"This place is so crowded!" Misty said, looking around with a grin.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "There must be thousands of people here!"

"And from all over the Orange Islands!" Tracey contributed. "Boats have been arriving all day. Wonder if any of them are from Kanto or Hoenn?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Misty said. "This festival is amazing!"

She paused. "Though, actually, I'd never heard of it until we came here..."

"It is a long way," Pikachu mused. "Perhaps that's why."

Tracey shrugged. "I had. I think it's just something that tends to be interesting to people who are, maybe, a bit older than we are..."

"What, dressing up in costumes?" Ash looked decidedly skeptical.

"Actually, I can see that."

The others looked at Riolu, and he shrugged. "From what I remember of my, er... other life? Most of the young Pokémon who came to events in the village were brought along by their parents. If the same is true for humans-"

"Probably more true," Tracey said with a nod.

"Right. Then anyone who gets brought along by their parents would be younger than you guys, while any trainers who came would tend to be older, because they wouldn't have the head start you guys have." Riolu shrugged. "Or something."

Ash blinked. "Wait, did you just make all that up on the fly?"

"I'm guessing." Riolu raised his paws. "Made sense, though, didn't it?"

"I have to admit, it kind of did..."

"Excuse me?"

The group turned, seeing a man wearing a jacket and shorts, and with a big bundle of cloth in his hands. "I was wondering... you're all Pokémon trainers, right?"

"Yep!" Ash grinned. "What gave it away?"

"That would be the Pokémon," Tracey deadpanned.

"Sounds about right." Ash shrugged. "Yeah, we're Pokémon trainers. Why?"

"Well..." The man rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "You wouldn't believe how rare it is for Pokémon trainers to come here. Especially of the right age... anyway. We're looking for a visitor to play the part of the Chosen One."

An electric thrill danced down Ash's spine. "Sure!"

"Really?" The man blinked. "That was quick."

"Be an awesome hero-type character?" Ash spread his arms. "Sign me up!"

"Yeah, that's Ash alright..." Pikachu chuckled.

"Hey, can I provide my own costume?" Ash rummaged in his bag. "I've got a great one right here, I was going to-"

"No, sorry," the man denied, hiding a smile and shaking his head. "Part of the point is to show how anyone can be a hero, so your normal clothes are actually preferred."

Ash actually felt a bit put out by that. "Oh... can I at least put on a cape?"

"Just put it on once the ceremony's over, Ash!" Misty said, shaking her head.

"Uh... sure." Ash nodded. "Works for me. Maybe then I can put on the hat as well."

He glanced down at his boots – which were, as usual, Sir Aaron's boots, to go with the gloves he also wore all the time now.

The man shrugged. "Well, it's your choice what you wear during the trial. Come with me, I'll let the organizers know – then I'll have to go change."

"Oh, you're performing?" Tracey looked interested. "What as?"

"Moltres," the man answered, then looked into the sky with a frown. "Though I can't say it's great weather for it..."

There was an ominous rumble.

"Come on, we'd better hurry. Don't suppose you have a Pokémon with Sunny Day?"

"I have at least two," Ash contributed.

Ivysaur was duly released. He took a look around, raised his petals, glowed briefly, and shot an orb of yellow light into the sky.

It reached the cloud layer, and vanished from view. Then the clouds began to churn faster.

"Well?" Ash asked, a note of concern in his voice.

"This is much, much harder than normal," Ivysaur grunted. "Maybe it's just Shamouti... this is kind of an important place."

"I'm not so sure..." Ash mused. "Okay, if you can't you can't. Thanks for trying."

He looked up at the man and shrugged. "Sorry. No luck."

"Hmmm..." the man frowned. "Now I'm worried."

"Well, it's probably just a bad storm, right?" Misty said, smiling brightly. "Where do we need to go? We may as well try to get indoors."

The ceremony itself felt... really strange.

Sure, the free meal was nice, but...

Ash couldn't help but have a feeling of... well, it was hard to pin down. Like he was watching a film, but for the second time. And this time, they'd replaced the main character with him.

It felt almost wrong that everything went almost without incident. Apart from the ominous rumblings of a summer thunderstorm outside, that is. But, apart from that occasional interruption, it was just a slightly cheesy town festival.

After the first ritual had been done – the bit which told Ash that he had to find the three treasures of the titans – someone approached him as everyone else went back to their meal.

"Good afternoon, Chosen One."

Ash looked up at the woman who'd brought them here. "Hi, Maren."

Maren looked very confused. "Have we met?"

...last time. She'd brought them to the island last time.

Ash blushed, and winced. "Sorry! I overheard your name somewhere..."

"Must have been my friend Carol – or her sister..." Maren's lips pursed for a moment. "She's the festival maiden – Melody."

Ash nodded. "Right. Yeah, that's probably it."

Maren smiled quickly, then blinked. "Sorry, we got a bit off topic. I was going to offer to you that I take you to the islands – Fire island, Ice island and Lightning island. You need to pick up the treasures, as part of the ritual – normally it'd be fine for you to pick them up tomorrow, but I don't think we've got all that long before the weather closes in."

"Okay, sure!" Ash stood. "Shall we get going now?"

The woman was quick to agree. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back. I've got supplies on my boat, though, just in case we do end up stranded on one of the islands."

Ash chuckled as they headed out of the temple-turned-dining-area. "I've got a Pidgeot, so we'd probably be fine."

"Also, you can walk on water," Riolu pointed out, holding out a paw. Pikachu did likewise, and Ash swept them up onto both shoulders.

"Well, yeah, that too."

Ash clung to the rail as Maren's boat rocked in the swell. "Is it usually this bad?"

"Not usually, no!" Maren called back. "I think we might be more glad of those supplies than I thought!"

"Pidgeot can fly in worse weather than this," Ash told her loyally – then went a bit green. "Urp... I though I had my sea legs by now..."

The sky rumbled again, flashes visible through the black clouds covering the sky.

Pikachu hopped up onto the mast. "I wonder if we're the tallest thing around..."

"We better not be," Ash mumbled. "I don't fancy being struck by lightning in a boat."

"Walk it off," Riolu quipped. "You know. Because you can walk on water."

"Yeah, I got the joke," Ash replied. "I just didn't laugh..."

Ash jogged up the mountain stairway, pacing himself. Riolu ran at his side, and Pikachu was two paces ahead – keeping his electro-sensitivity at maximum to try and preempt any incoming bolts of lightning.

"This is kind of strange..." Riolu said. "I mean, I'm the only one who hasn't done this before, out of the three of us."

"Yeah, true," Ash said, as they rounded another shallow bend. "It was several years ago for me, though, so I'm not all that sure I remember how everything went."

Checking a half-step, he winced. "Case in point – I forgot until now that Zapdos is about to show up."

"Is that why there's all this storm, do you think?" Pikachu asked.

"Now I think of it, it probably is," Ash shrugged, getting back into the rhythm. "Well, I'm fairly sure we can take him."

Pikachu and Riolu gave him looks.

"Okay, with help," he allowed. "Look, guys, I did alright against Mewtwo, right?"

"That would be some new definition of alright, where you die." Pikachu's tone was deeply skeptical. "Don't put me through that again, Ash."

Ash nodded, touched. "Sorry, Pikachu. But I was being serious. I really do think we – you two, me, and a couple of the others – could at least fend off Zapdos."

"If we have to," Riolu clarified.

"Yeah, if we have to. And I hope we don't."

It took them a couple more minutes to reach the summit of Fire Island's mountain, and look down into the bowl.

"There's the shrine," Ash said, unnecessarily.

"Huh," Riolu said, looking down at it. "Interesting."

Or maybe not quite so unnecessarily.

"Where was the orb again?" Pikachu asked.

"About..." Ash frowned. "Not sure, actually, I remember it was obvious, though."

He closed his eyes, and took a quick look around. "No nearby Legendaries... and I'm a bit disappointed. The orb doesn't show up."

"Maybe it needs to be filled with Aura before it does," Riolu suggested.

"That sounds likely." Ash opened his eyes again, and checked cloak and gloves were on securely. Then, just in case, he pulled Sir Aaron's staff out of the pouch and slung it across his back ready to hand. "Right, let's go."

Warily, they stepped down into the centre of what seemed to be an extinct volcano.

But, then again, of course it was an extinct volcano. It was an ocean island in the middle of the Pacific, it wasn't like there were many other ways for it to get there, even notwithstanding that it was Fire Island.

"Hmmm..." Ash said, walking around the shrine. "No sign of it on this side... or..."

"Uh oh..." Pikachu voiced, for all of them.

"Where the heck is it?" Ash asked. "It was right – wait."

Looking closer, he saw a set of four tiny squarish blocks in a square pattern, set into a small recess. "I think this must be where it was."

"So..." Riolu began. "If it's not here, then who took it?"

"And what do we do now?" Ash added.

"Wait a sec."

They looked around at Pikachu.

"If it's not here-here, maybe you could see it with Aura Sight," Pikachu suggested, wiggling an ear. "So that might be a quicker way to look."

"Good idea." Ash rummaged around, and got out a Pokéball. "Well, by now the idea of doing the ceremony the usual way is completely impossible... Pidgeot!"

The Flying-type materialized. "I heard. I assume you'd like a lift?"

"Please," Ash nodded. "Head down to the beach first, I should let Maren know we won't need her any more."

Pidgeot chirped assent, turning and crouching down a little. "Climb on. And Pikachu – make sure I don't get struck by lightning, please!"

Maren hummed to herself, boiling some water for a cup of coffee.

No matter the weather, a good drink always helped her feel better.

As she filled the percolator, there was a whoosh of wings outside.

"Maren!" came the voice of the boy – Ash. "We got up there, and the treasure was missing!"

"Missing?" Maren hurried out onto the deck, coffee forgotten. "Who would do such a thing?"

"I don't know," Ash told her, face set in determination. "But I'll make sure they don't get far."

Despite herself, Maren believed him. The young boy who sat there, astride a Pidgeot and with some kind of staff-head poking out above his shoulder, sounded... confident.

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Good luck. I'll head back to Shamouti, since you clearly don't need me..."

"Actually, could you let my friends know?" Ash asked. "They might be worried."

"Of course."

With that, Ash reached up to a bandana, pulled it over one eye (for no reason Maren could discern), and his Pidgeot began to climb precipitously before circling the island.

Maren watched him go for a minute, until his Flying-type was just a moving speck and she lost sight of it.

Then she went back into the wheelhouse to start up the engine – and, of course, have that coffee. She needed it.

"This is concerning..." Professor Oak commented, looking from screen to screen. "Do we have this from a satellite?"

Yes, we do. Damos threw up an image on the big screen. Himawari-2 has already turned every sensor it has on the area.

"Curious." Oak rubbed his chin. "Last time, when this happened, the disturbances were larger at this point."

Larger?

"The weather was affected as far as here by now, last time. And it was... different." Oak searched for the words. "It was... yes, I think about now was the time it switched from being a cold thunderstorm to pure blizzard."

That is indeed anomalous. Damos brought up weather reports. The temperature dropped somewhat over the course of the day, but is now returning to mean in the area – and the thunderstorm is intensifying.

Oak nodded, tapping his foot. "Well, I don't think there's much we can do to help from here. About the best we can do is to monitor the situation – I doubt flying over in a helicopter would help much."

Right. Damos paused for a moment. Professor, I believe I have noticed something interesting.

Up came the satellite image again. This time, it dropped into false-colour, and rotated to be a flat plane representing the horizontal. Green lines traced themselves onto the plot.

"Really?" Oak asked, surprised. "An ellipse?"

Yes, though a tenuous one. Focus one is over Shamouti itself. Focus two is here – the former site of Kabuto Island.

"Most unusual," Oak said, then nodded. "Please continue to monitor the situation, Damos."

Of course.

Oak looked off into the distance, towards the Orange archipelago. "I do hope you know what you're doing, Ash..."

"No way!" Misty declared. "I know, I want to help Ash – but there's no way we can go out in that storm!"

"But I want to help!" Togekiss insisted, and Scizor and Psyduck nodded.

"It's not a matter of wanting," Tracey agreed, with a grimace. "I do too. But most of our Pokémon can't fly, and that's a full-fledged lightning storm out there." A jagged blue arc hit one of the mountains ringing the ancient caldera, and he winced. "And of those who can... well..."

Misty sighed. "We don't want to risk you. There are Legendary Pokémon out there, and a machine that fights them and wins."

"Ash is out there, though!" Togekiss pressed.

"He's an exception," Misty replied promptly. "Seriously, Ash's Pokémon are crazy strong and so is he."

Togekiss subsided, looking mutinous.

Another bolt arced through the heavens, blowing a chunk of rock off the side of a cliff face.

"I hate not knowing what's going on," Misty commented.

Then she blinked. "Wait – where's a phone?"

"Huh?" Tracey asked.

"I just realized – we do know some people who can help!" Misty looked between Tracey and their Pokémon, rummaging in her pocket.

After a few seconds, she held up a slip of paper. "Aha! Now, who's got Gary's phone number?"

Seeing Tracey's further confusion, she flourished the paper. "Who do we know who's got some unreasonably powerful Pokémon?"

"Ah, gotcha." Tracey nodded. "Still getting used to being friends with them..."

"No sign of it on my end!" Ash called into the slipstream. "You guys?"

"No luck," Riolu agreed. "Not a speck of Aura on the whole island."

Pikachu shook his head.

"Hope that doesn't mean we were wrong about being able to spot it," Ash fretted, then yelped. "Whoa!"

The largest lightning bolt yet speared down out of the sky, and blew shrapnel out of the cone of Fire Island. A screech ripped through the air.

"That was Zapdos!" Ash observed.

"Yeah, I noticed," Pikachu snarked. "What now?"

Pidgeot answered for them, weaving a tailwind out of the air and riding it forwards.

They closed up to Zapdos, following about half a mile behind, and watched the fireworks.

Bolt after bolt scored the crater rim. Zapdos cawed out challenge, daring the Fire type legendary to come out and fight him.

Ash listened closely. It was harder than usual to understand what the Titan of Lightning was saying, but that could just be the wind…

"Did I hear that right?" he asked, glancing back at Pikachu. "He asked if Moltres was a coward – like Articuno."

"That's what I heard, too," Pikachu agreed. "If that means he's already done this at Ice Island..."

"Then Articuno must be missing too," Riolu completed the thought.

"We should go check it out," Ash declared, and tapped Pidgeot on the side. "Okay, girl, we've seen enough. Ice island, on the double!"

"Double the speed of sound? That I can do," Pidgeot boasted. The tailwind halted for a moment, letting them drop further behind Zapdos, and Pidgeot flared her wings up into a climb which shed all her momentum.

Below her, the wind she'd left behind coiled in on itself.

She rolled, so her back was where her belly had been. She pitched forward in a half flip, facing downwards where she'd been facing up.

Then she dove back into the tailwind, which had reversed direction entirely, and shot off west towards Ice island.

A muffled boom went almost unheard in the cacophony of the thunderstorm.

"You want me to what?" Gary asked, blinking.

"Yep!" Misty said brightly. "The sooner the better."

"Misty, I'm..." Gary glanced up for a moment. "Probably more than six thousand miles away. I can't possibly get there in time to help, nothing I have knows Teleport."

"Don't you have an Alakazam?"

"Yes," Gary confirmed. "And he doesn't know Teleport."

"Well... that sucks," Misty said eventually. "How quick could you be here if you set off right now?"

"Days," Gary replied. "If I got an airliner and flew the great circle route, then I'd take eleven hours – if there was an airliner going that way right now. Fearow would take longer, even without the need to eat on the way."

Misty nodded. "Yeah, okay. By the sound of things, you couldn't get here in time to help."

Gary shrugged. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine, you weren't to know."

The line closed with a click.

I told you coming to Lumiose City was a bad idea, Dee said.

"I didn't expect the apocalypse, okay?" Gary replied. "And I say that way too often."

He glanced up at Prism Tower through the hotel window. "Well, even with jet lag I'm not getting back to sleep after that. We may as well go for a walk."

The sides of Ice Island's central cone bore the same long, jagged lightning-scars as Fire Island had.

"No way Articuno was still here when that happened," Ash said. "They're all pretty territorial."

"What does that mean, then?" Pikachu asked. "Is that flying machine still here?"

"Must be," Ash agreed, but frowned. "But I... I don't know. Why would... he, right? Why would he attack in a different order?"

The butterfly effect, perhaps? Dexter suggested. The idea is that small changes balloon out into large ones, and that you can't tell which small ones will become which large ones.

"What does Butterfree have to do with it?" Ash asked.

No, Butterfly. Any Bug type Pokémon which has large wings and a diurnal lifestyle after emerging from a coccoon. Like Beautifly.

"Butterfree-Beautifly effect. Right," Ash said, nodding.

I give up.

"Wait," Riolu said, pointing off further west. "Look."

The others turned, one hand/paw each on Pidgeot's feathered back to keep their balance.

"I forgot how big that thing was," Ash breathed. "It's the size of a city."

"And it's heading for Fire Island," Pikachu noted. "Probably going after Zapdos."

"That must mean it's already got the other two legendaries," Ash agreed, as Pidgeot banked around to follow. "Wonder if he's the one who took the treasures?"

"We'll have to assume he did." Riolu took a deep breath. "Okay. Where's the best way to get on board that thing?"

"Don't know..." Ash admitted. "Pidgeot? Any ideas?"

He glanced back at his backpack. "Dexter?"

Scanning.

Several seconds ticked by.

I believe I have something. Dexter's projector glowed, and an image appeared in front of Ash's eyes for a moment. Here.

"Did you get that, Pidgeot?" he asked, squinting at the moving fortress.

"I didn't, no-" Pidgeot began, then interrupted herself. "Oh, now I do. Thanks."

Her wings flashed, and she sped onwards towards one of the outer engine pods.

"Three treasures, three birds," Lawrence said softly. "Bring together all three, and tame the beast of the sea."

"If you say so," J said, looking dubiously at the trio of orbs in their special holder. "They just look like clear Pokéballs to me."

"Often artefacts of great power seem minor to the uninitiated," Lawrence assured her. "After all, our first discovery seemed nothing but a simple rectangle of thin metal, but look what it made possible!"

His grand gesture took in the whole stateroom of the vast flying machine, and also the storm outside.

The computer spoke up. Zapdos approaching.

"Destiny calls," Lawrence said lightly, sitting on his chair. "Do you want a lift?"

J shook her head. With a nod, her brother pressed a button on his control panel and his chair rose with a smooth hum into the ceiling.

Mildly interested in what was about to happen, J stepped over to the east side of the stateroom to watch.

The floor vibrated slightly as the cannons deployed, and began to fire.

"Thanks, girl," Ash said, giving Pidgeot a rub. "Okay, have a rest for now."

He held out her Pokéball, and she returned with a red flash.

"Found it," Riolu announced, lifting a grate. "This must be the service hatch."

Ash nodded, clambering over the superstructure of the nacelle. "Can I fit?"

"Looks like," Riolu judged, and Pikachu hopped down before nodding a confirmation.

"Okay, here we go." Ash crouched down, and began to crawl through the accessway.

In her office on Mandarin Island, an air traffic control officer looked over at her radar screen.

"Good afternoon, Tango Romeo four two three. Be advised, your current flight plan intersects an area in which there is a severe weather warning, stand by for a rerouting. Over."

Next to her, her Spearow gave an approving chirp.

"No thank you, ATC," the pilot of Tango Romeo 423 replied. "We are aware of the severe weather warning, and do not require a re-route."

"We're not the sort to heed warnings, anyway," another voice said in the background.

"Hey, I'm doing the talking," the pilot hissed. "Over."

The officer shared a look with her Flying type. "Say again, Tango Whiskey four two three? You do not, repeat not require a redirect? Over."

"Affirmative, ATC," the voice confirmed. "No redirect. Please wait, I am switching my transponder to mode two for clarification. Over."

"Mode two?" the officer repeated. "What's-"

The data codes duly changed.

"...okay, wow," the officer said after a moment, and shared another look with her Spearow. This one was more astonished than dubious. "Uh, affirmative, Tango Romeo four two three. I suppose I should say good luck. Over."

"Much appreciated, ATC. You may lose contact, we're going to mode five now. Out."

And with that, the code on her radar vanished completely.

"...huh. Wasn't expecting that," she said faintly.

AN:

This is, of course, the second Pokémon movie, Power of One.

In the original run of the fic, this was where I restarted after a long hiatus. It kicked off a multi-year period in which I wrote over 1.8 million words.

It's only undergone very minor changes – more than nothing, but not much.