Holy shit, (pardon the language) that was honestly terrifying to read. Though it's also incredible that with that little info and numbers they were that successful in executing their plan.

This whole thing seems ridiculous. It's freakin' intriguing but still comes across as incredulous. Though, what might surprise me most is the fact the group of 16 hasn't tried to completely alienate one of their members by now. To put it simply not all of them had the best relations before, the fact they can put it away when times are serious is actually impressive.

Barry's declaration of "Now I can definitely die!" made me facepalm so hard. Seriously, you just don't declare stuff like that! Not to mention in what came across as a happy/upbeat? manner.
For that matter, isn't Gary essentially going due to a personal vendetta against Giovanni?
The train of thought of some of the people just confuses the crap out of me.

Wow. Just wow. This has got to be one of the most, or even THE best Pokemon story I've ever read on fanfiction. And one of the best stories I've ever read.

I like how in the story you focused on a large cast. Sure, it's hard to focus on a group but it makes the story feel whole, like including Silver even though he's from the games and some of the odder additions, like Ritchie. What's even better is that everyone seemed in-character, which, with so many characters that pop up in the story, is pretty hard to do. The ships and headcanons also don't seem out of place, either- especially the Ikarishipping. In other fanfiction Dawn and Paul are just randomly together, and you've made their relationship slow and unsure, which seems more realistic than the former.

The plot is very well planned out and the different "cutscenes" seem well matched-up with the rest of the story. All of the flashbacks were great- the way they all fit together to form a whole sense of the plot was great. I was kind of disappointed that the story didn't end with a Christmas party, but the wedding works just as well.

I've noticed a few grammar mistakes, mainly periods at the end of a sentence, but they are fairly rare and they don't take away from the story. Overall, this story is just plain awesome. I can't really describe it otherwise.

Kudos to you!
-Catapily

I love what misty said this chapter!

Shit. I knew it was coming but still... shit

I still remember reading this story all night long two years ago. Was really fun coming back to it!

I read all of this, and I loved a lot of it. There are little bits that I didn't like, or I just missed, but I really enjoyed reading this. Whenever I got a free moment, I'd try and get a little more of this read before I was called away again, or I had to turn in for the night. All of the chapters are just so long, and that's amazing because you include so much in it.

The premise of Giovanni recapturing Mewtwo and trying to get him back under his control is interesting, and how Mewtwo turns to Ash through psychic links is brilliant since they have history and Ash is the Chosen One.

I'll admit that the core cast was pretty huge, and some I felt were odd choices like Ritchie or Trip, but they found their roles within the narrative. I did feel sad a bit with Brock, Tracey, and Max staying behind on this adventure. They've helped Ash on his world-saving adventures so I naturally think they'd go with him, but their reasoning for not going works out.

I'll be straight here- I'm not a fan of the 'Giovanni is Ash's father' idea. I just cannot see that happening, and by extension, I'm not a fan of Silver being Ash's half-brother. I'm a fan of Silver, and his characterization through this adventure, but not of his relations to the cast. While they work for this story and make it masterfully written, I am still not a fan.

There were choices in shipping that I was and was not okay with. There were good ones like Ash and Misty, Tracey and Daisy, and May and Drew. Then there were ones I was more skeptical on such as Dawn and Paul, because of their history with Ash, and Steven and Cynthia, which I have nothing against but just find a really odd choice. There's lots of characters and lots of shipping to go around, and for the most part, I'm fine with, but I don't like all the choices.

I've seen a few interpretations of Leaf, and yours goes in the top three, two actually. I'm a bit skeptical about her being a G-Men agent, but she played her role very well regardless. I am very interested to see where her role as the next champion after Lance takes her, and how things develop between her and Gary. Her relationship with Gary was great, the way they were always going at it and challenging each other's ideas. Between her being an agent and her personal issues, she was developed into a well-rounded character. She also gets bonus points for bringing back up the Chosen One stuff, and for bringing the idea of the Ash Connection, which was named by Misty, to the table.

Speaking of Lance, I never really know if I like or hate the guy. This version of him, I hate for constantly trying to force the kids and adults into doing things his way. He kept trying to end the kids' mission so he and the G-Men can finish it themselves. The kids had a better idea of how to approach the situation, and I can't even begin to count how many times I wanted to tell him to step off both in the kids' situation and the conversations with the other adults.

One other thing I enjoyed is the appearances of past characters popping in, and helping advance the plot. It was great how everyone included contributed to that.

It's a shame that this was written pre-XY because it would've been awesome for Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, and the other Kalos characters to get in on this. Sadly, the timing did not match up.

Overall, fantastic work with the long chapters, the plot development, and the characterization of all the characters. I'll be moving onto Ash Connection ll: The Rising.

So, i think it has been ages since i've reviewed a fanfic... but i wanted to let you know that i found this story to be an incredibly gripping read. Once i started i could not stop reading, which is very very rare for fanfiction stories. I did notice that there were at times some small mistakes in writing, but it was never anything truly glaring and it just made me pay more attention. The way you bring out the characters and let them develop is very fluid, even when they are in a large group. There weren't all that many pokemon battles involved, but i found that to be good. Most other pokemon fanfics i read tend to overextend the battles/ You however wrote them subtle, but solid. an excellent backstory and integration of OC's and a mix of anime and game characters.
All in all, it was an incredible read. and i will definetly check out your other work.
with regards,
Lucifer-Allheart

Wow! I'd seen that this story had such great reception, but I had held off reading it as I'm not too fond of Ash as a character. But wow! This story sucked me in. I have been glued to my phone reading this in my free time, and I absolutely loved the ending where it comes out that this was just the story being recounted. Very clever. I throughly enjoyed it!

Hi there. I have just read this entire story in one go. One entire afternoon, and into the early evening.

I have been utterly dazzled.

I don't think I've ever read anything over 300K long before. I usually get bored by the end of the first 10 chapters, and stop reading. But god, I could not stop with this story. I just kept going and going, and each chapter just kept getting better and better.

Funny, I am quite the anime elitist, but for whatever reason, I journeyed back to the Pokemon fandom, and this is where I find the type of story that I had been looking for all along. A story that reads like another season of the anime, that develops multiple storylines, that includes all of my favourite characters, that has enough plot conveniences to keep everyone alive but never enough to bore the reader, that has an ending that ties it all together.

Thank you for giving me a wonderful Saturday.

I've just started reading TAC 2, and I wanted to give this a review before I got too far into it. First off, my appreciation for giving these characters the treatment they all deserve. I didn't necessarily agree with all of your decisions character wise, but you did it so well that any complaints I would have are very minor and are overtaken by the story as a whole.

It does feel like the story gets bogged down in a lot of places by a lot of politics that aren't completely hashed out that I see (like why on earth are people so accepting of a sporting event choosing their leaders in the first place) but it feels so real and satisfying because of how you portray all of the characters and situations they're in. It also gives a needed depth to the Pokemon world that we obviously never see in the anime.

At times it seemed like Ash was a side character in his own story. Granted you're dealing with a ton of characters, and frankly I believe this was your intent. He did take more of a backseat, but in doing so I learned about characters like Drew, May, Paul, Leaf, Dawn, the various champions, etc. Was the intent to flesh them out more and leave Ash as kind of the catalyst for everything, but not necessarily the central character? (I hope that question is clear). He also seemed a little more duncey than I'm used to.

The only character I didn't really get was Misty. I can tell she's strong and independent and cares for Ash and wants more than a simple friendship. But then when it came to Ash's brush with death she dealt with it in an almost blasé manner. Not that she needed to become an emotional mess by any means (there are probably too many stories that treat her in that manner), but I feel like maybe you pulled back a little too far in the other direction. I just had issues figuring out what to think of her and what she was thinking at times.

Gosh I feel like I'm complaining too much. That's not my intent, as I really did enjoy the story (and I plan to enjoy TAC 2 as well). Take any of these critiques as constructive, please (and I know the story is now almost 5 years old)! The story is very good and its scope is beyond impressive. You've given us a mature look at the world of pokemon with a lot of good political intrigue and nice personal moments.

Shipping wise, if I'm not mistaken, it seems TAC set the standard in the fandom for relationships given Ash x Misty. A lot of other fics follow the standard of Ikari, Wishful (my 2nd fav), Contest, and OldRival.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the story and am looking forward to more in TAC 2. And I hear you're mulling over a third story, which would be fantastic.

Review here because I didn't put in the epilogue review like I should have, but I was actually quite disappointed that Meloetta didn't do something like, say, show up in Ash's hospital room. Like, considering how other characters noted how in-sync Ash and Meloetta already were, I expected her to show up for the aftermath as things were winding down. At least to pop in and say goodbye, you know? Also, gotta wonder why she turned Fighting-type before attacking Mewtwo when she's perfectly capable of blasting things with Psychic or Hyper Voice in Aria Forme. Especially since, you know, being part Normal is supposed to make her immune to Mewtwo's Shadow Ball. And I was kind of insulted that she just got casually one-shotted when she tried to help. You'd think she'd know better than to turn Fighting-type and then try to rush a Psychic-type, instead of playing his game at range where she'd be better able to survive.

So, the question here is: what happened to Meloetta? She was mentioned as having made a full recovery, but unlike Mewtwo and Moltres nothing further was said about her after that. And, well… I'd expected her to at least appear in the epilogue, seeing as Chili and Cress had promised to take her to a rock concert someday. And, well, it would've been cute.

Also, I can assume this story definitely sidetracked stuff midway through Unova. By the end of Unova, Ash and Meloetta were on speaking terms — heck, she was *flirting with him* for a good chunk of Adventures in Unova, adding one more to the tally of "Pokémon with a romantic interest in Ash" — and Ash was more than familiar with Giovanni after the latter attempted to use Meloetta's power to control the Unova weather trio. He succeeded, right up until Pikachu absorbed one of Thundurus's electric attacks and blasted Giovanni and his ritual platform with a Spirit Bomb-sized Electro Ball.

I have no idea what I can say that can summarise just how good this is without also repeating what you have heard so many times already—the intriguing plot, the beautiful characterisation, the clear structure, your captivating style, etc.—but I know that I can't go without telling you that this was one of the best Pokémon fanfics I have read.

I never got bored of this story, and although it was really, really tough not skimming and rushing through chapters to save time, I had a lot of fun completely losing myself in this, just crying, laughing, smiling, squealing and screaming. I was a bit hesitant about committing myself to reading so much, but I'm glad that I did—everything this put me through was more than worth it, and it left me with a great sense of satisfaction at the end. I can't give you deep or thoughtful insight on this, but I know that there are a lot of things in here that pull us in and make it an amazing read—sadly, I just don't know how to put it into words.

In all honesty, I gave up on Ash a long time ago, but this makes me want to have faith in him again. Really beautiful work.