North of Cerulean City, where we left off last chapter

Squirtle's one turtle war on all of humanity ended just as it was declared as Bulbasaur grabbed him with his vines, yanked him over to Ash (who was still cradling Misty) and made contact with him.

By contact, this referred to Squirtle's tail whacking Ash in the back of the head.

Ash didn't even really react to it as Squirtle froze up as he regained his memories and began rapidly freaking out as he realized he was missing something.

"Squirtle Squirt!?" 'What the...where am I? This isn't the Squirtle Squad, my shades are tinted the wrong color on the inside, I have the oddest desire to way waste to surface dwellers, and when did Ash and Misty go through puberty!?' He then noticed Charmander. "Squirtle Squir?" 'Oh, Charizard had a kid, man that makes me feel old." There was an awkward pause as Squirtle tried to figure out what to say next. "How are you sparky, I'm one of your pops’ buds. You can call me Uncle Squirtle.'

Said Charmander promptly flung himself into the ground and began beating the ground while wailing in frustration.

"Tle?" 'Is he alright in the head?'

"Pi" 'That's Charizard,' Pikachu deadpanned. 'To make a long story short, time and space broke and we got sent back in time to try and prevent it from doing so again, but in doing so the timeline was altered randomly. Contact with Ash can restore us to full memories, and gave Misty some of hers back.'

"Squirtle?" 'Huh? Well, that explains why Butterfree and Pidgeotto are suddenly here.' The two of them just stared at him for somehow not noticing them earlier. 'I have no clue who the purple monkey is though.'

"Aipom." 'Not sure we ever did meet. I'm Aipom, formerly Ambipom. I was caught by Ash during the Kanto Grand Festival shortly before Ash defeated Brandon, worked with him before being traded to Dawn in Sinnoh, then I went into Ping Pong.'

Squirtle cocked a non-existent eye brow at that one "Tle." 'You’re gone for a few adventures and you miss a lot it seems. Guess that's what happens when you don't keep an eye on what's going on. Well, as long as I am the most badass water starter he ever had, I'll be cool with whatever's happened since. Well, maybe not reality going kaboom, but other than that I am cool.'

Pikachu resisted the urge to mention Froakie, who could possibly dethrone Squirtle for that title had reality not blown up. That meeting would be reserved for another time, probably Kalos.

Ash then seemed to finally truly register Squirtle being there, and something seemed to rapidly flash through his eyes, like an idea. "Squirtle, I need you to use Surf and..."

Squirtle frowned "Squirtle." 'Ash, I don't know if you understand how surfing works, but you need to have a large enough water Pokémon to carry you, or hold onto them. With how Misty is right now, carry is the only solution, and you'd need something a lot bigger than me to do that. You'd need something like Lapras to do that...'

Ash's eyes seemed to flush away all hope from them faster than a high end toilet.

'...Hell, I think the only Pokémon large enough to pull that off around here is a Gyarados, and there is no way you could expect to...' Squirtle stopped talking as Ash's eyes refilled with determination. 'Oh dammit, I should have stopped talking.'

...

"Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokémon. Gyarados are vicious creatures that have caused the end of entire civilizations in only a single day," the Pokédex implored as Ash began to approaching the way.

"Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokémon. Gyarados are easily provoked and were the greatest threat to ancient mariners in all recorded histories. Their danger led to the great Kalosian Gyarados cullings and Magikarp poisonings that all but wiped out the species population there." Ash still was getting close to the water.

"Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokémon. Gyarados are a predatory species easily capable of eating humans. They are attracted to splashing water on the edge of the..." Ash promptly reached the water's edge and began splashing it with his foot. "...Screw it, you're going to die now moron. Please remove me from your pocket before I have to be dissolved by stomach acid."

Bulbasaur exchanged a look with Pikachu, which Pikachu responded with a firm head shake that basically said not to save the Pokédex and thus give the impression they were not behind Ash on his little idea that was more than a bit dangerous.

Ash unceremoniously removed the Pokédex from his pocket and threw it against the pebble lined shore (OW!), before staring out into the water. "I refuse...to lose anyone else," Ash quietly, but audibly, said to himself. "Even if it's too late to save Dawn, Cilan and Iris, I will not allow any of my other friends to be lost under my watch. I don't care what I have to do to save them, I'll do whatever it takes." The water in front of Ash began to ripple, as if something was rising to the surface rapidly.

"Even if that means, I have to make this Gyarados listen after defeating it myself."

Ash absently noticed Pikachu dart over to his side just as he finished that line.

"Pi." 'No...not by yourself...'

They were joined, first by Bulbasaur and Charmander, then by the rest of his Pokémon, and Squirtle (who was still technically a free agent and had no obligation to actually listen to Ash), staring at the bubbling surface of the way.

"Pi/Bul/Char/Squir/Free/Ai/Caw!" 'But with us!'

"You're all going to die, and I'm going to be recycled into a I-Pad," the Pokédex somehow managed to snort as the great form of Gyarados rose up from the water, a great blue and white serpent creature roaring loudly into the heavens with the yowl that had heralded five of the world's ten great exoduses.

The great beast towered over all eight of them, but they each stared right back, ready to strike back.

Ash and Pidgeotto began to glow white, Pikachu's cheeks began to spark, Butterfree's wings began to sparkle with powder, Aipom's tail glowed bright orange, vines slipped out of Bulbasaur's bulb, Charmander's claws grew into metallic constructs and Squirtle breathed in deeply, channeling the great reserves of water that existed within him.

Gyarados roared once again, before its gaze moved further along to the body of Misty, and its roars changed.

What once was threatening, now sounded more shocked. This was notable enough that Ash's Pokémon and Ash himself stopped charging for battle.

"Gyara!?"

Ash frowned before turning to Squirtle. "Hey buddy...what's it saying?"

Ash had found that his powers had a notable flaw to them when it came to understanding Pokémon. He could only understand Pokémon who he had a connection with.

That meant his Pokémon, and maybe some of his friend's if he tried (though considering he didn't trust Psyduck not to spurt out he was from the future to Misty and cause her to freak out or something, he had yet to test this theory), but definitely not wild Pokémon.

So he still needed his Pokémon to translate for him, akin to how Meowth translated for Team Rocket.

(Speaking of, where were they? He hadn't seen them in a while.)

"Squirt?" 'He's basically freaking out that his friend is hurt.'

It took Ash a few seconds to realize that the Gyarados probably meant Misty.

It took Ash another few seconds to make a guess from said thought.

"Hey Pikachu...Misty had a Gyarados, right? You think this is..."

Pikachu simply shrugged in response to Ash's question "Chu?" 'Probably...'

With that information in mind, Ash turned to face Gyarados, glad that Pokémon could understand human language even though most humans could not understand them, and began to speak.

"Gyarados, my name is Ash Ketchum, and I am Misty's friend." The Gyarados stopped roaring and, probably, planning to smite a town or two if Misty died. "Misty isn't well, and she needs medical attention as soon as possible. The only way I can get her the help she needs in time to save her is by crossing this stretch of water, and your kind is the only Water-type around that's large enough to help her. Please Gyarados, you're the only one who can save her. I need your help...Misty needs your help." Ash stared into Gyarados' eyes to show he was sincere and truly cared for Misty's life.

Gyarados roared into the sky, before its massive tail was swung, right into the shallows like a waiting pontoon boat.

"Squirt." 'He said yes.'

Ash grinned widely, even if that probably did not need translation, before he back peddled over to where Misty was laying on the ground, before picking her up and turning back to Gyarados, who roared in urgency.

"I'll save you Misty..." Ash quietly told himself before he went over and climbed on top the great serpent of the sea. With an audible hop and flap he was joined by his Pokémon, with Bulbasaur using his vines to grab the Pokédex (Let me go you symbiotic organism!) before they forgot it.

They didn't have time to get their sleeping bags, food and other materials, they would just have to leave it and come back for it later.

Hopefully no one would just swipe it, and by no one he probably meant Team Rocket considering they were apparently 'stalking' him.

Were they just watching him now?

Meanwhile a small town a bit away from Ash and Misty

"Ekans!"

"Koffing!"

Both Poison-type Pokémon possessed by Team Rocket were glaring at the store clerks currently pressed against the wall as the trio, with large burlap sacks in each hand, proceeded to plunder a local supermarket for all the food and essentials the trio needed to continue their observations of the target Ash Ketchum.

They had left early that morning, aware that they probably could not away with robbing such a store after it opened, and confident that the boy would not do anything interesting while they were gone.

He seemed content to train himself with his Pokémon for now, so he would probably continue to be disturbingly into his training while they went off and made sure they would be able to survive the wilderness as well.

Of course, they were shocked to find out that the kid was some sort of bloodliner. They had always wondered why the Boss wanted them to watch him, originally assuming he was the kid of a 'business' rival or something (or perhaps the kid of one of the boss's top henchmen who they were supposed to be pretend enemies to but actually be guardian angels to, it was too hard to say), but if he was one of them...

Did the Boss want to recruit him as a hit man? Was he starting his own bloodliner army? Or did he simply want to arrange for him to die in a way that furthers the anti-bloodliner wave?

Giovanni's reply to them asking this question the other day was short and to the point. "Talk about that to anyone but me, and your lives are forfeit".

So the point of their job was still a mystery to them, but a mystery they would have to consider after they resupplied on crackers and deodorant.

As to why they were still in the process of robbing stores: this was actually their third target. James had called off the first target because the owner was putting two of his children through university and had a third and fourth child approaching that time in their life, while Jessie had refused to go after the second target when she saw that the owner was the main supplier to a local orphanage.

But the owners of the third super market they scouted out had no traits that prevented the trio from wanting to rob them. No college debt, no heart-warming orphans, just an unmarried man of the age of 36 with no wife, no kids and whose first reaction to seeing Meowth scouting around the back of his store was to try and kick him.

So, no mercy for him or his minimum wage lackeys.

"..Pringles, shampoo, the latest issues of National Pokégraphic, a map and all their various communication devices have been broken, that's everything," James called as he read off what they were stealing from a grocery list, as if he was actually going to pay for what they were stealing or breaking.

"You'll never get away with this!" the owner yelled, his back still to them as Jessie scoffed.

"How cliché can you get? You could at least sound original when us bad guys rob you. Plus, if people could stop Team Rocket they would have done so twenty, forty, how many ever odd years ago."

With that snarkiness, the trio proceeded to skip out, only returning Koffing and Ekans just as they left, burlap sacks over all three of their shoulders as they went back to their stalking target.

The kid couldn't have gotten up to anything that crazy in such a short time, after all.

On the water

"Char!" 'I don't fear you water! I soared above you once, and I will do so again! I will burn you with my inferno, tear you apart with my claws and then dig a hole in your dried up remains just because I can!'

"Bulba" '...and I thought Totodile and Gible had issues. Really hope no one else ends up this psychotic over it.'

Ash wasn't particularly paying attention to Charmander threatening the river and blasting it with Ember, or Bulbasaur being rather exasperated about Charmander's desire to pick a fight with anything to get himself evolved again.

Ash did make a mental note to use Charmander against Lt. Surge though. Though he idly wondered if he would have a choice in that matter.

Misty was now lying against him, held as to prevent her from drowning, as Ash idly considered returning his Pokémon and properly capturing Squirtle again. While it probably would be a bit counter-productive to their stance of solidarity earlier, the fact was that even with Pidgeotto and Butterfree flying alongside Gyarados and even if Squirtle swam on his own, they were still weight and thus slowing Gyarados down.

However, at the same time they were needed, for as it turned out, to no one’s surprise, that there were other Gyarados in the river, and it was kind of needed to strike them with Swift, Vine Whip and other attacks to make them go away as to keep their Gyarados constantly swimming to the shore, as oppose to wasting time and causing massive property damage fighting them off himself.

Ash didn't have much time to debate this, however, as Charmander's blasting of the water gathered attention from a denizen of the deep, who lunged out at him with his full power...

Thankfully it was small and Charmander matched its Vice Grip with his Metal Claw.

It was also familiar to Ash...and to all of the other Pokémon Ash had restored bar Aipom smell wise. Charmander's eyes widened in recognition of who had jumped out of the river, a familiar cream and red Water-type.

"Char!" 'You!'

"Ki?"

"Krabby, the River Crab Pokémon. Krabby is a small fry Pokémon often consumed in seafood. This one in particular would be offered as a discount or a diet sized meal at any reputable Sushi Place," the Dex snarked.

Ash ignored the Pokédex he had repocketed while on the water, absently waved to Bulbasaur to hold Misty for him to ensure she didn't slip off, and went to grab Krabby, but it dislodged itself off Charmander's and began to fall back into the water as Ash rapidly reached for his Pokéballs.

"Go, Pokéball!" Ash desperately tossed a Pokéball at it, quite aware that if Krabby got away now, he'd be lucky to ever find him again.

It would be bittersweet to save Misty, only to lose one of his oldest Pokémon (even if he didn't use him that often. Perhaps he should make an effort to use him more this time around)

He idly swore he heard a whistling noise from his thrown ball as oppose to the regular noise though.

The ball struck Krabby about a foot from the water's edge, where it promptly sucked up Ash's 7th baseline Pokémon, wiggled once, and promptly let out the sparks of a capture. The ball then began to shimmer and vanish, like the last time Ash had captured a seventh Pokémon while within teleportation range.

(Unova being farther away, this was not the case as it were.)

"Critical Capture recognized. Reporting data to database," the Pokédex beeped out as Ash had a look on confusion.

"Critical Capture?" Yes it was a critical capture, but that sounded more like the thing was naming something.

Perhaps still being annoyed at Ash for summoning a Gyarados in what should have been suicidal idiocy, the Dex didn't respond to Ash's question about what critical capture was.

Route 5 physically, the Dream World Mentally

The fire burned for hours, reducing everything to ashes.

The sound of the very foundations of his whole life, his home, snapping and crumbling were burned into his ears just as the sight of his home was burnt into his eyes for the rest of time. The smell of the smoke as everything he knew was scorched would never leave his nose being forever imprinted in his memory.

He was just glad his partner wasn't seeing this, his recently hatched Pichu being curled up beside him, just as asleep as he had been when Red ran out of the burning house, the two survivors out of its three occupants.

A fire caused by...

"You just had to open your mouth!"

"Everything you touch falls apart!"

"No wonder your father never bothered with you! You're a freak of nature!"

Each voice that rang out, were the voices of his childhood tormentors, again and again as he found himself trapped in his younger body (a pale skinned boy with spiky black hair which couldn't be tamed, with a pair of Z shaped marks just under his brown eyes that went away when he was about twelve in a white shirt with a Pokéball on it).

Why would their hatred ever leave him? He hadn't seen them in years!

Why couldn't he just forget them!?

"Red?! Red!? Wake up!"

Red's eyes snapped open from his sleeping form to see the concerned face of Yellow staring down at him.

"You were squirming and saying things in your sleep," she explained the moment she saw his blazing eyes. Her concern for him was clearly evident in her voice and worry was visible in her eyes.

He shot up and looked away, not wanting to look the girl in her eyes "...It was nothing."

"Liar," Yellow told him. "It was something. You don't squirm like that in your sleep if you're having good dreams, you only do that if you're having nightmares. Like my Uncle Wilton when he had those bad dreams about his time in the war."

Red absently recalled that Yellow had, after the death of her mother, been raised by her granduncle Wilton, who had been an old veteran of the last war, one of the last to finally pass away recently if he recalled correctly. Hence why a ten-year old was running around unsupervised in a world filled with fire breathing, poisonous creatures.

Such behavior might be possible in a few decades if the general move towards a peaceful world on both sides continued, but not at the present time.

"..." Red continued to stay silent as the memories continued to ring in his mind as Yellow glared/looked at him in concern.

Cerulean City

It had been surprisingly uncomplicated once Ash and Gyarados had gotten to Cerulean City's hospital.

Not only was the hospital on the water front, avoiding all those awkward questions of a teenage boy running through town with an unconscious teenage girl, but the guards were all surprisingly calm about a Gyarados appearing behind the place of healing.

Well, actually they had just released a few dozen Voltorb and Magnemite, but once they saw that Ash was riding it, they quickly came to the conclusion that it was not a wild threat to the hospital.

Once they had seen the injured Misty, and Ash told them exactly what happened, they were even more understanding, and quickly rushed her into the ER.

They were so diligent on getting her into the ER as quickly as possible that they didn't even notice Ash use one of Misty's Pokéballs to capture the very Gyarados he had been riding for her, as well as one of his own for Squirtle.

Pokéballs, being registered to the buyer or renter in the case of areas like the Safari Zone, could be used by other people to capture Pokémon for them. It was how parents often obtained starter Pokémon for their children, and was the reason that Brock didn't have any of his Tauros despite helping him catch a few.

Oddly, while Squirtle had teleported to Professor Oak just like Krabby had, Gyarados' Pokéball had shrunk and sealed itself, sort of like what happened when he captured more than six Pokémon back in Unova.

"In case you are not aware, you are the minority, the 1% kind. Most trainers do not have a wonderful device such as myself to teleport their Pokéballs, and upon exceeding their limit the Pokéball locks itself, and even yours would do so if you were too far out of range for my capabilities. Most trainers with more than six Pokémon on hand have to rotate their activate Pokémon manually, which involves locking one of the Pokéballs in the party to allow for unlocking a different one," the Pokédex had snidely informed Ash from his pocket as he picked up Gyarados' ball, before placing it into Misty's bag (which he had held on to as they took Misty in).

And thus we find our hero a few hours later, having read every single magazine in the waiting room, surfed the internet with Dexter until he got sick of all the My Little Ponyta fanart he kept seeing everywhere, and was now pacing with Dexter providing Walkman tunes via a pair of headphones that the sympathetic secretary had given him 'because he looked like he needed to pace or he would go crazy trying to sit and wait any more'.

Really, the only other thing Ash could be doing right now (and not seeming like an uncaring jerk to his ailing friend, like going out to get a muffin or training), was be a caring jerk and search through Misty's bag.

He had Pikachu, who was currently asleep in a waiting room chair, resting on it to resist the boredom induced temptation, having returned the rest of his Pokémon because a lizard with a flaming tail tended to make nurses nervous.

"...Don't know what's ahead but it won't get the best of me! There's so much to learn and battles to be won! I've advanced so far but still there's always more to come..."

I-Dexter was currently playing his sixth song on his playlist for perhaps the third time when a doctor entered the waiting room.

"Ash Ketchum," he said gravely as Ash froze in his tracks.

No.

It, it couldn't be...

He got there fast...he was as quick as someone could possibly be without spontaneously developing teleportation.

She couldn't have...

"...I am pleased to inform you that you will not have to fill out any paperwork, as your friend has made it through." His tone quickly shifted to a far more pleasant and cheerful tone.

Ash sighed in immense relief, not even minding the nasty joke the Doctor played on him, or even registering it at the moment.

"She'll be in recovery for a few days, and probably won't wake up until tomorrow," the Doctor continued. "Now, I understand being worried about your friend, but...you might want to do something besides pacing like you're an expectant father." Ash blushed at the implications of that. "We are willing to give you slack about disruptive behavior when you were waiting on your friend's condition, but if you do that all night, we will have to call Officer Jenny."

The doctor's bluntness caused Ash to blush in embarrassment. It wasn't like he could tell him why he was particularly concerned about Misty. If he told her he was worried he'd lose another of his friends to this new timeline, he'd be locked up in the psyche ward.

"Look, I can tell you obviously have a lot of pent up energy, and while I normally would suggest going to the Battle Club to work it out of your system, it is currently closed because of structure damage caused by someone being overzealous with Eruption, Earthquake and Dig. It may not be much, but we do have a Pokémon Gym in this city, a water type specializing one. The gym leaders aren't much, but they're the best place for you to go before you cause a scene."

"Wait sir..." Ash began, trying to figure out how to put it. Misty obviously didn't want to be in this place at all, and while he was pretty sure saving her life was probably an acceptable reason, he still had no idea exactly why.

Considering Misty's tense relationship with her sisters in the old timeline, Ash could only assume they were probably somehow connected to it. So battling them would probably cause problems between him and Misty...

"Doctor's orders. Go vent that energy, or I will be forced to kick you out of this establishment and only let you back in if your friend wakes up, or if you need medical care yourself," the Doctor promptly gave Ash a white eyed, wide stare that sent shivers down his spine and forced compliance. "I'm not letting you back in here before your friend wakes up if you do not either have a gym badge, or a broken limb, by the way, and if you deliberately break your leg, you're becoming an organ donor."

A walk later, Cerulean Gym

"...You know, was it hard for anyone but me to choose between probably incurring in Misty's fury by leaving her in a hospital to go battle a gym in the very place she wanted to avoid, or having your organs taken by a creepy doctor?"

"Chu?" 'Hey, I was asleep the entire conversation Ash. I honestly am as clueless as you are.'

Pikachu tilted his head when he noticed that Ash had Misty's bag hung over his shoulder, containing her Pokéballs, collapsible fishing poles and her various supplies, including spare clothing and toiletries, probably to make sure no one stole anything from it. "Pikachu-Pi Ka?" 'You know, if Misty doesn't want to be here at all, it probably is because of her sisters. If you walk into their gym with her bag, they'd be suspicious.'

Ash shrugged. "This bag doesn't have Misty's name on it. It doesn't have any key chains, notable stains or similar markings to make it identifiable from the average bag. Plus, this bag is a Kasumi Trailblazer Drawstring Bag, which was only released nine months ago. Misty apparently has been out and about for about a year, so there is no way they would know this is her bag".

Pikachu stopped and stared at the human in shock for knowing that, as Ash blushed.

"Well, I did sort of order my bag online prior to starting my journey Pikachu. I remember seeing it before I ordered my Satoshi Explorer 1 bag after a few days deliberation with my mom over price, size and company reputation."

Pikachu shook his head at the random things Ash seemed to remember at times, timeline original or timeline current. "Chu." 'You could just stuff it out of sight in your bag, just to be safe,' Pikachu pointed out as the two companions reached the door of the familiar looking, round and festive Cerulean Gym.

"Tried, doesn't fit" Ash replied as he opened the doors with a single push.

...

"I can't believe this!"

"Totally! They can't threaten us with a shutdown!"

"All the trainers we get are, like, totally tough. Do they really think it's that odd we have a 3% winning percentage?"

Three beautiful, at least externally, young women were sitting at a table in the gym's head office, roughly in their late twenties and looking like they had had, at some point, some level of cosmetic alterations, perhaps before they could even really consent to it on their own. The lead one, who spoke first, had orange hair a lighter shade than a certain...not to named person's, and had it longer. Flanking her to her left and right was a blue-haired and pink-haired girl, respectively. In between them, one bad letter on top of the letters of a thousand fanboys, was an official message from the Pokémon Inspection Agency.

Basically they were saying that if they did not amp up their win percentage soon, by winning at least one of the next three gym battle challenges they were given (with no allowance of denial even if the guy who challenged them was packing a Raikou and Zapdos), their gym would be shut down.

It was so unfair.

They just wanted to run the gym and perform water and beauty shows most of the time. No one ever told them they had to do so much battling for it.

Such things almost made them regret kicking 'it' out. Even if 'she-who-must-not-be-thought-of' was an abomination of nature, she could at least battle and actually seemed to like it.

It might have been simpler to lock it in a cage and only release it when challengers approached. Then, once the challenger was driven off, locked back up, maybe with some additional food as an incentive to win.

"A challenger has entered," the automated sensor gym leaders often had installed in their gyms to give warnings of such things rang off, causing the monitor to reveal a teenage male with sort of attractive looks (They'd give him a pity date in between the super stars they preferred. He was just too...run of the mill for their preferences) with dark hair, a Pikachu walking alongside him and dressed in average looking blue clothes.

"Damn, a Pikachu," the blue haired sister, Violet, complained. "Why do trainers always have to bring Electric or Grass-types in here? Can't we just ban them? I mean, that Surge guy down in Vermillion doesn't allow anti-war activists to battle him, and Erika never lets males challenge her these days."

"Surge was a Unovan soldier, and thus is a violent ass," the eldest, the orange haired Daisy scoffed. "And Erika has that lawsuit from that creeper incident to cause the PIA to be lax with her" it was left unspoken that they also tended to win their battles. "Gym leaders are allowed to ban people or groups from their gyms if they give a specific reason and if passes certain rules, they can't ban Pokémon."

"But not wanting to lose is a reason," the youngest sister, the pink-haired Lily, complained as the challenger monitor started to reveal data.

Trainer: Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town.

Gym Badge Total: 1 (Boulder Badge)

Known Pokémon: Pikachu, Butterfree, Pidgeotto, Aipom, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Krabby, Squirtle

Allowed Team for battle use: Staryu 2, Starmie 1, Goldeen 2, Seel 1, Shellder 1

"A Pikachu and a Bulbasaur...that's just overkill!" Violet complained "It's like the guy doesn't want us to keep our gym!?"

"We're going to be shut down!" Lily wailed "We're going to have to live in the condo full time!"

"Where are we going to do our water shows and not have to pay rent!?"

"We're going to be hounded by the tabloids...!"

Daisy didn't join in her younger sister's thought processes as she began to think.

She had read the Gym Leader's rule book, having been sick in bed and had nothing else to do at the time, except math homework.

She remembered a lot of it, which always did surprise her, including the various rules and regulations involving battling.

There was a rule she could swear was the way to get out of this mess with a win, and thus get that PIA Joy off their backs, but it was just on the tip of her tongue...

"...Think if we offer to sleep with him he'll go away?"

"Ew. Tabloid fuel Violet. Tabloid. Fuel. Plus I think that's illegal..."

"Got it!" The term and what it exactly was finally came to Daisy as her younger sisters looked at her funny.

"So we do seduce him?"

"No." Daisy smirked. "We beat him."

"But he has a Pikachu and a Bulbasaur!?"

"But what we have, is the perfect carrot and the perfect trap?"

"Carrot?"

"Figure of speech Lily, figure of speech."

...

Ash felt a great sense of unease as he found himself standing in the challenger's end of the gym arena, the very same pool he had battled Misty and later watched her do a ballet in a mermaid costume in the original timeline.

An odd part of him wondered what this Misty would look like in a similar costume now.

The unease did not get any better when he noticed the three sensational sisters, who both seemed more...sensational in appearance in their older age, and somehow more fake as well.

He could have sworn he could smell the Botox from where he stood. Maybe he could, he never checked if a Lucario could smell Botox.

"Welcome to our gym!" Daisy began in a way that was setting off Ash's senses for people being 'false', people being a 'liar' and, strongest of all, his well-honed 'Misty is going to be angry and will punch you when she hears about this' senses. "So, Mr. Ketchum, I assume you want to compete in the Pokémon League?"

"Yes," Ash said with increasing unease. Pikachu, who was back on his shoulder, was starting to feel it as well.

"You know, it is such a bother to have to walk or bike all over the place to compete in the Pokémon League" Daisy continued her train of conversation to...wherever it was going in a conversational tone that greatly worried him "You have to fend off wild Pokémon, deal with ferry delays and probably will get mugged by Team Rocket at least twice."

Ash rolled his eyes at the last one. Team Rocket didn't mug him, he blew them up. Or at least, he used to. They seemed to be less prone to being blasted away these days.

"You know, as a gym leader I can set things up so you don't have to bother." The smile that Daisy was giving off was both alluring, and unnerving at the same time, mostly unnerving from Ash's perspective. "Gym leaders have an, oh so special thing we can do for trainers, one that lets us give any trainer a battle that can directly qualify them for the Pokémon League. I mean, how else would you get a single father with a shred of responsibility going to the league finals? I mean, you can't exactly tug a toddler across Kanto to challenge the gyms."

Ash frowned at what she was saying. It sounded too good to be true.

Plus, Ash didn't want to do that sort of thing. In Ash's opinion, traveling was an important part of being a Pokémon trainer. It let you and your Pokémon grow, far better than if you just stayed put, though he could understand why a single parent might be better off with that probably false method Lily was talking about.

If he never left Pallet Town, or only went to Viridian City and won there in the way that Daisy was describing, he'd have never met almost all of his Pokémon he caught in Kanto, let alone the other regions. He'd have never met any of his friends, bar Misty either, for that matter.

Who would have fought Teams Rocket, Aqua, Magma, Galactic and Plasma if he had never traveled?

"Such a rule does in fact exist," Ash's Pokédex chimed in, "it's a special variant of the gym's badge that would be awarded as a prize for such victory. However..."

Daisy quickly spoke up over the 'but' part of the Pokédex's explanation. "See, it's a real thing. If you win, you can go straight to the Pokémon League competition without having to go across the region and getting mugged and bitten. Loose, and you can always try again..."

The way she finished that sentence on a pause made Ash wonder what exactly she had spoken over from Dexter. He was getting a bad feeling about this. The Pokédex even seemed to be giving off a feeling of aggravation for being talked over so no one could hear it.

"I don'..." Ash idly began to reach for his Pokédex, wondering if it might, perhaps, have the rules in text form.

"'I down with it' you saying?" the pink haired sister, Violet, finished for him in a way that Ash had definitely not intended as she dashed over to him, and forcefully dragged him to the battlefield before he could read up on the rules, ignoring his complaints about it

"Well then, let the gym battle begin!"

Behind the two other sisters, quickly joined by three after Ash had been dragged into the battlefield, a scoreboard featuring his and Daisy's faces sprung up, with six Pokéballs apiece under each of them.

"Wait, since when was this a six on six..."

"It's one of the rules to the battle you agreed to" Daisy grin was far more like a predatory Pokémon species, like Sharpedo or Gyarados, than normal (Hey, I didn't agree to anything here!) "Now, let's get this started...go Kingdra!"

Ash and Pikachu proceeded to have dual gobsmacked faces as the Water/Dragon-type final evolution of Horsea appeared in both the pool and the scoreboard.

"Kingdra, the Dragon Pokémon. The first non-Dratini dragon type known to Kanto scholars, Kingdra lives in deep ocean waters in the wild. This Pokémon was declared an eighth badge challenge Pokémon by the Pokémon League and cannot be used in a second badge challenge." The last bit was directed as Daisy in a rare situation of the Pokédex defending Ash as oppose to insulting him.

"Well, under the rules of a Non-Traveling Trainer League Entrance Battle, I am simply obliged to bring my full game. It would be utterly irresponsible of me to test his readiness for the Pokémon League if I used my second badge team" Daisy said in faux innocence as Ash could almost feel the Pokédex glare at her alongside him and Pikachu.

"Chu!" 'Cheater.'

Ash nodded in agreement as he mentally contemplated what to do in this situation...but only one thing came to mind.

Well, there were technically two things he could do, but an Ash would never give up on a battle even if it seemed hopeless. If he did, he would have never fought against Tobias and his Darkrai, or gave it up when it was just Pikachu left to face Latios.

He would try, at least. Even if the battle was unfair, he wasn't sure he could simply back out now.

Plus, he was pretty sure running from an official match had legal consequences of sorts. Ash didn't want to be banned from the gym system if he could help it, after all.

Of course, he had to win first, and seeing as he was up against a Dragon-type, he might as well start with the Pokémon who just relearned a Dragon move.

"Charmander, I choose you!"

Descending from his thrown Pokéball in a burst of white light, Charmander did not react as his past self might do surrounded by water and confronted by a Kingdra.

No, instead the Fire-type pointed his claws right at the Kingdra, and bellowed dramatically.

"Charmander!" 'I am Charmander, you out of shape fish! I will not be defeated by you! I will defeat you! I will defeat your entire team myself! I will smite you all, and burn you all, and make you regret that you ever evolved! You will be nothing but a footnote as I retake the sky that is rightfully mine!'

Daisy just laughed at him sending out a Fire-type against a Water/Dragon-type. "Well, this will be over quickly. Let's begin, Kingdra use Bubble!"

Breathing in deeply, with a slight wheeze to it that Ash wasn't expecting, Kingdra released a burst of bubbles right at Charmander.

Ash was quick on the counter-attack. "Charmander, block with Ember!"

Breathing in deeply as well, Charmander let loose a fury of sparks right in the path of the bubbles, which were all popped and resulted in a burst of steam covering the field.

"What!?" The sister's all demanded in shock as the Kingdra, unseen, blushed in embarrassment.

"Pi!?" 'Wow, that Kingdra really is out of shape. You know, if the entire team is like that, we might actually win.'

Ash decided to let that pessimistic note slide for the simple realism behind it, and knew, even without mental communication, what Charmander should do now.

He idly noted he was actually casually hearing Charmander and Pikachu without putting deliberate effort into it at the moment. It was probably a good thing.

"Charmander, use Dragon Tail!"

As the steam cleared, Kingdra paled as all none time travelers realized that Charmander had used the steam to hop across the battlefield's platforms to get right behind Kingdra, and swatted him with his glowing tail, sending Kingdra crashing through the wave pool as Charmander regained a central footing on the platforms.

Kingdra steadied itself after skipping across the pool like a stone, but it didn't look that good.

"Alright, that's it! Kingdra, blast it with Water Gun!"

Breathing in with a wheeze once again, Charmander tenses as Kingdra began to charge up a stronger water attack.

Charmander looked ready to meet it head on with his flames once again, but Ash knew better than to expect that Ember could stop a more focused, stronger water attack the same way it had stopped a weak, but spread out attack like Bubble.

"Charmander, dodge it!" Ash commanded as the fire lizard looked annoyed, but complied, though his delay in being annoyed got him nicked by the attack in the shoulder, causing him to skid across the platform, clutching his shoulder where it had been grazed by the attack as Kingdra and Daisy regained confidence.

"Ha! Type or no type, a Charmander could never hope to ever defeat a Kingdra.” Ash, Pikachu and Charmander in synch promptly rolled their eyes as several examples of unevolved Pokémon winning against evolved ones flew through their minds. “Let's end this Kingdra, Water Gun!"

As Kingdra began charging once more for an attack, Ash realized that Charmander wouldn't be able to get away from it, and reached for Charmander's ball to return him before it hit.

"Ash, such a move is illegal in this style of battle except for when the opponent's Pokémon is defeated," the Pokédex promptly informed him as Ash resisted the urge to swear.

Stupid battle that they wouldn't tell him the rules of, and it was probably too late anyway.

There was only a single hope now.

"Charmander, use Ember to stop that attack head on!" Charmander grinned as he let loose Ember as the Water Gun flew out of Kingdra.

The two attacks briefly collided, before Ember began to give way towards Charmander.

Towards the water behind him.

Towards a tail without a blaze.

Towards death.

"Come on Charmander...Come on...You can do it, I know you can." Ash gritted his teeth in desperate hope as dropped his and Misty's bags, prepared to make a dash for Charmander to hopefully pull him out of the water quickly enough to save him, not even considering it could possibly be against some hidden rule.

He had come to Cerulean City to save a friend, not to lose another one in the process.

He couldn't let Charmander lose...

He couldn't let Charmander die!

As Ash's concern for his Pokémon's well-being, and his desperate hope for power to come out of nowhere to save Charmander (Spontaneous evolution perhaps. It happened enough times before with his Pokémon), Ash's eyes suddenly lit up in a brown-orange color, his gaze hidden from the sisters sight at the moment.

The same color that Charmander's eyes, though somewhat duller, promptly became as the Water Gun was mere inches from him.

"CHAR!" 'RAGGHHH!'

From Charmander's maw, the ember flew forth with enhanced intensity, as if a second power had united with Charmander to grant him a boost in strength, not unlike the boon that a Victini could give.

The ember's stopped the advance of the water gun in its tracks, before rapidly reversing the water gun's progress and promptly blasted Kingdra.

"What the hell!?" Daisy swore as the empowered ember sent Kingdra flying into the bleachers, out for the count.

"...K...K...Kingdra is unable to battle, Charmander is the winner!?" Violet stuttered in shock, a shock that was shared by a now normal eyed Ash and Pikachu both.

Charmander just assumed it was all him and simply posed himself like a winner, before Ash recalled him back now that he could per whatever rules he found himself under.

Back in the hospital

Misty's eyes shot wide open as she burst out of the bed she was in, completely lost about what just happened.

She had been taking a walk in a field, and now she was in a hospital?

What had happened?

Looking around, she noticed a rather shocked, brown haired doctor looking at her in surprise, before he quickly blustered into the room.

"Good morning young lady. My name is Doctor Tenzo Yamato of Cerulean City General Hospital. You were rather touch and go for a while from Vileplume poisoning, I'm frankly surprised you're up this quickly. If it wasn't for your friend getting you here on Gyarados back on all things, you wouldn't have made it here at all," he said rather quickly, as if he wasn't expecting anyone to recover that quickly from such a thing.

Then again, bloodliners were the closest things to a missing link between human and Pokémon. Perhaps that meant she had a limited amount of Pokémon originating resistant to disease.

It wasn't something she was going to test of course. She had no desire to have more experience with deadly toxins if she could help it.

"Wait, a Gyarados?!" Misty finally registered what he had said. Ash had, apparently in trying to save her, captured a Gyarados and made it obey him in probably only an hour, at the most.

She didn't even know how to describe what she was feeling over that. Impressed he managed to pull off that sort of crazy scheme? Annoyed he put his life at risk capturing a wild Gyarados then riding it through Gyarados infested waters? Blush at the thought he did that all for her...

Er, maybe not that last one, though without a certain duck around she felt like she could actually think that to herself.

Speaking of her savior that she may or may not throttle for bringing her to Cerulean City (saving her or not)...

"Oh, you're wondering about your friend?" Doctor Yamato asked with a frown "He was causing a minor disturbance waiting for word on your recovery, so we told him to go vent out his pent up worried energy at the local Pokémon gym or get thrown out." The Doctor then noticed the rapid look of horror that appeared on Misty's face "Oh, are you worried he might lose if he isn't focused? Don't, the gym leaders are pathetic in this town, the boy tamed a Gyarados and has a Pikachu. There is no way he can lose to them. It works out for everyone in the end..."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that to be honest Doctor"

Both Doctor and Patient looked up in shock as they found themselves to be two familiar faces from said patient's past.

Framed by the Don George whose battle club she frequented, the Pokémon Inspection Agent Nurse Joy looked grim as he held up her smart phone, currently on a battle scoreboard app that was commonly given out by Pokémon Gyms and League conferences.

Ash had Charmander and five other Pokémon, currently represented by Pokéballs, currently active, while Daisy had a knocked out Kingdra and 5 other Pokémon remaining.

Above the scoreboard, big red letters were flashing.

Non-Traveling Trainer League Entrance Protocols Activated