Capítulo 10: 23,24
A rippling boom raced across the sky, as Ash's Pidgeot danced in the air over Kanto Bay.
Down below, on the deck of a cruise ship, Ash smiled. There were a lot of tourists on the ship, and it seemed like they were all out to watch her enjoy herself.
It was nice when she got a chance to cut loose.
"Hey, Ash!" Gary called, from a deck below, then came hurrying up the stairs with one hand on the rail. "Nice to see you taking a break from being a trainer!"
"Who said this was a break?" Ash asked. "The last few weeks, that was more like a break!"
He looked back at the shore. "Honestly it was kind of weird. But I'm going to Cinnabar for the gym!"
"Cinnabar has a gym?" Gary asked, his own attention turning southwest towards Cinnabar. "Huh. I heard it had closed down because there were too many tourists challenging it."
"Which is a bit weird, right?" Ash frowned. "That is weird? I just accepted it the first time, but now I've been to loads of other regions and it just seems like almost no Gym Leaders in Kanto do their jobs properly."
"Hey!" Misty protested. "We… wait."
She glanced at Brock. "If I complain about that, is Ash going to point out we're currently on a cruise ship, dozens of miles from our gyms?"
"Probably, yeah," Brock agreed.
"It's not just you guys, though!" Ash said. "Brock's dad left his gym for ages, Misty's sisters were more interested in their performance art… Surge kept injuring Pokémon… Sabrina was turning people into dolls… Blaine has hidden his gym and, well, I only ever battled Giovanni when Team Rocket was in charge of running the gym."
"I only ever battled him when he was using a ridiculously powerful psychic Pokémon," Gary said. "That's not even his speciality type. But yeah, I had to go to Chubu for some of my badges – you know, the middle bit between Mount Silver and Viridian City?"
"Assume I did!" Ash replied. "I wondered."
"Yeah, and a couple in Sevii, I wasn't sure but they accepted them… anyway, I'm actually off to Cinnabar for business too. I'm researching Pokémon that currently live in industrial environments, and how it is they get there, because it might give us clues about where they came from before we had industrial environments."
"Got it," Ash said. "Uh… there's supposed to be some cloning labs somewhere? Maybe? I don't know if they're at Cinnabar or somewhere else, but keep it under wraps if you find any, I guess."
Understood, Dee said. We'll keep you posted.
"I'm also researching how Dee gets more colloquial," Gary added.
"Science is amazing," Ash said, then looked up at a glimmer of light.
"Oh, wow!"
Pidgeot had gone subsonic, and was using Sky Attack… except, without the attack part. Golden flames were streaming over her wings, pouring off her tail, and her airstream was being whipped by the wind into a huge tail of bright yellow flame a hundred feet long.
She shot overhead with a sound of thunder, and Gary shouted to Ash over the roar. "Did your crazy bird just invent dumping jet fuel and burning it – for Pokémon?"
"I guess so!" Ash called back. "Pidgeot keeps surprising me – and I love it!"
"I think she's building up to a finale," Pikachu said, pointing.
High overhead, Pidgeot flared her shroud of fire, then accelerated all at once with a swift snap of her wings and shed it entirely. The whole collection of golden flame was swept up into an invisible clear-air Hurricane that Pidgeot had set up before her low overhead pass, spreading out and expanding and amplifying into a disc of ethereal fire several hundred feet across.
As it spread, she flew higher – up to about twice the height of the disc – then used Sky Attack again, reproducing her flaming trail, and shot back down right at the speed of sound to blast right through the centre of the Hurricane.
The whole cloud detonated into a series of rippling concentric rings, spreading across half the sky before fading out one by one.
Ash grinned as applause broke out all along the ship, and watched as Pidgeot came gliding down to the level of the deck before perching on the rail. "That was amazing, girl."
She began preening, enjoying the attention.
"It's sort of a pity that would never fit in a Contest hall," Brock said.
"Hey, uh… excuse me?" Ash said, approaching a familiar-looking hotelier. "Do you know where the entrance to Cinnabar Gym is?"
"Cinnabar Gym's closed," the man replied, shaking his head. "It has been for years."
"Huh, really?" Ash frowned. "Because some friends of mine got a badge from there less than a year ago… of course, they teleport everywhere, so they don't know where the door is, but they did say it's in the volcano."
"Ahh," the man sighed. "Them. Well, so much for riddles."
He removed his disguise, revealing that he was, of course, Blaine.
"Sorry," Ash shrugged. "But I do want a battle here! Only, can we do it somewhere there isn't lava? I have this wildly over-enthusiastic Squirtle."
Blaine winced. "No argument from me, boy. It's magma inside a volcano, but I'm not going to make a point of it. Meet me up in the volcanic bowl tomorrow morning… do you have Flying types to get up there?"
"Yeah!" Ash confirmed. "My Pidgeot was the one showing off earlier."
"It's always the same," Blaine groused. "Cinnabar is an enormous volcano with a tendency to violently explode, but people always seem to end up here for tourism."
Ash shrugged. "My friend Gary's here for research, at least?"
"Well, that is something," Blaine said, then rummaged in a drawer and handed Ash several sheets of paper.
"Huh?" Ash asked.
"Riddles," Blaine explained. "You missed the volcano one, but I do like them."
Ash looked through them. "Well, I guess I can see how well we do…"
"Thirty white horses on a red hill…"
Pikachu frowned. "Teeth? There's always one that answers as teeth."
"Yeah, could be," Ash admitted. "Thirty, though?"
"Best guess we have now."
"Sure." Ash pencilled it in. "When you take away the whole from it, some still remains. Hmm, not sure."
Riolu looked at the paper for a second. "Is 'whole-some' a word?"
"Hey, yeah! Nice work… what about this one?"
He pointed at it. "What do you buy to eat, but never run out of…"
Misty pulled a pillow over her head.
Why couldn't Ash just get himself to bed already? Damn him and his attitude to anything that even looks like a challenge.
"I'm impressed," Blaine said. "You got eighty three of the riddles I set."
He frowned, taking in Ash's distinctly tired state. "And now that I said that, I realize I may have overdone it on the number of riddles I set. How much sleep did you actually get?"
Ash yawned, then shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "I'll be fine! Let's go!"
"Very well," Blaine decided. "The Cinnabar Gym always includes a test of power. Do you want to hold that test first or last?"
"First!" Ash said, reaching for his belt. "I know who I'm using!"
Blaine raised his Pokéball, waiting until Ash raised his as well, then sent out his Magmar.
Ash retaliated with Charizard.
"Hey, uh," Ash began. "Quick question?"
"I have a question for you, first," Blaine said. "Where did you get that Charizard? He's marvellous."
"Another trainer had kicked him out as a Charmander for being weak, but I knew different!" Ash replied. "There's no such thing as-"
He yawned.
"-a weak Pokémon," he finished, blinking a few times. "They've always got strength there if you're willing to work with them!"
Ash waited a moment, then remembered he had a question to ask. "Oh, yeah… is Magmar actually immune to fire? I don't think they have Flash Fire."
"Correct, but Magmar lives in magma," Blaine replied. "So yes."
"Great!" Ash replied. "Charizard, Blast Burn!"
Blaine blinked. "Wait, how does he-"
Charizard fired, and the explosion blasted Magmar out of the crater entirely.
"Great," Ash began, then stopped. "Great work, Charizzzzzz-"
Charizard quickly spread his wing, catching Ash before his trainer face-planted spectacularly onto the rocky ground.
"Er," Blaine began, then held out a Pokéball and returned his falling Magmar. "This could make the battle difficult…"
"I'll handle it," Pikachu said. "On zero, Charizard. Two, one, zero!"
Blaine may not have been able to speak Pikachu, but he understood the electrical blast that hit Ash well enough.
"Are you sure that's safe?" he said.
"If it's not, then Ash is already in trouble, that's his alarm clock these days," Brock said. "He's alarmingly close to his Pokémon."
Misty gave him a threatening look.
"...I'll be good," Brock promised, as Ash shook himself.
"Phew," he said. "Thanks, Pikachu! Okay, who's next?"
Blaine sent out his Rhydon, and Ash pointed forwards. "Pikachu, you next!"
"This is a seventh-badge challenge, you know," Blaine said. "You're not supposed to make elemental mistakes like this."
"Hey, do I need to tell you off for puns too?" Misty demanded.
"Half of riddles are puns," Blaine defended himself.
"Go for the horn, Pikachu!" Ash said.
Pikachu shot a look at his trainer, then scampered forwards as Rhydon lumbered into a Bulldoze.
When they'd almost reached one another, Pikachu skipped a step, set himself, then slammed a Force Palm into Rhydon hard enough to knock the Rock-type flying back several feet and crashing to the ground.
The recoil was enough to land Pikachu in a small crater himself.
"Fine, fine," Ash sulked. "Don't go for the horn."
Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and he shook himself out as Rhydon picked himself up. "You know I've got better options than that."
"True," Ash admitted, concealing another yawn, then pointed. "Rhydon's coming again! Iron Tail!"
Pikachu used Iron Tail, then Force Palm again, and followed both of those up with a burst of speed and an Agility-boosted Iron Tail to the leg. That was enough to knock Rhydon out for the count, and Blaine made a tsk noise.
"Apparently I need to stop making elemental mistakes," he said. "Will you switch Pokémon?"
"Yeah – return, Pikachu!" Ash said. "Squirtle, your turn!"
Blaine already had his next Pokéball out, and he sent out a Ninetales.
The fox's eyes glowed red, and Squirtle struck a pose as he landed with one hand behind his back. "The burning heat of this volcano only produces a challenge for me to overcome!"
Water formed on his hand, bubbling and steaming for a moment before becoming perfectly clear and still. "There's nothing that says water can't exceed even a volcano in burning heat! Scald!"
He threw the bubble forwards, and Ninetales dodged to the side – only for the water bubble's surface to explode on one side, flinging the Scald sideways and splatting Ninetales with it anyway.
"How the hell did you do that?" Ninetales protested, paws scrabbling for a moment as he did his best to avoid falling over. "That's not remotely possible! It breaks all the laws of probability that superheated water only boils where it would be convenient to you!"
"Theoretical calculations mean nothing to me!" Squirtle shot back, flinging another superheated bubble and grinning. "I'm the great Squirtle of the Squirtle Squad!"
Ninetales got hit by the second bubble as well, then snarled and spat flame at Squirtle's third Scald.
That worked, at least, making the bubble detonate before it actually reached him, but Squirtle's fourth Scald attack was much larger – and it exploded four times on four different sides, rocketing crazily into the air to avoid Ninetales' flamethrower before slamming back down on top of him and nearly driving the Fire-type to his knees.
"Ninetales, use deception!" Blaine said.
"Enough playing around," Ninetales decided, blurring, then vanished into a Faint Attack as he created an illusion around himself.
Squirtle stepped back, water swirling around his hands, and looked left and right warily. "My enemy is somewhere, but I don't know where… so the only way to fight is to be certain of hitting! I'll attack everywhere at once!"
The Water-type sprang into the air, popping his arms and legs back into his shell for a moment, then exploded in a globular wave of violently boiling water. It hissed and sent up steam when it hit the ground, and rained down as a steaming downpour all across the crater, but more importantly it hit the invisible Ninetales sneaking in for an attack with an Energy Ball.
The splash was only there for a moment, but there was now a puddle that Ninetales couldn't help but leave footprints in, and Squirtle followed up with a Hydro Cannon that launched Ninetales backwards and tumbling over and over across the ground.
Blaine held up his hand, and recalled Ninetales with the other. "Stop. I am recalling Ninetales because your Squirtle has just used… hmm, I think it would technically count as Rock Slide? Just, the Pokémon was the one that was moving."
He switched Pokéballs, and sent out a Rapidash.
"Oh, is that a Laramie one?" Ash asked, then yawned. "I… uhh… I recognize the horn, I think?"
Blaine nodded. "I train only the best… I heard your race was very impressive, by the way. Well done."
"I tried," Ash said.
"Eat this, you hoofed first-rate!" Squirtle announced, and exhaled a bubble.
He looked briefly very annoyed, then sat down hard. "I'm too hungry to go on…"
"I'll recall Squirtle," Ash said. "Kingler!"
Kingler didn't come out of his Pokéball.
"Eh?" Blaine asked.
"...oh, right!" Ash realized. "Sorry, I… uh, I was going to warn Professor Oak that I'd need Kingler, but I missed it…"
Accessing, Dexter said. Professor Oak just went running out of the room. It shouldn't be long.
"Thanks," Ash replied.
"...so," Brock said, after a few seconds. "Why do you have a battle room over lava, anyway?"
"Because it is extremely cool looking," Blaine replied.
Then a Pokéball appeared in front of Ash, and he caught it on the second attempt. "There we go! Okay, Kingler, go!"
He threw the Pokéball.
"Bounce!" Blaine ordered, and Rapidash sprang into the air to avoid Kingler's first attack.
Kingler's first attack, as it turned out, was to soak the entire central part of the volcanic bowl in water, then hide underneath it as Rapidash came back down.
The splash-wham from Rapidash's diamond-hard hooves sent spray flying, but the water cushion reduced the impact enough that Kingler wasn't too badly harmed.
It also left Rapidash close to Kingler, and the Fire-type pranced backwards out of the way as Kingler tried for a Vice Grip.
"It's always a problem when a Gym Leader has to deal with a Type they're known to have problems with," Blaine grumbled. "Part of the job, but still…"
Kingler's claws snapped shut with a crack sound, and about ten feet in front of him the water erupted in a plume that hung in the air for several seconds and nearly cleared the crater lip.
Oh! Dexter said. So that's what Crabhammer looks like underwater… I think it's supercavitation?
Kingler's next shot was much further away, and Rapidash began thrashing his way through the deep water as Blaine called for a Solarbeam. The Grass-type move took time to charge, though, and each splashing explosion was getting more accurate as Kingler got his claw in.
One erupted fifteen feet in front of the moving Rapidash, who turned to try and back away – only for another one explode the same distance behind him.
Brock nodded to himself. "He's bracketed now."
A final eruption of water shot skywards, carrying Rapidash, and Blaine recalled the Fire-type before he hit the ground.
"Congratulations," Blaine said. "You understand great power and the ways it has to be controlled, and so you have earned the Volcanobadge."
He offered it, and Ash took it with a grin.
"Only one left," he said, before yawning. "And plenty of time before the League!"
"Yes, indeed," Blaine agreed. "Though those friends of yours who teleported in were probably worse for collateral damage than you. They nearly melted the crystal screens in one of the underground rooms, and I got off lightly."
"Don't bet on it!" Misty called. "Ash demolished my gym!"
"Only part of it!" Ash replied. "Anyway, see you around, Gym Leader!"
He turned to go, wobbled slightly, and Riolu caught him just before he hit the floor.
We'd better get him to a bed, Dexter decided.
"Good morning, Ash!" Misty said, the next morning.
Ash mostly just tried to use Dig on his blankets.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Misty said. "Your sleep schedule is your fault, the least you can do is accept it. Come on, we have to visit the Island of the Turtle Pokémon!"
"We do?" Ash replied, groggily, then gave up on actually trying to sleep. "Didn't, uh… wasn't Jigglypuff involved last time?"
He reached for Dexter on his bedside table, missed, and fell out of bed. "Ow."
"Ash used Rollout," Pikachu said.
"I mean… Jigglypuff is in a band now," Ash added, managing to grab Dexter that time. "They were on the news, doing big concerts in Saffron and stuff…"
"Well, yes," Misty admitted. "But, well, I'm a Water trainer and I want to know more about the societies of Water Pokémon. Especially a Squirtle who isn't… you know, crazy, like your one is as it turns out. He is the only one I've interacted with for a long period of time."
"Yeah, sure," Ash replied. "I guess… then we're going back to Cerulean, right?"
"That's the plan," Misty agreed.
A few hours later, Misty's eye was twitching.
"This. Cannot. Be. Happening."
"So!" Ash's Squirtle said, looking at the Squirtle, Wartortle and Blastoise in front of him.
All of them, every last one, wearing metal headbands inscribed with a turtle shell.
"This is Kamegakure, the Village Hidden in the Turtle?"
"They're all anime freaks," Misty muttered to herself. "Every last one of them. And I thought Ash's one was unusual…"
"I still can't believe they did this," Misty simmered, looking at the Misty Mermaid poster.
"Is it that bad?" Ash asked, glancing at Brock.
"Well," Brock began. "You're an only child, Ash. I'm an oldest sibling. Misty's a youngest sibling, and what you need to think about is that they made her the focus of this without even bothering to ask her."
Ash puzzled over that.
"Gary's signed you up as the lead clown in a circus act," Brock hinted.
Ash made a face.
"Ouch, yeah," he realized. "I didn't mind doing it for Butler, but… yeah."
"Still," Misty added, then knocked on the door.
When Daisy opened it, Misty pointed at the poster. "Explain," she invited.
"You were the best choice for the lead role!" Daisy protested. "Come on, the premiere is tomorrow, we've already booked in all the tickets, it won't be that much of a problem, right?"
"Hmm," Misty mused, as Violet and Lily came to the door. "Well… you know, you're right, it's not that much of a problem to learn the entire script for a show in a single day."
"Great!" Lily said.
"So," Misty added. "We're making some changes. I'll be a mermaid but I won't be a useless damsel in distress."
"...but the plot," Daisy protested.
"How do you even know I-" Violet began.
"I grew up with you!" Misty pointed out. "Now, here's my idea…"
Viewed one way, having only a few hours in the water in total – even wearing rebreathers – wouldn't have been enough time for Misty to properly memorize the choreography of the original script, let alone add whole extra sections to it involving her having a mystical pseudo-Pokemon connection to the sea and allowing her to use things that were partly but not entirely like Pokémon attacks.
Okay, Lily's in the water. You're coming out of the clam in three, two, one, now.
Viewed another way, Misty had Psyduck.
She pushed on the inside of the giant clam, forcing it open, and her sister – dressed in a piratical costume – swished a fencing sword at her, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it.
Misty flinched, then made a gesture, and a rush of water ringed with bubbles pulsed out from her towards the pirate. It seemed to come from nowhere and splashed against Lily, forcing her backwards, and Misty kicked with the costume tail to flip around before swimming away to hide.
It was really easy to forget that a Vaporeon could, if they wanted, be completely invisible when submerged in water.
Violet says that she thinks that looked good, but it needed a bit more of a flourish to it, Psyduck reported. Your gesture, she means. Can we try that again but with a circular flick once you make the hand symbol?
Misty gave a thumbs-up, then swam back over to the clam.
It was a good thing these rebreathers lasted so long, really. Especially as they were going to do an attack by Starmie later, too… in Starmie's case, it would be Camouflage not Acid Armour, but same difference.
That evening, after the performance, one of the spectators shook his head.
"That was interesting," he said.
"That was fascinating!" his friend beamed. "Did you see how they subverted the normal expectation that any character coded as an innocent princess would be defenceless? Instead, she and the Prince character saved one another at different times."
"I saw it," he admitted to her. "It was impressive, yes, I just think that… well, I'm not sure how to put it?"
He shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, it was definitely ballet and I liked the visual displays, I just wasn't thinking about it very hard. And the bits I was trying to think about I'm not sure I got."
"Like what?" she said.
"Oh, the dance number near the end," he explained. "The bit with the Togekiss doing a performance just above the level of the water. I don't see how it was relevant to the whole of the rest of the plot."
"Oh, I get it," she said. "It's ballet. You're supposed to just accept the dance bits. It's all dance."
He rubbed his chin. "That's probably profound."
As the friends headed west from Cerulean back towards Pallet Town, they came across a group of Clefairy ransacking a convenience store.
"Okay, what are you lot doing here?" Ash asked. "If you're from the moon, then you probably started there, right?"
The Clefairy exchanged embarrassed glances, then one of them came forwards.
"Sorry," she began. "Cresselia asked for us to check in on you, Chosen. I'm not sure why but it seemed important… the problem is, Rayquaza blew part of our ship off on the way down because he mistook it for a meteorite."
A shrug. "We've been here for months, so frankly the fact you're still… alive?… is all the report we need to give, we just can't get back up to space to give it."
Ash sighed. "I guess it's better than Rayquaza missing something, but… not much. Okay, maybe you could go down to Hoenn? There's a space centre on Mossdeep, they might be able to help."
The Fairy Pokémon all looked abashed.
"We really should have checked a map at some point, or something…" the spokes-mon admitted. "Thank you."
Bink.
And here we are, main Rocket base, Abra sent, casually, over the thuds of Jessie and James hitting the ground. Head first, naturally. Hmm, that's odd. It's usually less on fire.
"Wait, what?" James asked, springing upright with the ease of someone for whom blunt force trauma would first have to get through amazing hair. "Fire? Where?"
There, Abra said, pointing. And there. And over there, too, under the smoke. Spreading from the hole in the roof, and coming out those windows.
Jessie, James and Meowth went pelting into the Rocket command centre.
"Boss!" Jessie called. "Are you all right?"
"Shout if you ain't able to move!" Meowth added. "Move if you ain't able to shout! If you ain't able to do either, glare and we'll find ya!"
Giovanni picked himself out of the wreckage, demonstrating that he was certainly able to move.
"Yes, thank you. I'm tougher than I look," he said, brushing his suit off. "Send an alert to all points – be ready for potential retaliation attacks from a Legendary Pokémon."
He considered. "And leak information to that Ash Ketchum of yours that a Legendary Pokémon with a grudge against humanity has gone rogue. Psychic type, if it matters."
"Got it, sir!" James confirmed. "He'll find out one way or another!"
Giovanni refocused. "Right. "May I borrow your Abra to get to the Saffron command centre? It's going to be a nightmare keeping a lid on this one… handle the Viridian Gym while I'm gone."
The three saluted. "Sir!"
24
Dexter went beep. Text message from the Rockets, he reported.
Ash took Dexter out of his pocket, and checked the screen. "Hmm… okay, uh… so they're handling Viridian Gym at the moment, and, uh… they say they have urgent news to tell us, and they'd do it in some kind of subtle code, but if we come over to the Gym then we can literally just talk to them face to face and get it then so they're not bothering. I guess that's fair."
"What exactly are the possibilities, there?" Misty asked. "It's got to be Mewtwo, right?"
"Probably," Ash replied. "I think. Is that early? It feels early, but we didn't know the timing of this on the Rocket end before so who knows."
He stretched. "But, more importantly, it's time to go and get the Earth Badge!"
"Uh," Brock began. "More importantly?"
"It's Ash," Pikachu pointed out.
"...oh, yeah," Brock admitted. "Yeah, never mind then."
The door opened as they approached, revealing a dark space.
Then spotlights clicked on, and Jessie and James stood on the far end of the hall.
"Welcome to the Viridian City Gym," James said. "The philosophy of this Gym is unusual."
Jessie took up the thread. "It's not like any gym you've ever encountered, because this gym doesn't follow type segregation. It never has, and it never will."
"Really?" James asked, cutting off Jessie as she was about to continue. "Doesn't the boss usually use Ground type Pokémon here? That's like type segregation, isn't it?"
He waved vaguely. "Or if it doesn't count, what about Cinnabar? That place has a Rhydon."
"Shut up," Jessie told him politely. "Besides, the gym has a Kingler and a Machamp. Anyway, the gym is based on using the battlefield against the opponent. The earth against the opponent."
"You sure?" Meowth asked, dangling down from the lighting rig, then something went fzzzrt and all the lights came on at once. "Ow! Anyway, uh, I don't remember that from the briefing."
Jessie simmered.
"Shut up," she said, without even the modicum of politesse she'd had before. "As I was saying, the moves most commonly used here are the ones that rearrange, reshape or reorder the battlefield. The Earth of the Earth Badge is-"
Jessie noticed James had his hand up, kicked him in the shin, and finished very quickly. "Can you fight an enemy who alters the rules of the fight itself GO!"
Her Cubone materialized in mid-air, club held in both paws, and brought it down with a slam that cracked the floor around her. It was packed earth, and as Ash sent out Ivysaur the Grass-type materialized on a floor that was already heaving and moving under the influence of Cubone's Earthquake.
She turned away from the Vine Whip attacks Ivysaur sent her way, then slammed down a second blow, and Stone Edge walls appeared between her and Ivysaur. They slammed together to assemble a wall, locking into place with a wham-wham-wham, and Ivysaur barely withdrew his Vine Whips in time.
"Seed Bomb!" Ash called. "How many can you do at once?"
"Let's find out," Ivysaur decided, sticking his tongue out as he concentrated, and fired out a trio of Seed Bombs with a thoom-thoom-thoom sound. They sailed over the wall, exploding on the far side, and Ash closed his eyes.
"Okay, a bit more spread?" he suggested.
Ivysaur fired again, but a bone flashed out this time and burst one of the Seed Bombs as it was going over the wall.
"That was the one that was going to hit, I think," Ash said. "Wait, let's try something else… fire them really high, as high as you can go and have them still land there!"
"Oh, I get it," Ivysaur realized, and fired three Seed Bombs. They went almost straight up, and punched three neat holes in the roof.
"Here we go," Misty sighed.
"Wait, that reminds me, actually," Ash realized, as Ivysaur fired off three more Seed Bombs, then another three, each one punching its own hole in the roof. "Wasn't this place rigged up to give electric shocks to the trainers when they got hurt?"
"We did think about dat," Meowth agreed, then yelped as one of the wires went bzzrp and half the lights changed colour. "Anyway, uh, we decided it ain't much fun to get electrocuted, so we ain't doin' it. Plus, dat Pikachu and all."
"They've got a point," Pikachu nodded sagely.
Ivysaur had fired a lot of Seed Bombs by that point, and James pointed. "Wait, I know what's happening – it's time on target! They're all coming down at once!"
"I should probably get outta da way, then," Meowth said, then fell out of the tangle of wires.
As he hit the ground with a thud, then scrambled upright and ran for it, Cubone began running through her aria – the incantation she'd used in her battle against Riolu. She rattled the whole thing off in only a few seconds, and Ivysaur's barrage of Seed Bombs dissolved in a moment as most of the gym was remade by a flash of power.
Infinity Energy, reshaping the world into an echo of the user. A sphere, coloured and influenced by the fleck of Cubone's soul at its heart like a marble made of reality instead of glass.
"Whoa," Ash said, impressed. "And… poor you."
"I don't want your pity," Cubone said.
"And what you don't have any more is that wall of yours," Ivysaur said. "Sunny Day!"
The sky overhead roiled, clouds seething away from one another, but there were always more to be had. It didn't actually lead to the sky breaking through from an overcast into sunlight.
"Well, then," Ivysaur shrugged. "Sunny Day again!"
This time his flower glowed a bright noonday yellow, and four bright spheres of yellow-orange fire rose into the air to hang overhead.
Cubone rolled her eyes, reaching out a hand, and one of the bones twitched before flying into her hand.
It was round and shining, a Bronzor's metallic body, and she held it like a shield. "You've telegraphed that you're using Solarbeam more than if you'd just charged it."
"Yep!" Ivysaur said, rising up on his hind legs, and dropped back to the floor. "Fissure!"
A glowing crack speared out towards the startled Cubone, and the Bronzor shield slipped from her grip as she made a leap for safety. It vanished down the Fissure as she landed, the bones moving aside to give her space, but Ivysaur's petals were already blazing with green-golden light.
"Solarbeam!" he announced.
Jessie and James held out their Pokéballs at the same moment. Cubone vanished from in the way of the intense beam, and James' Gyarados went plunging into the crack left by the Fissure in the moments before Cubone's Reality Marble lost coherence and collapsed back into the Viridian Gym.
"Hmm," Ivysaur muttered, and looked around.
His Sunny Day was still up, and he trotted forwards a step.
The ground went squish.
"I can't tell what Gyarados is doing!" Ash reported. "But he's making that water somehow!"
"Hmm," Ivysaur said, then pulsed out a Giga Drain. A little energy came back to him, but not much, so the water wasn't connecting him straight to Gyarados.
"Look out behind!" Ash said, just in time, as Gyarados burst out of the ground in a splash of mud. The Atrocious Pokémon exhaled a blast of flame, hitting Ivysaur in the side, but despite the last of the Sunny Day Ivysaur still managed to avoid most of the impact.
"Ow!" he said, trying to catch Gyarados with his Vine Whips, but the Water-type plunged back into the Fissure with a splash.
"Oh, I get it," he realized. "Gyarados can't normally Dig, so the ground needs to be soft and wet enough for him…"
"I know what to do!" Ash said. "Ivysaur, get ready, this will require really good timing!"
Ivysaur looked back and forth, feeling the faint tremors as Gyarados moved around underwater, then dematerialized in a flash of red light as Ash boosted Pikachu into the arena. "Thunder!"
Gyarados had just enough time conscious to regret how the battle was going.
"Not bad!" James said, nodding. "Now, time for the ultimate expression of how terrain affects battles. Abra, out you go!"
Abra materialized. Curse.
Pikachu blinked. "Huh?"
Curse, Abra said lazily. Curse.
Still confused, Pikachu fired a bolt of lightning at Abra, and he teleported out of the way.
"Why are you making yourself-" Pikachu began.
"Thunder Wave!" Ash called. "Stop him!"
Trick Room, Abra said, projecting a field of altered space around himself that was easily large enough to include Pikachu as well.
Ash joined in the general theme of cursing. "Damn – Pikachu, Counter Shield!"
Pikachu wove together a net of electrical energy as fast as he could, but under the distorting effects of the Trick Room that just wasn't fast enough. Abra moved with blurring speed, teleporting inside Pikachu's Counter Shield before it was fully set up, then used a combination of Tail Whip and a psychic shove to launch Pikachu clear out of the arena.
Ash caught him, wincing as the Counter Shield grounded out on him but managing the worst of it. "Ergh – you okay, Pikachu?"
"Yeah, but that was an unpleasant surprise," Pikachu admitted. "I could barely see him, he was moving so fast."
"That's Trick Room for you," Ash agreed. "Uh… okay, that actually makes things difficult, most of my Pokémon are fast…"
"Better hurry up!" Jessie advised. "You don't want to get disqualified!"
Ash reached for one of his Pokéballs.
Most of his Pokémon were really quick. Sure, Abra were fast themselves, which was why James's one had used so many Curses, but…
"Charizard!"
Charizard materialized, roared, and bathed the entire Trick Room in flame. Abra teleported out of the blast, since he had to, but the moment he did he suddenly lost all the speed advantage he'd gained from being Cursed repeatedly – instead slowing down all the way.
Consequently, Charizard just slapped Abra with a wing cuff, knocking him out.
"Bit of an anticlimax," the Fire-type snorted.
"Well done!" Jessie said. "You get the Earth Badge. And I'll just take another one for us as well… that's eight!"
Ash checked, curious. "Huh, that's neat. Same set as mine. How did you do the Saffron Gym, aren't about half your Pokémon Poison-type or something?"
"Less than you'd think!" Meowth said.
"Cubone, mostly," Jessie shrugged.
"Oh!" James gasped. "And we should say – there's a powerful escaped Psychic type that might cause trouble. Hint. Cough."
Ash walked into an invisible wall with an audible thud, bounced off, and fell over backwards.
"Watch out," Pikachu said.
"...not again," Ash groaned, then closed one eye and looked up. "Oh, huh, there we go. I thought it might be him."
"Who?" Misty asked, looking up. "Oh, that Mr. Mime your mom has… Mimey, right?"
"That's him," Ash agreed. "And I can Remind him, too."
He got to his feet, focusing, then used Force Palm on the Reflect wall. Copying a move that he'd seen from Lucario and learned from Sir Aaron's notes, Ash punched a spike of Aura through the wall and then widened it out to pop the Reflect wall entirely.
"Ash, shouldn't you-" Misty began, then the Mr. Mime landed on top of Ash and he fell over again.
"Mrrf!" Ash said, waving frantically from underneath the Psychic-type. "Mrrrpfh!"
"What's he saying?" Brock asked.
"I think it's something about how much Mr. Mime weigh," Pikachu commented. "We should probably lift Mimey off him."
Misty and Riolu did most of the actual work, heaving Mimey onto the grass, and Ash gasped for breath.
"Phew," he said. "You okay, Mimey?"
"I'm fine," Mimey replied. "Confused, but fine. We're back in time?"
"That's it, exactly," Ash agreed. "Sorry, I was going to ask you but the impact was…"
He frowned. "Wait."
"Ash?" Brock asked, as Ash looked towards Pallet Town.
"Oh, no," Ash said. "I never thought about this until now… I can do Professor Oak, and I can do Mom."
He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm really worried how Mom is going to take it when she finds out how much I got into danger… and how Dad died doing the same kind of thing."
"You'll have to deal with it some time," Mimey said. "She definitely knew about a lot of it anyway, if it helps, but all this coming at once might be a bit much for her."
"I guess, yeah," Ash agreed. "Uh… okay, there was a thing… right! Dexter, can you get an anonymous tip about brewing trouble in the circus to the local Jenny? I think they could do with having someone talk to them, at least."
Good thought, Dexter agreed.
"Right," Ash said, adjusting his gloves. "Now, it's time for a much bigger challenge."
He looked down towards Pallet Town. "Getting out of this without being grounded."
Once Ash had started explaining, it had all sort of… poured out. Not everything, because that would have taken too long, but about how he'd been involved in so many difficult situations and that it felt like he'd lost so many Pokémon and human friends by coming back in time.
About how the weight of the world was on him, and he knew it mattered, but at the same time it was hard to really believe that it was true.
About how he hadn't wanted his mother to worry, or even Professor Oak all that much, because so often he didn't find out about things until they'd already happened and they weren't a problem any more…
Ash sort of lost track of where he was going at least once. Maybe more than once. But finally, after he felt like he'd run out of things to say, he double-checked that it was all right and then reminded both his Mom and Professor Oak.
Both Delia Ketchum and Sammy.
It only took a moment, like with everyone else, but there was a long and silent pause after Ash had done it.
Eventually, it was Oak who broke the silence.
"I'm… astonished, my boy," he said. "Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what you and Gary got up to."
"Nightmares, more like," Delia said.
She screwed a hand into a fist, then opened it again."Ash… why? Why did you end up in so much of… that? You're just my little boy, and you were so… and so many times… I nearly lost you, again and again, and I didn't even know about it. And it's…"
Her voice caught. "It doesn't seem right. You understand? I don't want to lose you – I don't see why you have to be in such danger."
"But it's because-" Ash began, stopped, then kept going. "Mom, it's because it was to save someone. Every time. Once it was you, and more than once it was everyone, but…"
He spread his hands. "If I knew about it before it was already happening around me, then it's because it's to help people. To keep them safe… and I want to do that, because I couldn't live with myself if I didn't."
"And there really is a reason only Ash can do this," Pikachu contributed. "We don't know everything that Chosen One means, yet, but… it matters."
"Yeah, the Chosen One thing," Ash agreed. "I don't know what would happen if someone else tried doing the thing on Shamouti, or… but… I don't think I want to risk it."
Delia blinked back tears "But, I… I… I don't see why it has to be you! Why is it you who has to do all this, with all the strong trainers in the world?"
"Because…" Ash began. "I think it'd happen to me anyway. My luck has always been weird, and… I don't know if it has to be me. But I'm accepting it anyway."
"I think that went well, actually," Ash said, as they walked down to the beach.
Misty and Brock exchanged glances, then Misty looked back towards Pallet Town proper.
Ash's house was visible, and Misty could just about see Delia on the roof with a pair of binoculars.
"You're not allowed out of her sight for a week! And she's insisted on following you to the Pokémon League, just so she can see how good you are now!"
"It's better than being grounded for a year!" Ash replied. "Which I think was an option, but I don't want to ask. Anyway, I got permission from Gary and the other two trainers who left Pallet Town to borrow their Pokémon for practice teams… I know what your teams are like, but being surprised would really help I think."
He shrugged. "It happened at Silver, it happened at Lily of the Valley, it happened at Vertress… I want to be able to adapt better. And, sure, the other two didn't get past about five or six badges before giving up, but that's still more variety, and Gary's caught dozens."
"Oh, I think I get it," Brock realized. "You want us to make practice teams out of their Pokémon, so you're more likely to be surprised and you can work around that."
"Right," Ash confirmed. "That's the idea… Gary isn't letting me have his main team, though. He's got his Squirtle all the way up to Blastoise now."
"And I bet he's become a positive Attenborough!" Squirtle said, materializing without prompting. "When he arrives, I'll have to see which of us is the stronger in manly spirit!"
"You mean, what, whiskey?" Ash asked. "Or is it, uh, shochu I'm thinking of?"
"Of course that's not what he means," Misty grumbled.
She'd really soured on the Squirtle line since she'd found out they were all otaku.
Then she shrugged. "Well, I'll see what I can do… Brock, want to start him off?"
"Sure," Brock agreed, taking a Pokéball from his belt and sending out his Ninetales. "Ash, you only get two Pokémon for this, for now. This is just a warm-up."
Ash gestured Squirtle forwards.
Delia watched from the rooftop as Brock's Ninetales fought with elegance, grace and fire against Squirtle's flamboyance, water, water, and Aura-saturated water.
He was quite prone to the overuse of water.
Brock switched out Ninetales for Steelix, then Crobat, while Ash swapped Squirtle out for Charizard, and each Pokémon showed off their years of experience in a way that really brought home to her just how much her son's team had blossomed.
Meeting each new Pokémon as they came back to the lab was one thing, but this was something else.
When the battle ended, Charizard had set fire to some nearby trees, but Squirtle had then extinguished them all over again with the help of half of Misty's team.
Which was nice of them.
Delia adjusted her binoculars, wondering who Ash was going to battle next. Misty's Pokémon were still checking over the smouldering tree, and Ash didn't seem to be sending anyone else out…
Then his hands flared blue, and Pikachu and Riolu turned to face him.
And Ash threw a blue sphere from his hands.
Pikachu fired a Thunder Wave at Ash, and Ash retaliated with a flash of Aura against the contact point. It was tricky and it stung, but it was better than being hit by Thunder Wave, and the shimmering burst of blue light deflected Pikachu's attack away before it could paralyze him.
He hit Pikachu with a Force Palm, knocking him out of the battle for a moment, but Riolu had taken the chance to charge up his own Aura Sphere and throw it. Ash burst that with a Force Palm, sending blue light scattering down between them, and launched a series of close combat blows against his Fighting-type.
Riolu fell back from the attacks, blocking or dodging each one without counterattacking and continually giving ground with a slight bias towards his right side, and Ash pressed his advantage… until he felt a chilly wind around him.
That wasn't right.
Ash switched to Aura sight, and saw something strange was going on. There was Aura swirling around them both, hot and cold… and he was hot, while Riolu was cold, with an Ice Punch shimmering on the backs of both of Riolu's paws. And, though he hadn't noticed it, the two of them had walked in a spiral.
As soon as he saw it, the spiral of opposing temperatures began to mix, and Riolu switched back to the attack.
"Flying Dragon Uppercut!" he announced, punching Ash in the chin, and a small but powerful whirlwind hurled Ash into the air.
The Fighting-type landed again, watched how his trick had done, then cupped his paws around his muzzle. "Sorry about that! But it works best on Fire-types and Aura users and I wanted to see if I'd got it working!"
Ash went splash into the sea, sputtered for a moment as he surfaced, then steadied himself with the nearly-instinctual ease of someone who'd been taught to swim at the beach at about the same age he'd learned to walk.
Then he pushed Aura into his hands, then his feet, and climbed onto the surface of the sea like he was getting onto a slightly springy trampoline. "Well, it worked! But why did you come up with it, anyway?"
Riolu shrugged. "It was interesting to try out! And besides, it's planning ahead for if I ever do evolve…"
Then he looked embarrassed. "I didn't think through how the sea would be weird to walk on if it's not calm, though… good thing the waves aren't very big at the moment."
Not that Ash could see, but his mother was having trouble trying to work out what was going on.
"Right, let's keep going!" Ash decided, and charged, which made her problem a whole lot worse.
"Okay, I think I get it," Ash said, about twenty minutes later.
He was wrapped in a towel, since he'd stopped exercising, and Riolu was going through the trick. "So, you need the spiral, especially."
"Right, it gives it momentum," Riolu confirmed. "Without it, it's just Sky Uppercut and you actually need to land the blow, and it's not very strong. I can use Ice Punch and Fire Punch to make the spiral myself, but, again, it's not as strong that way…"
"And can you reuse the spiral? If there's already a whirlwind, I mean…" Ash shrugged.
"Not sure," Riolu admitted.
He scratched his head with a paw. "I could try? That was the first time I'd actually used it, though."
"Sounds like something to try, then!" Ash decided. "Only, maybe on Charizard next time? He can fly."
"True!"
Misty turned up by the time Ash had finished towelling off, along with three baskets of six Pokéballs each.
As she explained, she was going to use just three from the set of six in each case, but the six amounted to a reasonable team.
That had to wait a bit for Pidgeot to go and fetch one of the Tauros, but after that most of the afternoon was just – training.
Working out the kinks in how he used his Pokémon. Making sure he could use them as an extended team, of more than six Pokémon, and making sure that each individual Pokémon was ready.
They had time before the Pokémon League, sure, but you could always do more training. And maybe you needed a break sometimes, but this was the start of a long period of preparation for the League.
Electricity stabbed into the evening sky, spreading out into a disc as wide as the whole battlefield, and Pikachu gestured.
"Shock Wave!" he announced, slamming the whole disc down at once, and the agile Persian that Misty was using took a hit that knocked them out.
"That's all of them," Misty said, recalling the Normal-type. "Nice work, guys."
"You okay, Pikachu?" Ash checked.
"Yeah, but ow," Pikachu replied. "Making a field that big hurts, but it's good for forcing a hit at least. Or a ring out, if the Pokémon dodges."
"True, yeah," Ash agreed. "You've been doing great coming up with more kinds of Shock Wave."
"It's sort of turning into a hobby," Pikachu admitted.
"We should probably stop for the night," Ash added. "Everyone's been doing such great work – and that includes the Pokémon you guys have been using – but by now I think we should head in for food… actually, are we going to head off to Seafoam Island? I think we did last time."
Not much point if you ask me, Dexter said. Mostly you watched a Slowpoke evolve and someone go surfing.
Riolu looked up, interested. "Surfing?" he repeated. "Hmm… I wonder if I could do that with my water walk trick? I'm not even sure it'd need all that much modification, come to think of it."
"Yeah, that would be interesting," Ash agreed. "But the waves there were… big?"
That is a good word, yes.
"So maybe start with smaller waves?" Ash suggested. "Kingler could do it, or Squirtle… we could use the ones on the beach, or even ask Gary's Blastoise for some. I think Gary's planning to come back here before long."
"True," Riolu admitted.
Not to mention, the island was extremely crowded. I'm not sure you could have fitted any more cars on it.
A week or so later, training was in full swing.
Gary's Blastoise spun, firing a salvo of Water Gun shots from his cannons and aiming to box in his Squirtle opponent.
"You know as well as I do that this kind of lame, half-assed series of attacks isn't going to work against me!" Squirtle declared, using Ice Beam and freezing the shots before jumping up onto one of them as a platform. He folded his arms. "My ice-cold dedication is more than enough to overcome your burning ambitions!"
Blastoise steadied himself, cannons lining up on Squirtle together with a click. "But this will! Fire everything!"
"Hydro Cannon!" Squirtle and Blastoise called at the same moment, their attacks colliding with a crash-spaloosh in the middle of their impromptu battlefield and sending out an instant, massive wave of water.
Riolu jumped off Ash's shoulder, took two steps, and sprang onto the gush of water with both footpaws glowing blue. "Woo-hoo!"
While Riolu was experimenting, Blastoise followed up with a second salvo of shots – Water Pulse, this time – to keep Squirtle busy, then tried again with Hydro Cannon.
For his part, Squirtle used Horn Drill Break. He slammed straight into the attack, broke through it in a whirl of water and Aura that deluged the area, and knocked Blastoise clear back into his Pokéball before spinning out and crashing into the marshy ground with a splash-splash-sliiide that left him covered in mud.
Ivysaur went over to help him up. "You okay?"
"Of course!" Squirtle panted. "What do you... take me for?"
He was nevertheless very visibly leaning on Ivysaur for support.
"Good," Misty said, from the sidelines. "The biggest disadvantage of that was always that it knocked you out as well… which you've managed to handle. If barely."
"We're always improving, right, Squirtle?" Ash asked.
"Yeah!" Squirtle agreed, though his vehemence did nearly result in his toppling over onto Ivysaur's flank. "Every moment we progress, like the turn of-"
"We get the idea," Gary sighed.
He tapped an earbud leading to his Pokédex, Dee. "Normally this is really helpful, but when Blastoise is going on about his anime then I do sometimes regret it."
"Oh, right!" Ash realized, as off in the distance Riolu grounded out on running out of water. "That's giving you translation! I figured it was that or the radio, but I didn't want to guess."
"Of course that's what it's doing," Gary confirmed. "I'm a researcher, do you have any idea how useful it is to be able to understand what Pokémon are saying to me? The savings in not trying to confirm things that are blatantly wrong, alone…"
"I guess," Ash agreed. "Being able to understand Pokémon has been really useful for me, so that makes sense."
He looked over at where Riolu was trudging back, then frowned. "Wait, what's that?"
Gary turned to follow his gaze, shading his eyes. "That… yeah, that's definitely a Pokémon. Headed right for us. And it must be fast, if it's getting bigger that quickly."
"Dragonite, I think," Ash said. "Hey, guys? This might be time, I remember this much at least – that must be the invitation."
"Invitation?" Gary asked, then nodded. "Oh, Dee just reminded me. I did see something about this…"
He broke off as the Dragonite arrived, swooping down on them, then stopped to hover just between them and pulled a pair of cards out of a pouch.
Ash took the first one that was offered, and after a moment Gary realized the other was for him. "...Ash, why-"
"Wait, I want to hear this," Ash said, triggering the hologram.
Gary rolled his eyes, but watched as the woman gave her invitation. It was new to him, after all.
By the time she was finished, the Dragonite had flown off.
"Dexter?" Ash asked, looking around with his eyes closed. "There was a camera around that Dragonite's neck, right?"
Well caught. Yes.
"Well, there isn't anything close enough to watch us now… what were you saying, Gary?"
Gary was a bit less offended now he knew why Ash had cut him off, but he still had that question to ask. "Why did I get one, Ash? I didn't last time."
"Huh," Ash frowned. "I didn't actually know you didn't, but… I think they just went out to any trainers who Mewtwo thought were strong enough?"
He shrugged. "I checked over Dexter's records, so I've got a good idea of what's going to happen, but a lot of it is kind of like guesswork? I guess…"
Then Ash brightened. "Wait, that might be it – your Blastoise. If he was using the camera, he'd seen you had a Blastoise. Dexter has clips of Mewtwo using cloned versions of Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise to beat the original versions of them, I guess to prove a point or something? Anyway… that might be why. You're one of the Blastoise trainers he's invited along to beat."
Charizard burst out of his Pokéball. "But he won't beat this Charizard, not this time!"
"Charizard, you don't even remember being beaten," Ash pointed out.
"Dexter does, that's enough for me. Besides…"
Charizard buffed his claws. "I spent years in the Valley. There's standard brute force Charizard tactics, and I know the counters for them. And the counters for those counters. And so on for a bit longer."
He paused. "And Blast Burn. Can't forget that one."
"Well, I don't think Blastoise is looking forward to fulfilling an ego trip…" Gary said. "I've got a few ideas. But you do have a plan for Mewtwo, right, Ash?"
"Uh," Ash began. "I've got something? You could call it a plan I guess. But we've got to try it, or Mewtwo destroys the world with a huge storm."
Which reminds me, Ash – you're going to need to get to New Island somehow. Remember, the ferry can't get through the storm.
"Right," Ash said. "I guess that's why there weren't dozens of trainers there, with how many he invited… Pidgeot should work, right?"
Should do, Dexter agreed. What about you three?
"Starmie and Psyduck," Misty decided straight away. "Between them they'll keep the wind from being too much, and then Brock and I can ride Gyarados. I don't think he can take three, though."
"Hmm," Gary frowned. "Fearow would be willing, but he's a glider. A nasty storm would be too much for him… Krabby's one of those giant Pokémon you get sometimes, that could work?"
"If you can breathe water, maybe," Misty said. "Krabby cross the sea by walking, mostly."
"Blastoise, then," Gary decided. "He should be strong enough… once he's had a quick trip to get healed, anyway."
Ash went through things in his head. "Right… so next we need to choose which Pokémon we're taking."
Dexter beeped. They might well end up cloned, Ash, Gary, but – if you don't have enough strength on hand for that reason, Mewtwo might know something's up. It's my understanding that mind reading requires finesse he might not yet have, at least at a distance, and his actions don't quite make sense if he was reading your minds all along, but if he decides to do it then we could become unstuck fast.
"Right," Ash said, nodding. "So… You and Pikachu, then… Riolu, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard, Pidgeot and… Primeape."
That's eight, but Pikachu's never in his Pokéball and I'm secret. Don't worry, Ash, I'll make sure he doesn't notice me.
Me too, Dee said.
Gary nodded his thanks. "And I'll bring Blastoise, Fearow… Golem, I think… Dee, of course… Nidoking, Nidoqueen and Eevee."
"Still Eevee?" Ash asked. "That's a shame, it would be nice to have a Dark type. Unless she's going to evolve into something else this time?"
"She's always wanted to be an Umbreon, so I don't think that's going to change…" Gary shrugged. "I'd better go and get the Pokémon I'm taking, they're not all on me."
"Got it," Ash nodded. "Meet you at the pier, near the Pokémon Centre down southwest."
"Oh, that one," Gary said. "From those disastrous boating lessons."
Ash winced. "Yeah, I know… I still think they shouldn't give us all that sail if you're not meant to use it all. What's the point of it if you can't use it when there's nice strong winds?"
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