Peak

…

Ash Ketchum shivered violently despite his large winter coat, two scarves, hat, earmuffs, ski pants, and boots. The fact that his mittens were sopping with melted snow wasn't helping.

Why had he wanted to climb Mt. Silver again?

… Oh yeah. All of the rumors of something powerful (probably a Pokémon, and a rare one) on the peak, the strength needed to even get to the peak, the chance of training… and the fact that it was forbidden to enter.

He had begged Prof. Oak to allow him up, but it was always no, no, too dangerous, and no again. Party pooper. And when he had asked his friends to come with him, they all said the same thing as the professor! It was a conspiracy!

He was a lot stronger since Kalos. He actually managed to finally win the Indigo League! He was certainly strong enough to attempt, at least. Not his fault the champions had never explored it.

The mountain had been closed off for twenty years, and nobody remembered exactly why. There had been theories; but they were boring. 'Landslides', 'freezing conditions', 'Pokemon reserve', 'can't breathe up there'. He should have paid more attention to the second one, but, when had he ever been sensible? At least, that's what Misty said.

He thought that it was a powerful, rare, new Pokemon. And he was going to discover and capture it.

…

He reached the peak just after sunset. Pikachu had actually chosen to go inside his pokeball, which he hadn't in years. Actually, all of his pokemon had seemed restless since it had started getting dark.

And then he saw the shadowy form of… something. Two somethings, actually, one tall and lean, the other small, like an animal.

Ash sent out his most trusted Pokemon. "Go, Pikachu!"

As soon as the electric mouse landed on the ground, his eyes grew wide and his fur stood on end, every inch of his stance indicating fear. Pikachu was never afraid.

It started to snow. Harder and harder, until it was almost like a mist, or a shroud.

And then a beam of strange, shimmering light shot forward, hitting Pikachu square in the chest. After a second, the veil of white seemed to part, revealing that Pikachu…

… had fainted.

How was this possible?

The sense of wrong-ness was growing stronger. "Pikachu, return."

What to send out next…? Oh! "Hey, you know, it's not fair to not let me see your Pokemon!" The snow around the smaller figure seemed to part, revealing…

An Espeon. Not exactly a rare pokemon. What a disappointment.

Well, at least Ash knew what he was going to send out next. "Go, Charizard!" The fire pokemon was quite the powerhouse, it should be able to hold out against an attack. "Flamethrower!"

Charizard looked over at Espeon, then at Ash. The boy started when he saw its face. Terror. The pokemon roared in the direction of the shadowed figure, then flew up into the air, turning to swoop down and pick up Ash with a rush of wind.

"Put me down, Charizard! We don't run away from battles! C'mon!"

"Grrrr…"

"Now."

Reluctantly, the fire type turned around and dropped Ash off. And the boy startled. He felt a strange, alien pleasure. It was somehow separate from his other feelings of anger, frustration, and determination.

"Now, Charizard, flamethrower!"

A huge jet of flame licked across the snow-covered rocks, surrounding the Espeon. The fire cleared revealing the Espeon, unhurt. It looked even more ethereal than any others of its species.

The gem on its forehead glowed, and Charizard was surrounded by energy, throwing back onto the cliffs, and surrounded it with slowly settling dust.

Fainted.

…

The other four battles had followed in a similar fashion. Satraptor started to fall off the mountain, only surviving because Ash returned it in time. Sceptile dodged a ton of them, but the one hit that got in felled it. Muk was out in the first minute.

"Samurott, hydro pump!"

The stream of water shot toward the still-standing, practically unharmed Espeon. It jumped, and the jet evaporated off the side of Mt. Silver.

A beam of multi-colored light flashed towards the otter, hitting it square on the chest. The water type collapsed.

Ash heard a crack from above him, and looked up to see stones falling towards him, where a psybeam had hit earlier.

Suddenly, they stopped falling, surrounded by a glow. Espeon's gem was glowing. But one stone wasn't caught by the psychic, and knocked him on the head. And as his vision blackened, he felt a strange, alien sense of disappointment.

…

The figure walked over to the fallen boy. He was disappointed that his first challenger in twenty years hadn't put up more of a fight. Well, it was to be expected. He wasn't the one he was waiting for.

He picked up the boy's bag and started rummaging through it. There. The pokeballs.

He looked around at all of the unconscious pokemon. They were pretty bad. It was a good thing he had a ton of Max revives.

He returned them to their trainer after healing. He needed a couple more things.

Ah, the trainer card. Let's see… Ash Ketchum. Heh. Sounds like Catsup. Or, Catch 'em. He liked that name. Ooh, he beat the Indigo League. Pretty good. He replaced the ID.

Now, the final thing before he sent him back: his hat.

He leaned over and grabbed the soft fabric of the baseball cap. It looked new.

He nodded to Espeon. Its gem flared bright red, and the boy disappeared in a flash of light.

Now that that was over with, he walked over to a small cave, and placed the hat in there next to the two others he had collected.

A big, white, poof-y hat with a pink bow tied around it, and another baseball cap with black and gold stripes.

…

Okay, I really like this. Should I continue?