{Back with the gang}
The three of them were currently lounging on the deck of the ship, enjoying the ocean breeze as they made their way toward Alamos Town. Pikachu was sprawled across Ash's lap, while Vee had claimed the spot beside him, using his leg as a pillow.
Meanwhile, Dawn's Piplup was busy arguing with Verity's Piplup. Both of them were trying to impress Ash's Piplup with a cool shell they found when they went diving into the water, since, believe it or not, Piplups loved cool shells.
Dawn leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms above her head, "Okay, I'm officially calling it. Traveling by ship is way better than riding a bike for hours."
Ash glanced at her, "Really? I thought you loved falling off your bike every five minutes."
"I did NOT fall off every five minutes!"
Verity snorted, "You fell off twice on the last stretch."
"Because someone," Dawn pointed accusingly at Ash, "thought it would be hilarious to let me go at the last push."
Ash put a hand to his chest, looking deeply offended, "I was encouraging you to improve your cycling skills."
"Is that why you nearly let me crash against the railing?" Dawn crossed her arms.
"Ah, but I didn't, so that's all that matters. Therefore, your argument is invalid," Ash said smugly, "I still caught you before you did."
Dawn huffed and poked the side of his head, "And then you had the audacity to just tell me to keep pedaling!"
Verity burst out laughing, nearly spilling her drink, "Oh my gosh, you actually said that?"
"Yep!" Dawn threw her hands up, "And then he rode past me like it was nothing!"
Ash shrugged, "What can I say? Natural talent."
"Natural talent at being a pain in the butt," Dawn shot back.
Pikachu snickered from Ash's lap.
"Traitor," Ash muttered, looking down at him.
"Pika-pika!"
"Oh, you think that's funny? Remind me again who buys you your ketchup? Maybe I should call Yellow to tell Chuchu what you've been doing."
Pikachu immediately straightened up and looked away, suddenly very interested in the ocean.
Dawn grinned, "Wow. Threatening your own Pokémon? How cruel!" she snickered.
"I would never!" Ash gasped, "I'm wounded that you'd think so little of me."
"You literally just did it!"
"Allegedly."
Verity shook her head, still laughing, "You two are exhausting."
"Thank you," Ash and Dawn replied together.
They looked at each other, then both burst out laughing.
Verity stared at them, "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"
"Absolutely," Dawn said, flashing her a grin.
"Welcome to the club," Ash added, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You are not the first, and you will not be the last."
Verity kicked his shoe lightly, "Keep talking, dork."
"Ow! Violence, in broad daylight, on a public ship."
"You're going to survive."
"That's what they all say."
Dawn leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands as she looked between them, "You know, I'm starting to think you two are more alike than either of you wants to admit."
Ash and Verity both turned toward her.
"No," they said simultaneously.
Dawn's grin widened, "Oh, that's just perfect."
Verity groaned and leaned back in her chair, "I hate you both."
"No, you don't," Ash and Dawn said in unison.
Ash leaned back in his chair and looked off into the distance, where a large building was visible.
Ash whistled, "By the way, looks like we're pretty close."
Dawn barely even let Ash finish. As soon as she heard that the town was close, she appeared next to Ash so fast that Pikachu wondered if she could use [Extreme speed]. Then she pushed herself against the railing as if that could get her a better view.
But with her leaning over the edge like that, and due to the fact that Dawn tended to wear a...very short skirt, Verity immediately glared over at Ash to make sure he wasn't doing...you know what.
And in Ash's defense, he wasn't. He immediately looked away. Also, to be fair, they both knew Ash wasn't like that, but it was kind of just in case. You know, Ash was thirteen and in the middle of puberty.
But again, Ash had more self-control than that.
Anyway, the boat eventually docked, and they got off. However, the thing was that Alamos Town was in the center of this landmass, so the boat couldn't take them there directly. It could only dock at the coast.
It was no wonder that the ship was nearly empty apart from them. Most people who wanted to go to Alamos Town probably already knew that and had left days in advance to get there in time for the festival. The gang had just chosen to go at the last second.
But yeah, Alamos Town itself was out of the way of any other town. This was still faster, since there were no roads connecting the town to any of the other towns, so most people couldn't just get a car and drive there.
And worse than that, when they went up the mountain, they saw a valley separating them from the town, along with the bridge that led to the other side.
Dawn and Verity's good moods immediately fell as their arms dropped to their sides.
"The bridge is way over there…" Dawn said, looking toward the bridge, as Piplup nearly fell over. His small legs already hurt, and he hadn't even started walking.
"How are we gonna get over there?" Verity asked, scratching the back of her head.
Meanwhile, Ash looked up into the sky. Sure, he could get Dragonite or Charizard out, but where was the enjoyment in that? Instead, he looked up and saw what he was looking for: a hot-air balloon.
Ash put his fingers to his lips and whistled loudly, getting the attention of the person in the balloon. She looked down and saw them, so she started moving the hot-air balloon down.
The woman waved, "Hello there! My name's Alice. Most of the time, I'm a music student, but sometimes I also work as a tour guide. Do you all need a ride to the town?"
"Yes, thank you!" Verity almost cried tears of joy.
When the balloon landed, Ash jumped on first. Dawn picked up Piplup and handed him to Ash before pulling herself up, and Verity followed, helping her own Piplup into the basket before climbing in herself.
Alice smiled as she made sure everyone was safely inside the basket before pulling the balloon back up into the air, "So, are you three here for the festival?"
"Yep!" Dawn practically bounced on her feet, looking out over the edge as the town slowly came into view. She spotted the big tower in the distance, "Oh, wow! What's that huge building?" she asked, pointing at the largest building.
"Oh, that's the Space-Time Tower! The genius architect Godey constructed it in prayer for the happiness of all Pokémon and humans," Alice explained happily.
"Who's Godey?" Verity asked as she sat against the edge of the basket.
Alice turned to her, "Godey is the man who laid the foundations of Alamos Town. He constructed the buildings, but you could say that the beauty of this city overall was his greatest work of art." She looked off into the sky, "The people of this city greatly respect him to this day."
Verity and Dawn listened intently, while Ash was busy looking around, trying to find something. But he hadn't found anything yet.
Eventually, they landed, and Alice continued to guide them into the town, leading them to a park. There, when they saw some Pokémon fighting, she played a quick tune on a leaf, which calmed all the Pokémon down.
Dawn's expression immediately brightened, "Wow, what a lovely melody!"
When she was done, Alice grinned at the gang and winked, "That's the melody my grandmother taught me."
"Really? Oh, then can you-" Dawn began to ask.
But before she could finish, a Chimchar that lived in the garden quickly ran up to the group and slammed its hands into the ground to catch Alice's attention. When Alice looked at it, Chimchar frantically pointed behind itself and started running.
"What's wrong?" Alice tried asking, but the monkey was already moving.
"I think it wants us to follow it," Verity added. Since no one had any objections, they all ran after the Pokémon.
When they got to where Chimchar had led them, Alice was in shock. The garden area, including its fountain, was wrecked, and the fountain was destroyed.
"Oh no, the garden! Who would do something like this?" Alice said, covering her mouth.
But then a voice spoke behind them, "It was the work of Darkrai."
When they turned, they saw a well-dressed man with pink hair, "Beyond a doubt, there have been several sightings reported in town lately."
"B-Baron Alberto?" Alice blurted out.
Alberto smiled, seeing that he had gotten Alice's attention, and approached her, putting a finger under her chin and raising it, "You can call me by my first name. We're friends, aren't we?"
Although Alice looked a little uncomfortable with Alberto putting his hand on her, Verity noticed and coughed into her hand, changing the subject, "Uh, what was that about Darkrai?"
Thankfully, that worked, and he pulled back before trying to push things further. Alice quickly moved back a few steps away from him.
"Darkrai is a Pokémon of evil, hated by all," Alberto said dramatically, "And I will be the one to bring in such an evil Pokémon!"
Ash frowned upon hearing him. After all, he knew better than anyone that Darkrai wasn't evil, but he couldn't say anything like that. What was he going to do, show his own Darkrai? Why would that help? If anything, that might make Alberto accuse him of being evil.
In case you didn't notice, Alberto was after Alice, and he thought that being a 'hero' would make her fall in love with him. If it didn't benefit him, he wouldn't bother. Besides, even though Ash could beat him up and break his teeth very easily, Alberto was a Baron. Again, nobility ranks were still around.
Alberto had some authority as a Baron to do things, and before you say it, yes, Ash did have noble blood and technically had a rank. But this wasn't the Kingdom of Rota. If he were to pull rank, the best-case scenario was that it would stop being his problem and go all the way back to Ilene. Sure, she would absolutely protect him, but he didn't want to get her involved.
But then a tree shook, and Alberto immediately turned, "Is that Darkrai?" He jumped back and pulled a Poké Ball out of his belt, "Lickilicky, go!"
The ball flew out, and a Lickilicky jumped out and immediately fired a [Hyper Beam] at the tree, making it explode.
Once the smoke cleared, a figure did fall out of the tree, but it was no Darkrai. It was just a guy. He was twitching a bit before letting out a small sound, "Ow...Why'd you do that…?"
"Tonio!" Alice cried out, recognizing the figure. She quickly ran over and helped him up.
Verity blinked a few times, looking at the scene, "I'm lost…"
Alice helped Tonio sit up and explained, "Oh, this is Tonio. He's a childhood friend of mine and a scientist."
Meanwhile, Alberto looked displeased when he saw Alice so close to Tonio, especially since it made him look bad. He huffed and looked away, "What a stupid stunt. Your grandfather was a genius, and you're nothing more than a nuisance," he said, trying to sound cool.
But Dawn quickly called out, "Hey, that's rude! Why would you say that?" She huffed, crossing her arms at him.
Alberto huffed and offered no apology for what he had said.
Tonio rubbed his head and began to explain, "This area has been showing signs of abnormalities, so I decided to try and investigate…" But while he was in the middle of explaining, the device on his waist started to beep.
Behind them, at the broken fountain, a distortion in space appeared, warping the area around it. Tonio tried to check his scanner to see what kind of distortion it was, but suddenly, everyone's shadow left their body.
The shadows slithered out, converging into one shadow before Darkrai emerged from it. It immediately called out to them, "Do not come here!"
And before anyone could question it or even try to have a normal conversation with Darkrai, since, mind you, it could have just sneak-attacked them, Alberto turned with a grin on his face.
"Ha! I knew it was you!" He pointed at Darkrai, "Lickilicky, attack!"
Lickilicky obeyed and fired another blast, but Darkrai flew back into the darkness, dodging the hit.
Lickilicky looked around, not knowing where Darkrai had gone. Darkrai then appeared behind it and began charging a [Dark Void]. It wanted to put Lickilicky to sleep, so it held back the power.
Unfortunately, thanks to Alberto calling out, Lickilicky looked back in time and managed to jump out of the way, causing the orb to fly directly toward where Ash, Dawn, and Verity were standing.
Verity tried to move out of the way, but she wasn't as fast as a Pokémon, and Dawn yelped as her body moved to hide behind Ash.
Ash, meanwhile, whistled, and Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and sliced the orb with an [Iron Tail], cutting it apart and dispersing its power into nothing.
Ash patted the shivering Dawn and helped Verity to her feet now that they were safe. But when they looked over, they saw that Alberto was still calling out for Lickilicky to attack Darkrai, disregarding everyone else and the literal distortion in space.
All the while, Darkrai was yelling at them, repeatedly shouting, "GET OUT!"
But then, seeing the distortion get worse, Darkrai dodged one more attack and flew toward the distortion. Raising its hands, it fired an orb into it, causing the distortion to seal and close, stopping anything bad from happening.
However, Alberto only saw that Darkrai was standing still and had left itself open, so he called out, "Now!"
Lickilicky shot out its tongue to try and [Wrap] Darkrai. Darkrai was defenseless at the moment since it was trying to hold back a literal space distortion, so it looked like the attack would hit.
But then Ash snapped his fingers, and Vee jumped up between Darkrai and the tongue, slamming it away with an [Iron Tail].
That caught Darkrai's attention. It looked back and saw what had happened, quickly finished what it was doing, then flew back into the shadows and disappeared.
That left everyone in the garden silent. Alberto had watched his chance to show off in front of Alice slip away, and he glared over at Ash.
"Why would you do that? I had it!" he barked, trying to push the blame for making himself look dumb onto Ash, even though he didn't need any help doing that.
Ash just looked at him like a parent who needed to spank a disobedient child and spoke in a low tone, different from his usual happy-go-lucky one, "I think you've done enough 'helping.'"
Only then did Alberto look up and see that the garden was now almost completely destroyed, and all of it was from his Lickilicky firing [Hyper Beams]. He turned to look at Alice to explain that it was somehow Darkrai's fault, but then he saw Alice's expression and stopped.
Still, he didn't lower his head. He turned and pretended like this didn't affect him, "Humph, it is all collateral damage, but I suppose I can admit my wrongdoings. I will, of course, set up a project to restore the garden to twice its glory, but only after I deal with Darkrai."
Then he walked off with his head held high, as if he had the moral high ground, and his Lickilicky scurried after him.
Ash watched him go and finally unclenched his fist. He hadn't even noticed he was clenching it so hard that his knuckles had turned white. His friends had almost been hit because Alberto had started a fight. Again, if Alberto weren't a Baron, Ash would have already punched his teeth in. But since he really didn't want to get Ilene involved in this, he had to hold back.
That didn't mean Ash was going to let Alberto get off scot-free, though. No, he had a better plan for him.
He let out a breath and turned back, his face returning to its usual playful expression, "Hey, so how are you guys holding up?" he asked with a smile.
Dawn was the first to respond, still holding Piplup tightly against her chest, "I'm fine! I think…" She glanced at the destroyed garden, then back at Ash, "That was seriously scary, though! What was that thing with space?"
Verity nodded, helping her Piplup settle back onto the ground, "Yeah, that distortion looked really bad. And Darkrai kept telling everyone to leave. What was that about?"
Ash looked at them, considering something, but then he chose against it and shrugged, "I dunno." He wouldn't say it. Realistically, he couldn't prove it. Sure, they would probably believe him, but it was better if he could get proof first.
"That distortion was definitely not normal," Tonio agreed, getting to his feet with Alice's help. He glanced down at the device on his waist, which was still displaying several unusual readings, "And I don't think things are as simple as Baron Alberto thinks they are."
As he said Alberto's name, Alice lowered her head and looked over at Ash, Dawn, and Verity. She bowed slightly, "I'm sorry you had to be here for that. You all probably just wanted to have fun, and instead, you saw this…"
She apologized even though it wasn't her fault.
Dawn frantically waved her hands in front of her, "No, no, no! Don't apologize. It's not your fault. It's that nasty Baron's fault!" Dawn huffed, crossing her arms, "I should call my uncle and tell him about him."
"Err, Dawn, maybe don't bring out the nuclear option just yet," Verity said helplessly.
But Alice and Tonio didn't seem to process that. After all, Dawn didn't have her family's crest on her, so they couldn't tell she was from the Berlitz family. They just thought the girls were trying to make Alice feel a little better.
And hey, Alice couldn't help smiling a little, though her expression quickly became troubled again as she looked over the garden, "Still, this is terrible. This garden has been here for generations, and now…" Her voice trailed off.
Chimchar hurried over to her, tugging gently at the hem of her clothes as if trying to comfort her. Alice knelt and gave it a gentle pat on the head, "It's all right, little one. We'll fix it."
"Chimchar!" the Pokémon chirped, nodding determinedly.
Tonio crouched beside the damaged fountain, then raised his hand nervously, "U-um, Alice, if you want, I can help fix everything," he said nervously, now that he was talking to Alice.
Alice shook her head, "No, I don't want you to worry. You're a scientist; you're doing enough. But if you insist, maybe I can come by your lab and check out any changes you've made?" Alice fluttered her eyelashes a few times.
But Tonio looked down, "U-um, no, you'll probably find it boring anyway. I don't want you to…never mind." He stammered out that last part before getting up, bowing quickly, and running away to head back to his lab. He had to investigate more.
Alice watched him leave and sighed, looking down. She looked at her clothes, "I wonder if it's what I'm wearing…" she muttered. Then she looked back and bowed politely to the gang before excusing herself.
Ash, Dawn, and Verity watched the scene. They spent a good few seconds just standing there before Verity finally broke the silence.
"So, they both like each other and are too stupid to realize it, right?"
"Yep."
"Absolutely."
Verity nodded without even looking at them, "Good, good. Just needed to make sure I wasn't the only one."
"It's like a bad love story with two dense protagonists…" Dawn muttered.
"You would watch anime with dense MCs," Ash said, nudging her.
"Hey!" Dawn huffed and pouted, "Rude!"
"And yet you're not denying it," Ash said.
"You know we can all hear you when you watch your shows at night, right?" Verity added.
"You can prove nothing!" Dawn pointed at them frantically, "ANYWAY," she said, changing the subject. She really didn't want to admit she loved that kind of anime, "We can't just stand here making fun of them! We should help!"
Ash slowly turned his head toward her, raising an eyebrow, "Dawn, you do realize that you just suggested getting involved in someone else's love life, right?"
"…Yes?"
"And you think that's a good idea?"
"…Yes?"
Ash stared at her for a few seconds before looking over at Verity, "So, which anime trope is that?"
"Might be a combination of a few. I would have to check."
Dawn puffed out her cheeks, "Would you two stop that?! I'm being serious!"
"So am I!" Ash insisted, placing a hand over his heart, "I'm genuinely concerned for the safety of everyone involved in whatever matchmaking scheme you're about to come up with."
Dawn smacked his arm, "I'm not THAT bad!"
"Pika-pika!"
Ash looked down at Pikachu, who was nodding enthusiastically, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're supposed to be on my side!"
"Pika!"
"Traitor. I'm replacing your ketchup with mustard."
Pikachu gasped in horror.
Verity shook her head, "You know, sometimes I wonder how you two have survived traveling together for so long," she said, remembering how they had been back in Kanto and how they were now.
"Honestly, stubbornness and a lot of ketchup," Ash answered honestly.
As he said that, Dawn and Verity slowly started forgetting that they had almost been blasted by an attack, which was what Ash had been going for. Slowly, they went back to normal, and together, they went into town to find a hotel and a nice restaurant.
But meanwhile, while Ash was smiling and joking, he frowned inwardly and started thinking about whether he could even carry out the plan he was considering. There was a nonzero chance that it was simply impossible, but unfortunately, he would have to take that chance.