Capítulo 37: 41,42
"I never really realized how much easier this journey was than when we went the other way," Brock said with interest. "I mean, on our way south we were dodging away from things which happened last time which were bad, running into other things, and all that. As for the way back through... it's just been cake!"
"I agree," Ninetales said, flirting her tails. "Perhaps it's just that we've taken the main road, this time."
"That might be it," Ash agreed. He glanced overhead at the circling form of Noctowl. "Everything alright?"
"Rather," Noctowl said. He dipped his wings, flying a little lower. "I do believe we're about to arrive on the outskirts of Ecruteak."
"We made good time, then!" Misty said. "Right, what do we have to do here..."
"I can't think of anything," Ash admitted.
As it happened, though, something to do found them. As they entered the city proper, they were met by a familiar face.
"Oh, hi Sakura!" Ash said, recognizing her. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Sakura told him. "The bells started ringing, so we knew you were coming."
"Which bells?" Misty asked. "You said there were a lot, as I remember."
"Yes, that's right," Sakura confirmed. "A lot of them started ringing. But one of them was that one which rings when someone worthy of Ho-Oh is approaching, and of course that means you."
Ash gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Right."
"Anyway," Sakura went on. "We have a rather unusual request to make. If you'd follow me to the hall?"
Ash looked among his companions, who shrugged, and turned back to her. "No problems here."
"Excellent," Sakura smiled.
"So, what did you want?" Ash asked, some minutes later.
Tamao cleared her throat. "We were wondering – we heard that you'd been seen with Suicune, and whether that meant-"
There was a flash, and Suicune emerged from her Fast Ball.
"...well, that answers that," Sumomo said faintly.
Suicune waved.
"Do you mess with us deliberately?" the girl asked plaintively, as her Vaporeon stretched on her lap.
"Not deliberately, no," Ash said, with a shrug. "It just kind of... happens..."
Koume tapped the table. "If I may. We were wondering whether we could request that one of your battles take place where we may observe it, since we have never seen the Beasts at battle first-hand before despite our extensive studies."
"The closest we've come is watching things on television," Satsuki said. "We missed catching that broadcast of you in the Whirl cup, though."
Dexter beeped. I could provide you the recordings.
"That would be nice," Sakura admitted.
For her part, Suicune frowned. "Hm... I wonder whether Entei's going to challenge you again soon. I might ask him. Or, if Raikou's willing to put his all into it this time, we might have that instead."
"She says she'll check," Ash translated. "Maybe we should all go to that clearing from last time, actually."
"That seems a fine idea," Tamao smiled.
Suicune loped into the basement of the Tin Tower.
"Hello, Suicune!" her brother said, looking up. "It's been a while."
"Sorry," she said, looking around. "I... where is everyone else?"
Entei frowned, one paw going to his chin. "Let me see... well, my double is handling a little matter up north in Almia, since I intend to challenge Ash again some time soon. His brother is headed down to Hoenn to speak with Rayquaza on a matter of some urgency – Lord Ho-Oh requested it – and your own double is of course handling her new duties."
Suicune nodded, then blinked. "And what of our brother?"
He sighed. "We've got no idea. He went off a couple of weeks ago talking about sign language, and seems to have vanished off the face of the earth."
Raikou turned the pages of the guide. "Hm... ah, I see! The gym relies on Ghosts? Well, that means I'll just have to make sure I brush up on my Dark-type attacks!"
He emitted a low, rumbling growl. "But how to make sure I'm up to snuff? Perhaps I should try and bite some trees!"
"He'll turn up," Suicune said with a shrug. "Eventually. Anyway, Ash is in town, and the Kimono Sisters were wondering if you'd be willing to challenge him without a race – to have just a battle."
Entei began to respond, then stopped. He stood, and paced in a circle. "He has that Pidgeot of his with him, right?"
"That's right," she confirmed.
"Right, so I can't outrun him, and as such it would come down to the battle anyway... very well, then."
Suicune smiled. "Excellent. Shall we head over there?"
"Lord Entei!" Koume said, bowing. "You honour us."
"It is not a problem," Entei stated. "As my sister has said before, your work is valuable and done well. We have no complaints."
He frowned, very slightly. "Except that the bell reporting our presence probably needs a muffler. We live here."
Ash translated.
"I think I know which one you mean," Sumomo said, frowning. "But it's broken – it doesn't ring, even though the clapper strikes it."
"Not to you, maybe," Entei said. "We can all hear it quite well. It's too high pitched for human ears."
When that was explained, the sisters winced. "Sorry, lord Entei!" Koume said, blushing. "I'll be sure to prevent it disturbing you."
"It is no fault of yours," Entei dismissed. "Now... Ash Ketchum."
"I'm listening," Ash said.
"On account of your Pidgeot, I am well aware that I could not escape you. From my sister's tale, your Flying-type is able to fly any of us to exhaustion – and there is no clear route to run a sprint, here in the heart of Honshu. So I propose that we have our battle as a battle alone." Entei indicated the clearing with a sweep of his head. "Right here, as it happens."
"Sure!" Ash agreed. "Uh, should I only use five Pokémon?"
"Six will be fine," Entei replied. "You have ten minutes, if you need it."
"Okay, guys," Ash said, about ten seconds later. "Who do I use?"
He frowned. "I can see two important issues. Who's able to resist fire, and who can do a lot of damage..."
"Do I count?" Pikachu asked.
"Of course," Ash agreed with a smile. "But – okay. I'm not going to use either Suicune or Keldeo."
Keldeo's Pokéball burst open.
"Why not?" Keldeo asked, hurt. "I can help!"
"I know you can," Ash told him. "That's why I don't want to use you – it doesn't feel right, because you'd make it too easy."
Suicune released herself. "I agree with your logic, Ash. I'd fight if you ordered me to, but... I would feel uncomfortable fighting my brother like that."
"Which is another reason not to use you," Ash agreed. He smiled. "And thanks for your trust – that you'd do it if I asked, I mean."
She returned his smile.
"Uh... we're wasting that ten minutes, Ash," Pikachu pointed out.
"Right!" Ash said, more firmly. "Hmmm... okay, I've got a plan. Dexter?"
I'm listening.
"I'm going to want you to get Squirtle from Professor Oak," Ash explained. "And Houndour – he's with his family, I know, but I'd really prefer to have him."
Sent. Will you want Kingler as well?
Ash considered. "Him or Totodile... it's tricky..."
Who else are you using, then? Dexter asked.
"I'm using Pikachu, Squirtle, Quilava, Houndour, either Totodile or Kingler, and you," Ash told him.
Totodile burst out of his Pokéball. "Pick me! Pick me! I've got Hydro Pump, and Muddy Water, and-"
Quilava joined him. "And I've learned Rollout, so I can certainly help."
At that point, Dexter beeped. Got Squirtle and Houndour. What's your decision on Kingler?
As he spoke, the Water-type and the Fire-type emerged from their Pokéballs and looked around.
"This should be awesome!" Squirtle pronounced.
Ash looked around. "...when did I become completely surrounded by Pokémon?"
Suicune shuffled back a few steps to give him more room.
He thought a bit more, then confirmed his decision. "I'll use Totodile, I think. Right, Houndour? Dexter? Here's my plan..."
About eight minutes after Entei had given the time limit, Ash walked over to stand opposite him. "I'm ready," he said with a nod.
"Very good." Entei took a breath, and let it out. "Sister? Please ensure the spectators are safe – and so is the forest."
"I'll help with that," Misty volunteered. "Water types."
"Just so long as you don't use Rain Dance," Entei muttered. "Right. Three, two, one, now!"
Pikachu opened the battle with an earsplitting crack as he fired a Thunder straight at Entei. The Fire-type blurred into motion, mostly evading the bolt of incandescent lightning, and roared. "Sunny Day!"
The light clouds overhead vanished, pushed aside by the powerful weather-alteration attack, and Entei grinned when – for once – it wasn't immediately countered by a Rain Dance. "Finally!"
He spat a Fire Blast at Pikachu to celebrate.
Houndour jumped in the way, the flames bursting on his black fur and scarring the ground – some of it flowing into his Flash Fire. "Nope."
Pikachu fired another Thunder. This one went slightly wide, the heat in the air throwing off his aim slightly despite his best attempts, and Entei more easily dodged it.
Tracing, Dexter announced. Trace complete.
Houndour loped out of the way as Totodile opened fire with a blast of water, and approached Dexter. "Ready?"
Yes, Dexter agreed. Be gentle.
Houndour's reply was a fanged grin. He concentrated, and Dark doubles of most of Ash's team appeared to either side of him.
Then, one by one, they kicked Dexter in the vector.
Entei fired off a Lava Plume as he slowed, boiling off the Hydro Pump Totodile was sending his way in the stream of intense flame.
Then a blur of orange and yellow hit him in the side.
"Ow," he said, not really very injured, and turned to see what had hit him.
The blur came in again, and hit his other flank this time. The impact was worse this time, and the blurred ball of fire bounced off, spun for a moment on the floor and shot off through the fire and flames surrounding him.
Entei's brow furrowed. He wasn't at all sure what that could mean...
Then something blue and pink and moving incredibly fast hit him in the chin at a slight upwards angle, knocking him clear out of his Lava Plume.
Crashing to the ground and rolling upright, he looked around.
"What?" he asked, blinking at the sight of Dexter. "Was that you?"
Dexter nodded. Justified plus Beat Up plus Zen Headbutt equals considerable stopping power.
Entei growled, smoke escaping his nostrils. He lunged forwards, paw reaching out to bat, and then a high speed ball of flame hit his wrist and knocked his paw off target.
He swiped at the hurtling missile with his other paw, and missed.
Dexter had vanished while he looked around, and he switched targets to Pikachu. That one, at least, was an easy target.
Pikachu caught Entei's little frown as he selected a new target.
He grinned, putting his arms out to either side, and began to charge electricity to his cheeks.
A lot of electricity, actually. But, rather than use it for a Volt Crash, he held it – unused, and ready to be used. For when-
Entei's paws dug in, and he leapt forwards. The speed of his charge meant that Quilava missed her latest attack run, and spun on past Entei's former position before beginning a fast, wide turn to come back in.
When he was about halfway between his starting position and Pikachu, Entei came under attack from Totodile. He unleashed a huge Fire Blast back down the oncoming Muddy Water, producing a bubbly explosion of steam and sending rapidly boiling water everywhere.
Pikachu flinched away from the force of the explosion, and relied on his electrical sense instead for where Entei was. He could feel the Fire-type Beast running from the tiny electrical currents in his nervous system – not very well, but easily enough to tell how close the Volcano Pokémon was getting.
In a very short space of time, Entei got close enough.
Pikachu opened matters with a crackling close-range Thunderbolt, slamming it into Entei as he charged, and dodged out of the way as two big grey paws tried to slap him into the ground.
The earth shook as Entei delivered his Bulldoze, barely missing Pikachu and making the spectators wobble slightly.
Totodile took advantage of Entei slowing down, and fired a Hydro Pump directly at Entei's flank. Though it was weakened by the Sunny Day, it still struck home hard, and Entei growled before shaking his mane. A series of small explosions erupted from it, filling the clearing in choking black ash and smoke.
Now unable to see Entei even if he'd been trying, Pikachu elected not to bother. He closed his eyes instead, relying on Aura Sight coupled with his electrical sense, and fired off another Thunderbolt at close range.
Entei snarled at the impact, returning his attention to Pikachu. "Incinerate!"
Pikachu's tail was clipped by the flame, despite his best efforts. He shifted it to Iron Tail briefly, extinguishing the smouldering tip, and kept running – the more trouble Entei had with him, the better.
"Let's see if this works..." Pikachu muttered. Lightning snapped around his tail, and he jumped onto Entei's back and slapped it home – delivering a burst of electricity which crackled around Entei's paws and fangs.
The Legendary shook his head, more startled than hurt, and shook Pikachu off. Turning in his own length, he slapped the Electric-type aside as he dropped through the air.
There was a crackle of discharging electricity, and Pikachu's cheeks flared brighter as they absorbed the electricity.
"Thanks," Pikachu grinned, skidding to a halt. "I wondered if you'd heard of Ion Deluge."
Entei replied to that with another Bulldoze. Pikachu jumped, avoiding the attack itself, and then spun out an Electroweb and threw it at Entei's forelegs to tangle them.
Another Incinerate flashed out, then a Heat Wave. The smoke whipped as Quilava passed through, delivering a glancing blow to Entei's flank as she did so, and then a very loud voice drew everyone's attention.
"This water of mine is icy cold! It's so cold that even the sun's blazing heat can't impact it!"
Entei blinked, thrown, and squinted through the clearing smoke. "...what... was that?"
"That means, when it's used in the light, it's not even affected! It's still just as wet as ever, and that's what it means to have a Torrent of dedication!"
Pikachu shrugged. "You kind of tune it out after a while." He then fired another Electroweb, and this one hit home more easily now that Entei was distracted.
Snarling, Entei rounded on the Electric-type. "That's it! No more surprises! You-"
"Super Destructor Waterfall!"
Squirtle arrived.
Entei was surprised.
When the Fire-type finally fought free of the Electroweb ensnaring his paws, he was about a hundred metres past the end of the clearing and still being pushed by Squirtle's huge Water attack.
He retaliated with the only thing he could really do under the circumstances. Opening his mouth, he quickly charged a Solarbeam – paws scrabbling to avoid being pushed still further – and fired it through the torrent at Squirtle.
Rainbow light went scattering everywhere as the water refracted the light from the Solarbeam into crazy patterns. Much of it was wasted, playing over the trees and going into the air in a light show visible from the Tin Tower, but enough hit Squirtle that he had to abandon the attack.
Panting, the Water-type starter sent himself soaring into the air with a spiralling Hydro Pump, before being hit by a second Solarbeam as he started to come back down for an attack.
The moment after Entei finished firing the attack, Quilava's Rollout hit him in the jaw.
"Ow!" he yelped, and looked around for the pesky Fire-type. For several seconds, only flashes of fire caught his eye through the thick ground cover, and then she darted out of one – moving faster still – and bounced off his back before vanishing again.
Entei came to a conclusion. If she was using the forest as cover...
Then he just had to get rid of the forest.
Fortunately, the local Pokémon had basically abandoned the area as unsafe when the fight started.
"Lava Plume!"
Even more fortunately, there was a particularly skilled Water-type user on hand, along with two unengaged Legendary Water-types.
That patch of the forest, however, was pretty much doomed. The intense heat blasted out across an area of ground twenty feet in radius, burning away the ground cover in seconds.
Quilava was blown through the air by the pillow of overpressure. She bounced off one of the surviving trees outside the blast zone, wobbled, and came back in – straight into the path of a Bulldoze.
The Kimono Sisters held up their hands in reflex against the sudden dry heat – then winced at the sound of soaked branches exploding.
"Is this safe?" Tamao asked, as Totodile waddled across the clearing to get a bead on Entei once more. "Quite apart from anything else, Lord Entei seems... upset..."
"I assure you, it is fine," Suicune said. "My brother is often full of praise afterwards for battles he finds infuriating in the heat of the moment."
Punctuating her words, there was another roar of frustration from Entei's side of the battlefield. The smoke hid the reason for a moment, but then it became evident that Houndour had just intercepted a Fire Blast aimed at Pikachu and negated it completely.
"What was that you said?" Sumomo asked. "We can't understand you."
"...oh, my apologies," Suicune apologized. She glanced over at Misty. "Can you help, please? I'm afraid I'm getting used to this whole translation business very quickly..."
"Come here!" Entei snapped, paws slamming down just behind Houndour's dodging form.
"Not seeing the advantage for me, there," Houndour replied, turning a right-angle and barely avoiding a Bite attack. He went back on himself, got in under Entei's body, and kicked out at a knee as Entei tried to turn and target him.
Entei staggered, barely avoiding tripping over as he found himself suddenly supporting himself on his two right legs, and Houndour slipped out of the danger zone again.
The bigger Fire-type whirled to follow, and then got interrupted by a Zap Cannon from back over by the clearing. He spotted it in time to dodge, and it shot bare inches over the top of his mane with a hum of static.
Another Fire Blast went shooting off towards the Electric-type, and he blurred out of the way with Agility before it exploded. A moment later, Totodile arrived and began firing a steady stream of Bubblebeam across the gap between them. The heat of the sun reduced the potency of the attack, but some of the white bubbles still started to burst on Entei's flank before he got moving again.
"Beat Up!" Houndour announced. Just in case Entei was starting to get comfortable with the situation.
As the illusionary doubles closed in, Entei slammed his paws on the ground. "Right! Lava Plume!"
Dexter, curving in for another Zen Headbutt, was sent flying into the air by the force of the firey blast. All of Houndour's shadow-clones vanished as well, blown away before they could land a hit, and Houndour himself was only technically unharmed.
Yelping, he bounced across the smoke-strewn ground and skidded to a halt.
One of Entei's paws slammed down just in front of his head. He tried to roll out of the way, but a second paw landed the other side.
"Anything to say?" Entei asked, smirking through the ash-clouds his Lava Plume had produced.
"Yes, actually," Houndour replied. "Bet you can't beat us without using another status move."
Entei blinked, not having expected that. "...that's it?"
"I'm not sure what you're having trouble with here," Houndour admitted, one eye on the slowly clearing ash clouds. "It's a simple challenge. No more status moves. Or are you not confident that you, a Legendary, can beat us?"
Entei shook his head. "No, I just-"
He frowned. "Wait a moment! You're stalling!"
A paw slapped Houndour into unconsciousness.
Entei whirled towards the clearing, which he was just about able to see through the smoke hanging in the air, and leaped to the side to avoid a crackling, electrified Brine shot from Totodile and Pikachu together.
"Clever!" he admitted, and charged forwards again. He sent a Heat Wave spearing back down the next Water attack – a Hydro Pump – and grunted as a Thunderbolt skirled over his forelegs, then arrived at the two Pokémon before they could attack again.
Pikachu was his first target. He sent a Bulldoze Pikachu's way, knocking him backwards into a tree with a soft crunch of scorched moss and a pained squeak, then rounded on Totodile and fired another Solarbeam.
That close, Totodile couldn't manage any tricks to dodge. He tried, firing a Muddy Water, but was knocked out by the time the green-yellow light of the attack faded.
Once that had ended, Entei turned back to Pikachu – coming to his feet covered in mud and ash. "A good battle, but not quite enough," he said.
Pikachu's cheeks sparked, trying to force electricity through the grime.
He scowled, concentrating, and his orange-yellow cheeks switched back to red as he pulled his Light Ball out of his voltage wells.
Lightning crackled around it, then stabbed forwards and cloaked Entei's body.
Entei tried to move, and couldn't. "Thunder Wave? A nice improvisation."
He spat an Ember, blowing Pikachu back into the tree and knocking the Light Ball out of his hands. Then the lightning intensified, locking him in place.
Pikachu panted as he pushed himself back up again, feeling absolutely exhausted.
Despite that, though, he couldn't keep the smirk off his face.
"Why are you-" Entei asked.
Pikachu pointed up.
Dexter used Giga Impact.
"Whoa!" Ash said, as the blast of the impact sent a wave of ash and twigs flying in all directions.
Closing his eyes to avoid getting anything in them, he took the Fast Ball he'd readied, and ran forwards. As soon as he saw the glow of fiery Aura which marked Entei, he sent the 'ball forwards with a fast overhand throw.
It hit Entei with a soft thud, opened up, and sucked him in in a flash of light.
Wobble.
Ash's run slowed, as he arrived at the crater where Entei had been, and glanced around to spot his Pokémon.
Wobble.
There was Totodile, already stirring – must have been only just hit hard enough to knock out.
Wobble.
Pikachu was lying against the base of a tree, and appeared to actually be conscious – though barely. And Ash had seen the Fire-types and Squirtle go down, so that only left Dexter.
The Fast Ball twitched one more time, then stopped. Ash knelt down, and picked it up.
It was... a strange feeling. It somehow felt different than when he'd caught Suicune, in terms of achievement... probably because he'd already caught her, and so the idea he could catch one of the Beasts of Johto wasn't so shocking.
Of course, it could just be that when he caught Suicune there was an emergency literally two minutes later.
"Well done!" Suicune said, pacing up behind him. "That was quite the battle. I noticed he's been practicing – did you notice the Bulldoze?"
"Yeah, it seemed like he was using it a lot – aha!" Ash said, reaching down. "Here we are. Nice work, Dexter!"
Gravity is a harsh mistress, Dexter said indistinctly as Ash picked up his projector. Did you get him?
"Yeah," Ash agreed. He looked around. "Uh... we might have a problem, I think the forest is actually on fire..."
The next few minutes were a confused mess, with Misty using her entire team to extinguish the fire while Suicune kept it contained and Keldeo jumped in and out getting the Pokémon to safety.
Once that was done, though, Ash walked back over to the astonished Kimono Sisters.
"...wow," Koume said, not for the first time. "That was..."
"It's one thing to think, in the abstract, of one of the Beasts being caught," Sakura said. "But if that's what it's actually like..."
"Suicune was... different," Ash admitted. "The first part of that one was a chase – which went hundreds of miles."
"It did," Suicune agreed. "And it tired me out, quite a bit."
She nodded towards Ash. "Perhaps we should see what my brother has to say."
"Good idea," Ash agreed, and opened the Fast Ball.
Entei promptly slumped to the floor, and began to snore.
"We might need to head to the Pokémon centre first," Pikachu suggested. "I wouldn't mind that, either..."
It turned out to take about half an hour for the various Pokémon to be healed up. Entei caused quite a stir, but the sight of Suicune calmly standing to Ash's side helped to reassure the Joy that this was all above-board and legitimate.
That done, Ash sent out Entei again. This time, he was significantly less unconscious.
"How are you-" Ash began, a little concerned.
Entei shook his head. "I should have known, after last time," he said, with a chuckle. "I really should. But... well, we agreed on the rules. I have no complaints."
"Good," Ash said, glad there were no hard feelings. "Oh, did Suicune tell you what I told her?"
"About your rule that we may leave whenever we wish?" Entei nodded agreement. "Most accommodating of you."
He frowned. "Hm. Now... what gym badges do you yet lack?"
Ash blinked. "Pardon?"
"It's a simple question," Entei said patiently. "What gym badges haven't you won yet?"
"No, I understood, it just seems-" Ash broke off, shaking his head.
Pikachu spoke up. "We haven't got the Glacier or Rising Badges yet."
"I see," Entei said, considering. "Well, both of those are tempting...
"A Legendary Fire-type in the Ice gym?" Pikachu asked.
Ash shrugged. "Keldeo had trouble in the Steel gym, though that was because of a Psychic-type and then a Mega-evolution."
"True."
Entei considered. "Well, I suppose we shall see nearer the time."
"I guess," Ash agreed. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Suicune's already got a training regimen, and she discussed adding formal Aura training to it while you were being healed – for translating, and stuff. Do you want that too?"
He shrugged. "I mean, to go with the other things you need work on."
Entei's tail lashed. "Like what?" he asked, tilting his head on one side.
"Well." Ash started ticking off the points. "You seemed fine one-on-one, maybe two-on-one, but you were having trouble managing more than that at one time. So first off would be working on how to avoid that problem."
Entei grumbled a bit, but had to admit it was true. That was how Ash's six had beaten him, after all – keeping him from focusing in on any one of them for too long. "How do you suggest we work on it?"
Ash shrugged. "Practice, really. Plus it helps the others get experience at fighting a single powerful opponent."
Pikachu grinned. "I like the sound of this."
"Yeah, but I'm also going to let him and Suicune go after you at some point," Ash replied without missing a beat. "Got to give you more dodge training, after all..."
"Slavedriver."
"I got punched in the chest by a Lucario last night!" Ash protested. "I do it to myself too!"
Pikachu was unconvinced.
"Anyway," Ash went on, turning back to the bemused Entei. "There was one other major issue – handling Water-types when you can't be the one to enforce the weather."
"I admit, Water-types are a problem," Entei nodded. He shot a glance over towards Misty, currently discussing Vaporeons with Sumomo. "Especially when they use Rain Dance..."
"I've got a couple of ideas on that front," Ash said. "First... there's a move called Energy Ball? Ninetales knows it. Not sure if you could, but it can't hurt to try."
"If it worked, it would be a great help," Entei admitted. "Anything else?"
"Trying to get you an Electric attack, like Thunder Fang," Ash shrugged. "That or a stronger neutral-typed attack – something like Shadow Ball, I can probably teach you that one. Oh, and – if you go for the Aura training – there's always Aura Sphere."
Entei considered. "I see you've given this a lot of thought."
Ash waved a hand. "A bit. But a lot of it's kind of similar to what I've done with either Suicune or with my other Fire-types."
"I'll be glad for the help, then," Entei decided.
Suicune released herself, and gave her brother a smug look. "Told you."
"Yes, yes, you don't have to rub it in," Entei admitted. "I admit it. You were completely right."
Suicune beamed.
"But don't expect me to say it again," he muttered.
"That was a pleasant experience," Tamao said, as they waved the friends off towards the east and Mahogany Town. "The Lord Entei did seem happier than he was during the fight..."
"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "I wonder if that means Ash will be using him to fight gyms?"
"If not, he'll be using Lord Entei along with Lady Suicune to help fight evil," Sumomo predicted. "Remember? They mentioned that-"
"The Lugia, yes," Sakura agreed. "That sounded... worrying. Shadow Pokémon..."
"Indeed," Satsuki noted. "Especially if they were able to corrupt so powerful a Pokémon as the Lady Lugia. We should keep a look out – and warn others."
"Uh..." Koume said, pointing. "Sisters?"
The four other Kimono Sisters looked around, following her pointing finger.
"Is that... Lord Raikou?" Satsuki asked. "Why is he wearing a scarf?"
"I'm more confused about the bundle of signs on his back," Sakura admitted.
Morty opened the door. "Welcome, challll..." He blinked, swallowed, and started again. "Raikou?"
"Did you just say-" came a voice from behind him. There was the sound of someone moving quite quickly, and then Eusine appeared behind Morty at the door. "Morty? What's Raikou doing outside your gym?"
"I wish I knew," Morty admitted.
While they had been talking, Raikou was juggling signs about in his pack. Finally finding the one he was after, he held it up.
"Apparently challenging your gym," Eusine read. "Is that a thing?"
"So it would seem," Morty agreed, stepping back to let Raikou in. "Whitney sent me a whiny email about him last week..."
"Are you ready for this, young man?" the examiner asked.
Max nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Right. This will be an oral exam to test your knowledge of Pokémon, Pokémon types and the way they interact. There will be written questions, but you are expected to explain your reasoning out loud – simply giving an answer will not earn many points." The examiner picked up his deck of question cards. "First question. You're facing a Poliwrath. Which of these is the best choice?"
Max glanced over the three options. "Mudkip's neutral defensively and doesn't normally get any good offensive moves. Combusken has a few Flying-type moves, but the weakness to Water-type moves is too much of a problem, so the best choice is Taillow. If the Combusken has Speed Boost, though, it should be able to gain the advantage by way of sheer speed. But, all else being equal – Taillow."
"Good," the examiner said, making a note. "Second. Which of these three Pokémon is the best choice against Mudkip?
"Roselia," Max said promptly. He was about to continue, but the examiner frowned.
"What?" the young Maple asked.
"That's not what I have on the card..."
"Then the card's wrong," Max said boldly. "Roselia's a Grass-type which resists Water and which also has an advantage over it. Plusle has an advantage, but they're not resistant to Water-type attacks and are actually weak against the Ground-type attacks that Mudkip learn early – even Roselia's Poison typing doesn't give it that weakness, because the Grass compensates for it. As for Torchic, that's a terrible choice because Fire is weak to Water."
The examiner wrote down a few lines of notes. "I can see I need to make a phone call... anyway, next question. Which of these evolves into Grovyle?"
"Treecko," Max answered without even looking at the card.
"Good. Which of these Pokémon is the best to battle Kirlia?"
"Any of them except Combusken," Max said. He pointed to Graveler, then to Togetic. "Both of these are equal-type match ups – Togetic has Fairy and Flying-type moves which do normal damage, the same for Graveler and its Rock and Ground moves, and neither has a weakness. Combusken's weak to Psychic."
He shrugged. "Graveler versus Kirlia would take less time, though."
The examiner nodded along with the logic, and then caught sight of the answer on the card. "What the – who printed these?"
"Let me guess," Max said with a sigh. "It says Combusken."
The examiner wrote something on the back of the card and shook his head. "Sorry about this, kid. Give me a minute..."
Max watched as the examiner went though the cards, occasionally dropping one on the floor with a muttered comment. "The heck? Seviper doesn't evolve from anything..."
"Should I be worried?" he asked.
"Oh, don't worry, we're still using these ones," the examiner said with a shrug. "I'm just going to write down all the ways an eight year old is smarter than the question setters..."
42
"Hey, Ash, look!" Misty said, pointing.
"What?" Ash asked, eyes flicking around to try and spot movement. "What do you see, Misty?"
Misty walked over and tapped the sign. "Look!"
"Eggseter?" Brock read off, then groaned. "Ow, that's a terrible pun."
"See?" Misty asked, with a grin. "You're not the only one puns follow around!"
"That's cruel, Misty," Ash said, shaking his head.
"True, though," Lucario noted.
Ash – a reminder. This is where you got Donphan.
"I knew that," Ash replied to his Pokédex. "I don't lose track of things that important!"
Counterexample. Muk.
Ash blushed. "Usually."
"Is that Ash I hear?" a voice asked. "Hey, it is! Hi, Ash!"
Ash turned to look. "Casey?"
"That's me," Casey said, waving. Her Pidgeotto settled to her arm, and she braced it with her free arm to hold the weight. "Ugh... Pidgeotto! That's my pitching arm!"
The avian took flight again, and she rubbed her elbow for a bit before grinning at Ash. "Fancy meeting you here! How are you doing on badges?"
"Six down, two to go," Ash told her. "My most recent one was the Mineral Badge."
"Oh, cool," Casey nodded. "I've got five – I've not done the Mineral Badge, though. How was it?"
"Pretty good," Ash said, then winced. "We broke the gym, though. Same with the gym in Cianwood..."
Casey shook her head. "You have problems."
"I don't mean to!" Ash insisted.
"You really, really do," Pikachu replied. "Sometimes, anyway. Remind me how you beat Chuck's Machamp?"
"...point taken," Ash admitted. "Pikachu just reminded me I dropped the roof on Chuck's Machamp."
"Really, really big problems," Casey repeated. "Anyway – I heard about this thing they do here called the Extreme Pokémon contest. Want to compete?"
"Sure," Ash nodded – then winced. "I don't have a skateboard, though..."
"Oh, that's okay, I met a nice guy who loans them out," Casey said. "Follow me!"
"Here he is!" Casey said, sweeping her hand across the old man and his wife. "This is Mr. Shellby, and this is his wife. Mrs. Shellby."
"Hello again, Casey," Mr. Shellby said, nodding to them. His wife waved from behind the counter. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Ash Ketchum," Casey said. "He's a pretty cool trainer – he's even the current Indigo Champion! But I still managed to beat him..."
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Ash asked.
Casey shook her head. "Nope!"
"Hi, Mr. Shellby, Mrs. Shellby," Ash said. "These are my friends, Brock and Misty."
"It's a pleasure," Brock said. "I've done a bit of training on being a Pokémon breeder, and that means I've done research into the kind of thing you do every day – but I'm sure you're much better at it than I am!"
"Well, there's always something new to learn," the old man said with a smile. "Perhaps I could show you around?"
"I'd like to have a look too," Misty said.
"And me!" Ash chipped in.
Mrs. Shellby chuckled. "I'll make lunch. You show the kids around, Tamazo."
The tour started in the large paddock of the ranch, where several recently-hatched Pokémon played around together from the common to the rarer – Pidgey, Wooper, Happiny, Smeargle, even a Dunsparce (the sight of whom made Ash's palms itch – but he sighed and resisted the temptation)
They were shown how Mr. Shellby fed all those Pokémon, and taken for a quick ride on his Tauros-drawn cart to make the point clear of just how big the ranch was. After that, though, they returned to the house – where Mrs. Shellby reported that she'd like about another ten minutes.
After thinking for a moment, Mr. Shellby showed them into the incubator room – a room with six widely-spaced sets of open shelves, each of them holding hundreds of eggs in a toasty-warm, brightly lit climate.
"Notice all the mattresses on the floor?" Mr. Shellby asked. "Those are there in case a Pokémon hatches and neither of us get to them in time. The idea is, if a Pokémon falls off the shelf, at least they don't hurt themselves. And the large space is because some Pokémon hatch out big."
"I get it!" Casey said. "So, if – say – a Shinx hatched, it wouldn't be as much of a problem, but if a Rhyhorn hatched..."
"Eggsactly," the man replied, to general groans.
Ash, meanwhile, was looking around – wondering and worrying.
He certainly hoped that Donphan's egg was still here, and he'd been betting on it – but-
There! A familiar even blue, and with that glow to it in Aura Sight which meant it was his old friend. Until now it had been hidden by the sheer number of other eggs in the room confusing his senses.
He reached out, touching the blue shell. "It's really-"
"Ash?" Pikachu asked urgently. "Remember what-"
The shell glowed.
Then over a hundred kilos of Pokémon appeared in a flash of light, let out a brief trumpet of happiness, and landed on Ash.
"Ow..." Ash muttered.
"What just happened?" Mr. Shellby asked, coming around the curve of the shelves. "Did a Pokémon just... hatch?"
"That's not a just-hatched Pokémon, is it?" Casey asked, frowning. "That's Donphan – it evolves from Phanpy?"
"Ash!" Donphan said, nuzzling his trainer with his trunk. "It's good to – where are we?"
He looked around. "Is this the day-care you got me from?"
"Pokémon just evolve around me," Ash said, and sat up as Donphan sheepishly got off his trainer. "Sorry, Mr. Shellby, I didn't expect that..."
"Think nothing of it," Mr. Shellby said, waving his hand. "Let's see... D26. That egg wasn't waiting for anyone, so you may as well take him – he already seems to like you."
"He's got that right," Donphan said, as Ash stood. "But why are-"
"We'll explain later," Pikachu told him. "It could take a while, but we will. Don't worry."
"Okay." Donphan nodded, accepting that.
"Well, after that eggscitement, I think everyone should have lunch," Mr. Shellby suggested.
More groans met this suggestion.
"Right," Ash said, some time later. "We should discuss who does this, guys."
"What, precisely, is 'this'?" Entei asked.
"Oh, right." Ash glanced over at Meganium. "Do you want to explain?"
"Sure thing," Meganium said. She nodded over at the town. "They do this every so often – I'm not sure exactly how often, though. The idea is, the Pokémon pull the humans on skateboards. So, last time, I pulled Ash – I was a Bayleef then," she clarified for Entei.
"I remember hearing about that!" Donphan said, eagerly. "That was when Ash won my egg, wasn't it?"
"I thought I did most of the work..." Meganium grumbled good-naturedly.
"Yep," Pikachu agreed. "Bayleef beat Gary's Arcanine."
Meganium nodded proudly.
"She did?" Entei blinked. "Arcanine are very fast... er... how?"
She stopped nodding. "...I'm not sure..."
Donphan frowned. "Chlorophyll?"
"No, I don't have that." Meganium frowned. "Darn it, now that's going to bother me all day..."
"Guys?" Ash reminded them. "Uh... anyway, the problem is... I'm not sure who to use."
"Pick me!" Keldeo suggested.
Donphan raised his trunk. "What about me, Ash? I'm fast – and it would be kind of nice, to win-"
"What about-" Entei began.
Ash started to laugh. "I can see you're all eager!"
"Well, yeah," Pikachu said. He hopped down from Ash's shoulder, and turned to face him. "We like you, Ash. We're all competitive, some of us really, really competitive, and we like to see you succeed."
"Lucario didn't volunteer," Donphan said. He frowned. "Speaking of which, when did you get a Lucario?"
"I simply wish to give the others a chance," Lucario said loftily.
"You seem less surprised than I would have expected that Ash has a Lucario," Suicune mentioned. "Or... three Legendaries, for that matter."
Donphan shrugged. "I'm sure I'll find out the details, and it's not like Ash has ever managed to avoid a Legendary."
"...that's surprisingly pragmatic," Pikachu admitted. "Guess I remember you more as a Phanpy."
"That's okay," Donphan said. "I don't mind-"
"Okay," Ash said. He took a deep breath. "Donphan, I think it's going to be you. Sorry, guys," he added, looking at the rest of them. "But I haven't seen Donphan in nearly two years, so..."
"That makes sense," Meganium agreed. "Doesn't it? Everyone?"
Nods all around, though some of them (notably that from Entei) were quite grudging.
"Okay, Donphan!" Ash said, standing up. "Let's get practicing!"
He paused. "Wait. I just realized. Where are we going to tie the rope?"
"...let's ask Brock," Donphan suggested. "He'll know."
"...so you just need to curl up around this metal axle," Brock said, proffering it. Donphan took it in his trunk, and rolled up around it in a Defence Curl.
"Good," Brock said. He tied a couple of loose knots around it, one on each side of Donphan's body. "See? The knots can slip as the axle rotates, so they shouldn't wrap around it!"
"Thanks, Brock!" Ash said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You're a real help!"
"Neat," Donphan said, a little indistinctly. "Let's try it out!"
Ash nodded. He took the rope, and got on the skateboard. "Ready, Donphan?"
A trumpet of agreement.
"Go!"
Ash's Pokémon watched as Ash, Donphan, a metal axle and a skateboard ended up in a pile at the foot of a hill.
"Kind of glad he's so tough," Lucario admitted, wincing as Donphan bounced to a stop on top of Ash. The impact clearly winded Ash, but he hauled the Ground-type off his chest fairly quickly and stood.
They watched as Ash stretched, reassured Donphan he wasn't really hurt, and then they set off again.
"Hey," Keldeo said to Lucario.
The other Fighting-type looked down. "Yes?"
"I was wondering... well, you're kind of human shaped, right? Could you ride a skateboard?"
"I've been surfing," Lucario admitted. "Not in the last couple of months, though... but I do know how to stay on a board."
"Great!" Keldeo said. "I'll pull, you ride."
"...is that legal?" Lucario asked, curiously. "Dexter?"
Please wait. Dexter's projector flashed, producing an image of a floating hourglass. Downloading... parsing... done.
The hourglass vanished, replaced by Dexter's vaguely avian form. It is indeed legal. Nothing mandates that the rider has to be human, it just says 'contestant' – and since people can borrow Pokémon, that's fine too.
"Great!" Keldeo said. "Come on, Lucario, let's go borrow a skateboard!"
"We might have to make it quite a tough one..." Lucario suggested.
They headed off in the direction of the farm building, leaving the others behind.
"...well, that's going to be interesting," Pikachu said. He blinked. "Dexter? Can you check if Squirtle's available?"
You're going to participate with him, aren't you? Dexter asked. It was barely a question.
"Yeah, kinda," Pikachu admitted.
Okay, give me a minute...
Entei frowned. "Hmmm..."
"I know that hum," Suicune commented.
"Well, I was wondering..." Entei began. "I didn't get a chance to give Ash a race, so..."
Suicune blinked. "You're going to race him when he's on the skateboard? You realize that you're about four times faster than his Donphan at a minimum..."
They watched as Ash and Donphan ramped off another hill, aimed for a precisely balanced landing, missed, and rolled down the hill in a confused bundle again.
"I think we're improving!" Ash's voice carried to them on the wind. "That time we lasted longer!"
"I know I'm faster," Entei said. "So, I need some form of handicap."
He turned to Dexter. "Small computer! Where is the nearest rail yard?"
I'm a- Dexter's vocoder cut out mid-sentence. Pardon?
"What are you planning?" Suicune asked, suspiciously.
"You'll see. Actually, you'll probably need to help." Entei pointed at Dexter. "You as well, I will need to communicate with humans."
"So... I have to pull you," Squirtle said, deadpan.
Pikachu nodded. "That's about the size of it."
"Again."
"Last time you carried me, and we flew half of it anyway," Pikachu pointed out. "Besides, it's not like we'll actually be using the skateboard much."
Squirtle blinked. "Pardon?"
"How far can you do a Horn Drill Break, assuming you don't hit anything?"
The Water-type began to grin, slowly. "You're really going to do this?"
Pikachu nodded. "I'm going to take some poffin made entirely from confusion-healing berries beforehand... but yes."
Squirtle rubbed his palms together. "This changes everything!"
"I really hope I don't regret this," Pikachu said quietly.
The morning of the race, Ash showed up to the starting line in the centre of town with about ten minutes to spare.
"Hey, Ash," Brock said, waving. "Cutting it close!"
"Kinda," Ash admitted. "Oh, are you competing?"
Brock nodded. "I sure am, Ash!"
"Mr. Shellby's run out of skateboards," Casey told him, walking over. "Oh, you're using that Donphan for this."
Donphan waved his trunk.
"He seems nice. What about you, Mr- uh, Brock?"
"Crobat," Brock told her. "Steelix and Stantler wanted to, as well, but Steelix is too big and Stantler is too young."
"Huh," Casey nodded. "Guess you have to think about these things... hey, what the- Ash?"
"Yeah?" Ash replied.
"Are those your Pokémon?"
Ash followed her nod. "Lucario? Keldeo? What are you doing?"
"Participating!" Keldeo said, proudly.
Lucario waved with the hand not holding the skateboard.
"...okay," Ash said. He exchanged a glance with Brock, who shrugged. "I guess that's not a problem... Lucario's the one riding on the skateboard?"
"That is correct," Lucario confirmed with a nod. He set the skateboard down on the other side of Brock from Ash, and Keldeo trotted around to take position just ahead of him.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Ash said, addressing Brock. "Do you know if Misty's competing?"
"She applied," Brock said with a shrug. "Gyarados was all for it, but he's too big to be safe."
Ash nodded. "What about you, Casey? Who are you using?"
"Pidgeotto," Casey told him. "He's faster than Raticate, and Bayleef was training kind of hard earlier – she'd prefer a rest."
"Yeah, I understand," Ash said. "I saw Beedrill's fine, too..."
Casey nodded. "Yeah, he is. And-"
"Five minutes!" the race marshal announced. "Take your places!"
"Whoops," Casey said. "Guess we should be ready... okay, Pidgeotto?"
The Flying-type emerged, took the rope, and flapped up to hover at about chest height.
Brock got ready, too, sending out Crobat and tying his rope around the Poison-type's midsection. "How's that?"
Crobat nodded. "Seems snug."
Ash was just checking the axle Donphan was holding – and glancing over at the way Lucario and Keldeo were handling their own tether, which seemed a bit last-minute – when a familiar voice interjected.
"'scuse us," Pikachu said, stepping around a Raticate and her trainer heading over to the left end of the line, and then taking a place just next to Ash.
"Pikachu?" Ash asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Participating," Pikachu explained.
"Hey, I said that first!" Keldeo told him.
"I wasn't here, how was I supposed to know that?" Pikachu asked. As he spoke, Squirtle stepped in front of the Electric-type and proffered his tail, and Pikachu tied a line to it.
"Oh, no..." Brock said, wincing. "This isn't going to go well, Squirtle's in a sporting event."
"Is he really that bad?" Casey asked.
Lucario answered first. "Yes."
"Right." Casey shuffled a couple of steps to the side, further away from Squirtle.
As they waited for the flag, Ash looked around for Misty. She wasn't taking part, so she should be – aha!
It looked like she – and her Pokémon, and for that matter Brock's other Pokémon – were using Steelix to get a good view.
"Hey," Ash said, frowning. "Where are Meganium, Suicune and Entei?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea, brother?" Suicune asked.
"Of course I am!" Entei told her. "Now, you two get on, and let's hurry!"
"Why both of us?" Meganium asked, using her vines to pull herself up onto the old rail push-cart.
"Because otherwise I'd be pretty much sure who'd win," Entei explained. "This way, I've got a proper handicap."
Suicune gave the cart an experimental push with her paw. "This weighs a ton. A literal ton. It might weigh several."
Entei shrugged. "I didn't get my race with Ash, I want it this time. And it's not fair if I just run through at half the speed of sound... so, I am going to pull this."
Frowning, the Water-type Legendary turned to Meganium. "Ever had one of those moments where you realized you were probably the sane one?"
"All the time." Meganium sighed, shaking a small cloud of pollen from her flower. "All the time."
"Three!" the marshal said, raising his flag. "Two! One! Go!"
Several dozen Pokémon started moving.
"All right!" Donphan trumpeted, jumping forwards and rolling up. He started slow, but soon he and Ash were on the move right in the middle of the pack – and speeding up, as they left the starting area and went out onto the course proper.
The dust gradually subsided.
"Why haven't we gone yet?" Pikachu asked, as the last of the slower racers passed around the corner and out of sight.
"You can't rush awesome!" Squirtle told him, already surrounded in a swirl of aura-saturated water.
Several more seconds passed.
"Squirtle-"
"Bored now." Squirtle pointed his right arm forwards. "Horn Drill Break!"
Pikachu held on to the skateboard for dear life.
This turned out to be a decision of questionable merit. At least if he'd fallen off it would have been over quickly.
"Left here!" Brock called, and Crobat rolled and pitched. His two pairs of wings cut the air, rippling as he pulled Brock around in a turn, and he carefully trimmed the change in momentum to avoid sending Brock too far outside his own turn path.
"Great!" Brock added, as they reached an incline. "Now, straight up – the map says it's a straight the other side of the hill, too, so full speed!"
Crobat's wings developed white air shocks on them as he accelerated.
Then Casey drew level with them, her Pidgeotto producing great clouds of dust and grit on the downstroke of his wings. "Hi again, Brock!"
"Hi!" Brock said. He glanced back, trusting Crobat to keep them stable. "Looks like we're ahead of the pack."
"Yeah," Casey agreed. "But I'm not sure where-"
She blinked. "Wait. Do you hear that?"
"...aaaaaAAAAAHHHH!"
Brock, Pidgeotto, Crobat and Casey watched in surprise or astonishment as a huge, translucent, blue cone shot overhead – glittering in the sunlight, and raining down drops of water behind it.
"Is that Squirtle?" Brock asked. "Wait, that must mean-"
He squinted, looking closer.
Pikachu was not having a good race.
His skateboard – to which he was still clinging – was tied to Squirtle's tail.
Squirtle was rotating very rapidly, and moving very fast, and throwing out long streams of water as he Horn Drill Broke his way through the sky.
The result of this was that Pikachu was being soaked in water, blasted with high speed air, and swung around in a wide circle at high speed.
He was, in short, going through a spin cycle.
"I knew this was a bad idea," he mumbled.
Some distance ahead of Brock and Casey, Ash was holding onto a rope with both hands.
"Good work, Donphan!" he called, as they went over a small bump and Donphan decelerated slightly to avoid throwing his trainer into the air. "Just keep up that Rollout!"
"You're pretty fast, kid," a man being pulled by a Tauros said, as the Armor Pokémon caught up to him again. "You're really giving Ushi and I a run for our money!"
Ash shot him a grin. "Thanks," he said, then leaned sharply over as both Pokémon-human teams swerved around another sharp bend. "Whoa!"
The skateboard skidded sideways for a moment, wobbling on two wheels with the wood of the board perilously close to the track, and then Ash pushed down on it as they straightened and the other two banged back down.
Ash's current opponent gave a curse as he went close enough to the side of the track for willow branches to hit him in the face. "Ow! Sunova... hey, Ushi, try not to whiplash me into the bushes, okay?"
Ushi mooed a reply. "Sure. Just make sure you duck more."
Ash transferred one hand off the rope to check the map. "Let's see... Donphan! The next bend is to the right! Don't slow down, it's banked!"
"Got it!" Donphan said, indistinctly. "Right turn coming up!"
Ash braced himself, and they went around this corner at full speed. They slanted over at an alarming angle – probably not as steep as it felt – and then they were out, just ahead of the man and his Tauros.
As they settled down onto the straight, though, Ash's head came around. "Wait, that sounds familiar..."
He risked a glance back.
About a hundred metres behind them, and gaining fast, were two familiar blue shapes.
"Hey, Keldeo, Lucario!" Ash waved, as they got close enough to talk. "How's things?"
"Could be better," Lucario admitted, switching which hand was on the rope and using his heavy tail as balance.
"Yeah!" Keldeo agreed, mumbling slightly. "It took us ages to work out where to put the rope without throttling me, and then I tried using Hydro Pump-"
"It didn't work," Lucario said succinctly. "I could barely hold the skateboard on with Aura, let alone steer, and we nearly... crashed... into... Ash, are you seeing this?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I think that must be Squirtle."
"Oh, sure, he can fly with water jets..." Keldeo mumbled.
"Watch out!" Lucario said quickly, and they barely swerved around a small rock in the roadway. "Keep your eyes on the road!"
"I need to-" Keldeo started, stopped, and then started again. "Sorry, focusing on the race."
He put his head down and pulled harder, hooves hammering the road, and they started to slowly draw ahead of the two humans.
"You're not getting me that easily!" the man said. "Ushi, take this next corner on the inside! Fast as you can!"
Ushi nodded, snorted, and began to drift towards the left.
"Outside is fine, Donphan!" Ash said, holding his right hand out and producing an Aura Sphere. "I'll be fine, just worry about getting yourself around fast!"
"Hey, look!" someone said, pointing.
The table of judges watched a sparkling drill-shape of water coming rapidly towards them.
"The heck?" someone said. "Is that-"
"It's coming this way!" someone else said. "Take cover!"
The judges hid behind the table.
As it happened, though, the drill came crashing in to the ground about twenty metres from the table itself. They got sprayed with water as the pent-up centrifugal energy all suddenly had somewhere to go, and it was several seconds before someone felt confident enough to poke his head over the parapet.
They beheld a Pikachu wobbling in confused circles, a tired but triumphant Squirtle, and a large, damp crater in the middle of the right of way.
"Oh, for..." one of the marshals sighed. "Dugtrio! Fill this in, quick! The racers will be along soon!"
Squirtle looked up, indignant, as Dugtrio filled in the hole in about ten seconds. "The rest of the racers! We were competing too!"
He rummaged in his shell and pulled out his entry form. "See?"
"Well, that..." The marshal rubbed his temples. "Okay, I can't understand you but I get the gist. Come over here, would you?"
Squirtle headed over to the damp, wobbling Pikachu, and guided him over to the judges' table.
Shaking his head, Pikachu downed another Persim berry and felt himself starting to recover. While he was, Squirtle hopped up onto the (righted) table and placed his entry form down. "See?"
Adjusting his glasses, the judge he'd put it in front of scanned it. "I must admit, this is all filled out... but you're disqualified anyway."
"What?" Squirtle said, gaping. "You can't disqualify awesome!"
"It's a skateboard race. Where's your skateboard?"
Squirtle glanced back at where he'd landed. "Uh..."
He leaned over the edge of the table. "Pikachu? Where'd the skateboard go?"
"It exploded halfway through the course," Pikachu mumbled. "I barely managed to grab the rope in time."
"Oh... right," Squirtle said, wincing. He took the form and jumped back down off the table. "Well, so much for that. At least it was fun, right?"
"Ask me when the world is no longer spinning."
"Not far to go," Ash told Donphan. "A few more corners."
"Good!" Donphan said, canting around as they went around a long, shallow curve. "I'm starting to get a bit tired..."
"Join the club," Ushi muttered.
"Not a problem for me!" Keldeo said cockily. "I'm still pretty fresh, because I'm used to running such long-"
Ash heard a snap sound.
"What was that?" he asked, glancing around.
Keldeo's eyes crossed, as he tried to look down at his own mouth. "Uh oh..."
There was another quiet snap, and then the whole rope parted as Keldeo's teeth finally rubbed through one too many strands.
Lucario had been drifting to one side, using the rope as support as he did so, to avoid an obstacle near one side of the track. The rope parting abruptly removed his counterbalance, and he had to push off the skateboard in a forward dive to avoid being carried into the trees.
Rooster-tails of dust went flying up as he used both feet and one hand-paw to brake, discarding the ropes, and the other racers went shooting off ahead and were out of sight by the time he'd stopped.
Keldeo trotted over. "Sorry, Lucario..."
"No, it's fine. Not your fault." Lucario looked around. "Where's the skateboard gone... ah, there we are."
He crouched, paws flashing blue, and jumped fifteen feet into the air. At the apex of his jump, he plucked the wood-metal-and-plastic board from the crook of two branches.
Landing with another flash of Aura, he brushed the board off. "It must have hit a root and been knocked into the air."
"Guess so," Keldeo said, then sighed. "That sucks, we were doing so well..."
Lucario shrugged. "Can't win them all."
He glanced around, then started. "What the – what is that?"
Keldeo followed the direction he was looking. "I don't see – oh, right, Aura." Closing his eyes as well, the Colt Pokémon took a second look.
"That's not normal..." he said. "Wonder how they're managing that?"
"Keep it up, Donphan," Ash said, crouched low to help with air resistance. "Just a bit further. One more corner to go."
"I understand, Ash," Donphan told him. "I'll keep going all the way."
Ash smiled, and glanced around. The Tauros was dropping back a little, sides lathered with sweat, and his trainer was getting a resigned look on his face.
"Looks like Ushi's getting to the end of his tether, kid," the man said. "Running so fast for so long isn't quite what we trained for. You've given us a good race!"
"Thanks!" Ash called back. "Pity you can't make it a photo finish-"
With a triumphant rumbling growl and a squeal of metal, Entei arrived.
"-what the heck!?" Ash said, for once shocked by the strangeness of what he was seeing.
There was Entei.
There was a heavy Rapidash collar around his neck, the kind used for pulling loads.
There were ropes – more like cables – coming from the collar.
There was a large railway handcart attached to the cables, the wheels digging ruts in the grassy field just next to the race track.
And there were Suicune and Meganium on the handcart, both of them clinging to the central support.
"Entei!" Ash called, as they turned onto the final straight. "What's that?"
"Well, I didn't get my race!" Entei explained, seriously. "So I thought that now would be a good time. It is a good time, right?"
"Well – but – what's with the cart?" Ash asked, blinking. Donphan tried to turn to look, then remembered he was pulling Ash and concentrated on speed.
"It's a handicap," Entei told him. "I mean, obviously I'm faster, but what about when pulling this much extra weight?"
"Okay, seriously, Ash?" Donphan asked plaintively. "What's going on?"
"It's going to take a while to explain," Ash said. "Just – it's the final sprint, so I guess full speed ahead!"
"Just what I wanted to hear!" Entei chuckled. He crouched down, paws working away as he accelerated, and the cart increased speed.
Both the passengers held on more tightly.
"Brother?" Suicune asked. "Please make sure we don't crash into anything when we slow down..."
Ash crouched lower over the board, trying to make Donphan's task as easy as possible.
For several seconds, the two teams – Ash and Donphan, and Entei and his two ballast Pokémon – thundered down the line towards the finish. Entei was edging ahead, the axles of his repurposed cart squealing in protest, but Donphan was still close behind.
Meganium's voice rose in a question. "What's that coming up behind us?"
Ash turned to look. "That seems somehow familiar..."
Donphan jolted into the air for a moment as he hit a pebble, landed again, and squeezed out one last burst of acceleration.
As the finish line came up, the white shape which Ash and Meganium had seen got bigger very quickly. Then they passed the line, and there was a sudden roar of sound and air which blew Ash off his board.
Before he had time to position for the landing, Suicune had him. Leaping from the handcart, she kicked off the ground and came up underneath her trainer – letting him fall onto her back, before twisting in the air so she was facing the same way she was going.
That turned it into just running, and she slowed to a walk and then a stop before the end of the finishing area.
Entei, on the other hand, was having considerably more problems. He'd tried to stop, but rapidly discovered that stopping in front of a large railway cart was not a smart thing to do.
That left him running in front of the cart, slowing as it slowed, and he finally ended up coming to a halt several hundred metres away.
The moment he did, Meganium jumped off the cart and dug her roots into the ground, seeming like she'd be there for a while.
"That was – what happened?" Ash asked, looking around.
Then he caught sight of the other finisher. "Casey? Congratulations!"
Casey waved, as her Pidgeot landed next to her. "Hi, Ash! Wonder who won?"
She patted the flank of the Flying-type. "Yeah, he evolved about three corners back. Wow, but he's fast! The whole last bit of the race was just a blur!"
"I can tell," Ash said, sniffing. "I think your wheels are smoking."
Casey looked down, and winced. "Oh, yeah, that could be a problem..."
Suicune used Water Gun. There was a hiss, and the skateboard was very wet.
"Excuse me?" one of the judges asked, clearing his throat. "Do you want to hear how you did?"
"Sure, I guess," Ash agreed. He returned Donphan, who'd rolled to a stop about halfway across the track, and swung off Suicune. "Thanks for the save, by the way."
"Not a problem," Suicune told him.
"Okay," the judge said, as they turned up. "The good news is, you both did the course properly – unlike these two-" he indicated Pikachu and Squirtle, who were coming over to Ash now that Pikachu was better, "-you can both be ranked. So one of you will be first-place."
"Really?" Ash asked, frowning. "I thought Entei was-"
"He never registered," the judge told them. "We're waiting for the photo – ah, here it is!"
The marshal handed over the picture. As the judge examined it, there was a wave of cheering.
Brock came rolling across the finish line accompanied by a wash of wind, a few seconds ahead of the Tauros trainer Ash had jockeyed for position with for much of the course.
"Ah!" The judge looked up from his rulebook. "If we apply that... right. Congratulations, young man!"
"All right!" Ash said, grinning. He then subsided, and glanced over at Casey. "Sorry you came second."
"It's okay," Casey told him. "Really-"
"And, as a special prize donated by Mr. Shellby, you are awarded this Pokémon egg!"
Ash gave the egg an interested look over. It was mostly yellow, with a black circle covering about the upper quarter and a yellow dot inside that.
"...and now I really wish I'd won," Casey said, as Ash took the egg container. "That looks like it'd hatch into a yellow-and-black Pokémon!"
As Ash, Brock and Casey were nearly back to the starting line to meet up with Misty, there was a flash of light.
Gary Oak appeared, his Alakazam's spoons raised and his Arcanine by his side. "Am I too late to register? Sorry, I-"
"You're too late to compete," Ash pointed out. "Race finished twenty minutes ago."
Gary blinked.
"Too late?" Arcanine barked. "I knew it! Umbreon told you you shouldn't have slept in!"
"But – how could..." Gary checked his watch again. "I know the adjustment from Kalos time! The race shouldn't be starting for another... what, ten minutes?"
Brock raised a hand. "I know what the problem is, Gary," he said. "The clocks changed."
Gary blinked, then sighed. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me... how did I miss that?"
Ash shrugged sympathetically. "Sorry."
"Errrgh... right." Gary rubbed his temples for a moment. "Sorry about that, Arcanine. We'll do the endurance race in the south of Kalos instead, when it's on."
Arcanine gave a slightly mollified bark.
"Anyway, since I'm here..." Gary began, then paused. He pointed at Casey. "Is she trustworthy?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Ash nodded.
"Right." He turned to address Casey directly. "Don't talk about this, it's not been published yet."
"'kay," Casey said.
That done, Gary pointed to a ring on his finger. "See this?"
"Did you get married?" Brock asked.
"No!" Gary denied, a little startled. He lowered his voice. "It's a Mega Ring, with a Key Stone."
"Neat," Ash said, looking at it. "It's a lot neater than mine..."
"It is," Gary agreed. "There's a neat thing it can do to any Mega Stone, too – it can identify them. By the way, I've got a Lopunnite and an Absolite I'm not using."
He shrugged. "So if you find any Mega Stones you need identified-"
Ash found the one he'd been looking for in his pouch. "What about this one?"
Gary blinked. "How long have you had that?"
"Since I fought Chuck," Ash told him.
"Right," Gary said, deciding not to question it. He adjusted the Mega Ring, and extended it towards the stone in Ash's hand.
There was a small, unspectacular flash as it made contact.
"You're one lucky trainer, Ash," Gary said, almost conversationally. "That's Heracronite."
"Wow," Ash grinned. "That's cool! Heracross can use it!"
"What's a Mega Stone, by the way?" Casey asked, curious.
Brock spoke up before Ash could. "You know the thing that Ash's Charizard did when he fought three Legendary Beasts at once?"
Casey nodded. "That was pretty cool!"
"Mega Stones let that happen."
"Neat." She frowned. "Can I have one?"
"Not easily," Gary said, coming back into the discussion. "Like I said, we're still doing research."
"Hey, Gary?" Ash asked. "What Mega Stones did you say you have?"
"Weren't you listening?" Gary shook his head. "Right. I've got Absolite and Lopunnite I'm not using, and Blastoisite I am-"
Squirtle burst out of his Pokéball. "Blastoise has a mega evolution? I demand to see it!"
Gary yawned as his translator earbud filled him in. "Dee? Can you send Dexter the pictures we took?"
Transferring.
That done, he pointed. "Okay, Alakazam, take us back to Kalos. If I had to waste getting up at two in the morning, I can at least get back to bed before losing too much sleep."
Raising his spoons, Alakazam teleported himself, Gary and Arcanine back to Kalos.
"You have strange friends," Casey said.
After they'd returned their borrowed skateboards, and Ash had paid for the small one Squirtle had disintegrated, the friends hiked to the edge of town ready to leave.
"See you guys later, I guess!" Casey grinned. "I'll beat you at the League final!"
"As if!" Ash replied with a grin. Then his expression sobered. "Seriously, though, Casey – if you want, you can have the egg."
"No way!" Casey shook her head. "You won it fair and square! Besides, I've already got some cool Pokémon, while you need all the help you can get!"
"Was that an insult?" Pikachu asked, frowning. "It sounded like one."
Lucario shrugged – then his head snapped around at a polite cough.
"Am I interrupting anything?"
Lucario dropped into a brief bow, then straightened. "I am honoured."
"You do have good manners," a female Lucario said, coming out of the nearby underbrush. "Clearly your trainer has taught you well."
"Aren't you the one who broke my arm?" Ash asked.
"You cracked my rib, honours are even." The Lucario shrugged. "Sorry, though."
"Are you here to check up on me?" Ash's Pokémon queried.
"Heavens, no," she replied. "You're clearly fine. No, this is something else."
She straightened, and made eye contact with Casey. "Young one, one of our number has been observing you training for some time now."
"You've been watching me train?" Casey repeated. "Like... baseball scouting?"
"I believe that might be an apt metaphor, yes," the messenger said. "In any case. We have decided... positively."
Ash blinked. "Lucario? Is this-"
"So," the female went on, and beckoned.
Before the eyes of the group, a Riolu emerged from the brush. It seemed a little nervous, eyes flicking around to take in an unfamiliar situation, but was clearly facing down whatever fear she had.
And – immediately recognizable – she was a yellow-and-black shiny Riolu.
Clearing her throat, the Lucario began. "Casey Nanako of New Bark, will you accept this charge:
To educate in the ways of both battle and peace.
To keep morality, and to ensure the same of your charge.
To protect those weaker than yourself, with all the breath you have in your body.
If you so swear, then we beg you accept this scion of one of our noble lines as an apprentice and companion."
Casey gaped. "But – why me?"
The female inclined her head towards Ash's Lucario, a smirk playing across her lips. "You were recommended."
Casey blinked. "Ash? Did you-"
"Yeah, I asked them to take a look at you," Ash admitted. "After the bug catching contest. Lucario wrote a letter."
"I... wow." Casey sat down, a little heavily. "This is pretty huge."
"I felt kind of the same," Ash admitted. "And I was getting an egg."
Ash's Lucario knelt down next to Casey. "Would you like me to give you some advice? I can answer any questions you might have."
"Yeah, sure," Casey nodded. "Just – give me a minute. And I might want to discuss this with my Pokémon, too – can you help with that?"
"I would be willing to facilitate."
The discussion took quite a long time.
Casey was clearly well aware of what a big moment this was, and was acting appropriately – thinking it through, getting all the details, and talking things over with her entire team.
They weren't all of one mind, either. Her Bayleef was concerned that it might put them all – especially Pichu – in danger, while Beedrill and Pidgeot were all for it. Raticate, meanwhile, was more nuanced in her opinion.
In the end, the one who made the choice was effectively Pichu. He wandered off during the discussion, approached the young Riolu, and started to play around with her.
Catching sight of them, Casey smiled. Then her expression firmed, and she took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said, standing. "I'll do it."
"Excellent," the female Lucario said. "May you two have long life and many happy memories together."
With that, she blurred to the line of bushes – leaving Riolu behind, with her new trainer. Ash caught sight of the messenger pausing for a moment, in case they had any further questions, and then she set off for far-off Sinnoh.
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