riolu said, also with his hand up.

"The checksum problem?" Akihabara asked. "Oh, it's the systems and digital checks which ensure that it's mathematically impossible for a Pokémon transfer to be cut off halfway through. The Pokémon is either on one side or on the other side, and no possible problem can cut them off halfway through or cause data corruption in transit. Before that was proven we were using the Akihabara Digital Simulacrum Transfer System. It was still brilliant! The Pokémon simply gets into a sensory deprivation tank and at the other end a projector creates a facsimile of the original Pokémon."

Everyone looked at him.

"What?" he asked, defensively. "It was a demonstration technology! Er, hold on… aha, this should do."

He held out a small, metallic triangle. "There's some more of these, but they were all custom and they're all different."

Dexter floated over, examining it closely.

Interesting design. Is that gold?

"It only looks gold," Akihabara said. "It was part of a way of demonstrating we could fit the same technology into different form factors, instead of having them all look the same and it being easy to confuse. You wouldn't want to try and pore through a box of twenty identical projectors to find the one that was about to manifest a Rhydon!"

He looked over at Ash. "Oh, and do tell anyone else with a Porygon to stop by, I've got plenty and the scientific implications are – ah! Please don't open that door!"

Ash had already opened the door. "What is this?"

"That's the digitizer!" Akihabara said. "Careful! If activated that will turn your entire form into digital code so you can travel into a virtual reality. It's part of how Lanette and I got the coding sorted out for the PTS."

"So… you could use it to go into a computer system and fight viruses?" Ash asked.

The doctor laughed. "That's an imaginative idea."

He stopped. "...that could actually work, now I think about it. I should probably try and recruit someone. I don't suppose you'd be interested?"

Ash shook his head, waving his hands. "No way, enough strange stuff happens to me already, find someone else!"

They got Dexter linked into his new projector, and he was still testing what it could do the next day as they headed south.

Probably south.

Then Ash frowned. "Hey, Pikachu?"

"What?" Pikachu asked, worried. "Is something wrong?"

"Want to go into the woods and find the other Pikachu who live around here?" Ash asked. "You could go and live with them, I wouldn't-"

Pikachu hit him with a Thunderbolt.

"I thought there was something wrong, dingus!" he said. "You know as well as I that we're not going to leave one another! You're not getting away from me that easily!"

"We should probably find this concerning," Brock said mildly. "I wonder what it says that we don't."

"Sheer exposure," Misty decided firmly.

With that sorted out and firmly behind them, and after electing to just not go up the mountain where Ash had come close to freezing because why would anyone even do that, the friends travelled onwards towards Stone Town.

Which was when Riolu held up his paw.

"There's something nearby," he said, closing both eyes, then opening them again with a glitter of blue light. "An Eevee… a little that way."

After a long moment's silence, there was a faint cry in the air.

"Oh, yeah, this," Ash realized. "Let's go and get that Eevee back to their trainer, and make sure he knows he doesn't have to evolve it."

"Is that what this is about?" Riolu asked. "Why would anyone think you had to evolve… no, wait, Lt. Surge. Never mind."

"It's not just him," Ash replied. "But yeah, he's one of them. There's just so many people who think that because evolved Pokémon usually get stronger therefore a Pokémon needs to evolve to get stronger. Which… isn't how it works."

"Not at all!" Pikachu agreed.

"I hate missing half of conversations," Brock groaned. "At least I can understand mine now, and that's a lot better than nothing."

After freeing Eevee, and hearing their story just to give a good reason why they knew what was going on, and assuring Eevee that they wouldn't make him evolve, the friends packed up the leash, food and water Eevee had been left with before heading down into Stone Town itself.

Where they found an Evolution Party going on.

"These are just weird," Misty said. "If you've already decided to evolve a Pokémon not long before the party, sure, evolve them there. But how often do they have these parties? Do Pokémon have to wait?"

"It's usually like they make it an expectation," a young boy said, then did a double-take at the group – especially the Eevee in Brock's arms. "Wait- that's my Eevee – I left him out in the woods so my brothers wouldn't make me evolve him-"

Brock let Eevee down, and the Normal-type went scampering over to join his trainer.

"What's this, Mikey?" asked an older boy with bright red flame-styled hair. "Your Eevee is here now! That's great, we can evolve him into a Flareon!"

"Pyro-" Mikey began.

"No way, he's going to be a Vaporeon!" a blue-haired boy of about the same age insisted.

"Obviously he's going to be a Jolteon," an orange-yellow-haired boy declared, completing the trio. "Jolteon's the best Eeveelution!"

"Rainer, Sparky, Pyro – can you guys just give it a rest?" Mikey asked. "Eevee's going to evolve if he wants to, and he doesn't."

And it's not like there are only three options, either, Dexter said.

"Who said that?" Rainer frowned. "I didn't see who spoke."

Ash held out Dexter's projector, and the Porygon projected an Eevee hologram before making it shatter into all seven possible Eevee evolutions – Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Espeon, Umbreon.

There are thus eight options, Dexter finished, before returning to his base form and manifesting it in hard-light. Any questions?

"Yeah, you said eight but you only showed seven," Sparky said. "What kind of Pokémon are you, anyway?"

I am a Porygon, Dexter said.

"And there are eight options," Brock said. "Fire stone, Thunder stone, Water stone, mossy rock, icy rock, happiness in the day, happiness at night… Everstone."

"That doesn't count," Rainer snorted.

"Why not?" Ash asked. "It's a stone, and an Eevee with an Everstone stays an Eevee."

"And I don't want Eevee to evolve!" Mikey burst out. "Nor does Eevee!"

"Yeah, he does," Pyro replied. "He must want to evolve into a Flareon, anyway, it's just a bigger fluffier Eevee that's better in every way."

Eevee shook his head.

"Actually, I had an idea," Ash said. "What about if Dexter tests out his new combat projector against these guys?"

"That would be great!" Rainer said immediately. "It'd really get into the spirit of the party!"

I am game, Dexter declared. Computer game, that is. It's a sort of pun, you see…

Downloading, Dexter announced, in the middle of the impromptu arena. Analyzing.

"We're first!" Pyro said. "Flareon, Fire Blast!"

Flareon darted forwards, used Fire Blast, and immediately engulfed Dexter in flame.

"That's an easy win for Team Fire!" Pyro enthused.

Incorrect, Dexter said, as the flames died down. Trace complete.

His pink facets had gone red, but otherwise he was completely unchanged.

Flash Fire: copied.

"Oh, that's just not fair," Pyro complained.

It is a perfectly legitimate ability, Dexter replied. Charging.

His cyber-bird body split up into a six-petalled shape drawn out of triangular polygons, and his now-visible golden projector began to glow brightly.

"Flareon, uh… dodge?" Pyro said, nervously.

Tri Attack, Dexter announced, and thin beams of energy shot out from three petals and the core to connect with the startled Flareon and knock him backwards in a cloud of lightning.

"Nice work!" Ash shouted.

My main body is literally in your hand, Dexter pointed out.

Ash glanced down at his Pokédex. "Oh, uh… sorry."

Rainer and Sparky shared a glance, then both sent their Pokémon in together.

"Is that fair?" Misty asked.

I don't mind, Dexter replied, collapsing back into his base form, and dodged a blast of electricity. Otherwise I would just Trace their absorption abilities and that would be the whole battle.

Ash was looking at Dexter's screen, now, which showed a readout. "Conversion!"

Already on it, Dexter replied, as his red highlights became yellow and the blue ones deepened in hue.

"Hydro Pump!" Rainier ordered.

"Thunder!" Sparky concurred.

The two attacks blasted into Dexter together, but didn't seem to do more than move him backwards slightly.

"Okay, how adaptable is that Pokémon?"

Ash's screen showed that Dexter had dropped Flash Fire for Volt Absorb, then switched to Water-type. "Uh… a lot? He's seen a lot of battles, even if this is his first one in person."

Charging, Dexter announced, forming a slim spike shape and pointing it at Vaporeon. Lock on.

Beams of red light painted the Water-type a pretty red.

"Acid Armour!" Rainier commanded quickly.

Vaporeon dissolved her body into a puddle, but Dexter hit her with a Zap Cannon anyway.

The spike changed shape straight into a continuous circle, connected to the golden triangle projector by three slim spokes. Analyzing…

"Endure, Jolteon!" Sparky called.

Signal Beam.

Jolteon did handle the massive attack better than her cohorts, but not by much, and shook herself afterwards before darting over to Vaporeon and absorbing the spare electricity pulsing over her.

"How is that Pokémon so strong?" Pyro asked.

I am benefitting from Analyze, Download and Flash Fire right now, Dexter explained.

"Eevee!" Mikey called. "Your turn! Trump Card!"

Dexter shifted from a slim circle into a blocky pentagonal frusta with the thick end pointed towards the incoming Eevee – who was already creating a half-dozen glowing red cards to use.

Light Screen, Dexter declared.

With a rumbling b-b-b-boom, Mikey's Eevee smashed through the Light Screen and drove Dexter's projectile a foot into the ground.

Ash blinked. "What was that? I don't remember that move being that strong!"

Ow, Dexter said succinctly. I just discovered my pain feedback response. That is a move that gets stronger the more tired the user is. Did your Eevee get any sleep at all last night?

Mikey shook his head. "They've been after me to evolve him for days…"

"That's not what you should do, guys," Brock said firmly.

As Rainier tried to explain how they'd thought that it was supposed to be because an evolved Eevee was stronger than one who hadn't, and how this kind of busted that idea, Ash dug Dexter out of the ground.

"This is… hot," he said, blowing on his fingers, then swapped hands. "Is that normal?"

For using that much power at once, yes, Dexter said. It's a problem. I'm going to have to try writing optimization code… still, I certainly found the limits of the projector.

He manifested himself from his Pokédex body. And very good work with that Trump Card, Eevee. That is an extremely strong attack to use at the end of a battle, and it will serve you well. Especially once Adaptability is factored in.

"...but, a serious trainer with only a Normal type?" Sparky asked.

"I still say he'll end up with an Umbreon or Espeon," Pyro muttered.

"Hey, I won't necessarily just have Eevee!" Mikey defended himself. "But if Eevee wants to stay Eevee, I'll accept that! And if he wants to become something else, I'll respect that too! It's him who's going to be evolving or not, so it's up to him!"

"Now that's a trainer who's got the right idea," Pikachu declared.

AN:

The infamous Porygon episode wasn't shown to any audience outside Japan, thanks to the Epileptic Pokemon Attack that hospitalised children all over Japan. This is why the Porygon evolutions don't show up, despite the fact that it was actually Pikachu who did the deed itself.

Dexter's Projector, meanwhile, is based on Bardiche from Nanoha and his method of shapechanging to attack is inspired by the Electric Soldier Porygon episode and enhanced with the style of Ramiel, from Rebuild of Evangelion.

Handling both Tommy and the Tauros has been improved in the rewrite, and the Tauros in particular has been expanded.