Ron the True Fan: Johto. Pain.

Olivine City - 1342 hours - Day 688 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey

The snow had let up somewhat. The ground was frozen solid, which, of course, made sad Gibles, but the air was no longer minus 40 below, allowing anyone with a jacket and boots to actually go out for more then an hour without turning into a frozen body.

"...Holy crap." Kyoji said as the girls, wearing copies of Ash's outfit with variations (according to Pikachu, they were what he wore in other regions) some happily - Serena, of course, smiled - others, not so much - Hikari clearly looked awkward - all prepared to leave the city after months of putting up with Ash's cabin fever and Taggard's many foiled attempts to get them to make babies.

(The old man was currently face down in a pile of snow, being rapidly buried by Swinubs)

"They all look AMAZING." Kyoji said.

"You never compliment MY looks." Neesha groused, color draining from Kyoji's face before he stammered, but she laughed at his reaction. "Relax, you don't need to. I can see it every time you look at me."

"To Mahogany!" Max declared as they all loaded up in the winterized wagons, Ash, as usual, being somewhat annoyed by riding instead of walking as he followed his student up into the carriage. "Come on, Ash, you should be happy to be leaving."

"I'm not looking forward to doing Lance's job for him." Ash said in reply. "It's, what, a week to Mahogany?"

"Without detours. Good thing you set your Pokemon loose to fix all those problems you said were a thing back when." Kyoji said, referring to the other timeline.

And much like Ash's extended stay back at Laramie Ranch nearly two years ago, they were BUSY.

Needless to say, all the tiny problems, they dealt with.

So it was a straight run to Mahogany Town and Pryce. …Mostly.

Ash had no idea where the old Ninetails was.

Two days later

(Recommended reading music: Rage of Sparta from God of War 3)

Serena stormed after the two as they were led into the dark by the Ninetales.

Ash had dealt with it before. He was SURE he could handle it peacefully. Turned out he was wrong and that in this altered timeline, the kitsune's trainer was a woman, like Becca and her husband…well, the fox didn't seem to care that Ash only passingly looked like her trainer's husband. With his sleep deprivation, he was less resistant to mental bullshit.

Delphox easily tracked the two to a ruined manor, ringed with blue fire. Will-o-wisp. Lovely.

"This will not stop me, you nine-tailed man-manipulating BITCH!" Serena declared, releasing Pancham, who looked at the ghost fire and used Dark Pulse to douse it, allowing her to enter the manor, Delphox and Pancham trailing behind.

Distant voices came from upstairs… in the master bedroom. Blue turned pink for a fraction of a second before she rushed up the stairs, storming into the master bedroom, finding the two with glossy eyes and half-naked, Ninetails poking her head up to look at the intruders.

"You have made a MASSIVE mistake." the Kalosian snarled, breaking Ash's hypnosis at the sound of her voice, allowing him to nudge Becca away from him before they could do anything.

The kitsune reared her tails, ghostly fire on each tip.

Serena was unfazed. "Please." she drawled. "Don't bother."

Water dripped from above… and Ninetales looked up only to be face to face with Greninja.

Who was very, VERY pissed.

One drenched fox (and pissed off Pikachu that joined in shortly after) later, the manor and the fox's Pokeball were destroyed, with the Ninetales running off into the woods.

And Serena was latched onto Ash.

"I told you. I'M first." she said smugly. Becca walked back to the convoy, clearly mortified by what nearly happened while Serena cuddled with Ash, smugness radiating from her.

She broke Ninetales' hold on Ash. THAT was proof of how much he loved her.

Spying on them from afar, Kyoji snorted. "Ash, you are a lucky son of a bitch." he said.

"Gib!" 'Yes, he is!' Kyoji's shark declared before they heard… the sound.

Vun-vun.

That only meant one thing.

"Gibles!" he declared happily, as fins breached the surface, followed by more then a few sharky heads poking out of the ground. And a… Gabite? Who looked really really sad.

"Aw…Why are you sad, big shark?" Kyoji asked as the others approached, Ruby staring at the land sharks with a twinkle in her eye before picking one up and hugging her. The shark eyesmiled and did as all Gibles do.

CHOMP!

"Gible!" 'You're the one from Indigo!' said the lead Gible. "Gible-Gib-Gi!" 'We need your help! Something's wrong at the Lake of Rage!'

"Let me guess." Ash said as he and Serena approached. "Random evolutions."

The sharks looked to him in surprise, but didn't comment on his ability to understand them. They were Pika-proof anyways. The Gabite crawled out of the ground, sad.

"Bite…" 'I turned into a Gabite before I could give someone a chomp…' he said, making the school of sharks sad.

Ash nodded. "We're a few days out. Anyone that doesn't want to evolve, transfer them back to the ranch." he ordered, pulling out the Pokedex.

He had a few that wanted out of their current stage. Then the ground started shaking, right before part of it collapsed into a… massive tunnel.

"Gible tunnels!" Ruby exclaimed before she and Red poked their heads into the darkness.

CHOMP!

It was to be expected.

That said, a big shark came out. And if it weren't for the fact the school came to help, she'd be scary.

"Chomp." 'Come.' said the Garchomp, who sounded almost…grandmotherly.

"You heard the shark matron!" Kyoji declared. "Into the tunnel!"

"Gib!" 'For the sharks!' the yellow land shark declared.

All the other Gibles buried themselves up to their fins, a kind of Gible salute. "GIB." 'We honor your noble sacrifice.' they said as one.

Oak Ranch

Ivysaur put out the call: anyone who wanted to evolve, come to the lab. Anyone fully evolved, the same. The Lake of Rage awaited them.

The Lake of Rage. The incident spoken of by the Johto vets as an incident involving forced evolution and a red Gyarados. Some Pokemon didn't want to go any further than the stage they were at (the Alolan Meowth was quite happy as he was helping at the Ketchum house with Mimey, for example) but others were more than eager to join the fight.

Meltan, blob with a hex nut, volunteered, along with Grubbin and two others who wanted to join the higher branches.

All Bell knew was that her brother's Pokemon were getting ready for some emergency after Natu came back and outside of transferring them, she wanted to know nothing.

"All work and no play-" Asuka sang teasily.

"We play enough." Bell cut off. "Ash apparently needs his team of evil Pokemon to level a small town, so I'll send them through before WE get to enjoy ourselves."

Asuka raised an eyebrow. "'Level a small town'?" she asked. "You know your brother's more inclined to save a town then destroy it, right?"

Bell paused to look at her wife-to-be. "They chew me up and spit me out for more." she said dryly. "I'm half-expecting that Servine of his to eat me."

"Wouldn't she have to be a Serviper to do that?" Asuka asked.

Bell paused and looked around. Paranoia was only paranoia if there was no justification.

Then the snake did just that to prove a point,shaking her around much to Asuka's amusement.

Mahogany Town - Near the Lake of Rage - Day 693

The Gible tunnel was blown open by a hyper beam from Iris' Dragonite, allowing access to the lake proper.

"We need to contain any Gyarados that were forced to evolve thanks to this stupid Rocket crap." Ash said simply, much to the confusion of Red and anyone not 'in the know'.

"Team Rocket? As in the criminal team you and your mom more or less obliterated?" Yang asked before the waters erupted.

And right on cue, a Gyarados. But red.

"…That…" Kyoji started. "Is fucking AWESOME. A RED Gyarados!"

"Yeah, it's just a shiny." Misty said, withdrawing her team.

"Look, I LIKE Gyarados. They're in my top five Pokemon along with Gible, Natu and Charizard!" Kyoji defended before the Gyarados noticed them. "And that red is AWESOME!"

"SCATTER!" Ash ordered, Pikachu jumping from his shoulder and electrocuting the sea snake Pokemon.

Hikari released Togekiss and her Piplup, trainer and starter climbing onto the eggbird before she took to the air, Piplup firing off a Whirlpool that formed a water tornado that smacked the sea snake in the face and pissed it off, making it charge up a hyper beam.

Then a thunderbolt hit it in the eye.

"GIBLE!" 'Pick on someone your own size!' said the comparatively tiny land shark as he spat out another bolt at the Magikarp on steroids. This was replied with a hyper beam to the Gible.

One strong enough to vaporize the land shark.

"GIBLE!" Kyoji cried as the ground was rent asunder, leaving nothing surviving… except something glowing once the beam passed by.

And the form was growing. The yellow land shark was evolving thanks to the machine's influence.

As he grew, he looked like a mainland Gabite, but the fins on the arms were more jagged, like lightning bolts, along with a lightning bolt mark going from his notch to the base of his fin.

He finally stopped glowing, his jet horns looking like a mix of a dynamo and a ramjet. "BITE!" 'THAT was rude!' said the newly evolved cave Pokemon before rocketing across the water.

Of course, he wasn't alone. Iris, riding Dragonite, had any of her Pokemon that couldn't fly tagging along and attacking from range on his back, which clearly annoyed him, but… well…

Two weeks prior - Oak Ranch

Dragonite was getting his ass kicked. Iris was Ash's defacto mate and he wanted to assert his dominance.

Salamence warned him this was a bad idea. Dragonite ignored him.

He was regretting it. Charizard dodged a Thunder Punch, then, using his longer limbs, hit him with Dragon Claw across the face and a Mega Punch to the gut, before latching onto his neck with his jaws, before beginning the spin towards the ground.

Well, Ivysaur wanted a new lake closer to Viridian.

Charizard used Seismic Toss. It was not effective. It didn't need to be, as when he hit the ground, Charizard pulled a Reverse Immelmann and plasma filled his maw.

Blast Burn launched at Dragonite with enough thermal force that the dirt began to melt and turn into rock. Normally, Charizard would not use it so carelessly.

He was proving a point.

Dragonite panted, Charizard only taking in a few breaths to recover from using the fire-type version of Hyper Beam.

Dragonite was beaten, Charizard was untouched. Just as Salamence warned.

And Charizard was not the alpha of Ash's Pokemon team. Pikachu could easily destroy him if he wanted to.

Without electrocuting him.

Dragonite flicked off hardened rock and took to the air to head back to the lab and get transferred back to Iris.

Iris' entire team was needed to deal with the sea snake and not all of them were tanks. So taking to the air was the only viable option.

Misty rode on Starmie to get onto the water, hitting and running against the snake, but the one pissing it off the most?

A lightning-colored Gabite biting it. "BITE!" 'Stop being a mean snake!' the shark demanded, before getting a Twister to the face, right before the Gyarados reared back, overcharging another hyper beam.

Gabite tried to evade, but the snake was faster and fired.

Kyoji pulled out a gun to avenge his sharky friend, but there was no need, as the glow of evolution was surrounding him again.

He knew Gible was holding back - they ALL did: none of them WANTED to be Gabites or Garchomps! - but not like this.

And the newly evolved Ranseian Garchomp, with a lightning bolt-edged fluke and teeth that looked like two lightning bolts meeting joining the other visual differences from Gabite, lunged at the Gyarados.

"As much as I like evolving Pokemon, we really need to stop this thing before it starts hitting the town!" Yang exclaimed, even as her starter evolved to Infernape.

Ash decided the best solution was… the traditional one. He reached down and withdrew an Ultra Ball, not bothering with a regular one as he would prefer, as he wanted to do this only once.

He winded up, then like a master pitcher, threw the ball, skipping it across the water, bouncing it five times before it hit Gyarados, turning it to energy and sucking it in before the ball clicked and teleported away.

Kyoji, Casey and pretty much anyone who hadn't seen him throw a ball looked at him in surprise.

"That… was freaking cool." Kyoji said succinctly before someone decided to return.

To chomp.

"CHOMP!" 'We won!' cried the new Garchomp.

"Garchomp, no!" Ash snapped, getting the electric air shark's attention. "You evolved TWICE. You bite, you'll take off his head."

The Ranseian pokemon looked at himself…and was sad. "Chomp…" he whined wordlessly.

Then a clip was thrown at his fin, making him glow and shrink back down to a Gible before Kyoji picked him up.

"I thought ahead." he said smugly before the land shark did as they all do. CHOMP!

"Nice work!" came a somewhat unwelcome voice from above. Ash turned his eyes upward to find Lance, perched on Dragonite's back before the dragon-type touched down.

As soon as Lance's feet touched mud, Ash's fist was shoved into his face, knocking him down.

"THAT was for manipulating me." Ash declared bluntly, Lance looking up at Ash from below.

"Suppose I had that coming." the Champion said. "But you know the best way to deal with the Shadow Pokemon here was-"

Ash's glare intensified. "The only reason I kept doing this was that reason alone." he said with derision. "Not your conquest. But I DO NOT LIKE BEING LIED TO."

"Can you two have your pissing contest AFTER we deal with the machine?!" Misty snapped. "That Gyarados won't be the only one soon!"

Ash looked at Misty, his glare softening before he nodded at her.

This could wait.

He was coming, he was coming, HE WAS COMING!

Patel was not bothering to help deal with the intruders. Ash Ketchum, heir to the Rocket throne, would destroy them. Nothing could stop him.

All he had to do was convince Ash to join them. Madness turned to madness, after all.

The ground shook as the power was cut. Then the wall exploded.

A Charizard and Sceptile stood guard at the breach as Ash walked in.

"Ash Ketchum. I am PLEASED to see you." he said, smiling. "I am Patel."

"And I don't care." Ash said dryly. "It's over. Your machine's destroyed and you're the last Rocket Admin."

"But it will live on!" he said, looking Ash in the face. "You understand. You've seen it!"

Ash's eyes softened in understanding. Yes! Yes, he knew! "You've seen the realm." he said.

"Of course! I can see it in your eyes! We are the only ones who understand!" Patel exclaimed. "We are the only sane ones in this insane world!"

"My sanity is questionable. Yours isn't." Ash said bluntly. "Now, give me your hands."

Patel laughed before drawing his sidearm. "Team Rocket will live on in you." he declared. "You are the strongest heir to Madam Boss. You will BE the new Boss!"

Ash scoffed, as did his Pokemon. "Hell will freeze over first." he said dryly.

Patel laughed. "It froze over sixty years ago." he said before, in one fluid motion, he put the weapon to his own temple.

And pulled the trigger.

The first thing they noticed was the shellshocked look on Ash's face as Sceptile nudged him outside.

Lance, a few steps behind and covering his nose, winced. "Patel's dead." he said simply. "Suicide, from the looks and judging from his… state, he must've done it in front of Ash."

There was something of a race to get to Ash from the girls, Hikari being the first to get there with Misty and Serena being second up.

But what was going on in Ash's head?

Cracks in the earth. Dryness. Death.

Ash looked around, finding bleached bones sticking out.

A pink hat on a skull. A torn, fading yellow tanktop.

"You failed." came the voice of Cyrus, making Ash look around. "My dream of a spiritless world is complete. Only you remain. And you, boy… are already dead."

Ron the True Fan: Psychology's a bitch. Sorry for the delay. Busy with other things and Johto is PAIN.

Takeshi Yamato: Yes. Johto is pain. …Honestly, I'm torn between wanting this over with and wanting more time to work on my own stuff - games and the like. Even though I've recused myself to Beta duty until Cyrus is dealt with… That's only because someone has to do the Beta work.

Ron the True Fan: Look, until we're FINALLY done, we all have to deal with the pain. Hoenn will be less pain. And of course… pac-Gible is no longer pac-Gible. (Sad Pac-Garchomp)

Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, the Lake of Rage incident is one where there's a lot of evolution. Kyoji's Gible suffered the brunt of it… but there's probably others who also felt it.

Ron the True Fan: And you know what's coming next chapter. A SKIPPED GYM BATTLE! …Look, I want this over with. I'll write a goddamn gym battle when I do the Director's Cut version, but now? Johto, OVER.

Ja Ne!