章節 77: 40,41,42
This is the first of four Chapters today.
"And there we go," May said, framing the view out of the window with her forefingers and thumbs. "LaRousse City."
"Wonder why they built it on an island," Ash frowned. "I mean, isn't it harder to get to?"
"I guess it makes it easier for boats," May shrugged.
"And it makes it easier for them to do experiments," Pikachu added. "That way things can't… uh… well, I was going to say escape..."
"Actually, that's probably the right word," agreed Max. "Remember the robots?"
"I don't think we can forget the robots," May winced. "What are we going to do about it, actually?"
Ash frowned.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I can remember some of the really important bits, like having to find that other Deoxys and help it out, but I can't remember what caused it all..."
"I guess we'll just have to make it up as we go along," Max decided. "It does kind of seem to be what we're best at."
He glanced down. "At least this time we've got extra help – right, Arc?"
"Sure thing!" Arc agreed. He looked up, taking in the view with a smile, then laid his head back on Max's lap. "I'll protect you from all the evil food machines. They're tasty, right?"
"No, it wasn't the food machines, it was the… security robots, right?" May asked.
Ash shrugged. "The main thing I remember is... cubes bad."
He considered, then brightened. "Oh, yeah, and – don't forget to get your passes."
"Right, they're going to be important," May nodded. "Or… could be?"
"Well, it's that or we can't use anything in the city," Brock volunteered.
"So… how does this city work, then?" Latias asked, floating safely above their heads as transparent as air.
"It's all electronic," Ash explained. "There's robots everywhere – even the bins can detect when you're throwing something away and open to let it in – and you get cards which are used for everything from security to shopping."
"And there's these… moving road things?" Max said, trying to remember. "I think so… those were just a bit inconvenient, though."
"Yeah..." Ash agreed.
"That looks like one of the robots, up there," Pikachu said, getting their attention.
Ash followed his gaze, and nodded. "Looks like! Okay, let's get our passports!"
"And don't forget to make sure you get a good picture," May added. She winced. "I had to live with that stupid gasp-face for a week..."
"Got it," Max agreed.
Welcome! The robot said, in a pleasant electronic voice. You are now in: LaRousse City!
Mine's better, Dexter muttered.
Welcome again! Smile!
Forewarned this time, May smiled properly, and the camera flashed. Once for her, once for Ash, once for Brock and once for Max… then it shifted slightly.
"I'm not sure I'm the right kind of person for that," Lucario said, inspecting the camera.
It flashed anyway, and then tilted up about forty degrees.
"Wait, is it-" Latias began, then there was a sixth and final flash.
In the main LaRousse control station, the head Jenny looked up from her control panel. "Eh?"
Visitor data confirmed. Citizenship and point of origin recorded.
The six new pictures flashed up on the screen – showing four humans, one Pokémon, and a patch of the station roof.
"That's strange..." Jenny said, and highlighted the Pokémon first.
Identity: Lucario. Origin: Sinnoh. Known associates: Sinnoh Grand Champion Cynthia.
"Override," Jenny sighed. "I knew it was a bad idea to use the quick workaround when Cynthia visited..."
Override accepted. Please enter new identity and point of origin.
Jenny frowned, looking at the other photos taken at the same time.
After a moment, she brightened. "Oh, I know whose you must be!"
She tapped on her console. "Identity… Lucario… and Origin… well, best assume Pallet Town for now..."
Linking his data file with Ash's, she confirmed the change. Then sat back, looking at the blank image.
"...shouldn't the passports have come out by now?" Ash asked, as the robot displayed an hourglass for a mouth.
Lucario shrugged.
"Hey, any idea what did this?" Jenny asked, glancing over her shoulder. "This one's blank."
One of the techs hurried down, and typed a diagnostic into a control panel.
"Well, it looks like the robot saw something," he said, frowning. "But there's no way to tell what. It uses body heat to find who to check on, it's usually good at not picking up Pokémon… what did it say?"
Jenny played the file.
Identity: Ceiling tile. Point of origin: Shinagawa Glassworks.
"Well, that's no good," the tech said. "Uh… hold on, try this."
He tapped out a new identity on the keyboard, and glanced at Jenny for approval.
"I like it," she agreed.
Hitting the enter key, he confirmed the change.
The robot's hourglass vanished, and one of the cubes slid open. These are your passports! it stated cheerfully. Keep them with you whenever you are in LaRousse City!
Ash took his, then passed the others around.
Your passports can be used for shopping and other things, the robot went on.
"Not bad," Ash said, showing them his picture. "Nice smile, Pikachu!"
"Of course!" Pikachu agreed, tail pressing gently against Ash's arm.
"Aww..." Max sighed. "I guess Arc's not tall enough to fit."
"I didn't even try to fit Steelix in… the building, let alone the picture," Brock joked. "But I guess-"
"I'm not from Pallet Town," Lucario said, looking with some bemusement at his card. "I was born in the Lucario Kingdom, or Rota – depending which version you count – but neither is Pallet Town."
"I guess they just need something to fill in," Ash shrugged.
"But if they do, what explains this?" Latias asked.
She handed down her card, and Ash took it from what looked like thin air.
"Let's see..." he said, then snorted.
"Ash?" May asked, concerned.
"That's kind of cool," Pikachu said. "So, Latias, you're the Mysterious Stranger from the town of Who-Knows-Where?"
"I think I'd have preferred a normal picture," Latias huffed. "Do you think we can change it?"
"It's not really important enough," Brock judged. "I think it'll be okay to just use this one – it presumably works just the same."
"You might want to find somewhere to put that," Ash said, looking over his shoulder. "It looks kind of strange to just be floating in midair."
"What, you mean like have one of you carry it?" Latias squeaked. "I guess so – but I'll want it back if I need it!"
"Of course you can have it when you want it," Ash agreed, reaching up a hand.
"Ash," May said, warningly.
"What?" Ash asked, still walking, as he took the Mysterious Stranger pass. "What's – whoah!"
"...you're about to reach the moving walkways," May finished, with a sigh.
Lucario blinked. "Who here didn't expect that to happen?"
"I thought it would," Max said.
"Same here," Brock agreed.
Latias just sniggered.
"This is stupid!" Ash said, running against the travelator. "How come you have to cross this bit to get to the bit that goes the other way?"
"No idea," Pikachu admitted. "Is there an underpass we missed or something?"
"I can't see one..." Ash replied, speeding up a little and making some headway. "These are really fast!"
"You're on the fast one," Pikachu pointed out.
Ash glanced down, blushed, and switched to the slow one. That let him run against it faster than it was moving, and he made his way back to his friends before jumping off and panting. "Phew..."
"Hey, Ash?" Brock asked. "You might want to look behind you."
Ash did so, and did a double-take. "Entei?"
Entei jumped from one fast-moving track to the other, twisting in mid-air and breaking into an easy lope to hold position relative to the friends. "This is actually quite a good exercise regime, you know..."
Just to check, Ash looked down at his belt – confirming that it wasn't just another Entei entirely. Or a robot. "When did you come out?"
"Well, you said something about really fast, and it piqued my interest," Entei replied, still running. "These don't seem very practical… which way are we going?"
"That way," Ash said, pointing. "The Battle Tower."
Entei considered.
"I could help you get across the moving walkways so you're on the right one?"
"That'd be great," Ash smiled. "Could you?"
"Holy-" someone said, biting off what could have been a curse word. "Is that an Entei?"
Ash turned to see who it was, and watched as a group of trainers – two older boys and a pair of twin girls – went gliding past on the walkways headed towards the Battle Tower.
"Wait, that's got to be Ash Ketchum!" the other boy said. "And who's the lovely lady with him?"
"None of your business," May muttered.
"Max?" Brock asked, quietly. "Was that what I-"
"Yes," Max said simply.
"...I feel like saying sorry to half a country."
"How come you're in LaRousse?" the taller of the two boys asked, stepping off the travelator so they could talk for longer. "I'm Rafe, by the way."
"Sid!" said the shorter. "And these are Rafe's sisters."
"Hi!" both girls waved.
"Hi," Ash replied, a little awkwardly. "And yeah, we were just passing through on the way to Lilycove."
"Then I guess you're here for the Battle Tower," Rafe said. "I'll show you!"
"Thanks, but – I think the main thing we need help with is how to use the walkways," Ash said with a shrug.
"You just… stand on them?" Sid asked. "It's not hard."
"Then how do we get to your one?"
"Oh, that's easy too!" said Audrey, one of the twins. "You go around that corner, there's a stair in the lobby of the third building on the right, you go under the street and come up on this side!"
"That's… easy?" May blinked. "What's difficult?"
"I see you shan't require my assistance," Entei said. "I will amuse myself running the wrong way up the high speed section."
"Just remember to move if someone's coming the other way," Brock said.
"Mind if I join you?" Lucario asked.
"Not at all."
"I guess that Legendaries really are a lot like other Pokémon..." Rafe said, blinking, as the Fire Beast of Ecruteak ran the wrong way up the travelator.
Max and Arc jumped carefully over the wrong-way sections of the walkway. "I guess we'll just have to do this… okay, that's the right one. Ready?"
"Yep!" Arc agreed.
They jumped on, and promptly fell over.
"It's harder than it looks..." Max muttered, as he got back up.
"We'd better follow him," May decided. "Come on!"
She and Brock got onto the slower walkway going in the right direction, using Max's trick to get between them, then switched to the faster one.
Ash just jumped straight to the faster one and began to run up it. "Did you hurt anything?"
"No," Max said, rubbing his knee anyway. "Just a bit bruised."
"I'm okay, too," Arc said, shaking his fur out. He took an experimental step, landed on the fast section, and yelped with shock as he shot off.
"Can you-" Ash began, looking up, and Latias swooshed by overhead.
She reached out with invisible claws, steadied Arc so that he could get his footing, and then – still invisible – ran into a girl with a laptop and knocked her over.
Latias trilled in surprise as the weight landed on her, and she managed to grab the laptop before it hit the ground.
"...how many times has this guy won Leagues?" Rafe asked, blinking.
"No, he's good," May defended. "It's just… this kind of thing happens all the time."
"That about sums it up," Ash agreed, as the girl got up.
"What did I run into?" she asked.
Latias decloaked, and gave a shy little wave. "Um… hi?" she squeaked.
Forgetting her irritation, the girl stared. "Are… are you a Latias?"
"She sure is!" Ash said. "She's still a bit shy sometimes, though."
"I've never seen one in person before," the girl explained. "Oh – I'm Rebecca, by the way."
"She's a battle expert," Sid explained. "Her laptop has all her strategies."
"How does that work?" Ash asked. "I mean, if you have to look them up… I guess it seems like that would take way too long."
"It's simple," Rebecca said, taking the laptop back and beginning her explanation. "I store information on possible counters and the appropriate resolution to that kind of opponent, so for example how to handle Fire-types with Metagross, and..."
She stopped.
"Is that an Entei?"
Entei loped past, going faster than them despite being on the high-speed travelator going the other way, and Lucario followed with a ground-eating stride.
"Let me guess, you've never seen an Entei in person before either," Max chuckled.
"Well… no," Rebecca said. "I guess I've just never been in the right place before."
Should I- Jirachi asked Max.
"No, I don't think so," Max replied quietly.
"So… right, I remember seeing something about you having a Latias and all three of the Ecruteak Beasts," Rebecca added, missing the byplay. "And you clearly have your trademark Lucario and Pikachu with you… who else should I expect at the Battle Tower?"
"I'm trademark?" Pikachu asked.
"I'm more surprised that I am," Lucario said, dropping back to jog alongside.
"Hey, is that Ash Ketchum?" someone asked.
"I think it is!" another trainer said. "Hey, can we have your-"
"Is that his Entei?"
"Whose is the Latias?"
"...this could take a while," Ash sighed.
"Poor Ash," May sighed.
"Yeah," Max agreed, as they leaned on the railing and looked down into the lobby. "He's been delayed five minutes already."
"Should we just head up to the gallery?" May asked. "That way we can watch the match."
"Sounds good," her brother agreed. "What do you guys think?"
Swablu peeped agreement, and Arc yapped. "Sounds great!"
"Hey, Brock!" Max added. "We'll be in the stands!"
"All right," Brock agreed. "Just make sure you've got your passes!"
Max checked his pocket. "Yup!"
"Okay, enough is enough!" Ash said, shaking his head. "Sorry, guys, but I'm kind of here to do stuff myself."
"Aw..." someone sighed. "I was looking forward to..."
"I didn't think I was this famous," Ash muttered.
"To be fair, Ash," Pikachu began. "There's very good reasons for you to deserve being this well known."
The Electric-type pointed. "One of them's over there trying to explain why he can't do autographs."
"...simply can't hold a pen," Entei was saying. "I'm able to scorch something, and my brother can both read and write, but his penmonship isn't great..."
"Can you bite the edge of the book, then?" asked the fan.
Entei focused on the small book, then shrugged his mane. "...oh, whatever, let's give it a go."
"I guess," Ash agreed. "Sorry, everyone, I'm going to head off now."
"But-"
"Come on!"
"So, how do you plan to get to the escalator?" Lucario asked, inspecting the crowd. "There's a lot of people."
"I don't," Ash replied. "Hold on, Pikachu."
"Wait, you're not going to-"
Ash crouched down, and jumped with a flare of blue Aura. He reached twenty feet into the air, dropped slightly, and grabbed onto the edge of the mezzanine rail.
Taking a breath, he clambered over the edge and let out a sigh of relief.
"That works," Lucario agreed. "Entei? I think we're going."
Entei's eyes crossed as he tried to push some paper out of his mouth. "All right, just give me a moment..."
"Thanks!" the autograph-hunter said, carefully writing Entei's name next to the toothmarks.
"How come the battle tower's so big?" Ash asked, lost already. "I could understand if there were dozens of arenas, but I saw the floor plan. There's only about five."
Pikachu crossed his arms.
"Sorry about jolting you," Ash added, chuckling. "It was that or get Latias to pick me up, and that would have just made it worse."
"What, and jumping that high didn't?" Pikachu asked, before remembering he was supposed to be sulking.
Ash shook his head. "It was… uh, well, it seemed more sensible at the time."
He presented his card to a scanner, which beeped. Hello, Mysterious Stranger!
"Whoops, that's Latias' card," Ash said. "Uh… okay, I guess we should go up the escalator?"
Pikachu shrugged.
"I think there was an escalator..." Ash said, getting on. "You'd think they'd have better signposts to the entry route for the Battle Tower."
"Do you honestly think you'd have seen them if there were any?"
Ash was about to retort, but the escalator reached the top and he stepped off onto one of the walkways just inside the Battle Tower outer wall.
"Hey, look," Pikachu added, pointing.
Ash followed his gaze, seeing the library – and a familiar-looking boy.
"Hi!" Ash called. "Do you-"
The boy looked up, did a double take on spotting Pikachu, and began to back off.
"Pikachu – bag," Ash said, remembering what the problem was.
Pikachu didn't argue with Ash's tone of voice. He pulled the zipper open and jumped in, getting out of sight.
"Sorry about that," Ash added. "I'm just so used to having Pikachu on my shoulder I forgot it can make some people nervous."
The boy's hand went on one of the bookshelves, but he stopped and stood there for a moment.
"I'm… well, thanks," he said. "I'm Tory – Tory Lund."
"Ash Ketchum," Ash replied. "Nice to meet you."
"Oh, I think I've heard of you," Tory said, frowning. "Aren't you that kid who keeps winning Pokémon Leagues?"
Pikachu muttered something from the bag.
"What was that?" Tory asked.
"That was Pikachu saying it's mostly him and the others who do the work," Ash supplied. "I guess I could ask whether I can fight myself next time..."
"Isn't that… dangerous?" Tory blinked.
"I'm tougher than I look," Ash summarized. "So… if you're not okay with Pokémon, what do you do all day?"
"Read, mostly," Tory said, glancing over at the library shelves. "And sit in a garden dome. And… well, my Dad works at a lab here in LaRousse."
Ash nodded. "Professor Oak lives in my hometown," he supplied. "And my friend Gary's a researcher as well as a trainer."
"How old is he?" Tory asked.
"About my age – thirteen," Ash replied. "He's kind of smug sometimes… hey, you said a garden?"
"Yeah," Tory agreed.
"What do you think, Latias?" Ash asked, looking up. "Sound interesting?"
"There's another Pokémon here?" Tory asked, looking nervous again.
There was a blue-white shimmer in the air, and Latias appeared – some way behind Ash, and in human semblance.
"This is Latias," Ash said, indicating her. "Cool trick, huh?"
Latias waved, making a squeak noise.
"She doesn't look like a Pokémon," Tory said, his breathing slowing again – apparently, whatever had made him scared of Pokémon, a human-looking girl slightly taller than him didn't set it off. "That… yeah, that is cool."
"Let's go see that garden, then!" Ash said. "Which way is it?"
"Uh… this way!" Tory said, setting off.
"Any idea who we'll be watching?" May asked, addressing her question at the twins sitting one row down.
"Oh?" one asked. "Isn't it obvious?"
"We're here to watch our brother!" the other said. "And Sid, too – they're great friends!"
"Does that mean they'll be facing Rebecca?" Max frowned. "Is it just who enters in what order that determines who faces who?"
"If you go in the same entrance, then yeah," Kathryn nodded. "They scheduled it. But it's got this automatic system – it kind of assigns you a level, I guess."
"We've never been," Audrey added. "Surskit and Masquerain aren't experienced enough yet."
"I know the feeling," Max agreed. "I was just trying to help Arc get better at moving for a while before I started properly."
"It's tricky to get-" Kathryn began, then pointed as one of the lifts hissed up from the floor. "Hey, look, there they are!"
"Go Rafe!" they chorused.
"Neat trick," Brock said. "Some of my brothers and sisters can do that too."
"What Pokémon do they use?" May asked.
"Oh, Rafe has a Blaziken," Audrey supplied. "I guess he'll use that?"
"I've got a Blaziken too," May smiled. "They're great, aren't they?"
"Sure are!" Kathryn giggled. "He gives me lifts – and Sid has a Blastoise, so he might use that."
The other lift rose out of the ground, and May's jaw dropped.
"What's Drew doing here!?"
"Where's Ash, you mean," Brock pointed out. "I thought-"
"Drew's a Coordinator!" May interrupted. "Why's he in a Battle Tower match?"
"You know him?" Audrey said, glancing back. "I've seen him once or twice… never really met him, though."
"He's kinda cute!"
Max let out a sigh. "Girls..."
Then the Pokémon came out, and all four trainers got ready to battle – Roserade and Metagross against Blaziken and Blastoise.
"Hey, cool, he evolved Roselia," May said. "Neat."
Rebecca opened her laptop, holding it with one hand, and directed the camera at all four participants. "Search for battle simulations, constrained by available Pokémon."
SEARCHING… flashed up on the screen. A moment later, the screen blinked and switched to MATCHES FOUND.
"What's that?" Drew asked, glancing over.
"Tactics," Rebecca replied. "Let's see… the primary problem is the Blaziken. Ignore the Blastoise for now unless something unexpected happens, and try to hit it with status effects."
"That, we can do," Drew agreed. "Right, Roserade?"
Roserade gave him a firm nod.
Three! Two! One! Begin!
As the announcer's voice echoed, Rebecca pointed forwards. "Metagross, use Confusion!"
"Gross!" Metagross declared, raising two legs and hovering with only the support of the remaining two and sheer psionic might. It slammed both forelegs forwards, sending a pulse of energy, and Blaziken darted to the side before lashing out with a Blaze Kick aimed at Metagross.
"Fourth dance!" Drew ordered his Roserade.
"Fourth what?" Sid asked, confused. "Blastoise, Hydro Pump!"
Roserade hopped aside from the stream of water, cape swirling, and pointed her blue flower cluster at Metagross. The swirl of green and purple which resulted formed a layer a little above the Steel-type, hovering there without actually drifting down.
Roserade took another step, her red cluster up, and another swirl of coloured dust emanated from the end.
Then she did a little pirouette, used Petal Dance, and the whole mix went spiralling towards Blaziken.
Blaziken raised his arms to block, flaring them up to destroy the petals, but that didn't work as well as it could have – the Stun Spore got past, and he coughed before slowing down drastically.
"Not bad," Rebecca said, as Metagross lunged and engaged Zen Headbutt mode. "Contest move?"
"Of course," Drew confirmed. "We use it so the opponent doesn't realize it's aimed at them until too late."
"I guess he's been upping his game," Max said, watching as Roserade dodged between streams of water with a subtle, flowing grace. "He fights like it's a Contest, but that's kind of working."
"Yeah," May agreed, nodding. "He is pretty good – whoa!"
Sid's Blastoise switched strategies with startling speed, and managed to catch Roserade with a Blizzard that knocked her halfway across the room.
"Great!" Sid said. "Now, uh – get the Metagross!"
"Thunderpunch!" Rebecca ordered, and half a tonne of Metagross finished the fight quite convincingly.
"Hey, Drew, long time no see," May said, with a smile. "I see you've got some new tricks!"
"Still working on that one," Drew admitted. "It's one you kind of have to learn for every single attack, and we've not got to Blizzard yet."
"I thought it was pretty good already," Max told him. "So, what brings you to LaRousse?"
"That thing from last time?" Drew said, sounding surprised. "I mean, it is my hometown that's about to get-"
"You're from LaRousse?" May interrupted. "I never knew that!"
"I don't talk about it much," Drew shrugged. "It's kind of a silly place to be from, really – the first couple of weeks you're all confused about why none of the bins work like they do here, and after that you're just thankful you can cross the road without being hit by a family of five. And a robot."
"...huh," May said, faintly. "I guess that does explain a lot."
"Did you see Ash anywhere?" Brock asked. "He seems to have pretty much vanished."
Drew exchanged a glance with Roserade, who shrugged. "No, nothing," he said, confirming it. "Maybe he got lost?"
"That sounds likely," Brock admitted. "Ash could get lost in a parking lot. I guess we'll just have to go looking for him..."
As Max and May sighed, Drew snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, I said I'd introduce my teammate to you guys – I saw you in the crowd, and said I knew you."
"Did you point us out?" Max asked. "'cause we've kind of already met..."
"...oh," Drew said, deflating slightly. "No, I haven't."
"So you know her from somewhere?" May asked. "Is that why you branched out into battling?"
Drew blushed. "...actually, no," he said, shaking his head. "I met her once or twice before, but I… didn't mean to get into that match. I was trying to find the spectator stands."
"If it's that easy to get lost Ash might be on the moon by now," Brock joked.
"What, really?" Rebecca asked, having overheard that part of the conversation.
"No, it's just a joke," Brock explained. "It's not… you didn't know?"
"I looked him up after getting here," Rebecca said. "He's shot down a giant sky fortress, saved a city, helped defeat three evil versions of the Beasts of Johto, and I think there was something about an incident with a meteorite as well."
"The sad thing is that that's an incomplete list," Max sighed. "We'd better go find him before he breaks something."
41
"This seems cooler than the last one," Latias said, raising a hand and waving it through the air.
Ash translated for Tory, who smiled – shyly, but genuine enough.
"It's climate controlled," he said. "All the domes are a different biome – this one is temperate forest."
Latias spoke again, and Ash nodded.
"Back where Latias lives, there's a garden," he explained. "It's hidden away from the world, because it's where she and her brother live. But it's really nice – lots of tall trees, and pools of water."
"Sounds nice," Tory said. "Here it's kind of like that, but other people can come in too. They usually don't, though – you have to walk to get here."
He reached down and rubbed the leaves of a fern. "But I kind of like it like that. It's quiet."
Latias smiled. "I like quiet, sometimes – but you can have too much of it."
Tory glanced at Ash. "What did she say?"
"She said sometimes you can have too much quiet," Ash summarized. "I know when I met her she really wanted to leave the city – to go out into the world and really enjoy it."
"She did?" Tory asked, interested.
"Yeah!" Latias confirmed. She crouched down and lifted the tube of a pink flower which dripped alongside dozens of others from the plant's main stalk. "What's this?"
"That's a foxglove," Tory told her, proud to show off his botanical knowledge. "They're used to treat heart problems."
"Cool!"
They were near one of the doors now, and Tory glanced up to double-check which one it was. "This is the door to the tropical dome," he explained. "It's a bit hotter in there – and a lot more humid."
"It's pretty hot and humid already," Pikachu muttered from inside Ash's bag.
"Oh, right," Ash winced. "Hey, Tory?"
"Yeah?" the boy said, looking over.
"Is it okay if I let Pikachu out of my bag again? He'll behave, I promise – and so does he."
Tory looked apprehensive, then swallowed and gave a nod.
There was a gentle zrrp sound as the zip was pulled aside, and Pikachu gasped in some air before clambering out and onto Ash's shoulder.
He gave Tory a little wave, then turned to look at the plants as well.
"I'm not seeing it," he said.
"Tory likes them, and that's what matters at the moment," Ash replied.
"Pikachu are… Electric type, right?" Tory asked.
"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "Pikachu's pretty strong, and he's a great friend too."
"I guess it'd be nice to have another friend," the boy admitted.
"Another?" Latias asked.
"Another?" Ash repeated.
"Don't you know-"
"I was translating," Ash explained in an aside to Pikachu.
"Yeah – I met him a while ago. I'll introduce you!" Tory decided. "He's through here!"
"You seem to know your way around pretty well," Ash said, as they walked up a staircase.
"Yeah, I come here a lot," Tory said. "My Dad's great, but he has long hours, so sometimes I go here to wait for him to finish."
"I guess there are worse places to wait," Ash agreed. "How come there's no Pokémon in here, though?"
"I think it's some kind of experiment?" Tory frowned, unsure. "It might be… I read about it once, but it was a long time ago."
He looked back to make sure the others had arrived, and blinked as he saw Latias float up beside the stairs. "What… how did she do that?"
"Oh, right," Ash chuckled. "That's an illusion – she doesn't really look like that."
Tory nodded jerkily, began to say something, then shook his head. "I..."
He took a deep breath.
"What does she really look like?" he asked, quickly.
"Kind of cool!" Ash replied. "She's a Psychic-type and a Dragon-type, so she floats around – she's got these really soft feathers, too, so small you can hardly see them."
"I could show him, if that's okay," Latias suggested.
"How about it, Tory?" Ash asked. "Do you want to see what Latias really looks like?"
Tory looked uncertain – then nodded. "Sure..."
There was a blue shimmer as Latias dispelled her illusion.
"Wow..." Tory breathed, staring. "I… guess that is pretty cool."
Latias waved.
Tory twitched forward for a moment, then he shook his head and looked away. "I'll show you my other friend!" he said, firmly. "This way."
"How are you telling where he is?" Drew asked, glancing over at Max and the disc of static in his hand.
"Oh, this is a Mega Stone detector," Max replied – pointing out the bright spots of the Manectite and Steelixite right near the centre. He tilted it a bit, and the image cleared slightly. "And that is Ash – see, there's that one he's carrying."
"Just one?" Brock asked.
"I'm not sure how many he's got," Max admitted – looking at the brightness of the dot. "But I know he's got that one we found back before Fortree."
Drew nodded in understanding. "I get it – that's really useful, actually. Where'd you get it?"
"It's from Stone industries," Brock told him. "Problem is, it's so intensive only a Porygon can run it."
"Really?" Rebecca asked. "Huh… could be-"
"Looks like he's pretty close," Max reported. "About… what is it, Kris?"
Fifteen metres.
"That's in the next dome over," Drew told them. "The door's just over here."
He presented his card in a well-practiced motion, and the door hissed open.
"Hey, Ash!" May called, waving.
"May? Guys?" Ash waved back. "Oh – any of you have any Pokémon out?"
May looked at Swablu on her shoulder. "Uh… I do?"
"Me too," Max said, glancing down at Arc.
"Can you return them for a bit?" Ash asked. "My new friend Tory is kind of… Poké-phobic… and I don't want to startle him until he's used to them."
"Oh – sure," Max agreed. "Sorry, Arc."
"It's okay," Arc replied, letting himself be returned.
"See you later!" Swablu waved, as he vanished in a similar pulse of red light.
"Thanks, Ash," they heard Tory say. "I didn't know these people were looking for you."
"Yeah, I guess I kind of just skipped out of the Battle Tower..." Ash said. "It's fine, though, this kind of thing is more important."
In the underbrush, a Plusle turned to a Minun.
"Did you hear that?" she said. "That kid we met has problems with Pokémon!"
"I guess that explains why he didn't want to touch us," Minun agreed. "But you know what this means?"
"What does it mean?" Plusle asked, tilting her head.
"It means we need to help him!"
"You said something about a friend?" Ash asked, after everyone had been introduced to Tory – and, in the case of Rebecca, to him and Latias.
"Oh – yeah, that's right!" Tory agreed. "Hold on a moment."
He moved to the side of a pool, and took a deep breath.
"It's okay – you can come on out," he said. "They're friends – come and meet them!"
There was a flicker of green light, and a shimmering diamond of green-blue light floated out from underneath the fronds of a big tropical plant.
"That's… kind of weird," Drew said, blinking. "What is it? Is it a Pokémon?"
"I don't know," Tory admitted. "But he's a great friend – I talk to him all the time!"
Rebecca opened her laptop as the diamond swooped closer, and pointed the camera at it. "This seems to be… some kind of projection of high energy particles?"
"What?" May said, leaning over her shoulder. "How can you tell that with a webcam? Ethan's scanner takes longer than that..."
"Who's Ethan?" Rebecca asked.
As May tried to explain, Tory pointed to Ash. "This is Ash Ketchum – he's a Pokémon trainer – and next to him is Latias, who's actually a Pokémon!"
The shimmering diamond pulsed, and Tory laughed.
"Can you understand it?" Ash asked.
"A little," Tory shrugged. "I kind of get a vague sense of what he means."
Ash looked thoughtful. "Hey, can I check something?"
He took his hat off. "Can you try this on?"
Tory reached up and took it, examining it a bit dubiously. "Why?"
"I've got an idea," Ash said.
"Isn't that the special hat?" Latias asked.
Tory lowered it onto his head, and the diamond pulsed once before expanding and rotating faster.
Ash pulled it back off. "It's okay, it's just the hat!"
Mollified, the projection shrank back down to normal and moved a little closer to Tory – as if to reassure itself that he was really there.
"Ash?" Tory asked, looking scared. "What was that?"
"The hat's kind of… it gives me a Dark type," Ash summarized. "It's kind of bizarre."
"I tried it on once," Latias said, giggling. "I fell on the floor."
"So I guess that means that there's Psychic energy involved," Brock said, catching on to where Ash was going. "Does that mean it is a Pokémon?"
"I guess it must," Tory said, looking lost. "I thought-"
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter – I don't not like Pokémon, and I guess if my friend is to do with a Pokémon then that's fine!"
The diamond pulsed happily, and this time everyone felt the faint push of emotion that came with it.
"That's the right attitude!" Ash said, then his hand went to his belt. "Uh… Tory? Is it okay if I send out another Pokémon? I think that Entei might know what this is."
"I've heard of Entei," Tory said, blinking. "You've got one of those too?"
"You're about the only person in this city who doesn't know that," Max said with a sigh.
"I don't really follow Pokémon battles," Tory admitted. "I guess it should be okay… just, I guess, make sure he doesn't get too close."
Ash nodded his assent and sent the Fire-type out.
"Good afternoon," Entei said evenly, with a regal nod.
"He can talk?" Tory asked, eyes wide.
"So can Lucario and Suicune," Ash told him. "I think Raikou's learning."
Entei turned to examine the floating diamond. "Well, I'm not sure…" he said, with a frown. "I suppose it could be an illusion created by a Zoroark…"
He took a deep sniff, then shook his head. "No, not a Zoroark. And you said it was psychic anyway, so… hm."
Glancing at Tory, the Beast then tried something new. "Are you willing to let us know what you are?"
There was a faint sense of agreement.
"Right, that makes things slightly simpler… are you a Psychic-type Pokémon?"
Agreement again.
"A Mew?"
"What's a Mew?" Tory asked.
A Mew is a Psychic-type capable of shapeshifting, Dexter explained, making Tory jump.
"What was that?" he asked, looking around.
"That's just my Pokédex, Dexter," Ash supplied, taking the chassis out of his pocket. "Actually, Dexter, do you have any-"
Deoxys, Dexter interrupted, and the diamond of light flashed in agreement. The patterns are similar to aurorae.
"That's what it was!" Rebecca said, snapping her fingers. Then she frowned. "Wait. How come your Pokédex can – is it a Porygon?"
Affirmative, Dexter agreed. How did you know?
"I've got one too," Rebecca explained, tapping her laptop. "He lives in here… he's not nearly that curious, though."
Pokédex based personality matrices are superior, Dexter stated.
Actually, since we are all based off your matrix… you're pretty much just being a proud father, Kris said – in tones of astonished realization.
"Wait, you've got kids?" Ash asked, doing a double take.
It… is a surprise to me as well, his Pokédex admitted.
"What's a Deoxys like?" Tory asked, drawing their attention away from the digital discussion.
Deoxys is a Pokémon found mainly in outer space, Dexter supplied, thankful for the distraction. His projector flashed, and he produced images of the various Deoxys forms – taking care to not use any images from LaRousse itself.
"Oh, one of those?" Tory blinked. "I'm pretty sure my Dad knows something, because one of them was in the trip we did to the North Pole ages ago. I'll have to ask him when he finishes work."
"When's that?" Max asked. "I mean… I'm interested, but I'm also kind of hungry."
There were general nods of agreement.
"Tory?" Ash asked. "Do you know somewhere we could all have lunch? Somewhere big, so if we let our Pokémon out you can stay safely away from them."
"Uh…." Tory had to think. "There's a picnic area about ten minutes' walk away – I'll show you."
"Great!" Drew said. "I think I know the one – in front of the wind turbines, right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Tory agreed.
He turned back to Deoxys' psychic projection. "Actually – can you come with us?"
The diamond shivered, patterns swirling.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes, and began typing. "I think there's some language in there… I'll get Porygon to work on decompiling it."
"That'd be useful," Ash said. "I'm kind of used to understanding Pokémon by now, so..."
"I think he means yes," Tory said slowly. "But that it's hard."
"I'll help," Ash decided. He reached out a hand, and sent a pulse of strengthening Aura into the projection.
It firmed up a little, becoming more solid and less fuzzy, and Tory stared.
"How did you do that?"
"Aura," May said, without looking. "It's always Aura."
"Thanks," Tory told him, sniffing a bit. "I… you're being so nice!"
"I like to help people," Ash smiled.
"I'd say too much, but I agree with him every time," Pikachu said softly.
"Let's go get some lunch," Brock reminded people. "And you can show your friend more of your home city, too."
"I'd like that," Tory agreed.
"These aren't really built for parties," Drew explained, holding his card over the sensor. "So you kind of have to just wait a bit."
Enjoy your: Hot Dog!
The machine dispensed a wrapped hot dog, then paused.
Scanning card… card accepted. Enjoy your: Hot Dog!
"It'll take a while if I'm the only one doing this," the Coordinator added, holding his card there as the dispenser released a third one. "So, uh… can you find some others and start using them too?"
"Oh, right," Max said. "Got it!"
May reached for a Pokéball. "Can you look, Beautifly?"
A flash, and the Bug-type emerged. She did a spiral, gaining height, then dove with a shimmer of sparkles behind her.
Two quick horizontal loops in a figure-of-eight, sparkles trailing behind her for small fractions of the motion, and there was a bright pink arrow pointing across the park.
"Nice work!" May called up.
She headed over to that dispenser, and Beautifly dipped her wings before looking again and drawing another arrow in the sky.
"That's pretty cool," Tory said, looking up. "I didn't know Pokémon could do things like that."
"There's not a lot Pokémon can't do," Ash agreed. "And I like to think that my Pokémon are some of the best!"
Pikachu waved his tail, agreeing whole-heartedly.
"So..." Tory glanced down at the shimmering projection of his friend, then up at Ash. "What other Pokémon do you have with you?"
Ash reached for his belt. "Well, there's Lucario – he's taught me a lot about Aura."
Lucario emerged in a flash, and bowed. "Greetings, Tory. I am glad to meet you."
He reached out one hand. "Chocolate?"
Tory blinked at the bar. "...how did he do that?"
Lucario chuckled, and Ash smiled. "He likes being really mysterious and doing silly things. I don't know when he got the bar, but it's one of the ones I had in my bag..."
Tory took it, smiling – though his expression went a little fixed when he was so close to Lucario's paw. "I guess… I should remember that Pokémon are all different."
"Well, a lot of them are," Ash agreed. "And this is Charizard."
"Aren't Charizard kind of… big?" Tory blinked.
"They're not that bad," Ash replied, sending Charizard out – a long way from Tory, to make sure that it wasn't too scary.
Charizard stood on his hind legs, stretched his neck, flapped his wings, inhaled to roar – and sneezed, violently enough to land sprawled on the grass.
Tory snorted laughter, then looked mortified. "Uh – sorry!"
"Nice work," Pikachu said, nodding to Charizard – who gave a conspiratorial wink.
As the Fire-type got back to his feet, brushing grass off his neck, Ash took the next Pokéball. "This is Houndoom – he's a bit enthusiastic sometimes, so just tell him to stop if he's getting affectionate."
Absorbing the warning, Tory watched as Houndoom materialized – and then Heracross, as Ash sent out the last of his on-hand Pokémon.
"You seem to have a lot of Fire-types," he said.
"I've got… quite a lot of Pokémon generally," Ash replied with a shrug. "But yeah, I've got more Fire-types than usual today. Charizard's actually usually somewhere else."
"And it's great being called back for a picnic!" Charizard rumbled.
"Okay, we have food!" Brock called. "If this isn't enough I'll cook some more!"
"Quickly, Charizard, eat everything!" Ash ordered. "That way we get more of Brock's cooking!"
"Don't you dare," Drew said, sitting down with a sigh. "It took several minutes to get these, if you just eat them in one gulp I might cry..."
"Gotcha!" Arc barked, pouncing out of a bush at Houndoom.
The Houndoom he landed on burst, and Arc was left looking faintly confused in a cloud of smoke.
"Gotcha!" Houndoom riposted, pouncing on Arc's back in turn. The two wrestled back and forth for a moment, and then a great furry paw landed on both of them.
"I win," Entei informed them blandly. "New game?"
"Sure," Arc panted. "And this time we get Ninetales in too."
Tory laughed as the three canines shook themselves out and trotted off to resume. "They're really having a lot of fun, aren't they?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "Pokémon training is partly about making the learning and battling into being fun – so that way it's much easier to do it for a while without getting bored."
"Battling, for those who like battling, is very exciting," Lucario said, eating the bun from a hot dog. "And for those who don't, just being around their friends can be enough."
"I guess that's why almost everyone has a Pokémon, huh," Tory said – smiling as the turquoise diamond of his Deoxys friend flashed. "I never really thought about what kind of Pokémon I'd like to have..."
There was a rustling in the bushes, and two yellow shapes burst out.
Tory flinched, and Ash and Lucario each picked one out of the air before they landed on him.
"Us!" the Plusle and Minun chorused, then looked confused.
"Wait, how come we're not..." the Plusle asked, glancing at her twin.
"Don't ask me," Minun replied, shrugging her shoulders.
They looked up.
"Hey, let us off!" Plusle said, cheeks pulsing faintly.
"That was really rude!" Ash told them. "Tory's still not good with-"
There was a loud BZZZRT as the Plusle and Minun shocked Ash.
"-Pokémon," Ash finished, and shook his head. "And that was even worse!"
"Well, you're not letting us down," Minun pointed out, and then promptly got dropped by Lucario.
"...ow," she said.
"Wait, are you the ones I helped get out of that garbage can?" Tory asked. "How come you're here?"
"I think they like you," Ash said, putting Plusle down and rubbing his tingling hand. "But they're not great at personal space..."
"Ash has all these really cool looking Pokémon, and he never does any contests," Drew sighed. "I'd love to see some of these on the stage."
Charizard went low over their heads, wings pumping, and rolled once before pulling up and letting out a spiralling tongue of flame.
"Yeah, I get what you mean," May agreed. "Charizard's one of Ash's powerhouses, but past a certain point you more or less have to get elegant just to avoid wasting energy."
She rubbed Glaceon's ears, smiling at the little yips of pleasure. "And it kind of works the other way, too. After a certain point you need the power to provide depth to your routine."
"I can get behind that," Drew agreed. "It's why Roserade decided to evolve, at least partly – she wanted the oomph, and when I told her about what happened to LaRousse..."
He trailed off.
"Do you think we'll be able to stop it?"
"It's hard to say," May said, sighing. "I've spoken to Brock about this before. He said that generally things seem to get worse when there's these really big crises… but that we tend to step up anyway. I hope the same happens here – it's not like the Forina thing where there was just a lot of rock around – this place is expensive to fix, and it has a lot of people in it."
Venusaur's vines tightened around Ash's Heracross, and she said something in stern tones.
May laughed.
"What was that?" Drew asked.
"Oh, right – sorry, it just seems so natural to understand what my Pokémon say… right." May waved. "Heracross is kind of a fiend for sap, and he's after what Venusaur has."
"He is?" Drew smiled, and reached into his bag. "I think I know how she could distract him..."
Retrieving a bottle of golden liquid, he passed it to her. "Here. It's the city speciality."
May opened it and took a sniff. "Maple syrup?"
Drew shrugged. "Hey, don't ask me to explain it… but I grew up with the stuff, I got about six bottles now that I'm in town."
"Thanks," she said, touched. "Hey, Heracross!"
The Bug-type looked up, and Venusaur dropped him.
Shaking it off, he tilted his head. "Cross Hera?"
"It's maple syrup," May explained. "If you promise not to bug Venusaur then you get some."
Heracross nodded, scuttling over.
"Bug? Really?" Drew asked.
May did a little start. "...I actually said that, didn't I?"
Drew nodded.
"Oh, no..."
"Okay, Cinder, ready?" Max asked.
Cinder nodded, a smirk on her face. "Serves them right for forgetting about me..."
Max chuckled. "Yep, pretty much. So, remember, when they're just about to declare the winner, and they're way too used to doing it when there's two of them beaten… in you go!"
"I like it," Cinder said, and slipped into the shadows – ready to stalk her fellow canines.
"Don't forget to stay downwind," Max added.
He looked up, and saw Delta coming in for a landing.
"Hey, Delta," he said, opening his arms, and catching the Water/Flying type with an oof. "How's things?"
"I think I'd like a quick rest, please," Delta requested. "It's quite tiring trying to keep up with Charizard."
"Sure thing," Max said, taking his Pokéball and hitting the button.
Nothing whatsoever happened.
"What's-" he asked, blinking, and then a purple display of light blossomed in the air.
"What's that?" Ash asked, looking up.
"It's the same kind of energy as Deoxys," Rebecca reported, her laptop already analyzing it. "I'm not able to translate anything – I need more of a language sample."
"Does that mean there's another Deoxys?" Tory said – then looked at his friend. "Wait – the thing that happened at the North Pole! This must be what that other Deoxys wanted! It's looking for you!"
The projection flickered, sending a pulse of agreement, then focused and began to produce an answering aurora.
It got to about six feet wide, then hashed into random noise and collapsed back to a diamond.
"Are you okay?" Tory asked, worried. "What happened?"
He frowned, concentrating, then looked up. "He says that… the other Deoxys will think something's wrong if he can't reply in person. And..."
"You can understand him?" Rebecca blinked.
"Kind of," Tory admitted. "Feelings and pictures. And… he says that Dad's been trying to revive him at the lab. So we should get there!"
"Which way's the lab?" Ash asked.
Tory pointed, but before they could get very far there was a change in the lights overhead.
"Those are more Deoxys!" Rebecca said, her laptop's camera magnifying the image. "What are they?"
"Substitute," Lucario declared flatly. "We may be about to be attacked."
"Tyranitar, go!" Rebecca ordered. "Help Metagross!"
Her Pokéball clicked, and produced nothing.
"Guys!" Max called, Delta in his arms and Guy pacing alongside. "The Pokéballs don't work!"
"We'd better get to the lab before Deoxys does anything else," Ash decided. "Charizard, try and slow them down!"
Charizard roared, letting out a blast of smoke and flame, and turned to fly up towards the gathering swarm.
42
"What the heck is going on?" Jenny asked, typing on her keyboard. "I thought Deoxys were supposed to be really rare Legendaries, so how come there's thousands of them in the city?"
"Ma'am, we just confirmed," one of the techs called down to her. "The EM radiation is disabling Pokéballs in the entire city."
Jenny swallowed. "Then we need to get everyone out of the city so we can protect them more effectively. Call the nearest towns and get them to send out all the Pokémon they can to defend the evacuation sites."
She typed in a code, hesitated, and confirmed it. "Emergency evacuation plan three – maximum speed, minimum spacing."
The computer system receipted the order, and began broadcasting the evacuation alert. Then, not more than ten seconds later, all the lights flickered and died.
"What now!?" Jenny demanded.
"Power cut!" the tech replied. "Must have been a cable got hit or something – looks like the transport systems are still working, I can see them from the window, but the robots all shut down without Main Control."
"This is really bad," she winced. "Okay, uh… can we use radios? If we can, distribute the order – evacuate by the main bridge and get people on ships."
Jenny stood. "I hate doing this, but we need coordination. I want everyone here out and to the backup centre on the mainland – move it!"
"All right!" Charizard growled, wings hammering the air. "I don't get a chance to do this kind of thing nearly often enough!"
He inhaled, flames building behind his fangs, and launched a spike of Flamethrower into the air. It mushroomed out, forming an umbrella-shaped plume which he used to clear the fragile Attack forms from his path.
After about ten seconds, Charizard was as high as the tops of most of the skyscrapers – and cancelled his flamethrower, letting it fade to give him some idea of what was ahead.
He rolled to one side as soon as he saw, letting a Night Shade pass him without connecting, and chuckled before firing forwards a Fire Blast to smash into the blocky Defence form.
It formed a shield with crackling psychic energy, and the Fire Blast splashed off – though it did knock the Psychic-type backwards some distance in the sky.
Charizard examined it for a moment, then snorted and moved in closer.
The Defence form strengthened its shield, and Charizard replied by simply body-checking it aside with a Wing Attack and continuing his ascent.
"Draco Meteor!" he bellowed, launching out a ball of orange energy shaped a little like a rock, and the prime Deoxys looked down a moment before the Draco Meteor triggered – with the result that it got blasted skywards by an explosion of orange Dragon-type energy.
Charizard watched it recover and shift to a Defensive form itself, and pressed his attack – then got attacked by at least four others using blazing-fast volleys of Psychic, and had to break off to fight them.
The original Deoxys shifted to Speed form and made good its escape, directing several more clones to do nothing but keep Charizard occupied.
Charizard replied by wrapping himself in a massive Fire Spin, but the Speed forms blurred away before they could be attacked and waited for him to emerge.
Snarling in frustration, Charizard flared his wings – slamming the Fire Spin aside, but forcing it into a Counter Shield rather than dispelling it.
Thus protected from sneak attacks, he picked one particular Deoxys and powered after it – firing patterns of Embers and Flamethrowers to bracket it, then grabbing it with both claws and entering a power-dive which finished with the Deoxys clone embedded in a pavement.
Turning to face the others, Charizard roared a challenge.
If he couldn't go after the actual Deoxys, this would do for now.
"How much further to the lab?" Ash asked, looking around. "I – look out!"
Rebecca's Metagross produced a shield of shimmering green energy, which blocked a Psycho Boost ball aimed at them from a nearby Attack Form.
Tyranitar contributed to the battle by firing a Dark Pulse, which hit the Attack Form and blew it out of the sky – making it dissolve in a shimmer of sparks.
"Those ones seem to be powerful, but not very tough," Rebecca reported, one eye on her laptop screen. "And the bulky ones seem to be unable to attack strongly."
"What about the fast ones?" Max asked.
"They seem to be more generalists," Rebecca frowned. "Apart from being outrageously speedy."
She glanced up at Tyranitar, who was keeping pace with the group with a careful lumbering tread, and then at Mega Steelix. "It's a good thing we've got so many powerful Pokémon with us."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "These Deoxys are pretty strong."
Rebecca reached for a Pokéball, then shook her head. "Sorry, I keep forgetting… wait a moment."
She took her backpack off with one hand as they jogged, and rummaged in it while trying to balance her laptop.
"Should I take it?" Max asked.
"Go ahead," Rebecca said gratefully. "Uh… yes, here it is!"
She held up a Mega Stone with a jet-black Mega fleck, coloured only by a red central section and the faint brown of the main stone. "I hoped it wasn't in the Pokéball..."
"What's that?" May asked.
"It's Tyranitar's Mega Stone – a Tyranitarite," Rebecca clarified. "I was hoping to use it to surprise someone at the Battle Tower…"
She looked over at Ash. "This Tyranitar's yours, right?"
"He's my friend, yeah," Ash confirmed. "And – yeah, do you mind if I borrow that?"
"Go ahead," Rebecca agreed. "It's not as though I'm going to be able to use it without Tyranitar."
As Ash took it and passed it to his Rock-type, Masquerain fluttered down and waved his wings in warning.
"Look out!" Drew called, pointing. "More Deoxys!"
Houndoom's tail snapped out, striking the floor, and he howled.
A moment later, Beat Up copies of the entire group formed, and charged towards the incoming Deoxys horde.
"Nice work, Houndoom!" Ash called, as the doubles began to burst – and their attacks, ranging from weak to overwhelming, thinned out the horde of Deoxys duplications. "It's great you can do doubles too!"
"Thanks," Houndoom said, breathing heavily. "It's… quite a lot of strain to do that many at once."
Lucario took a few steps, his form as smooth as silk, and destroyed three leakers with precisely aimed Dark Pulses off his palms. "We can't stay here forever."
"Right," Ash agreed, and concentrated on his staff – and on Tyranitar.
In an odd way, he'd known the Rock-type since before he was born. When they picked up Larvitar's egg, he'd been scared and traumatized, and it had taken Ash to coax him into accepting them.
After that, they'd not had long together – but they'd been great days, of getting to know the brave little Larvitar, and then managing to find and rescue his mother from the poachers.
And then, several years later… or even slightly earlier… they'd met again, and Larvitar had grown and become Pupitar then – very quickly – Tyranitar.
Ash remembered all the times he'd helped Tyranitar overcome his weaknesses, and the golden-orange light of Mega-Evolution flashed.
"That felt strange," Mega Tyranitar complained.
"Huh, so that's what they look like," May said. "Very spiky."
"I hope I don't have to get used to this," Mega Tyranitar said slowly. "If it's like it was when I first evolved, it could take weeks..."
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Ash said, replacing his staff on his back – where it pulsed gently as it kept both Mega Heracross and Mega Tyranitar sustained. "Can you-"
"Look out!" Mega Tyranitar interrupted, taking a step forwards and spreading his arms.
He roared, punching forwards with his left arm, and the Deoxys Speed Form which had been about to attack ran squarely into the fist.
"...ouch," Tory said faintly.
The diamond shimmered in sympathy.
"That's going to help a lot, thanks!" Ash said. "Okay, I guess… which way is it?"
"Don't you remember?" Tory asked, blinking.
"Ash has a bad enough sense of direction he's learned not to rely on it," Brock summarized.
"Ouch," Tory said faintly. "But… it's this way."
He took a few steps, but then stopped. "Uh… is it me or is the ground shaking?"
"Well, it's not the ground because it's an overpass," Rebecca said, then blinked.
"Run!"
"What's happened?" May shouted, glancing at Brock.
"I guess the overpass got damaged!" Brock called back. "And there's about two tons of Pokémon on it!"
May glanced back, spotting Mega Tyranitar, Mega Steelix and a glimpse of Rebecca's Metagross. "...oh, right."
She let out a cry of shock as the bridge shook beneath her, and then Blaziken grabbed her and sprinted to solid ground.
"Thanks," she said, panting. "Wait – Max! Drew? Brock?"
"Why didn't you say Ash's name?" Drew asked, slowing to a stop beside her.
"He'll be fine," Brock shrugged, dropping down from a few feet above them. "Thanks for the save, Flygon."
Flygon buzzed, glad to have helped.
"Where's Max?" May asked, looking around. "Beautifly?"
"Over the bridge!" Beautifly replied – then there was a crack, a crunch and a cloud of dust as the overpass collapsed.
"They're all on the far side!" Brock said, craning his neck. "I can see them!"
"What now?" Drew asked. "Can Flygon ferry all of the Pokémon over?"
"He might have trouble with Mega Steelix," Brock frowned. "And Mega Tyranitar, actually. We might have to take the long way..."
"You get so used to Pokéballs you really miss them when they're not there," May sighed. "Okay, I guess we'll have to go down to the main level and cross there."
"That might not be a problem for long," Drew said, looking back the way they'd come. "That looks like a lot of Deoxys."
"Geodude!" Brock said. "Can you make a bridge?"
"No can do, Brock," Geodude said, shaking his head. "This place is full of wires."
"Underground, then!" May decided. "Tyranitar, can you help keep them away while we look for somewhere?"
Mega Tyranitar nodded. His spines began to light up, energy blazing between them, and then a torrent flashed out towards the oncoming Deoxys horde.
"Ash!" Brock called, hands around his mouth. "Keep going, we'll try and keep them busy!"
"How many left?" Jenny asked.
"We're not sure," her assistant replied. "The cruise ship's loaded almost to the line – but it's going to be another load."
"Then send it off now – the sooner it gets back the sooner we can load everyone," the chief policewoman said. "How are the defenders?"
"Holding – so far," he summarized, pointing to the ongoing battle.
Everyone they could find with a Pokémon able to fight was there, with the complete Pokémon Centre complement trying to keep them in fighting trim.
It wasn't easy. These Deoxys were powerful, if fragile, and vast in number – it seemed like there were always two more to replace one that got knocked out.
As the ship left with a wash of spray from the propellors, someone shouted. "Look out!"
Jenny turned, to see a Blastoise take three Psychic attacks at once and go down. The trainer next to him ordered his Blaziken in to fill the gap, but after four long seconds of one Pokémon doing the work of two the Fighting-type took a bad hit as well – and, pushed beyond endurance, fell backwards.
The swarm of Deoxys flooded through the breach in their defensive line, and then… stopped.
They scanned their vision over the ship, and then over the humans crammed onto the wharf, and turned to leave – but not before picking up both trainer and Pokémon and dumping them on the quayside next to the waiting evacuees.
"What happened?" asked the head Joy, running up.
"I… don't know," Jenny admitted. "It's like they don't want to beat anyone, just… want us out of the city."
She raised her voice. "Everyone back onto the docks! There's no point fighting if it doesn't want to hurt anyone – not yet, anyway."
"Right," her assistant agreed, and turned to spread the orders.
Jenny reached for her side, then sighed. "I miss having Arcanine… and working radios, too."
"Do you think the others are okay?" Max asked, glancing aside at Ash. "There were a lot of Deoxys..."
"Yeah, I'm sure they're fine!" Ash replied. "Remember, there's Mega Tyranitar and Mega Steelix with them – and the others are great at fighting too, so I'm sure they'll be fine!"
"It's a good thing that we've got Latias flying support, though," Lucario commented. "Without her we'd be kind of flooded."
More Deoxys blurred in from above, using Speed formes to close, and Latias fired a blast of Dragonfire from invisibility.
The green cone of energy sliced through the formation, popping about half a dozen Substitutes and making the rest scatter, and Entei skidded to a halt and roared – a roar full of fire and fury as he pushed out a Fire Blast with it.
With lightning speed, some of the Deoxys switched to Defence Form, and others blurred in behind their shielding bubbles of protection to ride out the attack.
"Metagross, push them aside!" Rebecca ordered. "Try and expose the ones hiding behind them!"
"Hah!" Metagross shouted, slamming a metal leg onto the ground, and cracks radiated out from it. The psychic push hit three of the Defence forms, pushing them back, but wasn't able to actually move them aside.
Latias shimmered into visibility for a brief moment, just long enough to blow one of the clumped groups out of the sky with a Mist Ball, then recloaked and dodged away from the attacks sent her way.
Entei took a Psycho Boost to the side, and staggered – then rallied, roaring, and the flames turned from crackling orange to a shining dusky rose.
"SACRED FIRE!" he roared, in a voice that shook the ground, and the curtain of red flame marched across the sky to smash aside any Deoxys not protected by a shield bubble.
Mega Heracross fired a storm of Pin Missiles into the inferno, and managed to hit one Deoxys hard enough to pop his shield – letting Entei's raging fire in, and producing a dull and resonant explosion.
"Houndoom, are you okay?" Ash asked, looking down at the panting Dark-type.
"Too many duplicates," Houndoom got out, between pants. "I'll be fine with a bit of rest."
"This isn't working," Rebecca said, glancing down at her computer again. "There's more of them every time – we won't make it to the lab at this rate."
"We need to move faster," Max said. "Arc!"
He raised his Key Stone, concentrating until it blazed, and Arc let out a forceful yap in response – then let Mega Evolution sweep over him, until he stood taller than Rebecca and considerably taller than Ash.
"What do you mean, faster?" Tory asked, apprehensively. "How does that help?"
"This way, Arc's big enough – and fast enough – for me to ride," Max explained. "You can come too, and with Entei and Latias we can make it to the lab that way!"
"But..." Tory looked frightened, and cast around for something to say. "What about the other Pokémon? They can't come with us?"
"We'll be okay," Mega Heracross said, noticing a Normal Form Deoxys hovering overhead and firing Pin Missiles at it. "But you need to stop them, or we won't be for long."
"Just you?" Ash asked. "Can you manage it on your own?"
"He won't be alone," Houndoom said, standing back upright. "I'll be with him for as long as I can."
"So will we," Guy insisted. "Houndoom needs Delta, Lucario, Cinder and I to give him good templates."
I am too slow, Metagross said reluctantly. So I will stay if you promise me my trainer will be safe.
"I agree. Go!" Lucario nodded.
"But… if I..." Tory shook his head. "I… I know I have to, but I can't get on a Pokémon!"
"But you need to!" Plusle said, restraining herself from tugging on his trouser leg. "Come on!"
"Plusle, look!" Minun called, pointing.
"Don't overdo it, Pikachu," Ash warned. "We're going to need quite a lot of power to run the lab in a power cut."
Pikachu nodded, cheeks sparking.
"Look out!" Plusle said, pushing Tory to the side.
He shouted in surprise, landing with an oof on the ground, and watched with surprise as Plusle and Minun linked hands.
A blast of electricity shot out from them both, gaining strength from their opposed polarities and close friendship, and hit an incoming Deoxys-attack.
Then Pikachu obliterated it and the Defence form behind it, but Tory didn't notice that bit.
"You… saved me," he said, blinking, and pushed himself onto his side. "I… thank you!"
Plusle and Minun turned, smiling brightly.
Tory hesitated, then picked them both up – one in each hand. "Thank you so much!"
After about ten seconds, he put them down again and tried not to look like he wanted to wear gloves. "I… sorry."
Plusle shrugged, waving her tail.
"Come on, we need to go!" Ash told him. "Are you okay riding on Latias?"
Tory looked surprised, then nodded. "And… uh, can she take Plusle and Minun too?"
Latias appeared in a flash of blue about ten feet away, and nodded. "I sure can!"
"Okay, Tory, lead the way!" Ash said. "Rebecca, you get on Entei – he can take you."
"What about you, Ash?" Max asked, as Mega Arc crouched down and Rebecca tried to balance her laptop.
"I'll be okay," he shrugged, then took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, Latias, let's go!"
Latias sped off, with Entei and Arc breaking into a loping run behind her.
Bringing up the rear was Ash – boots outlined in flickering blue light as he pushed Aura into them and sprinted far faster than he had any right to.
It still meant he was setting the pace, though, and even Arc occasionally had to check his stride to make sure Ash was keeping up.
Twenty miles from Lilycove Harbour, attacks flashed back and forth over the weather deck of Kyogre's Revenge.
"Be usin' Thunderbolt!" called one Grunt, and a flash of electrical energy blazed out from his Lapras' horn.
The attack flickered along the side of the attacking Gyarados, making it moan and fall back.
"Good!" called Shelley. "Keep 'em from reachin' us! Repel the scurvy boarders!"
"El-tee!" someone called from the conning tower. "We be about to dive!"
"Right!" she agreed. "All hands below decks! Ready the guns!"
Aqua grunts recalled their Pokémon, falling back with discipline, and the remaining attackers pushed on – until a pattern of shells from the deck gun blasted a waterspout out of the sea and made their Wailmer-shaped boat capsize.
The strongest of their attackers peeled off, ready to help rescue the swimming Pokémon and humans, but a shouted command had her turning again and back on course.
Shelley turned to her most trusted ensign. "You be Scuba qualified?"
"Aye!" the ensign agreed.
"Then be holdin' em off until we be below the surface," Shelley told her, and swung herself up to the ladder inside the conning tower before lowering the hatch with a clang.
Now alone on deck except for her graceful Milotic, the ensign readied herself for the coming battle.
Moltres dove, wings flaring, and screeched a challenge – inhaling, then shooting a great cloud of flame.
Using it for a distraction, she closed in faster with her wings swept back. She dove until the pressure hull filled her entire field of vision, then she spat a bright line of heat aimed to burn through the steel and prevent the Aqua sub from diving.
Water splashed into the side of her beak, and she stumbled in the air – then pulled up, barely avoiding a crash, and glanced over at the Wailmerbot.
Jessie and James were on the slowly sinking hull, wet but out of immediate danger, and as she watched Victreebel retrieved a soaking Audino from the sea.
Glad her friends were okay, Moltres banked around again and focused on the Milotic.
That had to go.
She gained height, wings spreading as she drank in the sun's energy, and then lanced a powerful green-yellow Solarbeam straight down.
"Muddy Water!" the ensign said crisply, and Moltres hissed as the mud and dirt dulled and scattered the energy of her Solarbeam.
The brownish liquid fell back with a splitterplish across the weather deck, and a moment later great fountains of bubbles rose up from along both flanks of the submarine.
Moltres knew what that meant – they were running out of time.
She elected to try a different tactic. Pulling up in an elegant backflip which made the incoming Bubblebeam miss, she spun briefly before diving out of the sky in a dramatic stoop.
Light flared on the leading edges of her wings, building a golden phoenix like a larger version of herself, and she fired the Sky Attack directly at Milotic – judging that, if it didn't knock the Water-type out, it would at least send her flying.
There was a red flash, and then Milotic was gone and water was everywhere.
Moltres winced as water battered the base of her flaming wings, and she forced out a Heat Wave to knock some of the impact aside. Then she pitched down to attack-
-and a Water Pulse smacked her in the side, nearly knocking her into the water.
Slamming through a wave, Moltres spluttered and thrashed at the air to get back up before she crashed entirely. What-
Looking back, she saw the Milotic for a moment before it and its trainer were pulled underwater by the submerging Aqua ship.
She had to think for a moment before she got it. The Aqua trainer must have recalled her Milotic for just long enough to get it out of the line of attack – then sent it out again quickly enough to counter.
That was… annoying.
Sighing, she turned towards the sinking boat to pick up her trainers. With everyone in Pokéballs, it would be just Jessie, James and Meowth – which she could carry.
"That be fine work!" Archie roared, slamming his fist down on the padded armrest. "Fine work indeed! Be givin' that grunt a promotion!"
"She already be an Ensign," Matt reminded him. "The only level after that be Lieutenant, if you be Captain."
"So she be an el-tee!" Archie confirmed. "An' be makin' sure you be stoppin' to take her on board through one of the escape hatches, too..."
He sat back. "We be havin' the Orb… we be havin' the location… now nothin' be stoppin' us."
"Except Magma," Shelley pointed out. "They be havin' an Orb too."
Archie gave her a look.
"How are you holding up?" Brock asked, looking between the Rock-type and the Steel-type.
"I'm okay for now," Mega Tyranitar reported, his deep voice reverberating in the confined space. "Kind of tired, but not tired enough to stop me fighting."
"I'm all right as well," Mega Steelix agreed.
"You're some of the only ones," Geodude said, lowering his aching hands. "I've never pulled bedrock up that far before..."
"It's going to be useful, though," Brock noted. "With that kind of reinforcement, hopefully Deoxys can't get into the building."
"You did see what they were doing when an attack hit, right?" Drew asked.
"...okay, it means we'll have some warning," Brock amended. "How's your team doing, May?"
"Venusaur says she's okay, but I think she's more tired than she's letting on," May hedged. "She took a Psychic, and she is Poison-type. Glaceon is better, but Blaziken's about ready to fall over."
"I'm fine," Blaziken insisted, one blazing palm on his side.
"You're not!" May said, shaking her head. "I saw that attack hit you – and that was after a long battle, too. I appreciate that you want to protect me, but you're not invincible."
"I should-"
"Don't finish that," Roserade said, shaking her head. "It's not going to end well."
Blaziken shook his head stubbornly, then sat down – harder than he probably intended.
"If I could I'd put you back in your Pokéball for a rest," May said. "But since I can't… just take care of yourself, okay?"
Blaziken huffed.
"And I thought he was the mature one," Leafeon chuckled.
Her daughter smiled. "Well, you know how it is..."
"What now?" Drew asked, peering through the slit in Geodude's earth wall. "Do we just stay in here?"
"For now, yeah," May confirmed. "Everyone's tired, and hungry – but even without a Pokémon centre we should be much better after a few minutes' rest."
She glanced back to where Flygon sat, somewhat awkwardly, on a bench. "Besides, we might need to help Ash in a bit. You heard about the robot thing, right?"
"Of course I heard about the robot thing," Drew said. "Why?"
"Well… knowing our luck, that's going to happen again too," May pointed out. "And if Flygon's ready to fly when it does, then he can fly one of us up to help disable the robot. Much quicker than what Ash did last time… and less dangerous, too."
"Why, what did Ash do last time?" Drew asked. "I heard about the robots going haywire, but the actual solution must have been some kind of rumour – all I heard was about jumping across floating robots in mid air."
"That's pretty much exactly what did happen," May confirmed.
I have pictures, Ethan informed him. Would you like to see?
"...oh, right, of course it was real," the Coordinator sighed. "Okay… and what were you doing during the attack?"
"Mostly getting caught, running away, and helping power the city," May shrugged. "No biggie."
At his expression, she relented. "Okay, well – basically, the shield Deoxys put up stopped any wind from getting in, so the turbines shut down."
"That shut down power for the whole city?" Drew asked, blinking. "There's river current and wave generators too..."
"I guess that with the shield up it must have stopped the river flowing through as well," Brock guessed. "It didn't cross the whole river on both sides, so it would have flowed around the island and headed out to sea. And the waves is obvious."
"Why don't we have solar power, I swear..."
Leafeon watched her trainer lie back on one of the benches and sigh, then chuckled and flirted her tail.
"Trainers," she said to Glaceon.
"I know-" Glaceon began.
"Really?" May asked, hands on hips. "What about trainers?"
"...um..." Glaceon looked guilty. "...can I not answer?"
"Like, you should have stopped talking a while ago," said Skitty, yawning from her position in May's bag.
After a particularly unfortunate Assist had led to her using Explosion, she was out of the running for battles for now.
The ground shook, and May glanced nervously up at the ceiling.
"It'll be okay," Brock told her. "Geodude builds strong."
"I guess," May agreed, looking over at the Pokémon providing them light. "And thanks, you two."
"My pleasure," Stantler said, his antlers glowing faintly.
"Wait," Drew said, sitting up and giving a puzzled frown. "That's an illusion, right?"
Stantler nodded.
"So how come we can see by the light it's making?"
"...good question," Stantler admitted. He glanced at Ninetales. "Any ideas?"
Ninetales gave a many-tailed shrug.
Entei vaulted a ten-foot security barrier, skidded on the gravel, and came to a halt just outside the main door of the LaRousse Research Institute's main laboratory building.
"There," he said, mildly. "Told you we didn't need to stop."
"It was a request," Rebecca said, getting off and looking faintly green. She rubbed her aches. "I much prefer riding Metagross..."
Latias airbraked and came to a much smoother halt, letting Tory climb gratefully off and drop the last few inches to the ground.
"Thanks," he said, checking Plusle and Minun were okay. "That was really fast – I was kind of too scared of that to remember to be worried about Pokémon, I guess."
The drumbeat of paws from the other side of the security barrier slowed, and then Max let out a breathless shout as Mega Arc jumped right to the top of the barrier.
His paws wobbled for a moment as he scrabbled for purchase, then Latias stretched out her arms and gave him an extra push to levitate both him and his passenger over the wall.
"Is that all of us?" Rebecca asked, counting Pokémon.
She frowned. "Wait, where's Ash?"
Ash jumped over the wall.
"...okay," she said, then nodded her head in agreement. "I suppose I should have expected that by now."
"Which way to the lab?" Ash asked, brushing gravel off his boots.
"Are you okay, Ash?" Max said, giving him a look of concern. "You seem kind of tired..."
"I am a bit," Ash admitted. "Mostly because of that run."
"Wait, I didn't see that," Rebecca blinked. "You ran?"
"Yeah?" Max said. "He was doing it all the way here."
"I was too busy trying not to fall off," Rebecca said.
"Okay, I think I've worked out how to open the doors," Entei said.
He inhaled, and let out a blast of Sacred Fire which blew them off their hinges.
"Hey, that's my dad's work!" Tory protested.
"The locks are electronic and the power is out, we would need to have done it somehow," Entei said.
"When did you learn Sacred Fire?" Pikachu asked, interested.
"It was back allowance," Entei replied. "Long story. Now, which room did your father work in?"
"Uh… this way," Tory said, stepping gingerly over the solidifying glass.
Notes:
Fortunately for Ash and co., they are rather better armed than last time.
In fact, between the Megas, the experienced Pokémon, the Legendaries and the fact almost everyone was out of their Pokéballs, they're doing about as well as the evacuation effort.
There's also Tory working out his problems… oh, yeah, and something about Team Aqua too.
...really, when you think about it, Deoxys-purple's plan kind of assumed no-one would object to being moved out of the city by a horde of alien Pokémon.
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