Essence

by vincentgrey21

Ash has always wanted to be a pokemon master. When the time comes for him to pick out his first pokemon, he shocks Professor Oak with a peculiar request. One thing leads to another, and he ends up with a loyal Growlithe. How will this unique situation affect the boy's destiny?

16. Kanto 16

Kanto 16: Essence

They had stumbled upon a sizable, rock-ribbed clearing that was devoid of other travelers. There was a peaceful, babbling brook that ran through it, and a pleasant woody-earthy scent that came from the abundance of moss covered pebbles and stones.

It was the perfect place to meet his bug-type.

With Growlithe and Rhyhorn by his side, and Charmeleon facing them — leaving plenty of space in-between — Ash unclipped Scyther's safari ball.

"Don't engage unless I say so," demanded Ash before turning his attention to his brute, "Rhyhorn, I need you to show some restraint."

The dual-type nodded while blowing hot air out of his nostrils.

"Growlithe, Charmeleon — same with the two of you," said Ash in a serious manner.

Growlithe let out an affirmative bark as he faced forward with anticipation.

Charmeleon spat out a confirmatory wisp of flames.

"Good," said Ash with a soft smile, grasping Scyther's safari ball, "I'm not too worried about this one. I think he'll be just fine."

The dark-haired boy casually lofted the safari ball out into the middle of the pebbly clearing. Right before it made contact with the ground, it snapped open, unleashing a surge of incandescent white light. Once it faded, there was an intimidating green mantis with scythes for arms that stood before them. With an alert countenance, Scyther's eyes darted back and forth between the four of them before focusing on Ash.

The mantis looked him over acutely.

Ash met his gaze with compassionate eyes and a confident smile.

"Hey, Scyther," said Ash, loosely clenching his fists and holding them both out in front of of his body, reenacting their game of tug-of-war, "that was quite the struggle we had."

The mantis gave him an abridged nod while disclosing a resonate grunt. He bended his body at the waste, swooping one of his bladed appendages down below his torso as he transitioned into a deep bow.

For a moment, the young trainer was reminded of the forced deferential behavior that some of his friends had exhibited following the events that took place in the dragon lair. However, after giving it some thought, it had to be different. There was no way that Scyther knew about his identity, so Ash chalked it up to some kind of chivalrous personality quirk.

Regardless, it meant that there wasn't going to be a confrontation. He wouldn't have to vie for Scyther's compliance. Ash had a feeling after the nature of their bout in the woodlands that things would go smoothly. But, it was nothing more than a hunch based off of instincts and small observations.

It was nice to have confirmation.

Ash gestured for his friends to stand down as he approached the mantis, "my name is Ash. I'd like to train you to become the strongest of your kind. Would you like that?"

Leading with the fleshy end of one of his blades, Scyther pointed at the young trainer, causing Ash's friends to stir. The young trainer once again gestured for them to stay put as the bug-type proceeded to shift the tip of his blade — now pointing it towards himself.

After pointing back and forth between them, the mantis took a knee while lowering its head as if it was swearing fealty.

An awkward smile formed on Ash's face.

This would take some getting used to.

"Please stand," requested the dark-haired boy as he scratched the back of his head.

Scyther obeyed, lifting himself from the ground while looking his new trainer in the eyes.

"Scyther, I'd like you to meet Growlithe," said Ash as he pointed towards his starter, "he's been with me the longest."

Locking eyes with the bug-type, the canine let out a welcoming yip.

The bladed bug-type gave Growlithe a slight bow, showing his respect.

"This is Rhyhorn," stated Ash, gesturing towards his brute, "I caught him in the Safari Zone just like you. We've already become good friends."

Scyther lowered his head once more.

The rock plated mammal gave the mantis a gruff nod before carefully swinging his head over to his trainer.

Fulfilling his dual-type's request, Ash gently stroked his brute's horn as he pointed across the clearing to his fire lizard, "that's Charmeleon, like Growlithe, we've been together for a while."

Scyther turned around to face Charmeleon before bowing yet again.

Charmeleon divulged a grunt of acknowledgement as he made his way over to them.

Ash took out his pokedex, preparing to check out Scyther's ability and moveset.

The mantis angled his head, showing curiosity as the young trainer pointed the device in his direction.

"This is a pokedex," explained the young trainer, "it'll help me figure out where you're at. That way I'll have a better idea when it comes to how we'll start training."

Scyther emitted a soft, reverberating murmur, indicating that he understood.

Before pressing the scan button, Ash turned his attention to his pup, "Growlithe, go help Charmeleon work on Fire Fang. We'll start learning a new move as soon as I'm confident you've fully recovered from your battle against Koga's venomoth."

Growlithe gave Ash a look that portrayed that he was being overly cautious before nodding in compliance. The canine loaded his maw with flames as he made eye contact with the fire lizard. Charmeleon spewed out a spate of fire, signifying that he was ready. The two fire-type's sauntered over to the other side of the clearing to start their training.

Pivoting his eyes to his brute, Ash pointed out into the distance — away from Growlithe and Charmeleon.

"Rhyhorn, I want you to work on Stone Edge. Remember what we talked about yesterday. Feel the earth through your hooves, stomp, shape it, then raise it upward. I'll be over there to help you out in a bit."

The rock plated mammal nodded, divulging a low corroborative grunt before heading off in order to carry out his trainer's request.

When the young trainer shifted his focus back to Scyther, he smiled as he deciphered the look of admiration on his new bug-type's face. The mantis seemed to be responding well to the way that Ash did things.

"Okay…" said Ash in a prolonged manner as he pressed the scan button on his Pokédex, "let's see…"

He skipped passed the mantis's pokedex entry before listening to Dexter's computerized words:

"Current moveset: Leer, Quick Attack, Vacuum Wave, Focus Energy, Pursuit, False Swipe, Agility, Wing Attack, Fury Cutter, Slash, Razor Wind, Double Team, X-Scissor, Bug Buzz. Ability: Technician."

"Whoa…" uttered Ash — gobsmacked by the information that just passed through his ears, "you know all of these?"

Scyther gave his new trainer an affirmative gesture of the head.

Ash whistled in a manner that conveyed that he was impressed.

The mantis was strong.

The young trainer would have to confirm whether or not the bug-type had truly mastered the entirety of his current moveset, but if everything checked out, Scyther was more than likely the highest level pokemon he had ever caught. His moveset was incredibly advanced. The mantis only had a handful of techniques left that it could learn as a scyther. The dark-haired boy would have to double-check, but going off of memory, he was pretty sure that the only move that Scyther could solely learn in his primary form that he didn't already know was Air Slash.

Simply put, it wouldn't be long before Ash and his new bug-type had a decision to make:

Scizor or Kleavor?

Typically, trainers in Kanto didn't have much of a choice. Black augurite was ridiculously rare and exclusively found in the far away region of Paldea. But, Ash had a feeling that if he asked Bill, the world renowned researcher would be able to track some down for him.

If the young trainer was forced to decide this very moment, he would likely go with a scizor evolution. He could use the variation that its secondary steel typing would bring to his team, and it was hard to get the image of Kent's scizor out of his head. Looking past its blood-thirsty nature, the scizor was dominant to the point where the dark-haired boy couldn't help but want one.

Be that as it may, he could always change his mind.

On top of the sheer amount of techniques that Scyther already knew, there were two things that distinctly stood out to Ash.

The first was that the mantis knew Bug Buzz. A powerful bug-type technique that Ash was already familiar with because Koga's venomoth had used it against Growlithe. Just like Dratini's Mist and Charmeleon's Focus Punch, Bug Buzz was an egg move that was unnatural to Scyther's moveset. Outside of inexplicable genetic allotment, the only way for the scyther line to attain Bug Buzz was by means of TM, which could only happen post evolution. Thus, the fact that Scyther knew Bug Buzz was extremely fortunate.

The other thing that caught his attention was Scyther's ability. Technician was a latent ability that made all of a pokemon's rudimentary moves more powerful. Ash wasn't sure exactly how it worked, but essentially techniques like Quick Attack and Fury Cutter would be even more effective than when other pokemon with a similar level of strength used them. It would be an understatement to say that Scyther's ability was an advantage.

Technician was practically a cheat code.

"Let's go through all of your moves," suggested Ash, looking the bug-type in the eye, "I'd like to get a good grasp on what each one looks like before we try to learn something new."

Scyther bowed as he divulged a drumming whir.

The mantis was ready to get started.

XXX

Coated in a thin layer of thaumaturgic energy, Clefairy used Minimize to manipulate her size, eluding the leaf pokemon's Leech Seed. The fairy pokemon leaped forward, emitting an outcry that caused the bayleaf to stumble backwards. After using Disarming Voice, and severing the distance between them, the fairy pokemon used one of her tiny fists to maul the grass-type across the side of the head with Pound.

As Clefairy attempted to follow it up by swinging a powerful open fist, the grass-type tried to raise a barrier to block the Wake-Up Slap.

"It's not worth it that's Reflect!" informed Ash, "switch back to Disarming Voice!"

"Magical Leaf!" shouted the young blonde-haired girl.

Clefairy divulged another peculiar clamor as she was pelted by a mass of luminous leaves. The bayleaf let out a wail as it fell to the rocky ground, while Clefairy grimaced after being knocked back a fair distance. She aggressively bounded forward as the leaf pokemon started to get up. The fairy-type once again shrunk her body when the bayleaf fired a salvo of razor-sharp leaves, dodging them as she closed the gap.

"Psychic!" commanded Ash.

A surge of purple psionic energy cut through the bayleaf's lingering Reflect before making direct contact. The grass-type gasped, feeling the pain from its mind being assaulted for a brief moment before it froze.

"Bayva!" yelled the girl.

"Finish it off with another one!" ordered Ash.

After emanating another wave of supernatural energy, the bayleaf collapsed, conceding to unconsciousness.

Clefairy gracefully skipped over to her trainer. She let out a satisfied murmur as Ash crouched, petting her behind the ear.

"Good job, Clefairy," praised Ash, "we've still got some work to do, but we're getting there with Psychic."

Growlithe let out a celebratory yip — proud of his friend.

The fairy pokemon acknowledged the canine with a nod before looking up at her trainer with determined eyes as she softly murmured.

"That cutie is tough," said the young female trainer.

As she approached, the ordinary looking girl returned her bayleaf before taking out her pokedex in order to transfer over Ash's winnings.

"She is," replied Ash, taking his pokedex out of his coat pocket, "we've been working on Psychic for over a month. It's finally at a point where we're doing consistent damage."

He paused, realizing it would be impolite to not say something nice about his opponent's pokemon, "your bayleaf is skilled. Its timing with Reflect was impressive."

"Thank you," she said with a smile, shifting her attention back and forth between Ash and Clefairy, "we've never battled against a fairy-type before. I think it was a good experience for her."

"No problem," said Ash, reciprocating her smile before looking down at his pokedex to see that the transaction was complete, "thank you for the battle. It was good for us as well."

Once the two young trainers parted ways, Ash focused his attention back on his fairy-type.

"As soon as we can do solid damage against pokemon with mental barriers, it's time for us to start working on something new," explained Ash, "it's been far too long since we worked on your natural moveset."

Clefairy vigorously nodded as she murmured in agreement.

Just a little more, and they would finally be able to consider Psychic a stable part of the fairy pokemon's moveset.

XXX

"Locate the pores in your tail," directed Ash, "then release it."

Within seconds a surge of water was rapidly pouring out of Wartortle's tail. It flopped all over the place, completely out of control.

Sticking his hands out in front of himself, Ash tried to block his face from getting splashed as the rest of his body got soaked.

"N-now man-ipulate it!" yelled Ash, getting blasted across the cheek through the cracks in-between his fingers, "sp-iral! Tr-y to g-get i-it to spi-ral!"

The water coming out of Wartortle's tail sharply jetted to the right, giving Ash a momentary break.

"Think of it as an extension of yours—" started the young trainer before the turtle pokemon's tail swung left, dousing him once more.

"C-cond-sense it!" bellowed Ash, getting water up his nose.

All of a sudden, the liquid onslaught came to an end. Once Ash wiped the water from his eyes, he saw that his turtle pokemon had successfully brought down the scope of the burst of water. It was still aimless, lacking the shape and directionality that they wanted, but it was progress.

As Ash took in Wartortle's frustrated — but focused — disposition, he made air circles with his pointer finger, trying to give his water-type a visual representation.

"Bring it down to a single, powerful streak of water," said Ash, continuing to swirl his finger, "once you do that, we want it to spiral at a diagonal around the entire length of your tail."

The dark-haired boy watched as the water started to change shape. Wartortle tried to consolidate it from the outside in, working towards one steady stream.

"That's it…" said Ash as he walked over to get a better look, "goo—"

Before Ash even realized that Wartortle had lost control, he was on his back gasping for air. Having been hit by an efflux of water, the wind had been thoroughly knocked out of him. Ash could hear Wartortle scurry to his side. The turtle pokemon hovered over him with a look of concern, something he wasn't capable of not too long ago.

When Ash finally caught his breath, he slowly sat up before patting his turtle pokemon between the feathers on his head and forcing a smile.

"G-oo-d th-ing I re-turned Grow-lithe."

XXX

Ash pointed to his dragon-type's tail as he looked him in the eyes.

"Once you activate it, you need to push your draconic energy down here," explained the dark-haired boy, trying to keep a serious expression as Dratini happily bobbed the anterior half of his body up and down.

Ash used his pointer finger to draw a line from his own stomach up to his mouth, "if this is what you do when you use Dragon Rage," he paused before drawing a line from his stomach to his feet, "then this is what you do when you use Dragon Tail."

The jolly dragon's body glowed bright purple as he tried to push the energy downward towards the tip of his tail. The young trainer and his pup watched as the glow centralized in the middle of Dratini's serpentine body before gradually traveling in the direction that they desired. It got about halfway between the middle portion and the end of his tail before rebounding back up. Ash and Growlithe rapidly jumped out of the way when Dratini accidentally released another Dragon Rage.

The elegant serpent cocked his head in an adorably confused manner as Ash crouched down to his level.

"That was better, Dratini," complimented Ash with a soft smile, "you're getting it to move the right way. That's good progress."

Growlithe divulged an encouraging, playful yap.

The dragon-type emitted a resounding coo before using his tail to pet both Ash and Growlithe's heads.

Ash couldn't help but laugh. Dratini sure was consistent.

They had started working on Dragon Tail a couple of days ago. Although Ash figured Dratini had a good work ethic due to the status of his current moveset, he was originally unsure of what kind of expectations he should have. The dragon's personality was so different from the rest of his pokemon. Not to get it twisted, the young trainer loved his serpent's carefree, convivial attitude. But, he had a tough time visualizing how the dragon-type would respond when it was time to get serious.

So far, so good.

When it came to training, Dratini was willing to do whatever Ash asked of him. He took it very seriously, albeit without breaking character.

He cheerfully trained.

He jubilantly sparred.

And although he had yet to participate in a live battle, Ash assumed he would do that gleefully as well.

Dratini didn't have the same edge that some of his other pokemon had. But, it didn't matter. The serpent was going to be strong. Ash could see it in his eyes.

It was a strange feeling that got stronger each and every time they trained together.

He didn't know why, but he just knew.

This Dratini was given to him by Mew and the alpha for a reason, and it wasn't just because of the serpent's immense potential.

It wasn't a coincidence that he was gifted Dratini at the same time that his destiny as the Chosen One was confirmed.

Ash needed him.

He needed his joyful personality.

He needed an unwavering light on his team that continued to shine bright even when things inevitably got dark.

Ash was given Growlithe the day that his dream of becoming a pokemon trainer became a reality.

And he was given Dratini the day that destiny decided it was time to let him know who he was.

They were the two most pivotal moments in his life.

And a pokemon was forever linked to each one.

Growlithe was the heartbeat.

And dratini was the light.

All of his friends had roles, but Ash knew that these two were special.

As thoughts that he couldn't explain continued to flood into his brain. Dratini's body started to glow purple as he attempted to perform Dragon Tail once more.

XXX

"It's definitely close," said Ash, leaning forward with his hands on his knees as he examined Charmeleon's maw, "let me see it again."

Growlithe showed his fellow fire-type support by loading his mouth full of fire.

In preparation to sink his teeth into one of the thick, wet logs that Ash had asked Wartortle to pull out of the free-flowing river that they had been traveling alongside of, the fire lizard ignited his fangs. With a ferocious flame, Charmeleon opened his jaws as wide as he could. Stepping forward with his right leg, and stretching out his neck. He chomped down hard, biting through about a third of the log's diameter and burning the rest.

"Your flames are good," said Ash with a soft smile, "we've just got to improve your jaw strength. It'll come with repetition."

The fire lizard nodded, understanding where there was still room for improvement.

It had been a couple of weeks since Charmeleon had started working on Fire Fang with Growlithe. Ash hadn't been entirely hands-off. He frequently checked in on their progress, ensuring that Charmeleon knew that he was just as invested as he would be if he was the one leading the training sessions.

However, this was an important step for Growlithe's development as a leader.

In Ash's opinion, among the many attributes and skills needed to be considered a great leader, there were two that he considered paramount.

The ability to lead by example.

And the wIllingness to take others under your wing.

This was an opportunity for Growlithe to practice both.

Besides, as Ash's team continued to grow, training responsibilities would need to be delegated amongst the most experienced members of the group.

When it came to a technique like Fire Fang that Growlithe had already mastered, and Charmeleon needed to learn, this was the most efficient way that they could go about things. Ash would step in when needed, but for the most part, he would leave the development of Charmeleon's Fire Fang to Growlithe.

"I think it's about time we wrapped it up for this morning," said Ash as he signaled for his friends to follow him, "let's eat before we get moving again."

Growlithe and Charmeleon's eyes grew and they started to drool, clearly liking the idea of chowing down on some premium pokemon food.

XXX

"Ring…"

"Ring…"

"Ring…"

"Click."

"What a monumental moment," said Gary in a mordant tone as he gave Ash a toothy grin, "you called me for a change. What's the special occasion? I'm pretty sure it's not my birthday."

"Whoa, I wasn't expecting to see your face," replied Ash, sarcastically covering his eyes, "last time we talked you didn't have the video chat feature. What an unpleasant surprise."

"Good one…" said Gary in a sardonic and prolonged manner, "I got myself an xtransceiver the day it officially launched. Anyways, how you doing Ash-boy? It's been a couple of weeks."

"I'm doing alright," answered Ash with a smile, "I'm on my way to the southern islands."

"You beat Koga!?" queried Gary.

"I did…" replied Ash with a serious expression, "it was really close, though. We barely pulled it off."

"Damn…" said Gary with a soft smile, "congrats, that's got to make you the first this year."

"Yeah…" responded Ash, "but, the rumors aren't true. He's playing fair."

"If only one trainer has beaten him over the first four months of the League year, how the hell's that playing fair?"

"It's always been hard for rookies to get the Soul Badge," replied Ash with a sigh, "either the competition is really bad this year, or the rumors caused all of the competent trainers to save Koga for later. I bet you it's the latter. There's still more than six months until the tournament."

"I'll take your word for it," said Gary with a shrug, "if you beat him, then there's no way I'll lose."

Ash rolled his eyes, "let's not forget what happened in Viridian City."

"How could I forget when you're always reminding me!?" replied Gary with a playful level of irritation in his voice, "besides, that barely counts. We'd just gotten our starters."

"Every battle between us counts," quipped Ash with a smirk, "right now, it's Ash Ketchum: one, Gary Oak: zero."

"Psht…whatever, we'll see what happens next time we battle, Ashy-boy," he smirked, "your best friend, the great Gary Oak, has assembled quite the team so far."

"Oh, really?" goaded Ash, raising an eyebrow, "but, how good could a team put together by the great Gary Oak really be?"

Truthfully, Ash believed Gary. His best friend was a lot of things, but a liar wasn't one of them. If he said he had put together a good team — then he had put together a good team.

However, giving each other a hard time was the essence of their friendship.

"You'll find out during the tournament," retorted Gary with a wink.

Ash laughed, "was the wink really necessary?"

"Of course it was necessary," joked Gary, "there's nothing that gets a point across better than a well timed wink."

"Whatever you say…" replied Ash in a prolonged manner while rolling his eyes yet again.

He paused as his expression became more earnest, "how'd your battle against Erika go?"

"Good…I won," said Gary as he let out a frustrated sigh, "but, choosing to take on Erika before Sabrina kind of screwed me over."

"How so?"

"You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?"

"The Saffron City Gym is closed," answered Gary, shaking his head in an irritated manner, "apparently Sabrina's taken a temporary leave of absence. My travel plans have been completely ruined!"

"Oh…" replied Ash, "that sucks…"

He hadn't thought about that. Maybe, it was because he already had the Marsh Badge. But for some reason, it hadn't even crossed his mind that Sabrina wouldn't be able to perform her typical duties as the Saffron City Gym Leader while she was scraping through Ariana's mental barrier at the Indigo Plateau.

"Yeah, it does," replied Gary, "apparently the Fighting Dojo has taken over as Saffron's official gym for the time being. Even if it's supposed to count as one of the eight major badges while Sabrina's gone, I don't want a lesser badge in order to qualify for the conference. I'm debating skipping Saffron for now. Hopefully, Sabrina's gym opens up again soon."

"I wouldn't do that if I were—" started Ash before quickly realizing that he had screwed up.

"What do you know?" questioned Gary, raising an eyebrow.

"N-nothing, it's just who knows how long the Saffron Gym will be closed for?" said Ash, desperately trying to recover from his slip up, "you need seven badges to battle Giovanni. If you beat the Fighting Dojo, then at the very least you can compete for the Earth Badge and secure your spot in the tournament. You can always battle Sabrina once her gym reopens."

Ash could tell by the look on Gary's face that he wasn't buying it.

"You're making it sound like the Saffron Gym is going to be closed for a while," prodded Gary, "you know something. Now, what is it Ashy-boy?"

Dammit.

Gary wasn't going to let this go.

He was going to have to tread carefully. The last thing he wanted to do was get his best friend involved in the looming future events that persistently plagued his mind.

"Sabrina and I have become good friends," answered Ash, "apparently, she is taking care of some very important League matters."

"Friends with Sabrina?" asked Gary, tilting his head with curiosity, "I've heard she's like a human robot, and what kind of important League matters?"

"Don't talk about her like that," replied Ash with a scowl, "people are just afraid of her. She's awesome when you get to know her."

"Okay, okay," said Gary, waving his hands in a way that conveyed that he didn't want Ash to escalate, "so, you're friends with Sabrina. That's great. Now, what are these League matters?"

"I don't know," lied Ash, biting part of his bottom lip, "she wouldn't tell me."

"You're lying!" retorted Gary, "you're biting your bottom lip. You always do that when you lie."

Shit.

He was starting to regret calling Gary.

"I'm not allowed to talk about it," groaned Ash, "just let it go."

"Just tell me."

"No."

"Why are you being so difficult!?" chided Gary, "aren't best friends supposed to tell each other everything?!"

"I said those exact same words when we were talking about what pokemon you were going to use against Surge, and you wouldn't tell me!" retorted Ash, "you also wouldn't tell me the name of the other trainer from Pallet!"

"It's not like you would tell me anything about any of your pokemon! We agreed to that before we became trainers!"

Gary took a deep breath, calming himself down.

"And trust me, you don't want to know the name of the other trainer from Pallet," said Gary with a look of disgust on his face.

"I already know…" muttered Ash in a distasteful manner, "We passed by each other at the Celadon Gym. She got in a big fight with Erika right when I got there and stormed out. I didn't recognize her at the time, but Erika mentioned that she had an ivysaur, so I figured it had to be the other trainer from Pallet."

He let out a deep sigh, "when Erika told me her name, I couldn't believe it. It had been so long…and she looked so different…I may not have recognized her with the way she looks now, but I could never forget that name…"

"Sorry, Ash…" said Gary with earnest eyes, "I tried to save you the trouble of knowing…"

"It's not your fault," replied Ash, shaking his head, "it is what it is. I should have put it together when you mentioned that she took the exam in Johto. I just wonder what her reason is for starting her journey in Kanto?"

"I don't know," said Gary with a shrug, "when my gramps told me that she was showing up to pick out her starter, I couldn't bring myself to be there. I didn't ask him why she's here, but you know my gramps has always had a soft spot for that family."

"I know…" said Ash in a prolonged manner, "no wonder you waited to pick up your squirtle and decided to meet me at the edge of town instead. If I were you, I would have done the same thing."

"Well, I actually did want to have a proper chat before we started both of our journeys," said Gary as he scratched the back of his head, "but, I'd be lying if I said that her being at the lab didn't persuade me to be late to pick up my starter."

"I see…" muttered Ash, "anyways, we've talked about Leaf long enough. I'd rather not spend too much time taking this trip down bad memory lane."

"Same…" said Gary before tensing up, "ugh, just hearing her name makes me want to puke."

The brown-haired boy paused as he furrowed his eyebrows, "now, tell me about the League matter."

"Shit, Gary, just give it up!" retorted Ash, "I can't tell you. At least not yet."

"Okay, then when?"

He knew this was the only way to get Gary to stop bothering him about it.

"I'll tell you at the Indigo Plateau."

"You're going to keep me hanging for more than six months?!"

"If you don't wait until then," replied Ash with a stern face, "then I'll never tell you."

Regardless of the outcome, by that time everything with the abomination would likely be settled.

"Fine, fine," agreed Gary reluctantly before wagging his finger at Ash, "but it better be good."

For the third time since the conversation had started, Ash rolled his eyes.

Unfortunately, Gary, it's the furthest thing from 'good'.

XXX

He was careful, mindfully stepping around the large, slick stones that covered the landscape as he circled around his saurian grass-type. With a hand on his chin, he examined him with scrupulous eyes.

Legs. Check.

Body. Check.

Head. Check.

Fronds. Check.

Bud…

Check.

"It's perfect," said Ash as he looked down at the timer on his pokedex, "now, let's see how long you can make it last this time."

His saurian murmured before rubbing his head up against Ash's leg affectionately.

It was ready for battle.

Ivysaur had finally figured out how to excrete enough growth hormone in order to spread Growth throughout his whole body. Now, it was just a matter of stretching out its duration.

They had already used it in a few sparring sessions, and so far, the results had been incredible. It increased his strength even more than Ash thought it would, and when used in concert with Chlorophyll and Sunny Day, it was absolutely devastating.

It was too bad he was going up against Blaine next.

…He couldn't wait until Ivysaur got a chance to use it in a gym battle.

"It's been over a minute," said Ash with a smile, glancing back and forth between Ivysaur and the timer, "this is the longest you've ever gone without being forced to reset."

There technically weren't any limits when it came to how often a pokemon could use Growth during the course of a battle. However, in order to get it right, the user had to remain still throughout its activation. Moments in which a pokemon could afford to be idle during a high-level battle were few and far between. Therefore, when the opportunities were there, duration mattered.

All of a sudden, Ivysaur shrunk back down to his normal size.

"A minute thirty!" exclaimed Ash, grinning from ear to ear.

Sensing his trainer's enthusiasm, Ivysaur let out a satisfied grunt.

Ninety seconds.

For now, that was more than enough time.

After spending nearly a month on Growth, it was time to start working on something new.

XXX

They had trekked about a half-mile west from the pervasive river that they had been traveling beside. Before they changed course, he wasn't sure what their destination was. But when they found a large, verdant glade after passing through a thin, rocky grove, Ash knew that they had found the ideal place.

As desired, there wasn't a single body of water, and there were no other travelers or wild pokemon in sight.

The longer he pushed it out, the closer they'd be to the ocean, and the last thing Ash wanted was for her to be able to sense her natural habitat. He didn't mean to be cruel, but this needed to be done in a place where she would instantly become aware of her new reality.

Ash didn't like it, but after racking his brain over all of the information about gyarados that Laina had shared with him, he'd come to one conclusion. The most surefire way to gain her obedience was to make her feel like a fish out of water. If it was done in her territory, she'd never submit to a child.

Gyarados were adept battlers on land. The few that reached the pinnacle of their species potential could even fly. But, their arrogance was never more potent than when they were in the water.

Now that they'd found the place…It was time.

Other than Gyarados, all of Ash's pokemon were out.

Growlithe stood bravely on his left.

Dratini jubilantly hummed on his right.

Eevee was confidently perched up on his shoulder.

Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Wartortle stood stoically a fair distance across from him.

Clefairy and Rhyhorn offered support on the left flank.

While Scyther was prepared to handle the right flank on his own.

Pidgeot circled the skies from above.

And Haunter dwelled within his shadow.

Ash took a deep breath as he unclipped the safari ball that held Gyarados.

His pulse was rising, but he wasn't afraid.

"Let me try to get through to her first!" bellowed Ash, "If she attacks, Haunter will protect me, and you are free to engage! But, don't over do it! Make sure it's just enough to let her know that lashing out won't let her take control! Remember, regardless of how Gyarados reacts, she is part of the team!"

He could feel a sense of acknowledgment from all of his friends.

"Are you guys ready!?"

The resounding sound of eager beasts filled the glade.

The young trainer launched the camouflage designed capture-device into the middle of the wide perimeter made by his pokemon. The safari ball unleashed a towering billow of effulgent white light. When it dispelled, a twenty-two foot indignant leviathan was left in its place. She divulged a strident, guttural outcry and her vehement eyes were the color of blood.

Ash used his hands to gesture to his friends to remain calm as he watched her blue, sharp scaled serpentine body violently thrash. In a fit of rage, he wasn't even sure if she'd noticed them yet.

"Gyarados!" bellowed Ash, attempting to get the behemoth's attention before she zeroed in on one of his friends.

Right when she appeared to focus in on Ivysaur, Wartortle, and Charmeleon — she snapped her head around, jerking her gargantuan body in Ash's direction before peering at the young trainer with a furious expression. Her mouth was agape, displaying her knifelike fangs, and her eyes were bulging and enraged.

"Eevee, get down," demanded Ash as he glared straight back at the beast.

As the evolution pokemon leaped down from Ash's shoulder, he summoned his resolve. Discarding his nerves, and confirming his unexplainable non-existent fear, Ash stepped forward. He walked slowly — one step at a time.

Gyarados responded by moving rapidly. Her long serpentine body rippled up and down like a drubbing wave.

Ash's friends began to close in.

"I said stay put!" shouted Ash — directed towards his pokemon, as he stared up at the countenance of a monster.

The dark-haired boy could feel Haunter's spectral presence begin to rise out of his shadow.

"Not now, Haunter!"

She stopped.

Her expression unchanged, Gyarados swiftly lowered her head down towards Ash's face.

"Get back in my shadow now, Haunter!" commanded Ash with authority in his voice.

The young trainer didn't break eye contact with the malignant leviathan as he sensed his ghoul reluctantly recede back into his shadow.

The leviathan's heavy, pulsating breath was as cold as ice. There was a bestial, resonate noise that seemed to reverberate out from somewhere deep inside of her. The sea serpent gradually pulled her head back. After examining him with her harsh, scarlet eyes she moved her neck in a wide, swooping circle, turning the rest of her body all the way around as she let out an ear-splitting, glottal outcry.

The scales on Gyarados' back, caused a harsh draft of wind that grated against his face as she briskly inspected Ash's pokemon. Suddenly, her eyes shot up towards the sky as she emitted a thunderous outcry in the direction of Pidgeot. She then turned the front of her extensively long frame all the way back around towards Ash. As Gyarados lowered her face back down to the dark-haired boy, she rocked her head from side to side, while opening her mouth even wider, attempting to intimidate him.

It didn't work.

Ash began to feel something well up from deep inside him. It was a desire he'd never felt before. While staring up at the face of the leviathan, only one thing came to mind.

Dominate.

"You are mine!" shouted Ash.

The behemoth divulged a cacophonous roar in protest, spraying thick saliva all over the boy's body.

He didn't so much as blink as a big confident grin spread across his fist.

"I will make you strong!" bellowed the young trainer before pointing straight up into the air, "strong enough to fly!"

She glared at him menacingly as her outraged face fidgeted.

"I am Ash Ketchum!" asserted the dark-haired boy, pointing towards his chest with his thumb.

He paused as he extended his arm out, pointing his finger straight at her impertinent face, "and you are my Gyarados!"

She let out a depraved cackle as she loosely coiled her body. Her head continuously swayed back and forth as she looked at him with an acrimonious, but intrigued, expression.

Her countenance had shifted. Gyarados was thinking.

"I may be a child!" howled Ash, "but I'm not useless like a magikarp!"

The beast once again let out a guttural cackle. She brought her face down even closer than before, angling her head in a way that her crest was out of the way and one of her convex eyes was merely centimeters away from his own.

All of a sudden, he felt like a passenger in his own body as he started to mouth words that were not his own.

"You will obey me, for I will one day battle atop the back of the beast of the sea!"

She harshly jerked back. Her attitude having shifted dramatically. It wasn't fear that moved her. Ash could tell that much by the look on her face.

Gyarados was fascinated.

Having been handed back control by whatever it was that just spoke through him, Ash proceeded seamlessly.

"Fighting it won't change anything!" shouted Ash as he gestured towards the rest of his pokemon, "From this point forward, you are a part of this team!"

She cocked her head, producing a husky, low-pitched drumming sound.

"If you struggle, you're just wasting time that would be better spent making you stronger! I'm not going anywhere!" bellowed the young trainer, "so, what's it going to be!? Are you going to let me train you!? Or, are we going to have to do this again tomorrow!?"

She proceeded to come in close once more. This time analyzing him with a slightly softer expression. He thought about reaching out to stroke her crest, but now wasn't the time. Even if she decided to agree, it would only be the start of a long and arduous relationship.

As Gyarados pulled back, she vulgarly grinned before giving him one rigid affirmative gesture of the head.

A big toothy smile spread across his face. He'd save checking her moveset on his pokedex for later. This was enough for now.

"You won't regret it!" he started before being hijacked once more, "as you shall be the Chosen One's serpent of the sea!"

Gyarados divulged a beastly cackle, evidently amused.

XXX

It was dark, and when other traveling trainers desired a battle at night, the evolution pokemon was always the one that Ash called upon.

"Charm!" exclaimed Ash as Eevee used Quick Attack to dodge a barrage of golden coins that were manifested by the cream colored feline.

The kit emitted a subtle wave of pink thaumaturgic energy, causing a look of enamor to appear on the meowth's face. Eevee proceeded to charge forward, firing Swift as she drew near. The meowth was able to elude, nimbly leaping into the air to avoid the flurry of golden, star shaped energy.

"Pay Day again!" yelled the teenager.

"Dodge it — Take Down when it lands!"

A burst of coins were flung at Eevee. This time they were fewer in number, and they moved through the air at a much slower velocity.

Ash smirked.

Charm was so unfair.

When the feline's feet touched the ground, it was hit hard by Eevee. The evolution pokemon led with her forelegs, limiting Take Down's recoil.

"Scratch!

"Bite!

The meowth swiped its sharp claws across Eevee's chest as she stood over the top of it. She didn't let out even the faintest of sounds as she dug her teeth into the cat pokemon. Ash could see the dark energy ooze out — a sign of a perfectly executed Bite, and a blossoming dark-type.

The feline let out something between a cry and a hiss as its eyes went stark white.

Another win under the starry night sky.

XXX

With Growlithe and Eevee by his side, Ash sat and watched as the flood current from the tide receded back to where it came from.

"The tide can be fickle. Will it recede, or will it linger? We try to predict, but can never know for sure…"

Ash fell back, letting the top half of his body land against the soft, cold sand, "what the hell does that even mean, Koga?"

His pup and his kit looked down at him. They both had a befuddled look of confusion.

"It's something that Koga said right before I left the Fuschia gym," explained Ash to his friends as he clenched a fistful of sand.

Growlithe and Eevee leaned forward, clearly intrigued.

Ash lifted up his hand, letting the grains fall through his fingers.

"I'm not sure if it's a riddle, or maybe some kind of proverb," muttered Ash, "I don't know, but it feels important.

He let out a sigh, "you know that guy figured out that I'm the Chosen One."

Growlithe and Eevee both laid their heads on Ash's chest as they listened.

"I can't figure it out," said the dark-haired boy, racking his brain as he picked up another handful of sand, "the only people that know for sure are Wallace, Sabrina, Bill, and Austin. I know for a fact that none of them would ever say anything. So, how?"

He paused as he pressed his chin up against his chest, looking his canine in the eyes, "Unless…Growlithe, did you tell him?"

While rolling his eyes — a habit the canine had recently picked up from his trainer — Growlithe blew a burst of hot air out through his nose. Since Ash's hat was lying alongside of him, the heat caused the front of the young trainer's hair to frizz up.

Eevee let out a series of amused squeals, clearly finding it funny.

Ash couldn't help but laugh before licking his hand, using his own saliva to try and straighten out his hair.

"But, in all seriousness…" said Ash in an elongated manner, "how did he figure it out?"

Growlithe and Eevee let out deep sighs, wishing they could give their trainer the answer that he was looking for.

All of a sudden, his eyes opened wide as he remembered something Koga's daughter Janine had said.

'It is scattered amongst the ancient texts that Mew is a female.'

He jolted up, causing Growlithe and Eevee to briskly lift their heads.

"The ancient texts…" muttered Ash in an elongated manner, "that's got to be it…Koga's read the 'The Legend of the Chosen One'."

His pup and his kit looked up at him with curious eyes as he placed his hand on his chin in deep thought.

But, how could Koga figure out that it was him just by remembering some words from an ancient prophecy?

It's not like the gym leader knew him…

Koga kept mentioning a large presence.

What did he mean by that?

Where did the words he said to Gyarados the other day come from?

Did that have something to do with the presence Koga was talking about?

What was that?

He took a deep breath before letting out a deep sigh.

"I need to actually make some time to read more of that book," said Ash as he stared out at the seemingly infinite body of water that was the ocean.

XXX

After a four day trip to reach the southern edge of Kanto, Ash was riding on the back of Pidgeot. Having easily spotted the rugged, mountainous, twin islands amidst the endless blue sea, they had begun their descent. The two massive identical rock formations that made up most of the western and eastern islands were much wider than they were tall, concealing the vast, icy, cavernous labyrinths that existed beneath them.

There were beaches that surrounded each mountain — some parts were sandy, others were rocky. The beaches barely had any traveling trainers and tourists this time of year, and there were very few wild pokemon that frequented them. The elaborate cave systems that were the main draw of the islands were always inexplicably cold. However, since winter had just begun, they would be even more harsh. In about a month's time, they would be completely shut down by the League until spring — considered too perilously frigid to traverse.

As they approached one of the sandy beaches that could be found on the southernmost side of the eastern island, Ash could feel the temperature drop considerably. He had adequately prepared, having already changed into a thick, insulated gray and black snowsuit — specifically designed for trainers — that he had purchased in East Fuschia.

Once Pidgeot's talons dug into the hard, frosty compacted sand that made up the eastern island's southern beach, the avian let out a nasty, irritated squawk.

"I know, I know…jeez," said Ash as he hastily unclipped Pidgeot's pokeball from the snowsuit's built in trainer belt.

After returning his avian, a small misty cloud — caused by the weather — exited Ash's mouth as he let out a deep sigh. Regardless of the fact that cold temperatures like this weren't agreeable to the pidgey line, Pidgeot's attitude had been piss-poor ever since his loss to Koga's crobat.

On top of the loss — other than Rhyhorn — the dark-haired boy hadn't allowed the avian, or any of his other pokemon that participated in the battle against Koga, resume training yet. Growlithe was the closest to a full recovery. He could probably start working on a new move today if Ash found time while exploring the Seafoam Islands. However, in his opinion, Pidgeot and Haunter were still not ready. They had accumulated a lot of damage from their efforts during the gym battle. Even after being healed by Nurse Joy and having each been given a full restore, they were still a little off.

The dark-haired boy didn't plan on using either of them against Blaine, so it didn't make sense to push them. Haunter was fine with it. His ghoul was in even worse shape than Pidgeot after using Curse against Venin, and he seemed to understand that he needed rest. Pidgeot, on the other hand, wouldn't admit that he wasn't his normal self. Therefore, they had been butting heads quite a bit over the past four days. Ash wasn't overly concerned, It's not like they hadn't been through situations like this before; the avian would eventually get over it.

Nevertheless…it was exhausting.

Once he was done reflecting on how much of a prick Pidgeot had been as of late, Ash let out Growlithe and Charmeleon. When it came to land-based environmental preferences, this was the complete opposite of what their individual species considered comfortable. However, their internal furnaces would keep them warm enough, and Ash would need the external heat that their bodies emitted in order to check out some of the deeper levels of the caves.

"We're on the southern shore of one of the Seafoam Islands," explained Ash with a smile, "are you guys ready to explore?"

Growlithe and Charmeleon both gave Ash affirmative nods as they filled their maws with scorching hot flames.

As they traveled up the frosty beach — in the direction of where the GPS on his xtransceiver said the southern entrance to the caves was — Ash took in his surroundings. There were some bundled up travelers that wore snowsuits very similar to his own. Ash engaged with a few. There was one trainer that wanted to battle one of his fire-types. Breaking his usual rule of never turning down a challenge, the young trainer refused. He wanted to keep his fire-types fresh for their forthcoming venture together. Ash had offered to battle the older teenager with one of his other pokemon that could still perform in the cold weather, but the trainer whose eyes were hidden behind a thick pair of red snow goggles wasn't interested. The dark-haired boy had a feeling the goggle-eyed teenager was just looking to make some money. He probably planned on using a water-type to achieve what he thought would be an easy victory.

There was also an old, blue-eyed, bearded man that tried to sell him some electric hand warmers. Ash wondered why the elderly man was trying to do business in such a place. Sure, conceptually it made sense. But, there were so few people, and the likelihood of somebody making the trip to the Seafoam Islands this time of year without having been prepared enough to have already purchased some variation of hand warmers had to be low. Ash politely declined before traversing forward with Growlithe and Charmeleon by his side.

The trip up the southern beach was rather uneventful when it came to wild pokemon. He'd seen a few krabby scurrying sideways along the shoreline, and there were a handful of rather unimpressive slowpoke that lazily laid around in the sand, but that was it. It was of no surprise to Ash. There were no reasons for most species to wander outside of the caves. The pokemon indigenous to the Seafoam islands had everything they needed under the protection of the mountains. All that could be found on the shores that was noteworthy were humans. Of those humans — most were trainers that were hoping to luck out and find a pokemon that they coveted while lacking the courage to enter the natural labyrinth.

As they neared the mountain's southern entrance, Ash noticed that Growlithe's behavior had changed. The pup had become restless, waving and pointing his snout around in different directions as if he had been inundated by an interesting scent.

"What is it, Growlithe?" asked the young trainer, raising an eyebrow.

The pup shook his head. It was likely too far away to latch onto.

Ash chalked it up to the plethora of water and ice-types that lurked in the many earth-made tunnels below. They hadn't come across very many ice-types throughout their journey, so it would make sense that there would be a few species' scents that would intrigue Growlithe. Unfortunately, unless there was a lapras somewhere within the cave system, this was more of a sight seeing stop for Ash. He didn't really have any interest in training any of the other ice-types native to Kanto.

The entrance to the cave system was a tall, craggy, natural corridor embedded into the southeastern base of the mountain. It was covered in sediment and there was a cold draft that flowed out of it, making an eerie sound that was reminiscent to the wailing sound of a horde of ghouls. The area surrounding the entrance was rocky and eroded. In the short amount of time that Ash took to examine the entrance, a couple of trainers exited. They looked like they were too cold to function. As they passed by, their pale, shivering forms paid him no mind.

Immediately upon entrance, the temperature of the air plummeted significantly. Ash refrained from asking Growlithe and Charmeleon to get closer to him. If he couldn't withstand the weather up here, he might as well turn around and have his disgruntled avian fly him over to Cinnabar ahead of schedule. As they made their way through the initial tunnel, the dark-haired boy was surprised by how cramped it was. The cave's ceiling was low, and there were several stalactites that hung down far enough that Ash had to either duck or maneuver around them entirely. He had to take his flashlight out a lot sooner than he thought he would as the light from the entrance impetuously waned.

When the ceiling began to rise right as the cave floor started to descend, they saw their first group of wild pokemon. Hanging upside down from a collection of petrous stalactites was a large colony of slumbering zubat and golbat. The bat pokemon loved dark caves like this, but it made sense that they would be found closer to the surface. The further they descended, the colder it would get, and they were a warm-blooded species. As they got deeper, Ash expected their numbers to become way less prevalent. They passed underneath the colony quietly — careful not to wake them. None of them looked to be strong enough to cause any serious issues, but it wasn't worth the trouble. Regardless of ability, ever since the spearow debacle on his first day as a trainer, dealing with large groups of the same wild pokemon was something that Ash tried to avoid unless it was a species that he was interested in.

"Kind of scary seeing them all hanging upside down like that," said Ash, attempting to contort his face in a way that would spook his friends.

Growlithe rolled his eyes, clearly unperturbed.

Ash watched as Charmeleon's face fidgeted. He could tell that the fire lizard was tempted to use Scary Face on him. The dark-haired boy was thankful that he refrained. Due to the low temperature of the cave, he'd rather not be forced to remain still.

After traveling for quite a while the declining tunnel eventually leveled out, opening up to reveal a large, icy cavern illuminated by stringy, bolted lights. It had a few similarities to the dragon lair. It was about as expansive, and it had quite a few stalagmites and stalactites — most of which were made of ice. There was a cold draft that wafted throughout the entirety of the space, bouncing off of the many earth made pillars covered in hailstone. The cavern's walls were also coated in a thick layer of ice, and there were a handful of natural corridors that led to more tunnels. Some of those tunnels headed west. Even as close to the surface as the uppermost caverns within the cave system, there were shafts that connected to the western island. They would crossover at some point, but he'd wait until they got to a deeper floor to do so.

The cavern had quite a few travelers in it — most of which seemed to be there for different reasons. There was a group of tourists taking pictures of a collection of extensive stalagmites that protruded out of the ground. Each stalagmite was at least taller than him. Some reached up so high that they nearly connected with the cavern's rugged, lofty ceiling. There were also what looked like researchers examining the cavern's walls. Ash wasn't sure what exactly they were looking at, but it didn't seem to be related to pokemon, since he didn't see anything that resembled a fossil. After observing them for some time, the young trainer came to the conclusion that they were likely geologists interested in the cavern's unique constitution.

There were a handful of tourists and trainers that were preoccupied by the species that could be found in this part of the cave system. So far, Ash had seen pokemon belonging to the slowpoke, shellder, psyduck and zubat lines. He'd watched as an older male trainer's electrode battled against a rather impressive slowbro that used a slew of psychic techniques. Ash had only caught the tail end of it, but the electrode had hit it with a potent Discharge before the trainer made contact with a great ball. Even though it was still conscious when it was pulled into the capture-device, the great ball didn't rattle even once after hitting the ground. Ash wasn't shocked by the outcome. He had a tough time believing that any pokemon this close to the surface was utterly opposed to the idea of being caught. The cave system went deep enough, and the deeper levels got cold enough that under most circumstances, all a wild pokemon had to do to avoid capture was steer clear of the upper levels.

After thoroughly checking out the upper cavern, Ash decided that he had seen enough.

"How about we go deeper?" asked Ash to his two fire-types.

Growlithe and Charmeleon divulged corroborative grunts, following Ash as he searched for a tunnel that led further into the depths of the Seafoam Islands.

XXX

As expected, due to another considerable decline in temperature, the second cavern was rather scarce when it came to other people. There were more of the same lights that illuminated the upper cavern; however, due to the sheer immensity of this level of the cave system, Ash couldn't make out most of it. The draft that he felt in the last cavern had gotten even stronger, which only enhanced the intensity of the cold.

The few people that he'd run into as he traversed this space were trainers. From what he'd seen thus far, there were a lot more wild pokemon that could be found as well. Most were of the same species that could be seen in the upper cavern, but other than the slowbro that was caught by the older trainer, they were all much stronger specimens. There were a handful of golduck — one of which was being battled by a trainer with a vaporeon. The battle between water-types was too much of a grind for him to stand around and watch.

It was too cold.

He needed to move.

When they approached an artillery of shellder and cloyster, Ash stopped.

"Move slowly," said the young trainer to his fire-types.

His friends complied, showing no signs of hostility.

They weren't at a complete disadvantage because of the species secondary ice typing, but there were a lot of them. If they were to show any signs of aggression, Ash would have no choice but to call upon at least one of his other friends. Fortunately, the extent of their aggression was their glaring beady eyes that followed them until they were clear of their position.

After passing the shellder and cloyster, Growlithe abruptly began to act exactly how he had before they passed through the entrance to the mountain. Pointing his nose in various directions, his nostrils flared. This time Ash could tell whatever he caught a whiff of was closer. Growlithe latched on a couple of times before suddenly losing the trail. There were no pure ice-types in Kanto, and at this point they had already come in contact with the shellder line, so it made Ash curious.

What was stimulating Growlithe's aromatic awareness?

Ash watched as Charmeleon checked in with Growlithe, divulging a series of grunts and growls in order to communicate. The canine responded with a sequence of his own before shaking his head. Whatever scent had caught his attention for a second time had once again vanished.

They continued to cross the cavern, taking in the environment. When they reached the center, Ash had to rely on his flashlight and the flames that emanated from both fire-types' ignited maws — in addition to Charmeleon's conflagrant tail flame — in order to see.

This part of the second cavern had several staryu and a handful of starmie. The star shaped pokemon never ventured too far away from a body of water. Ash wondered how it was possible for water to remain unfrozen in a climate like this, but there were a lot of things about the Seafoam Islands that didn't make sense. As their ruby red jewels glimmered in the dark, Ash kept his hand on Haunter's greatball. The dark-haired boy knew that at some point the native pokemon would likely move in a threatening way, but now was not the time.

Once they moved past the group of pokemon belonging to the staryu line, Ash could clearly see the other side of the cavern for the first time. There were more tunnels — a couple of which he knew had to lead even deeper into the cave system. While traipsing forward he glanced down, investigating the condition of his fire-types. They both seemed to be holding up just fine. Growlithe was sniffing around, trying to pick up the scent from earlier while Charmeleon kept his eyes focused on what was in front of them.

Ash was cold, but the snowsuit was doing its job. His fire-types created a small pocket of warmth, and he could always get closer to them if he needed to. The young trainer knew that at some point it was probably going to become unbearable, but they would keep going for now. As he squeezed the hand warmers in his snow gloves, he saw a female trainer accompanied by a vulpix sitting behind a frosty boulder. Ash started to walk over to her thinking that she was in need of help, but when he saw the solitary jynx meandering just a little ways beyond her position, he moved on. It was apparent that she was trying to capture it.

Welp, someone had to be a fan of the bizarre human shaped pokemon that made Ash's skin crawl…

When they reached the other side of the cavern, there were three tunnels. One of them had an even stronger current of wind ripping through it. Going off of what he'd experienced thus far, Ash assumed that the tunnel with the heavy air flow had to lead down. He knew that this was the point where most people would likely turn around, but he felt something in his gut nudging him forward.

"Are you guys good to keep going?"

His pup and his fire lizard nodded before they moved on ahead.

As they passed through the long, sinking underground tube, he squinted his eyes while sticking his hand out in front of himself, attempting to block the frigid wind from smacking against his face. Charmeleon's tail flame was larger than normal on account of it being perpetually fanned, and the flames that Growlithe was intentionally pouring out in order to help keep them warm continuously reeled backwards. Ash wasn't sure what the temperature was at this point, but when factoring in the windchill, it had to be close to zero. He had already raised his hood and pulled the strings as tight as he could to keep his ears and mouth warm. The only part of his face that was still visible were his eyes and his cheek bones — both of which were starting to sting from the icy wind.

After fighting hard to get through the dark, empty, windswept tunnel, they entered another cavern. This one was much smaller than the first two. The sturdy, mounted lights illuminated the entire cavernous room, and Ash could clearly see two more tunnels embedded into the frozen wall on the other side. It wouldn't take long to cross if it weren't for the dense population of seel and dewgong that loitered and played by the modest-sized watering hole. It boggled his mind that the small body of water hadn't frozen over. It didn't emit any steam, so Ash knew it wasn't a natural hot spring. For the life of him, he couldn't figure it out.

To their left, he noticed an elevated section of the cavern floor that didn't seem too steep to climb. Quietly signaling for Growlithe and Charmeleon to follow him, he headed in its direction. As they made their way over to the raised up slab of frost-bound stone, Ash noticed that quite a few members of the pod of white sea lion pokemon had noticed them. They simply watched as he and his fire-types sauntered in the opposite direction. There were a couple of dewgong that hastily moved in front of what the dark-haired boy assumed to be their young. But as soon as they confirmed that Ash and his friends weren't interested in approaching, they seemed to relax.

Despite the fact that the elevated slab was slanted enough to where traversing it seemed achievable, Ash had to have Growlithe and Charmeleon torch a path upwards so that his hands and feet wouldn't slip. As he waited for it to cool down enough to touch — which obviously didn't take long — he temporarily returned his fire-types before starting to arduously climb. Even with the ice being melted off, it was a lot harder than he thought it would be. The wet rocks were difficult to grab onto at first, but he moved as fast as he could to try and make it to the top before it froze over again. Even if it was just a little steeper, Ash was sure he wouldn't have been able to do it. With heavy breath and shaking hands, the young trainer immediately let Charmeleon and Growlithe back out of their pokeballs after conquering the frozen slope.

Atop the flat, elevated mound of frost covered stone, there was another small watering hole. There were no pokemon above water. But, as they maneuvered around it, Ash saw a couple of different species underneath the crystal clear surface. There were a handful of horsea and seadra as well as some staryu and starmie. For a brief moment, Ash thought about trying to catch one of the light blue piscine pokemon. Its final evolution, kingdra, was one of the strongest water-types in all of Kanto, and its secondary dragon typing made it incredibly versatile. The young trainer had long considered adding one to his team if his plan to catch a gyarados didn't pan out. However, now that he had two water-types, he didn't think it was a good idea. Unless he came across a lapras at some point, he would wait until he was traveling outside of his home region to add another one.

Suddenly, one of the seadra met his gaze. With aggressive eyes, it began to rapidly swim to the surface.

"Stay calm and slowly back away," said Ash to his fire-types, keeping his eyes on the surfacing seadra.

With his hand on Wartortle's pokeball, the dark-haired boy slowly started to move backwards in the direction that they wanted to go. His fire-types followed his lead as they also kept their eyes peeled on the spiny, coiled piscine. With its head above water, it glared at them with threatening eyes. If it advanced even an inch, Ash would release Wartortle. Fortunately, it refrained. After watching to make sure that they were leaving, it submerged itself back into the water.

After avoiding a battle with the seadra — with no more obstacles in their way — they quickly made their way to the other side of the cavern. On this side of the elevated slab, there was a sloping pile of frozen rubble that Ash had Growlithe and Charmeleon thaw out, making it easy to climb back down. Of the two tunnels that they had to choose from, it was obvious which one of them led even further underground. This time around, the cold wind was so strong that if Ash stood still he could feel his body start to give way. Figuring that it would only get more vigorous once inside, Ash wasn't even sure if it was possible for them to pass through.

At this point, he didn't know where his motivation to go deeper was coming from. It's not like he was looking for anything in particular. It would be incredible if there was a lapras in the caverns, but they were nearly extinct, and the ones that were left typically migrated to the Sevii Islands and the Orange Archipelago this time of year. So, the chances of running into one down here were nearly zero. With no clear objective other than sight seeing, it probably made more sense to go through the other tunnel. However, for some inexplicable reason, he felt compelled to at least try and go further down.

All of a sudden, Growlithe's behavior shifted for a third time. His eyes grew big as he began to sniff around. The canine walked in circles for a short while with his nose a centimeter or two away from the frozen ground. His expression contorted, becoming more intense before he came to an abrupt stop.

Ash and Charmeleon looked at the pup with intrigue — both wondering the exact same thing.

"Were you able to latch onto it this time?"

The canine nodded, divulging a quiet, hesitant bark that conveyed concern.

In concurrence, the harsh wind that bursted through the natural corridor unanticipatedly came to a sudden, eerie halt.

XXX

When they passed through the tunnel, there were many ensuing paths. Of those paths, Growlithe had led them to a narrow, craggy passageway that the young trainer had to painstakingly crouch through in order to get to their current position. The space that Ash, Growlithe and Charmeleon now found themselves in was vast and pitch-black.

There were no lights bolted onto the icy, cavernous walls.

Ash's anxiety had spiked. Their inability to adequately see their surroundings was a cause for concern. His flashlight and his friend's flames only generated enough light to illuminate their immediate proximity, and even though the harsh, swirling wind had come to a baffling stop, the fourth cavern was agonizingly frigid. He couldn't even begin to try and guess what the temperature was, but it was without a doubt sub-zero. For the first time, it was evident that his fire-types were cold. They repeatedly doused themselves in their own flames and were even more conscientious than before about sticking close to him. The young trainer obliged, needing every bit of the heat that their bodies emanated in order to persevere.

He was conflicted. Ash knew that what they were doing was foolish, and he understood that the only reason they were doing it was because of his own selfish curiosity.

But, he had to know…

What was the reason for his abnormal desire to descend?

What did the scent that Growlithe had picked up belong to?

What was the source of the perilous wind?

And why did it stop?

His pup was moving forward with courage, but Ash could tell that he was perturbed. Throughout their journey, they had tracked numerous species, and been exposed to exorbitantly powerful pokemon like the elder clefable, Willow, and the alpha. Taking all of that into account, this was the first time that Growlithe had ever shown unease when trailing a scent.

…Why?

Following Growlithe's lead, they gradually crossed the wide-ranging cavern. Ash could feel the gaze of many eyes peering at them, and there were a multitude of echoing sounds reverberating from the pokemon that dwelled in the darkness. His flashlight would often catch a glimpse of the many crustaceans and mollusks that seemed to make this cavern their home. He'd seen more kingler and cloyster than krabby and shellder. The atmosphere was similar to what he'd felt when he was trekking across Area Three in the Safari Zone. However, the difference was that Ash had an unexplainable feeling that the pokemon in the cavern would not engage in an aggressive manner.

As a matter of fact, since they had been in the cave system, not a single pokemon had attacked them. It was weird. Most pokemon were perceptive — maybe they sensed that they weren't there to try and capture them. The only true scare that they had was the seadra, but it backed off once the young trainer made his intentions clear. At this point, Ash was much more concerned by the temperature and the terrain than the inhabitants. The ground that they walked across was slick, and Ash could hear what sounded like a waterfall coming from somewhere beyond them. Due to the strange unfrozen bodies of water that existed within the cave system, he was terrified that if they didn't pay close enough attention they would fall into one of them.

If something like that happened, it would be fatal…

Ash knew that he was just being paranoid. Growlithe's aromatic awareness wouldn't allow something like that to happen, but there was likely nothing he could do to stop his intrusive thoughts except turn around, and there was no way he was going to do that. They had already made it this far, and despite his canine's solicitude, he was moving in a decisive manner. The dark-haired boy knew that they were getting close to the source of the scent. If they didn't at the very least take a peak at what it belonged to, he knew he would regret it.

What if there actually were some lapras in the deepest parts of the cave system?

They were an ancient species, so it would make sense that Growlithe would find their scent to be peculiar. He doubted a single lapras would cause his pup distress. But maybe a pod of them could have that effect? Plus, lapras could learn Sheer Cold, which might explain the powerful winds that up until recently were tearing through most of the cave system.

He knew the likelihood was low, but what else could live in these temperatures and get this type of reaction out of his pup?

Unless…

An image of the gorgeously chilling, light blue avian in the prophetic painting at Albert Montgomery's old residence flashed in his head.

No way. Someone else would have already noticed something like that…

After veering right, and maneuvering around a large group of krabby and kingler, Growlithe led them to one of the cavern's walls. At least, that's what Ash thought it was at first. But, after pointing the flashlight in its direction and watching the light reflect, it didn't take long for him to realize that he was looking at an immense wall of pure ice. The slab of hailstone was as tall as his flashlight would allow him to see. Ash wasn't sure if it reached the cavern's ceiling, but he assumed that It did. On the contrary, the wall did not extend all the way to the ground. It stopped in line with Ash's hips, creating a space between the bottom of the wall and the frosty ground that Growlithe had already started to pass under. Getting on their hands and knees, Ash and Charmeleon followed. They crawled for what felt like forever, likely because of the uncomfortable nature of the harsh surface and the frigid slab of ice directly above them. All the while, the young trainer wondered how a slab of ice as thick and as unadulterated as the one above him could form.

When they finally got to the other side — due to the close proximity between the colossal slab of ice and the true cavern wall, it looked like they were in a lengthy, dark, frozen hallway with no ceiling. Ash was the coldest he'd been since he entered the cave system. If it weren't for his insulated snow suit, and his fire-types, he would without a doubt have died from hypothermia at this point.

"W-e've g-got to be close?" mumbled Ash — loud enough to be heard through the material from his snow suit that was covering his mouth.

Charmeleon let out an inquisitive grunt, likely asking the same thing.

The canine stopped before turning his head around and giving them a slight nod.

They continued forward for a short while longer before Growlithe came to a stop. To their right was a cragged, frost-bound tunnel with a noticeable decline.

"L-let's g-go," said ash with chattering teeth.

Charmeleon divulged a confirmatory grunt.

With angst visible in his expression, Growlithe nodded.

When Ash took in Growlithe's look of distress, he was hit by an intense wave of guilt.

So much so that in the moment he hated himself.

…They descended anyway.

XXX

After exiting the long, winding, earth made, staircase, the intense pressure that Ash felt emanating from the rugged, frozen vault was unfathomable. As expected, other than their immediate surroundings — illuminated by his flashlight and his fire-types' free-flowing flames —it was pitch-dark. There was a stock-still grandness in the air, accompanied by the burning cold. The cavern wall that he'd seen upon entrance looked the same as the unique, glacial, crystal-like ground that they walked on. There was no denying that it was ice, but it wasn't slick, and the coldness that it radiated was chilling in a way that transcended temperature.

It felt ancient and domineering.

He didn't know how, but Ash knew he was the first human to ever step foot in this cavern.

Although its scope was concealed by darkness, there was a feeling of immensity that was even more prominent than the cave system's other cavernous rooms. When Ash pointed his flashlight up to see if he could get any sense for how lofty the cavern's ceiling was, he could feel his fire-types begin to stir.

Growlithe got down into a defensive stance, divulging a low, gravely snarl.

Charmeleon raised both of his claws, letting out a deep, threatening roar.

Their countenances displayed courage.

But, their bodies were trembling.

All of a sudden, there was a deep guttural clicking sound that gave Ash goosebumps before it went silent for a brief moment.

Sqqqqqqqquuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He put pressure on his hood covered ears to protect them from the outcry as a billow of scorching fire bursted up from Growlithe and Charmeleon, conjoining as it rocketed through the air.

A blade-like gust of frigid wind sliced through the cavern, dispersing the flames as if they were nothing.

Bssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhcccccckkkkkklk!

His stomach dropped and his dry skin cracked as a beam of shrieking ice collided with the ground.

Faster than they could react, It precipitously drew a circle around them. Frantically pointing his flashlight in every which direction as his eyes darted back and forth looking for a means for them to escape, he started to panic.

It was useless…

In a matter of seconds their position was enclosed in a towering, boundary of crystalline ice.

There was a loud, repetitive percussion sound as a flood of wind swept towards them in a downburst. He could tell that it was the same wind that previously howled throughout the entirety of the frozen, subterranean cave system that sprawled beneath the Seafoam Islands.

Ash, Growlithe and Charmeleon were forced to the ground — unable to move under the pressure of its forceful might.

Growlithe yelped.

Charmeleon groaned

Ash's eyes burned from the blood that cascaded down his face.

The numbing, intrepid wind abruptly ceased.

Thud.

At this point, he already knew…

But when he looked up, he received chilling confirmation.

The shadowy form of a massive avian was perched atop its icy creation. He could not make out the entirety of its majestic form, but its authoritative dark red eyes, the shape of its dignified crest, and its enormous glacial wingspan cut through the dark.

"Don't mov—"

Sqqqqqquuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shit.

This was it…

He was too reckless.

His selfish curiosity was going to get them killed.

They should have turned around.

He should have taken Growlithe's intuition more seriously.

Lapras…? What a joke.

This was the roost of Kanto's legendary bird of ice.

They were in the presence of Articuno.

There was no point in reaching for one of the capture-devices on his belt. Not a single one of his friends would stand a chance against something like this. Even if he released them all, Ash knew it wouldn't make a difference.

Welp, so much for his destiny…

Its red eyes tilted in the dark as it made the same resonate clicking sound from before.

Wait…

If it was going to attack, wouldn't it have already done so?

Why would it go through the trouble of creating a boundary?

Why did it stop its wind?

Why did he feel the urge to come down here?

Growlithe and Charmeleon stood up. Ash couldn't see their faces, but their trembling had ceased.

The dark-haired boy's body lifted itself from the ground as he held eye contact with the legendary avian.

His consciousness gave way, relinquishing control to something else.

"Articuno, the prophecy is in motion," spoke something from deep within Ash, "It begins in Kanto. The first trial is imminent. You know why I have come."

Just like with Gyarados, Ash watched from inside as his body did things that were outside of his command. He could see the eyes of Growlithe and Charmeleon — both ablaze with a supreme glow.

What is this?

From his otherworldly vantage point, the cavern was illuminated. He could see the full grandeur of the avian in front of him. Its sky blue plumage and immaculate wings were covered in ice. Its crest was dark blue, consisting of three diamond shaped feathers that appeared to be made of hailstone. Its beak was the same color gray as its long, thin legs, and its talons were as sharp as blades. The legendary ice-type had white plumage on its chest. Articuno's most alluring characteristic was its beautiful, lengthy, feathered tail that was the same dark blue as its crest.

The legendary avian squawked with recognition in its eyes before nodding its head.

An image of Mew penetrated his mind.

"What speaks is you. What watches is you. Witness the essence of who you are."

This is me?

"As promised by destiny," commanded Ash, "bring me my egg."

The articuno beat its wings, lifting itself off of the icy wall that surrounded them. It proceeded to soar off into the darkness, emitting a harmonious trill.

Watching as the scene unfolded, Ash's reality was changing in a way that was hard for him to comprehend.

He knew he was the Chosen One.

He knew he would be involved in incomprehensible events.

But, he didn't know what any of it meant, and he didn't know how anything would unfold.

When the legendary avian returned, it held something in one of its talons.

His fire-types turned to him. Their eyes still aglow with an unnatural light, they gave him a comforting nod as they pressed the buttons on their pokeballs, returning themselves.

The dark-haired boy was no longer cold as the fabled elemental bird landed in front of him. One leg was planted into the crystalline ground, the other was raised with something in its talon. Turning its leg in a flexible manner, it let out a trill as it opened its grasp.

A large, oval orb made of pure, living ice was unveiled. It was translucent, pulsating with dark blue energy. At its core was a small pink and black embryo in the shape of an avian. Its semi-developed eyes were a deep, captivating red.

No explanation was needed.

Reaching out, Ash took the egg into his hands.

He looked up at the eyes of the ancient articuno. It made an expression that conveyed satisfaction.

"You have fulfilled your task appointed to you by destiny," said the Chosen One with a gentle smile, "The 'Original One' watches with pride."

Looking up at the cavern's ceiling constructed of pure hailstone, the sky blue avian divulged a spirited outcry.

Squuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwk!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I will raise him to be valorous. Your son shall help me keep the world in balance."

There was a moment of acknowledgement between the imposing avian made of living hailstone and the Chosen One.

Another image of Mew pierced through his consciousness.

"This will be the last time that I intervene before the promised day. The condition of your body has left me no choice. Until Willow shows herself, keep your eyes focused on your journey."

A pink aural surge of almighty psychic energy overflowed throughout the cavern. A smile formed on the Chosen One's face as his eyes met the articuno's one final time.

There was a lagging moment where Ash could feel that command of his body had been returned.

The sensation was fleeting…

His consciousness faded to black.

XXX

When Ash awoke from what he initially labeled as an outlandish dream, he immediately discarded the thought when he noticed his chattering teeth, defrosting body, and the translucent egg made of organic ice that he was holding in his rigid arms.

He could feel the warmth from Growlithe's fur and Charmeleon's smooth scales. They both jumped up with enthusiasm as he achingly pulled himself up into a sitting position.

The dark-haired boy took a moment to admire the articuno egg that he couldn't believe he was holding in his hands. All of a sudden, without taking the time to observe his surroundings, he let his instincts that he now knew came from some other part of himself take control.

The young trainer quickly unclipped Wartortle's pokeball from his snowsuit's built in trainer belt before applying ample pressure on the button that was still stiff from the cold. Upon release, Wartortle cocked his head in confusion as he looked at Ash's shivering body. The turtle pokemon's eyes grew big as he shifted his attention to the pulsating egg.

"F-freeze it g-gently w-with Ice B-beam," mumbled Ash through the hood that covered his mouth.

Wartortle nodded, taking a deep breath before emitting a controlled streak of ice.

"K-eep g-going u-until I say s-stop," said Ash as his teeth repetitively clacked against one another.

Wartortle steadily continued to use Ice Beam at a low-velocity until the oval shaped orb was secured in a block of ice.

"Th-that's g-good," said the dark-haired boy as he struggled to take off his backpack because of his thick snowsuit, "th-thanks, W-wartortle."

Wartortle let out a low grunt as he, Growlithe, and Charmeleon watched their trainer painstakingly force himself up onto his knees.

After managing to take off his backpack, the dark-haired boy used his hands to pry open his frozen hood. Grittily biting off his snow gloves, Ash proceeded to unzip his backpack. His hands were shaky and red as he took out the depository case that held miscellaneous items like his moon stone and Pidgeot's saddle.

He briskly looked around at their surroundings. The sun was starting to descend, and they were on a small, sandy beach. Ash had no idea where they were, but the most important thing was that there were no people around. Shakily tapping at the screen on the depository case, he selected the deposit feature. The young trainer wasted no time, quickly pointing it in the direction of the egg. After hitting deposit, Ash breathed a massive sigh of relief as the block of ice containing the legendary egg was enveloped in a ray of blue light, and safely pulled into the confines of the handy depository case.

After putting the storage device back in his backpack, Ash turned his attention to his friends.

"W-was I-I un-unconscious for a l-long t-time?"

Growlithe and Charmeleon shook their heads. By the looks of it, Ash could tell that they had already recovered from the harsh conditions of the cave system's lower levels.

As Ash continuously shivered, he couldn't help but feel jealous of their internal flames.

"H-how d-did w-we g-get h-here?"

His fire-types shook their heads in a confused manner.

They didn't know…

As a matter of fact, if his memory was correct, he was pretty sure that they should be in their pokeballs right now.

"H-how d-did y-ou g-guys g-get o-out?"

Once again, they shook their heads — unable to answer the question.

Ash let out a deep sigh as he continued to shake.

"Wh-where—"

He stopped himself from asking, knowing that there was no way that his friends would know the answer.

He blew on his hands before shaking them out in order to try and get rid of the numbness that he had ignored while depositing the egg. Pulling up his sleeve, the screen on his xtransceiver was frozen.

"Ch-charmeleon, l-let me see y-your tail."

The fire lizard obliged, turning around so that his tail was facing his trainer.

Ash held his wrist up close to his friend's tail flame until the thick coat of ice melted off. Ash wasn't worried about the small amount of water from the melted ice, but hopefully it still worked after being exposed to sub-zero temperatures.

He pressed a button. The display lit up.

"Nice. It s-still works," muttered the young trainer with a slight smile as he maneuvered the menu in order to check his location.

It was a little slow, but when the map popped up, he couldn't help but laugh.

According to his GPS, he was on the northwestern side of Cinnabar Island.

A memory of Mew's words resurfaced in Ash's mind.

"T-teleportation…" muttered the dark-haired boy as he started to shed his freezing snow suit, "w-well, I g-guess o-our time exploring the S-seafoam Islands has b-been cut short."

Ash didn't care. He may not have seen every part of the islands. But, what he did see was beyond his wildest dreams.

Not to mention, he'd received an unprecedented souvenir.

A legendary egg that changed everything.

His time exploring the Seafoam Islands was brief, but the experience would always remain a part of him.

There was a lot to try and make sense of…

How long would it take for him to hatch?

What does having a legendary mean for him as a trainer?

What does it mean for his destiny?

He felt guilty for putting his friends in such a dangerous situation, but did he really have any choice in the first place?

The urge to descend was strong. How much say does the dormant part of himself have on the decisions that he makes?

What caused Growlithe and Charmeleon's eyes to glow?

What did it mean?

…And how many of these questions did his other self already know the answers to?

Ash took a deep breath. He hoped that at least some answers would come sooner rather than later.

For now, he needed to focus on warming up. Good thing he was on the volcanic island that was home to the fiery town of burning desire.

XXX

Ash let out a rapturous groan of delight as he submerged his body into the small pool of steaming, torrid water.

"This feels incredible…" said the young trainer in an elongated manner as he felt himself slowly coming back to life.

After flying over the top of Cinnabar Island's towering volcano at a low altitude, Ash directed Pidgeot to land at the first natural hot spring that he laid eyes on. It was at the base of Mt. Cinnabar's lush, southern face, looking down at the colorful lights that illuminated the island's lively town after sundown.

The hot spring that was currently rejuvenating his previously frozen body belonged to a resort called: The Big Riddle Inn. Getting awkward stares from a few of the other people in the traditional lobby — due to his uncontrollable shivering — Ash booked a room with the receptionist, as fast as her pace would allow, before heading straight to one of the 'male only' natural baths that also permitted access to pokemon.

With a hot wet towel on his head, the young trainer sat next to his turtle pokemon. Despite Wartortle's blank face, Ash could tell that the water-type was enjoying the restorative properties of the hot spring. Albeit, it was obvious to the young trainer that the stone faucet — sculpted in the image of a roaring gyarados — was bothering his typically detached friend. Ash could count the amount of times Wartortle had menacingly glared at the water feature on two hands. Behind them was Growlithe, who was lying far enough away from the natural bath to where he wouldn't get accidentally splashed. His pup was happily absorbing the heat that emanated from the steaming body of water, while keeping a close, watchful eye on Ash's backpack.

Besides Ash and his friends, there was only one other person relaxing in the therapeutic water. Leaning back against the stone ledge — opposite of Ash — there was an eccentric looking old man. Even though it was dark, and they were in a hot spring, he wore a pair of round, gray framed sunglasses. His wrinkly skin and aged, weathered face told Ash that he was at least in his sixties. But his long, dirty blonde hair and over the top mustache were that of a young man's. They were either both fake, or he had some incredible hair related genetics.

"You must have come from the Seafoam Islands," said the old man with a cool, raspy intonation.

"I did…" answered Ash in a prolonged manner, "how'd you know?"

The elderly man let out a hoarse laugh, "the twin islands are the only place in Kanto that can make someone look as cold as you did before you got in the water."

He paused as he let out a breathy sigh, "it's been a long time since I've been in those caves…how deep did you go?"

"I don't know…" replied Ash with a shrug — careful not to divulge any sensitive information to the strange old man, "pretty deep."

It's not like he was lying. He honestly had no clue how far under the earth's surface he and his friends had traveled before reaching the articuno's roost.

"That's good…" replied the long-haired old man, "young trainers rarely have guts these days. Where are you from?"

"Pallet Town," replied Ash.

"Just a ferry ride away from home…" he said, raising one of his thick bushy eyebrows, "how long have you been on the road?"

Ash knew he was close to home, but he had yet to really process it. Once he earned the Volcano Badge, it only made sense to stop by Pallet before heading off to Pewter City to battle Brock Slate.

He couldn't help but smile at the thought of seeing his mom.

"A little over four months," replied Ash, "I plan on stopping by home after I spend some time in Cinnabar."

"I see," said the old man before he gave Ash a smirk, "your Wartortle and Growlithe look like they're in great shape. I figure you're here to battle Blaine?"

Ash confidently smiled, "I plan on it, but I've got to find his gym first."

All of a sudden, the eccentric elderly man pulled himself up out of the hot spring. The young trainer was grateful to see that he had been bathing with a towel wrapped around his waste.

"What's your name?" asked the old man as he casually put a dry towel around the back of his neck.

"Ash Ketchum," replied the dark-haired boy, "and you?"

"It was nice to meet you, Ash," he said in a breezy tone of voice, "if you want to find Blaine's gym, get to know the island. He leaves little clues all over the place. Who knows, there might even be one in your room? You are at the Big Riddle Inn after all."

As the strange old man exited the hot spring, Ash remembered what Koga had said about Blaine.

'Do not ignore even the slightest of riddles.'

When Ash checked in, he was too cold to think straight. However, just as the old man suggested, the name of the inn was a little too spot on to be completely unrelated.

Wait a minute, didn't Koga refer to Blaine as a cooky old geezer?

As his brain continued to thaw, Ash began to connect the dots.

Growlithe and Wartortle looked at their trainer in a confused manner as he briskly started to get out of the restorative hot spring. However, after lifting one knee above the ledge, he stopped himself before plunging back into the water.

There was no rush. He had reached Cinnabar ahead of schedule.

Ash would play the old man's game.

Besides, he wanted to see all of Cinnabar while he was here anyway. Not to mention, he needed to train and come up with a strategy to defeat Blaine's sweltering fire-types.

"Hey, Wartortle…" said Ash with a smirk, "I'm pretty sure that weird old guy was Cinnabar Island's gym leader."

It was his water-type's turn to start to pull himself out of the hot spring.

"Hold on, hold on…" said Ash, "I know you're excited, but we're not ready yet. We've still got some training to do. We made it here way faster than I was expecting."

Wartortle stopped, settling back into the torrid water.

Of Ash's friends, Wartortle was the only one that had already been told that he would be battling against the Cinnabar Island gym leader. His turtle pokemon had been anxiously waiting to participate in a gym battle since long before he met Ash. So, over the course of their travels, the dark-haired boy had to use this final stretch of Blaine, Brock, and Giovanni as constant assurance to help ease Wartortle's frustration regarding how long he had to wait for his first gym battle.

"We need Aqua Tail to at least be usable before we battle him," explained Ash, "we're going to need the close range flexibility."

Wartortle nodded while letting out an affirmative grunt, trusting his trainer's judgement.

"For now…" said Ash, lowering his shoulders underneath of the water, "let's just enjoy the hot spring."

XXX

After changing into the complimentary, brown, traditional kimono that the inn preferred guests to where throughout their stay, he opened the thin, paneled shoji doors that led to his room. The space was small, but comfortable. The walls were decorated with a couple of framed art pieces. There was one that was a beautiful, scenic painting of Mt. Cinnabar done in water colors. The others were inked calligraphy pieces of formal kanji characters. The one that stood out to Ash the most read: Burning Desire — in reference to the town's famous slogan.

The rest of the room consisted of the dark red tatami mats that made up the floor, a Kanto-style futon, a modest-sized, wooden tea table, and a small, flat-screen television that was mounted on one of the walls. Upon entrance, Ash instantly noticed the steam from the black, ceramic tea kettle — accompanied by several matching tea cups — that were laid out perfectly on the floor table.

It didn't take long for him to find the first riddle. Inside of one of the tea cups was a small piece of tightly rolled paper.

Unrolling it after removing it from the tea cup, Ash read it out loud, "Look through my eye, and tiny worlds you will spy."

Growlithe cocked his head, looking at him in a confused manner.

Wartortle looked him straight in the eyes with a blank expression.

"It's a r-yiiiiidle," explained Ash with a yawn as he plopped his soar, tired body onto the futon, "apparently Blaine loves them. We've got to solve it to find his gym. I'm too tired for it right now, though."

Ash rolled over and grabbed his backpack. After unzipping it, he pulled out his trainer belt.

"Do you want to stay out tonight, Wartortle?"

The turtle pokemon nodded, sitting down next to Ash.

"No problem," he said before letting out another yawn.

He unclipped Haunter and Eevee's pokeballs, releasing them before bed as usual.

Eevee divulged a soft yip as she pranced over to her trainer.

Haunter let out a chipper guffaw — excited to feed on Ash's inevitable nightmares.

"Haunter, can you get the lights?" asked Ash pointing to the switch on the wall to the right of the shoji doors.

As Growlithe and Eevee cuddled up on Ash's right side, and Wartortle withdrew into his shell on his left, Haunter used one of his corporal finger to switch off the light.

In a matter of seconds, the dark-haired boy was out cold, warmly slumbering next to his friends.

XXX

"Ring…"

"Ring…"

"Ring…"

"Ring…"

"Click."

"Bloody hell, mum, it's seven o'clock in the morning!" shouted Bill — groggily.

All he could see was his friend's disheveled hair and half of his face. The one eye that was visible to Ash was closed as drool was falling down Bill's face onto his pillow.

"…..um, Bill, it's not your mum," replied the dark-haired boy with an amused smile, "it's Ash."

The screen went black for a second as the young trainer heard the muffled sound of Bill scrambling.

"Ash, my friend!" replied Bill enthusiastically, sitting up in his bed, "what a brilliant way to wake up! How goes it?"

"I'm doing alright…" answered Ash in an elongated manner, "I arrived in Cinnabar last night."

"Already?" queried Bill — confused, "we talked the day before yesterday. I thought you were going to spend a couple of days sprelunking on the Seafoam Islands?"

"I thought so, too," said Ash, shaking his head, "I was there for about a day. Then something happened."

Growlithe crawled up onto the young trainer's lap, showing his face to Bill.

"Growlithe!" exclaimed the pokemon researcher, "you're looking even more dapper than usual. That premium pokemon food has your coat looking bloody marvelous!"

The canine divulged an appreciative bark, licking Ash's xtransceiver.

"Growlithe…" groaned Ash, shaking the saliva off of his wrist, "no licking the screen. It's still slow from yesterday."

The canine responded by rolling his eyes and licking Ash across the face before making himself comfortable on the futon.

"Where were we?" asked Bill, trying to get back on topic.

"I was telling you that something happened while we were exploring the caves," replied Ash, sighing as he wiped the saliva from his face, "and now I kind of need a favor?"

"What is it, my friend?" asked Bill with a smile.

"I know you're busy with Dragonite," said Ash with a serious look on his face, "but, is there anyway you can make a trip out to Cinnabar?"

Bill gave Ash a surprised look before tears began to flow down his face, "d-do you miss me?"

Fighting the urge to facepalm, Ash sighed, "of course it would be nice to see you. But, I have a reason I really need you to come out here. It's important."

Quickly wiping the happy tears from his face, Bill's expression reciprocated Ash's seriousness.

"If my friend's in need, Dragonite will understand," replied Bill, "how soon do you need me?"

"ASAP," answered Ash.

Bill showed his friend a concerned look, "is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," said Ash, giving Bill a reassuring smile, "I just need your help figuring something out."

"And it's not something I can do from the lighthouse?" asked Bill, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," said Ash shaking his head, "you're going to need to see it first, and there's no way I'm sending it to you through the PC transfer system."

"What is it?" queried Bill with an eager expression.

"Can you promise me you won't tell anybody?"

"Oooooooooooh a secret?" questioned Bill, holding his hands together as he twiddled his fingers.

"I mean it, Bill," said Ash in a stern voice, "nobody. Not your dad. Not Sabrina. Not Austin. Not even Wallace. Until I'm ready to share, this stays between you and me, okay?"

Bill was practically salivating.

"Is this Chosen One stuff?"

"Yeah," replied Ash with a nod, "it is."

"Say no more," said Bill as he pressed his right pointer finger and thumb together before scraping them across his mouth, "my lips shall be sealed."

Ash took a deep breath before letting out a sigh, "I've got an egg, and I need your help to figure out the best way to incubate it."

"That's it…" said Bill — somewhat disappointed, "I can just make—"

"It's an articuno egg."

"Oh, well in that case…………………………a w-w-w-what?" stammered Bill with a flabbergasted expression.

"An articuno egg," repeated Ash — unsurprised by Bill's reaction. He could hardly believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth.

"A-a-re you sure?" asked Bill with large eyes, utterly astonished.

"Yeah," replied Ash, "I'm sure."

"H-how d-do you know?" queried Bill.

"Because an articuno gave it to me," answered Ash, realizing full well that he sounded like a crazy person.

"………………………….w-w-w-what!?" stammered Bill — even louder this time.

"I know…" said Ash in an elongated manner, "it sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"

"S-so y-your b-bloody t-telling me th-that an a-articuno g-gave you-you its e-egg!?"

"Yeah."

"W-what!?"

The famous pokemon researcher started scrambling once more.

"Bill…?" said Ash, trying to get his friend's attention.

Nothing.

"Bill…?"

Nothing.

"Bill!"

Nothing.

"Bill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Y-yes?" answered the pokemon researcher, appearing on the screen panting in complete disarray.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Ash with a perplexed expression.

"I-I'm packing," responded Bill, "I'll be there by this a-afternoon."

"Don't you need to—"

"I d-don't need to do anything!" blustered Bill, "my friend is in possession one of the most unprecedented discoveries in the history of Kanto! Everything else is inconsequential!"

Ash couldn't help but laugh, "I told you it was important."

"Calling something like this important is the biggest bloody understatement of the century!"

"Fair enough," said Ash with a shrug, "so, I'll see you this afternoon?"

A giant grin appeared on Bill's face, "you'll see me this afternoon."

XXX

It had been about an hour since his phone call with Bill. Having yet to explore the town, Ash was back on the same beach that Mew had teleported him to the evening before. Even though he had been consumed by his own frigidness at the time, he was lucid enough to come to the conclusion that the northwestern shore was the perfect place to train for his battle against Blaine.

Other than the cast of krabby that frequented the shoreline, it was unoccupied. The tranquil sound of the tide was pleasurable, and there was enough space for his friends to polish up on some of their more powerful techniques. The terrain near the base of the volcano was rock-bound — unlike the rest of the island's tropical ecosystem — and the large, jagged boulders that were scattered about the beach were perfect for target practice. As far as Ash could tell, the only way to reach the northwestern shore on foot would be to painstakingly hike around the base of the volcano. Therefore, they would likely be left alone. In addition, due to Cinnabar's modest size, it would be an easy commute for him to make from just about anywhere on the island with the help of Pidgeot.

With Growlithe, Ivysaur and Scyther by his side, it was time to release Gyarados for the first time since they had come to an agreement. Ash knew that the best way to improve his chances of defeating Blaine would be to develop enough of a relationship with his sea serpent to where he felt comfortable letting her participate in the gym battle.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what to expect. They were right next to the ocean, and last time around, he had his whole team surrounding her. This time, he was rolling the dice by only having three of his friends out to keep him safe just in case Gyarados decided to change her mind. He hoped that having less protection would accentuate his boldness and lack of fear.

Hopefully, it didn't backfire.

"Just like last time, let me handle things," said Ash to his friends, "the two of us came to an agreement. Even if she's being difficult, the only reason for you guys to interfere is if you sense that she is going to attack."

He paused, addressing them in a stern tone of voice, "don't confuse intimidation with aggression."

Growlithe responded with a confirmatory bark.

Ivysaur let out a grunt that conveyed apperception.

And Scyther emitted a resonate whirr before lowering his head out of respect for his trainer.

"Good," said Ash with a smile as he unclipped his sea serpent's safari ball, "after I'm done with her, you three have work to do."

Unbeknownst to Ash, all three of them nodded their heads in approval as he heaved Gyarados' safari ball out into the middle of the sandy beach.

When the massive eruption of resplendent white light dispersed, the towering, serpentine behemoth bellowed a loud, discordant outcry.

Her eyes instinctually darted towards the ocean before she let out an amused cackle. In succession, Gyarados swayed her head back and forth for a brief moment before focusing her attention on Ash and his friends.

"Hey, Gyarados," said Ash with a smirk, confidently walking forward, "I've got a big battle coming up against some strong fire-types. How'd you like to show them what you can do?"

The sea serpent's eyes sharpened as she brought her face down to Ash's level.

His friends remained still.

With her jaws closed, Gyarados angled her head, examining her new trainer with scrupulous eyes.

She held her position for a while, clearly trying to make Ash uncomfortable.

He didn't budge, retaining the same smirk that he had when he initially stepped forward.

Abruptly widening her mouth, she showed Ash a sinister smile before pulling away. The atrocious pokemon let out another malignant burst of bestial laughter before giving him one pithy nod.

A smile spread across Ash's face as he removed his pokedex from his jacket pocket, "I didn't think you were the type to turn down a challenge. Now, let's see how strong you are."

Gyarados let out a low, guttural sound as Ash fired up Dexter. He quickly bypassed the entry data that he had already thoroughly reviewed.

"Current moveset: Bite, Thrash, Leer, Twister, Ice Fang, Aqua Tail, Scary Face. Ability: Moxie."

Gyarados' moveset wasn't too far off from what Ash expected. The species pure strength was more than enough in most cases. Even once they were fully mature, gyarados weren't known for their ability to naturally learn a lot of techniques. On top of helping Gyarados learn the rest of her intrinsic moveset, Ash planned on supplementing her arsenal with TM moves over time.

"I've seen most of these in action," said Ash in a placid manner, "I haven't seen you use Scary Face…"

Gyarados lowered her head down to Ash's level, widening her mouth and contorting her face in a frightening manner. Fragments of dark energy were visible.

Growlithe loaded his maw.

Ivysaur extended his vines.

And Scyther pointed his blades.

Control of Ash's mind was temporarily snatched away by the essence of his other self.

Ash's arms jetted out, keeping his friends from moving forward. His eyes stayed planted on Gyarados.

"Adequate," spoke the Chosen One with an impartial expression, "but, not good enough to work on me."

Just like she did the first time his other self surfaced, Gyarados pulled away.

His friends' eyes flickered with a bright, supreme glow for a brief moment before fading away as Ash was handed back the reigns to his own body.

Transitioning back to his usual self, Ash was grateful that at the very least, it wasn't a disorienting experience. The few times it had happened, it felt like a complex shift of perspective. When it was over, he was able to seamlessly resume whatever he was previously doing, while retaining comprehension of what occurred when his other self was in control.

Gyarados divulged a raucous outburst of cacophonous laughter. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she was thoroughly entertained.

He knew he was dealing with a gyarados, but he hoped that their relationship became less demented the more that they got to know each other. Albeit, when he factored his other self into the equation, he felt like that was just wishful thinking.

Oh, well…

He'd take what he could get.

"Since you've already got experience with draconic energy because of Twister, we're gonna start off by trying to learn Dragon Rage," explained Ash with a confident smile.

Truthfully, learning a move like Hydro Pump would be more beneficial against Blaine, but Gyarados didn't know any long-distance water-type techniques that Ash could have her use as an initial reference point. He wanted them to take it easy at first. The dark-haired boy had a gut feeling that things would go smoother between them, during this feeling out period, if they started with a technique that had a discreet leaning curve in relation to Gyarados.

Emitting a low, guttural, rumbling noise Gyarados gave her new trainer a brusque nod.

"Alright then," said Ash, folding his arms, "let's get started."

XXX

Rhyhorn's anterior hooves slammed into the petrous surface, causing a considerable amount of the ground in front of him to gradually rise up. The elevated stone slab stood even taller than Ash, but it was entirely smooth and level.

"It's still coming out slow," said Ash as he stroked his brute's horn, "and it's way too flat. But, when you stomp, you're raising enough of the ground, so we're making progress."

Rhyhorn let out a breathy grunt, handling Ash's critiques well.

"Once we get it fast and jagged, Stone Edge is going to take you to the next level," explained the young trainer, "Blaine's fire-types won't know what hit them."

The rock plated mammal divulged a prideful trumpeting squeal.

So far, Ash had made the decision that Wartortle and Rhyhorn would without a doubt be taking part in the battle against Blaine. His turtle pokemon's participation had long since been decided, and on account of the fact that his brute had come out of the battle against Koga relatively unscathed, it only made sense to put his type-advantage to good use.

If it was a standard four-on-four, the other two available slots were still up in the air. He was hopeful that Gyarados would fill one of them, but Ash would only allow her to compete if she continued to show no signs of disobedience. If he got even the slightest sense that she might rebel, he would pivot his strategy and utilize another one of his friends. In the event that everything went according to plan, though, and his sea serpent was able to take part in the battle, then there would be one open spot left that he needed to sort out before the team that he would be using against Blaine would be completely decided upon.

Pidgeot and Haunter were still recovering, so they were off limits. Clefairy, Ivysaur, and Scyther weren't great matchups from a type-disadvantage standpoint. Unless the battle was at night, Ash didn't think it was worth risking the possibility that a battle of this magnitude could sway Eevee's evolutionary track. And Dratini just flat out wasn't ready. His dragon-type had yet to even participate in a live battle, so there was no way that Ash was going to throw him out there against a seasoned veteran like Blaine.

Thus, by process of elimination, the final spot would be filled by one of his two fire-types.

Ash wanted to give the opportunity to Charmeleon. With how hard his fire lizard had been working as of late, he deserved a chance to showcase his improved skills in a high-level competitive battle. The only thing that was holding him back was that Charmeleon's moveset was still less developed than Growlithe's, and his pup had almost made a full recovery from his battle against Koga. Simply put, a fully healthy Growlithe gave him a better chance to win. The dark-haired boy would need Charmeleon to completely master Fire Fang and add at least one other technique to his arsenal to justify going with him over Growlithe. Taking all of that into account, if Ash couldn't trust Gyarados enough to take part in the battle, then both Growlithe and Charmeleon would have to be ready to go.

All of a sudden, Rhyhorn lifted his front hooves once more, punishing the earth beneath his feet. This time the ground in front of him lifted at a swifter rate. It still lacked any sort of edge, but the uptick when it came to acceleration was another step in the right direction.

"Good job, Rhyhorn!" cheered Ash, "that was even better than before!"

His brute swayed his horn over to his trainer, desiring some affection in accompaniment with the compliment.

XXX

"Keep condensing it," said Ash as he watched a focused Wartortle attempt to consolidate and stabilize a steady streak of water out of the pores on his tail.

"You're getting closer," said Ash stepping forward to get a better look, "don't even think about rotating it around your tail right now. All I want you to focus on is the shape…."

As Ash approached Wartortle he noticed something.

"Stop for a second, Wartortle," said the dark-haired boy, zeroing in on the top of his turtle pokemon's shell, "I need to check something out."

Listening to his trainer's words, Wartortle shutdown the outflow of his internal water reservoir.

The dark-haired boy put both of his hands on the top of Wartortle's shell, feeling across in an outward motion — to the right with one hand, and to the left with the other. The outermost, upper portion of both sides of his shell — in line with his shoulders — was beginning to protrude in two distinct spots. With a smile, he walked around to face his turtle pokemon before bending down on one knee. Wartortle looked at him in a confused manner when Ash used the tip of his finger to poke at each of his toes. They were sharp, and the reptilian skin at the end of each digit was beginning to thin.

Ash looked up, giving Wartortle a gentle smile.

"Your cannons and the claws on your feet are coming in," explained Ash, looking his water-type in the eyes, "do you know what that means?"

Wartortle's eyes began to brighten.

The young trainer nodded, "you're going to evolve into a blastoise soon."

A massive grin spread across Wartortle's face, causing tears to well up in the corners or his trainers eyes.

That widened smile meant a lot.

XXX

Once they were done checking out of the Big Riddle Inn, Ash and Growlithe hiked south through the small, sloped tropical forest that straddled the land in-between Mt. Cinnabar and the island's town. It was pleasant. The lush, verdurous ecosystem was gorgeous. Even though it was winter, there was blooming plant life everywhere Ash looked. It was shaded by palm, coconut, and cedar trees — most of which were wrapped in monstera plants. There was a serene creek that ran through the middle of it. At one point, Ash used his hands to scoop out and drink some of its cool, refreshing water.

While trekking through the small forest, Ash saw a handful of species. There were exeggcute that could be spotted on the ground and in the trees, and there were quite a few exeggutor that tried to blend in with the coconut and palm trees to no avail. They were few in number, but mankey could be seen climbing along the branches of the cedar trees, and Ash had noticed quite a few bug pokemon belonging to the paras, caterpie and weedle lines scattered throughout the entirety of the path that they took.

Ash enjoyed his time in the lavish forest so much that he was actually disappointed when they finished passing through it. On the other side of the forest was the edge of town. Due to its compact nature, even the outskirts of Cinnabar Town were busy. Ash and his pup immediately walked through a narrow market strip. This particular market was filled with wooden booths that sold produce. The young trainer was hollered at by several of the locals — all of which were trying to get him to buy something. He caved when he saw some juicy looking mangos that were being sold at a booth with reasonable prices.

After taking nearly a half hour to make their way through the market area, they entered the heart of the town. There were a bunch of two-story shops that lined the streets. Nearly all of them had what Ash assumed to be small apartments on the second level because of the laundry that could be seen hung out to dry on several of their planked balconies. There were more hot spring resorts and motels than Ash could count, and many old-timey wooden homes that were stacked right next to each other with little to no space in-between them. Far east of Ash and Growlithe's position, he spotted a gigantic, decrepit mansion with a red tiled roof that gave him an uncomfortable feeling. It was by far the biggest building that Ash had seen thus far, making the resorts seem modest in size. From his vantage point it looked like nothing else was around it, and even from such a long distance away, the dark-haired boy could tell by its rundown condition that either the owner had zero sense for the type of upkeep a building of that size needed, they didn't care, or it was abandoned.

As they traveled south — right before he spotted the pokemon center that they would be staying at for the remainder of their time on the island — Ash saw another giant building off in the distance. It was on the southwestern side of the island. He could only see the top of it, poking out above the many shops and homes that laid in-between it and Ash's current location. Due to its roof's futuristic, capsule-like appearance, Ash assumed that it was the world famous Cinnabar Lab. As a reference image, he used the memories of all of the times he had frequented Professor Oak's lab growing up, while he tried to imagine what the inside of the Cinnabar Lab must look like.

All of a sudden, something came to mind.

Look through my eye, and tiny worlds you will spy.

Halting his stride, Ash came to a stop.

Growlithe turned around and looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

An image of a microscope popped into his head.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Ash.

Growlithe tilted his head in a curious manner, and a handful of nearby tourists looked at him like he was a crazy person.

"The answer to Blaine's riddle," said Ash to Growlithe, bringing down the volume of his voice, "it's a microscope."

Growlithe divulged a short, quizzical howl.

Ash rounded his fingers, making open circles out of both of his hands before stacking them on top of one another. Bringing them up to one of his eyes, he peered through them in order to help explain to Growlithe what a microscope was.

"Do you remember those metal tube-like things that Professor Oak always looked through when you used to live at the lab?" asked Ash.

Growlithe nodded.

"It's one of those," said Ash, "we've got to look through one of the microscopes in the Cinnabar Lab."

The canine let out a bark that conveyed comprehension.

Ash brought one of his hands to his chin, "but, since the answer is leading us to the Cinnabar Lab, it probably means we're just looking for another riddle. There's got to be a lot of important equipment in that place. I can't imagine that they would let Blaine have a gym inside."

Growlithe groaned — unable to follow.

"Don't worry about it," said Ash as he scratched the back of his head, "what's important is that we're one step closer to finding Blaine's gym. We'll head over to the lab later. Let's go check into the pokemon center before Bill gets here."

Growlithe let out a jovial yip, excited to see their amusing, whimsical friend.

XXX

After being fortunate enough to get the last available room at the Cinnabar Island pokemon center, Ash and Growlithe waited in the obnoxiously busy lobby for Bill. The young trainer was disappointed to find out that Cinnabar's pokemom center was essentially a carbon copy of the one back in Fuschia. For some reason, he had worked it up in his head that it would have some uniqueness to it because of the town's island setting. Unfortunately, he was wrong, which meant that there was nothing new to add to his bizarre mental check list of all of the differences between Kanto's pokemon centers.

While they were sitting around bored, waiting for their friend, it had occurred to Ash for the first time that they had now been to all eight of Kanto's major points of interest for trainers taking on the gym circuit. Due to the fact they had to return to Viridian and Pewter to take on Giovanni and Brock, somehow that fact had eluded him. He felt like a moron. The only reason he had even come to the realization was because he was thinking about Kanto's pokemon centers.

Was he some kind of pokemon center obsessed weirdo?

Speaking of weirdos, Ash watched as a strange, scrawny man in a bunch of pikachu merchandise walked through the entrance. He looked to be in about his late twenties. He wore a bright yellow sweatshirt with the face of a pikachu smack dab in the middle, and black pants with big yellow lightning bolts right above the knees. The man had on sunglasses that were the same color as his sweatshirt, and the yellow hat that covered his wavy brown hair with a forest green tint had pikachu ears that erected out of the top of it.

While getting a bunch of perplexed stares from a number of the trainers and tourists that were loitering in the lobby, the outlandish man darted his line of sight in multiple directions as if he were looking for someone. After a short while, he eventually settled on Ash, making a beeline in his direction while pulling a small, wheeled pikachu themed suitcase that trailed behind him.

"Oh…god," said the young trainer in a prolonged manner, recognizing the ridiculously dressed man as none other than Bill.

"Ash, my friend," greeted Bill as he got close, "it's bloody great to see you!"

He bent over before giving Ash a big, awkward hug as the young trainer sat bewildered in one of the lobby chairs.

"Growlithe!" exclaimed Bill as he crouched down and ruffled the canine's fur, "you're coat looks even better in person!"

Growlithe looked even more perturbed than Ash as he glared at the pikachu gear. The dark-haired boy was starting to think that his pup had some kind of weird affliction to the electric mouse pokemon. He acted in a similar manner when they were looking at a pikachu TM Case while shopping at the Celadon Department Store.

"What's wrong, Growlithe?" asked Bill, noticing the pups bothered countenance.

"It's the pikachu gear…" said Ash, covering his face and shrinking in his chair, evidently embarrassed.

"You blokes don't like my disguise?!" asked Bill — disappointment evident in his expression, "I call it the pikachu fanatic."

"I don't know why, but Growlithe has some sort of vendetta against pikachu," replied Ash matter-of-factly before lowering the volume of his voice, "besides, what you're wearing is a lot. Why do you need a disguise, anyway? It's not like we're trying to rescue your dad from Team Rocket like we were in Saffron?"

"But, everybody bloody loves pikachu, Growlithe!" replied Bill.

The puppy pokemon rolled his eyes as Bill pivoted his attention back to Ash.

"You forget that I'm famous, my friend," whispered Bill as he wagged his finger in a playful manner, "I can't exactly walk around dressing like I usually do."

"Fair enough," answered Ash slouching down even further into his chair, "but, why do you always have to go so big?"

"It's a bloody disguise…" muttered Bill, "why not have fun with it? Anyways, this place is packed, why'd you want to meet here?"

"I needed to get a room," replied Ash, "last night I stayed at a hot spring's resort, but that costs money."

"Well, you're going to have to go check out right now, my friend," said Bill with a smirk, "because I got us two rooms at one of the resorts."

"Wow, that was really nice of you…" said Ash in an appreciative manner, "but, I got the last room here. If I give it up, what am I supposed to do once you leave?"

"Leave?" queried Bill, "I'm not going anywhere for a while."

"How long?" asked Ash, raising an eyebrow.

He had figured that the longest Bill would be able to stay would be a couple of days.

Bill smiled before cuffing one hand around the side of his mouth, making sure he wasn't overheard, "until it hatches."

Ash's eyes widened, "but who knows how long that's going to take?"

"It doesn't matter," answered Bill with a smirk, keeping his voice low, "there's no way in bloody hell that I'm going to miss it hatch."

"So, you're going to travel with me for a while?" asked Ash with an incredulous expression.

"As long as that's fine with you?" asked Bill with a fidgety expression, clearly anxious to hear Ash's answer.

Ash held back a sigh. He didn't necessarily love the idea of having a travel companion for an extended period of time. But, Bill was doing him a big favor, and it's not like he would be traveling on foot very often now that he had seen the majority of the region.

"Sounds good to me," said Ash with a smile, "I'm heading to Pallet to visit my mom once I'm done here. I was planning on flying over on Pidgeot. I don't think he can carry two though, so we'll have to catch a ferry."

Growlithe's tail began to hastily wag when Ash mentioned Pallet. It was evident that the pup was looking forward to seeing his own mother.

"Don't worry about that," replied Bill with a smile as he pulled a small depository case out of his sweatshirt pocket, "I've got a ride."

"What's in there?" asked Ash curiously, pointing at the small device.

"A helicopter," replied Bill with a smirk.

Ash's mouth nearly fell to the floor, "how much weight can that depository case hold!?"

"About six tons."

"Woah…" answered the young trainer in a prolonged manner.

Ash paused, raising his hand to his chin, "what about the pilot?"

"You're looking at him," said Bill, using his thumb to point to his chest, "I've had my license for almost eight years now."

Ash couldn't help but laugh.

…Of course Bill could operate a helicopter.

"Go let Nurse Joy know that you won't be staying here," nudged Bill as he gestured towards Cinnabar's especially high-strung member of the Joy family, "let's head to the resort, I'm dying to see it."

"Wait…" muttered Ash as he scratched behind one of Growlithe's ears, "I kind of wanted to stop by the Cinnabar Lab first."

"The sooner I get to take a look at the egg," said Bill quietly with a shrug, "the sooner we can figure out how to incubate it. But, if you want to stop at the Lab that's fine, too. It's up to you?"

"I get it…" whispered Ash, "obviously, I want to get the egg figured out as soon as possible. Where's the resort? If it's close by I'm fine with stopping there first."

"I picked one that's a little more secluded, since we're going to be dealing with something so bloody priceless," answered Bill, "it's a traditional hot spring's resort at the base of the volcano called the Big Riddle Inn."

Ash let out a deep sigh, "that's where I stayed at last night. It's a bit of a walk. We could take turns having Pidgeot fly us over to the Inn, but since we're already close to the Cinnabar Lab, let's stop by there first. I'm looking for another riddle in order to find Blaine's gym."

"The old man is such a pain in the ass," groaned Bill scratching the back of his head, "I don't understand why the League allows him to move his gym so often."

"Do you know him?" asked Ash, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" muttered Bill, "my family is good friends with Dr. Fuji — the head scientist at the Cinnabar Lab. He and Blaine are really close, so I've spent some time with him.

Bill paused, "Blaine's a bloody nutter."

Ash rolled his eyes, "says the guy that's covered from head to toe in pikachu merch."

"It's a disguise…" muttered Bill — offended, "my friend, you're hurting my feelings…"

"I'm sorry, Bill," replied Ash with an exasperated look, "but, it's the truth. You really should change, especially since we're going to the Cinnabar Lab. I've heard that place can be a little up tight."

"So, the pikachu fanatic look was really too much…" said Bill as he raised a hand to his chin, "well, at the very least it doesn't seem like anybody has recognized me. I'll change at the Big Riddle Inn. I don't care what all of those nutters at the Cinnabar Lab think about how I'm dressed."

"But, what if Dr. Fuji sees you?" asked Ash, standing up as he got ready to let Nurse Joy know that he wouldn't be needing a room after all.

Growlithe also stoop up. For whatever reason, he was still looking at Bill with disappointed eyes.

"If I was willing to wear this in front of you, Ash," said Bill with an assured countenance, "then I would have no problem wearing it around the doc. Not that it matters anyway, he's not going to be there."

Ash ignored the bit about Bill not caring about what other people thought about him. He should have guessed what his response was going to be. Around most people, his friend was completely shameless when it came to the impression he put forth.

But, the part about Dr. Fuji was interesting...

"What do you mean Dr. Fuji won't be there?" asked Ash, "everything I've read, or seen on TV, suggests that he rarely leaves the lab."

"For a long time that was true," said Bill with a shrug, "but about a year ago he took an unexplained leave of absence. My dad reached out to his wife a while ago, and she said that he went on a research trip to the Sevii Islands, but nobody has been able to get a hold of him."

"Oh…" replied Ash while getting a weird, unexplainable feeling, "well, hopefully he's okay..."

"I'm sure he's fine," said Bill, waving it off, "Fuji's a genius, and he's a stickler when he's working in the lab, but the few times he's gone out into the field since I've known him, he tends to lose track of time. Most likely, he's just enthralled by whatever it is he's researching."

For some reason — even without proper context — Ash had a feeling in his gut that Bill was dead wrong.

When he thought about the disappearance of one of the world's greatest minds in the world…

All he felt was dread.

XXX

To Be Continued…

XXX

A/N: This chapter felt different as I was writing it, but I like the way it turned out. I hope you guys did, too. By the way, I've been giving updates in my bio on the progress of the chapters. So, if you're wondering if one is close to coming out, check it out. Also, please review if you have time. I read them all and enjoy hearing your thoughts. Anyways...

Thanks for reading!

Much love, vincentgrey21