章節 7: 16,17
The friends left the Celadon Pokémon Centre the following morning, and they had one overwhelming question.
"What were we doing before all that happened?" Misty asked.
"Well, we were leaving Celadon," Brock replied. "But… I can't remember where we were headed?"
The P1 Grand Prix, Dexter provided.
He went beep. I suggest Ash goes back to the Fighting Dojo for Primeape, even if he's not quite finished. It's an excellent place to finish refining a new fighting style.
"Right, got it," Ash said, and sent out Pidgeot. "All better, girl?"
"Very much so," Pidgeot replied. "Saffron City, right? It'll be good to get the memory of Smack Down out of my wings."
"If that's okay!" Ash replied.
Misty and Brock stood back, to give Pidgeot some launch space, then she took off with a whoosh of wind.
"She's pushing hard," Brock observed. "I wonder what she said."
"Every time Ash just casually understands his Pokémon it's a reminder to spend more time on that whole Aura and meditation stuff," Misty said. "I really hope we get down understanding our Pokémon before Ash gets down understanding random wild Pokémon, or that'll be a bit embarrassing…"
There was a faint boom as Pidgeot went supersonic.
"So, Brock?" Misty said. "Speaking of the P1 Grand Prix, are you entering? I know you and Geodude did before."
Brock shook his head. "No chance… Geodude's got some work to go before he's good at that kind of thing. He's got a bag of nice tricks for gym battles, but that kind of competition is something else. We're working on it, but we still need to work on it."
He shrugged. "Or we might end up doing something else entirely. Whatever it is, if Geodude has a difficult trick to learn then he can build his style around it and it's harder for someone to work out what's going on."
"I know the feeling," Misty admitted. "Sure, I have a strong team. But Staryu's being overshadowed by Starmie, and Goldeen and Horsea just… don't work well on dry land. Unless I hold them, and that's not always an option."
"Not in a battle, yeah," Brock agreed.
He shaded his squint, looking to the east. "I wonder how long Ash expects us to just wait here… oh, hang on, I think that's him."
Another faint boom sounded, and not long afterwards Pidgeot flared her wings overhead to hover about two storeys above the two Gym Leaders.
"I'm back!" Ash called.
I don't think my diodes have caught up yet. That was fast.
"Windshaping," Pidgeot announced, not that Brock or Misty could understand her, then Ash's Primeape jumped down from Pidgeot's back and landed with a little pulse of blue Aura.
"Was that…" Misty began. "Ash, how many of your Pokémon learned Aura before they even rejoined you?"
"Only three… so far?" Ash said. "Maybe four depending on how Blast Burn works."
He patted Pidgeot. "This is great, by the way, I didn't realize you could shape air like this to let us have a conversation without having to shout."
"It's a bit range dependent, but I like the party piece," Pidgeot chirruped. "So, are we going to that P1 place now?"
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "I might go and walk with Brock and Misty, now, but do you want to stay out?"
"That would be lovely."
Charizard sent himself out. "I'll join you," he decided. "It'll be good to get some practice in."
"And your Pokémon is… Primeape. Thank you, and enjoy the tournament!"
"Thanks!" Ash said, then frowned as the people running the booth put up a sign. "No more entrants?"
"That's right, all eight competitors have now entered. We'll make an announcement when the tournament is ready to begin."
As they walked away, Ash glanced at Brock. "Didn't you enter last time?"
The Pewter leader rubbed his chin. "That's right… so, someone's filled my slot. I wonder who it is."
"Hey!" a familiar voice called. "Ashy-boy, fancy meeting you here!"
"Who's this?" Riolu asked.
Ash went oof as a weight leaned on his shoulder from behind. "Hi, Gary."
"Long time no see!" Gary said. "I hear you're doing pretty well… for a rookie. How many Pokémon have you caught so far? I've got loads!"
"Well, not many?" Ash replied. "But the Pidgeot and Charizard overhead are mine, and so is Riolu there."
"Riolu?" Gary repeated. "Huh. How'd you get one of those? They're really rare."
"It's complicated," Ash said, then shrugged Gary off.
There was something weird going on. It felt like there was something in the corner of his eye, only it was the corner of his mind instead, or… something like that.
"Well, if it was easy enough for you to find one, I'm sure I'll do the same," Gary decided. "Shouldn't take long!"
"I liked you better when you weren't this arrogant, Gary," Ash said, half his attention somewhere else.
Gary snorted. "I'm arrogant?"
"Wow," Pikachu said. "It really is hard to spot things like that from the inside."
"I guess so, Pikachu," Ash agreed.
Gary did a double-take. "Are you pretending to understand Pokémon now? If it was the Riolu I could understand it, they're supposed to have weird powers, but a Pikachu?"
He looked up at Charizard overhead, trying his best to try a move on Pidgeot and failing to catch her. "Come to think of it, what was your starter Pokémon? You didn't get that Riolu from Gramps, did you?"
"Okay, this is weird," Ash said. "How long did you take to head out of Viridian to the north, Gary? Because I'm pretty sure I should have seen you when I used Aura Sight…"
Gary blinked. "Aura what? Is your hand glowing?"
He reached for it, then twitched and nearly fell over.
"Gary, are you okay?" Ash asked, using the grip Gary had on his hand to hoist him back upright.
"Did you just…" Gary began. "What the hell just happened, Ash? Why can I remember two versions of the last few months?"
He sat down hard, this time. "Why can I remember the next several years?"
"So I did remind you?" Ash asked, sitting down next to Gary. "But… how? I should be able to see anyone I can do that to, and, sure, I wasn't trying at first but I think I should have seen you. Unless I've guessed wrong about how far… this is weird."
"You're telling me?" Gary replied.
He glanced at the Pokémon, then at Brock who'd switched smoothly to keeping an eye out for anyone nearby. "The Riolu's new, right?"
"Mostly, I met him in Sinnoh," Ash explained. "So, I should explain why all this happened… there was this guy called Cyrus, who-"
"Cyrus?" Gary repeated. "I was trying to stop him! I, uh, we lost, but still…"
"That's a coincidence," Ash said. "We… should probably catch up about that later."
He shook his head. "Anyway, uh… when I did it to Brock and Misty it got their Pokémon as well, but I don't know much about how it works apart from that."
Gary sent out an Eevee. "Well, we could check with Eevee, she was a main team member most of the times we met? If anyone is, it'll be her."
"Evv-vvee-vee," Gary's Eevee said.
There was silence for a couple of seconds.
"Oh, right, I'll do it!" Riolu volunteered. "What in the sake of all that's divine are you talking about, I think is the basic sense."
"Guess not, then," Gary said, with a sigh. "Worth checking, anyway… so you can't understand all Pokémon, then?"
"Not yet, but I'm working on it!" Ash replied. "So, anyway, Arceus sent me back in time, and now my job is to stop all of the Cyrus stuff from happening. Which I… still don't really know how to do? But I guess we just keep going until we work out how."
"Great," Gary said.
He rubbed his temples. "So much for my dream of becoming a Pokémon League champion… or, is it?"
The sight of Gary's smirk made Ash unsure if he should be groaning in anticipation or sighing in relief, as his old friend and rival bounced back. "I'll still work to do research, of course, but, well, Gramps was a champion once, right?"
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Ash said. "And… hey, Dexter, I just had an idea. What about if we help Gary out a bit? You've got all that data to transfer over, I bet there's some research there and he can work out how to use it."
Sure thing, Ash.
"Was that your Pokédex?" Gary asked.
Correct, Dexter stated. So if your one starts speaking as well, it's probably just become a Porygon like I did.
"Your life is weird," Gary summarized. "Anyway, did you enter Riolu or that Primeape from last time?"
"Primeape," Ash replied. "He's got something new to show off…"
"Match 2: Primeape vs. Poliwrath. Begin!"
Primeape ran forwards as soon as the announcer gave the signal, sliding under the jet of water that was his opponent's opener. As the Poliwrath launched a vicious Karate Chop, he deflected it with one arm before slamming the elbow hard with the other. The Water/Fighting type's thick skin reduced the effect, but it still made Poliwrath wince.
Not letting him rethink his approach, Primeape volleyed a pair of punches into the same spot – one a normal punch, the other a Mach Punch delivered much faster so that they came in almost as one attack.
Poliwrath groaned in pain as the pair of blows bruised his shoulder, and called up a wash of water with Hydro Pump.
Primeape retreated, avoiding the attack, and his feet scraped along the ground as he cornered at speed. His new style's uncompromising focus on direct attack did at least allow for the situation where he had to pull back to make better attacks… it just did so begrudgingly, as begrudgingly as Primeape himself did.
He focussed, drawing on that small amount of Aura he could spare from reinforcing his own body, and punched viciously at an approaching Bubblebeam. The blast of air from the high speed attack forced the bubble stream apart down the middle, and in that moment he ran forwards.
Poliwrath threw a DynamicPunch, hoping to hit his faster opponent, only to catch nothing but air as Primeape jumped over the blow. He got hit by the scattered Bubblebeam, of course, but that wasn't a problem because it was a scattered attack robbed of most or all of its strength.
Landing behind Poliwrath, Primeape slammed a blow into the back of each foot. Then the knee, the thigh, and a volley at the small of the back. Finally, he blasted a massive, wound-up blow into the side of the turning frog-like Pokémon, knocking him out.
Gary turned to Ash. "Was that just basically Close Combat as a fighting style?"
"Pretty much, yeah. There's more to it, though… I didn't know this, but he awakened his Aura before the end, and he uses it almost entirely on internal effects." Ash noticed Gary's confusion. "Oh, internal effects. Er, most people who have Aura split it between external and internal effects. External is stuff like Aura Sphere."
Ash spun one up on his hand, purely for demonstration purposes of course. "...or more subtle things like Aura Sight, or more blatantly just ignoring physics, like what Riolu does when he walks on water."
"It's only modifying physics! It's called surface tension!"
Gary snorted. "Showoff. So, internal effects?"
"You saw how fast Primeape was moving? He was boosting his own muscles with internal Aura." Ash shrugged. "A lot of his last month's training was conditioning his body to take it. From what I saw, he's not used full boost yet."
The young Oak whistled. "I guess I better tell Golem what not to do then."
"...hey!" Ash complained. "Isn't that kind of like cheating?"
"You didn't have to tell me…"
"Match 5! Primeape vs. Machamp! Begin!"
Primeape exploded into action, meeting a Megapunch by Machamp with a Mach Punch of his own, the high boost he was under causing the purely physical attack to produce a strong shockwave of wind.
Machamp flinched back from the blow, his upper left fist in severe pain, and Primeape smirked – then moved.
To most of those watching, Primeape disappeared. Ash's training had given him the reflexes needed (barely) to see what happened, and some of the black belts around the arena could see Primeape's sprint as well, but Machamp for one was first alerted to the movement of his opponent by the impact of a Cross Chop on his back.
Looking around desperately, Machamp only saw brief flickers of his opponent as Primeape blurred in, hammering home a long sequence of Close Combat attacks before pausing and winding up a Focus Punch.
Machamp seized the moment and jumped forward, delivering a Karate Chop that sent Primeape reeling back.
Ash, on the sidelines, leaned back. "Right, he's won."
Gary frowned. "What?"
Primeape skidded to a stop, wiped blood from his lip, and with a rush of displaced air was slamming an uppercut into Machamp's jaw. He then began a series of incredibly fast strikes that individually didn't seem to be doing much damage at first – but as time went on they seemed to become heavier and heavier blows, before the final one knocked Machamp into a ring out.
Ash explained. "So, first, that wasn't really a Focus Punch – it was a Revenge made to look like one as a trick. And that gets more powerful if you've just been hit, as you channel the enemy attack power around to hit the one who hit you – it's a bit like Counter, but it's stronger for a stronger user rather than a stronger opponent."
He held up two fingers. "The second bit was that Primeape has Anger Point – land a strong blow, and he goes into a massive rage. Hence how he moved so fast there, though it's a bit hard to tell when he's moving faster or slower sometimes when it's all fast. The third bit? That combo was Assurance."
Gary frowned. "I know Assurance – Umbreon uses it. Used. When she evolves, she probably will use… Isn't it only good in teamwork situations?"
"Primeape was attacking fast enough to be his own teammate for that purpose," Ash said. "I guess? He tried explaining it to me but it was a bit hard to follow, but it obviously worked… sure, that one blow nearly finished him, but that Assurance combo has no practical limit to it so long as he can keep hitting."
Gary frowned. "Okay, I have no idea how to face this guy. Golem's good, but – well, Rock type and all that. Even with you explaining all his tricks again."
"...I've got to stop doing that," Ash groaned.
"The finals of the P1 Grand Prix! Golem versus Primeape! Begin!"
BOOM!
Primeape landed heavily, roughly where he'd started, which was a bit of a surprise since a lot of the spectators hadn't been able to follow how he'd left his starting spot to begin with.
Golem, on the other hand (and end of the field), slowly fell backwards in a faint.
Gary shouted through the stunned silence. "Okay, what the hell did your insane Pokémon do now, Ash?"
Ash grinned, and called back. "It's called a Master Blow, it's the thing I didn't explain yet. A single attack that completely exhausts the user, but it's worth it. Sure, he'll need three days of rest, but it didn't give you the chance to get your Counter off. I knew you were planning one."
Primeape glared at him.
Ash wilted slightly. "Okay, fine, HE knew you were planning one."
Gary nodded thoughtfully. "So..." he asked, over a rising series of sobs from his paradoxical cheerleaders. "Presumably my best choice would have been just to lead with an Explosion?"
Primeape winced at the thought. Hit a blast front at the speed of sound? No thanks…
"So, I guess this is goodbye again, hey Ash?" Gary smiled.
"Yeah, but not for long. I think we're due to meet again in..?"
One month, that thing with the Diglett.
"Oh, that," Ash said. "Okay, fine. Dexter, you able to set up a communication link of some sort with your counterpart?"
I can do that myself.
Gary looked down at his own Pokédex, because that was the one that had spoken.
"Dee?" he asked.
Sentience development provisionally complete. Hi.
Gary shook his head. "You're paying me back for all the times I showed you up last time, aren't you? Just casually giving me a Porygon…"
"I don't think him showing us up is the way I remember it," Pikachu contested.
Ash grinned. "That's an unintentional but funny side effect. See you around, Gary."
The two shook hands, and parted ways as friends.
Oak nodded at the email he'd received. "Fascinating… and good to know that my two favourite boys have reconciled themselves." He then frowned. "Hang on, if that's what the memory engram did…"
He got up and retrieved a spare Pokédex, slotting it into the computer interface port. Quickly typing, he transferred the massive data dump from Dexter he'd received almost five months ago into it.
Barely had he finished before a message appeared onscreen: compiling.
Oak sat back. "Ah, so that's it, the Pokédex hardware's something even I don't fully understand. Suppose something about it must make it easier for a Porygon to develop naturally."
Then there was a knock at the door, before the knob turned by itself.
Getting up, Oak met Ash's Kingler and the Ivysaur Ash had rotated back to the lab while Primeape was out. "Ah, Ivysaur, I expect he'll want you back soon, and I can get to know Primeape. I think this will be the first time, unless I've repressed something about it…"
The system gave a warning chime, and Primeape's Pokéball materialized on the transfer plate. "And here he is."
Oak released the simian Pokémon, who promptly staggered slightly before Ivysaur's vines caught him.
"Wow," Ivysaur said. "What happened to you?"
Primeape shakily moved over to the wall. "I just used up as much energy as most Pokémon do in a half hour battle in about a second, and I may have broken some fingers. Take it from me – the sound barrier is not your friend, at least not when you break it."
Kingler looked puzzled. "Crabhammer does that all the time."
Ivysaur shook his head. "No, that's just the supercavitation bubble doing it. Primeape here seems to have punched something so fast the air couldn't get out of the way quickly enough."
"That's about right. I really need to make my muscles and bones take Aura boosting better-"
"Doubtless the conversation is fascinating to you," the Professor interrupted, "but I haven't yet finished my translation software and you, Ivysaur, really need to get going."
Ivysaur nodded and dissolved in red light, before being whisked away to the east.
"Now that's done, why don't we get you to the infirmary?"
Primeape took Kingler's proffered claw for support, and followed the Pokémon Professor to the room he was to convalesce in.
Mostly he was thinking he might want to try repeated blows next time instead of one giant one…
"So, I'm guessing Primeape isn't heading off to train again this time?" Pikachu asked.
"That's right," Ash agreed. "Now, uh… where do we go next…"
He checked Dexter, who was displaying a handy map, then groaned. "Oh, great. Gringey City… is that actually the most polluted place on the planet, or does it just seem that way?"
It is certainly a top five contender.
"Right," Ash said. "I've got an idea about how to solve this."
He sent out Pidgeot. "How does a long flight sound?"
"A long flight?" Pidgeot repeated, already flaring her wings. "It sounds like a challenge, that's what!"
"Great!" Ash smiled.
He turned back to Brock and Misty. "See you guys either… later today or tomorrow, it depends how long it takes."
Ash climbed aboard, then Pidgeot swept into the air and off towards the north.
"Well, that happened," Misty said. "Do you think having Pidgeot is going to his head?"
Brock shrugged. "I can understand his enthusiasm."
Overhead, Ash crouched low over his fastest Pokémon.
Still his fastest Pokémon, despite Primeape's best efforts.
"Hey, girl? Sinnoh, please – full speed!"
"You want to be more specific?" Pidgeot asked.
"When we're closer!" Ash replied, as the wind began to build up from a gentle breeze. Pidgeot's windshaping was diverting most of the wind, but most wasn't all. "Pikachu, Riolu, you might want to stay in my backpack? This could get a bit rough."
"Please," Pidgeot snorted.
"Can we fit in your backpack?" Riolu asked, measuring himself against it, then opened the top. "...where is everything in here?"
He looked at Ash's belt. "Is everything in that pouch?"
"Just about!" Ash replied.
"Well, it'll be warmer," Riolu said, then vaulted inside, and Pikachu followed.
Inside, the Electric-type lit them up with a couple of sparks from his cheeks, then noticed they were standing on Dexter.
"Oops," he said.
Not a problem, Dexter replied. So. Anyone got something to talk about? We'll be in here for a while. Or I can do chess.
"I'd like to ask-" Riolu began, then there was an attenuated boom as they went supersonic. "I'd like to ask, what happened the first time around for you all? I know I've heard a lot of it, but it always feels like there's more to learn."
He sat down against the side of the bag, lifting Dexter up so the Pokédex wasn't being sat on again. "I'd like to hear more about what Ash was like when he was an inexperienced trainer."
I can give the basics, but I believe Pikachu is the one for the details.
Pikachu smiled. "Sure, why not. Here's a story, actually… did you know that he actually tried to release me, once?"
Riolu looked shocked. "But… you two are closer than brothers! I can see the strength of your bond, it's amazing, I hope one day mine is as strong as that… what happened!?"
"It was the first time we'd ever met any wild Pikachu, see. And Ash thought I'd be better off with them… obviously he didn't understand me, and he was coming from a good place, but I think he'd so convinced himself that he was saying goodbye to me that – and so willing to ignore the pain it was causing him, so he could do the right thing – that he didn't realize I didn't want to do it until I chased him down and tackled him."
Pikachu's eyes shone with the memories… there had been other times when they'd affirmed how much they meant to one another, but that was still one of his favourites.
Then he smirked. "But, if you want a different kind of story, what about the thing with a clothes-line, a pair of rubber gloves, some rabid Spearow…"
"Wow," Riolu said, as the tale finished. "That's… moving, really. You'd had so much adventure, so soon into your journey…"
For anyone else, it would have been the most exciting day of their journey. For Ash and Pikachu, it was the first day of their journey.
"You've got that right," Pikachu agreed. "It was definitely the first."
"Down there, Pidgeot!" Ash called, from a perspective very few other people in the world had ever had.
He was riding Pidgeot at something close to nine miles high, Pidgeot's air-shaping keeping them safe with warm, breathable air and augmenting her wings with great virtual aerofoils that gave her control even at such a massive altitude, and it was like looking at a map more than anything else.
Ash had never been great with maps, but fortunately this was different enough that he could see where they were going.
"The valley with the glacier?" Pidgeot checked, tilting her head around to look at him. "Near the summit of that mountain?"
"That's right!" Ash called. "Is that okay?"
"Okay? I was wondering if there was something difficult coming up. Okay, hold on!"
Pidgeot yawed left slightly and pitched down, aiming for the glacier made tiny by distance, and folded back her wings.
Ash bent low to make things easier for her.
Cynthia's Lucario formed a Bone Rush, vaulted over Garchomp's Earthquake attack, and switched to Aura Sight as he did a forward roll into an attack of his own. Garchomp retreated, skipping back several paces to make distance, but Lucario was – for the moment – barely paying attention to her movements.
There was something in the sky.
It was a tiny speck, to normal sight, but it shone in Aura Sight, and it didn't look quite like either a dragon or a Lucario taking flight.
It was strange – a puzzle – and Lucario wondered what it could mean.
At least, until a Dragon Rush narrowly missed him.
"Are you going to keep staring, or are you going to try and beat me for once?" Garchomp asked, and Lucario shook his head before returning to the fight.
His choice of Dragon Pulse may have been influenced by Garchomp's words, but you couldn't prove anything.
Pidgeot reached an altitude of about one mile above the ground, and rapidly shed her accumulated velocity by spreading her wings as brakes. There was a ripple of air-shock ten metres wide as her wings-of-air followed suit, flashing in the slipstream around her and whirling away in her wake.
Ash laughed, in amazement, then yelped in surprise as another layer of air control pushed him into Pidgeot's back – and the Flying-type did a barrel roll, making the landscape spin crazily around them as she whirled through a wide aerial spiral.
Then she passed downwards through the sound barrier, muffling the blast wave's effects both inside and outside, and circled once before alighting in the flowery valley as softly as a breeze.
Ash stepped off Pidgeot's back, wobbly for a second, and opened his bag. "You guys okay?"
Well, I am, but I don't have an inner ear.
"Next time, no aerobatics!" Pikachu insisted firmly, wobbling a bit before sitting down hard.
"I'm with you," Riolu muttered. "I don't suppose you've got any Persim Berries?"
"Some over there," Pidgeot pointed, stretching her wings as a warm-down. "Give me a bit of time and I might go and get some berries myself… I assume we're flying back?"
"That's right," Ash confirmed. "Though we can wait a bit if it'll give you a chance to rest up."
"We'll see how I feel," Pidgeot decided.
Dexter had gone to get the Persim Berries for his biological teammates, and Pikachu and Riolu both ate theirs with relief.
"So, why are we here, anyway?" Riolu asked.
"I can guess," Pikachu said.
"It's because this is Gracidea," Ash explained. "It's where Shaymin live, we visited it a few years from now… actually pretty close to when we met you, I think. That was when the Flower Bearing was going on, but I don't think that's going on now because the flowers aren't blooming… mostly, anyway. Those little red ones over there are blooming but that's about it."
He shrugged. "Gringey City's really polluted, so it sort of made sense to see if there were any Shaymin who wanted to come and help?"
"Well, it's… a solution," Riolu decided.
Set up. Dexter's digital body pulsed. Preparing for search pattern.
"And I'll go and get something to eat," Pidgeot said. "I'll be back in an hour, but I won't go far… not by my standards, anyway."
Ash, Pikachu, Dexter, Ivysaur and Riolu spread out over the beautiful meadow.
Each searched in their own way. Ash looked for an Aura signature that would indicate a Pokémon, Pikachu spread his electrical awareness to try and detect anything with a nervous system, Dexter ran a series of complex image recognition algorithms, Ivysaur just used his eyes, and Riolu looked for an Aura signature that would indicate a Pokémon.
Most of them searched in their own way.
Though Ivysaur did sit down next to the nearest set of blooming Gracidea, and start carefully digging around them to make sure they were ready to transport – without actually impacting them if they didn't get any takers.
It took several minutes, but then Pikachu sent up a little crackle of lightning. "Over here!"
Ash turned and walked over, doing his best to avoid doing too much damage – even just treading on flowers felt like something to do as little as possible, in a place like this. "Huh… oh, there they are. That's an amazingly well blended Aura signature."
The Shaymin Pikachu had found uncurled slightly, and looked at them.
After a few seconds of silence, Pikachu nudged Ash. "Your hat."
"Huh?" Ash repeated. "Oh, right, telepaths."
He took his hat off. "Sorry, what was that?"
I was saying good afternoon, and asking why you were here.
"Oh, sorry," Ash said. "I was actually wondering if you, or, any of the other Shaymin from around here, would be interested in travelling to Kanto. There's a really polluted city there, and, it'd help out a lot?
That sounds interesting… but aren't there dangerous Pokémon in Kanto? I've heard there are some there.
"There's dangerous Pokémon in a lot of places, if you're talking about whole regions," Pikachu said. "But Kanto's the home of the first Safari Zone, where battles are forbidden."
The Shaymin considered.
"Well, if you think it would be a good idea…"
Pikachu murmured something about this clearly not being the one they'd met last time around, simply on account of being reasonable even before you considered the voice, but too quietly for Shaymin to actually hear.
Ash crouched down, and held out his hands. "Then, if you're sure, let's get you back to Kanto, okay? Ivysaur's sorting out a Gracidea for you."
Then he stopped. "...actually, we might want to wait a bit, Pidgeot's not going to be back for almost an hour…"
Eventually, Pidgeot was back, and the Gracidea plant was in its place ready for the flight to Kanto.
So was Shaymin, and she – unlike the plant – was going to be riding in Ash's lap.
"Don't worry, little one," Pidgeot said, looking back as she spread her wings. "I'll fly as carefully as I can."
Don't bother! Shaymin sent back. I've flown before, it's exciting.
Pidgeot hunched down for the first big spring. "I'll take that as a challenge!"
Riolu passed Pikachu another Persim Berry.
Wow, Shaymin gasped, somehow bringing out a long o in the middle of the word despite using telepathy. So that's Kanto?
"It sure is," Ash agreed.
The view was spectacular, as Pidgeot soared up over Mount Moon's axial ridge in the afternoon light and gave her passengers a low-angle view of most of the northern half of the region.
"It's got more cities than Sinnoh, but I've been lost here in the woods a lot so there's plenty of wilderness here."
Pidgeot banked lower in gentle S-curves, bleeding off height and speed. As they passed Saffron, still moving at about five miles a minute, she looked around for her destination.
"Hmm, there's Celadon," she said, wings beating slowly as they zipped over Celadon and into the wilderness. "And the P1 site, and – wait a second, that can't be natural-"
She threw herself into a sudden dive, and three light beams flashed through the space she would have been if she hadn't.
Ash grabbed for her back. "What's going on?"
"There's something in the air!" Pidgeot replied, shedding all the rest of her height in one go and swerving left. "Really big and invisible!"
Spotting a convenient valley, she flared her wings hard and splashed down into the lake – sending a massive spray of water up as she shed her velocity all at once.
Ash dropped Shaymin off on the shore as he splashed ashore, and checked his Pokéballs – returning Pidgeot, then sending her out again straight off to save time. "What is it?"
Analyzing… Dexter reported. Ash! It's Hunter J!
"What?" Riolu asked, startled. "How did-"
"Please say you're joking," Ash asked, hopefully.
Afraid not. She's here, and from the radio traffic… Dexter emitted a gulp sound. We're in big trouble now...
17
Ash sorted through his Pokéballs. "Okay, we're going to have to move fast, she knows something is up and probably knows we're here… but the good news is, a lot of her gear is supposed to keep her either hidden or give her the advantage in a surprise attack, and Riolu and I can see them through the cloak. Dexter, is there anything you can tell us to get past that?"
I have some data, Dexter replied. Based on available information it only has one petrification cannon on the underside, and there's an entrance there. I can scramble it, for a bit, but that'll alert them to my attack and from then on I'll need physical contact.
"We need to get on board to save our friends, and the Pokémon J stole, so let's do that," Ash decided.
He checked in his backpack again, finding only the Gracidea, then pushed it behind a bush and double-checked everything was clipped to his outfit. "Charizard!"
"I heard most of it," Charizard replied. "Sounds like trouble."
"Yeah," Ash confirmed. "Pidgeot, if you can, get us onboard – Charizard, you cover us, then fight that Salamence if she uses it."
Pidgeot crouched to let Ash climb on more easily, and Ash glanced at Shaymin. "Stay out of trouble, okay?"
Then the two Flying-types took off at once, with a surge of wind that rippled the lake surface.
"What kind of monster are you?" Misty demanded, both hands on the bars. "You take Pokémon for no other reason than to sell them for profit? I never thought I'd be saying this, but even Team Rocket wants Pokémon for more reasons than just how much money they're worth!"
J chuckled. "Well, so much for hospitality… I thought you'd be interested to know that your Pokémon are going to be worth a lot of money for me."
She glanced up. "Guards. Make sure they cause no trouble."
J's goons saluted, taking up posts by the entrance to the brig as J left, and Misty groaned before turning around and sinking to the floor.
"I can't believe we got caught like that," she said, looking at Brock. "Any ideas?"
"No, but I think I know who has one by now," Brock replied.
Misty brightened. "Oh, yeah, good point…"
"Ma'am," one of the bridge crew said. "We've spotted the Pidgeot from before taking off, they're accompanied by a Charizard!"
He punched up both images on the main screen. "As suspected, there's a trainer with them."
J smirked. "Open fire."
The gunnery officer tapped at his controls, then swore. "Damn! Sir, the ventral gun isn't firing!"
Hunter J's head snapped around. "What?"
"It's acting like I'm not giving it instructions," the gunner defended himself. "And – cameras show the trainer has boarded!"
Pidgeot and Charizard's takeoff images vanished from the screen, replaced by a ship schematic and two views of the outside – both with targeting carets. "Enemy flyers are outside petrification gun range, enemy trainer is in cargo three!"
Hunter J sighed, because this kind of thing was tiresome. "Release Salamence to handle the enemy Charizard, focus guns on the bird once that's done. Give me all hands."
"All hands," the communication officer reported.
"Stand by to repel boarders," J said. "Find and neutralize a young male trainer wearing blue clothes, a cape, gloves, and a very silly hat."
Something about his appearance was vaguely familiar, from somewhere, but J wasn't sure where and shrugged it off. "Immobilize any invading Pokémon."
She slashed her hand to cut the broadcast.
"The guns are working again, ma'am," one of her officers reported. "It was some kind of virus. I shut down anything that's not cameras from the outside."
The ship rocked, and one of the camera feeds went fuzzy and distorted.
"Now this is a real chance to cut loose!" Charizard roared. "Big target, maximum fire power!"
He exhaled a Flamethrower, feeding more energy into it to give it the momentum it needed, and it splashed against a half-there shimmer in the air before exploding. Then he whirled up a Fire Spin, which battered the side of the ship with greater force, but had to break it off a moment later as laser bolts came sleeting out of one of the gun batteries.
Charizard dropped, trading speed for height to get out of the targeting zone, and the guns retargeted from him to Pidgeot as a dark shape dropped free from the cloaked air battleship.
For her part, Pidgeot dealt with the laser fire by accelerating and jinking hard right. Laser fire flashed around behind her, then a salvo of missiles came in and she slapped them with a massive wing-of-air before summoning a Tailwind and accelerating even harder. The guns were starting to box her in, so she swerved abruptly towards the cloaked ship and zipped around underneath it.
She couldn't stay there for long, the petrification gun would get her, but she was moving far too fast for it to hit her in the moments it was in line of sight. She pulled up as soon as she was past the shimmer and climbed high, more than three times as high as the ship in moments and outside the area the guns could fire.
Then she got to work. This was going to require buildup.
Down below, Charizard found himself confronted by an aggressive attack from a Salamence with fangs sheathed in lightning.
Dodging away and curling around in an up-and-back diagonal turn, Charizard slammed a Flare Blitz into Salamence's Dragon Rush, and the two attacks blew away all the nearby wisps of cloud but did nothing to the combatants.
"Why are you helping her?" Charizard demanded, grappling with Salamence and trying to pin his wings, but Salamence wasn't making it easy and his wings were as strong as Charizard's were.
"Because it's my duty," Salamence retorted, then took the opportunity of Charizard's arm being nearby and bit down with a Thunder Fang. Electricity crackled over Charizard's orange scales, and the Fire-type snarled.
Pikachu was stronger, and Charizard trained with Pikachu.
Deciding this wasn't working, Charizard got both legs into place and shoved off. That broke contact between the two of them, and he strafed Salamence with a crackling jet of Dragonbreath which drove the Dragon-type back.
Unfortunately for Charizard, that also got him far enough from Salamence that the guns on the battleship could open up. Three laser bolts lashed against his wing, and he growled deep in his throat.
"How can it be your duty?" Charizard demanded, flying in closer all over again to avoid taking more turret hits, and the guns fell silent once more. Salamence didn't, though, firing out a Hyper Beam, and Charizard's quick Dragon Rage only weakened the attack – which still scored a line along Charizard's flank.
"I served her faithfully, since birth," Salamence replied, shaking off the fatigue of the Hyper Beam. "That is all there is to it."
Charizard lunged again.
On board the air battleship, Ash and his Pokémon moved at a run.
Ash wasn't sure where they were going, except that he'd probably know it when he saw it, but they had to keep moving so that they could avoid being focused on by the whole crew at once. Pikachu was riding Ash's shoulder, firing out Thunder Wave attacks at any humans or Pokémon they saw, while Riolu ran ahead opening doors with Force Palm and Dexter floated alongside Ash to give a running update.
They've encrypted the radio, I'm not getting anything useful, Dexter reported. I have the ship schematics, though, main cargo is – second left!
Riolu skidded to a halt in front of the indicated door, focused for a moment, then jumped and slammed a Force Palm into the upper quadrant of the door. The top hinge splintered and gave way, rocking the door open, and Ash knocked the main body of the door aside with his shoulder as he charged through.
It was an amazing sight.
There were dozens of Pokémon, perhaps hundreds, all in crackling force field cages and frozen like statues by some fantastic technology.
"This is not bringing back good memories," Riolu admitted, shuddering.
Ash crouched down next to Riolu, doing his best to ground the Fighting-type simply by his presence. "Dexter, anything?"
Dexter hovered over to a console, and interfaced with it.
This console doesn't have the option to reverse it, he stated. However, there is a guide for the users involving what not to do, and one of those things is that the force cages overloading can disrupt the stasis field.
"Right," Pikachu said, firmly, and his cheeks flared up. "Give me a minute, guys. I'll handle this."
He rose into the air slightly, electricity pouring out of his cheeks, and formed three rings of electrical energy before rotating them.
As he did, he did his best to keep things straight.
He didn't want to hit Ash, or Riolu, or Dexter, but he did want to hit a lot of other things… and that was hard, but he could do it.
There were so many Pokémon counting on him. His friends were counting on him.
His Light Ball was there, but he wasn't using it for the increasingly convoluted, wound-up knot of electromagnetic tension he was keeping hold of. Instead, he was going to use it for something else entirely… a very, very carefully aimed Shock Wave.
Almost all of Pikachu's attention was on those two divergent parts of what he was doing. He was only vaguely aware of the fighting going on around him, as Dexter hit a Raticate with Tri Attack, as Riolu kicked a Purugly into the air before slamming an Aura Sphere into them, as Ash tripped someone with Sir Aaron's Staff before they could point a weapon at him.
Then Pikachu was ready.
"Hit the deck!" he warned, and summoned the power from his Light Ball. That went down, bouncing off the floor and upwards, defining a cone shape which missed all three of his teammates and everyone else strewn over the floor.
Then he snapped one of the cords on his Volt Crash.
The backlash blew him almost to the ceiling, but the main force of the explosion spread out in an electromagnetic sphere that hit everything in the room except for what was underneath his prepared Shock Wave-primed shield.
Every single cage in the room overloaded at once.
Hunter J clenched her fist hard enough to cramp it.
A year's work destroyed in a moment, and by a Pikachu of all things.
Then the cameras in the room cut out, and she probably should have been impressed they'd kept working that long but she wasn't in the mood to be charitable.
"All ship order," she instructed. "Lethal force authorized. Full lock down. I want the Pokémon recaptured, now."
She checked her belt for her remaining Pokéballs, then stalked towards the bridge door.
This was now personal… and just as she left the bridge, the ship shuddered again.
"Cloaking field down!" one of the officers reported. "Looks like the earlier damage."
"All weapons ready," she retorted. "Computer control, we're going to need the manpower inside to do this. Flood the main Pokémon hold with knockout gas."
"Brock and Misty are that way," Ash said. "With the other prisoners, I guess. It's not far, I think… uh…"
He wobbled slightly, then slumped forwards, and Riolu looked around in shock.
"Ash!" he called, then blinked a few times, and forced himself to concentrate. A blue glow lit up around his body, and just in time, as all the other Pokémon in the hold had either fallen over already or did a moment later.
Ash and his team had been fully occupied trying to explain to the captured Pokémon what was going on. Some of them like Brock and Misty's teams had only been out for a short while, maybe an hour or two at most, but there were Pokémon there who'd been defeated and captured a year and more ago and they'd been in stasis since then.
And now Hunter J had knocked them all out at once with gas, and Riolu's airslip technique had stopped him from getting a knockout dose but he only had so much air supply. Filtering out sand or rain was one thing, but filtering out gas was something else entirely.
Were there any Pokémon that could help? No Leafeon… Dexter's digital form had turned out to be as vulnerable as any other… Shaymin maybe could have helped, but they'd left her back on the ground rather than take her into danger, and right now it really would have been helpful to have her along…
Trying to think, Riolu fought off a yawn, then noticed one of the Pokémon who'd been unfrozen. An Altaria!
He vaulted over a sleeping Ponyta, skidded to a halt in front of the Altaria, and for lack of a better option hit them with an open-palmed slap.
The Altaria jerked, eyes blinking open. "Hey! What was that...for…"
"Altaria, please use Uproar!" Riolu asked. "I really hope you know it! And Defog if you can!"
That was enough to let the Altaria focus, and he emitted a high, piercing shriek. It echoed through the room, and Altaria pulsed out a wave of clear air that let Riolu gratefully drop and refresh his airslip.
Not finished with that, the Altaria then wove in a single jarring note of Perish Song that made the whole room tremble, smashing the hidden emitters, and a second Defog pulsed out a moment later.
"Thank you!" Riolu said. "That was a close one-"
The ship heaved, like it was a sailing ship that had just encountered a storm.
Pidgeot had seen the cloaking effect fail from her position far in the distance, and she was more than ready to exploit it.
She'd spent the last five minutes whirling up a tornado high in the atmosphere, building it up through a combination of direct circling motion and establishing the temperature gradient that could feed it, and she spent it whirling towards the airship at high speed – then flipped and flew past it, accelerating and accelerating so she'd get there first.
Once she was fast enough, Pidgeot did three successive left aileron rolls, establishing a Razor Wind, then dropped back just far enough to be outside the interference zone and did three right aileron rolls to set up a second Razor Wind.
And a third. A fourth. Fifth. Sixth.
She may have flown to Sinnoh and back today, but – like Charizard said – it was an opportunity to really let loose.
Finally, with a six-stacked drill of razor winds about to hit, and the tornado behind it, Pidgeot flared her wings and dropped out of the airstream.
Charizard had been fighting that Salamence for as long as she'd been setting up, and it looked like her doughty teammate was flagging.
But she had just the solution.
To the crew left on the bridge, it was like being hit by a natural disaster
First a blur of tan-cream-red-yellow shot past, smashing into the battling Salamence with a huge Brave Bird attack and slamming him into the ground. The blur itself didn't follow Salamence all the way in, instead pulling out at the last second and resolving into a Pidgeot which began circling.
Then, before the bridge crew could prioritize their guns on the now-slower and tired Pidgeot, something invisible hit the front of the ship hard enough to knock it sliding backwards through the air, making the whole ship's structure shake with some kind of horrible grinding resonance and throwing off splinters of armour before it finally destabilized.
Next, a tornado came down from overhead and smashed into the top of the ship, driving them into the ground and tearing apart some of the port main battery.
Then, finally, that Charizard who'd suddenly been freed from fighting Salamence came swooping up – past the section of the ship where the guns weren't working any more – and grabbed on with his claws, alternating between Flamethrower attacks and Dragon Claw moves to try and break through the compromised portion of the armour.
"Dexter, how long are we going to be in the air?" Ash called, staggering, then managed to steady himself. "And do you have the quickest route to the prison area?"
I have it, Dexter confirmed. I give this ship about ten minutes, if that.
"Right, let's-" Ash began, then spotted a blur of movement and threw himself backwards to dodge. A Poison Sting attack whistled just past him, about where it would have taken his eye out, and air whooshed out of Ash's lungs as he hit the ground.
"Well, well, well… it seems there's a pest on board my ship. Pity, really, since otherwise the pest might have lived."
Hunter J strode into the room, utterly unconcerned by the Pokémon filling the hold. "They can be in a cave, or in the water… out in the wild… but no pests are allowed inside. So, what will it be? Die standing, or on the ground like a pest?"
Ash got to his feet, and spared a glance at his Pokémon.
"Guys, you're tired," he said. "Dexter, Riolu, Pikachu, get these Pokémon to their trainers and off the ship."
He took his last two active Pokémon, still in their Pokéballs, and his gaze flicked back to J, then to her Drapion and Ariados. "I'll handle her."
Dexter hesitated, then hovered out of the room towards the brig.
"Look after yourself, Ash," Pikachu implored, looking back as he and the other Pokémon followed.
"You know me," Ash replied. "Last chance to back down, J."
J's arm snapped up and she fired her petrification cannon, and Ash threw both Pokéballs as he ducked forwards into a roll. That got him most of the way to Hunter J herself, and as Ash rose again he swiped out at her arm with his palm and knocked the cannon off her wrist.
To either side of them, Ivysaur picked up Drapion before throwing him into the wall and Squirtle fired a Water Gun to knock Ariados back, but neither of J's Pokémon was out of the fight yet and J was doing something with her goggles. Then she kicked out, and Ash ducked and blocked, except J seemed to have known exactly what he was about to do and the kick turned to be a feint.
Instead she punched with her left hand, which hit Ash's blocking arm and jarred it painfully, then retreated when Ash tried to punish her.
It was weird. Ash was in good condition, he knew that, and he'd been sparring against Riolu and Pikachu since the Fighting-type had joined his team, but it was like J knew everything he was trying to do almost as soon as he did.
Ash guessed maybe it was something to do with the goggles, but as they fought back and forth at the same time as their Pokémon he was the one taking the occasional hit or bruise or scratch. J was avoiding everything he did.
It wasn't like Ash wanted to beat up on an easy target, that would be morally wrong, but it'd have been nice to not fight someone with the advantage-
J's next blow hit Ash in the elbow, knocking him aside a step and leaving his side exposed. He responded as best he could, while J's follow-up was a snap-kick aimed at his neck, and one that would have broken it had he not managed to get a Protect in the way.
She froze for a moment in shock at the sudden green shimmer that had interrupted her killing blow, and Ash rammed his elbow into her side.
Something gave.
J staggered back, clutching her ribs with one hand. "You, but… right. Drapion, Ariados, we're leaving! The client never mentioned an Aura adept in Kanto."
Both Poison-types spat out a shower of sludgy gunk in unison, Drapion knocking Ivysaur physically backwards and Ariados forcing Squirtle to take cover. Then, with a hissing barrier of poison between them and Ash, they and their trainer retreated at a run.
A series of explosions rocked the ship, and Ash stumbled before Ivysaur caught him. "Thanks – that can't be good! Come on, guys, we'd better get to Brock and Misty!"
Squirtle went first, sliding ahead on his belly, and Ash and Ivysaur followed behind. They'd only just got out into the corridor though when another explosion went off, and a voice came over on the speakers.
Self Destruct sequence initiated. Plasma build up commenced. Venting in five minutes.
Ash said something that made both Ivysaur and Squirtle look at him in shock. "That… she's willing to do that to get rid of us?"
Ash! Dexter added, over the same speakers. I can't stop the buildup. We need to get out of here – save ourselves and the Pokémon, get to the hold to evacuate. It's going to cause a forest fire, but… it's the best we can do. We have to.
Ash punched the wall, which left a dent. "Damn it… is there really nothing we can do?"
He began running, anyway, retracing his steps through the corridors towards where they'd first come in, and Ivysaur and Squirtle followed. "I hate this. I hate that I can't make a difference, can't make everything okay… nothing I can think of would work."
Nobody likes being unable to make things right, Ash.
Ash didn't say anything else. Not as tears glimmered in his eyes… not as all the ex-prisoners evacuated from the hold along with the Pokémon… not as Maurice and Tyl gave him and Pikachu a ride, not as Pidgeot and Charizard, tired but triumphant, took up an escort formation either side.
Not even when he looked back and saw nobody was left on board… but when he did, he saw a light shining off to the south.
Shaymin felt ill.
Just after the trainer had left, she'd taken the Gracidea's blessing, and managed to fly to the toxic city. None of the combatants above, mechanical or Pokémon, had noticed her, and she'd flown around the city twice in a tearing hurry to absorb every last drop of its pollution she could.
She was bloated with the poisons from the air and the water, almost too much even for her to handle, and her flowers were not grey but a pitch black that normally would have made her uncomfortable.
But she could do this. And the boy who'd taken her here, careful and polite and kind, was fighting in the airship…
Narrowing her eyes, she saw a vast gaggle of Pokémon leaving the listing ship to the north and west, shortly after a set of machines had flown off to the south. And at the back was a familiar Pidgeot.
She'd never leave without him, Shaymin knew that much. And he'd never leave anyone else.
The ship was empty.
She inhaled, flying higher to get a good angle.
"Seed… FLARE!"
A massive, glowing spike of green Grass-typed energy punched right through the airship. It did what a tornado had failed to do, what Charizard had failed to do, and it broke the airship's hullframe. The reactor vented out a blast of fire, setting the hulk alight if nothing on the scale it would have been… but there was more that Shaymin had to do.
Seed Flare was a two part thing.
She held the energy fizzing through her body, the other half of what she'd just expended to destroy the airship, and kept it contained. And kept it contained, until the last flaming fragment of the ship had fallen to the ground.
Then she detonated an enormous Grassy Terrain, just as supercharged as the Seed Flare attack itself had been, and the whole area regrew in an instant into a verdant vista of flowers, bushes and small trees.
The effect even reached the city itself, which found itself changed in a day from a dubiously habitable city of pollution into a fragrant and pretty settlement.
Property values almost instantly tripled.
"Ash got to save the day again!" Misty complained, folding her arms. "And we didn't get to do anything! It's not fair!"
Brock tried to hold in a snigger, because Misty was winking at him and making it quite clear that she wasn't serious in the slightest.
Then he looked down. "We should probably get to the ground, I don't think Psyduck can keep us up much longer.
Whoever said ducks were fast level flyers was a hack, if you ask me, Psyduck grumbled.
Meanwhile, to the south, a small flotilla of anti-gravity craft swept on southwards.
J was thinking hard about what had happened.
The Aura adept had been a nasty surprise, especially that he had a Riolu with him, and so had his Pokémon. They'd even beaten Salamence, though it had taken two of them working together… still, Salamence would have to improve before J would feel comfortable fighting the adept again.
And she'd lost the airship, as well as everything on it, which was going to be crippling to her business ventures for the next few years. Even that could be replaced, eventually, but her reputation was going to have taken a big hit.
And she'd have to correct that with a little judicious revenge, once she was ready. His Pokémon attacks wouldn't surprise her again, and her predictive goggles would give her an advantage next time.
"Chief," she said, getting the attention of the lead boat's navigator. "Head south, to the Orange Archipelago. We're going to go and visit my dear brother…"
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票