SS Libre wreckage 1036 hours local time - Day 159 of Ash Ketchum's Journey
Butch and Cassidy were… unsure about their new situation. They ran away from Team Rocket, but after a quick consultation with Meowth, who actually knew all the rules, there WAS precedent in fleeing during an operation when your commander was completely off his rocker. But working with their rivals? To protect Ash Ketchum, who was the Boss' nephew to boot?
It was strange to have someone that hated the Team so much be practically an heir to it. On that note, the kid was washing his clothes, using a Totodile to get the water to do so. And the croc wanted to play with the clothing too.
"Water is rationed in Orre." said his quasi-girlfriend, the white-headed Robin Ryuto, who was descended from a couple of badasses that handed Cipher their asses way back when. "When clothing needs to be aired out, we leave it in the air for a few hours. Sand has its' uses."
"Well, we're from Kanto, which is full of water." Butch said as something stuck him. "Say… what's with Cipher, anyways? They got a hard on for conquering the world, so why is that? No one knows."
Robin sighed. "Ignorance is bliss." she said. "But if you demand to know…" she turned towards them, her Eeveelutions all relaxing in the shade with the exception of Flareon, who seemed to… enjoy it. "It happened in the Era of Damos."
Both Rockets took aback at that. "That was almost twenty-thousand years ago!" Cassidy said in shock.
"Indeed. The Orrean Empire lasted for thousands of years, gathering territory and lives for one purpose." Robin said, grimacing. "To sacrifice to Yveltal. You know what Yveltal is?"
Butch shuddered. "Yeah. God of Death, eldest child of Giratina." he said. "Legend says Giratina created him out of jealousy of Lord Arceus' ability to create life."
Robin huffed in annoyance. "That story was made up to demonize Orre after the fall of the Empire." she said, as if offended. She probably WAS: Cipher wasn't Orre and she was proud of her region. "Giratina was not jealous of Arceus, but wanted to know what it was like to be a father. Thus, he created Yveltal."
Cassidy sat down, now curious. "But Giratina's the Lord of the Dead and Reincarnation." she said. "How could it end with Yveltal being alive?"
"Yveltal lived… but because Giratina was Lord of the Dead and not of Life, Yveltal was born insane." Robin answered sadly. "Only death could sate his madness. Afterward, Giratina spoke to Arceus and told the Creator of his mistake. Arceus chided Giratina, but did not blame him for his mistake, because it was natural to desire family." The white-haired girl took out a water bottle and took a sip, capping it as soon as she was done. "To maintain balance, Arceus showed Giratina how to create life properly-"
"And out came Xerneas!" Butch exclaimed, cutting her off before realizing what he did. "Sorry. Xerneas is pretty popular in my hometown."
Robin shrugged, honestly not caring. "Xerneas created life while Yveltal consumed it. But while Giratina was creating her, Yveltal came to Orre." she paused. "You can guess what happened."
"Human and Pokemon sacrifices in the thousands." came the voice of Meowth, surprising them both and making them look behind Robin, where Meowth popped up from. "I'm a cat: stealth's kinda my thing. The twerp's good at pickin' us out of a crowd, though. Think he might even be able to get Petel."
The two grunts shuddered again at that name. "Anyway, you were sayin'?" Meowth asked.
Robin blinked. "You talk." she said in mild surprise.
"Yeah, if you'll be hangin' around Ash, you'll get used to weird." Meowth said, waving it off. "Anyway…" he continued expectantly.
"Very well. They expanded. Greatly." Robin nutshelled. "Ancient Unova and Kalos were no match for them. In the end, it took two other nations to beat them. Great empires in their own right. The Empires of Nihon… and Ransei."
All Rocket-aligned persons blinked. "Ransei doesn't exist." Cassidy said. "Shut up about it."
"Ransei exists, they simply erased all traces of themselves from the outside world after the War." Robin retorted. "The only reason we still know about it is the blacksmith. He doesn't like them very much and goes on and on about it whenever someone brings it up." She then paused. "We stopped bringing it up."
They met him before the sandstorm. The man looked murderous. "So… they crushed the old empire?" Cassidy asked. "I assume they got something to do with the fact that Orre is mostly desert?"
"They salted the earth. Afterwards, the Empire fell, as did Nihon's over a hundred years later." Robin affirmed. "The strain of that war was too great and Rota took over that Empire. Ransei's power waned, but they remained intact. Cipher was made from the remnants of the empire's noble classes. You can see why most of the peons almost worship the Admins."
Meowth blanched. "Yeesh. Now I don't want to know." he said before heading back to his two partners, thoroughly disgusted.
So were Butch and Cassidy. "Good thing Yveltal's in Kalos, locked away." Butch said, releaved.
"No. It isn't." Robin answered, making them both sit up in shock. "When Kalos was devastated, Yveltal escaped and disappeared. Cipher was quite vocal about it back then before the Unovans did what Unovans always do and nuked the hell out of Orre."
The grunts could not argue with that. Unovans, or at least their politicians, were always a tad bit too happy to unleash their atomic ordinance on someone on a whim.
In the mind of Ash Ketchum
One massive crack was already forming and that was it. The king was...unhappy with the lack of progress.
They wanted out before Ash kicked the bucket and went to the Distortion World the natural way, not after. After would result in the most hellish experiences for them both as they were broken and ground to dust before sent back into the cycle of reincarnation.
They'd seen it happen. Not something either of them wanted.
"This is pointless." Sabrina snapped as the King looked for another way to break the wards. "The best option is to wait. You know as well as I do the Unown will mess with that stupid brat's mind in nine months time. Why not wait until we're in Greenfield and for the immature brat to do our work for us?"
"Because the Unown serve Giratina." the attempted usurper retorted. "The MOMENT you materialize in a psionic manifestation of your old body, they WILL inform Giratina, who will then inform Arceus and deal with both of us at once. We can't fight a god."
"You and yours attempted to overthrow Arceus thousands of years ago. The only reason you're still existing is Ho-Oh's mercy and the fact you're from a different timeline!" she snapped back. "Once Ash gets back to Kanto, he'll make damn sure your prison ends up in the Distortion Realm."
That struck a chord in the king. "Of course." he said, as if given an idea. "That's the solution."
"What is, you aged pile of refuse?" Sabrina snarked.
The king looked back to her. "Once Ash has resigned himself to die, his soul will be sent to the Distortion Realm before the body dies." he explained. "It's too important just to end up there. And before he ends his life, I will take control."
Sabrina huffed. "True enough." she begrudgingly admitted. "Just one problem. You can't break him THAT easily. You have to push him to the limits of mental endurance before he finally snaps."
The man that deemed himself ruler of the world chuckled. "Shamouti, Greenfield, the Ilex Forest… Altomere…" he trailed off. "Take your PICK. All of them weigh on his mind. And they were bad enough in the old timeline. How much worse can they get NOW? He WILL break. It's just a matter of making the cracks in Celebi's patch job bigger."
Sabrina knew Ash's current mind was the result of Celebi-rather crudely, if the parasite was honest-merging the soul of the Ash from the other timeline with the Ash of this one. It spoke of his resilience that he wasn't a mess now.
He may have had a point. Her method was just faster and only hinged on the incredibly weak will of poor little Molly Hale. Maybe she'd take advantage. After all, she still needed a body.
And with the Unown… well, hers would do.
NS Heart of Indigo - Pacific Ocean - 1049 hours local time
The sub was just the warning to get the trainers to do what needed to be done and start spamming Hyper Beams like mad against the minefield.
It was tiring and would cost them in the end, but right now, staying here was not a good idea. Lance knew it. Cynthia knew it. Even Steven, more economist then tactician, knew it.
Which was why all of them, along with the Kanto Elite Four sans Agatha, who was...elsewhere (Cynthia would rib him about saying she was spending time with her god later, Lance just wanted to be as FAR from the Distortion World until his time came) were blasting the minefield with every ranged attack they had.
The Grand Champion stood on the foc'sle of the warship as he noticed something in the water. Something small and very...snake-like. And after it was a rowboat with a familiar mane of purple hair.
"That is a VERY determined Dratini." Lance said as the Dratini, in his anger, seemingly used Dragon Rage underwater on a mine, blowing it up. After a moment's consideration, he spoke his opinion of the situation. "Well, it's called 'Dragon Rage' for a reason…"
He sighed and released Gyarados to go after them before Dratini did something MORE reckless. Like somehow evolve straight to Dragonite in a fit of unyielding rage.
Axew did not like being on the boat. Iris could tell: he was hiding in her hair and practically soiling himself in terror, as the Haxorus line were not exactly good swimmers and they were in the middle of the ocean.
'You… might need to wash your hair later…' Astral Iris said, the living one not giving too much of a damn at the moment. So Axew pissed himself in his hair. She could deal with that; she'd had worse things soak her hair. It was Dratini she was worried about.
The snake dragon wanted nothing more than to evolve into a Dragonite. So he decided extreme risk would help. And at the moment, there was nothing more dangerous than being near a minefield while underwater. The shockwaves were VERY deadly. Perfect for forcing the pace.
But Iris knew that a tiny Dratini was a weak one, not having the tougher skin of their later selves. He was risking his life here.
A splash got her attention as a red Gyarados landed in the water, a rather bemused Lance riding it. "You do realise your Axew just pissed himself in terror while in your hair, right?" he asked.
"I know and don't really care, Champion, I have a dragon I need to save from himself." Iris retorted as she pulled out Dratini's ball, Lance shaking his head. "That's a MINEFIELD! You know what explosions do underwater, right?"
"They tend to be more dangerous then aerial ones." Lance deadpanned. "Look, I think your Dratini's a bit insane for doing this, but if you return him now, you'll only make him resent you." At that, Iris gave him a look. "More than he already does. I get it, you want to save his life and earn his respect, but getting any dragon to respect you isn't easy." Iris continued giving him a look. "Gibles don't count: these things are ABSURDLY cuddly unless they've been abused for most of their lives."
Another explosion got their attention. One caused by the Dratini in question blowing up a mine a tad bit too close for her liking. "DRATINI!" she yelled, taking off her shoes, Axew getting the hint and jumping out of her hair.
"What in the hell are you-" Lance stopped as she jumped in, eyes wide open and the saltwater stinging her eyes.
She'd been through worse. Saltwater was nothing compared to sand, chili powder and actual poison powders from Pokemon. So she powered through it, finding Dratini unconscious and floating towards the seabed. As that was a bad thing for even deep-sea living Dratini, she picked up the pace, swimming closer and closer to her dragon.
She wasn't the only one, as she could see the hungry eyes of a sea serpent coming up from the deep. Iris lunged downwards, like a diver going for gold. Except in her case, that gold metal was getting her little dragon back in her hands before what looked to be a Shadow Gyarados ate them both.
Astral Iris, unaffected by water as she was just a part of her mind, nearly screamed. 'Swim! Swim for our lives!' she cried, Iris not bothering to swim for the surface.
No. The feral and insane sea snake would do it for her. Shadow Pokemon were not exactly idiots, but they were more focused on murder then thinking straight. So all she had to do was avoid the teeth.
The Gyarados lunged forward, maw wide open as it prepared to eat an easy meal. Iris had no intention of being anyone's lunch, of course, and once it surged forward, she rolled forward, missing the mouth and latching onto the dorsal fin. It was slimy and difficult to grip, but it was enough for her to stay on until she could grip one of the body segments, which were far easier to hold as they rushed towards the surface.
Daylight hit dragon and trainer before she jumped off the thing's back, landing in the rowboat, Axew nearly screaming his head off as the Opelucid native pulled out a Pokeball and tossed it. "Go, Emolga!" she called, sending out the Sky Squirrel Pokemon and her only real option against a Gyarados.
The attention whore emerged with a flourish, only to find out why she was sent out when the Shadow Gyarados roared at her. "Emol?!" she cried.
"Use Discharge! It's a water/flying-type!" she called out. "It'll hurt him a LOT!"
'You're welcome.' her mental counterpart groused, having learned that in Johto in the other timeline and told her fleshy self this over the course of their journey.
Emolga did just that, sending out a sphere of electrical energy that hit the sea serpent, knocking it into the water… for one of the Heart of Indigo's main guns to fire at it, the shell making a massive plume of water that hid the sea serpent… only for the waters to turn red.
If it was a normal Gyarados, it would be a tragedy. The death of any Pokemon was not one to celebrate, even for one as violent as they happened to be. But as this was a Shadow Gyarados...all they could do was pity its' lot in life and hope Giratina would be kind to its' soul.
Iris closed her eyes out of respect. Nothing deserved to be a Shadow Pokemon. Not even their progenitor, Yveltal.
Oak Ranch, Pallet town - 1123 hours local time
Poipole didn't like being away from Ash or Pikachu. He knew WHY, but he didn't like it.
Belladonna, Ash's big sister, said he was poisonous to them. Not intentionally, but he leaked it out when he was too excited. Which was a lot.
So, she had him on a special training regime. Which mostly involved sitting. A lot. She called it 'meditation'. He was just bored out of his mind floating.
"Char." 'Ah, the alien.' said an unexpected voice, startling Poipole before he squirted out a bit of toxic gas, which was easily blown away by the wingbeats of a massive creature harmlessly towards the rock-type habitat. "Zard." 'Whoops. Sorry if I surprised you.' with that, the massive orange dragon entered his line of sight.
"Poi?" 'You're… Charizard, right?' Poipole asked, the Flame Pokemon sitting down in front of him. "Pole…" 'You're… big.'
Charizard chuckled. "Cha." 'Yes, I am. And you are literally not of this world.' he replied before noting what Poipole was doing. "Zar." 'Meditation. It may surprise you, but I was put through the same damn thing in the Charific Valley once.'
Poipole tried to contain himself, otherwise he might have another poisonous expulsion. "Pol?" 'Really? But… why?' he asked.
Charizard chuckled, laughing into the sky. "Charizar!" 'I was an INCREDIBLE hothead! I needed to learn how to focus, not just rush in and beat things with my claws or torch them!' he exclaimed before looking back at Poipole. "Ch." 'It helped me be better. You want to help Ash, right? I can coach you through it, enough to make those… toxic clouds a thing of the past.' The dragon then had a devious look in his eyes. "Zar…" 'Or at least under your control…'
The playful Poison Pin Pokemon all but grinned. But his new teacher had a point. Focus. Focus was needed. Control was key.
And thus both Pokemon, in one case attempting and not failing nor entirely succeeding, relaxed and focused themselves for the struggles to come.
"Vui." 'I think I got it.' said Eevee as she approached Spearow and the Alolan Meowth, who was lounging in the sun while the bird napped. Apparently, he'd been running errands for months for Bulbasaur/Ivysaur and was completely exhausted.
She had been busy herself. Ash was not a neglectful trainer, but he was one that was overwhelmed with organizing his team and he thought, not unfairly, that she might not want to fight in gym battles. He wasn't wrong. Until now.
She had been conditioning herself, learning to control those transformations. Perhaps there was a use for them in Ash's Gym battles. After all, who would expect an Eevee to turn into an Espeon mid-fight?
The darker-colored Meowth cracked open an eye. "Meow." 'Oh, great.' he muttered. "Meoth." 'What do you want, fluffy?'
Eevee's normally adorable face had an evil smirk to it. "Vui…" 'to use you as a guinea pig.' she replied.
Meowth scoffed and laid back down.. "Eowth." 'Go away and bother someone else.' he said, waving her away.
Sadly, Eevee was not taking no for an answer, as Meowth discovered ten seconds later with a Moonblast to the face. The dark-type smacked into a tree, Spearow cracking an eye open to find out what happened, only to find a Sylveon glaring at Meowth.
"Eon!" 'Not happening. You've lounged here for months. It's time for you to earn your keep!' she snapped, the hite and pink Pokemon ready for battle, ribbons ready to choke her opponent.
Spearow chuckled. "Spear." 'You've got spirit.' he said cheerfully, right before he felt the snap of electricity hitting his body, sending him rolling into another tree, finding her having changed into a Jolteon. "Spearow." 'You DO realize this means war.'
The electric Eeveelution narrowed her eyes. "Jolt." 'Of course I do.' she replied. "Eon." 'I WANT war.'
The old bird shook off the shock. "Spear!" 'If you want a fight, little one, you'll get it!' he snapped as he took to the air.
Ash's little snake dragon hunted for signs of his target. It wasn't that hard to find a ground-type, was it?
Dun-dun.
And there it was. He was hunting for land sharks. And there was only one at the ranch.
Dun-dun.
Dratini froze, acting like a snake before he felt the earth shift under him.
And the ground erupted, jaws clamping around his body as his target surfaced violently, like his aquatic counterpart.
CHOMP!
Fortunately, Gible was beyond friendly. The entire line was super-affectionate, apparently, but Gabites and Garchomps couldn't display it in their preferred way: biting. Apparently, Gible was a Garchomp and it was super confusing, but he got the best of both worlds. He got to bite and the power. In this case, though, it was a case of tracking training, to find Gible in the ground and hit him with a relatively weak Powder Snow he picked up from Glalie. Enough to sting, especially the dragon/ground-type, but not enough to hurt.
"Gib!" 'Got you!' cried the land shark as Dratini was in his maw, before Dratini decided to play right back, Wrapping around the land shark and squeezing.
"Dra!" 'Who has who?!' he asked as they fought, wrestling for control of the fight, kicking up a dust cloud as the pair got physical, though not harmfully so.
Nearby, Goodra was focusing on learning more offensive moves, like Hyper Beam or Rock Slide, but he knew to learn these moves, he had to focus on what they were. It wasn't as simple as charging up energy or causing a literal rock slide. The former would just result in type energy leaking into the attack and turning it into Dragon Pulse and the latter… well, again, no type energy didn't make it the move. It was just a bunch of rocks and while they could hurt, they wouldn't hurt ENOUGH.
Then he felt something rather violently bump into him. If he was Charizard, it would've knocked him over, but he was a Goodra and they tended to be rather squishy, so the fight ball sunk into his back for a second before they bounced away, the only thing really inconveniencing Goodra being that he was nudged forward somewhat.
"Goo?" 'What in the name of the Creation Trio are you two doing?' he asked as he looked at the pair, who then stopped their fight, giving each other a look, then looking at the larger (for the moment, as Gible refused to remove the clip while helping Dratini, as… well… does it need to be said?) dragon-type.
"Gib?" 'Helping Dratini train?' said the land shark, his maw still having part of Dratini's snake like body in it. Goodra made a motion that resembled a human raising one's brow before smiling.
"Goo." 'It's nice to see one of us helping the new guys bringing out their potential.' Goodra said as he rose up, both dragon-types watching as their comrade's friendly smile turned nigh-evil. "Goodra." 'But I suspect you both need a hand. I would recommend removing your evolite clip, Garchomp, or this will be VERY painful.'
Dratini and Gible shared a look before the little dragon removed the lans shark's clip and got out of his mouth. Goodra might've been the nicest guy around… but so was Ash.
And Ash did NOT screw around when he wanted to get something done.
SS Libre wreckage - 1315 hours local time - Day 160
Robin pet the Natu sitting on her head after they teleported back from Gateon port, the bird hopping off to rejoin its' colony. She couldn't tell one Natu from another, let alone gender them. The only one that was different was Ash's, which often sat on his head when she was there and glared at any Natu that attempted to take her place.
She could practically hear the 'my head' every time she 'Natu'ed them away.
"Hey, Robin." greeted her… companion. Eventual master. Whatever he was: her mind was always in flux involving him. "What's up?"
What was up, indeed. Only the greatest and most important operation they had to complete. Because when she checked in at Gateon Port, the smith gave her information they could use to cripple Cipher's operations for good.
"A boon for Orre and a way to cripple Cipher." she answered as she pulled out a folder from her satchel, retrieving a set of photos and hastily written reports from it. "Cipher's put one of their factories back into service. After my grandfather blew it up, it was out of use and others were put up, but after the rather extreme counterstrike, they put considerable amounts of work into bringing it back into service, as the others were-"
"Rio." said Ash's Riolu, Ash grimacing at whatever he said, Robin just accepting the fact that he understood and left it alone. "Yeah, blown up." Ash replied to Riolu before looking at Robin. "So, we need to take it out or something?"
He was getting into the swing of things. Good. "Yes. But there's a problem." she said, pulling out more reports. "Cipher has a massive number of peons combing the desert using flying-types. Mirror B himself has his Dragonite as well. We can't fly there using your Pidgeot."
The pirate-hat wearing Xatu then walked up, almost smugly. "Xatu!" said the bird with the hat before spreading his wings. "Xatu! Xatu!"
The birds of the flock all began flapping their wings in unison. "Natu!" they cried as one, beating their wings at the same time before repeating the process.
Surge poked his head out. "What the hell are the birds of paradise doing?" he asked as he saw them flapping their wings, joined by Pernon and Rin a minute later, looking just as confused.
"Ok… I know Orre is weird, but… what in the hell?" Rin asked before the bow section started shaking. "WHAT THE-"
The birds kept flapping their wings, crying out "Natu!" each time as the bow slowly rose out of the sands, the Rockets being dumped out momentarily before rushing back on board via one of the ladders on the side of the ship. Xatu flapped along with them as the ship leveled off, a few meters off the sand.
Surge ran to the railing, finding out what happened. "…They're making the ship hover." he said with some shock. "Can they-"
"Xatu!" cried Xatu… before the ship began to surge forward.
"Of course they can." Ash said with a smile as he watched the desert sands move beneath them. "They're psychic-types! Telekinesis is easy for them!"
"Natu." said Ash's Natu, smugly as the bow went towards the base, like a ship on the sea.