Cinnabar Chapter Minor

**"Cinnabar Chapter Minor"** is the thirty-sixth (thirty-eighth in Archive of Our Own and Royal Road) chapter of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.* As the battle in the Cinnabar Island Gym continues, Ash finds it much more challenging than expected, with Blaine's Mega Houndoom doing a quick sweep of several of his Pokémon, but ultimately prevails and wins his seventh badge. Afterwards, Ash decides to return to Pallet Town to take a break and prepare before going for his final gym badge. Meanwhile in the Orre region, Team Snagem has finally begun their deal with Cipher.

## Plot

As Mega Houndoom's Fire Blast flies at Primeape, Ash orders the Fighting-type to use Mega Kick to jump over it. Primeape does so and uses the momentum to charge from above with a diving kick, but Mega Houndoom uses Counter and knocks him backwards. As Primeape barely manages to get up, one Dark Pulse later he is down. As Ash recalls him, Misty wonders how the Pallet trainer will get through such power, having only heard word of mouth of his fight against Sabrina's Mega Alakazam, but now she's seeing the power firsthand. She's also taken notice of Alish, whose reactions reinforce her suspicions of the girl being a Heart Bloodliner like them, and wonders if Ash would consider using his Dominion powers right now, but quickly discards the idea, hoping that perhaps he can create a new Z-Crystal.

Ash calls Boldore back to action. Mega Houndoom once more opens the bout with a Fire Blast, which Boldore tries to douse with Sand Attack. However, the attack is too powerful to be put out and hits Boldore, inflicting a burn status on her to add insult to injury. Mega Houndoom then fires another Dark Pulse, which she tries to counter with Rock Blast, but the Dark-type attack pierces through the rocks and shatters them, and then hits her for a second knockout in a row against Ash. From the sidelines, Anabel takes notice that this fight is not quite the same as Ash described when he fought Mega Alakazam, as Mega Houndoom is indeed powerful but seems to catch Ash off-guard by how powerful it is, wondering if it has to do with the power itself, or how it's being used, and she hopes he can find a way to turn it around.

The next Pokémon is Goodra, whom Ash hopes can counter Mega Houndoom somewhat. Again, Mega Houndoom opens with a Fire Blast, and Ash orders Goodra to use Rain Dance. The resulting downpour weakens the fire attack allowing Goodra to sidestep and dodge it, but Blaine immediately clears it off ordering Mega Houndoom to use Sunny Day. Mega Houndoom then launches another Fire Blast, this time empowered by the sunlight, and Goodra tries to weaken it with Dragon Breath. However, the attack changes colors during the resulting clash, weakening the Fire Blast enough for Goodra to take minimal damage. The Pokédex explains that Goodra's Dragon Breath evolved into Dragon Pulse, which Ash find surprising as it's not visually as he recalls it. Still, having now a stronger attack, he decides to capitalize on it and orders it again, which Mega Houndoom counters with another Fire Blast. An idea comes to him and with Pikachu turning his hat around for him, he calls for another Rain Dance before launching the Dragon Pulse. The rain once more weakens the fire attack, and this time enough for the Dragon Pulse to overpower it and land the first hit on Mega Houndoom, who quickly howls to summon Sunny Day once more. Ash then overhears Iris make a comment that the Houndoom looks like it's taken more damage than just from that hit, right when Mega Houndoom launches another Fire Blast, but it seems weaker than before and Goodra's Dragon Pulse is able to counter it with ease. Ash then inquires the Pokédex about it, and the device reveals that Houndoom is using Solar Power, an ability that powers up attacks in sunlight at the cost of a chunk of health to the user, but a Pokémon can learn to turn it on and off. Blaine explains that, indeed, that's exactly what they've done: Mega Houndoom uses Solar Power in controlled bursts so they don't suffer damage every time, and then to make his point across, orders a Dark Pulse, which comes out with the power boost. Goodra tries to counter it with Dragon Pulse, but this time Mega Houndoom's attack overpowers his. Mega Houndoom then tries to use Secret Power, which Ash counters ordering Goodra to use his tail to jump over it. Mega Houndoom launches another Dark Pulse, and Ash tells Goodra to fire another Dragon Pulse and get ready to charge Bide. The Dark Pulse wins the power struggle despite not being boosted and hits Goodra, who charges up the energy ready to fire it back. Mega Houndoom then launches another boosted Fire Blast, which overpowers the Bide beam and sends Goodra flying through the air straight at Ash, forcing Ash to catch him in his arms and Pikachu to jump off his trainer's shoulder and accidentally step into the field. Blaine apologizes as he didn't mean to do that, but then the judge robot declares Goodra unable to battle, and that Pikachu is now in play as Ash's fourth Pokémon.

From the sidelines, Alish comments on how strong Ash is to have caught a Goodra like that, which Anabel thinks was both impressive and dangerous. Back on the field, while Pikachu didn't mean to, they realize they have no choice here and continue the battle. Mega Houndoom fires Secret Power, which Pikachu dodges with Quick Attack, speeding towards his foe. However, when Ash catches on they prepare to use Counter, just like he expected, at the last second he orders Pikachu to switch to Zap Cannon, which not only damages Mega Houndoom heavily, but also doesn't trigger the Counter. Blaine commends them for that clever move, while Mega Houndoom mutters something that Alish admonishes him for. The battle resumes with a clash between Thunderbolt and Dark Pulse, with the latter winning out, but Pikachu dodges it and then runs at Mega Houndoom with a Wild Charge. Mega Houndoom attempts to use Counter, but the paralysis from before acts on and stops him, giving Pikachu the opening to ram him, leaving them against the ropes. Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt to finish the job, while Blaine orders Mega Houndoom to launch one last Fire Blast with the power boost. However, when it seems to be winning out, the Mega Evolution deactivates and Houndoom collapses in exhaustion. The Fire Blast continues to fly at Pikachu, who launches a second Thunderbolt to weaken it. He still gets hit, but the damage doesn't knock him out, and he wins the bout.

In the sidelines, Iris is pleased with Ash and Pikachu's performance, though for some reasons she recalls something about them hitting her with a Poké Ball when they met. Regardless, she fights her lack of sleep as she makes an effort to stay awake, since the battle has reached its climax. Blaine commends Ash for managing to defeat his Mega Evolution, but reminds him he still has to defeat one last Pokémon to earn the badge. Blaine brings out a Magmortar, and Ash recalls Pikachu to send out Charizard. The Fire-type starter seems to react to Magmortar, as if recognizing him, but nods at his trainer and prepares to battle. Magmortar initiates the round with a Lava Plume, which Charizard blows away by flapping his wings, and then goes in with a Flame Charge. Magmortar counters with Skull Bash, and the resulting clash sends out a shockwave across the field that almost makes Ash fall off and even shakes the seats where the girls are. Both Fire-types then engage in a grappling duel, and when Magmortar prepares to fire a Mud Slap, Ash orders Charizard to stop it. Charizard seemingly just glares at Magmortar with his eyes on fire, causing Magmortar to choke with his own attack. Before Charizard can press on with Metal Claw, Magmortar deflects it with Karate Chop and prepares to use his other hand to fire Lava Plume, pushing Charizard back. Magmortar then launches Thunderbolt, which Charizard deflects with Dragon Tail before launching a Flamethrower, pushing Magmortar back. Both Fire-types continue to launch attacks at one another for a while, being more or less evenly matched in power, until Magmortar fires a sonic blast with Screech that Charizard doesn't know how to avoid. Ash then orders him to use Flame Charge and burst it at full power at the last second. The explosion nullifies the sonic blast, giving him the opening to strike with Dragon Tail from the air. Magmortar tries to attack with Thunderbolt, but the Dragon Tail deflects it in a way that it strikes Magmortar in the knee. When Ash orders him to grab Magmortar, Charizard grins as he knows what it means, and grabs Magmortar from behind before lifting him up in the air. Blaine attempts to call for a Mud Slap, but Charizard stops it by slamming Magmortar in the head with his jaw. Ash then calls for Seismic Toss to finish the job, and the battle ends with a victory for them.

After winning, Ash celebrates his victory with Charizard and Pikachu before Blaine hands him over the Volcano Badge, while his female companions praise him and he takes note of what he needs to work on after this battle. After they leave, Alish approaches Blaine, wondering if Ash and his friends are like her, with Misty picking up that she understood Houndoom's speech and Ash's strength when he caught Goodra. Blaine says that yes, he noticed that as well and he's certain they are Bloodliners. Alish seems about to ask something else, but Blaine stops her, saying that they seem to go through a period of fluctuating hormones and confusions, and she better not get involved in any teen drama. However, Blaine himself is intrigued that Ash is a Bloodliner, noticing that most of them nowadays are females, while also recalling that Alish parents had troubles conceiving her in no small part due to the unusual number of Y chromosome gametes of her father. Despite this, he chooses not to ask Ash about it, thinking that he'd only scare and confuse the boy even more.

After leaving the gym, the group goes to a local ice cream parlor to celebrate their victory. Iris however finally succumbs to her lack of sleep and dozes off on Ash's shoulder, much to Misty's annoyance, but she lets it be because she knows the wild girl didn't sleep well last night. Psyduck takes the chance to snatch Iris' ice cream for himself. Anabel asks what they'll do now, and Ash says he wants to go back home to Pallet Town, to do some different training before challenging the Indigo League. He asks if they have any other places they want to go, but since they don't have, they accept his plan.

With a few hours left before their ship to Pallet Town departs, they decide to do some last minute training, albeit with no powers, once Iris wakes up. For a change, Misty starts overdoing it, so Anabel takes her to do some meditation training so she can relax for a bit, while Iris continues to train with Ash. As they meditate, Anabel senses that Misty's reason for training harder stems from the Sabrina incident, and a drive to be stronger to keep Ash safe. She then overhears a faint noise nearby, and when she opens her eye she's surprised to see that Misty is using Aqua Ring. Anabel then calls out to her so she can see what she's doing. Misty then opens her eyes too and seems surprised herself that she's using that move, even when they were supposedly training with no powers. The redhead explains she didn't mean to do it, as she just wanted to have more energy to keep going a bit more, and then it happened, making Anabel recall when she and Ash learned Heal Pulse a while back. Anabel asks if she's worried about Ash again, and Misty explains that a few weeks ago she was complaining about Iris' training and now she feels she's not doing enough, if only because she doesn't want to see Ash getting kidnapped in front of her anymore. The conversation then goes into Ash himself and what the girls like the most about him, with Misty loving his kindness, Iris his strength, and Anabel his cheerfulness and optimism, although she has felt that sometimes he seems worried about something, like something he's keeping to himself and causes him pain. Misty assumes that it might have to do with Sabrina, but Anabel replies that she's felt it from even before that, like he's keeping a secret from them out of fear of their reaction. The girls feel that they want to help him, but then, a Wartortle shows up running at them in panic, interrupting their thoughts.

At the Realgam Tower in Orre, Ein meets up with Gonzap to discuss their latest deal between Cipher and Team Snagem, commending him for his thieving skills and the large amount of Pokémon they've been able to get for them in a short amount of time. Their latest raid was to be on a Verich Shipping ship, which went smoothly as they could cover their tracks, but their latest member managed to get into another ship from a Sinnoh energy company, hacking into their security system and coming back with a crate full of Poké Balls for them, netting them some Sinnoh Pokémon for Cipher to use, speeding up their plans greatly. Ein then comments that they're about to get into Phase 2 of their plan, and presents Gonzap with the prototype Snag Machine, a device that sends out a red energy rope to catch an opposing trainer's wrist, and disrupt the Poké Balls' control and protection over owned Pokémon, and thus allowing them to catch Pokémon from other trainers, also adding that it's equipped with a Poké Ball duplication glitch. Gonzap takes notice that the device won't fit his arm, so Ein says he'll have to give it to a subordinate, but they're working on making bigger ones that can fit muscular guys like him or Dakim. Ein then inquires about the report of the obtained Pokémon, noticing that there seem to be lacking on the Sinnoh ship's side. Gonzap replies that it might have to do with the other ship not being as specialized as Verich Shipping.

Back in the Team Snagem hideout, Gonzap thinks back about Ein's last question, which he purposely dodged by telling a half-truth to cover his tracks. The arrangement between his team and Cipher was that Team Snagem would be allowed to keep some of the Pokémon they stole for themselves, albeit only those in excess, and they'd leave the strongest and rarest to Cipher. However, they sometimes kept some Pokémon they found for themselves while leaving it out of the official records just for the heck of it. He then spots a sleeping Wes, whom he gave a pair of Eevee while already deciding to give him the prototype Snag Machine, and thinking that Cipher won't be bothered by letting his best recruit some of those Pokémon off the record, while also thinking that it might be best that the boy doesn't remember where he got those fighting and hacking skills, and just make use of them to take Team Snagem to the future.

## Continuity

* The battle between Ash and Blaine ends, with Ash winning the Volcano Badge.
* The group meets one of the Wartortle from the Turtle Island, leading to the events detailed in the *Blastoise Island Interlude*.
* It's revealed that Cipher has finally completed the Snag Machine, using the Duel Anchor they received from Giovanni as the final piece.