章節 78: 43,44
Everything in the lab was still and quiet, not even disturbed by the hum of fans or the flash of LEDs.
The voices outside filtered faintly through the door. "…this one."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I've come here plenty of times…"
A Pokémon said something in a rumbling voice.
"No, I'll do it."
"Wait!"
The door handle creaked, and Max pushed the lab door open.
"It wasn't locked," he said, stepping into the room.
Ash let the blue glow on his palm die away. "...I would have checked that eventually."
"No, you wouldn't," Pikachu replied. "Okay, we're here. What now?"
"I don't even know where to start," Rebecca said, staring at the complicated equipment.
"Hey, look, there's the meteorite – and that's you!" Tory said, suddenly excited, and looked at the shimmering projection of his friend.
The turquoise diamond pulsed, sending out a feeling of agreement.
"So I guess we need to get him out of there," Ash thought out loud. "Was that what your dad was trying to do?"
"I guess it must be," Tory agreed. "Do any of your Pokémon have any ideas? Latias?"
"I can use Healing Wish," Latias suggested.
Let's not do that unless we have to, it'll tire you out far too much… and we don't know if it would work anyway. That heals Pokémon, but I think Deoxys' problem is that he isn't a Pokémon at all any more.
Dexter beeped, planes trying to draw themselves in the air for a moment, then he abandoned the attempt. I hate this EM interference… Ash, can you point me at the lab gear?
"Sure," Ash agreed readily, shifting the camera on his Pokédex so it pointed at each computer in turn.
Okay… right… right, that's a laser grid… I think I know what this is for.
"Well, don't leave us in suspense," Max asked.
It is designed to feed energy into the core at a precise frequency, matching the frequency of Deoxys' own natural energy pattern.
"Right, so it amplifies the pattern to the point Deoxys can recover," Rebecca said. "Okay… so the first question is, does it work as it's supposed to."
I am not sure, Dexter admitted. We would need to run diagnostics – and the power is off.
"I can handle that," Pikachu said. "Okay, is there somewhere to plug me in?"
Ash looked around. "What am I looking for?"
"What's that?" Tory asked, looking up.
"I'm looking for somewhere we can plug Pikachu in."
Rebecca frowned, then opened a cupboard. "Here! There's some plugs here, at any rate… we should use this."
She frowned. "But… wait. How is this going to even be possible? We can't run the computers unplugged, that would defeat the point – you're going to have to power… however much of the city this is connected to!"
Pikachu's cheeks sparked. "Okay, then."
"Do you think you can do this, Pikachu?" Ash asked, seriously.
Pikachu thought about it. "Hmmm… okay. I know – being serious here – that I'm really powerful. I'm not sure I'm powerful enough on my own… but we don't have to do it with me on my own."
He tossed his head at Arc. "He can help."
Arc blinked. "What's that?"
"It'll work," Pikachu said, nodding.
It is worth a try, at least, Dexter admitted. Rebecca, please make what preparations you can. We are going to have Pikachu and Arc try to power the computers.
"Okay," Rebecca said, a little dubiously. She tapped on her laptop a bit, then hit enter, and took out an interface cable before plugging it into the main desktop. "Right, my Porygon's ready to try and get into the computers if they go on."
"Ready?" Pikachu asked, looking up at Arc.
"Sure," Arc agreed. He shook himself, fur rubbing against itself and producing a slightly greasy feel, and then electricity sparked on his horns.
"Hit me if I ask for it," Pikachu instructed… then took a deep breath, and channelled electricity into the power cable.
There was a crackling flash, and then the computer fans all turned on at once.
"Are you holding up okay?" Ash asked.
"Are they starting up?"
"Nothing yet," Rebecca said, reading it off the screen.
Pikachu increased the voltage, then signalled, and Arc hit him with a Thunderbolt – a continuous flowing blaze of electricity.
"He's in!" Rebecca reported suddenly. "Okay, there's some experiment notes… and a couple of instruction manuals..."
She looked over at the Electric-types. "And shutdown, Porygon!"
Pikachu held it a few seconds longer, until the screens went blank again, and let out a sigh. "Okay, I think I've got a feel for it now."
"That was awesome, Pikachu!" Ash said, picking him up and chuckling at the bzzt of static. "How much was he powering?"
Good question, Dexter admitted. It is hard to say.
"Give me a minute and Porygon can have a list of instructions for us," Rebecca said. "How long can you keep that up?"
"That much? Several minutes," Pikachu said, flipping his tail. "The more you ask for, the quicker I run out, though – and I don't know how long Arc can keep me topped up."
"Can't Plusle and Minun help too?" Tory asked. "They're Electric-types too."
"I've got Lightningrod!" Plusle said. "And Plus! So Minun and I can give you a lot of electricity!"
"Sounds good," Ash agreed. "Anything we can get, I guess."
"And I can electrocute the whole lab!" Arc barked. "You know, Electric Terrain!"
Ash and Max stared at him.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Max said, slowly. "So… no, not unless you can make it just affect the floor."
As they talked, Tory sat down on a chair.
"I really hope this works," he said, reaching up to almost-touch Deoxys. "I want to meet you – and I really want to help you get back to your friend."
Deoxys replied with a pulse of mental sensation, and Tory frowned.
"Other?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
Deoxys repeated the pulse, and then followed it with a flash of more familiar meaning.
"Other… friend?" Tory said. "Other friend? Oh – oh!"
He smiled. "I'm… thank you!"
"Okay, I think that's set up," Rebecca said, getting up and brushing her hands off. "Everything's plugged in where it should be, and the switches are in the right places."
"Great!" Tory replied, giving her a nod of thanks. "Okay, uh… how do we do this?"
"Plusle and Minun build up their charge," Ash began, pointing at them. "When they're ready, they and Arc fire it at Pikachu, who channels it into the power grid. Once it's working, then your Porygon activates the machinery and revives Deoxys!"
"Is that okay, Plusle? Minun?" Tory asked.
The two Electric-types exchanged a glance, then gave him thumbs-up.
Minun took the Magnet that Max offered her, then she and Plusle touched their tails to one another.
A spark jumped between them, and both Cheering Pokémon gasped. Then their cheeks began to glow as they channelled energy into one another, letting it increase in power as it flowed back and forth.
Plusle reached out her paw to Minun, and the two touched – and, as the electrical energy began to follow the loop instead of just going back and forth, the power jumped.
"Okay, Arc!" Max said. "Remember, don't use it all in one go. Hold back until Pikachu really needs a lot!"
"Right!" Mega-Arc woofed, his own coat fizzing with stored electricity.
Pikachu took a step, adjusting his stance, and then began to funnel power into the power system again.
His orange cheeks glowed faintly, and his ears shot off stray bolts which flowed back into his tail and rejoined his main voltage wells.
"Okay, that should get it working," he said.
"It looks like it's coming online," Rebecca reported, glued to the screen of her laptop. "What do we need to do, Porygon?"
Instructions flashed past, and Rebecca pointed. "Okay! Tory, you hit that switch there. Max, that one!"
"Right!" Max agreed, taking the lever switch and pulling it down with a click.
"Okay, the laser's in the circuit," Rebecca said, adjusting her glasses. "That means we need full power – now!"
Plusle and Minun fired. Mega Arc also fired.
The torrent of electrical energy poured into Pikachu, making his corona of power blaze, and several red bars began to turn green on Rebecca's laptop display.
"Okay, it's working," she said. "The laser's powering up!"
As the big ferry pulled away from LaRousse docks, Jenny sighed – looking back at her city.
"Sidney can't get here soon enough," she said, noticing a Mantine swimming in the water just offshore.
"Officer, look!" someone called, running over with his Blaziken. "There's still lights on!"
"But..." Jenny frowned. "They were off a moment ago. And the power's out. How..."
"Nearly there," Rebecca said. "Eighty-five percent."
Plusle suddenly collapsed, panting. Minun reached down to help her sister, but even their Plus-Minus synergy couldn't restore the exhausted Electric-type – and a moment later the Magnet's effects ran out, and Minun slumped to the floor as well.
"You did great," Tory assured them, then looked worriedly at the other two.
Arc's flanks were heaving like he'd run a marathon, and he was visibly drooping. Pikachu looked a little better, but it was anyone's guess how long he'd be able to keep it up without Arc's support.
"This is going to be too close," Rebecca said, keeping an eye on the Electric-types. "I wish we could be sure it's going to work."
I'll help! Jirachi's voice came. Wish granted!
"Jirachi?" Ash asked, startled. "Wasn't he in-"
"I think he was just asleep!" Max replied. "Jirachi, watch out-"
It was too late. Jirachi's tags flashed from inside Max's bag, and then the charging bar flashed through the last few percent in a few seconds.
A laser array flickered with light, pulsing green energy into the crystalline lozenge that was Deoxys' core.
The projection flickered, dissolving into light and flowing down to return to its body. A moment later, the whole room lit up.
"Sequence is nearly complete," Rebecca reported – then there was a pulse of psychic energy and the whole room shook.
Arc stumbled, caught off guard, and landed on Pikachu.
"Ow!"
"Did it work?" Tory asked, as the lasers shut down. "Deoxys? Are you..."
Success. Gratitude. Deep thanks.
A shining ball of light rose from the meteorite, developing arms and legs and a head, and the glass shattered.
"All right!" Ash said, grinning. "We did it!"
Rebecca unplugged her laptop now the job was done, and closed it. "Great work, Porygon!"
"What now?" Max asked. "I kind of lost track."
"We need to get this Deoxys to its friend, and get it to stop attacking the city," Ash reminded him. "Tory, can you ask him?"
"Can you?" Tory asked, looking up at Deoxys. "The other Deoxys is doing a lot of damage to the city..."
Affirmative. Safety. Agreement.
Deoxys turned, to examine the other Legendaries in the room. Gratitude. Recognition.
"It's a very strange dialect, isn't it..." Entei mused.
There was a mumble.
"What was that?" Rebecca asked.
Tory glanced around. "Wait. Where's your Pikachu, Ash?"
Another mumble, this time quite loud and from underneath the slumbering no-longer-Mega Arc.
"...I'd better get him off," Ash said.
May looked up. "The power's back on?"
"I guess whatever was stopping it from being on just… stopped stopping it?" Drew said. "Does that mean Deoxys is gone?"
It may mean that. But-
Ethan paused, and when he resumed there was a note of alarm in his voice. There is considerable EM traffic on the radio bands! It seems that the robots have gone haywire.
"What, again?" Brock asked. "What do we do?"
Ethan emitted several electronic unpleasantries in a sound like a modem trying to convey deep pain, then resumed talking. We should attempt to locate the centre of the disturbance and neutralize the control unit.
"Sounds like a plan!" May agreed. "Okay, Flygon, we're going to need your help!"
"It is dangerous out there, May," Blaziken said. "I don't want you to-"
"We need to help," May replied. "I know, you're afraid I might get hurt. But we can't let that stop us – come on!"
She pointed. "Geodude, let's get a hole in that wall! Mega Tyranitar, if you're able to fight then you go first – we're going to need to make sure Flygon's got a clear path to carry one of the passes up."
"Right… here we go," Ash said, straightening his legs.
Arc shifted, rolling off Pikachu, and the smaller Electric-type let out a relieved gasp.
"Couldn't you have just lifted him off?" Max asked, frowning. "I mean… Arc's not that heavy."
"Say that after you've been drained nearly dry then trapped under something four times your weight," Pikachu fired back. "Maybe I can get Raikou to sit on you…"
"Pikachu!" Ash admonished, making sure Arc was lying fairly comfortably before looking up. "I know you're feeling kind of upset..."
Pikachu waved a paw. "Sorry, I'm just… yeah, I was feeling really kind of cool for running that much of the city, and then all of a sudden..."
Ash picked him up. "Well, I still think it was cool."
Understanding.
"Yes, we don't mind visitors," Entei confirmed. "But Rayquaza is used to what comes into the atmosphere being a meteorite that might wipe out much of the life on the planet… so he is not inclined to be forgiving."
Comprehension. Communication. Query?
"Try Cresselia, she's usually on the moon," Entei recommended. "And she can help to schedule things. I would recommend Darkrai but he's Dark-type and you don't speak."
"This is really bizarre to watch," Rebecca said frankly.
"Deoxys!" Tory asked, drawing the attention of the Psychic-type. "We need to let your friend know that it's okay to stop tearing up the city. How can you do that?"
Remembrance. Planning.
Deoxys' tendrils unwound, forming a straight pair of red and blue wires as it changed to Attack Form. It gestured, and the ceiling blew up.
The floor above contained teaching rooms, and the floor above that was for maintenance. Both were badly damaged as Deoxys blew a hole straight to the roof of the building with a mighty hammer of psionic force.
"Whoa!" Max said, raising his arms over his head as a defence, and Latias' eyes glowed as she stopped a desk from falling down into the room.
"Deoxys," Tory groaned. "Could you try not to break things?"
Incomprehension.
"It's called property damage," Latias said, discarding the desk. "You're supposed to not break something if it's not yours in the first place – because that's not nice to the person who does own it."
Deoxys produced a red aurora for a moment. Embarrassment.
"It's not that bad," Tory hastened to reassure him. "I mean… uh, it's only a building. It's not too hard to fix."
Gratitude, Deoxys sent, and then raised his tendrils. Decision. Upwards motion.
A glow formed around almost all the trainers and Pokémon, and then Deoxys lost his concentration in surprise as four hundred robotic cubes poured in through the ceiling.
"Oh, great..." Max said, the moment before Entei roared out a blast of flame which detonated in the middle of the formation.
"Ash!" Latias called, pointing at her Mega Stone, and Ash unlimbered his staff to help her Mega Evolve too.
"Why are things never simple?" Pikachu asked. "I really hoped we weren't going to have to deal with the robots..."
Charizard rolled, dodging away from a pack of Deoxys, and used a Fire Blast to destroy four of them before the rest could switch to Defence form and endure the attack.
Making hay while the sun shone, he dove away from the slow Deoxys, and then blinked in surprise as he saw the hordes of robots forming in the streets.
"...whatever," he decided, shrugging his wings, and blasted a quick Inferno down at them to get their attention before flying just feet above the robotic army.
Pulling up and glancing back, he spotted that several Deoxys had been lured into going too low.
"I love it when that works," Charizard grinned.
Wings crackling, he looked around for somewhere else to join in.
Blue light blazed down a street, scattering cuboidal robots like ninepins.
"Great shot!" May said. "Okay, Mega Tyranitar – sit back and recharge for a bit. Beautifly, Swablu – what can you see?"
Swablu dove down to fly around her head. "I've got no idea how cities like this even work," he admitted. "There's some Deoxys coming from that way, but I don't know where to start looking for where we should go."
"That's okay," May told him. "Just do your best."
Swablu nodded, hovering for a moment, and headed skywards again.
"What kind of attacks do you even use on robots?" Drew asked, kicking one. "I mean… are they Steel type or what?"
"I think the best thing to do is just use attacks which knock them out of the way," Brock suggested. "Iron Tail, Mega Steelix!"
Mega Steelix used Iron Tail, and scattered more of the 'bots.
"They're not dangerous, exactly," he added. "Just really in the way. And I'm kind of afraid a Deoxys will get us when we're distracted..."
A Deoxys came hurtling towards them, passed about ten feet over their heads, hit a building, and dissolved.
"Brock! May!"
Lucario skidded to a halt, panting. "How are things?"
"Not bad," Brock told him. "Considering. Where's Ash?"
"He went on ahead," Lucario replied. "We stayed to slow them down."
The wave of his hand took in Metagross, Houndoom, Mega Heracross and the others.
"No Entei?" Brock asked.
"He took Rebecca onwards," Lucario summarized. "Okay, how do we deal with the robots?"
I have an idea, Ethan told them. These robots must all be connected to the one giving orders. I can use that to determine where the central node is.
His scanner began to flash erratically. The information codes should not be that complicated to intercept, they are using wireless. I should be able to access-
Mega Steelix used Iron Tail again, sweeping away a wave of cube-bots that were about to come crashing down on Mega Tyranitar.
I was working on one of those! Ethan called, annoyed. I will have to start over from the beginning.
"I never realized the robots were a defence system," Tory said, as Entei smashed one to pieces with powerful blows of his paws.
"I don't think they are, I think they just went haywire," Rebecca told him. "If they were a defence system they'd be able to do something more sophisticated than this."
"Can't we get Jirachi to fix it?" Ash asked, looking over to Max.
Sorry, Ash, Jirachi replied, yawning. I didn't know how much energy that wish would take… I'm exhausted.
"I guess that's not surprising, since it seems to have fixed the entire power grid," Rebecca said – before folding up her laptop. "We can't just stay here forever, sooner or later the robots are going to decide to build a roof. What now?"
"We get Deoxys to Deoxys!" Ash said. "Tory, can you ask Deoxys to lift the others again? Mega Latias can't carry everyone."
Understanding, Deoxys sent, and everyone except for Ash and Pikachu – Entei, Rebecca, Plusle and Minun, Tory, Max, Jirachi and even the unconscious Arc – were lifted a few inches with a glow of light surrounding them.
"Why are you assuming I'll carry you?" Mega Latias asked innocently, then giggled. "Okay, climb on!"
Ash did so, cradling Pikachu against his chest with one arm, and both Psychic-types lifted the group towards the roof.
Emerging into clear air, they looked around with surprise at the city.
"I didn't realize there were this many robots," Rebecca blinked. "Is this all the spares in the city as well?"
"Must be," Max agreed. "Okay, where's the original other Deoxys? Ash, can you tell?"
Ash closed his eyes, looking around, then shook his head. "Sorry, there's Deoxys substitutes everywhere – I can't tell."
"Can you make substitutes to look?" Tory asked his friend. "Is that something you're strong enough to do?"
In reply, Deoxys spread its arms. It shimmered, producing a dozen duplicates, and they all shifted to Speed form before spreading out.
They hung there for several seconds, then Ash pointed. "Hey, look – it's Charizard! Hey, Charizard!"
"Ash, he's almost half a mile away," Max pointed out. "And it's pretty noisy anyway."
"Oh, right…"
One of the Speed doubles flashed back over to Deoxys and clicked.
Recognition! Deoxys pulsed, and began to move over – with the trainers and Pokémon bobbing along behind. Friendship!
Mega Latias darted ahead, firing a blast of Psybeam to ward off an Attack form which looked like it was charging up an attack, and then – in a surprisingly short space of time – they were approaching the purple Deoxys.
Friend! Deoxys pulsed.
The purple Deoxys froze for a moment, then turned around. Friend?
Friend, Green Deoxys agreed.
Green Deoxys deposited the friends on a nearby rooftop, and then spread its arms.
Purple Deoxys spread its arms as well.
Ash quietly told Charizard not to attack them.
Two aurorae pulsed out from the pair of Psychic-types, spreading and intermingling.
Then approximately a thousand cube robots tried to hit them both, which spoiled the mood.
Okay, that is it! Ethan declared. Mega Tyranitar, could you grab me one of those robots?
The Dark-type picked one up, kicking a few others bouncing off down the street, and lumbered back over to May.
"What's this for?" he asked.
Whenever I try to hack into one, you or Mega Steelix or Lucario or someone kicks it into the distance and I lose the connection. So hold still!
Blaziken ducked an attack from a Deoxys substitute which was still around, backflipped onto a street light, and hit the Deoxys with a Flamethrower which plumed out of a sweeping high kick.
He landed back down, spotted the robot, and was about to protest when Lucario headed him off with an upraised palm. "It'll be okay, Blaziken. Let Ethan do his thing."
"I wasn't going to say anything," Blaziken muttered unconvincingly.
Okay, let's see… Ethan vocalized absently. And… there!
The 'bot twitched, and rose a few inches into the air. The running lights changed, going from red to a pale pastel blue.
"What did you do?" Drew asked, watching it apprehensively.
It is now under my control, Ethan explained. Excuse me a moment.
His screen dimmed slightly, and the cube-bot spun off towards a group of other cube-bots.
It was easy to tell which one it was at first, the blue light marking it out. Then it disappeared for a moment, and emerged once more.
"How's that supposed to help?" Brock asked, curious. "Where's the control robot?"
I have determined the location of the control robot, Ethan told him. This, however, is something else which may be useful.
"Wait, which one of the blue ones did you do?" May said, looking closer. "I can see at least three."
There are currently sixteen, Ethan explained smugly. Now thirty-two.
"Are you making them take over other robots?" asked Roserade. "Is that possible?"
I have had to rewrite a few subroutines to optimize my multithreading, but yes, Ethan replied. I am using most of the processing capability of the robots to run them, and the remainder is going to spreading my control program.
By now, most of the swarm nearest them had gone blue. As the remaining red robots got chased down and converted, Ethan made the remainder – several hundred strong – rise into the air, then form a large disc out of two layers of floating cubes.
Climb on, he suggested. Do not worry, it can take the weight of even the big Mega Evolved Pokémon. It is-is-is well designed.
"Ethan!" May gasped, looking down at his chassis. "Are you okay?"
Difficulties integrating processing threads, Ethan told her. I am already applying a patch. I will-be fine.
May looked dubious, but got on anyway. "Uh… make sure it stays low, okay? Just in case."
As the others climbed aboard, more blue cubes flowed in to make their floating disc, and then it rose smoothly into the air and began moving through the streets.
"Am I still needed?" Flygon asked, looking over at Brock before glancing towards Ethan. "If this disc thing can fly, I mean."
"It's probably still good if we have you for backup," Brock decided. "We don't know if what Ethan's doing is going to work that close to the core robot."
I will notice if my control is being overridden, Ethan assured him.
They passed between two skyscrapers, one of them with several windows broken.
"The sad thing is that the city's actually quite well off compared to last time," Drew sighed. "Hopefully we'll get this sorted out before Rayquaza shows up."
"Yeah," May agreed. "I mean – if it wasn't for the Rayquaza thing, and for how Deoxys needed to be revived, we might have been able to just stay away from LaRousse."
"I believe it would likely have followed us there," Lucario said. "Though having this battle in the countryside might have been easier on the local property values."
"There it is!" May said, pointing. "That's the core robot. Okay, Ethan, how close can you get us?"
Increased signal traffic, the electronic Pokémon reported. I believe we have been noticed… we may not be able to get as close as I had hoped.
"Okay," May said, reaching into her pocket. "Uh… where is it… here! Flygon, can you take this to the robot? Just hold it up and make it scan it!"
"I can do that," Flygon agreed, taking May's pass.
His wings buzzed, and he pushed off – just before some more cubes came towards Ethan's floating platform.
Flygon dodged left, wove right, went underneath a pair of cubes which seemed to be aiming to knock him out of the sky, and pulled up to hover just in front of the main robot.
Knocking one of the cube-bots out of the way with a tail-swipe, he held the card up. "Okay, here goes!"
There was a beep.
The main robot scanned the card, processed it, and got back a result. Welcome: May Maple.
Then it went right back to shooting cubes at Flygon.
"What?" May asked, as Flygon used Dragon Pulse to blast his way clear and dove for the street. "But that worked last time! That's not fair!"
"How was that supposed to work?" Drew asked.
"Well, last time… uh, the scan of the card meant the robots had to… something about a server?" May looked at Brock for help.
"It has to check the server to verify the card, so it means it can be reset from the main control room," Brock filled in.
"Did you contact anyone to try that from the main control room?" Lucario asked.
There was a silence.
"Ah," Brock said. "We may have a problem."
No we don't, Ethan insisted, and their platform hit the ground with a grating thud. As of now, I hereby declare there to be no problem at all.
His projector fizzed, and May grabbed it out of her pocket. "Ethan!"
Ethan materialized in a flash of blue and purple light, forcing smoothly rendered curves and shapes through the electromagnetic interference, and his eyes flashed. Full factory reset, full scope. No exceptions.
All the cubes stopped working. They came to a halt in the sky, lights dying as they went completely black, and then began to lower themselves to the ground.
For several seconds, it rained robots.
Mega Steelix raised his tail to cover the other humans and Pokémon, stopping them from being hit by falling cubes, and then slowly lowered it once the cascade was over.
"...Ethan?" May asked, blinking. "What the heck just happened to you?"
Ethan accessed a nearby security camera and viewed himself from the outside.
Ah, he said. I seem to have discovered how Porygon look once they have evolved.
"What's that even called?" Drew asked.
Porygon...X? Ethan suggested. Porygon 2, now with improved pixel shader?
No-one laughed.
Kris gets my jokes… he muttered.
"I guess it's over," Tory said, as Deoxys slowly lowered them to the ground. "Or… I hope it's over."
"Unless Rayquaza shows up in the next ten minutes, it probably is," Ash agreed.
He got off Mega Latias' back, and relaxed the mental connection that was keeping his Pokémon Mega-Evolved.
Max frowned, then reached for his belt and clicked a Pokéball. Arc vanished into it, and he let out a sigh of relief. "Good..."
"The Pokéballs work again?" Rebecca asked. "It would have been nice to have them before, but better late than never..."
"Yeah," Ash agreed, returning Charizard. "I wonder where the others are?"
He looked around, then pointed. "Over there – come on!"
"Wait!" Tory asked. "I – sorry, but… I wanted to say goodbye."
He turned to Deoxys. "I guess this is goodbye, right? I mean… your friend came down to help you, so… now you can go home."
Deoxys-green turned to Deoxys-purple, and they exchanged a long look of wordless – and probably wireless – communication.
Then Deoxys-green returned his gaze to Tory. Goodbye, friend. Selfhood. Visit.
"You'll visit?" Tory said, a smile breaking out. "Great! I mean – I'll look forward to it!"
Anticipation, Deoxys-green agreed. Softness. Arrival.
"Yeah, I guess crash-landing isn't a great way to arrive..."
Preparation. Information. Guidance.
Tory tried to work out what that meant. "You… want me to help other Deoxys look around?"
Deoxys nodded.
"Hey, what about us?" Plusle asked.
"Yeah!" Minun agreed. "Can we stay with you?"
Tory looked down at hearing their voices, then remembered Ash could translate. "Uh – what did they say?"
"I guess you've got a couple of Pokémon who'd really like you to train them," Ash smiled. "What do you think?"
"He's not allowed to say no!" Plusle insisted. "Unless he really, really wants to, I guess..."
Tory looked at them, and seemed to be thinking hard for a moment. Then he stepped back a pace, and looked over at Max.
"Do you have a couple of spare Pokéballs?" he asked.
Plusle and Minun blinked, then looked at one another, then started dancing. "Yay!"
"You won't regret it!" Minun agreed, and practically jumped at the first Pokéball Tory got from Max.
Plusle went into the second, and they stayed in for just long enough to let the capture register before coming right back out again and hugging onto Tory's legs.
"Hey, slow down!" Tory asked, laughing. "We probably need a trip to the Pokémon centre, anyway..."
"Actually, that's probably the best idea," Max agreed. "Arc's kind of exhausted… is there one that's still open?"
So, you see, Mewtwo explained, floating along placidly with his arms crossed. I feel that it's an unprecedented opportunity to show the reality of Legendary Pokémon to the world. In particular, I think that if humans know about you then they're less likely to annoy you.
"I can see the logic," Rayquaza admitted, tail lashing. "But I also feel that if humans knew about us – in greater detail – then they might come after us more."
You're talking to someone who tried that, Mewtwo shrugged. It did not work. You need to have allies, because your enemies are the kinds of people who seek you out anyway – and if they're the only ones who know about you, you have a problem.
The Psychic-type made a dismissive gesture. But I've kept you talking for hours. I suppose it'd be best to just ask again when the time comes for interviews.
"Perhaps so," Rayquaza agreed. "In any case, I suppose it'll be interesting to see how Legendary Pokémon interact with humans these days."
In great quantity and usually around one specific person, Mewtwo replied. Anyway. I will see you at a later date.
With that, Mewtwo vanished.
Rayquaza did a slow roll. "Perhaps it would be a good idea..." he mused. "After all, Groudon and Kyogre have been quiet lately."
"So… uh, I guess the big question is – what happened?" Ash asked.
I am not entirely sure myself, Ethan replied, floating over the table. I applied multiplexing in order to run multiple robots, and the optimization process seems to have triggered something.
"Hopefully the others won't have to fight swarms of robots to evolve," Max said. "It'd be kind of… inconvenient..."
"We should tell Dr. Akihibara about it," May decided. "That way he'll be able to… uh, do something with the information, I guess. Maybe tell if there's a way to recreate the situation without the robots?"
"It's worth a try," Brock nodded.
"So," Max added. "How does it feel?"
Smoother, Ethan decided after a little thought. My basic processes run more smoothly and without as much impact on my CPU, so I can multithread better. Not faster, but more subjects at once.
Now you're just making us jealous, Kris noted blandly.
"...so, you would say it went more smoothly than last time?" Glaceon asked, blinking. "That's quite a shock, if you don't mind my saying."
"Last time it lasted all night," Blaziken informed her. "And into the next morning. And there was Rayquaza. So yes, this was relatively smooth, if you don't count May getting herself into-"
"Into what?" Beautifly asked him. "Into the kind of situation where she can help people?"
She fluttered down to float in front of Blaziken. "Our trainer is a brave young woman, Blaziken. That means she's not going to live a perfectly safe life. And it's perfectly right for you to tell her something is the wrong idea… but if you try to moan about it, or insist she follows the course of action you approve of, then you're stifling her."
Blaziken sighed. "It's not like that. I just want to make sure she's safe."
"And do that by protecting her, not trying to shut her in a Pokémon centre and never letting her out!" Beautifly replied sharply.
Blaziken's cheeks heated – more than usual, that is – but he said nothing.
"Would you feel better if you had a Blazikenite?" Glaceon asked.
"...probably. A little. I don't know."
"Because a trainer with a Key Stone has to be close to their Pokémon to start the transformation, and has to keep their Key Stone with them to keep it working," Glaceon pointed out. "That tells me that the trainer shouldn't just hide and send the Pokémon out to battle."
She smirked. "Besides, Ethan's going to keep her safe any time that we're not stuck inside an anti-Pokéball anti-materialization field."
"Okay, I'm here!" Sidney called, stepping off his Sharpedo's back and grabbing the saddle. "What's the trouble?"
A Jenny looked up. "Sidney? Of the Elite Four?"
"That's me!" Sidney confirmed, returning Sharpedo. "Where's the problem?"
"...you're kind of late," she apologized. "It's all sorted out."
Sidney blinked, then sighed. "Okay, whatever. I'm just going to book a flight home..."
"You know," Ash said, looking back at LaRousse as the sun set. "I'm kind of glad we didn't have to pay for how much of the city we damaged. I guess it was less than last time, but… you know."
"Yeah," May agreed. "It's impressive how quickly they got everyone out of the way."
"That's one thing they do right in LaRousse," Drew told them. "Since the whole city's been built to a central plan, they prepared evacuation plans at the same time they were designing it – rather than having to sort of guess all the time."
"I guess it might have been a bit of a problem that all their robots broke, though..." Max added. "Any idea what's going to happen to them?"
"I'm sure they've got a backup somewhere," May said.
She was about to continue, but Brock cleared his throat. "Uh, guys?"
Ash looked, and blinked. "Huh."
Then he sighed. "Oh, great, I'm going to have to explain now..."
"Ash," Ho-Oh said, wings folded and with a disapproving expression on his beak. "Do you want to tell me why you didn't even try to get hold of me?"
44
"...the point is," Ash insisted, "we thought that the Deoxys thing would start tomorrow. Not right then!"
Ho-Oh just kept glaring at him. "And would you have called on me if you had known?"
Ash shook his head. "Uh… no, I guess not. Actually, we had a pretty good team available right then..."
"Chosen One, I feel it is a mutual honour that you are the one to bear me into battle. But that requires that you actually do it." Ho-Oh shuffled his wings, and used his beak to pick up a garlic-browned mushroom from his plate.
Lifting it into the air with a quick motion, he snaffled it up. "I will admit, the food is good… but, while pleasant, there is relatively little honour in sauté."
"There is a bit, right?" Brock asked.
"I think it is largely a case of not being able to get hold of you on short notice," Lucario said, in an attempt at tact. "The same applies for Mewtwo, for example. Or Lugia."
"Didn't Lugia actually bring himself along to help us out once?" Pikachu asked.
"That's just cheating," Ho-Oh muttered. He took another mushroom, swallowing it with a sigh of happiness. "But the point is well taken. I shall simply have to make sure that I put my opinion across on the matter forcefully enough."
He turned to Entei. "Did you enjoy yourself, at least?"
"I did," Entei confirmed. "The many Deoxys provided an interesting challenge, and I was able to make good use of Sacred Fire, especially in blast form – it is a truly formidable move."
"With many variations," Ho-Oh confirmed.
The phoenix turned his gaze back to Ash. "So. Have you anything further to say?"
"Actually..." Ash picked Dexter up. "Can I have a map, please?"
Dexter drew it in the air with his projector.
"So… okay, we're a couple of days from Lilycove," Ash said, then looked closer. "I think?"
"Seems right," Pikachu confirmed. "Thanks for the giant glowing arrow, Dexter."
No problem, Dexter said amiably.
"Hey, May?" Ash called, looking up.
"What is it, Ash?" May replied, sounding frazzled. "My brother's stupid Ghost-type switched my hairbrush with Skitty's one!"
"...ouch," Brock said faintly.
"Do you want to do the Contest in Lilycove?" Ash checked.
"What? No, my hair's going to be – no, I'm fine, I've got three ribbons. I'll be fine."
"Great!" Ash said. "So, what about that, Ho-Oh?"
Ho-Oh considered it.
"I'm not sure it's much of a challenge, now that it actually comes up..."
"Actually, with how Contests work, even the battling requires skill more than strength," Brock pointed out. "Because of the points system."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "And we can work on a weather appeal thing – that's okay, right?"
"Storm's thunder and blizzard's snow, swept away by the rainbow?" Ho-Oh asked, clearly thinking about it. "I suppose I could agree with that."
He looked over at Entei. "I'm afraid I may need you to take up a task for me, though. I was going to ensure that all is well on Mirage Island – you know the way?"
"All seven of them, yes," Entei confirmed. "Ash, I may need to set off now."
"No, stay the night," Ho-Oh told him. "It's not that urgent, just… something to be done soon."
"I understand," Entei nodded.
"Can't Suicune and Raikou handle it?" Ash asked. "Are they busy?"
"Raikou is," Ho-Oh said, finishing his mushrooms. "But Suicune is, as I understand it, at Pallet by now."
The swift Water-type's paws padded on dew-soaked grass.
"It's strange how fast somewhere can become home," she mused, smiling up at Swellow as her Flying-type friend swept in to fly alongside for a minute.
"Hey, Suicune, long time no see!" Swellow chirped. "Where have you been?"
"A land which was once known as the Three Kingdoms," Suicune told her. "They still don't like us over there. There was an… interesting… discussion with the local Reshiram."
"I guess that explains the soot on your flank," Swellow admitted. "Blue Flare?"
"Correct," Suicune nodded. "Of course, he regretted it."
"That's what I like to hear!" Swellow grinned.
She pulled up, climbing into the sky, and did a circuit. "I'm heading off to bed," the Flying-type explained. "It's late anyway."
"I'll probably do the same once I've had some hot cocoa," Suicune said, loping towards the lab.
"Okay – you can tell us about the fight tomorrow!" Swellow suggested, flying over to perch on her usual branch for the night.
"I'll be sure to," Suicune agreed.
"Hello?" Suicune called softly, stopping in front of the lab back door.
She reached up, bracing herself on the frame, and pulled the handle down with a click – opening it, and letting her pace inside.
Pushing the door closed again with her rear left foot, Suicune looked around. This area was the one that Tracey had set up for Pokémon who wanted to be indoors overnight, and it looked fairly empty tonight – just Torkoal, some of the Houndour and Totodile watching a movie.
Suicune looked again, and saw that Mawile was sitting on the sofa – snoozing lightly, huddled into a blanket with one of the younger Houndour.
Smiling, and moving softly so as to not disturb them, she crept through to the kitchen.
"Evening," she said, nodding to her double and to Entei's doppelganger. "How's things?"
"Not bad," the shiny Suicune replied, nodding back. "Cocoa?"
"What else, this late?" the elder Legendary smiled. "Is there still some of the caramel?"
"I think so," shiny-Entei said.
"If I'd really, deeply known about this kind of convenience… I'd probably have considered capture years ago," Suicune chuckled.
She poured out some milk with care, and put the mug in the microwave.
"How did your trip go?" shiny-Suicune asked, tilting her head. "Anything good happen?"
"Let's just say that there's a very wet Reshiram who won't be fighting within three miles of a lake any time soon," Suicune replied.
"That move you worked out? Or a variation?"
"Variation," Suicune told her. "I'll show you some time. Where's Raikou?"
"Which one?" shiny-Entei shrugged. "If you mean your brother, he's probably still out training..."
He sat down, and the shiny Suicune padded over and licked his cheek.
"That's… kind of strange for me to watch," Suicune admitted, as Entei nuzzled back. "I know Molly kind of created you as being… well, her Mom and Dad, not as brother and sister… but you still look a lot like my brother, and you still look a lot like me."
"Sorry," shiny-Suicune said, taking a pace back. "If you want, we can-"
"No, no, it's a problem with me not a problem with you." Suicune looked up at the ding of the microwave, and retrieved her drink. "I'll just leave you in peace."
"Thank you," her doppelganger replied, with a smile. "I know, it's a little strange… but it is how we feel. And while we were created with it… that doesn't make it wrong."
"I agree," Suicune nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I have the second half of a film to watch."
"I'm not really sure the extent to which having me there would have helped," Absol said, shrugging. "I mean – yes, I am a Dark-type, but by the sounds of things you didn't really need my help."
She frowned. "Which is probably why I didn't get a ping on my danger senses."
Lucario waved a paw back and forth. "I'm sure you would have been a useful aid if you were there – if nothing else, we did get blindsided when Deoxys attacked."
"But that's the thing," Absol replied. "Everyone was out of their Pokéball anyway, or as close as makes no difference. And you got things handled so quickly that no-one got hurt – not really."
"Fate is strange, is it not?" Lucario asked.
"You don't need to tell me, I've been studying it for years..."
"I'd really like to hear the other half of that conversation," Drew said softly.
Absol's ears perked, and she looked. "Hello?"
"Oh – sorry, I didn't realize you could hear me," the Coordinator winced. "I was just saying – I feel like I'd like to know the other half of that conversation. Because I had an Absol, back before… later… you know."
The Dark-type nodded. "Lucario? Would you mind translating?"
"I don't mind at all," Lucario told her.
"Right. Well…" Absol paused. "I'll admit that after being around humans who can speak Pokémon, I'm used enough to talking that it's a little hard to frame how I want to say this – when it's being translated, I mean. But..."
She gave Drew a long look.
"I think I can see why your Absol followed you," she said. "Why he or she chose – and it always is a choice with Absol, we can after all sense danger – to be your ally and partner."
Drew nodded, reaching to the corner of his eye for a moment. "He," he said. "My Absol was, will be, male."
"As for the Flygon you have also mentioned… well, I'm sure you were good friends. And will be again."
"Can you tell?" Drew asked. "Can you see if I'll meet them?"
"Alas, I cannot," Absol replied with a shake of her head. "I can only foresee disaster and the lack thereof."
She turned, looking up at the sky. "Celebi, now, is a different matter entirely. I'm sure one of them will be handling it."
"I guess that's good to know," Drew said, with a small smile. "Thanks."
He shook his head. "And now I wish even more that I'd had a chance to talk to my Absol… before, I mean."
Absol inclined her head to him. "Regrets like that can be the hardest to deal with."
Drew didn't reply, and they looked into the starry heavens above.
"Are you going to be competing in this Contest in Lilycove?" Lucario asked, curious.
"Not sure yet," Drew replied. "I know Ash is bringing Ho-Oh, and all of my Pokémon are… kind of flammable."
"Okay!" May said, addressing both Ash and Ho-Oh. "The most important thing when you're doing a Contest is the Appeal!"
"What about the battling?" Ash asked.
"Most important for you," May amended. "Battle isn't much of a question for a Legendary Fire-type like Ho-Oh, and I've seen your battles – spectacle is certainly not something you need help with. But what were you thinking of for the routine?"
"Uh..." Ash glanced at Ho-Oh, who shrugged. "I was kind of thinking something like the bit in the Silver Conference. At the opening ceremony."
"Hm," May said, then shook her head. "No good. It was on TV, and people will have made the connection – they'll know it's a thing you've done before. Novelty is key!"
"So… what then?" Ash asked.
"Don't look at me," Pikachu shrugged. "It's your Ribbon, not mine."
Ash frowned. "Uh… how big is a contest hall?"
"The one in Lilycove is especially large," May said. "So Ho-Oh will fit, at least. But I don't think he'll have much chance to fly very high."
"See, I was thinking maybe we could do something with his fire," Ash explained. "You can set yourself on fire, right?"
Ho-Oh replied by blandly initiating Flare Blitz, resulting in a curtain of flame and a pulse of warm air like being slapped in the face by a pillow.
"Right!" Ash nodded. "And… huh, wait, I might need fireproof clothes..."
"Ash?" May asked, confused. "What… I know I used fire batons, but are you talking about actually being in direct contact with Ho-Oh when he is on fire?"
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I'm pretty sure that's going to look good..."
"It'll look amazing if you can do it without catching fire," May summarized. "What's your plan for not catching fire?"
"Why bother asking?" Lucario said. "You know the answer is going to be Aura."
"Not just Aura..." Ash protested. "Okay, while we see if we can do that… I guess we should see if this works. Uh… May? Can I borrow some Razor Leaf from Venusaur?"
"This is either going to be great or a complete disaster," Pikachu decided. "I wonder if Ash will end up as the Contest Conflagrator."
"Okay… I think I've got an idea, Casper," Max said. "You know how you're trying to get a good fighting style?"
Casper turned upside down, floating with his head down and his tail up. "Well… more like I just don't have a good one right now."
"Yeah, but I was thinking – can't Ghost-types make illusions?"
"Some of us can, I guess," Casper agreed. "But I'm not really very good at that kind of thing… why, did you think it would be a good fighting style for me?"
"Well, it was an idea..." Max frowned. "But there is another one, I guess. Or, another one which works with how you're kind of a sneaky, trick-playing type."
The Shuppet allowed that he was something of a prankster.
"So… you can go underground, or phase through things with illusions. So if you hid underground and popped out to hit a target with..." Max waved a hand. "I don't know, Night Shade or Spite or something..."
"...then I could stop them from ever managing to hit me!" Casper agreed. "I like the sound of that!"
"And I'm pretty sure that one of Ash's Pokémon has Shadow Ball – well, Ash knows, but… so you could learn that."
"It'd be nice to-"
There was a strangled yelp.
"Huh, that took longer than I thought..." Casper said, tilting his head, as Cinder sneezed her way out of the brush.
"What was it this time?" Max asked.
"I put some really smelly aniseed stuff in a water balloon," Casper told him. "I guess Cinder just found it!"
The Mightyena turned, still sneezing, and glared at Casper.
"...what was that you said about hiding underground?" Casper asked. "Uh, I might just go ahead and do that..."
"Phew," Ash said, sitting down and brushing some small-A ash off his clothes. "That was kind of..."
"Sorry," Ho-Oh mumbled. "I sneezed."
"I know what will cheer you two up!" May said. "Lunch!"
"...yeah, that'd do," Ash admitted. "What's for lunch?"
"Brock's doing your food," May told him. "But as for Ho-Oh – in memory of the first time I made some Pokéblocks, which was around here somewhere, I'm making some special batches!"
"Pokéblocks… hm," the Legend of the Storm's End said, looking interested. "I've never actually tried any, but I find myself interested in doing so."
"Great!" May said. "Okay… hm, let's see..."
She got out a notepad. "What kinds of food do you like?"
"Well, I'm partial to herbs-"
"Bitter, sour, spicy, sweet or dry?" May clarified. "Beyond that it's more or less up to interpretation."
"Oh. Well… I suppose I quite like bitter things..." Ho-Oh frowned. "That is, when they're burned."
"...I'll put you down as bitter and dry," May decided. "What kind of Pokéblocks do your other Pokémon prefer, Ash?"
Ash shrugged. "I mostly don't remember."
May gave him a look, then sighed. "Okay, I'll just make a big pile of all kinds. Can you get everyone out looking for berries? I think I'm going to need them..."
"How's that?" Lucario asked, pulling on the cords.
"Great!" Houndoom replied, tail wagging, and shook the panniers to be sure they would stay on. "Okay, see you in a bit!"
He loped off through the underbrush.
"I see he's got a way to collect berries," Pikachu said. "What about you?"
Lucario replied by using Sacred Sword, turning his right wrist spike into a claw, then a shimmering blade, and cloaking it in blazing blue energy on top of that.
"That'll do," Pikachu agreed. "I'll just use Iron Tail, to be honest..."
He picked up a basket and bounced up to halfway up a big Iapapa tree. Looking around for a convenient spot, he hung the basket on a projecting branch and examined the berry clusters handing above.
His legs tensed, and he burst into motion – jumping off the tree, curling up into a ball, and spinning with his jagged Iron Tail outermost.
It sawed through the stem holding the berries up with ease, and as they began to fall Pikachu kicked off another one of the many spreading branches of the big tree to come right back at the bunch from another direction.
He gave the berries a kick, knocking the whole bunch off course and right towards the basket.
Which promptly broke as several berries almost as big Pikachu himself went straight through the weave.
"Whoops..." Pikachu winced. "Look out!"
Lucario dug his sword-blade into the side of the tree and used it as a lever to come rushing upwards. He spun, catching two berries in each hand, and drove his left wrist spike into the tree along with his chest spike.
Using both points to slow himself, he skidded to a halt just above the ground.
"There," he said, putting them into a basket each. "Four large Iapapa berries – delivered to the ground without making them explode."
"All right, all right..." Pikachu muttered, hopping from branch to branch and landing back on the ground. "See any other good trees?"
"There's an Oran berry one over there," Lucario suggested. "Don't forget to get a replacement basket."
He waited until Pikachu had gone, then planted one hindpaw on the side of a tall tree with a pulse of his Aura to stick to it. Collecting three baskets and slinging them over his elbow, he climbed up the side of the tree and began to pick small Micle berries.
"Or you could just do this," he added – quietly. "It's much simpler."
Houndoom loped through the underbrush, eyes alert for any sign of a berry bush.
Spotting one, he changed course slightly to reach it. His paws balanced on a log for a moment, then he slowed a little and trotted forwards – bringing his tail up and forwards, so it hovered over his right shoulder.
The sharp, spade-like tip flicked out to cut berry stems on the move, and the berries he cut free fell neatly into his pair of panniers.
"I wonder if there's something sweet nearby," he said, sniffing. "Aha!"
Loping over to the bush, feeling pleased with himself, he sliced off some berries.
Then a large hand reached out and picked up his panniers, lifting Houndoom as well.
"Hey!" Houndoom yelped. "Put me down!"
The owner of the hand shook the panniers out into its mouth, belched, and began to shake a tree to get bananas down.
Houndoom felt rather put-upon. And put-down, as he was placed none-too-gently back on the forest floor. Upside down.
"...there we go," Donphan said, using his trunk to place his final basket on the table. "Just Houndoom left, I think..."
"Yes," Lucario agreed. "And here he comes now."
He frowned, squinting. "Houndoom?"
"A Snorlax just ate all the berries I'd gathered!" Houndoom complained. "That's not fair!"
"But couldn't you just stop the Snorlax?" Lucario asked. "And then get your berries back?"
"I mean she ate them all," Houndoom clarified. "In one gulp. While holding me upside down to get them out of the panniers."
"You mean she got a hot dog take out?" Casper asked, brightening.
"I'm a Dark-type, you know..." Houndoom muttered.
"I'll help," Max offered. "Hey, Guy, you want to come with?"
"Certainly," Guy agreed. "I'm sure Arc could handle it, but Normal-types are a speciality."
"Okay, so..." May chopped up some berries, picking three of the sweeter ones for her first go. "There's Berry Blender machines which do this a bit quicker, but someone in Johto taught me the way to do it old-style so we'll do that this time."
"Why's that?" Pikachu asked. "I mean… I know we don't have one of the machines, but..."
May glanced down at Ethan for confirmation of the translation, then resumed. "Basically, it's because I'm mainly checking what flavours you all like this time. I've got a few guesses, but I think we may as well work it out this way before making some of the official ones."
She blushed. "Besides, it means I look like I can guess exactly what you want when we actually go to the Pokéblock shop to make the big batch..."
Skitty hopped onto the table. "Like… you could just, like, do it the easy way."
"I know," May replied. "But this way is kind of more – hey, stop it!"
Skitty swallowed the Nanab berry. "What?"
"Don't eat the ingredients!"
"Like… guh, that's totally not cool."
"Excuse me," Guy asked. "Snorlax?"
The Snorlax snored.
"Hello?" he said, more loudly. "I would like to speak with you!"
Still no response.
"What are you going to do?" Max asked.
By way of reply, Guy drew back his foot. He took a stance, aimed, and lashed out. "WAKE UP!"
The Wake-Up Slap connected with a crack, and Max stepped back. "Wow, that was loud!"
It didn't hurt her, did it? Jirachi asked, worried.
"...I don't think she's even waking up," Guy said, disappointed.
A moment later, though, the Snorlax punched him into a tree.
"I was having a nice nap," the Snorlax said, yawning, and rubbed her eyes as Guy sprang back off the tree and flipped to land on the ground.
Half his attention on Kris, Max replied. "But you're being rude to our friends! You took the berries Houndoom had been gathering!"
"Those?" Snorlax yawned again. "I was hungry."
"You're not very nice," Guy muttered.
"I'm hungry," Snorlax reiterated.
"Okay, look!" Max said. "What about a battle? If we beat you, you have to pick enough berries for us to replace the ones you ate!"
"And if you lose?" Snorlax asked, yawning.
Max glanced at Guy, who shrugged.
Perhaps, if Snorlax wins, we provide her with some of May's Pokéblocks, Kris suggested.
"That sounds good," Max agreed. "Is that okay?"
"I suppose," Snorlax yawned.
"Great!" Max said. "Okay, Guy, ready?"
"Of course," Guy agreed, one foot forwards and the other back and sideways.
"Leaf Storm!" Max instructed, and his Fighting-type cannoned forwards.
"There we go!" May said, tapping it with a spoon. "One Pokéblock!"
"Who was this one for?" Ash asked.
"I made this one for Ho-Oh," May replied. "See if you like it, okay?"
Ho-Oh bent down, his long, hooked beak delicately closing on the blue-white cube.
He lifted it a little, then tossed it into the air and snapped it up.
"Hm," he said, tasting it. "It's quite dry… and… well, not bad, I suppose..."
May looked at Ash's expression. "I guess he's not jumping with joy?"
"I think he's just kind of unenthusiastic about it," Ash told her. "Sorry."
"That's okay, there's others," May replied. "Give me a minute..."
She turned the mixing crank, grimacing. "I forgot how much effort this is!"
Lucario proffered his paw. "I will help."
"You will?" May said, smiling. "Oh – thanks, that's a great help!"
"No problem," Lucario replied, and began to steadily turn the crank.
"Okay, so I tried just dry, and that didn't work," May explained. "So I'm going to try adding something dry but mixing in a bit of sour as well."
She added a pair of berries, talking as she did so. "Sometimes Pokémon prefer different Pokéblocks depending on how they feel – I mean, you know, you could just not be in a sour mood. That kind of thing."
This time, helped by Lucario, she'd felt able to mix more at once. Three berries came out, and she put one on the table.
She passed another to Swablu, but sighed when he took one bite and fell off her shoulder in surprise.
"My mouth feels like it's trying to suck my beak back in!" Swablu gasped.
"Maybe that was a bit too sour," May admitted.
Ho-Oh tried a smaller segment of this second one, and declared it not to his taste.
"Ah well, another failure," May sighed.
Then Crobat snaffled up the third one.
"Thanks!" he called, chewing away, and flew off to a tree branch.
"Well… that's good to know," the Coordinator said with a shrug. "Okay, you didn't like the sourness… perhaps I could try something a bit more mixed?"
Guy used Mach Punch, flashing across the distance and slamming his fist into Snorlax' stomach.
"Ow," she said, and Mega Kicked him into a tree.
As he pried himself out of the trunk, she nibbled on an apple. "Are you done yet?"
"No," Guy replied, landing with a spring in his step.
"Are you holding up okay, Guy?" Max said, looking concerned. "You've been punched or kicked into a lot of trees..."
"Well, now you mention it, I am feeling a tiny bit dizzy," Guy admitted. "But I'll keep fighting!"
He burst forwards again, slamming his thick tail into Snorlax and using the spring-back to keep on the move. Going off the momentum, he volleyed in a pair of punches, then added in a nasty kick from overhead, and that was about as far as he got before Snorlax threw him into the upper branches.
She nibbled on her apple again, watching as he fell out of the branches and landed tail-first.
"Guy!" Max said suddenly. "New plan!"
"Really?" Guy said, shaking his head. "Are we attacking the left Snorlax or the right one?"
"Between them, Guy!" Max ordered. "Use a Low Kick – and then grab that apple!"
Snorlax held her apple protectively. "No! You won't take it!"
The Breloom blinked a few times, then focused on Snorlax and took a wind up. He crouched down, aiming his head at Snorlax like a missile, then adjusted just a little to the right and kicked off with both powerful feet.
Spinning, he lashed out just at the base of Snorlax' belly in a stinging Low Kick which left Snorlax staggering.
Then, using the impact as further leverage, he twisted and slammed his tail into Snorlax' back.
The combination of blows knocked Snorlax over onto her front, and sent the apple bouncing away across the battlefield despite her best efforts.
Houndoom snagged it with his tail. "Got it!"
"All right, you win..." Snorlax mumbled, then began to snore.
"All right!" Max agreed. "Great work, Guy!"
He blinked. "Wait. Did we agree when she was going to gather those berries? 'cause she's just gone back to sleep again…"
"Thank you for your help anyway," Houndoom said. "But I think we'd better get back to camp or we'll miss all the Pokéblocks."
They stared at the Pokéblock.
"How many berries did you put in?" Ash asked.
"Six," May replied, blinking. "I kind of thought I'd get… something that wasn't that."
Lucario stopped cranking, and picked it up. "It's… got jellybeans in it," he said. "Or I think they're jellybeans."
He checked the piles of nearly arranged berries on the table. "And where did the white bit come from?"
May shrugged helplessly. "I'm almost afraid to give it to anyone..."
"I'll try," Ho-Oh suggested.
"If you want to, I guess," Ash agreed. "Okay, ready?"
He took it from Lucario, and threw it as hard as he could into the sky.
Ho-Oh kicked off in a swoosh of wind and a smell of saffron. He climbed quickly into the air, adjusted a little, and snapped up the multicoloured Pokéblock.
Flames burst out the side of his mouth, red and yellow and pink and blue and green, and he coughed violently. Then he sneezed, realized he was about to hit the ground, and pulled up to an undignified belly landing on the grass.
"Ow," he wheezed, blowing a cloud of multicolour smoke.
"What happened?" May asked, dumbfounded. "It was just a Pokéblock!"
"I have no idea," Ho-Oh muttered, picking himself up and preening his feathers quickly. "It actually tasted quite good… I think the term is a flavour explosion."
"Thanks for helping out," May said, giving Marshtomp a nod. "This thing clogs up pretty nastily if the juices aren't washed out."
Marshtomp shrugged, nibbling on another green Pokéblock.
"Okay, I guess we can get going," she added. "Uh… let's see… wait, where's Max?"
She glanced at her shoulder. "Swablu, can you have a look for my brother?"
"Sure!" Swablu agreed, wings spreading, and took off before rising in a broad, sweeping spiral.
"I wonder if he's with Houndoom," Ash said. "I can't see him either."
Closing his eyes, he did a quick scan with Aura Sight. "Oh – wait, never mind, there they are."
"Where?" May asked.
Ash pointed, and she squinted – then blinked. "Wait, they're still in the bushes?"
"Yeah?" Ash agreed. "I can kind of see through-"
"Oh, right," May nodded.
Max emerged from the brush, Swablu circling his head and Houndoom walking just behind him, and sat down with a sigh.
"What happened?" May asked, holding out her arm for Swablu to land back on. "You've been gone for ages!"
"Well..." Max began. "Uh… this is really going to sound silly."
"Really?" Brock looked up. "Compared to what?"
"A Snorlax took all the berries Houndoom had collected," Max summarized. "And I went to try and get the Snorlax to make it up, and she didn't want to. So I challenged her to a battle over it."
"Did you lose?" May asked. "What did you have to do?"
"What?" Max blinked. "No, I won – Guy beat her. But she just went to sleep again instead of making it up for us."
"So… how far away was this?" Brock asked. "You've been gone a while."
"Not far," Max shrugged. "I was just waiting for her to wake up, but eventually gave up and walked back here."
"That sounds like a tedious wait," Lucario said. "I'm impressed you didn't get bored sooner."
"Well, I was spending most of the time trying to decide if I wanted to catch her," Max explained. "I mean, I did beat her in a battle."
He shook his head. "But I didn't want to give poor Professor Oak more Snorlax to deal with. Munchlax is going to be hard enough..."
"I know,"May agreed. "Don't worry, though, I've got at least three of his favourite Pokéblocks stored."
"That'll make thing simpler," Max agreed.
"So, did you get the berries?" Pikachu asked.
"No," Houndoom replied. His tail reached into one of his bags and pulled something out. "We got Poffins!"
Pikachu blinked, watching as Houndoom ate his way through the fluffy snack. "But… how?"
That was me! Jirachi said. I thought – hey, I don't like stealing, but if I wish for some berries from the trees to be turned into Poffins it's fine!
He yawned. Kind of tiring, though…
"Okay, ready for this?" Brock asked.
Ash nodded, adjusting his outfit. "Yeah!"
He checked on it again. "This is kind of stiff, though…"
"Be glad it looks that good," May said. "I'm surprised you had a fire-resistant outfit at all..."
"I guess," Ash agreed.
"How come you had one of those in your bag?" Max asked.
"Ash's mother is well prepared," Lucario informed them matter-of-factly. "Though it took us a while to check. I think there's a dress in there as well."
"Which we are never using!" Ash insisted. "Why did she even put that in?"
Brock coughed.
Ash turned to him. "What?"
"...I was visiting Pallet while you were in Unova," he said, looking awkward. "I may have told her about the Ashley thing."
"That's cruel, Brock," Pikachu said, trying to hide a snicker.
"Anyway!" Ash said, loudly. "I guess I'm going to go ahead and do the Contest now – Lucario, Pikachu, don't forget to watch from the stands!"
He handed over Dexter. "And help Dexter record it, too – I'm sure that Suicune, Entei and Raikou would like to see."
"Well, looks like you were right," Brock said, looking around at the display space of Lilycove Contest Hall. "It's certainly big enough."
"Yeah," May agreed. "I guess I'm interested to see how it looks."
"See if Ash manages to pull it off, you mean," Max said.
"Pretty much..." May nodded. She glanced over to where Max had Delta's Pokéball ready – just in case. "Remember, don't do anything unless he's actually on fire and not in a good way."
"I know, I know," Max said, waving. "I wonder if Ash is first."
"Looks like he's not," Brock replied. "Uh oh..."
May looked. "...oh, you have to be kidding."
"All right!" said the first challenger. "Go! Use Bullet Seed!"
There was a flash of sparks as the seals detonated, and a Cacturne emerged from the resultant smoke cloud. Planting both feet firmly on the floor, it salvoed off a set of Bullet Seeds in all directions – starting with directly up, and turning and spreading until after only a few seconds there were dozens of seeds in the air going in a great spiral pattern outwards.
"Now! Poison Sting!" Harley added.
Cacturne slammed his arms together, and showers of Poison Stings shot out of his trunk in all directions. Some of them missed, but every Bullet Seed bar one was hit and burst in a clap sound with a cloud of green smoke.
"And finish with Ingrain!" the Coordinator concluded, taking a step forwards.
Cacturne's roots grew into the stadium floor – fortunately one which was soft enough to permit it – and there was a moment's pause before they burst out of the ground again and carried Harley into the air.
Dressed in his Cacturne suit, the somewhat-eccentric Coordinator raised his arms out to both sides. Cacturne copied him, taking the same pose, and the final missed Bullet Seed – the one which had been fired straight up – came back down to hit the peak of Cacturne's head and burst with a little puff of green smoke.
"Not bad," May said, trying to be impartial. "I think he probably meant to miss that one which went straight up, and letting it be the finisher for his act was probably meant to show that off."
"Remember," Max stage-whispered. "You need to say his cookies are great!"
"I'm going to be truthful," May told him primly. "They are not half bad."
"Should I understand that?" Lucario asked Pikachu.
"Probably not," Pikachu replied, twitching an ear. "I don't think we've ever talked about it when you've been there."
Ash walked out onto the stage, Pokéball shrunk and almost invisible in his right hand, and looked around as he reached the centre.
The ceiling was high enough, which was great… and that meant – now.
Putting a burst of Aura-enhancement into his arm, he expanded the Pokéball and threw it in the same motion – throwing it underarm, but fast enough despite that that it reached into the air almost too quickly to see at first.
With a crack and a burst of smoke, the Pokéball burst open – seals firing off and producing a billowing tower of grey smoke. The smoke swirled, then spread and became a great cloud layer which covered the whole top of the stadium.
And, a moment later, Ho-Oh emerged from the half-fired Rain Dance.
He looked a complete mess. Thanks to a combination of makeup, deliberate mis-grooming, an overloaded hairdryer and simple acting, the Legend of the Storm's End staggered through the air looking like he'd just collided with Zekrom and come off second best.
Ash waved his arms, signalling, and Ho-Oh's course altered to come down towards the trainer.
Ho-Oh was pulling off the wounded-bird look with a great deal of dedication to his act. He dipped, flapped his wings to recover, and nearly hit the ground before coming back up and closing on Ash – who turned, looking over his shoulder, and began to jog.
Reaching out his arm, Ash ran more Aura through his system to boost it – and Ho-Oh landed, gently despite his apparent exhaustion, on the outstretched limb.
As soon as Ho-Oh was down, wings still beating to keep himself steady, Ash stopped moving and relied on his boots to make himself 'heavier' – because otherwise, as had happened at least twice in practice, Ho-Oh's great weight would simply make him fall over.
Ho-Oh lowered his head, and Ash used his free hand to rub along the underside of his beak before reaching up to the feathers topping his head. As he did, Ho-Oh's eyes closed and his wings slowed.
Next, Ash took a fistful of dried leaves from his pocket and passed them to Ho-Oh. Some of them were Magical Leaves, which shimmered faintly, and Ho-Oh sampled one.
Then he reared up – and burst into flames.
There were shouts of surprise from the audience as the huge Legendary set himself on fire – starting with a smoky red flame, which intensified until he was engulfed in something only a step away from an all-up Flare Blitz.
But Ash stood stock-still, the special suit protecting his arm and sheer Aura preventing his hair or eyebrows from catching fire even as the fire climbed higher. Streamers of rose striated through the flames, as the source seemed to curl up with his wings close to his chest-
-then, with a triumphant shout, Ho-Oh's wings spread again.
The fire exploded outwards in a hemisphere of smoky flame before vanishing, and as it did the clouds parted as well to allow the sun to shine down into the arena.
Ho-Oh had changed completely under the cloak of flame. Makeup burned away, feathers realigned, and especially the way he sat Ash's arm combined to produce the same effect – he was now, clearly, completely healed.
Crouching down for just a moment, he launched himself into the air with a caw and an almighty downbeat which whirled little puffs of smoke away from his trainer. As he rose, a rainbow came blossoming from his tail feathers, and he did a complete circuit of the stadium before engulfing himself in fire again and landing directly in front of Ash.
Wings fully extended, he favoured Ash with a deep bow – and Ash, arm now by his side, returned it.
"Well, I guess it went all right!" Brock said, clapping. "I mean, you know… considering the rehearsals."
"Yeah," Max agreed. "That's one which must look a lot better if you didn't see the days it took to perfect."
"I assume this means he's made it through?" Lucario asked.
"Not sure," Max said, as Ash returned Ho-Oh and walked off – brushing cinders off his sleeve as he did so.
"I am," May countered. "There's only a couple of acts to go, and he's got to be fourth placed at least of the ones we've seen. He's going to be in the top eight, which means he's going to be in the battle section."
"...actually," Pikachu said, glancing at Lucario. "How would that work? Don't they mark you down for using sheer force and fighting boring?"
"You have a point," Lucario admitted. "He's going to have to make it interesting, and Ho-Oh using Inferno and winning in one move is not interesting."
"I'm sorry, you're… what?" Aaron asked, coming out of his ready stance in confusion.
"Team Meanies!" the Gengar repeated. "And don't you forget it!"
"I am going to be completely unable to forget that name," Giratina assured him. "Team Meanies. Me-an-ies."
"It's Meanies, not Me-an-ies," Medicham insisted.
"Okay, time out," Dialga declared.
"Ah, so scared?" Ekans asked sibilantly. "What-"
"No, I said time out," Dialga repeated, gem flashing.
Team Meanies froze in space. So did everything else.
Hey! Arceus called from On High. No time stopping!
"Dad, this is ridiculous," Dialga replied. "What kind of people call themselves team meanies?"
Believe it or not, it's not the silliest name when compared to real world names, Arceus replied. There was a flash, and he materialized in front of them to aid conversation.
"Oh, really?" Palkia asked, folding his arms. "Try us."
Giratina quietly slid over to Team Meanies.
Well, Arceus said, thinking. There's Team Rocket.
"Silly, but not silly enough," Palkia assured him.
Teams Aqua and Magma. And Plasma.
"What did Plasma do?" Dialga said, catching sight of Giratina and deciding not to mention it.
Pokémon Liberation – meaning, make everyone else give up their Pokémon, Arceus told him. So not related to the name at all.
"Why did they call themselves Plasma, then?" Aaron asked.
Perhaps because they wanted to use Reshiram to defeat everyone? I don't know… Arceus sighed. And that's not even the strangest. What about Snagem?
"That one's quite bad, yeah," Palkia admitted.
Team Great Rocket… Team Dim Sun… there was a group called the Pokémon Pinchers, and I seem to recall something called the Phobos Battalion.
"Point made," Palkia nodded. "Okay, you win, Team Meanies is sensible."
Not so much sensible as on message, Arceus said. He vanished between one breath and the next. Now, please unfreeze time.
"Right away!" Dialga agreed, and unfroze time.
Team Meanies had a quarter second to react before several large rocks landed on them.
"Good work, Giratina," Palkia said.
That's not really in the spirit of things either, Arceus muttered.
"Medic?" Medicham gasped.
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-- 推薦票
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