Chapter 24 Ash's mom

Dexter emitted a bleep. Text message from the Rockets.

Ash took his Pokédex out of his pocket and looked. "Hmmm… 'How are you doing? Sorry we've not had time to chat for a couple of weeks, but things are a bit hectic here. Running one way, then another… it's all we can do to catch up. Meowth's been practicing, though, as he doesn't have the kind of paperwork we do, and he says to watch out for your wallet next time. Anyway, we got assigned as the temporary heads of Viridian since the boss is busy. Want to come try your luck?'"

Misty's ears pricked. "Was there the same emphasis on the cat in catch that you read it as?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah. I think this means Mewtwo's still on – if perhaps a bit early. But more importantly, this means it's time to go get the Earth badge!"

Misty blinked. "More important?"

"It's Ash." Pikachu reminded her.

"Ah, never mind then."

"Welcome to the Viridian City Gym. The philosophy of this Gym is not like that of any other you have encountered." James said.

Jessie took up for him. "This Gym does not follow type segregation. It never has, and it never will. Instead-"

James interrupted her. "Doesn't the boss usually use Ground type Pokémon here?"

"Shut up! Besides, last time I checked the Gym had a Kingler and a Machamp. Anyway, the gym is based on using the battlefield – the earth – against the opponent."

Meowth stretched lazily. "I don't remember dat from the briefing."

"I said shut up!" Jessie looked suspiciously at the other two for a moment. "As I was saying, the moves most commonly used here are the ones that rearrange, reshape or reorder the battlefield."

James raised a hand. Jessie kicked him in the shin and finished very quickly. "Can you fight an enemy who alters the rules of the fight itself GO!"

Her Cubone landed on the field with a rumbling BOOM, her Earthquake forcing up walls of earth to block the attacks of Ash's Ivysaur. A bone club shot over the wall, curved and hit Ivysaur's flower, sending him sprawling.

Ash frowned. "Didn't you have that idea of wiring the stands to hurt trainers if their Pokémon got hurt?"

"We considered that, yes. But then we decided it would be stupid, overcomplicated and nigh impossible."

"Fair enough. Ivysaur… send some Seed Bombs over that wall!"

"Sure! You tell me when I'm hitting, okay?" Ivysaur said, firing a trio of seeds. All of them burst on more bones before they hit, though.

"She's shooting them down! Can you manage more at once?"

"Tricky. But I'll give it a go." Ivysaur sent up five this time, shooting them far too high into the air so they broke clean through the roof. Another five, which punched holes slightly closer to the space of roof above Cubone. Five more, and-

-James gasped. "Cubone, watch out! Time On Target fire incoming!"

Brock nodded as he got it. "All those seed bombs are coming down at the exact same time. So Cubone can't shoot them all down."

"But can she do something else?" Misty asked.

"I can think of something…" Brock said, listening intently and just catching the faint sound of Cubone talking.

As the bombs screamed down on her, at least fifty of them, she finished her Aria and the wall of Aura that changed the world swept the attacks away.

Ivysaur grinned. "So much for that wall! Sunny Day!"

The sky roiled for a second, then stilled.

"Nope? Pity. Best use the indoor version, then. Sunny Day again!"

This time, the attack simply produced a number of bright spheres of fire that hung in the air like flares.

"Better. Now, as I was saying…"

Cubone rolled her eyes, and pulled a reflective Bronzor body from the ground next to her. "You've telegraphed that you're using Solarbeam quite enough, thank you."

"Fissure."

Cubone looked surprised for a moment, then abandoned her shield as it fell down a crevasse and leapt for safety.

"This one's Solarbeam."

Jessie's Poké ball snatched her Pokémon out of the way of the laserlike beam. "That's one. Next!"

James threw his own Poké ball. The Gyarados that emerged from it immediately shot underground into the fissure, just before the Reality Marble lost cohesion in the absence of its' mistress and vanished.

Ivysaur looked around, warily trotting forward. "Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you… are…" He looked down at the splash generated by his feet.

Water was seeping out of the ground at an increasing rate.

"Hm… interesting. Giga Drain?"

The attack brought back only a little energy to revitalize him. So… wherever he is, whatever he's doing, the water doesn't lead straight back to him. Pity. Well, I wonder if I can try something else.

Gyarados erupted from the ground behind him, describing an arc over his head and launching a blast of Flamethrower fire at Ivysaur from midair.

"Ow! What are you doing, you-" Ivysaur shielded himself from the fire with a hurriedly fired Energy Ball, then watched as Gyarados plunged back into the now water filled Fissure. "Okay, got it. Gyarados can't normally Dig, but he did before in the marsh. So he must need the ground to be soft and waterlogged. I somehow wish I had an easier one."

As Gyarados burst from the ground again, a red beam lashed out. "Pikachu, Discharge!"

Pikachu shot into the arena and blasted Gyarados thoroughly. "Job done."

James nodded. "Not bad. Now, the ultimate expression of terrain alteration. Abra!"

"Pikachu, Agility so you can keep up with him!" Pikachu nodded, his form blurring slightly.

Curse. Abra replied lazily. Curse. Curse. Curse.

Pikachu blinked. "Why are you making yourself so much slower?"

Trick Room.

The altered space sprung into existence, and Ash joined in the general theme of cursing. "Damn, we got suckered. Pikachu, Counter shield!"

Pikachu frowned. What did this do again?

Then Abra spawned a series of shields with dizzying speed and Flung Pikachu clear out of the arena.

Ash caught him, and he shook his head. "What happened?"

"Trick Room screws with space, the slower you are the faster you move. You alright, boy?"

"Yeah. What do we do now?"

Ash thought for a moment. Sadly (for now), most of his Pokémon were really rather fast. It was his preferred battle style. Granted, Abra were fast themselves and it took several Curses to get the most from Trick Room, but…

"Charizard!"

Charizard formed from his Poké ball, and roared, before bathing the entire Trick Room area in flame from safely outside it. Abra teleported out of the blast, but once out of the Room his speed boost reversed itself and he fell quickly to a wing cuff.

Jessie nodded to herself. "Nice work. You get the Earth badge. And I'll just take another one for us as well…"

Meowth checked their box. "Yep, dat's all of dem. We got eight Badges too."

As he took the badge meant for him, Ash peeked into their box. "Nice, same set as mine. How did you do the Saffron Gym?"

Jessie shrugged. "Cubone. She used a skeletal Absol."

"Gotcha. Well, see you at the League – if not sooner, of course."

"See you there."

With an audible THUD, Ash walked into an invisible wall.

"…not again…" he muttered to himself, before frowning and looking up with one eye closed.

"Ah, good, that's Mum's Mimey. I did wonder." Ash punched a hair-thin spike of Aura into the Reflect wall and widened it, popping it and causing the Mr. Mime to fall on top of him.

His hand flickered blue for a second, then began waving frantically from underneath. "Mmmf mf! Mmf!"

Brock frowned. "What's he saying?"

"I think it's something about how much Mr. Mime weigh." Pikachu commented. "Do you think we should lift Mimey off him?"

"It's probably for the best." Misty muttered, then she and Riolu heaved Delia's only Pokémon onto the grass.

"You okay, Mimey?" Ash asked, as soon as he had his breath back.

"Yes, thanks. We back in time?"

"That's it exactly. Come to think of it," Ash looked guilty, "I probably should have done Mum at some point before now. I was sort of worried how she'd take how much I get into danger, especially if she ever finds out how Dad died."

"You'll have to bite the bullet some time. She found out pretty much for sure when the world's weather went haywire in the next few months or so."

Ash nodded absently. "In the meantime, Dexter? Mind arranging for an anonymous report of a brewing situation in the circus to reach the local Jenny? I think they could both do with a little counselling."

Sent. Good thought.

"Right. Now for a much bigger challenge." Ash grimaced. "Let's hope I get out of this with my outdoors privileges intact."

Ash, his friends and closest Pokémon, his mother and the Professor sat in one of the larger rooms of Oak labs. The gathering had been silent for the last few minutes, ever since Ash had finished explaining why he'd gone back in time and then transferred the adults' memories.

Oak finally broke the silence. "I'm… astonished, my boy. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what you and Gary had got up to."

"Nightmares, more like." Deila said with uncharacteristic bitterness. "Ash… why? Why did you end up in so much risk? To me, you're still my little boy, and now I find out you've done so much… it's hard for me to imagine why you had to."

Ash shook his head. "That's the wrong way to look at it, Mum. Every time I went into danger it was to save someone. I just couldn't possibly leave anyone in trouble if I could possibly prevent it. And as for why it's me… I mentioned the thing with the Chosen. How there really is a reason only I can do this."

Delia blinked back tears. "But I… I… I just don't see why you should be in so much danger! All these Legendaries, ancient warriors, and skilled trainers in the world, why should it be you?"

Ash smiled weakly. "Because I get into this sort of thing all the time anyway. I may as well be able to take care of myself. It took a civil war to take Sir Aaron down, and we don't have those anymore."

"I think that went quite well, actually!" Ash said to the others as they walked down to the shore, near Ash's hometown.

Misty exchanged a disbelieving look with Brock, then glanced back to Ash's house. She could just about see Delia on the roof with a pair of binoculars. "You're not allowed out of her sight for a week! And she's insisted you have her with you at the Pokémon League so she's sure you're good enough for her peace of mind!"

Ash shrugged. "Could have been grounded for a year. You know her."

After a moment, the others nodded with resigned expressions. "What shall we practice, then?" Brock added.

"Well," Ash began, "I've secured the approval of Gary, Sammy and Oscar to borrow their Pokémon for practice teams. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like you two to form a series of teams and test me against them."

Brock nodded. "I assume Sammy and Oscar are the other two Pallet students from your cohort?"

"Yeah. Sammy has a Charmeleon at the moment and Oscar's decided not to evolve his Bulbasaur. Gary's apparently evolved his Squirtle all the way up to Blastoise by now, impressive."

Ash's Squirtle appeared unannounced. "And I bet he's become a positive Attenborough in that time! When he arrives I must-"

"Yes, yes, insert random challenge." Misty sighed. She'd really soured on his evolutionary line after finding out they were all, without exception, Otaku of one type or another. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Brock, want to get him started?"

"Sure!" Brock sent out his Ninetales. "Ready, girl? Ash, you only get two Pokémon for this. You have to be able to predict your opponent's probable rosters."

Ash thought for a moment, then gestured Squirtle into the arena.

Delia watched in some shock as Ninetales' elegance clashed with Squirtle's flamboyant style and liberal overuse of aura-mixed water.

As the battle continued, Ninetales switched with Steelix, then Crobat, while Ash sent his Charizard into the battle. It eventually ended with a huge eruption of flame that nearly set fire to the trees, but Squirtle managed to contain the flames before they got too close.

"Well?"

"Not bad, Ash." Brock achnowledged. "But we'll see how you do when the teams are unseen."

Ash nodded. "I've got a bit of free time. Riolu, Pikachu? You two up for a spar?" He pulled his gloves on tighter and let his hands flare blue.

Delia blinked. Did I just see that?

Then her son blasted a stream of electricity from his hand, and things got surreal.

As an Aura Sphere from Riolu curved in on his left, Ash focused and split off a body double. A bit more than the illusion of a double team, but not quite the solidity of a Substitute. It was, in other words, just about real enough to fool the usually unerring type four Aura Sphere.

Jumping away from the blast and flowing electric aura over his body to counter the Thunder Wave Pikachu launched at him, Ash began engaging Riolu in a series of close combat blows. Riolu fell back from his series of attacks and Ash pressed his advantage… until he felt something in the wind around him.

Is it me, or is it a bit chilly?

Then he switched to Aura sight and spotted the pattern of heat (from his own determined Aura) and cold (from Riolu – Ash also noticed he'd been using a pair of elemental punch techniques to boost the effect.)

As soon as he saw it, the spiral of opposing temperatures clicked over to mix and a sudden uppercut from Riolu caught him in the chin.

Then the Flying Dragon Uppercut triggered.

"Sorry about that!" Riolu shouted as Ash went flying into the sea from a small but powerful whirlwind, "But it only really works on Aura wielders or powerful Fire types and I wanted to test it!"

Ash sputtered for a moment as he surfaced, then steadied himself in the water (as a boy who lived near the sea, he'd known how to swim almost as soon as he could walk) and pushed Aura into his hands, then his feet, climbing onto the surface as if through a trapdoor. "One question. Why?"

Riolu shrugged. "Not as if Aura wielder automatically means on your side and aware of it. Besides, a lot of the most powerful Pokémon have it even if unconsciously." He then looked a little embarrassed. "Good thing the sea's so calm, though. I hadn't considered how much harder water walking could get when there are waves."

On her roof, Ash's mother tried to make sense of what she'd just seen.

Then Ash charged back onto the shore, lit up his hands with blue Aura and began volleying in blasts of air on the now dodging Riolu, and she began once again scrambling to keep up.

Ash nodded as Riolu explained. "I see. So the spiral's a critical part of it, then."

"Yeah. I can produce the spiral artificially with a Fire punch and an Ice punch, but of course that's less of an option for you as of yet. Charizard could get some use from it against an Ice opponent, possibly, but in that case he'd have to take control of the cold part of the spiral while producing the hot part. Much more of a challenge."

"And can the spiral that results be… reused? So once it's already active, there's already this big spiralling plume of hot and cold air."

The little blue Pokémon frowned. "Not sure. I could try, but that was the first actual use of it."

"Something to look into, then." Ash then glanced round. "Ah, Misty's back. I think she has her picks ready."

Misty walked over with three baskets of six Poké balls. "I'll use three from each of these, so I can adapt to what you have out. You got everyone you want?"

Ash frowned. "Not quite, actually. Pidgeot, mind getting one of the Tauros over here?"

"Not at all. Be back soon."

A blast of electricity stabbed into the evening sky, then spread into a great disc a hundred metres up.

"Shock wave!"

Pikachu slammed the disc down onto the battlefield and caught the agile Persian Misty was using, knocking her out.

Brock raised a hand. "And Ash wins!"

Ash hurried over to Pikachu. "You okay, buddy?"

"Yeah, but ow. That took a lot out of me. Good move for forcing a hit or a ring out, though."

"You and those Shockwave variants… oh well." He glanced at his Pokémon. "I think it might be a good idea to stop for now, a lot of them seem quite tired."

"Should we head off to the Seafoam Islands?" Ash asked the next morning.

Misty frowned. "What did we actually do there? I can't remember."

Mainly a Slowpoke evolved to Slowbro and we watched someone surf.

Riolu looked interested. "I might want to try surfing, actually. I mean, I think the water-walk aura trick might be modified to surf with."

"If that's the only reason, then we might just try making some waves for you to surf on here. I'm sure Kingler or Squirtle would be glad, not to mention Gary and his Blastoise when they get back in a couple of days."

"Suppose so."

Not to mention how ludicrously crowded the islands are going to be. The number of cars that go over there is enough to jam up the islands' only road pretty much solid.

Ash shrugged. "That's decided, then."

Gary's Blastoise spun, firing a salvo of Water gun shots as he did so, aiming to box in his opponent – Ash's Squirtle.

"You know as well as I do that this kind of lame half-assed series of attacks isn't going to work against me!" Squirtle declared, lashing out with an Ice Beam and freezing the shots into a wall.

The Blastoise simply steadied itself and hunched down slightly, his cannons centring on Squirtle with a click. "No, but this will! Fire fire fireeee!"

Both Squirtle and Blastiose fired out massive Hydro Cannon shots, which collided in the middle of their impromptu battlefield and produced an instant tidal wave.

Riolu jumped onto the gush of water with blue-glowing feet. "Woohoo!"

Blastoise followed up with a second salvo of shots – as a fully evolved Pokémon, he could use one of the potent Hyper Beam variants without completely overloading his element – before trying again with the Hydro Cannon.

Squirtle entered his Horn Drill Break, rode the attack straight back into Blastoise and knocked him clear back into his Poké ball, before landing in the marshy ground with a heavy thump.

Ivysaur went over to help him up. "You okay?"

"Of course!" Squirtle panted out, nevertheless very visibly leaning on his friend.

Misty nodded to herself from the sidelines. "Good. The biggest disadvantage of doing that was always that it knocked you out as well. It seems that you've managed to handle that, if barely."

Ash grinned. "We're always improving, right, Squirtle?"

"Hell yeah! Every turn we progress! Like a-"

"We get the idea." Gary sighed, tapping an earbud leading to his Pokédex, Dee. "Normally this thing's a great help. But when he or Blastoise are going on about their anime, it's a burden."

Ash looked across at him. "I didn't want to say anything – that's giving you a translation, right? I figured it was either that or you're listening to the radio."

"Exactly, Ash." Gary said. "I'm a researcher half the time, after all, and if I can hear what Pokémon are saying I can just, well, ask them."

His friend nodded. "Yeah, it's… wait, what's that?" Ash pointed past Gary, out across the water.

Gary shaded his eyes. "Pokémon alright, headed more or less straight for us. Big, too, and pretty fast if it's getting bigger that quickly."

"Dragonite." Ash said, before frowning. "Guys? I think it's time. This might be the invitation. I remember that bit at least."

"Oh, I heard about this. This is the Mewtwo thing, right?" Gary said.

"Yeah."

Any further conversation was stopped by the Dragon-type's arrival, as it swooped down on them and pulled a pair of cards out of a pouch.

Ash took one when it was offered, and after a moment's confusion Gary realized the other was for him. "Ash, why-"

Ash had already triggered the card's hologram. "Ssh, this is important." Gary frowned, but paid attention to the woman.

By the time she had finished, the Dragonite had flown off. Ash double checked for a second with Aura sight, then relaxed a little. "Good, we're not being watched any more. Anyway, Gary, what were you saying?"

"Why have I got one, Ash? I didn't last time."

Gary was worried. He'd only heard what Dexter had seen last time, and not a lot of that, but he knew it was serious business – and also knew he'd never received any invitation hand-delivered by Dragonite.

"My guess is that you're along because of your Blastoise. Dexter tells me he brought trainers with each of the three highest evolutions of the Kanto starters, just to prove a point. His own, cloned, versions hammered them – my Charizard included."

The Charizard in question exploded out of his Poké ball. "It'll be different this time!"

"Charizard, you don't even remember being beaten."

"Dexter does, and that's enough for me. Besides, I spent years in the Valley, remember? I know counters for the counters for the counters for normal brute-force Charizard tactics." He looked smug. "And I know Blast Burn as well, of course."

Gary grinned. "I'll look forward to it, then. And I assume you have a plan for Mewtwo, Ash?"

Ash looked sheepish. "Define 'plan'. Mewtwo's ludicrously strong. But it's this or he destroys the planet. Via a stupidly strong storm."

Which reminds me. The message said to take a ferry, but Mewtwo jumped the gun – the storm's going to stop us getting to New island via ferry. Have a backup plan.

"Pidgeot?" Ash ventured.

Should work. Not a storm, real or artificial, that could intimidate her. What about you three?

Brock frowned. "I'm not certain, actually. I'll look into it – we have a few hours, right?"

"Right." Misty nodded. "Starmie and Psyduck between them can keep the wind from being too powerful, and then you and I can ride on Gyarados, Brock."

Gary nodded absently, engrossed in thought. "Fearow'd be willing, but he's more of a glider. Krabby might do… he's enormous for some reason."

Misty looked worried. "Krabby are mainly the type of Pokémon that walk along the bottom of the ocean, Gary. Might be a bad idea."

"Gotcha. What about Blastoise?"

She considered for a moment. "Should work. He's strong enough."

Ash clenched his fist. "Right! Now all we need to do is sort out which Pokémon we're taking!"

Dexter beeped for a moment. The Pokémon you take might well end up cloned, Ash, Gary, but if you don't have enough strength on hand Mewtwo might know something's up. He can't read thoughts except via direct contact based intrusion – Sabrina was better at the mental arts than him, it requires finesse - but if he decides it's worth sullying his hands with the job then we are going to become unstuck fast.

Ash nodded. "You, Pikachu, Riolu, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard, Pidgeot and Primeape?"

Makes sense. Pikachu's never in his Poké ball and I'm completely secret. Don't worry, Ash, I'll make sure he doesn't notice me.

"And I'll bring my Blastoise, Fearow, Golem, my two Nido's, Eevee and of course Dee."

I'll stay hidden too, Gary.

"Thanks." Gary thought for a moment, then set off to get any of the Pokémon he'd mentioned that he hadn't already got with him.

"Oh, you already have your Eevee?" Ash asked. "What you going to evolve- her, right?- to this time?"

Gary shrugged. "That's her choice, not mine. Though she'll probably go with Umbreon again because she wanted to since she was very young. Her mother was one, you see."

"I do see." Ash pulled his pack up his shoulders. "Well, we'll get started. Meet you at the pier – you know the one, next to the Pokémon centre."

"Is it the one just to the southwest? The port we used to go to for those disastrous boating lessons?" Gary asked.

Ash winced. "I still say that the mast should be strong enough for you to use all the sail at once in a gale. And yes, that's the one."

AN: Ash lives quite close to the sea, but I can't remember that ever being brought up. Probably because most of the population of Japan lives close to the sea and it's sort of assumed.

The Flying Dragon Uppercut, or Hiryu Shoten Ha, is from the Ranma 1/2 series. There's going to be a few other techniques from that series coming in as I develop the uses of Aura.

Ash's mum shows up in some of the films, and she's usually shocked at the kind of danger Ash is in. I think she understands how important things really are, and will if pressed let Ash go save the world, but it can't be easy knowing what kind of things he gets up to.