บท 127: Shadows in the Fog

"And then I said, 'Charmander, set the world on fire'."

...

"All you could see sticking out of the waves was the tip of his tail, lit up like a torch on the end of a snorkel."

...

"The next thing we knew, this big ass Snorlax comes charging in to clean the place out of food. Thankfully I happened to have Nidoking on me at the time, or things could have gotten really ugly."

...

After my battles against Gary and Ash had ended, both with my victory of course, we had all gone back inside the lighthouse to relax for the remainder of the night. Except no one felt even remotely sleepy, and I had numerous requests to tell all about my pokemon by Bill and Tracey, both of whom were filled with academic curiosity, and Ash, who wanted to both meet and see all of my pokemon after seeing just a few of them.

And off to the side was Charizard, curled up for a nap after getting back at Blastoise for his previous defeat, and surrounded by all of Bill's Flareon as they snuggled up to his hot body.

The only one not present was Gary, who I could feel brooding over his loss up at the top of the lighthouse alone.

"So Ace..." Bill began as he returned from the kitchen with some snacks. "I've seen some footage and heard some rumors about a white Charizard appearing in Lavender town during the battle against Team Rocket, and the true alpha Gengar. Any stories about that?"

"Oh yeah. We learned that Team Rocket would be attacking Lavender town in the near future...."

I then told them about the battle against Team Rocket and Gengar, glossing over Mewtwo as I did so to prevent our relationship from leaking out even more.

After that I told them about the time we spent at Thunder Ridge, aside from going to meet Zapdos of course. It was at this point that I recalled something I had received from the cult of Zapdos, and said,

"Oh yeah! I have something for you Ash."

"What is it Aniki?!" Ash demanded excitedly, even as I dug in my pack to locate two specific items.

"Here we go." I said while pulling them out and placing them on the table between us. "Well, I may have said you, but they're actually for Pikachu."

By this point everyone was gathered around the table as they examined the items I had placed on it. One was pretty basic, a greenish stone with a jagged yellow bolt etched on the surface.

Ignoring the thunder stone, everyone focused on the second item I had placed on the table. Sitting there was the Light Ball, which was illuminated slightly despite the numerous lights that were on in the room.

"What is it?" Ash asked without being able to peel his eyes away from it.

"Piiiiikaaaa." Pikachu uttered, as if in a trance.

"It's called the Light Ball. I got it from the followers of Zapdos while on Thunder Ridge. And obviously, this one is a thunder stone." I said while pointing out said stone.

I then said to both Ash and Pikachu, "The thunder stone will allow Pikachu to evolve into his next stage, Raichu, which will make him more powerful. HOWEVER, if Pikachu does not want to evolve then he is also welcome to the Light Ball. From what I understand though, it only works on Pikachu themselves. Meaning that it will be useless if he evolved into a Raichu."

"Fascinating..." Bill uttered as he examined the Light Ball with interest, before asking me, "Ace, do you know how this came to be?"

"No I don't, sorry."

Bill nodded slowly in understanding, as if he had expected as much, though his eyes never left the Light Ball.

"But Aniki.... Don't you want to keep it?" Ash asked me hesitantly. I could also tell that he was reluctant to accept help from me to make his own team stronger, something that made me proud that he wouldn't just accept any handouts to the top.

"I have plenty of thunder stones, and the Light Ball is useless to me. I don't have a Pikachu to use it with, and even if I did I would evolve it into a Raichu like May did hers. The Light Ball is useless for a Raichu, and if it's used on a Pikachu then I don't know if it would ever be able to evolve. That's also why you need to think carefully about which one the two of you end up choosing."

I looked pointedly at Pikachu when I said that, as it would ultimately be his decision to either evolve or stay a Pikachu. Which I figured he would choose the latter if things went the same as the anime.

I then stood up and said, "take your time deciding, I'm going to stretch my legs. However, I suggest you make your decision before leaving Bill's so that he can look over Pikachu if he chooses the Light Ball."

Bill's eyes sparkled at my words, while Ash nodded seriously since making sure his partner was ok was one of his highest priorities.

Since it might take them a while to make their decision, I decided to go and check up on something.

As I stood to leave Lucario joined me, while my new Eevee also leapt up to my shoulder to accompany me. Incidentally, the girls were currently bonding with their own new pokemon.

Misty had of course evolved her new Eevee into a Vaporeon, May used a dusk stone to evolve hers into an Umbreon, and Dawn used an ice stone to evolve hers into a Glaceon. Joy on the other hand decided to mimic me, and wait for her Eevee to evolve naturally. I had bet the girls a million poke dollars that hers would evolve into a Sylveon, but oddly enough I had no takers.

The three of us, well two technically since Eevee was riding on my shoulder, headed towards the large circular staircase that would lead to the very top of the lighthouse. After climbing enough stairs to rival the Pokemon Tower, we arrived at the top to find a certain someone brooding while looking out over the ocean.

"You know, if we dressed you up in a Crobat costume, you'd make a decent Batman." I told Gary with a smirk.

"What the hell is a 'Batman'?" Gary snapped back at me irritably.

"A guy who dresses like a Crobat and goes around fighting crime. Duh." I responded, making him scoff at me before looking back out over the water.

As we went back and forth Lucario went to sit in front of the light as he began to meditate, and Eevee went to join him while curling up in his lap. I noticed Lucario's aura fluctuating with his breathing as he began to meditate, which was nothing new, but what did surprise me was that a fair amount of Lucario's aura was entering Eevee's body as well.

Promising myself to look into it more in the future, I turned back towards Gary and asked while leaning against the railing, "seriously though. You need to stop moping around like a little bitch."

"Are you serious!?!" Gary snarled while turning back towards me.

"You just packed up my strongest pokemon like yesterday's trash, and now you're out here telling me to suck it up! Are you seriously telling me that you wouldn't be the same if this happened to you?!"

I just snorted at Gary before saying, "for your information, I have lost a few battles. And some of them were quite the beat down as well."

I noticed Lucario grimace from my words, probably from recalling said beat downs, but focused my attention on Gary, who just scoffed before retorting,

"Oh yeah? Then why aren't any of them recorded by the League?"

"Partially because they took place before I became an official trainer. And the only actual losses I experienced since leaving Pallet town were at the hands of legendaries."

"!?!"

Gary looked at me sharply when I said that, while I just fished out my Pokenav.

"This was taken on this side of Mt. Moon." I told him, before playing the video of our battle against Mewtwo.

I watched as Gary went through numerous different emotions as he watched the battle, ending with genuine concern when Mewtwo attempted to kill me.

"How did you get out of there?" He finally asked after finishing it.

"The legendary, Mewtwo, was created in a lab by Team Rocket instead of being created naturally or by Mew. When I was about to die I used my aura on my surroundings to connect with my pokemon. Mewtwo got caught up in it, and experienced numerous memories and emotions unlike anything he'd felt before. As a result he let me live when he returned to their headquarters."

"You mean this thing is with Team Rocket!?!" Gary exclaimed in shock.

"WAS. And that 'thing' is called Mewtwo." I snapped at him, before continuing,

"Mewtwo was basically an infant with no real experience of the world, and was only being used by Team Rocket. Shortly after our encounter he abandoned them, destroying their hideout in Viridian city in the process."

"The Viridian city Gym..." Gary uttered slowly as he began to connect the pieces.

"Right. Giovanni basically tried to make Mewtwo follow his orders by force, and he didn't like that. Thankfully since leaving them he's been going out and seeing more of what the world has to offer, and has been following his own path instead of the one Team Rocket had planned for him."

"..."

"How do YOU know all of this?" Gary asked me pointedly, which was understandable since none of the information about Mewtwo was ever made public despite the sightings at Mt. Moon and Lavender town.

"He's met with me a few times since leaving Team Rocket, and helped during the battle against the true alpha Gengar at Lavender town. Without him we all would have been killed."

Gary then descended into silence as he contemplated everything I had told him, and everything I hadn't told him.

Despite his attitude, Gary truly was incredibly talented and intelligent. I'm sure he was now connecting the dots of why my team was so powerful compared to his, namely because of all the life or death situations we've found ourselves in. I'm pretty sure that until now he saw the League as the pinnacle of what a trainer was capable of, while the Legendaries were all unattainable existences as the gods they were so widely regarded and worshipped as.

Seeing the gears turning in his head, I continued, "the difference between you and me Gary, is that I see the League as nothing more than a hurdle to overcome. They're not some great entity that exists as the pinnacle of all trainers, but something that I intend to overcome in order to become strong enough for my true goals."

Gary looked at me quizzically when I said that, before asking, "and WHAT are your goals?"

I opened my mouth to tell him, but then closed it again while directing my attention out over the water. At the exact same moment Lucario hurriedly stood up, throwing Eevee to the ground, and stood at my side while also looking out into the darkness.

"You feel what I'm feeling?" I asked him.

"Definitely." Lucario answered, his aura spiking to do battle if necessary.

"What? What is it?" Gary asked as he started looking around.

"Something powerful, heading directly towards us." I answered, glancing down where everyone else was within the lighthouse.

The next thing I knew, a haunting call echoed across the water at us. Nothing malicious or threatening, but a call of sadness and exhaustion.

"!!!"

"I know this call!" Gary exclaimed, surprising both Lucario and I.

"Really?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Bill told me he received a call like this a while back, and has started a correspondence with whatever is making it!"

My brows went up when we heard that, while I could also feel a flurry of activity down below as Bill and the others hurried up to where we were.

Then there was a sudden blast of noise as several speakers around us began to make a similar noise to the call we had heard, sending it back to the source.

"What're the chances of it being a Legendary or true alpha?" Lucario asked without taking his eyes off the horizon. It'd probably be easier to spot something if there wasn't so much fog.

"Considering the aura of that thing? I'd say pretty high. But thankfully it doesn't feel antagonistic." I told him, but I also kept my body tense just in case.

*Bang!*

The door downstairs slammed open all of a sudden to allow Bill, Ash, Tracey, Misty, May, Dawn, and Joy all up here with us. Oh yeah, AND Bill's Vaporeon.

"Do you see anything?!" Bill asked while hurrying to the rail eagerly.

"Nothing yet. The fog is too thick." I told him while looking up to the speakers that were blasting the responding call.

"Think you can turn those off? I wanna try something." I asked as an idea occurred to me.

Bill hurriedly turned the speakers off before looking at me expectantly, just in time for the pokemon in the distance to respond to Bill's call. I quickly dug through my bag until I found the item I was looking for, before putting it to my lips and blowing into it gently.

*Piiiiiiiii*

A surprisingly pleasant melody began to sound as I played the Poke flute, sending the noise out over the waves to whatever was approaching us.

When he gave me the Poke flute old man Fuji only had one song recorded to be played, The Lullaby. It was the song they played to put Gengar to sleep whenever he started struggling against his seal, and could even put true alphas and Legendaries to sleep if played correctly.

While practicing it though, I accidentally fumbled a few of the notes to create a different song with a slightly different effect. The one I was playing now wouldn't put them to sleep, but would sooth a pokemon to help them relax, and not be as aggressive.

I was playing it now since the Pokemon's song was similar in that it was a beautiful, slow, and haunting melody that felt like it could induce a trance-like state.

"Since when could you play the flute, Aniki?" Ash asked in amazement.

"He's been practicing ever since we left Lavender town." Joy explained to him on my behalf, allowing me to continue playing.

The mysterious pokemon and I soon entered our own little rhythm as I played to it, and it sang back to me while matching my pace and tone. It must like the Poke flute as well.

Soon enough we all saw a great figure slowly emerging from the fog, starting as a shapeless mass before it began to solidify and take an actual form. A form that Ash, Gary and I all knew really well, even without the tell-tale whiskers protruding from its forehead, or the wings stretching out from its back.

"Is that.....a Dragonite!?" Ash exclaimed in disbelief as the mysterious pokemon, now revealed to be a Dragonite, came steadily closer.

Even more surprising was the scale of the damn thing as it approached the lighthouse, which sat atop cliffs that were at least a hundred feet high. With the Dragonite seemingly sitting IN the water, it was still taller than the lighthouse, allowing it to look down at us when it reached the very edge of the cliffs.

Despite its size and close proximity though, it made no move against us as the two of us continued to harmonize with my flute and its throat.

At first no one moved or said anything as we all stared up at the Dragonite, and it continued to harmonize with the Poke flute. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

With a few last notes I stopped playing the Poke flute since I was starting to get winded from the continuous playing. Even with the practice I've put in, I wasn't able to keep going for really long times yet.

"???"

The Dragonite stopped singing when I stopped playing the flute, actually looking down at us for the first time since it arrived.

"How beautiful..." Bill uttered in awe of the true alpha before us, a sentiment we all shared. Well, almost all of us.

As the Dragonite moved closer to examine us, two figures shot up into the air before coming down between the true alpha and I.

"GEOOOOOOO!"

"CHAAAAAAAR!"

Pidgeot and Charizard both snarled at the true alpha, neither caring in the slightest at how outmatched they were, only showing that if it meant me harm, they would not stay still.

It was a sentiment shared by Lucario as he too stood by their side, but he was able to tell through the Dragonite's aura that it possessed no hostility towards us.

And despite the obvious aggression of Pidgeot and Charizard, the Dragonite appeared amused by them. It's massive mouth spread into a wide and toothy grin, before a low rumbling gurgle began to come from it. It was laughing!

"To inspire such loyalty in your comrades, to the point that even one of my own children would bare their fangs at me. Arceus chose well, little human."