As Lu Chen rode Aerodactyl into the canyon tunnel, a familiar rank smell hit him in the face.
Damp and pungent, it mingled the scent of sea salt with an ancient air.
It was the distinctive scent of ancient marine Pokémon.
"This smell... there's no mistaking it!" Lu Chen said, somewhat excited.
This was the scent of fossil Pokémon such as Kabuto, Omanyte, and Omastar.
Aerodactyl smelled it too.
His pupils abruptly contracted, and then he visibly grew excited.
His wings beat faster, and irrepressible low growls rumbled in his throat.
Among ancient Pokémon, Kabuto and Omanyte were Aerodactyl's favorite foods.
"Looks like we've really run into some old friends this time."
Aerodactyl nodded vigorously, a trickle of drool slipping from the corner of his mouth.
"Let's go!"
Lu Chen slapped his neck, and Aerodactyl gave a powerful beat of his wings, charging deeper into the tunnel.
Meanwhile, in the deepest part of the canyon tunnel.
Ash and the Team Rocket Trio had been facing off in a tense standoff.
Even after falling to the bottom of the canyon together, the two groups were still at odds, on the verge of fighting.
Suddenly.
The rocks in the walls around them cracked apart.
Pairs of blood-red eyes lit up in the cracks.
They were everywhere.
Ash and the Team Rocket Trio all froze.
An Omastar slowly poked half its body out of the shattered rock wall, its blue-gray tentacles writhing slowly in the air.
Behind it, more Omanyte, Kabuto, and Kabutops emerged from cracks in the rock walls on all sides, surrounding Ash and Team Rocket.
These ancient Pokémon gave off a suffocating, primeval aura.
Their blood-red eyes stared fixedly at the intruders before them.
"C-could it be that we woke these fossil Pokémon up, and now they're really angry, meow...?"
Meowth trembled as he cowered behind Jessie, his tail tightly tucked in.
"Run!"
Ash and the Team Rocket Trio finally gave up fighting among themselves, turned, and ran!
But when it came to running away, Ash still fell short of the Team Rocket Trio.
"No-!"
Watching the blue tentacle an Omastar reached toward him, Ash hugged Pikachu tight in fright.
All of Pikachu's fur stood on end as he cried out wildly, "Pika, pika!"
Omastar's eyes were blood-red. It didn't care in the slightest whether Ash was human.
In its eyes, he was simply a piece of meat that could run.
Its tentacle wrapped around Ash's waist, tightening steadily.
Omastar opened its mouth full of sharp teeth and bit down toward Ash.
The next second.
A blade of wind came cutting through the air!
Blue light flashed.
The tentacle Omastar had wrapped around Ash was severed cleanly, leaving a smooth, even cut.
The wind blade continued unabated, carving a deep gash in the tunnel wall and sending fragments of rock flying.
Omastar let out a piercing shriek and abruptly pulled back its tentacle.
Every fossil Pokémon present froze.
They all turned in unison toward the direction the wind blade had come from.
A gale swept out from the depths of the tunnel.
Ash and the Team Rocket Trio could barely keep their eyes open, squinting as they shielded their faces with their arms.
Then they saw an Aerodactyl.
The figure that slowly flew out of the darkness was covered in sharp black rocks, its skin a deep gray.
His outspread wings nearly filled the entire tunnel.
His eyes shone dazzlingly in the shadows.
"Roar-!"
Aerodactyl let out an enraged roar.
Sound waves exploded through the tunnel, slamming outward as though they had physical substance.
All the ancient fossil Pokémon froze.
They felt it.
That familiar, savage, bloody aura that made them tremble.
An aura exactly like that of the era tens of thousands of years ago.
Fear surged from the deepest recesses of every ancient Pokémon's heart, drowning their earlier ferocity like a tide.
Omastar, Omanyte, Kabuto, and Kabutops lowered themselves one after another, trembling all over.
As though they had seen something that shouldn't exist in this world.
An eerie silence fell over the tunnel.
On Aerodactyl's back, Lu Chen stepped forward.
He glanced down at the four shaken figures below, then at the trembling ancient Pokémon around them, and rubbed his chin.
These had to be the legendary Ash and Pikachu the god.
"You're Ash?"
"Y-yes, I'm Ash. May I ask who you are?"
Holding Pikachu, Ash looked up at Lu Chen, utterly bewildered.
The man had actually called him by name right away.
Meanwhile, Pikachu, against the chest of Ash in Lu Chen's arms, looked at Aerodactyl and curled into a ball in fright.
He held his head with his little paws, leaving his rear sticking out, looking just like an ostrich.
"My name is Lu Chen. I'm your mom's neighbor. She asked me to come rescue you."
"Mom's friend?"
Ash was even more confused.
He had only left home on his adventure a short while ago. When had his mom met such an amazing neighbor?
Lu Chen offered no further explanation, turning his gaze to the four ancient Pokémon before him.
Omastar and its pre-evolved form, Omanyte; Kabutops and its pre-evolved form, Kabuto.
"Interesting. They really are ancient fossil Pokémon."
Lu Chen glanced back at Ash. "Don't worry. With me here, nothing else will happen."
"O-oh." Ash nodded blankly and retreated to one side, holding the trembling Pikachu.
Aerodactyl stared at the Kabuto and Omanyte, drool beginning to drip again.
Lu Chen patted his neck and soothed him. "Don't rush."
"Heh heh heh-"
Just then, Gengar silently poked his face out of Lu Chen's shadow, wearing a rather odd expression.
It was the first time Lu Chen had ever seen Gengar look like this.
"What's wrong?"
Keeping his expression unchanged, Lu Chen quietly communicated with Gengar.
Gengar made a few gestures.
"You mean the thing you put in your stomach is glowing?"
Gengar hastily nodded, then opened his mouth, reached inside, and rummaged around for a while before pulling something out.
The goddess statue.
The goddess statue Lu Chen had obtained from the Aura Queen of Cameran Palace all those years ago.
The goddess statue Lu Chen had nearly sold back then, if not for the shopkeeper's offer being too low.
Ever since he had acquired it, the statue had remained quiet, showing nothing unusual.
But now, it was shining with rays of soft white light.
"What's going on?"
Lu Chen frowned.
Something seemed to be attracting the goddess statue.
Lu Chen thought quickly. Was something deep in this tunnel drawing it?
No.
Lu Chen soon noticed something even stranger.
The goddess statue seemed to grow brighter when it approached Ash.
He took a step forward, moving closer to Ash.
The white light grew stronger.
Lu Chen's pupils contracted slightly.
What attracted the goddess statue wasn't something deep in the canyon.
It was Ash.
Why would Ash cause the goddess statue to react?
A thought surfaced in Lu Chen's mind.
Could Ash have a talent for Aura? Could he even... be a descendant of the royal line of Cameran Palace from back then?
Lu Chen lowered his head, studying Ash's face closely.
He wanted to find some trace of an old acquaintance in his features.
Tens of thousands of years had passed.
To think their bloodline was still continuing.
But no matter how Lu Chen looked, he couldn't see the slightest trace of his old acquaintance in Ash's somewhat dopey face.
"Lu Chen, is there something on my face?"
A little embarrassed by the staring, Ash reached up and touched his face.
Lu Chen smiled faintly and put away the goddess statue. "Nothing. I just didn't expect there to be such a connection between us."
"A connection? What connection?"
Ash scratched his head, looking bewildered.
Just then.
An enraged roar came from deeper in the tunnel.
"Roar-!"
This roar was completely different from those of the ancient Pokémon before.
Deep and savage, it carried pure wildness and an oppressive presence.
The other ancient Pokémon present were even more frightened, lying flat on the ground without daring to move.
Ash and the Team Rocket Trio all turned pale.
Only Lu Chen and Aerodactyl felt no fear at all. Instead, they were excited.
Because that roar was all too familiar to them.
It was the voice of another Aerodactyl.
Lu Chen's Aerodactyl tensed his entire body, his pupils widening and his wings spreading slightly, a low cry that Lu Chen had never heard before rising in his throat.
That sound carried excitement, longing, and a resonance that ran deep into his bones.
In this unfamiliar era, separated from his own by who knew how many years.
He could actually still hear the voice of his own kind.
In this world, aside from Lu Chen, this Aerodactyl also had others of his own kind!
Lu Chen patted Aerodactyl's back, his voice also carrying a measure of excitement he could hardly conceal:
"All right, rein in your aura a little. Don't scare your fellow Aerodactyl."
"Roar..."
Lu Chen's Aerodactyl gave a soft roar, and most of his bloodthirsty, murderous aura instantly subsided.
Only then did Pikachu and Meowth feel a little less frightened.
"Roar-!"
Accompanied by a fierce roar.
Another Aerodactyl, its eyes likewise blood-red, flew out from the deepest part of the tunnel!