For those of you who were unaware (because I have gotten some feedback to that effect), Wallace replaced Todd Snap.

"You should take the Pokemon League Admissions Exam!" Wallace suggested.

"Nope," Clay said immediately. "He is not takin' that garbage."

"Garbage?" Wallace eyed Clay dubiously. "The Pokemon League Admissions Exam is not garbage! It is a proven alternate method of accessing the Indigo League."

"Why would I need an alternate method?" Ash asked. "I've only got two Gym Badges left to go, and then I'm in!"

"Besides," said Clay, "proven? Please. The instructors are a bunch of hacks who ask nothin' but trick questions, and you don't even get to battle with your own Pokemon during the battle phase."

"Well," said Wallace, "I will admit that the average Trainer would find it difficult to tell a Voltorb from a Jigglypuff as seen from above."

"Puff?" Jigglypuff exclaimed in shock, patting the top of her head. "Puff Jiggly Puff!" Which probably meant "What? I do NOT look like a Voltorb!"

"Yeah, that sounds dumb," said Ash. "C'mon, I heard there's a restaurant nearby! Let's get some lunch!"

"So let me get this straight," said Cyrus. "Because I have a Psyduck, I get an all-you-can-eat meal for free?"

"Yes!" The restaurant owner smiled. "It is my favorite Pokemon, after all."

"How many times have you done this in the past week?" Cyrus queried.

"Fifteen!" said the restaurant owner. "Turns out Psyduck are…pretty common."

"How much debt are you in?"

"A lot," the restaurant owner admitted. "I should…really get rid of that deal, to be honest."

"That would be a wise decision," Cyrus concluded. Looking dejected, the restaurant owner slunk off.

"Ah, I did not realize you had a Water-type of your own!" said Wallace. "It looks to be a very impressive specimen. How is its Psychic control?"

"Show him, Psyduck," Cyrus commanded. Psyduck focused; a fork on the table glowed purple and lifted off the tablecloth, floating in midair.

"Very good!" Wallace clapped. The sound startled Psyduck, who jerked; the fork promptly flew in a random direction and knocked Clay's stetson right off his head.

"It is still a work in progress," Cyrus admitted. "But he is improving."

"Hey, you sure do like your Water-types," Ash told Wallace. "Do you know Professor Archie?"

"Of course!" Wallace exclaimed. "My travels have taken me to his ranch several times, and he's always been quite eager to see me."

"I can't imagine why," Clay muttered, affixing his hat back upon his head.

"I'll have to call him and tell him I've met you!" said Ash.

"Oh, no, you don't need to do that," Wallace said hastily. "He's probably busy with…water stuff."

Clay and Cyrus glanced at each other strangely.

"I guess that makes sense," said Ash. "Hey, look, there's a sign for a breeding center over there! What say we-"

"Oh, that's defunct." The restaurant owner had returned. "It used to be owned by a brother and sister - Falkner and Korrina, I believe their names were. But they left without warning a few weeks ago - no one knows where they've gone. Pity, they seemed like nice people."

Wallace and the restaurant owner both looked rather bewildered when Clay and Ash started laughing their heads off.

"I do not think we will be visiting that breeding center today," said Cyrus. "Now, what exactly does this all-you-can-eat buffet entail?"

One lunch (and a short walk) later, the group reached a port city that had a ferry service leading to Cinnabar Island, the location of the next Gym. As they entered the ferry terminal, Ash was fervently hoping that there would be no more obstacles en route to his seventh Gym Battle.

"What do you mean, the ferry service isn't running today because a school of Goldeen got into the ferry engines?"

Wallace offered to let them ride his Pokemon, all of whom were capable of Surf, but that didn't work either because it turned out the mayor of the city had banned using Surf to get to Cinnabar Island in order to ensure people had to pay the ferry service to get there instead. Having established that no, they were not getting to Cinnabar Island today, and no, they couldn't storm the mayor's office and demand permission to Surf to Cinnabar (though that had been mostly Ash's idea), the group dejectedly headed into a nearby park area, where they sat down on some benches and released their various teams for some training.

Kricketune, newly returned from Professor Archie's ranch (and still a little bruised from his training sessions with the Hoothoot Trio - they were improving rapidly), decided now was as good a time as any for music lessons for Jigglypuff.

"All right," he told the diminutive Normal/Fairy-type, "the way I see it, your main problem is that you never learned the difference between singing and Singing."

Jigglypuff stared at Kricketune blankly.

"Okay, I could have worded that better." Kricketune sighed. "Look, there's a difference between just singing with your voice and using the move Sing. Currently, whenever you sing, you use Sing, which is what causes everyone to fall asleep."

"Okay, so what's the difference?" Jigglypuff asked.

"Using Sing requires putting energy into your voice," said Kricketune. Jigglypuff cocked her head, and Kricketune hastily clarified, "The energy you use in Pokemon moves."

"Oh," said Jigglypuff. "So…like this?" She opened her mouth.

"Don't, you'll put me to sleep!"

Jigglypuff snapped her mouth shut.

"Tell me something, Jigglypuff," said Kricketune. "Have your audiences been falling asleep from the moment you first started singing?"

Mutely, Jigglypuff nodded.

"I thought so." Kricketune heaved another sigh. "If you want to sing without putting your audiences to sleep, you're going to have to relearn how to sing entirely."

"Entirely?"

"Entirely," Kricketune confirmed. "It'll be difficult, but I promise that I'll help for as long as I am able."

"Thanks, Kricketune." Jigglypuff smiled. "I can't believe I always thought everyone fell asleep because my music bored them. I should've known it wasn't that bad."

"Don't worry about it," said Kricketune. "I was part of a gang once, you know?"

"Really?"

Kricketune nodded. "But that's in the past. The past is the past, and it stays in the past."

"Where in tarnation did my stetson go?" Clay's voice arose from the benches, breaking into the conversation. "I swear I left it right here!"

Kricketune heaved a sigh. "Knowing how this team works, this is probably the start of another Team Rocket plot. Better go…" He trailed off, his eyes darting to a point over Jigglypuff's shoulder; Jigglypuff turned to look, and saw Clay's stetson moving towards them, borne atop a pair of stubby legs connected to what Jigglypuff could just barely see was the bottom of a white eggshell.

"Togepi?" Kricketune asked.

"Howdy," the stetson-wearing Togepi announced, barely visible beneath the way-too-large hat. "Imma cowboy."

Kricketune looked at Jigglypuff, who was visibly trying to hold back giggles, and then looked back at Togepi. "Yes, Togepi," he said as calmly as he could manage, "you're a cowboy."

"Yay!"

With one last Dragon Pulse, Milotic blasted Primeape clear off his feet a second before the Fighting-type's punch could connect. Primeape tumbled to the ground, rolling several times before finally stopping; he did not get up.

Ash sighed - he'd (obviously) been hoping for a win, but he contented himself with the marks all over Milotic's body and the wince she tried to hide as she cried out victoriously. Without her Aqua Ring, Ash was pretty sure Primeape would've won - even with it, if that last punch had landed it would likely be Primeape celebrating now instead of Milotic.

He recalled Primeape. "Thanks for the battle," he said, trying to keep the dejection out of his voice.

"No problem." Wallace was, as usual, smiling. "Your Primeape fought well - you should be proud of that."

Ash nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. He won't, though - he'll be furious when he wakes up."

Wallace chuckled, recalled Milotic, and began to walk back towards the benches, where Cyrus was sitting and watching mutely while Clay continued to search for his hat. "So, Wallace," said Ash, "you must have gone to some really cool places if your team's as tough as it is!"

"Certainly!" said Wallace. "I have travelled all across Kanto and even beyond, taking pictures of some of the finest sights the world has to offer! I have taken photographs of everything from the natural beauty of the Seafoam Islands to the man-made architecture of Saffron City, and travelled from the deepest depths of Cerulean Cave to the wondrous heights of Mount Silver!"

Cyrus coughed. "Mount Silver has been closed due to excessive wild Pokemon attacks for the last year, has it not?"

"…oh, right, of course," said Wallace. "I meant Mount Mortar. You know, two mountains in the same region…easy to get mixed up."

Cyrus grunted disbelievingly and turned away.

"Anyway," Wallace continued, reclaiming some of the grandness of his speech, "I've told you plenty about myself - what about you? What adventures have you gotten into over the course of your journey so far?"

Ash grinned. "Plenty! I'd be happy to tell you about some of them! Um…there was the Safari Zone, where I caught my-"

"Togepi!"

Clay's sharp call brought everyone's attention. The man was striding towards a point on the grass some distance away from the branches, where Kricketune and Jigglypuff were gathered around what Ash instantly realized was Clay's hat. It took him a few more moments, though, to figure out that the hat was currently being worn by Togepi, who had frozen in place at the sound of Clay's voice.

As soon as he reached the group, Clay stooped, plucked his stetson off Togepi's head, and glared down at the Fairy-type. "Now what've you got to say for yourself, stealin' a man's hat like that?"

Togepi looked up with wide eyes at Clay. "Pi…" she whimpered in the most pathetic tone Ash had ever heard come out of a Pokemon's mouth.

Clay looked helpless, torn between anger at his hat getting stolen and realization that there was no way he could possibly bring himself to scold Togepi. At last he contented himself with kneeling, reaching down, and gently picking up Togepi from the ground. "C'mon," he said gruffly. "Let's get you back to the benches where I can keep an eye on you."

Having retrieved his hat (and also resolved to not let Togepi out of his sight) Clay now gazed around at his assembled team; the egg-shaped Fairy-type looked tiny next to Palpitoad, Krokorok, and Drilbur, and was gazing around at all of them with wonder in her eyes, her dejection at losing her stolen headgear long since forgotten.

"I recognize," said Clay, "that our roster has doubled in size since our last serious training session. But don't think that means I'm gonna go easy on you. Any of you."

"Imma twain!"

"Okay, maybe a little easy on Togepi," Clay corrected. "Drilbur, how about you show her the ropes, and Krokorok, you spar with Palpitoad, okay?"

Nods, murmurs of assent, and a cry of "Okay, mama!" later, the pairs split off to train amongst themselves. Togepi and Drilbur moved into a shadier spot of the parkland, leaving Krokorok and Palpitoad alone in a sunnier area.

"Look," said Krokorok as he dropped into a fighting stance, "I never really got to say this before, so…no hard feelings, okay? About…y'know…"

"Yeah, I know," Palpitoad replied. "Thanks, Krokorok. This whole journey…it's been really weird for me."

"It's been weird for all of us," said Krokorok. "We're travelling with a kid who's practically a Legendary magnet, getting into wacky adventures all across Kanto. I still remember when we were just driving around to various caves and riverbeds and mining for rocks. Not gonna lie, life was a lot more calm back then…but also a lot more boring."

"Hey, wait a minute." Palpitoad frowned. "Doesn't Ash still owe Clay money for crashing his car?"

Krokorok chuckled. "I reckon they've both forgotten completely about that by now. And let's be honest, that car was an old beater anyway. Was getting to the point where repairs would cost more than the car was worth."

"Fair." Palpitoad smiled. "So, shall we? First move's yours."

"You'll regret that." Krokorok sprang, and Palpitoad raised an arm to block, and even though they'd both been unevolved last time they'd sparred like this, in less than a minute they were dueling as if they'd done so in this manner all their lives.

The afternoon wore on. Clay's team sparred - Togepi, it turned out, knew Metronome, which naturally caused all sorts of chaos. Cyrus tutored his Pokemon more rigidly, drilling Psyduck on Psychic moves, Zubat and Murkrow on flying exercises, and Sneasel and Houndour on speed. Wallace sat on the benches, surprisingly not taking advantage of the beautiful scenery to take any photographs. And Ash, with Kricketune occupied tutoring Jigglypuff and Primeape recovering in the nearby Pokemon Center, decided to have his Zygarde transform back into their 10% forms, recognizing that those would be far more practical for purposes of participating in a Gym Battle.

This went well.

"Zy!" "Garde!" "Zy!" "Zy!" "Garde!" The thirty 10% Zygarde seemed tireless as they ran pell-mell throughout the park, romping through the trees and bringing sticks for Ash to throw and chasing after anyone unlucky enough to be wandering in the park at this hour.

Ash stared helplessly at his wayward pack of Zygarde, then turned to look at Clay. "I don't get it! The Complete Zygarde are way too big to battle, but the 10% Zygarde don't listen to me at all! They just think I'm someone to play fetch with. How am I supposed to train them to battle?"

Clay took his attention off his Pokemon to look back at Ash. "This is the kind of Pokemon you need a firm hand with," he said. "More often than not, disobedient Pokemon are disobedient because they don't think their Trainer is worth listening to."

"But they leaped into my Pokeballs!"

"Because they thought you were playing fetch with them," Clay pointed out. "I'll admit, this is a strange case, but…you need to treat your Zygarde as two separate beings. There's the Complete Form, which actually understands what's going on and seems to at least be willing to battle for you, and then there's the 10% form, which clearly doesn't and just wants to romp around and play fetch all day."

Ash watched as several of the Zygarde chased a car down a nearby street. "Wait," he said suddenly. "What if Zygarde has more forms?"

Clay frowned. "Why would that be the case?"

"Well…100 is divisible by more things than 10, right?" Ash smiled. "So maybe Zygarde can divide itself by 2, or 4, or even 25 or 50! And if one of those forms has a balance between the Complete and 10% forms, then maybe I can work with it!"

"I didn't take you for a mathematician," Clay murmured.

"I'm not!" said Ash. "I completely failed math class in school. But there were a hundred donuts at the after-school party."

"Ah."

Though Ash wanted to try out having Zygarde transform into different forms, by that point in the day it was getting dark out, so the group headed to a nearby hotel for some rest before the big day tomorrow.

However, Ash found himself unable to sleep. It wasn't out of any sort of nervousness, but instead excitement - after what felt like ages, tomorrow he would finally embark on the journey to Cinnabar Island and his next Gym Battle. He couldn't wait, especially since he'd be using Genesect - he'd be saving the Legendary for last so that he could give the rest of his team a turn, of course, but he wouldn't pretend that he wasn't enthusiastic about wielding the Legendary's power once again.

This sleeplessness, as it happened, served Ash well, because at a point late into the night, when Clay and Cyrus were both sound asleep, he heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside the hotel room he was sleeping in. Seeing as Ash was a rather naive child who hadn't watched any horror movies because they scared him too much, his reaction to the noise was to think for about five seconds, then slide out of bed and go investigate.

Creeping towards the door, Ash opened it as quietly as he could manage, wincing at every little creak it made. He leaned out just in time to see a shadow disappear around a corner nearby. Quickly as he could while still being quiet, Ash slipped out of the room, moved down the hallway, and peered around the corner.

And came face to face with Wallace.

"You heard me," Ash remarked.

"So did you," Wallace murmured.

Ash nodded. "Not gonna lie, you kinda suck at being quiet."

Wallace sighed. "Sneakiness was never my strong suit. I really shouldn't have tried. Then again, I could say the same to you."

"What are you doing?" Ash asked. "Why even bother trying to sneak out? It's not like we're suspicious of you or anything!"

"You aren't?" Wallace queried.

"…well, I wasn't," Ash clarified. "Though I'm starting to rethink that a little. Non-suspicious people generally don't sneak out at midnight."

"Maybe you weren't suspicious," said Wallace, "but your friends were. I saw the glances they were shooting at one another. Like I said, sneakiness was never my strong suit - I'm pretty sure they could tell from the start that I wasn't just a humble photographer."

"Wait, you're not just a photographer?"

"You really didn't suspect anything, did you, kid?" Wallace smiled thinly. "Look…all that stuff about Professor Archie back at the restaurant? That was a complete lie. As was everything I said about how my Pokemon had gotten so strong. Arceus, I'm not even a very good photographer. I…barely count as a photographer at all, to be honest. Up until recently, I was a battler - a real strong one, too."

"I can imagine that," Ash replied, "with that team of yours. But why did you stop?"

Wallace sighed. "At the beginning," he said, "I battled for fame. I was flashy, I was showy, I signed sponsorship deals with anyone who would take me and competed in every tournament I could. Soon I started getting fans, people who would come to my battles and cheer my name. It became intoxicating. For a year or so, it was everything I ever dreamed of. I had fame, respect, power, wealth…"

He trailed off with a sigh. "There were signs. My fans were becoming increasingly rabid. Their excitement to see me became demands to see me. But I was blinded by my own success, and I ignored them. And then, a few months ago, I double-booked. An important meeting with one of my sponsors happened at the same time as a tournament I had publicly announced my attendance of. I chose the meeting, called the tournament organizers, and apologized. They promoted another Trainer to my spot, and that was it. No harm done…at least I thought."

Wallace shook his head. "But my fans didn't get the message. Hundreds of them showed up just to see me compete in the tournament. And they were furious when I didn't show. It couldn't have been my fault, of course, not according to them. No, it had to be the tournament's fault. Someone, an organizer or competitor, must have forced me out due to jealousy of my success. Things turned ugly, and when security tried to force a few of my louder fans out…"

Again he stopped, and this time he didn't resume. Ash stared at Wallace. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that didn't go over too well with them."

That elicited a chuckle from Wallace. "No one died, thank Arceus," the older Trainer murmured. "But nearly a hundred people were arrested, and over fifteen were hospitalized. Two men were so severely injured that they'll never walk again. Pictures and videos of the whole thing were all over the news, and in every single one, there was my face, emblazoned on their shirts and signs and banners even as they hurt people in my name. And seeing that, I…couldn't even bring myself to look in the mirror anymore."

"It wasn't your fault!" Ash protested.

"But it was," said Wallace. "If I hadn't been so dead-set on becoming famous…if I hadn't been blinded by my own greed…that incident would never have happened. So I…gave it all up. I cancelled my sponsorships, used most of my fortune to pay for the treatments of all the people hospitalized in the incident, donated the rest to charity, and retired." He chuckled again. "Took me two hours to realize that I probably should've kept a little bit of the money for myself, seeing as I needed to do stuff like buy food and pay for a place to sleep."

"How did you do all that?" Ash asked.

"My team," said Wallace. "After the incident, in my grief, I released them all. Broke their Luxury Balls and everything. I didn't feel like I deserved them anymore after what I'd done. But they stayed by me even without Pokeballs. Every last one of them. When I was at my lowest, flat broke and kicking myself for being so stupid, they picked me up." He smiled at the memory. "And over the course of that next month, they made sure to win enough battles for me that I could earn enough money to survive. Eventually, I managed to scrounge together enough money to buy a camera and enough basic Pokeballs for my team to all fit in, and…I became Wallace, the humble photographer."

He finally looked straight into Ash's eyes. "That's why I lied," he said. "Because this is all I want to be. I don't want to be remembered for any of what I did in the past. So I tried to make myself look like a completely different person than I actually am. It's worked against others, but…not here. So I guess I should apologize for trying to deceive you. And for trying to sneak out so I wouldn't have to risk getting into any awkward conversations…kind of like this one."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," said Wallace. "Ash…just keep my story in mind as you continue your Gym Challenge. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't battle for fame, or for money. Battle because you want to. And keep a good team beside you, because if you're loyal to them, they'll be loyal to you. Though you seem to have that particular lesson well in hand already."

Ash grinned. "Thanks, Wallace."

Wallace gave Ash a nod. "It's been fun travelling with you for a day. But I've got my own path to follow. Pictures to take, money to earn…" His smile turned wistful. "I'm happier like this, you know? No worries about keeping a schedule, no tournaments, no screaming fans…just my Pokemon, my little camera, and the whole world around me. Tell me - what's your dream, Ash?"

"I'm going to be a Pokemon master!" Ash announced.

Wallace chuckled softly. "Then follow that dream," he said, "and never let go of it." He turned. "Maybe I'll see you again someday, Ash."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Ash replied. "And then maybe we can have another battle?"

"You're on, kid," said Wallace, and with that he walked away.

Outside of space-time, Dialga stared at the console. "What was that? That wasn't anywhere close to Todd Snap's backstory!"

"I don't think Todd Snap has a backstory," Arceus noted, sipping his 57th ice cream soda. "Aside from being sent by Professor Oak to investigate Pokemon Island and take photographs of naturally-behaving wild Pokemon using the ZERO-ONE vehicle…wait, no, darn it, wrong universe."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Dialga muttered, "but you've got a point. Todd Snap's backstory was never explained in canon…which means your little randomizer button invented one out of thin air."

"Huh." Arceus's bendy straw ran dry, so he rewound time to the point where his ice cream soda had been full and resumed drinking. "That's cool."

"Cool?" Dialga growled. "Cool?" He rounded on Arceus and swatted the ice cream soda out of his hand. "Do you realize the implications of this?"

"My ice cream soda!"

"Forget your stupid ice cream soda!" Dialga bellowed. "If this randomizer filled in a blank piece of the canon by inventing a full-fledged backstory for a character…then what other blank pieces can it fill in? How far does it go?"

Arceus shrugged. "Guess we'll just have to find out." He materialized a new ice cream soda and began sipping from it.

Dialga turned back towards the console. "I'm getting the feeling," he murmured, "that I don't want to find out."

No more delays - next chapter is Cinnabar. I considered having Wallace travel with the group for longer than Todd did in canon, but I couldn't really think of a reason why that would change, and in the end I realized it would just be making a change for change's sake. So he leaves, though in a rather different manner than canon Todd.