The blue-haired man was standing in the forest, looking off a cliff. His name was Ardos. He looked down, where a Charizard was burning a pile of wood, while he simply stood there watching.
Then, from the trees, a man who looked almost completely similar to him, except with red hair, stepped out.
"What are you doing, Brother?"
"Tying up loose ends, Eldes," Ardos said simply.
"What do you mean?" Eldes asked as he looked down, then he saw the pile, and with his sharp eyes, he noticed there was a jacket in the center of the pit burning down into nothing, and he understood.
"I see."
Eldes looked away, then looked back at Ardos, "Brother, Father told us to head to Desert Krono. They've uncovered a monolith there."
Ardos stayed silent and said nothing. He simply called back his Charizard as the fire burned, leaving only ashes. Then he turned and left with Eldes.
—
Ash, Yellow, and Rui continued their path, and Rui led them to a path that took them to the underground metro train station. Surprisingly, unlike all of Orre, this place was actually clean and looked new. For reference, even the best-looking building they had seen up there had graffiti.
This place had guards and everything, and it also looked like there weren't a lot of people even down here. But that was unimportant, because they saw the conductor of the train doing the final call for people getting on the train.
So they went up to the conductor, but before Rui could reach into her bag for something, the conductor spoke while standing in front of the door.
"You'll need a ticket to board the Metro Line," he said in a tone that made it very clear he was looking down on them.
"Please, we really need to get on the train," Yellow urgently said.
But he looked unmoved, "Kid, if I let just anyone board the train, then my three wives would be starving right now."
Now, whether he actually had three wives or not, just hearing the shamelessness in how he said it made Yellow nearly choke on her spit and cover her face.
Ash saw her reaction, then looked back at the conductor, "How much is a ticket?"
"Haa!! Good luck with that! A ticket costs 100,000," he said, smirking at them.
Yellow felt like she got hit from how much that was, and Chuchu looked like she had seen a ghost, falling off Yellow's shoulder. Ash even looked surprised, raising his eyebrow.
"How the heck is a normal person supposed to afford that?"
"Hehhe! That's the point, idiot! The Metro Line is for high-class people, not the bums on the street. If you want respect here, go get some money," the conductor openly mocked them.
Ash really considered teaching him a lesson. Sure, he could afford buying three tickets, it was a drop in the bucket for him, but it was the principle of the matter.
But then Rui pulled out what looked like a ticket and held it out to the conductor, "Here is my Lifetime Metro Line Pass, and it lets me take guests, so all three of us can go on, right?"
The conductor stopped laughing, quickly looked at the ticket as he made sure that it was legit, and begrudgingly moved out of the way, letting the trio walk into the train.
The train was pretty empty, no duh why considering it's a scam, so they just sat down in the many empty seats.
But meanwhile, outside the train, three figures stood out there. One was a large man with a big mustache, his name was Gonzap, the former boss of Team Snagem. The next was his former second-in-command, Wakin, and the final one was a teenage girl with long pink hair, Lovrina.
Lovrina smiled, "Hm, isn't that the guy who escaped from us back in the Relic Cave?"
Gonzap said nothing, but Wakin looked confused, "Was he? I wasn't there."
Lovrina looked back at him with disgust, "Wakin, that's because you're good for nothing and unreliable, not like my Wes," she said, that last part with dreamy eyes.
Wakin felt like he got punched across the face, "Hey, I'm also a part of Cipher now! It wouldn't hurt you to be a little nicer to me, Lovrina!"
Finally, Gonzap stepped up, ignoring both of them, "Stop it, and concentrate on our mission..."
Lovrina waved her hand dismissively, "Yeah, yeah, we'll still head to Desert Krono, but aren't you even a bit curious about that redhead? She must be the girl that Wes was talking about," Lovrina said that last part through gritted teeth.
"Talking about what?" Wakin still looked lost.
"Do you ever listen to anything, you dimwit!" Lovrina snapped at him, making Wakin take a step back.
But Gonzap let out a breath, "Then what do you propose we do?"
"Heheheh...leave it to me," Lovrina said as she rubbed her hands together.
—
{Meanwhile in the train}
Rui leaned back in her seat, letting out a sigh, "This Metro Line will take us to Crystal Dust Village. Mount Tarpit is just right around the corner. It's so good to just sit and relax. We've been on our feet all day."
"You really think this is bad?" Ash asked, "Geez, back where we come from, we went days just traveling on foot."
"I don't know how you do it then, because my feet are killing me."
"I'm surprised there's even a train here, to be honest," Yellow muttered. Then she quickly realized that might sound rude and quickly waved her hands, "No offense, of course." She didn't want Rui thinking that she was insulting her home region.
But Rui waved it off, "The Orre Region hasn't always been a slum. We actually had a very brief moment of wealth thanks to Professor Es Cade."
Ash raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but like, five years ago he was a mayor, and he did a bunch of stuff. He was adamant about reforming the government system until he suddenly just stopped caring. Then it turns out it's because he became the leader of Team Cipher."
Then she quickly tried to change the morbid subject, "Anyway, it's gonna take a while. We're kinda stuck here, so do you have any questions?"
"I mean, I'm kinda curious about your pass." Yellow pointed over at Rui's bag.
Rui immediately lowered her head, "Ah, well..." She pulled it out and looked at it, "It used to be my grandpa's. When he was younger, he was a trainer and he battled in tournaments, and this lifetime pass was something he won. I guess I took it after I..." She didn't finish it as she held the ticket.
"Rui…" Yellow said as she slowly raised her hand and was going to put it on her shoulder, but then the lights went out.
"Huh, wait, the light...i-is this normal?" Yellow quickly asked.
"I dunno, I've never ridden this thing," Rui said back.
Meanwhile, Ash pulled out Pikachu from his bag as he lit up the cart they were in with a [Flash], and Chuchu, seeing it, also did it too.
But when they turned on the lights, there they saw three figures in cloaks covering their faces.
"This train is now under our control!"
Then the one in the center slapped the one on the right on the back of the head and shouted, "You stand guard, we'll go to the other cart."
"W-wha, b-L-..." the person tried to say, but he stopped himself as the two others walked back and took the door to the other cart. Meanwhile, that left Ash, Yellow, and Rui in this cart, with the man in the cloak standing across from them.
While Rui looked panicked, Ash and Yellow looked at each other, both looking unimpressed at this point.
"Yellow, you wanna take this guy? I can go to the other one and take care of the others."
Yellow nodded once, "Ok, I wanted to let Omny have some exercise anyway. You can leave it to me," Yellow gave a thumbs up.
"H-hey, you kids, I'm right here! You can't really think I'll just let that happen, right?!" the man in the cloak said.
But instead, Yellow walked up and pulled out her Poké Ball, "I want to battle, can you please accept?!" she said, holding it out and waiting for him.
He quickly straightened himself, "R-right, y-yes," he said before he even realized what he said. He sighed and pulled out his first Poké Ball anyway, throwing out his Grumpig.
Yellow threw out Omny, and their battle started, all while Ash walked right by him. Rui looked back and forth a few times and decided being next to Ash was probably safer, so she ran after him after wishing Yellow luck.
As they went into the next compartment, they saw the few other passengers freaking out, but the other two weren't there, so he kept walking through, going to the next one.
And when they moved to the third, they finally found both of them standing there. This time, one took her hood off, revealing herself to be Lovrina, and in this cart, other than them, there was just one old woman sitting in the corner, seemingly taking a nap.
"It's about time you showed up," she said mockingly as she raised her hand, and what looked like a remote was in her hands, "Now don't move, I have a bomb on this train, and if you do, I'll blow it up and kill everyone on this train!"
Rui looked horrified, "You think this is funny?!" she screamed.
Lovrina looked over at Rui and narrowed her eyes while looking at her, "Screaming like that isn't cute at all, shut your mouth, you," she said angrily.
Meanwhile, Ash quickly checked with his Aura. Right when Lovrina said she had the bomb, he sensed a small spike in her heartbeat, and that meant she was lying, so he had no reason to even be scared.
He also sensed something else coming from that old woman, he saw it and under his breath he muttered, "I see…"
Meanwhile, Lovrina huffed, then handed the remote over to Gonzap and crossed her arms, "Now, both of you are gonna let this big guy Gonzap grab you, and we are gonna take you back to base," Gonzap emphasized by raising the remote and hovering his big finger over the button.
Rui took a step back hiding behind Ash, but Ash this whole time had a completely bored look on his face, he simply walked up and looked at Gonzap, having to look up at him, "Alright then, push the button. I dare you."
That immediately made everyone here look at Ash like he was the crazy one.
"What are you saying? I'm the one with the bomb!" Gonzap said, still holding up the control, trying to use Pikachu's light to make sure Ash saw it.
"You heard me. I know you're not gonna press that button, so you can keep up your little act, or you can bring out your Pokémon so I can beat them too. And if you don't, I promise you, your face will hit every corner of this cart."
Everyone looked at him in stunned silence. Gonzap opened his mouth, then it closed, and he slowly lowered his hand with the detonator, because this big guy, he may be evil, but he was still partly a softy.
In fact, his main goal for joining Cipher was actually to get them to destroy themselves, then he could remake Team Snagem and take over Orre for themselves. They didn't want to destroy anything.
But before his hand fully fell, Ash pulled his foot back and kicked him straight in the balls, making Gonzap immediately grab his groin and fall over, all in front of Rui and Lovrina.
Ash reached down, grabbed the controller, and looked at Lovrina before crushing it in his hands, "So, like I said before, bring out your Pokémon, or I'll hit you too," Ash said coldly.
Lovrina took a step back as she looked down, "Resorting to violence so quickly, it makes me so..." she looked up with a crazy look on her face, "Excited!" She threw out her Roselia, Delcatty, and Beautifly immediately.
Ash looked at the general size of the cart. It was pretty small, so a lot of his Pokémon were out of the question, and he didn't want to use Pikachu or Vee, so he just went for old reliable. He pulled a ball from his belt, and out came his Crawdaunt.
Lovrina quickly called out, "Roselia, use [Magical Leaf]! Delcatty, [Fake Out]! Beautifly, [Silver Wind]!" The attacks came all at once.
Ash didn't even move, "Crawdaunt, [Crabhammer]."
The Water-type slammed one claw into the floor. The shockwave ripped through the train car, throwing Delcatty off balance before it could use [Fake Out], while Beautifly's [Silver Wind] scattered harmlessly after its aim was ruined.
But the leaves still came, and Crawdaunt used his claw to swipe them away before jumping up.
As Ash whistled, "[Water Pulse]."
Crawdaunt shot his claw out, and a blast of water came out and hit Beautifly first. It was the biggest threat since it might have [Sleep Powder], so taking it out was the main priority.
The blast of water hit the butterfly and made it crash against the cart wall, falling onto the ground knocked out.
Lovrina gasped dramatically, placing both hands on her cheeks, "Oh, boo! You are so mean! Beautifly didn't even get to sparkle!"
She pouted for exactly half a second before her expression twisted into an excited grin, "But that just means you're so much stronger than Wes said! This is getting really fun! Roselia, [Stun Spore]! Delcatty, use [Attract]!"
Golden spores filled the narrow train car while Delcatty's eyes shimmered pink.
Ash sighed, "...Seriously? sigh Crawdaunt."
He snapped his fingers as he grabbed a rag and moved behind Rui, covering her mouth with the rag. For a second, she was surprised and thought the worst, but then she saw the spores clearly and understood. She took the rag and used it to cover her mouth, while Ash pulled one out for himself.
Meanwhile, Crawdaunt raised his hand and used a [Protect] shield to block both of those things, leaving him perfectly fine. Then, when it was over, he lowered it, ran towards them, and threw out bubbles from his claw.
"Oh no! Roselia, use [Magical Leaf] lots and lots!"
Leaves and bubbles collided, exploding into green and blue sparks that filled the train car.
"Delcatty! Jump over and use [Double Slap]!"
The feline sprang through the smoke and jumped up, charging in with its little paw to slap the lobster.
"Crawdaunt, [Vice Grip]," Ash snapped his fingers.
His massive claw simply caught Delcatty's paw in midair, then Crawdaunt slammed Delcatty straight into the metal beneath them, making the train car shake.
Delcatty's eyes turned into spirals instantly.
Lovrina gasped dramatically, "Oh! Oh! That was so rude! Delcatty is a lady! You can't just slam ladies into floors! You are so uncivilized!"
Ash blinked, "You're worried about manners?"
"You so have to have standards!" Lovrina huffed.
"..."
Even Rui stared, "Oh boy...She's serious."
Lovrina pointed dramatically, "Roselia! Punish him! [Poison Sting]!"
Dozens of purple needles shot forward. Ash didn't even bother giving an order. The needles just hit him, then bounced harmlessly off his shell. His defenses were more than this Roselia could deal with.
Crawdaunt even looked back at Ash and gestured with his claw, as if asking, 'Is this seriously what we devolved to?'
When he saw the look on Ash's face, Crawdaunt finally sighed and didn't want to fight anymore. He was excited at first, but now he was just disappointed. He walked up, then punched the flower straight across the face, knocking it out.
Lovrina looked between her three unconscious Pokémon, then she clapped, "That was so amazing!"
Rui nearly fell over, "Excuse me?!"
"You are so much stronger than Wes said!" she squealed, bouncing in place, "I thought he was exaggerating, but he so wasn't! You just beat all three like...poof!" She mimed an explosion.
Ash frowned, "You're taking this surprisingly well."
"Oh, losing happens! If you never lose, then winning gets boring!"
She tilted her head, "But..." Her smile became unnervingly wide, "We're not gonna lose. I still have Gonzap! Gonzap, do your thing!" she said dramatically.
But Gonzap was still on the floor in pain. Ash looked down at him for a few seconds, then back up at Lovrina.
"You wanna try that again?"
Lovrina puffed out her cheeks, "You are so mean! Gonzap! Get up already! This is so embarrassing!"
The large man weakly raised a thumb from the floor, "...Need...a minute..."
Ash deadpanned, "Yeah, figured."
Rui stared between the two, "...Is this actually one of Cipher's top members?"
Lovrina gasped, "Gonzap is so very intimidating! Usually!"
Rui felt a bead of sweat fall from her head, "I was talking about you..."
Lovrina immediately looked offended, then immediately started yelling, "Hey, I won't take that from some girl with horrible taste in fashion!"
Rui immediately looked offended and started yelling back, "Hey! What's wrong with my clothes?!"
"At least three things!" Lovrina pointed dramatically, "First, too practical! Second, no color coordination! Third..." She squinted, "...Actually, that's mostly it."
"You're a terrorist!"
"And you're unfashionable!"
"They're not mutually exclusive!"
Ash slowly looked between the two of them before rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Is this really what we're doing right now..."
"Don't lump us together with her!" Rui and Lovrina shouted at the exact same time.
"...Right." Ash muttered.
Then Gonzap finally groaned as he slowly stood back up, still hunched over while clutching himself.
"...Kid..." he wheezed.
"Feeling better?" Ash asked.
"No."
"Fair enough."
Gonzap took a long breath before finally straightening himself, "I'll admit..." he muttered, "That was a cheap shot."
"You threatened to blow up a train."
"...We both made choices."
"Well, I hope you know now that you're up, I have to dropkick you, right?" Ash asked.
"Yeah, no, that's fair..." Gonzap admitted, so Ash got a running start and dropkicked him, knocking Gonzap out.
Lovrina threw both hands into the air, "YOU ARE THE WORST!"
"And you're still a terrorist," Rui shot back.
Lovrina spun toward her dramatically, "Oh please! At least I'm a fashionable terrorist!"
"That doesn't make it better!"
"It absolutely does!"
"It absolutely doesn't!"
Ash pinched the bridge of his nose, "...Can we please go back to saving the train?"
Neither of them listened. Rui stood her ground.
"At least I'm not wearing all pink."
"At least I don't have to wear denim."
"What's wrong with denim?"
"It's terrible!"
"It is not terrible!"
"It absolutely is!"
"It's practical!"
"It's boring!"
"It has pockets!"
"It has no style!"
Ash slowly started walking toward the door, "...I'm leaving."
"Don't ignore me!" both girls shouted.
But before he got to the door, suddenly they all heard an explosion sound, and then the train around them began shaking.
The entire train violently lurched sideways, and everyone lost their balance. Ash planted one foot against the floor while Rui stumbled into him, grabbing his arm to stay upright.
"What was that?!" Rui shouted.
A second later, another explosion echoed somewhere farther ahead.
BOOOOOM!!
Rui immediately turned to glare at Lovrina, but she raised her hands, "Hey, don't look at me. That wasn't us this time."
"What do you mean it was-" Rui didn't get time to complain as she fell over, landing on a seat, while Lovrina fell over as well.
But while this was going on, Ash noticed something specific. Gonzap's body wasn't thrashing around like how you'd think it should be.
But before he could look into it, from the vents, a mist started shooting out. Ash recognized it by the color; it was a [Sleep Powder].
Ash immediately pulled the clean rag he'd been using earlier from his pocket and pressed it firmly over his nose and mouth, and Pikachu, Vee, and Crawdaunt went into their Poké Balls immediately.
When Ash was going to call over to Rui to use the rag he gave her, he saw she had already inhaled some spores, and so had Lovrina. The two girls immediately got drowsy and fell asleep against each other.
—
Meanwhile, back in the previous train car.
Yellow smiled politely, "Omny."
Omny the Omanyte bobbed happily. Across from them, the cloaked grunt had somehow still only sent out his Grumpig, as his hood had already fallen, but Yellow didn't recognize him. It was just Wakin.
He looked between the battle taking place two cars away, the violent shaking of the train, and the tiny blonde girl smiling at him.
"I...I don't think I'm paid enough for this..."
Yellow blinked, "Would you like to surrender?"
He looked at Omny. He looked toward the sounds of the battle going on in the other cart, and then quietly returned Grumpig, "I surrender."
Yellow beamed, "Thank you very much!"
"...Can..." He hesitated, "...Can I leave?"
Yellow thought for a second, "I think that's okay."
"...Really?"
"Mmhm."
"Thank you, you're much nicer than them…" Wakin sighed in relief, but at that moment, spores also came out of the vents there, and they hit Wakin, making him get drowsy and immediately fall over.
But as for Yellow, she got hit with the spores, and nothing happened. I mean, she has Kitty the Butterfree. She's gotten hit with [Sleep Powder] more than once, plus here is her secret: she can't get drowsy because she is always drowsy.
But speaking of that, seeing Wakin peacefully sleeping on the floor kinda made Yellow yawn, as she thought Ash could probably deal with the rest of it, so she went back to her seat and curled up, hugging Chuchu and Omny, then took a quick nap.
—
Meanwhile, back with Ash, he was looking over the situation, but after the girls fell asleep, the shaking stopped, and everything seemingly went back to normal. He more or less understood the situation by now.
He walked over to the door and opened it, letting the spores get out, then he took his rag off and looked back at the old woman that was sleeping through all of this.
"You can stop pretending already," Ash said.
The old woman stopped snoring, then slowly got back up and looked up at Ash with a cheeky smile, "Aww, Ashy, you're no fun. You always see through me~"
She reached up and tore off the Ditto that was covering her face and disguising her, revealing that this was no old woman at all. It was Green.
Green stretched her arms over her head with a lazy yawn as Ditto hopped off her face and landed on her shoulder with a cheerful, "Dii!"
Ash crossed his arms, "You're enjoying yourself way too much."
"I was," Green admitted shamelessly, "Watching those two argue over denim was absolutely worth sitting through all that."
She looked down at Rui and Lovrina, who had somehow rolled into each other during their sleep.
"...You know..." Green mused, "If someone walked in right now, they'd think they were best friends."
"They'd kill each other within thirty seconds."
"Probably." Green shrugged, "So, I have some questions."
"Don't."
"I wasn't going to ask."
"You were."
"I was."
Ash sighed and gestured for her to go ahead.
Green pointed over to Rui, "So...new friend?"
"Sort of." Ash shrugged, "She is also against Cipher. Blah blah, we both know you don't actually care about me explaining."
"Yeah, get to the good part."
"We were heading to some place called Mount Tarpit to get one of the monoliths, but seems like we got hijacked, so I think we need a change of plan."
Green smirked, "Oh, just what I like to hear. So what are we doing, White Moonlight Plan?"
"W-don't call it that, it makes it sound weird," Ash said, crossing his arms.
"I mean, am I wrong?"
"I-well-shut up!" Ash crossed his arms, and Green smirked.
Ash turned the subject, "What about you? Where are the others?"
"Oh, I told them we should split up, and we can meet up later...never mind, I didn't really ask them for their phone numbers, and I don't know Orre well enough..." Green admitted, poking her fingers together.
Ash sighed, "Fine, whatever. If they get captured, we'll save them after. Sure, let's just focus on one thing at a time. Oh, by the way, how did you make it seem like the train blew up?"
"Oh, that's easy," Green said with a smile as she snapped her finger.
Then all the walls grew a pair of eyes and turned purple, as six Ditto jumped off the walls and stood on the ground in front of Ash, looking proud
"...You know what, screw it, this is you we're talking about. And what about the spores," Ash said.
Green whistled, and a small Shroomish climbed out of the vent and jumped onto Green's head, kicking her hat off.
Ash sighed, but then he got an idea while looking at the Ditto, "Actually, mind if I borrow them for a bit? I know how we're gonna get our information."