Western Kingdom of Rota/Kanto Border - 720 hours local time - Day 8 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
"Why are you so glum, Ash?" Misty asked as they circled past one of the roots of the Tree of Beginning. "Most people would be happy about this! I know I would…"
Ash was not a happy camper. The reason was the Thunderstone that was given to him to evolve Pikachu, which he held in his hand, Pikachu safely AWAY from it..
"I will NOT evolve Pikachu unless he WANTS me to evolve him." Ash said before looking at a pool of water. AS far as he knew, no water-types used a thunderstone to evolve.
"Are you kidding?!" Misty asked, horrified by Ash's clear train of thought. "Thunderstones aren't easy to get your hands on! What if Pikachu wants to evolve one day?"
"Pika-chu-pi." 'Not. Fucking. Happening. I LIKE being a Pikachu.' the mouse said, not happy at all about the Surge stupidity. At least Ash respected his Pokemon enough to let them be what they wanted to be. Charmander wanted and wants to be a Charizard again, Ash will let it happen. Bulbasaur and Squirtle want to stay as they are, Ash doesn't mind.
So, when Ash thought of tossing the stone, Pikachu was not against it.
"If my Pokemon want to evolve, they'll let me know or they'll just do it." Ash said. "I don't see Pikachu reaching for the Thunderstone."
Misty shrugged, conceding the point, not noticing the new royalty was still griping. Ash wanted nothing to do with the Thunderstone, Rota, or lots of other things in his travels. But he couldn't help it! Lots of Poke-prophecies seemed to revolve around him, and he wanted nothing to do with them.
Ash tossed it into the water, moving on before some Magikarp tossed it back, Ash going back to byronic brooding.
WHACK! At least until two feathered Pokemon smacked him in the head. "Noc." 'Stop brooding. It's not your style.' Noctowl said, hanging onto Ash's left shoulder while Pidgeotto stood beside him, still barely coming up to his shoulder. "Otto." 'Yeah, you're not the brooding and angsty type. Unless people you know randomly do things that make no sense like say you're worthless for no reason.'
Yeah, that wasn't likely. Misty wasn't going to randomly steal all his water-types and Brock wasn't going to say he was a worthless sack of stupidity or something like that. Unless it was some weird-ass mirror universe where good and evil suddenly flipped and he was the only constant.
Reflection Cave didn't count, as that was just a very… tsundere Serena and shy Ash. But he didn't have all the facts there, so it didn't matter either way.
No, the only changes here were Shadow Pokemon being a plague and people having to be paranoid around wild ones. So far as he knew.
Ash grinned. "Heh. Thanks for that. Both of you." He brooded too much. Having his friends there to slap him out of it made getting through this bearable. Ash smiled again as both birds preened under the praise, only to realize he mentioned both of them, and they started glaring again.
Unknown location
Trilling and cooing filled the air as light filtered through the canopies. It wasn't as much as he would like, but… the sounds were familiar.
He opened his eyes and saw birds. Tiny birds, one that pecked a tree and one with a giant bill.
Toucannon and its' preevolutions. This was his nest.
"Rooooooowl." 'I'm… tired. I need sun. And why aren't I with Ash?' the bird cooed before remembering what happened.
The Mythical grass-type. The end of the world.
…those things Ash's Pokemon back at the Oak ranch were real?! The little grass owl shook his tiredness away, noticing pieces of egg.
HIS egg. "Let?" '…Did I just hatch?' Rowlet cooed, confused. He hatched two years ago, his mother, a Dartrix… having a night with one of the Trumbeaks.
She didn't want his egg, he did not care to know her. But this had a problem. If he really went back in time, he was sure Ash wasn't in Alola.
"Trumbeak." 'Welcome to the world, little one.'
Rowlet looked up. A Trumbeak looked down at him fondly.
"Rowl?" 'Um. Hi?' The little grass/flying type took several deep breaths, trying to clamp down on his panic. Before Ash came to Ahola, Rowlet was relatively lazy, sleeping off most of the day and not doing much. Ash changed that. Somewhat: he still slept a lot, but he learned how to fight. Before, he was a weak glider that just knew Leafage. Now he knew so many attacks and was learning more from Ash before the...incident.
"Beak." `'I know you're confused. We're all different from you.' the Trumbeak said, Rowlet wanting to doze off already. He'd heard this before. But while he wanted to nap, he had to find the others: Lycanroc and Litten were probably just as confused.
The bird made a quick look around before trilling and taking flight. He couldn't waste time napping: his friends were Arceus-knew-where.
He flew over the forest floor, gliding expertly despite his tiredness. He regretted setting off after just hatching, feeling tired due to just taking off but if he started sleeping now, he wouldn't stop for days. And he had to find Lycanroc and Torracat NOW.
Once he cleared the forest treeline, something pounced on him, forcing him to the ground.
"Mrow." 'You know your gliding doesn't keep you from being seen, right?' said his attacker, whose claws were extended, but not touching his feathers. "Li." 'You're lucky I can smell you.'
Rowlet turned his head to find a young black and red cat with hints of orange here and there, his yellow eyes staring into his own. "Rowl?" 'Torracat?' the bird asked.
"Mreow." 'Litten, at the moment.' the cat replied before letting him go. "Mer." 'You're one of the Alolan starters. You can't just fly off and not get caught.'
"Rowlet." 'I got away with it before.' the grass owl said, smoothing out his feathers. "Litten." 'Things have changed. I've seen trainers eye me for a second, then decide I'm not worth it. Remember that grass-type legendary?' the fire cat asked.
Rowlet trilled happily. "Lit." 'We got sent back in time, but everything's screwed up.' the cat explained. "Mrow." 'I've seen that officer Jenny woman with a gun. I mean, she hasn't used it as far as I know, but… something is wrong.'
Rowlet knew about guns and how violent they were from those late night history shows Pikachu watched on occasion, but hadn't seen a real one. There hadn't been a real need in Alola for… a long time. Rowlet didn't really know.
The balance was gone. "Rowl." 'We need to get to Ash.' the first catch the trainer had in Alola declared. "Et!" 'He'll know how to fix it!'
The fire cat gave the grass owl a glare. "Litte." 'One, Ash doesn't know anything about fixing the universe. I've met some of his older captures: he's weird, but not superhuman. Two, I… I'm not sure we need to. Ash gets here eventually. Why risk it?'
"Rowlet." 'Is this about Stoutland?' the bird bluntly asked, Litten wincing. "Rowwwwwwwlll." 'I know you don't want to abandon him, but--'
"Mrowl." 'You're far too perceptive for a lazy grass bird.' the fire-type stated, mildly annoyed. "Lit." 'Yes, I don't want to leave Stoutland. He's old, but I have to stay! He practically raised me!'
"Rowletttt." 'I get that. It's why I stayed with the Trumbeak colony.' "Lit." 'Didn't you stay there out of pure laziness?' Rowlet glared at the fire cat. "Row." 'Just because I'm sleepy, doesn't mean I'm blind.' the owl retorted. "Et." 'One of my parents was a Trumbeak, remember? They're family.'
Litten let the subject die. "Lit." 'Still have to find-' he started before getting bowled over by a dog with dogs on his neck and being licked as dogs were wont to do. "Rock!" 'Hi, guys!' cried the dog.
And there was the… unique Rockruff/Lycanroc. Now the whole gang was there.
"Mrow." 'Lycanroc.' Litten deadpanned before glaring at the dog pinning him down. "En." 'GET OFF ME.'
The dog got off the cat, who was… moderately annoyed. He was young: it was somewhat excusable.
"Ruff!" 'Where's Ash? Why am I a puppy again?' Rockruff barked, mainly due to being a dog.
"Rowlet!" 'Time travel, weird things, end of the world… you know.' the owl said. "Owl." 'Noctowl told me everything during our trip to Kanto.'
"Rock." 'There's a joke in there, but I don't know it.' the puppy stated. "Ock?" 'So… do we wait for Ash or--'
"Rowl!" 'If we wait, it'll take forever! We're going to him!' the owl declared with a hoot.
"Lit." 'Care to explain HOW, grass owl?' the fire cat snarked. "Ten." 'From what I've been able to tell, there aren't any airplanes this go around!'
"Let!" 'We'll take a boat! Come on!' Rowlet took off, heading towards where it remembered the docks were, and Litten and Rockruff soon followed.
"Row! Let!" 'See, I told you there'd be a boat!' Rowlet cheered.
'Boat' was… not the way to describe this thing.
It was a HUGE ship, with four massive stacks, colored black, white, with red under the water, two large masts and… it was really REALLY big. Bigger than any plane or boat in Alola, for sure, with, in gold, the name of the ship: AQUITANIA.
"…Lit." 'OK, I can see your point now,' Litten remarked. "Ten-lit." 'Still, how are we getting on that thing?'
"Rowlet…" 'I can fly into the stacks…' Rowlet mused.
"Rock." 'Rowlet, you're a grass-type. You might be able to survive the smoke coming out of that thing, but we can't!' Rockruff shouted.
Grass-types, by their very nature, were either part-or-fully plant and thus, capable of surviving almost solely on sun, water and carbon dioxide. Litten and Rockruff, on the other hand, had no such aid.
So how?
Johto Region - Route 27 - 1458 hours local time
Navigating the forests was not difficult, seeing as most of them were forest dwellers at one point or another.
Avoiding the trainers, gyms and Arceus knew who else that wanted to catch them like that Cyndaquil-obsessed trainer, easier: they used the evil Pokemon to their advantage. Shadow Pokemon, for some reason, were like trainer-seeking missiles.
They felt mildly guilty over the possible deaths, but hey, they were taken.
That left… one problem. Route 27 was mostly… water. Totodile could swim, the rest of them… well, fire and water don't mix, plus Chikorita wasn't a strong swimmer. As a Bayleef, sure. As she was now? Not happening.
"Cynda?" 'So uhhh… how are we going to manage this?"
"Toto." 'We could Dig there?' The water-type suggested.
"Phanpy." 'But we don't know Dig.' the elephant said with a twitching eye. It was a ground-type move and he should be able to learn it, damn it!
"Cynda?" 'Besides Bulbasaur, Gible and Krookodile, none of whom are here." the fire badger said before the ground shook slightly.
"Cross…" 'If that's a Shadow Pokemon, I am punching it until it makes a tunnel to Kanto for us." the fighting/bug-type declared as the ground began to crumble...
…And a brown head with dark eye patches poked out, the crocodilian skull yawning slightly with a wordless 'Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...'
"Chi." 'Convenient. That you, Krookodile?' asked the walking pear as she glared at the ground/dark-type.
"Sand?" 'Huh?' The croc crawled out as his eyes widened. "Dile!" 'Chikorita! Guys, you have to see this!'
And out of the tunnel burst forth all of Ash's Unova pokemon. Pidove, Oshawott, Tepig, Snivy, Sewaddle, Roggenrola and Scraggy.
Cyndaquil smiled, and looked up. "Cyndaquil." 'Arceus, if you did this, thanks.'
(In Sinnoh, the god llama felt appreciated for once)
"Osha." 'I thought we were heading for the Decolores!' Oshawott shouted in confusion.
"Sand…" 'I followed Pidove's directions. Blame her.' the croc said as he took a brief nap.
"Dov!" 'I don't navigate underground, damn it! I'm a bird!' the songbird shouted before something metal crawled out of the tunnel, looking around and then resting far from the fire-types.
"Tep?" 'Where'd the Durant come from?' Tepig asked, IDing the Pokemon as the bug/steel-type ant.
"Snivy." 'Remember that cave we broke into a while back before nearly getting killed by that Sawk?' Snivy said, shuddering at remembering that nightmare fighting-type.
"Ant." 'Must make nest. Place not safe." the ant said almost robotically. Then again, Durants weren't known for communicating with sounds, using pheromones 99% of the time with speech to deal with non-bugs.
"Cynda?" 'Shadow Pokemon?'
"Ant." 'Corrupted one. Destroyed. Ran. Must build.'
"Sand…" 'She can help us get to Pallet.' the croc said. It was a girl? Cyndaquil didn't notice: the voice was odd.
Right, Pokemon that never left their region. They could ID pokemon gender more easily.
"Sand." 'We're going to have to dig just to the other side and AROUND Mount Silver.' Sandile stated.
"Sni?" 'Can't dig through rock?' Snivy mocked.
"Sand!" 'You try digging through granite and dolerite!' Sandile shot back. Granite was hard enough and considered the best and hardest building material on the planet. Parts of that pyramid in that weird desert country were made of granite.
Dolerite was even HARDER than granite. Only Tyranitar could break through that, mainly because that was their main food item, constantly generated by Geodudes and the like on the mountain. It was said the mountain was always building up and the only thing keeping it from getting any bigger were the Tyranitar line.
"Sni." 'Shit. I didn't know that. Arceus above, don't shout.' the grass snake said wincing as she eyed the pain in the rear that was the second-tallest mountain in the Kanto-Johto-Hoenn-Sinnoh area, Mount Coronet taking that particular honor for itself.
Explained why Arceus made her home up there. But right now, they had a giant obstacle to get around.
Hoenn region - Route 118
A Shadow Swellow landed on the ground, twitching violently as it tapped the surface furiously. It knew it heard something in the ground, but he couldn't quite make it out.
Du-dun.
There it was again! The Swellow put its head closer to the ground, trying to get a better grasp of the noise.
Du-dun. Du-dun. Du-dun. Du-dun.
The earth erupted as something leapt from below.
CHOMP!
And clamped onto its' wing, biting hard enough to nearly break the bones. It was a native of Sinnoh, uncommon in Hoenn.
"Gib!" 'Hi!' said the land shark, smiling with his eyes before the Shadow Pokemon dislodged the Gible and flew off, getting angry.
"Gible!" 'Come back!' cried the land shark.
"Tail!" 'Gible? Where'd you come from?' cried a Tailow that sounded… familiar to the Gible before landing on the land shark's fin, allowing Gible to inhale her scent. "Gible!" 'Swellow!' cried Ash's land shark...before attempting to bite her.
"Tail! Tail! Low!" 'Wait, wait wait! My head's not big enough Gible!'
Too late.
CHOMP.
"…Tail" '…Missed you too, Gible…' Tailow muttered, sounding muffled as her head was engulfed in Gible's maw.
"Tre." 'Great. Him.' stated a Treecko as he came over a rise along with many more of his kind, along with a Corphish. "Ko." 'Mind if you take a bite for me?' Ash's future Sceptile asked the crawfish.
"Cor!" 'He's just going to bite us anyways!' Corphish declared before Gible let Tailow go…
CHOMP!
And Corphish got Gibled.
"Cor." 'This is why I'm glad I have a hard exoskeleton,' The Crab-like Pokemon said, as Gible warbled as he bit down from his spot. "Phish." 'Good to see you too, you little land shark.'
"Gible~!" 'Friends! So many of Ash's friends!' Gible declared before a fire monkey got out of the tunnel Gible had made. "Chim…" 'I hate being underground…' said the Chimchar before looking at the collection of Pokemon. "Cha." 'We're in Hoenn, aren't we?"
"Tail." 'What gave you that impression?' Taillow deadpanned before Turtwig got out of the hole. "Turt." 'At last, sunlight.' said the turtle before someone surprised them. "Gli… " 'No more tunnel…' moaned the bat-like Gligar that just barely caught up with them with Gible's… Gibling.
They barely remembered Gligar before leaving Sinnoh, to which the bat was… unhappy. They still sported bruises.
"SWELL!" cried the Shadow Pokemon as it returned.
"Gib!" 'Excuse me!' Gible hopped off Corphish as he opened his maw… as a familiar ball of energy began building up within his mouth.
"Sno…!" 'Wait a minute, isn't that the Piplup-seeker?!' Snorunt cried in horror as Gible released it… and it hit the Shadow Swellow like it would Piplup, exploding on contact and smacking the bird into a rock.
"Gible!" 'Bye-bye!' said the land shark.
"Koal?" 'I thought that only hit Piplup?' Torkoal asked, as everyone had told him it only hit Dawn's starter, the Piplup with a minor Napoleon Complex.
"Treecko." 'You weren't at the Sinnoh League. Gible actually used it perfectly. But I have one problem with that…' the gecko pokemon stated.
"Gib?" 'What's your problem?' Gible asked.
"Tre." 'That homed in like it was going for Piplup, not turning into self-forging explosives. Did you forget how to do it?' Treecko asked.
Gible just smiled happily. "Gib!" 'Nope! But if I used that one, I'd hurt everyone here!' he said.
Treeko had to give him that. A proper Draco Meteor was very widespread in it's damage.
"Tork." 'Well, thanks for coming along when you did. That Swellow would have caused some problems.'
"Gible." 'You're welcome.' Gible replied.
Treecko had let his guard down. This was a mistake he realized only too late as he saw Gible fly towards him. By the time he tried to react-
CHOMP!
He was already in the land shark's maw, enduring the Gible greeting. "Gible!" 'Friend!' cried the land shark.
"Tree!" 'Let go of me, you damned land shark! You know I hate it when you do that!'
Gible let go, smiling with his eyes. "Gib!" 'But you like kicking things in the face!' warbled the dragon. Treecko sighed. That was one reason to get to Kanto: Ash always had someone he could fight. Charizard and he had that much in common, at least.
They both sought strong opponents.
"Ko?" 'How would you know this, young dragon?' asked the Treecko elder, who had been listening in without their knowing.
Ash's three starters looked at each other. The elder had them there. Gible were rare in Hoenn and Sinnoh starters don't go near Hoenn.
"Chim. Char." "Well… it's a long story involving Celibi and a trainer. Gible, why don't you play with that Swellow? This is going to take some time.'
"Gib." 'He doesn't seem friendly.' Gible said.
"Tur." 'Just means you can be as rough as you like.' Turtwig deadpanned.
Gible looked at the Swellow, which was getting back up and screaming unintelligibly. "Gible!" 'I'll bite him until he becomes a friend!' Gible cried as he ran towards the swallowtail pokemon.
"Cor." 'Gibles are an odd species.' Corphish declared as Gible bit on the Shadow Swellow's wing, warbling the whole time. They'd put up with his biting habits because they didn't have much choice.
Gibles were a social lot, but they had hands that were useless for anything but guiding food. So they communicated with bites. They learned that the hard way.
So did Professor Sycamore, according to Ash. The Gible that became the Professor's Garchomp wasn't fond of being touched and the human scientist had Gible toothmark-shaped scars to prove it.
'Back to the topic at hand, Sceptile.' thought the gecko, getting sidetracked by Gible chomping on everything he could just to make a friend.
"Tree." 'So, this all centers around a human trainer named Ash. To make a very long story shorter, he ended up stopping a human from controlling Palkia and Dialga, but the two ended up going insane and destroyed all of reality, and Celibi sent Ash back in time to save the two.'
Naturally, they didn't believe him. They all gave him the looks of disbelief, doubt and the like.
"Cor." 'He likes to fight. A lot. Against anything and everything. Even things he's got a type disadvantage against!' Corphish said, trying to prove his story by saying something about the grass-type no one else knew.
"Tre." 'You live here in Hoenn, crab.' said one of the wild geckos, the unsaid 'you would have known somehow' hanging in the air.
"Turt." 'He never goes anywhere without a twig in his mouth.' Turtwig said, just to get it over with. Turtwigs were never seen in Hoenn outside foreign trainers and they would have smelled him if he got close.
This Turtwig was wild and uncaught. He would have had no opportunity to know their twig-chewing self-proclaimed protector. And none of the flying-types here were long-distance flyers, nor big enough to carry any of them.
They dug here, with a Gible that just so happened to be from Sinnoh, just like them.
"Swell!" 'Get away from me you walking mouth!'
"Gible!" 'Friend! FRIEND!'
And the fact they had a Gible with them. Tallow and their evolutions didn't leave Hoenn, though they heard some lived in Kalos, whose ancestors were caught, but released. And this one clearly knew how the chomper behaved.
"Cko…" 'I don't want to believe it. It's insane.' the elder said.
"Char." 'Want Celebi to prove it?' Chimchar asked. It was said with confidence, like they knew the mythical grass-type.
"Tree…" 'What is it you plan on doing?' one of the Treecko asked.
"Chimchar." 'Well, meeting up with Ash again.' the fire monkey said. "Him." 'He's a good man. A bit idealistic and foolish at times, but not stupid. Though...a bit forgetful.'
"Turt." 'While I do like remembering, I think we should move on.' Turtwig suggested. "Wig?" 'Where's the closest port to Kanto?'
Tailow hmmed before chirping. "Low!" 'Lilycove City! But that's a long way off. We're gonna have to go through the desert.' the bird said.
"Corphish." 'We could dig under it."
"Turtwig." 'That's a lot of us to move underground.'
"Tree." 'We'll figure that on the way. Let's get moving.'
RMS Germanic - Kalos Region - 1348 hours local time
The limiting factor, as always, was Goomy.
As a Goodra, he was dangerous, powerful, almost impossible to take down, rivaled in staying power only by Snorlax and Torterra, truly one of Ash's greatest battlers.
He could also walk.
"Goo." 'Damn it, I HATE being a Goomy!' gooed the snail dragon. "My!" 'Slow, weak, PATHETIC.'
"Hawk." 'You have problems.' the luchador bird said, still guarding Noibat's egg.
"Goo!" 'Of course I do! I went from badass back to this again!'
"Eve." 'Looking to evolve too?'
Goomy blinked, turning to see Serena's Eevee pad up to them. "Goom." 'Yeah. Being a Goomy sucks.'
"Vee." 'Yeah. I've been trying to evolve into a Sylveon myself.' the brown normal-type said.
Goomy resisted the urge to shudder. He got over this long after evolving. He did not fear fairy-types. Not anymore.
But this could help. Fairy-types were immune to dragon-type attacks. He could blast a fairy with all his draconic might and not do a thing. The perfect practice dummy, in theory. The problem was getting Eevee TO evolve into Sylveon. The non-stone evolutions were always tricky, according to a number of wild Eevee he had met in the swamps prior to meeting Ash. Mossy Rocks, Ice Rocks, those were less of a pain. But the other three? A pain to deal with.
"Goom." 'Say, you want to try and train together? See if we could get closer to evolving?'
"Eev… ee." 'That… doesn't sound like a bad idea.'
And because they were both small and weak, they didn't have to worry about hurting or damaging the ship.
"Haw." 'I'll keep an eye out and help you two out as needed.' The fighting bird declared.
They would need someone to force them apart.
"Hey, look!" came a voice Goomy hoped he would NEVER hear again as he 'saw' using his antennae.
PAINFULLY yellow hair was the big identifying mark for the most annoying girl he had ever known: Bonnie Cetron, sister of near-failure-of-an-engineer-and-gym-leader Clemont, wearing some kind of fashionable dress he had no idea what it was called and all too shrill.
Not to mention her insults towards him when he was introduced to Ash. He wasn't putting up with it: no, this time she would be scared of him for being him, not just being a Sliggoo that could melt her. As that amusing as that was.
"Goomy." 'Hawlucha, if she comes at me and starts insulting me, don't stop me.' The little dragon growled.
"Haw." 'Okay.'
"Eve?" 'What are you two on about?'
"Goo." 'Just stay away from the little blond one. You might get burned.'
"An Eevee!" cried Bonnie as she approached, not noticing Goomy until he fired off a burst of dragon fire. This was going to be a pain.
Elsewhere in Kalos
Team Flare. One of the nastier 'Teams', given their goal wasn't so much world domination as it was a global reset, using an ancient superweapon to attempt to kill everyone on Earth that wasn't Team Flare. They were tough. They were determined.
And they were getting their heads handed to them.
The base was one of their smaller ones, and out in the outskirts of civilization, but that wasn't really helping, as an armored figure tore through the base, firing off missiles down every side corridor and laying into the mooks that tried to stop him with an assault rifle. Any return fire, even Pokemon attacks, just bounced off the dark blue armor.
While they would eventually get through, the figure was not giving them the chance, continuing to fire and decimate the Team Flare idiots. Time was not on their side and they knew it. But they continued to fight this invader.
The helmet visor of the intruder was displaying various information to them, such as directions of incoming attacks, what lay down each branching path, and other data they were taking advantage of. Eventually, they reached one spot where the base opened into a large chamber. The visor quickly located key structural supports, also recording all data the suit's onboard computers could collect about what was in the chamber.
The remaining Flare operatives gathered and fired, attempting to end this intruder, managing to do some damage with their own rockets, but all that seemed to do to the one in the suit was just piss it off as it returned fire, unleashing guided missiles on the poor bastards.
"Did you have to kill all of them? I mean, they can give you more information if you let them live."
"The people in a smaller base like this are all grunts or zealots, Rin," the man in the armor replied over his comms, and while the external speakers would distort his voice if he spoke, within the voice was that of Kyril Pernon. "The grunts don't know enough to bother, and the zealots will never say anything aside from the party line."
"Just sayin', your life would be easier if you left a couple of them alive." his… companion, for lack of a better term (they weren't married, they were together; it was complicated) retorted. "The government's branded your alter ego, as it were, a menace and the Royal Family's put a bounty on your head. What was Princess Diantha's words about you?" She paused, seeming to think. "Ah, right, 'this 'Marauder' is as much a threat to the stability of Kalos as Team Flare is'!"
He let out a groan, even as he finished recording all the data, and began running to get out of the base, even as one of his shoulder-mounted missile launchers turned around and fired some missiles at the marked supports. Hidden thrusters ignited, increasing his forward speed as he actually stopped running and started flying like a human rocket - he couldn't maintain thrust output for too long, but it was usually enough to get out of one of these bases when it started crumbling. "Yeah, I know where she's coming from, but she doesn't know the full picture - and honestly, it's better that way."
Given that the full picture was that one of his closest friends and supporters in his early years had sold Pernon Group weaponry to the Teams, and one of them had actually used those same weapons to try and kill him, but when he was barely clinging to life they'd captured him instead and tried to force him to make weapons for them, it was probably a good thing that most of the public didn't know the full story. The first version of the Marauder Armor had been made to effect his escape, and ever since he'd been on something of a one-man war against the Teams, the armor improving with every new clash as he learned and adapted, though Rin becoming his partner and finding out led to him having a vital assistant in that war.
Team Rocket was the most annoying, outside Team Galactic, whose goals were shadowy, even from him.
And their leader… it was almost like Galactic didn't even HAVE a leader. But all of them had leaders. Aqua had Archie, Magma had Maxie, Plasma… that kid, N, was just a pawn. There was no way he was the 'king' of Plasma.
Team Skull of Alola wasn't even worth the title. Guzma wasn't leading a team, he was leading a gang of punks.
Flare, too, had a leader. But that son of a Helixian whore went to insane trouble to hide himself.
All he could do was cleave through the grunts and zealots, denying Flare resources and troops, and getting what data he could from the bases he trashed - hopefully he'd find a lead on Flare's boss, or at least one of their Admins.
"By the way, the Germanic's going to be leaving in 4 hours, so, you know, would you MIND getting back to the ship?" Rin half-asked/all-demanded. "You said you wanted to go to Kanto and begin cracking down on Team Rocket. And as there's no airplanes and won't be until someone's stupid enough to invade Orre…"
"Right, right," Kyril replied as he made it out of the base, setting back down on his feet and turning to face the base he'd left as it all just collapsed into a crater. He then turned back towards where the port was, activating his thrusters again, but this time as jump jets to get incredible jumping height and distance. He'd head for a specific building near Brest, get out of the armor and get it loaded into trucks for transport, then have it ferried the rest of the way to the ship. Though, as he traveled, part of him wondered if there was a way to make the Teams even more scared of him… maybe blaring hard rock over inbuilt speakers such that it eventually triggered a fear response in the Pavlovian fashion?
But that was for the future. First thing's first: get to the boat without getting seen or shot at with anti-tank weapons. Because with that plague from Orre, anti-tank weaponry was a thing: there was a gym leader in Johto that commonly carried a freaking grenade launcher to deal with tough shadow Pokemon. But he was getting off topic. At least he could fuel his quest for revenge and justice with his company. At least the shipping business was his and his alone and no one was trying to sink his ships.
Hau'oli City, Melemele Island, Alola Region - 1645 hours local time
Supplies were required for everyone not Rowlet. He could survive on sun, they couldn't. And stealing the food and such on the ship was a dumb idea: if that Jenny with a gun was any indication, this world was infinitely more violent.
They didn't like it. But that was outside their control. So, yeah, they had to get what they needed right now.
So they were grabbing as much food and berries for the trip before they snuck their way aboard one of the ships. But they did notice that they were being watched.
"Rowl." Their eyes in the sky saw them first. 'Guys, we've got visitors.'
Rockruff got ready for a fight, then noticed what they were. One of them was a Grubbin, a bug-type they were somewhat familiar with, as Ash had tried to catch one prior to the… Murder-kyu incident.
The other was… a Meowth. Blue-gray, kinda fat compared to the talking one they were used to, but still a Meowth. A native of Alola, just like them.
"Meow?" 'What are you lot doing?' asked the Alolan Meowth.
"Ruff." 'Getting ready for a trip. What do you two want?'
"Meowth." 'Just wondering what a whole bunch of wildlings are doing working together.'
"Lit." 'We are not wild.' The firecat stuck his nose up in disdainfully, much like a cat. "Ten." 'We've just been separated from our trainer.'
"Gru-b." 'You don't smell like it.' the grub asked.
Rockruff growled. 'Don't start. We're trying to get to Kanto.' the puppy retorted.
"Mrow." 'The Aquitania's going to Kanto tomorrow...' the Alolan Meowth mused.
"Rowl." 'Well, at least we have a ship.' The bird quipped.
"Meow." 'I don't believe that you're going all the way to Kanto just for a trainer. But if you're going to Kanto, I want to come with. I've always wanted to see more than the islands.'
"Ru-b." 'So have I, to be honest.' The bug admitted.
"Rock." 'Well, there goes plan A. We'll have to be sneaky when he comes to getting food on the ship: stick to cargo areas, unoccupied rooms and stuff like that. At night… well, unless there's big parties, we can go out on deck.' the puppy said, making all of them look at him.
"Rowlet?" 'That's… complex. Something I thought Ash would come up with.' Rowlet said.
"Rock?" 'We spent almost five months together, out of our pokeballs most of the time… and you DON'T expect to pick anything up from your trainer?' Rockruff asked indignantly.
"Litt." 'True.' the cat said, looking at the massive ship, designed to run the gauntlet against the storms that he heard formed on the oceans before looking at the Alolan Meowth. "Ten." 'You want to come along, come on. Just don't slow us down.'
"Meow." 'I could also hunt Rattata. Make it look like I'm employed by the crew." The cat suggested as they all started their way towards the docks.
"Rock." 'We'll figure that out on the boat. We first have to get aboard.'
Mount Silver, Johto/Kanto border - 0245 hours local time
The big dig was going strong, with two diggers speeding everything up. The problem was that they couldn't dig under the mountain due the superhard materials and they couldn't go through it for the same reason. It would take steel tools, not a steel-type, to get through it.
So they didn't bother and had to go around the mountain. But that required visualising their path, so they decided to take a break to let the group rest up and have something to eat. Having traveled multiple regions over the past few days, the Unova group's internal clocks were a bit messed up.
"Saaaaaaaaaaaand." The sand croc yawned, resting lazily against a tree. 'All this digging is making me tired.'
"Phant." 'Keeping up with you is tiring enough.' the mini-elephant retorted, his own legs having given out as they got out of the tunnel. The steel ant was fruitlessly trying to continue digging, but a quick biting from Totodile was enough to halt that and force the Durant to sleep.
For fifteen minutes. After that, she continued digging.
"Cyn." 'That ant is relentless.' the fire badger said as she watched the bug-type dig.
"Tep." 'Durants take short naps all the time before going right back to it.' Tepig stated, resting his legs. "Pig?" 'So, we should be back in Kanto tomorrow?'
"Cynda." 'Should be. Problem is deciding where to go first. Should we stop by the ranch first, or see if we can intercept Ash?"
"Turtwig." 'Let's see if we can run into him. If I remember correctly, he should be on his way towards Cerulean City for the Gym.'
"Sand." 'That's right.' The croc yawned again, picking dirt out his teeth. "Diiiile." 'Didn't Ash travel with that Gym Leader?'
"Cynda!" 'Misty! She was pretty, but… well, she pretended not to like Ash.' Cyndaquil exclaimed. "Quil." 'Hopefully, they'll get together this time.'
"Osha." 'Not happening. He's going to get together with Iris.' Oshawott said proudly.
"Chik." 'That stupid girl with the Dragonite that wouldn't listen?' Chikorita asked rhetorically. "Rita." 'Please. She's not his type.'
"Sni." 'And what is our idiot's 'type'?' Snivy asked, somewhat with a bite. All of the regional pokemon preferred their girl to be with Ash. Charizard was noncaring, as he met most of them and Pikachu didn't care, either.
"Tep." 'She's got dark skin, she likes to travel-' Tepig started.
"Todo." 'And wants to be a gym leader or champion. Misty's already got that and is happy with it.' Tododile said, laying back. "Dile." 'What's Iris got? Nothing.'
"Dove!" 'At least Iris can stay with him unlike your Poke-gym leader!' Pidove shouted.
"Cynda!" 'And yours can only see things in black and white!' Cyndaquil shouted.
And thus the argument began.
'Poke!'
'Negai!'
'Poke!'
'Negai!'
Sandile didn't join in and buried his head in the dirt. Arguing about who Ash would get together with was pointless, as Ash would never do it. The croc could feel it: Ash didn't want to 'get together' with anyone.
"Hera-CROSS!." 'Would you all shut up?!' At his yell, the argument quieted down. 'I'd rather not attract another shadow Pokemon with an argument about Ash's mate! Play matchmaker when we find him."
That shut them down real quick.
"Phan." 'I'm more worried about how Ash is going to handle all of us." The little elephant started quietly. "Hasn't he always run six pokeballs?'
That was true. No matter what, outside that arrogant ass that Ash crushed with Pikachu and the Kanto crew back before the Indigo League, no one used more than six balls. They never understood why.
"Pine." 'What are y'all talking about?' the Pineco asked, coming back from getting berries for Sandile.
"Cynda." 'The six-ball limit for trainers.' Cyndaquil answered.
"Pine..." 'Right, that. I think there was a rule about that.' Pineco stated. "Co." 'It was made during the formation of this League thing I hear humans talk about during their trips. Prevented trainers from cheating during some big fight.'
Gym battles and conferences, no doubt.
"Cyndaquil." 'Fuck that rule.' the fire-type declared. 'Ash doesn't like cheating, directly or indirectly. Pikachu told us about that gym battle where Pikachu got supercharged and Ash still feel like he hadn't earned that badge because of it.'
"Sand." 'The less said about Unova, the better. From what everyone's said, Ash was off his game there.' Sandile declared.
"Hera." 'Well what about food?' The bug asked, causing most of them to blink. "Cross." 'I'm fine, but you don't want to drain all of Ash's money on food, do you?'
"Chikorita." 'Well, I can learn Grassy Terrain and-' Chikorita started, but Sandile spoke up.
"Dile." 'Some of us can't deal with pure vegetation. Charizard and I need some form of protein and contrary to what everyone seems to think, tofu won't cut it.' the croc said.
"Tododil." 'Let's not think about it. Oak's lab is only a few days away and we can get food there before going to Ash's next gym.' Tododile said before laying down to go to sleep. The water gator was right: they'd never reach Cerulean in time.
They'd worry about that tomorrow. For now… rest.