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EVERYONE: Journeys, Ashes, and Dangers

Joined
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Pronouns
  1. She/Her
Content Warning: I thought this was "Teen" at first, but after looking over the ratings rules...it's for everybody. There will be slight implications of heavy themes such as suicide and racism-however, it is mild(nothing explicit) and will be addressed appropriately(however, the suicide and any substance use is EXTREMELY mild-most likely will only be mentioned in a conversation). Some substance use, but to a mild degree, again nothing explicit...I guess there really isn't much more to say here except if this story does touch upon anything, it's not too explicit so it won't be too uncomfortable for anyone. I will give warnings if any chapter is NOT for everybody, however; but for now, this is it.

Story Synopsis(as on Fanfiction.net-with changes): Ash Ketchum was well on his way back to Pallet Town after Kalos, ready to take a break from the events that had transpired in the Kalos region. However, a certain incident lead to him being caught up in a turf war between pokemon, which, in turn, set off yet another chain of events. Ash was used to getting into situations like this, though he knew it was all a part of his goal to become the very best. However, when he makes a flimsy promise on a whim to try and find his best friend's family, he finds himself in for more than he bargained for. His strength, loyalty, and bonds are all put to the test; his pokemon accompanying him for the ride. Will Ash be able to fulfill his promise? Or is it as unachievable as his own dream to be a Pokemon Master?

Another thing-this story's going to be pretty long standing. Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?

***
Chapter 1
Introduction: Geography
***
Ash Ketchum was not a stranger to weird dreams.

Granted, considering the crazy things he got into regularly in real life, he more often than not mixed up his real experiences with his fake ones.

This was most likely why many people regarded him as an idiot. He remembered an instance from back when he was traveling through Johto. One morning he had asked Misty 'what happened the previous night'. She, confused, asked what he was talking about, to which he replied, 'I thought Heracross mistook you for a bug and ate you.'

In hindsight, he probably should have phrased his words better, but getting hit with a mallet-where the hell did she get that from, anyway?-multiple times on the head was enough for the point to get across: don't ask stupid questions.

Of course, for Ash, it was hard to differentiate sometimes what was and wasn't a stupid question, so...yeah.

But the dream he had last night felt different somehow.

A flash of images. Of people. Pokemon. Most of which he didn't know. It didn't help that a small tugging sensation at the corner of his mind was telling him that these were...memories.

It wasn't the first time he had this dream, and most of the time they were the same memories. However, they flashed by far too quickly for him to understand what was happening in them. He did manage to see a little bit, but not enough to fully remember everything the next morning.

This time...he remembered everything, and when he woke up, he was able to vividly recall every single memory he was able to see. It wasn't much, considering how fast the images went by-with no sound-but he was able to piece a few things together.

There were a few things he remembered from the dream last night: A blue flame, a bolt of electricity, and the shining light of evolution so bright he couldn't see who exactly was evolving. Then there were the people and pokemon he remembered: A spearow, a mew, a kangaskhan, and what looked like a man dressed in black from head to toe, making it difficult for Ash to see who he was.

Okay, maybe he didn't get everything...

Ash sighed and looked out the window. The sky was dark outside, and all he could see was the ocean, as the plane flew well over it. Not a single pokemon was in sight. 'Man, why couldn't I have at least waken up when the plane arrived back in Kanto?'

Well, no use complaining about it. Still, Ash wasn't known for being patient, despite having gained a greater sense of it over the years, so he decided to ask one of the flight attendants how long it would take to get to their destination.

Carefully, he grabbed Pikachu-who had been sitting in his lap, and set the pokemon down on the seat next to him. Pikachu twitched slightly before letting out an uncomfortable whine and adjusting his position before twitching again. Ash frowned. 'Guess I'm not the only one having weird dreams...or is it a nightmare?'

After debating in his mind for a while, he decided to let Pikachu sleep. He would wake him up after he asked the flight attendant about the schedule.

He walked down the aisle, once more stepping lightly as to not wake up the other passengers. He was doing a pretty good job of it, too, until he accidentally tripped over a woman's foot. "Sorry!" He whispered apologetically to the pink-haired woman. "It's hard to see with the lights off..."

The woman scowled, before turning her head to the other side with a huff. The man sitting next to her sent Ash an apologetic look before whispering something inaudible to the lady. She whispered back, and the two fell into what looked like an argument, though Ash couldn't hear a thing.

Ash shrugged and sheepishly continued walking. How embarrassing...

He reached the back area of the plane where three flight attendant ladies were quietly chatting among each other. "Um, excuse me?"

The three instantly ceased their quiet chatter as the flight attendant with brown hair turned to Ash with a warm smile-good thing she was nicer than the pink-haired woman-and asked, "Hi, sweetheart, do you need something?"

"Um..." Ash fidgeted uncomfortably. He knew that some people called those younger than them "sweetheart" and the like, but he had never gotten used to it. He was from Kanto after all, and that just wasn't how the culture in Kanto was. It was really hard for him to adjust in Unova, where that seemed to be a regular thing in certain towns, but he still hadn't been able to fully adjust, even to this day. It was probably a good thing nobody called him "sweetheart" in Kalos...no wait, there was that kindergarten teacher, never-mind...he mentally shook off his thoughts and responded to the woman's question. "Do you know when we'll arrive in Kanto?"

"Ah! Hm, let's see...I think..." She frowned before turning to the other two ladies. "I think I forgot..."

The yellow-blonde-haired flight attendant let out a chuckle, as did the other flight attendant with honey-blonde hair. Hm, they both had blonde hair...were they from Kalos, or was Ash being too assumptive? He shook his thoughts away. He probably was. Barry was blond and he was Sinnoan.

The woman with yellow-blonde hair continued chuckling as she teased her brown-haired friend. "Stacey, you're so forgetful. You know the Captain told us before the flight, right?"

Stacey flushed and retorted. "Well, I'm tired! It's not my fault you and Claire wouldn't help me with any of the work!"

"Excuses..." The honey-blonde, now dubbed as Claire, said in a sing-song manner. "And anyway, Lila and I were busy helping the new Co-Pilot get settled in. Strange guy, he was...I could've sworn there was these weird whiskers on his face too..."

Ash furrowed his brow. Whiskers? And did they completely forget that he was here?

Lila, the yellow-blonde-haired woman, shook her head with slight disbelief. "Yeah, tell me about it...he was crazy short too...and he had an Afro...isn't there something in the rules about co-pilots not being allowed to wear Afros? I always wondered why that mattered though..."

Stacey shook her head. "No, they changed that. They got backlash from the Guyana Flight Association and NEO."

Here, Ash's curiosity peaked and he couldn't help but ask-completely forgetting why he had come to these three ladies in the first place-a question of his own. "What's NEO? And...Guyana?"

Claire looked at Ash as if just remembering he was there-he knew it!-before replying, "NEO is an acronym for the National Equality Organization. Their purpose is to make sure everybody has equal rights and isn't treated unfairly in the workplace simply because of their looks, sexuality, race, disabilities, or religion."

Ash nodded, quickly trying to regurgitate the information so he didn't get lost. "So...they're basically there so everyone gets treated fairly?"

"That's what she said, kid," Lila said, though not unkindly. "As for the Guyana Flight Association...you know where the Guyana region is?"

Ash shook his head. "No...I've never heard of that region before." He paused. "Actually, I've never heard of a lot of regions..." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he continued, "The town I grew up in didn't exactly have the best education..."

Granted, it wasn't entirely the fault of Pallet Town's school for why Ash didn't know much. It was simply because he found most of the stuff too boring to be able to study properly. He didn't have the worst grades in class, but he didn't exactly have good ones either. That was fine with him, though. Plus, Pallet Town didn't really teach Geography.

"Ah." Stacey shot Ash a sympathetic look. "Same here. I grew up in a backwater town where the school there was absolutely horrible. They even made it into the Genius Book of World Records for the title of 'Worst School in the Hoenn Region'."

"You're from Hoenn?" Ash asked, surprised.

Stacey smiled wistfully. "Yup. The school was crappy and the town wasn't the best place to grow up in, but I still loved it. I have a lot of memories from there after all...anyway, the Guyana region; I'll show you it so it's a little easier to explain. Lila?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Lila stood up. "I'll go to the front and get a map...maybe I can also sneak a peek at how our new co-pilot's doing too..." She snickered. "I think I'm going to call him Whiskers."

"Oh, uh, thank you," Ash said gratefully as Lila left the room. He then remembered why he had come here in the first place. He also remembered the fact that Stacey didn't know the answer to his inquiry, so he instead turned to Claire. "Hey, do you know when we'll arrive in Kanto?"

Stacey pouted as Claire checked her watch. "Let's see...we should be there in about...huh, wow, that's quite a while...about an hour and a half."

Ash gaped. "Wait, seriously?!"

Claire nodded. "Yup. Sorry, kid...but on the bright side, us ladies will teach you some Geography to pass the time!"

"Oh...uh, you know, you don't have to do that..." Ash said hesitantly. He suddenly felt unsure about being taught Geography by three flight attendants. For one thing, he didn't want to waste their time. For another, he probably was going to have a lot of trouble processing the information given, which will most likely suck them dry out of patience and further waste their time. Plus, he didn't feel comfortable with leaving Pikachu alone for too long. He was slightly paranoid that the mouse would get kidnapped again.

Stacey waved him off. "Oh, don't worry about it, sweetheart. The girls and I would love to help you!"

Ash smiled nervously. "Ah...okay, thank you very much..." He paused before asking, "Is it alright if I go back to my seat real quick and get my pikachu? He's kind of by himself..."

"Oh, you have a pikachu?" Claire asked. Ash nodded wearily in response. He hoped these women wouldn't go crazy over how "cute" Pikachu was...they would probably get shocked, Pikachu wouldn't like it, and there was also the fact that Pikachu wasn't exactly as cute and innocent as everyone thought he was. "Sure, go ahead." Claire snapped Ash out of his thoughts as she waved him off. "Why'd you leave your pokemon alone anyway?"

"He was asleep," Ash explained. "And I didn't want to wake him up-he gets cranky and shocks me if I do that-" Here, Claire and Stacey both giggled. "And I can't just put Pikachu into a Poke ball because he hates them."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Odd. I've never heard of a pokemon that hates Poke balls before. Poke balls in general, or just it's own?"

"Uh...good question. I don't know." He confessed, frowning. "Is it really not normal?"

Claire looked contemplative for a moment before carefully replying, "Well, I guess it just depends on how much your pikachu dislikes Poke balls."

Ash considered this for a moment before replying, "A lot. Pikachu refuses to get in the Poke ball even when we're in danger. I said, 'hate' for a reason..."

Stacey frowned. "Yeah, 'hate' specifically seems kind of strange. Even pokemon that mostly stay outside their Poke balls are at the very least okay with going inside their Poke balls, but if your pikachu hates them so badly that even in danger it won't go in..."

Ash nodded, the frown never leaving his face. He never really thought much of Pikachu's dislike for Poke balls, but was it really that strange? If so, then what was the reason Pikachu hated Poke balls so strongly? Maybe he could ask sometime later...

"Well, anyway, I'm going to go and get Pikachu." Ash announced and walked down the aisle, extra careful not to step on anyone this time. He noticed that the pink-haired lady and the purple-haired man weren't where he had seen them in their seats the first time around. However, he didn't think much of it and continued walking towards his seat.

"Hey, kid, heading back to your seat already?" Ash looked up and saw Lila heading towards him with a rolled-up map paper in her hands.

"No, I'm just getting my pikachu." He pointed at the rolled-up paper. "What's that?"

Lila looked at the roll of paper in her hand and shot Ash a funny look. "The...map I was getting?"

"...oh."

Lila shook her head, amused. "You're a funny kid. Anyway, I'll go set this map up in the back room with Claire and Stacey...you go and get your pokemon."

Ash nodded as Lila continued walking down the aisle. "Right." He then walked towards his seat and shuffled around the other seats to get to Pikachu, who was now sprawled on his seat haphazardly in the most uncomfortable position possible. Ash shook his head and gently picked up his partner. "You're really tired, huh..." He muttered, then adjusted Pikachu in his arms-still careful as not to wake him before retreating to the back of the plane where the three flight attendants were.

When he got to the back room, he noticed the three women rolling out the large map that Lila had gotten out on a counter-that was obviously glued to the ground; tables in planes weren't exactly smart.

"Hi." He greeted them lamely before setting Pikachu down on a seat next to the counter. He shook his head at the mouse, amused. "You rest up, Pikachu. Meanwhile, I'm going to be...learning about geography...yeah..." He laughed nervously and walked over to the flight attendants, ready for his "lesson".

He hoped that Stacey, Claire, and Lila had enough patience to teach him about other regions...

"Alright, you ready, kid?" Lila asked, putting her elbow against the edge of the counter, the map having been fully unrolled to reveal a map-gee, no kidding-of the world.

Ash nodded sheepishly. "Yup. So...the Guyana Region?"

"Right, right, right, we'll get to that." Claire waved him off. "But we're thinking we should probably start with the closest regions since it's more likely you'd have heard about them before. "First, though...how many regions have you been to?"

"Oh, I've been to lots!" Ash said cheerfully, glad to be the one giving knowledge this time. Granted, it was knowledge that wasn't that important for them to know in the long run, considering it was just how many regions Ash had been to. Still, he was glad to be able to "help" somewhat. "I come from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region and started my journey when I was ten. From there I went to Johto, then Hoenn, then Sinnoh, then Unova, and I just recently came back from Kalos!" He paused before embarrassed admitting. "Well, I guess that last part's kinda obvious..."

"Oh, you're from Kanto? So that's why you're going there...heading home after a long trip?" Claire asked politely.

"Yup." Ash nodded. "...now that I think about it, I didn't introduce myself, huh?"

The three flight attendants shook their heads in amusement, causing Ash to flush with embarrassment. "Oh. Well, my name's Ash Ketchum! Nice to meet you Stacey, Claire, and Lila." He paused for a moment. "Wait, we technically already met..."

Stacey laughed. "Well, that's quite alright. Anyway, Ash, since you've already gone to six well-known regions, we'll tell you about this region first. What have you heard about the Alola Region?"

"Alola?" Ash questioned, already feeling like an idiot.

"So, we're starting here then," Lila said casually and pointed to a group of four islands surrounded by smaller islands on the map. "This is Alola. And don't worry, we'll go slow so you can understand."

Ash rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. Was his slowness really that obvious? Man...he was really glad he had gotten smarter over the years, but the payoff had been that he was insanely slow. Then again, during a time when he wasn't slow, he was incredibly stupid, rude, and had no clue how to take care of a pokemon. Or talk to people. Or do basically anything.

Well, except in Unova, but he didn't like to talk about Unova. The stupid smog in the air messed with his senses and was a far cry from Kanto's crisp and clean air. On the other hand in that matter, it also meant that Unova was technologically more advanced than Kanto was...but you'd think that they would at least come up with a cleaner way of doing things because Unovan air was bad...

Really bad. Like, it said something that the air is what reduced his intelligence to...whatever he was in Unova.

"Alola is made up of four islands. Melemele Island, Akala Island, Ula'ula Island, and Poni Island. You with me so far?" Lila asked.

Ash wearily nodded. "Yeah...hey, wait, do you know if there's a league in Alola?"

Stacey shook her head. "Sorry, sweetheart, but no. The region is far too small for there to be a legitimized leagues, and they don't even have gyms there. It's more of a vacation spot if anything else. They do have this thing called the Island Challenge though...there's even something else called...wait, what is it called again...?" Stacey turned to Claire in confusion.

"Are you talking about Z-moves?" Claire asked, sending Stacey a teasing look, which the brown-haired girl ignored.

Stacey snapped her fingers triumphantly. "Ah! That's the one!" When she saw Ash's confusion, she instantly began explaining. "Despite being known as a vacationing and tourist spot, Alola also has something called an island challenge. And Z-crystals, which are basically crystals that allow a pokemon and trainer to perform a move called...a Z-move!"

Ash blinked. "Is it like Mega Evolution?"

"Mega Evolution? Hm, not exactly. Though, I heard it requires a strong bond between trainer and pokemon to be able to use properly as well...I guess if we're using the Mega Evolution comparison, you could say that a Z-move is basically Mega Evolution...but packed into one 'super move'." Lila said.

"Super move?!" Ash regurgitated excitedly, causing the three women to smile slightly. "Wow...so, if someone wanted to use a Z-move with their pokemon...they just need a Z-crystal? How do they get one?"

"Sorry, but I don't know the specifics." Claire grinned apologetically.

"Me neither." Lila and Stacey chorused, causing Ash to slump with disappointment.

"Man..." Ash whined, before thanking them anyway. "Well, at least now I know about Alola, so thanks for that. What else have you got for me?"

"Wait, we're not exactly done with Alola yet, you know." Claire pointed out teasingly. "Though it's only one more thing, so it's not that much of a big deal...well, it is kind of...you know how pokemon can have different forms for different species?"

"Yeah?" Ash replied, curiosity peaking.

"Well, in Alola, many pokemon have different forms and even types. For example, the exeggutor there are insanely tall, and instead of being a psychic type, they're a dragon type."

Ash gaped. "No way...that's so cool..."

Lila smirked. "You're telling me. I've only been to Alola once before, with my husband on a business trip, but that place is nice. The people there are great too." She paused before adding. "And yeah, the pokemon there are pretty cool too."

Ash grinned, briefly glancing at his pokemon-still snoring softly; how tired was he?-before turning to the three flight attendants. "Well, I think I may have to put Alola on my list of places to go. And who knows, maybe they might actually add a league sometime in the future."

"Thinking positive, kid, I like it," Lila smirked.

"If you're planning on going to Alola, then you should probably try and familiarize yourself with its language," Claire advised, causing Ash to groan.

"What, they don't use normal English like most of the world does?" Ash complained. "What language do they use?"

"Yes, they use English, but the way it's written is slightly different. It's quite similar to how English is written in Unova if you've been there before." Stacey said.

Ash resisted the urge to groan for what felt like the fourth time these past ten minutes. He didn't want to come off as rude and disrespectful, which he knew he had before many times in the past. Granted, this was when he traveled through Kanto and was still an inexperienced trainer, but still. "So...they still use English...anything else?"

"The language that is native to the Alolans is called Alona, and is mostly used by those who live there, though, like many other regions, English is a second language that is taught in many schools there, so you should have no problem with communicating if you ever go there. Well, not much." Stacey explained, giving Ash a sense of relief. Unova also had another problem, which was that he couldn't read anything. The written language made no sense whatsoever, and it almost drove him nuts at times. Iris had thankfully restrained herself from poking fun over Ash's illiteracy in Unova because she had known that it was because Ash was from Kanto; where the culture and customs there were vastly different from Unova's. However, it didn't stop her from making a few remarks over it, which definitely didn't help.

Ash only tolerated it because Iris had reminded him of when he had first started as a trainer. New to the world, over-excitable, and tended to be a bit of a hypocrite more often than not. Iris was less experienced than he was, but she definitely knew more than he did when he first started.

"But even so, it probably would be a good idea to at the very least get the basics of Alona down. That way you can somewhat understand any Alola." Claire explained. "Better to be prepared."

Ash winced. Boy did he know that well. Anytime he went into a situation completely unprepared, he had always gotten crushed. Specifically, during the Indigo League, which was something he was just not ready to take on.

"Anyway, next up is this place." Claire pointed to a large area on the map. "This place...is called the Galar Region. And is also home to the mysterious phenomenon known as...Dynamaxing."

Ash furrowed his eyebrows. "Dyna-what?"

"Dynamaxing," Claire repeated. "And I think I'm going to leave this one to Lila because she goes nuts over this subject..."

Lila gave a big grin. "Damn right I do. Anyway, just to clear things up first, just like Alola, there are Galarian forms for certain pokemon in that region. However, unlike Alola, there is a league there, and there is a Champion as well. The current champion is the legendary, handsome, amazing, Leon..." Lila let out a deep sigh and swooned, causing the others to send her strange looks.

Claire leaned into Ash and chuckled. "Sorry. She gets like this anytime the Champion of Galar is brought up..."

"No, it's alright," Ash assured her, surprised that he wasn't freaking out as much as Lila was. After all, he had always been one to get excited at the prospect of learning about a champion. They weren't exactly pushovers. "But...I thought she said she had a husband or something like that."

Claire rubbed her forehead. "Yes, well...there's no telling when it comes to Lila. I regret leaving this up to her...anyway, Dynamaxing."

Ash stood up straighter, glad they were on topic again. "Yeah, what is that?"

"Dynamaxing is basically when a pokemon can grow giant-sized during battle. The Galar Champion, Leon, has a Charizard who has a similar ability, though it's called Gigantamaxing instead." Stacey explained.

Ash's head spun trying to process the onslaught of information. "Wait, pokemon can grow giant-sized?!"

"Yup." Claire nodded, causing Ash's jaw to drop in amazement. "As for Gigantamaxing...apparently it's a special form of Dynamaxing, but I never really knew the difference..."

Stacey hummed, pressing a finger to her lips. "Really? You know, I always felt as if I've seen fewer pokemon supposedly 'Gigantamax' than Dynamax...I think it might be limited to certain pokemon."

"That could be it, yeah." Claire agreed. "Anyway...our information is limited on that subject as well..." She shot an apologetic look at Ash. "But then again, we are just flight attendants, so you might not get the best information from us."

"That's fine with me." Ash shrugged. He rubbed his cheek nervously. "Besides, I'm not really the best at these kinds of things, so any help you give me is great."

Lila had finally snapped out of her stupor and spoke up, "Well, we should probably get to Guyana next, since that's what started this whole conversation in the first place." She pointed to another region on the map, causing Ash to blink in slight surprise. Guyana looked almost as big as Sinnoh! And that was saying something...he hoped that place wasn't as cold as the former region. "Guyana is a region in the Southern Continents and there aren't any pokemon leagues or challenges there...but there are many other sports events held there. In fact, that's pretty much what Guyana's known for."

"...not having a league?" Ash questioned.

"No, sweetheart." Stacey corrected. "They're known for their sporting events."

Ash blinked. "Oh."

"Anyway, so the thing we were talking about earlier...that also started this conversation..." Lila began. "The Guyana Flight Association...and Afros. See, Afros are a common hairstyle in Guyana, and the GFA-Guyana Flight Association-contacted NEO when they felt that many of their workers were being treated unfairly simply because of their hairstyle."

Ash nodded slowly. "Oh, okay...wait, why couldn't they just change their hairstyle?"

Claire smiled painfully. "Because that wouldn't have solved the problem. The main issue was that they were still being treated unfairly, which was only because those workers were from Guyana. And we know for sure that's the reason because there are some workers for the Hoenn Flight Association that have Afros, and they're treated fine. It's simply because of their heritage that they are discriminated against."

Ash frowned, slightly disturbed. "That's...pretty dumb."

Lila rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. There are racist people everywhere." She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. "But that's just how it is. It's how it's always been."

"...yeah..." Ash agreed, slightly hesitant. He hadn't dealt with any racism throughout his life and had only briefly heard about it through his journey. So his knowledge on this subject was close to zero. Were people treated unfairly simply because of the place they were born? Were people judged over something like that? What happened to a person's character? Wasn't that a factor? Ash shook those thoughts out of his head. He didn't want to continue talking about this anymore, so he changed the topic. "...what about any other regions?"

Claire seemed to welcome the topic change. "Well, there's also Oblivia, Almia, Orre, Holon, Fiore, and Ferrum...just to name a few." She listed off the top of her head. "We can start with Oblivia first, but we probably won't get to all of them, since..." She laughed slightly. "Well, we're not historians and this is just background knowledge we're giving you."

"Well, I don't have to know everything about a region." Ash pointed out. "I think if you just give me the name, what it's known for, and...uh...maybe a fact or something, I'll be fine? I mostly go along with the flow for stuff, so I think the less information, the better." He admitted sheepishly, causing the three flight attendants to chuckle at him.

"Alright, sweetheart. We'll tell you about the Oblivia region. So, Oblivia is-" Whatever Stacey was about to say was cut off by the sudden jerking movement, causing all three flight attendants to grab onto the edge of the counter tightly, with Lila holding Ash tightly. "What the-"

The plane began shaking, causing cries of panic from the passengers. "Excuse me, passengers." A voice spoke through the speaker. The pilot.

"Who's that?!" Claire cried in alarm.

Okay, not the pilot.

"We're experiencing a bit of a...change in course...Team Rocket's takin' over dis ride now!" The same voice from before spoke, causing Ash to gasp and the other passengers to frantically talk among each other.

"Team Rocket!" Ash growled, finally putting a face to the voice. So the co-pilot that Lila had dubbed 'Whiskers' from earlier was Meowth in disguise! "Figures...they're hijacking this plane!"

It was then when he realized that Pikachu wasn't in the place where he had set him on the counter, causing him to clench his fist. "Man, I am not in the mood for this..."

"Team Rocket?!" Lila questioned incredulously. Ash was about to reply when Stacey spoke up instead.

"I've heard of these guys before." She gritted her teeth. "They're well known in the Kanto Region...the feared criminal organization...Team Rocket!"

Ash blinked. Well, who knew that someone other than him knew who they were for once? "Not these guys." He said, catching the attention of the three women. "I actually know these guys personally." He scowled. "They're always after my pikachu and have been following me around almost everywhere I go!" The flight attendants exchanged disturbed looks at this as Ash continued. "They're not really the most dangerous Rocket members out there, but their names are-"

Of course, tradition wasn't going to allow Ash to finish that sentence as panicked cries cut him off. The plane had finally stopped shaking though, which was a plus. That being said, why were people shouting?

With the flight attendants behind him, Ash quickly scurried out the backroom to the aisle seats and saw a familiar face at the front. A familiar group of faces.

Jessie of Team Rocket smirked as she saw Ash. "Well, well, well, the twerp finally decided to show up. We were just about to ask everyone here to hand over their pokemon. Glad to see you'll be joining in."

This show of familiarity between Jessie and Ash confused the passengers. Especially considering they had no clue who either person was and in their eyes, they saw a criminal being familiar with...what looked like an almost fifteen-year-old child confronting her. Because of this, they got oddly quiet so they could figure out what the situation was.

Ah, humanity.

James of Team Rocket crossed his arms, looking cocky. "Guess we have the upper hand in this situation, huh, Twerp?"

Meowth, who had been standing between his two human partners, pulled off a tarp draped over a cage to reveal Pikachu inside it...still sleeping. He, Jessie, and James all looked awkwardly at Pikachu for a few moments, looking slightly unsettled, before Meowth cleared his throat and began talking. "Ya really should pay more attention to yer pokemon, Twerp. Don't ya think it was strange that he was asleep da entire time?"

Ash blinked before the implications of what Meowth had said sank in. His eyes widened with horror, as a few passengers gasped in horror as well. "Wait, you mean you dru-"

"No!" James interrupted, looking irritated. "Just who do you think we are? We may be criminals, but even we have standards!"

"Then what did you do to that poor thing?" Stacey demanded.

Jessie waved her off. "Oh, we just transmitted a high-frequency white noise to put Pikachu to sleep...and some other pokemon that might have just as sensitive hearing. It's kind of like hypnosis that puts a pokemon to sleep...only it's through science." Jessie paused before adding. "And it only works when the target is asleep...so you just made our job easier when you and Pikachu fell asleep earlier. Too bad you woke up." She then brightened. "On the plus side, I got to trip you!"

Ash blinked before pointing a finger accusingly at Team Rocket. "Wait...you were those passengers from earlier! And Meowth, you're the co-pilot..." He paused, something occurring to him. "Wait, if you're here, then...who's piloting the plane?"

"The pilot," Jessie replied as if it were obvious.

Claire frowned. "The pilot...wait, then what was all the shaking earlier about?"

Meowth's face scrunched up with irritation. "Oh, that...ya see, I kind of had to wrestle da rights ta control da plane from him...and it caused a whole buncha turbulence..." He smirked and pointed to himself. "Of course, I won...he became a lot more willing to do whatever we asked him once I took out my claws...Wobbuffet is watching over him right now to make sure he doesn't try anything funny."

Ash glared at the Team Rocket group, which was nothing new. "Well, I'm going to stop you right here, Team Rocket, take back Pikachu, and save everyone here!"

There were a few murmurs in the crowd at the declaration, mostly uncertain. How was this kid supposed to fight back against two adults and a Meowth? Plus, they did have his pokemon hostage...what if they used that against him?

Jessie tossed her head up. "And how exactly do you plan to do that, Twerp? Last I checked, none of your pokemon are small enough to be able to fight in an area this tight without causing collateral damage...or worse."

Ash's hand, which had been reaching towards his belt for his Poke-balls, froze. Damn, she was right. That was surprising. Since when was Team Rocket smart?

Ignoring Unova, of course. Ash completely figured that the Unovan Air's ability to sap intelligence out of people made the Rockets seem much more competent than usual. Granted, they still were pretty dumb in Unova, which was different...

He shook his head, snarling at Team Rocket. How was he supposed to fight now? His eyes drifted towards Pikachu in worry. Pikachu looked exhausted...and though he didn't know why he had a sinking suspicion that this wasn't entirely because of Team Rocket's transmitting device...wherever that was. He frowned. "Hey, where's your transmitter device thing, anyway? You know, what you used to keep Pikachu asleep?"

James's eyes glinted with excitement as he gleefully shouted, "I'm so glad you asked!" He took out a...cube...pressed a button on it, turned it, causing a high-pitched tone to fill the air, and for a couple of kids and young pokemon to whine in annoyance. Ash flinched slightly. Wow, that was loud...

Stacey frowned. "I'm guessing that the frequency you put it at right now is pretty high since none of the adults are getting affected, am I right? But...how come it made the pikachu fall asleep?"

"Ah. Well, that's because I put it at the highest setting, which causes nausea after a while...and since a pikachu's hearing is pretty sensitive, Pikachu would've been the only one to have heard the sound, causing it to sleep off nausea...and maybe a few children too." James admitted. "Well, a few kids getting sick wasn't going to bother us..."

This was the wrong thing to say as a few parents on the plane shot James dirty looks.

"So, that's why my baby was crying!" A mother accused.

"You horrible human being!"

"You should be ashamed of yourselves for not having anything better to do with your life!"

"And get that poor pikachu out of that cage already!"

"Yeah, you stupid son of a bi-"

Everyone stopped their insults when a high heel flew in the air out of nowhere and smacked James' invention on the floor, causing it to spark for a few moments, before canceling out.

"What," Lila said flatly.

Team Rocket screamed in panic. "You broke it!" Jessie accused, turning around to see a stern woman with her hand outstretched. The woman had light blue hair in a ponytail and red-brown eyes. She was wearing all black for some strange reason, even wearing a black cap on her head, almost completely obscuring her face. Ash, strangely enough, felt as if he recognized the woman...

"I would let the pikachu go if I were you. Unless, of course, you want to get yourselves in more trouble than you're already in." The woman spoke, her voice as stern and steely as her eyes were.

Team Rocket scoffed at her, eyeing her up and down. Meowth bared his teeth at her. "And just what're you gonna do 'bout it? Throw yer other shoe?"

The woman replied by promptly throwing her other shoe, smacking Meowth dead in the face.

"Wasn't expecting that to happen." A man spoke up, the other passengers murmuring in agreement. "You guys aren't very good at being bad, are you?"

"Shut up!" Jessie flushed. "We try!"

A woman with glasses and beady eyes pushed her glasses on the bridge of her nose, staring at Team Rocket. "Keyword being 'try'...why are you after a pikachu that belongs to a child anyway? And how long have you been after him? Stalking is a very serious crime, you know."

Lila blinked. "And hijacking a plane, attacking a pilot, and kidnapping a pikachu isn't?"

"They've kidnapped me and my friends before too." Ash volunteered, causing everyone to stare at him, and Team Rocket to look on with annoyance. Since when were bystanders this talkative? They usually captured pokemon, did normal 'bad guy' stuff, and none of the other bystanders aside from Ash, his friends, their pokemon, and maybe some other people of importance did anything to stop them. And these passengers should be just like any other witness of their crimes-by sitting there doing nothing. But, they aren't. Instead, one passenger is throwing a shoe at them, another smack-talking them, and casual conversation going on between them as they are standing right there.

Stacey tossed Ash a sympathetic look. "Oh, really, sweetheart? I'm so sorry...why haven't you reported this to the police yet?"

Ash rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, they actually got arrested a few times before...but they always get out. I don't know how. And apparently, they don't know how either."

The glasses woman blinked and raised an eyebrow. "Is that out of intelligence to keep this from you, or stupidity as in they genuinely don't know?"

Team Rocket began growling like a lawnmower as Ash replied, "I think it's the second one."

The familiar-looking woman who had thrown the shoe cleared her throat, catching everyone's attention. "Excuse me, but I believe you three were about to surrender?" She pointed to the TRio. "Your device isn't working, we're over an ocean right now, so there's nowhere to run, and like you said earlier, this space is far too tight to take out any pokemon to fight or threaten anyone here. What else can you do in a situation like this?"

Jessie, James, and Meowth exchanged looks. They hadn't thought of that before...but then again, that was how most of their plans went. Downhill.

In this case, 'downhill' was about to become quite literal as the plane suddenly rocked, slowly tipping downward and causing those passengers not sitting in their sits to stumble and fall. People began screaming frantically as Ash stumbled forward, desperately trying to grab onto something to keep his balance.

Jessie screamed. "What's going on in there?!"

Meowth ran into the pilot area and screamed, causing more panic throughout the plane. "Da controls are goin' nuts in there! I think da engines are broken!"

"They are broken!" A gruff, male voice confirmed from inside the pilot area, sounding irritable. "Something hit it!"

"What hit it?!" James cried back. "Aren't you the pilot? Shouldn't you know this stuff?"

"I don't know what hit it, that's why I said 'something' did!" The pilot shot back, causing James to be taken aback.

The blue-haired woman who had thrown the shoe tried to get everyone to calm down. "Everyone! Please remain calm-"

Ash didn't hear what else the woman said, because he had run after Pikachu, who was tumbling towards the pilot area where Meowth and the Pilot were inside his cage. Ignoring the cries of worry from the three flight attendants he had befriended, he reached out and tried to grab Pikachu's cage-

-and was stopped by a familiar set of claws swiping at him. "Not so fast, bub!" Meowth glared, latching onto Pikachu's cage and somehow staying upright, despite the plane still tipping at a dangerous angle. "We worked our butts off trying to figure out da perfect plan ta take Pikachu!"

At that moment, the plane tipped further, causing the screams and panicked cries to escalate-the plane rapidly plummeting towards the ocean, showing no signs of stopping. Ash's eyes widened as he shouted at Meowth, who looked genuinely terrified at that moment. "Your 'perfect plan' involves a plane crashing into an ocean!?"

"We didn't plan this!" James stumbled nearby, joining in the conversation-the blue-haired woman had taken her attention off Team Rocket to try and calm the passengers down with a surprising amount of authority-and adding. "We didn't plan any of this at all! Do you think if we had our balloon that we would hijack a plane?!"

Ash's eyes flashed. "YES! I know! You would do anything to get what you want! You're just selfish like that!"

Meowth and James exchanged nervous looks before the former unlocked Pikachu's cage with one of his claws and handed Pikachu to a stunned Ash with some considerable amount of difficulty. James was about to say something, but Ash never got to hear what he said, because, at that moment, the plane jerked once more, and submerged underwater; the impact of the plane hitting the water causing Ash to smack his head against a seat hard and blackout.

The last thing he heard was the panicked screams of the passengers, the sound of shattering glass, and a large amount of water splashing.

There was something else too. A strange sound, something that felt almost as if it came from...within him. The sound of quiet running water, which seemed almost contradictory considering what was currently happening at that moment.

And:

"Ash!"

'Who said that...?'


Ash didn't know. Nor did he know if this was a dream or not. He really hoped it was. After all, he wasn't exactly a stranger to weird and surreal dreams before.

Then again, he did always have a bad habit of confusing reality with dreams...
 
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Chapter 2
Lesson I: Pretext of War
***
There were many things about Ash Ketchum that people didn't know. Such as how he used to be afraid of thunderstorms and would sleep with his mom whenever one would happen. There was also the fact that he was fairly decent at drawing and singing respectively. Additionally, all his clothes were personally made for him by his mother.

Those are three simple facts that most people didn't know about him. Except, maybe, a select few.

That being said, something that almost everyone knows about him is that he has a horrendous sense of direction. The same thing applied in this very situation Ash was currently stuck in: he was lost. Not only was he lost, but he was alone, too. He didn't have a clue as to what happened after he had blacked out and the only clue he could've gotten was if he had woken up near the plane. But life never makes things easy for Ash Ketchum, so instead, he woke up in a tree. Without any of his Poke balls on him, he realized that his pokemon must have landed elsewhere.

He also felt an odd feeling of deja vu.

Furthermore, he was desperately trying not to completely freak out over the fact that when he woke up, his body was glowing. A soft blue light had covered his entire body-from his viewpoint-and felt almost like a warm blanket. There was also a strange sound the accompanied it: a quiet sound of tranquil running water...similar to that of a stream.

Once Ash had made the connection that the sound he had heard when he woke up was the same sound he heard from before he blacked out on the plane, his body abruptly stopped glowing. Almost as if his body didn't want him to find out why it was glowing like such in the first place.

That being cleared up, Ash was now wandering in a strange forest, lost, alone, slightly terrified, and with a good several hundred questions in the back of his mind.

'I hope everyone's okay...' He swallowed, thinking back to the events that transpired on the plane. From his strange dream to meeting Stacey, Claire, and Lila; from learning geography to Team Rocket hijacking the plane and causing it to crash...

Ash frowned, correcting that point in his head. Not even Team Rocket had planned this. Something had struck the plane. The only problem was that he nor anyone else on board at the time had any clue as to what hit the plane. And as if that wasn't mysterious enough, there was also the fact that the plane had crashed into an ocean-meaning Ash should be dead-but Ash woke up in a tree, in a forest.

Taking that as a good sign that perhaps there were other survivors, Ash decided to keep his spirits up and explore this weird place for any other people that were on the plane during the crash. And his pokemon, of course.

Ash made a face suddenly, realizing something that had been nagging him at the back of his mind when he first woke up: it was too quiet. Far too quiet for this to be a forest, especially considering how pokemon typically lived in areas like this. While it was more than likely that this forest was on an uncharted island-otherwise the pilot would've deduced there was land nearby-the question as to how this island wasn't mapped remained to be answered.

Or was Ash simply making assumptions once more? 'I should probably wait until I find someone I know here...or someone from the plane...or the plane itself...' Shaking his head, Ash continued in his search. 'Man, I've never been good at figuring out these kinds of things...'

A sudden rustling sound caused him to snap out of his sheepish admission and tense, frantically looking around. "Hey! Is someone there?"

The rustling sound suddenly stopped, as if whoever had made the sound in the first place had been frightened by Ash's voice. A pokemon, perhaps? The young trainer began cautiously walking towards the direction from where he had heard the sound. "Are you a pokemon? Don't worry I won't hurt you..."

A rattata instantly jumped out from the bushes and tackled Ash to the ground, causing him to cry out. A group of many different kinds of pokemon all scurried out from the bushes as well, seemingly triumphant over the teenager boy who had fallen to a small rattata.

Ash would've panicked over this at any other time, in any other situation. However, this situation happened a little bit differently from whatever he was used to. Instead of panicking over the fact that these forest pokemon looked just about ready to attack him, he was panicking over this:

"I got him!" The rattata-yes, the pokemon-sneered in victory. "This filthy human thought he could just walk into our turf without permission, but I sure showed him, didn't I?"

Ash just stared, eyes wide. Was he losing his sanity? This was another one of his dreams, right? 'Nah...' He immediately shot this idea down. One of the main reasons why he confused reality and his dreams so much was the fact that he had never once had a lucid dream. After all, if he did have any lucid dreams, then he would be more likely to differentiate between reality and fantasy better. Plus, usually, when he realized that he was dreaming-although, this was very rare-he immediately woke up. 'But I'm still awake...so I'm not dreaming...' Ash deduced, slightly in a daze. 'I'm actually hearing that rattata speak...'

"Excellent job, Rattata."
A nasal voice praised. Ash bent his neck slightly to see a smirking machamp tower over him, hands on his hips. "The Boss will be very pleased."

Several questions rushed into Ash's head. 'What boss? Why am I hearing these pokemon speak? Am I hallucinating? Do pokemon call each other by their species name? What 'turf' are they talking about?'

Ash decided that the best way to figure out if he was hearing things or not was to be as subtle as possible to make sure the pokemon didn't think he was crazy. "Who's your boss?"

Ah yes, very subtle.

The machamp frowned and two other pokemon-a sandslash and a poliwrath-exchanged looks. The rattata looked confused. "How did he know about the Boss?"

"I don't know..."
The machamp muttered, his eyes scanning Ash up and down, causing him to squirm uncomfortably. The machamp smacked a fist into his palm, almost as if he had gotten an idea, before smacking Ash dead across the face and leaving him in a temporary daze. "Did you feel that, Human?"

As soon as Ash snapped out of his daze, he tried to sit up but was pulled down by the poliwrath and sandslash. "Hey!" He glared at the machamp. "That hurt! What did I do to deserve that?!"

The machamp paused for a moment, seemingly considering something, before calmly replying. "Are you deaf? Did you not hear Rattata say earlier that you had wandered into our turf? Or are you really so stupid?"

Ash growled though he tried his best to keep his cool. Any other time, he would've collected himself fine, but this time, it didn't work. "I'm not stupid!" He snapped, not realizing the reaction his words had gotten was not beneficial to his situation at all. "And would you let me go already? I'm sorry, I didn't know I was on your turf, I swear!"

The machamp narrowed his eyes. "You can understand me." It was not a question.

Ash swallowed. He couldn't explain it, but he felt very hot all of a sudden. Or perhaps that was due to the proximity of the poliwrath and sandslash tightly pinning him to the ground by his arms. "Yeah." He muttered. "I can."

The machamp hummed thoughtfully for a moment before clapping his hands together and curtly saying, "Knock him out."

Ash instantly panicked. "No, wait, don't-"

And everything went black.

***

Ash groaned as he opened his eyes. It was pitch black. Blinking, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before turning his head around. 'Damn, I still can't see a thing...' He tried to move but found that he was unable to. So he was stuck. 'Well, that's just great...' Ash thought dryly.

He was getting tired of waking up over and over again. Ash wished that Pikachu was here, or at the very least, someone he was close to. Though, that would probably put them in danger as well-considering how he was currently in the hands of wild pokemon.

Ash frowned, considering that for a moment. Was it wild pokemon or pokemon under the orders of a trainer? If the latter was the case, then wouldn't that means there were other people here? Dangerous people, considering the hostility of the pokemon?

Luckily-or unluckily-for Ash, he was about to receive an answer. A bright light suddenly blinded him, causing him to squint his eyes to see. What he saw made him feel deeply unsettled. A large and menacing looking fearow was gazing down upon Ash with a cold and calculating glare, piercing through his soul and sending shivers throughout his body. He swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat and stared back at the fearow with a steely gaze. He needed to figure out what was going on and get out of this situation, so panicking wasn't going to help anything.

"So," The fearow crowed softly, his cold gaze somehow becoming a few degrees colder. "We meet again, Stupid Human. And you can understand me now, I believe?"

Ash's blood ran colder than the fearow's gaze. That being said, Ash recognized this fearow as the same Spearow that had attacked both him and Pikachu on the first day of his journey; and as the same fearow who had returned almost a year later to exact revenge, only to be stopped by-

Ash gasped sharply, all thoughts of keeping a level head completely gone. "What happened to Pidgeot?!"

Fearow stared, confusion flickering across his face for a moment-momentarily leading Ash to believe he had been wrong somehow-before crowing in recognition. "Ah, yes...Pidgeot."

Ash stared expectantly. Fearow did not continue. "If you're here," Ash began slowly, repeating his question. "Then what happened to Pidgeot?"

"She is fine," Fearow stated and said nothing more. Ash tried to push down his feelings of worry for his pokemon and mistrust for the large predator in front of him to put on a brave face. This, however, was very difficult considering the situation Ash was currently in. Fearow looked Ash over with his piercing gaze, causing Ash to be somehow more unsettled than he already was. The Fearow he had remembered was hotheaded and furious, not cold, and...was he even still angry with him? Ash decided 'yes'. "And I would be more worried about yourself, if I were in your position, Stupid Human."

'Yup.'
Ash thought miserably. 'He definitely still hates me.'

"Machamp. Scyther."
Fearow spoke sharply, causing Ash to peer over Fearow's long beak and see the two aforementioned pokemon standing right behind Fearow. Ash recognized the machamp as the same one from earlier, though he didn't know if that was helpful knowledge or not. "Take him to the cave, and keep him separated from the other humans. He'll be a perfect hostage..." Fearow tilted his head towards Ash before adding, "And search the island for the stupid rodent of his. Bring him alive...I plan on killing that rat personally."

Ash's blood ran cold at that statement-leading him to ignore the meanings of the previous ones-and he instantly began struggling against the vines he had realized he was tied up with. "No! Don't you dare hurt him!"

Fearow put his face right in front of Ash's, causing the latter to lean back slightly in trepidation. Fearow's face twisted into something mad for a brief second, as he spoke his next two words. "Watch me." He grinned as he continued, ravishing in the pure panic across Ash's face. "And no need to worry, because I'll make his death as slow and as agonizing as possible."

Ash glared at Fearow, consequences are damned. Nobody hurt one of his pokemon and got away with it. "If you even touch him, so help me, I swear that I'll...I'll..." Ash clenched his fists and he heard a strong buzzing noise resound in the back of his mind like a gong. The Fearow blinked in surprise, seemingly shocked by Ash's inability to complete his verbal threat.

Ash, a mere second later, found that this was not what Fearow was surprised over.

"Intriguing..." Fearow began, and Machamp and Scyther exchanged looks, eyeing Ash with caution. "Why are your hands glowing like that, Stupid Human?"

Ash blinked, his fury faltering for a moment. "My...hands?" He looked down to see that his hands were, in fact, glowing-a light blue color, the same color that his whole body was glowing as from earlier-while being clenched into fists. 'Okay.' Ash thought dumbly as the blue light faded away. 'That was weird.'

"Boss,"
Machamp spoke up, snatching Fearow's attention away from Ash. "Should we take him to the cave?"

Fearow suddenly seemed hesitant, glancing back at Ash's mysterious hands before his gaze hardened and he nodded in reply. "Go. And remember to send out teams to capture the pikachu, alive, if you would."

Machamp nodded in reply and with the help of Scyther, picked up Ash from his position on the floor. Ash instantly began struggling as the two pokemon took him away from Fearow. "H-hey, wait! Where are you taking me? And what's going to happen to Pikachu?!"

Machamp and Scyther glanced at Ash, but said nothing, carrying him away from Fearow and outside of...was he held inside of a dungeon? Ash furrowed his eyebrows and squinted against the bright light as the two pokemon led him down a stone corridor. What was a dungeon doing here? On an island, no less? And that isn't even bringing up the fact that pokemon were manning it by themselves.

'Man, this whole thing is just weird...' Ash thought trying to wrench himself out of the tight grips of both Machamp and Scyther. 'I'm tied up, apparently being held hostage by a bunch of wild pokemon, and I have no clue where everyone else is-' Ash stopped his train of thought and suddenly remembered what Fearow had said earlier. "Hey," Ash spoke, causing the machamp to look at him and raise an eyebrow. Scyther simply ignored Ash. "Earlier you mentioned other humans...are those the ones from the plane? You know, the big white thing that looks like a bird?"

Machamp frowned. "How did you know where we found the humans?" He eyed Ash curiously. "Are you psychic?"

"Psychic?" Ash repeated. "No. Or, I mean, I don't think so..." He gave a sheepish grin. "When I woke up I suddenly could understand pokemon, and my body was glowing...I don't even think I should be alive right now, to be honest." Ash confessed, causing Scyther and Machamp to exchange looks once more-were they close friends or something? "See, the plane-the big white thing-crashed into the ocean and the windows shattered while we were underwater...so I'm pretty sure I should be dead right now..."

Scyther frowned before he spoke in an incredibly deep voice. "You are a strange one, Human. Certainly different from any other human I have met before."

This piqued Ash's interest as he tried to adjust his position a little. "Oh, yeah? What humans have you met before?"

Scyther hesitated before simply replying, "Ones who don't deserve the trust of pokemon."

Ash was taken aback by that response and tried to change the subject. He needed to figure out a way to get out of here and fast. That being said, maybe he would be able to find the other people on the plane if he let Scyther and Machop lead him to...wherever they were taking him. 'I hope Claire, Stacey, Lila, and everyone on the plane are okay...and Pikachu, Hawlucha, Noivern, and Talonflame...' He reluctantly added, '...and Team Rocket too.' Shaking his head out of his thoughts, he continued his questioning. "So...earlier Fearow mentioned that he was going to use me...as a hostage. For who?"

Machamp was the one who replied. And he gave Ash an answer that completely threw him off guard-and sent him into a state of panic and confusion. "According to Boss? Your pidgeot."

***

Pikachu had a pounding headache. And his current situation certainly didn't help much.

Pikachu had woken up just after Ash had gotten knocked out and water began pouring into the plane at a rapid pace, nearly killing everyone on-board...until something happened. Everything had suddenly frozen, a soft blue light stopping all the water-and almost as if it had stopped time itself-and instead of the loud sound of rushing water heard moments earlier, there was a tranquil sound of stream water filling the ears of the passengers. As if that wasn't surreal enough, the plane had slowly moved out of the water and began floating towards a nearby island-which had magically appeared, just as how the water had magically been prevented from drowning everybody-and suddenly, while in the air, the blue light had stopped and caused the plane to descend into the forest. When the plane impacted across the forest floor, it had torn itself up. Pikachu had blacked out at this point and didn't remember anything after that...

He was woken up later by Talonflame and Hawlucha, the former which was going into a bigger panic than Noivern, the only child there. Hawlucha had explained to Pikachu-since Talonflame wasn't making a lick of sense-that he, Noivern, and Talonflame had woken up out of their Poke balls and they had no clue where they were.

Regaining his bearings, Pikachu decided to send the three flying types on aerial duty, searching for any survivors from the plane crash from the sky, while he searched below. The trio had been reluctant to leave Pikachu alone and became even more reluctant when Meowth had stumbled out of the bushes in a daze.

With the cat spouting the usual "you can trust me" nonsense, Pikachu managed to convince the three flying types that he would be fine. Plus, now he would be able to get the full explanation as to what happened from Meowth.

It was not a good situation. Team Rocket had hijacked the plane, was the reason why he was so nauseous, and something had hit the plane, causing it to "crash" land into the ocean...before being pulled out of it by a mysterious blue light...and then crashing into the forest. That crash was probably what caused the pokemon to be separated from the other passengers. Ash was most likely separated as well.

Pikachu twitched when he heard Meowth sigh for what felt like the fourth time in a row. "I miss Jessie an' James...hope dose lugs find me fast..."

"I hope Talonflame, Noivern, and Hawlucha come back fast..." Pikachu muttered under his breath, somehow managing to ignore the splitting headache he had.

Coincidentally, all three flying types landed in front of both cat and mouse with a soft thump on the ground. "We did not find any survivors." Hawlucha solemnly reported his voice carrying a bit of an eloquent accent, as he bowed. "It appears to be forest all around."

Pikachu's ears fell. "You're sure you found nothing else?"

Noivern raised a claw shyly. "Um, I remember seeing a few temples. Those, um, big triangle buildings." He turned to Hawlucha. "Right, Papa?"

Hawlucha nodded, a hint of a smile on his face. "Indeed. Perhaps we can search in those temples and see if anyone had the idea to go inside and seek shelter?"

Meowth snorted as he crossed his arms. "Shelter from what, Wise Guy?"

Pikachu sighed and touched his paws together, fidgeting with his small claws slightly to prevent himself from massaging his head. He didn't want to draw any attention to his headache, as it was a minor problem. They had other things to worry about, after all. "Did you see any pokemon? Maybe locals that live around this area?"

Hawlucha crossed his arms and held his head high. "We did see slight...indications, that there were pokemon living on this island." Pikachu frowned at Hawlucha's odd emphasis on the word 'indications', but before he could question it, Talonflame spoke up.

"You know what we did see? A flock of butterfree."

"Butterfree?"
Pikachu echoed, memories scratching at the back of his mind.

"Um, yeah, we did!" Noivern replied, before looking down at Hawlucha slightly. "Right, Papa?"

Hawlucha smiled softly. "That is correct. However, they were in quite a rush and we were unable to catch up with them."

"Catch up with them?"
Pikachu murmured. Pikachu was unsure if it was because Hawlucha had spoken in the Kaloseon version of Syllabus, the pokemon language, that he was misinterpreting what the fighting type was saying, or if he was simply too slow on the uptake. "Were they far away?"

Meowth rolled his eyes. "Obviously, ya stupid twerp."

A second later, there was a blackened and groaning Meowth lying on the ground in an undignified manner with electricity sparking all over his body. Everyone stared momentarily before shrugging it off. Being teammates of Pikachu, they were used to this.

"We saw the butterfree flock from a distance, though at that point we were heading back, so we saw no point in dragging out our search in the sky," Hawlucha explained, bowing his head towards Pikachu slightly. "Talonflame tried to get a closer look, though I am not sure whether the information he had supposedly gathered is...relevant to our situation."

Talonflame huffed and ruffled his feathers in offense. "Well, excuse me for actually trying to find some information! What did you do? I'll tell you what: nothing!"

"Hey!"
Noivern snapped, standing in front of Hawlucha, who merely crossed his arms with his eyes closed, showing little reaction that Talonflame's childish taunt had affected him. "Don't insult Papa! And how's what you found out, um, important, anyway?!"

"It's a lot more important than nothing!"
Talonflame huffed.

"Yeah?!"

"Yeah!"


Hawlucha sighed and held out his hand, the other arm crossed before he tried to reason with the large dragon type. "Noivern, please, calm down." He reasoned. "Remember, getting angry does not solve anything. It will only further anger your opponent and make you lose sight of what is truly important."

Noivern perked his large ears before hesitantly nodding. "Um, yes, Papa." He then turned around and childishly-quite fittingly-stuck his tongue out at Talonflame, who rolled his beady eyes. Hawlucha then turned towards Talonflame, about to lecture the bird, but was stopped by Pikachu, who raised a paw to catch everyone's attention.

Pikachu sighed, rubbing his eyes with his other paw in an exhausted manner. His headache was getting worse each passing second, and the argument that had previously ensued mere seconds ago had not helped matters. "Let's get back on topic. Talonflame, what exactly did you see?"

Talonflame huffed and ruffled his feathers. "The ugliest freaking scarf I've ever seen in my life."

Pikachu blinked. He blinked again. Yup, his headache was getting worse. It was beginning to become almost unbearable, in fact. "...can you repeat that, please?"

Talonflame waved his wing broadly. The bird always had been incredibly animated, even back when he was a fletchling, as strange as it was. "See, the leader-at least, I think that was the leader-of the butterfree flock was wearing this tattered yellow rag of...Arceus, I don't even know if that can be considered a scarf-in any case, just know that the butterfree that was leading the flock was wearing a stupid, yellow...thing."

Hawlucha gave an almost inaudible sigh. "As you can see, Pikachu... as I have stated mere moments ago, Talonflame's ramblings are indeed useless to our cause. I think what the best course of action would be now is to-" Hawlucha suddenly frowned in concern, reaching a hand out towards Pikachu, who was swaying slightly on his feet. "...are you alright, Pikachu?"

"Huh?"
Pikachu blinked, then waved him off, tapping his paws together nervously. "Ah, no, I-I'm fine...don't worry about it." Pikachu winced as the headache came in full swing, almost splitting his skull in half. He gritted his teeth to endure the pain and tried to direct his focus somewhere else. "Talonflame, you mentioned a butterfree-" He shuddered, his vision blackening as he lost all feeling in his legs. "...b-butterfree flo-" Pikachu desperately tried to finish his statement, but he couldn't hear or see a single thing and his headache was certainly not helping matters-why was he in so much pain?!

Pikachu's hearing momentarily came back for a brief second to hear cries of worry from his panicked teammates, and surprisingly enough, Meowth. He cracked his eyes open-when had they closed?-to see the pokemon looking over him in concern. Meowth was saying something, followed by Hawlucha, Talonflame too. Pikachu didn't understand much of what happened after that, however, because at that moment, the headache finally caught up with him, and he lost all consciousness.

***

When Pikachu awoke, the first thing he realized was that he thankfully did not have a splitting headache preventing him from functioning properly anymore. The next thing he realized was that he was lying on leaves, staring up at a stone wall; meaning that he most likely was in a new area. The third thing he realized was that he wasn't alone, as indicated from the voice that had spoken when he groaned upon regaining consciousness.

A rather familiar voice.

"You're awake." A soft, almost motherly-like voice made Pikachu's eyes widen slightly. "I was worried about you."

Pikachu's mouth parted slightly, a gasp barely escaping his throat as he craned his neck to see where the voice had come from. As he did so, he managed to get a brief glimpse of his surroundings. He was lying on the stone ground, on a bed of leaves, and right beside him was a tired-looking smeargle. He was in a small cave, he realized, with a few torches aligning the wall and making it easier to see. Talonflame, Hawlucha, and Noivern all stood in the corner of the small cave, blinking in almost creepy unison as Pikachu looked around. Then Pikachu's eyes landed on the pokemon whose voice belonged to, standing a few meters away from the three Kaloseon pokemon in what appeared to be a doorway-a cave-way?

His eyes widened even further-nope, shouldn't have done that, the headache was coming back now-as he saw the owner of the voice. "Pidgeot?!"

Pidgeot-Ash's Pidgeot, his teammate Pidgeot, the same Pidgeot he hadn't seen in years Pidgeot-carefully stepped over to where Pikachu lay next to the smeargle and gently nuzzled Pikachu with her beak. "Hello, Pikachu. It's been a long time."

Pikachu was stunned for a moment before nuzzling back affectionately. "Hi, Pidgeot." He giggled slightly. "It has been a long time, hasn't it?"

Pidgeot nodded, amusement twinkling in her eyes as her voice put on a teasing tone. "I see you're still as cute as ever." She nudged him slightly with her talons, careful not to poke the small mouse too hard. "And I also see that you've lost some weight."

Pikachu's face turned a scarlet red as he heard a few snorts of barely contained laughter from the corner of the room. Most likely from Talonflame, no doubt. "W-well..." His ears flattened as puffed his cheeks. "Pidgeot..." He whined.

Pidgeot gave a warm laugh as she nuzzled Pikachu's head with her beak, ruffling up his fur and causing him to bristle slightly with annoyance. "It really is nice to see you again, Pikachu."

"Yeah..."
Pikachu muttered, his face still red with embarrassment. With Pidgeot's help, he managed to sit up, fully looking around the strange cave and realizing that the smeargle and the Kaloseon pokemon were staring at the entire interaction. Why, oh, why did Pidgeot have to embarrass Pikachu so badly on their first meeting after, what, almost four years, now? Pikachu mentally shook his head. He already knew the answer to that. This was how Pidgeot acted towards her teammates back in Kanto and it was something that he and the others have come to accept. It was just part of her personality, and over time, it was something that they came to love about her. Her affectionate personality, that is. "So, uh..." He averted his gaze from the Kaloseon pokemon and instead decided to glance at the smeargle, who, for the most part, was minding his own business. "Where exactly am I, anyway?"

Pidgeot perked up straight as she replied, "See, that's a bit of a long story..." She glanced at the smeargle, then at Hawlucha, Talonflame, and Noivern. "But perhaps we should introduce ourselves first?"

"Oh..."
Pikachu muttered, adjusting his sitting position before pointing his paw at the group, ready to introduce them, when he stopped suddenly, realizing something. "Wait...where's Meowth?"

At that, oddly enough, Talonflame burst into laughter. Pikachu looked at him oddly while Noivern and Hawlucha remained indifferent, though the former looked mildly annoyed-most likely due to Talonflame's insulting of his "Papa" earlier. "Oh, Arceus..." Talonflame chortled. "It was hilarious. You know the butterfree with the hideous yellow scarf? See, the second that guy saw Meowth and got a rundown of the whole situation, h-he..." Talonflame was unable to finish his statement as he continued cackling with laughter.

Pidgeot looked a mixture of both disturbed and concerned. She looked at Pikachu. "Is he...well?"

Pikachu waved a paw, his ears flicked back. "You get used to it. Anyway..." He frowned, then did a double-take as Talonflame's words sunk in. "Wait, Butterfree's here?!"

Pidgeot smiled slightly at the mouse's eager excitement. "We seem to be skipping from one subject to another, don't we?" She chuckled to herself before answering Pikachu's question. "Yes, Butterfree is here. I'll explain in a bit, but for now..." She looked around expectantly. "I believe introductions are in order?"

Pikachu touched his paws together awkwardly. "Oh." He pointed towards the Kaloseon birds. "Guys," He pointed back towards Pidgeot. "This is Pidgeot. Specifically, Ash's pidgeot. I've told you about her, remember? Ash released her a few years ago in Viridian Forest back in Kanto so she could protect her flock from a fearow. Pidgeot, this is Talonflame, Hawlucha, and Noivern; the pokemon Ash caught in Kalos."

Hawlucha puffed out his chest proudly before going up to Pidgeot and bowing. "Hello, Lady Pidgeot." He held out a claw as he bowed, offering to take her talons in his own. Pidgeot awkwardly accepted and watched with a bewildered expression as Hawlucha lightly pecked her talons before letting go of them. "I have heard many great things about you from Pikachu."

Pidgeot blinked. "Ah. Is that so?" She set her talon down back on the ground. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you-?"

"I have three rules."
Hawlucha interrupted boldly. Pikachu couldn't help but smile slightly as he heard Noivern squeal in adoration. Talonflame simply grumbled under his breath with annoyance. They already knew what was coming. "Rule One: always be honorable. Rule Two: always attempt to look your best. And Rule Three-" He bowed, a slight smirk plastered on his face. "Always be kind to a lady."

"I see,"
Pidgeot replied with uncertainty in her voice. She turned to Noivern. "What about you, darling?"

Noivern stiffened slightly, before stammering out, "Um...nice to meet you, Miss, um Pidgeot..." He bowed his head before glancing at Hawlucha, who gave him a reassuring nod. Noivern smiled slightly before saying, "I'm from Kalos, and, um, this is Papa!" He pointed at Hawlucha with a claw, who nodded in reply, touched by the excited gesture.

Pidgeot cooed slightly. "Aw...nice to meet you too, child."

Talonflame ruffled his feathers and chirped angrily. "Well, you damn better not forget about me!" When everyone turned to him, he ruffled up his feathers again then huffed. "Thank you. Anyway, I'm Talonflame. I'm great. We're done. Thank you." He posed triumphantly before blinking and looking around expectantly. "Why didn't I get hit by-" He deflated suddenly, becoming very quiet all of a sudden. "Oh."

Pidgeot's eyes softened with concern, recognizing a hint of pain and longing in Talonflame's voice, though, at Pikachu's inaudible urging, she remained silent. Whatever the fire/flying type was upset about was his business, though Pikachu knew what it was; Noivern and Hawlucha did too, apparently, if the sympathetic expressions they suddenly held were anything to go by.

An awkward silence lingered in the air for a moment before the smeargle cleared his throat. "I believe I have not introduced myself yet. I'm Smeargle, one of the prominent fighters working for Pidgeot and Butterfree."

Pikachu's ears perked. "Fighter? Wait, is this the reason why you and Butterfree are...here wherever here is-instead of Viridian and wherever Butterfree went? Are you guys fighting someone?"

Pidgeot's expression sobered as she went into business. "I guess I should start from the beginning. After Ash released me, Fearow became my nemesis; and I became his. We fought on an almost daily basis, becoming stronger and stronger with each passing day. Ash had come back for me, just as he had promised, but with some help from Pikachu-" Here, Pikachu nodded, as if knowing what the flying type was about to say. "I was able to explain to Ash that I still needed to stay in the forest. That was the last time I had seen him or Pikachu, unfortunately..." She trailed off before sending a bittersweet smile towards Pikachu. "Until now, that is. Anyway, Fearow didn't break from the status quo of regular attacks to take down my flock until a year ago: one day, he just didn't attack."

Hawlucha frowned. "How peculiar."

"That's what I thought, too."
Pidgeot agreed before continuing. "With the help of some forest pokemon, I found out that Fearow was heading towards the ocean. I was suspicious. After all, he wasn't one to just give up like that-he had grown over the time we fought each other. He had become more cold and calculating; more dangerous and malicious...while the pokemon of Viridian was now completely safe from him, there was no guarantee that any other pokemon would as well." She took a deep breath. "So, I went after him. My flock wanted to come with me, so I allowed them. It was their choice, after all, though I was initially against it..."

She shook her head as if trying to shrug off certain thoughts. "We followed Fearow over the ocean, with the help of some water pokemon that had seen the direction he had went towards. He didn't seem to be trying to hide his tracks very hard, in all honesty; most likely because he didn't suspect we'd follow. On the way, we had bumped into Butterfree, his mate, along with his flock. After explaining the situation, I found out that Butterfree and his flock had been attacked by Fearow moments before I met up with him."

Pikachu sharply inhaled. "Butterfree was attacked?!"

Pidgeot nodded. "Yes, and after exchanging some information on where Fearow was headed, Butterfree and his flock agreed to help us in our search to find out what Fearow was up the to-the fact that he had managed to take out Butterfree's flock by himself was a strong indication that he was up to no good. With some difficulty, we found an island, but there was a catch-the island was hidden."

Talonflame frowned. "Then how the hell did you find the island?"

"I'm getting to that. See, we didn't know the island was hidden because it wasn't hidden to
us. We later found out that it was only hidden to humans."

"Or at least, that's what we figured."
Smeargle interrupted. "Seems most logical at this point. Otherwise, humans would be all over this island with all the temples and such." He then grumbled something under his breath before smoothing out some of the furs on his tail.

"I didn't ask, but are we in a temple, right now?" Pikachu frowned, ignoring the thought at the back of his head that compared Smeargle to Ash's bulbasaur. He hoped that Smeargle didn't curse as much as Bulbasaur did...

Pidgeot nodded. "Right, darling. Anyway, we trailed Fearow and found that there were other pokemon on this island, some who lived in a few temples. We familiarized ourselves with some of the locals when about a day later, we found out that Fearow had taken over a temple and had convinced some pokemon on the island to 'join him'."

Smeargle sighed as he picked up on the story. "The thing is many pokemon that live here have a bad image of humans due to its hidden nature and the fact that the only thing they've had to go on about humans are tales about how dangerous they are. I wouldn't be surprised if Fearow had spun something with that damn silvery tongue of his to try and convince all the pokemon that they should help him in the fight against the human race."

The other pokemon gasped sharply at the revelation. "Hold up, 'fight against the human race'...is this pokemon even sane?!" Talonflame chirped.

"Wish I knew," Pidgeot replied solemnly. "In all honesty, I don't know where he got the idea from, but I did not that he was recruiting an army-and I needed to stop him. So, I decided to fight fire with fire. With the help of Butterfree, we convinced some other pokemon on this island that humans weren't bad and to not trust Fearow. Somewhere along the line, Fearow had gotten wind of our activities, no doubt from one of the forest pokemon on his side, and then..." Pidgeot let out a sigh. "Things just went downhill from there. To put it simply; we're in the middle of a war. A war with high stakes. I realize Fearow's plan is far-fetched, but ideas are dangerous. And the fact that Fearow's idea spread to so many pokemon so quickly is concerning. Imagine how bad it would be if he took his army to one of the regions?"

Pikachu shuddered, as did the others. The thought truly was terrifying.

Pidgeot shuffled her feet for a moment before continuing. "We've been going back and forth for a year now, and we were actually in battle earlier when..." she flinched slightly. "One of our combo attacks had hit a plane flying overhead and caused it to descend into the ocean..." She then shook her head. "We weren't able to get to it in time before it landed into the water, but that's when..."

"The plane floated out by itself, right?"
Pikachu finished.

Pidgeot nodded. "We had been in battle, so we weren't able to prevent it from crashing, and it was too close to Fearow's temple for me to risk sending anyone there..." she sighed tenderly. "Thank goodness we found you heading towards our turf...anyway, Butterfree had been leading a scouting party, to see if we could find anyone from the plane crash that might have survived or wandered into our turf, which was when he found you guys."

It was here when Talonflame had interrupted, trying to hold back his laughter. "Yeah, and when we explained what happened-with you collapsing and all-Meowth spoke up and the dumb cat said that it was his fault!" He cracked up. "The butterfree with the hideous scarf got so mad...he pulled a Gust so strong it smacked Meowth into a tree and broke it!"

"Broke what?"
Pikachu asked innocently.

"The tree!" Talonflame howled with laughter, causing everyone to stare at him. Smeargle, who hadn't said much overall rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath about 'kids', causing Pikachu to freak out slightly over the fact that the smeargle was similar to Bulbasaur.

Pikachu shook his head then gave Talonflame a sweet smile. "That's nice, Talonflame." He cocked his head and innocently closed his eyes, putting on the biggest smile he could. His dark and menacing tone starkly contrasted this persona, however... "Now, stop insulting Butterfree, or else I'll fry you to a crisp." He opened his eyes to see a wide-eyed and mildly terrified Talonflame backing away from him. "Got that?"

"Uh..."
Talonflame laughed nervously, eyes darting back and forth before slumping. "Right...sorry..."

Pikachu smiled a genuine smile this time. "That's better." He turned back to Pidgeot. "What?"

This time it was Pidgeot's turn to laugh. "You haven't changed much, have you Pikachu?"

"...seriously, what did I do?"


Noivern turned to Hawlucha. "Papa, Pikachu's scary..."

Hawlucha rubbed the dragon's wing comfortingly. "That is quite alright, Noivern. Pikachu is quite a...unique pokemon. He is usually a very kind pokemon." He hesitated before adding, "Except if you have angered him in some manner."

Noivern gulped as Talonflame laughed nervously, slight hysteria bearing his tone. Even after traveling throughout Kalos with Pikachu, it was very hard to fully understand the mouse. Basic knowledge about him at this point was to just give up on understanding him at all, which seemed to be the basic status quo for Ash's pokemon.

***

Ash was on the verge of completely freaking out. Which was rare for him, but after what had happened with Team Flare-just a few freaking days ago, his stress levels had been at an all-time high; and he was damned if he wasn't glad that he was on his way back to Pallet Town.

'But now I'm stuck in this stupid mess.' Ash thought miserably, letting out a sigh as he struggled against the binds holding him hostage.

"You know you're not going to get out, right?" Ash gritted his teeth at the voice who had spoken. Machamp. "It's better for you if you just give up now."

The pokemon, true to their word, had thrown him inside of a cell that itself was in a small cave. Quite literally, they had thrown him inside the cell before locking the door-why was there a cell inside a cave?-before standing guard. Ash quickly found out a few things. One: Scyther was not very talkative. Two: everyone on the plane had survived, thankfully. Three: he was separated from the other passengers, who were being detained in some other cave. And the fourth thing he figured out was that he was previously in a temple before being taken outside by Machamp and Scyther to his cell.

Not much, but until he found a way to get out of here...it was all he had.

Ash adjusted his position against the rock he was lying against. At least his captors were courteous enough to allow him to be able to sit up straight. "I never give up," Ash glared. "Never have, never will. So, unless you have something helpful to say, I'm going to keep struggling, thank you."

Scyther let out an amused chuckle, thought Machamp was the one to speak. "It's best if you give up now, Kid. Trust me, I know."

Ash ceased struggling for a moment, looking at Machamp curiously as he gritted his teeth. "And just what do you know? You're not the one being held hostage against his will."

"True," Machamp confessed. "But that isn't the only reason why you're struggling, is it? It's Pidgeot and the pikachu you're worried about."

Ash pursed his lips, Machamp's words taking him back for a moment. "Yeah." He replied after a moment. "You're using me as a hostage against my pidgeot for some reason-I don't even know what's going on-and Fearow is planning on killing Pikachu..." He shuddered at that last part.

'And no need to worry, because I'll make his death as slow and as agonizing as possible.'

Fearow's words rang throughout his mind like a gong, causing his stomach to boil in anger. As if that weren't enough to add to his worries, he had no clue where any of his pokemon were and these pokemon captured him so they would have some leverage over Pidgeot. But for what reason? And where was he, anyway?

Machamp bobbed his head side to side as if considering Ash's statement. "What's going on? Just an angry fearow with a huge grudge and an extra incentive to follow." Ash frowned. He could've sworn that for a moment the Machamp was implying something, but what? "Maybe you should look between the lines, Kid, and you'll find your answers."

Machamp was definitely implying something.

Ash let out a frustrated sigh. This conversation was going nowhere. And now he had to think about what the machamp was implying-or if Ash had just made that thought up. He scrutinized the large fighting type, hoping that he would gain some type of clue...but he was sorrily disappointed. The machamp had closed his eyes and turned away, exchanging a muttered conversation with Scyther. Ash was too far away to hear what they were saying, but maybe he could try and eavesdrop.

'Yeah, that'll do...' He grunted and silently tried to shuffle his way towards the two pokemon, inch by inch. He didn't want to come too close, or else he would be found out. 'I just need to find a way out of here and then wing it from there...' He gritted his teeth, his mind working into overdrive. 'Until then, I'm going to try and find out as much as I can about whatever the hell is going on.'

Here came a thought he never realized he would think before.

'Time to do some research.'
 
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Normally I wouldn't read an Ash Ketchum fic, because most of them you can append the letters T and R to the front. But you've been hyper active and talking a lot in the cliches thread. So let's do so to see what you're made of. :)

- Okay, I know you were advocating against being too gamey in fanfiction. But I think mallet jokes being a thing is being too animey.
- Woken, not waken, unless that was intentionally done to show Ash's manner of speech. In his thoughts.
- Well I see you're going the idiot hero route. Is admittedly a breath of fresh air compared to most Ash fics.
- Although, unclear when this is taking place, making it a bit jarring.
- Spacey flight attendants...
- I was wondering why you were capitalizing afro, and I find either doing so or not is used.
- Oh, a reason for being an idiot hero. I see...
- Using a real world place as a region name though? That is different at least.
- You capitalized co-pilot before but didn't now. Need to stay consistent.
- And speaking of capitalization, ugh. Knowing exactly how that meme of not capitalizing Pokemon names started, the kind of person who insisted on it, and how widespread it is pisses me off.
- Though on that note, going capital P Poke lowercase b ball is a new one.
- Given when this seems to take place, Ash seriously thinking about why his Pokemon hates being in the ball seriously now of all times is a bit goofy
- Okay, definite confirmation. After Kalos, before Alola. I guess the lack of education is how he segues into school there.
- Wow. Dunking on Ash. Or him on himself.
- The Unova aside is a bit clunky.
- It's a bit weird that they single out Alola as having regional variants.
- Also thank you for not forcing "Galarish" even though it may only be because it was written before that was a thing. My number 3 peeve, forcing everything into a Pokemon world equivalent, behind Arceus as the judeo christian God, and catering to that person who insists Pokemon names are not to be capitalized.
- I get the feeling that even though you're writing an Ash fic, you have a very low opinion of him. Or at least enjoy making him the opposite of most Ash fics.
- Oh okay I stand corrected, Galar is a thing when this fic was written. Makes specifically mentioning Alola as regional variants a bit strange earlier though
- More inconsistent caps with Champion here
- I do like the 'we are just flight attendants' line. It actually feels like something you would see in the games.
- Guyana seems to be literally Guyana. Am surprised you gave it no league, though. Would like to see a South American region, with all to draw upon. Although, it could also be South Africa or another country on the continent. Inclined to think the latter though, given the description you give.
- A bunch of shoutouts to other canon regions before the persistent idiots show up.
- It occurs to me though, if Ash is this big an idiot in your fic, how dumb does Team Rocket have to be?
- More inconsistent caps with twerp.
- Okay with how smart Team Rocket actually are in this fic I refuse to believe they never would've caught Pikachu from idiot Ash at some point.
- Do like how you get Meowth's accent to text
- Again with the Unova air. I get it's probably parody, but it's a little much.
- Neat shoutout to how adults can't hear frequencies as high pitched as kids
- Good to see everyone around Ash not being useless for once.
- It's odd to use a fanon term like TRio in a fic.
- Well that situation escalated quickly and perhaps not randomly? Perhaps this was planned all along by some sinister force!
- Blackout is the lights going out. When it's lights out, that's a black out.
- And ending on a mystery voice.

Just the first chapter for now because it is late and I probably should be getting to sleep soon. Hell I pushed through just to read this. So I do like the concept behind this, if it's one that's going to continue. It's a creative way of expositing the world without it really feeling like an info dump. It also does a decent job of introducing your version of Ash's character. That all said, one thing I have to say I'm uncertain about is your style.

Everyone has their own when writing fics, and there's nothing wrong with it. That said, I felt this was a bit too in-jokey at times, with all the making fun of Ash and Team Rocket's canon selves in the first chapter. Like it's one thing to make a joke like that, it's another to do it so repeatedly it makes me wonder if you're writing this specifically to parody all that. Again, that anime malletspace thing was also a bit jarring, though it appears to be an isiolated thing.

You do have me interested, however - again, this is very different from most Ash fics, even given the above. So I'll keep on reading when I can, when it's not close to five in the morning.
 
Thanks for reviewing! I really appreciate it. :bulbaLove:

- Okay, I know you were advocating against being too gamey in fanfiction. But I think mallet jokes being a thing is being too animey.
Damn, I knew I should've left that out...in all honesty, it really was going to be a stand alone thing that never would have been brought up again, but I see your point. I'll make sure I don't add anything else like that in the future.

- Using a real world place as a region name though? That is different at least.
Like author, like protagonist...yeah, like a complete IDIOT, I forgot Guyana was an actual place. In real life. In all honesty, I took "Guyana" from Bulbapedia and assumed it was a made-up place...yeah, I'm not going to go further into the story, but...yeah...
I did like what I did with that, though, so I wrote in a few other locations in my story notes.

- And speaking of capitalization, ugh. Knowing exactly how that meme of not capitalizing Pokemon names started, the kind of person who insisted on it, and how widespread it is pisses me off.
Are you referring to Farla? I honestly don't know what to think of her, considering I haven't seen much of her reviews-and they for the most part seemed relatively tame-but she "kind of" complimented me...? I don't know. She started off her review by calling my fic weird and surreal by quoting the last words in my first chapter...and then ended it off with calling my story novel and saying that she was interested until the end before adding my story to her "decent" collection of stories...yeah, you can probably guess why I'm a little lost.
That being said, I don't capitalize pokemon when referring to the species is because I treat them as actual creatures in story...and since I practically live in my own stories...yeah, I won't go into why I made that decision, but it just feels right to me. There's too much controversy over it, and that basically sends me a message that I'm allowed to do whatever I want with it: I might get ire from either side, so...
Sorry if that bothers you though-I just feel more comfortable with that.

- Also thank you for not forcing "Galarish" even though it may only be because it was written before that was a thing. My number 3 peeve, forcing everything into a Pokemon world equivalent, behind Arceus as the judeo christian God, and catering to that person who insists Pokemon names are not to be capitalized.
..."Galarish"...? Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by that. When you say "written before that was a thing" that means chronologically, Galar did not exist before Ash went to Alola, correct? Well, since this story is trying to make this world come to life in a way, I'm not cutting Galar out of the picture: especially since I've included all these spin-off regions. Plus, pretending Galar doesn't exist just because in canon the characters did too is a bit silly. :LOL:

- I get the feeling that even though you're writing an Ash fic, you have a very low opinion of him. Or at least enjoy making him the opposite of most Ash fics.
The second one, actually. XD I used to have a low opinion of him, but a few well-thought out social media posts changed my mind completely. Plus, actually analyzing his character myself made me dislike how fanon portrays him, so I went a different route.

- Guyana seems to be literally Guyana. Am surprised you gave it no league, though. Would like to see a South American region, with all to draw upon. Although, it could also be South Africa or another country on the continent. Inclined to think the latter though, given the description you give.
I don't know why, but...when you said "Guyana seems to be literally Guyana." I started laughing. :LOL:

- Okay with how smart Team Rocket actually are in this fic I refuse to believe they never would've caught Pikachu from idiot Ash at some point.
Did I really make them smart? I assume you're referring to the whole complicated plan of "high frequencies to get Pikachu unconscious" thing, right? Also, lol, you described him as "idiot Ash" XD

- Again with the Unova air. I get it's probably parody, but it's a little much.
Yeah...three times in one chapter is a bit much, huh...I'll make sure to keep that to a minimal. Or, maybe not mention it again.

- Well that situation escalated quickly and perhaps not randomly? Perhaps this was planned all along by some sinister force!
You'll see. ;)

Everyone has their own when writing fics, and there's nothing wrong with it. That said, I felt this was a bit too in-jokey at times, with all the making fun of Ash and Team Rocket's canon selves in the first chapter. Like it's one thing to make a joke like that, it's another to do it so repeatedly it makes me wonder if you're writing this specifically to parody all that. Again, that anime malletspace thing was also a bit jarring, though it appears to be an isiolated thing.
Hm...didn't really intend to do that, honestly. But was the confrontation scene with Team Rocket funny, at least? I put those other jokes in because I was worried the chapter would be deemed boring if I didn't make it entertaining somewhat-though, I hear many praises about my exposition being well done, so I guess I was worrying for no reason...-but the confrontation scene was basically a taste of what most of the humor would be like in this story.

You do have me interested, however - again, this is very different from most Ash fics, even given the above. So I'll keep on reading when I can, when it's not close to five in the morning.
I'm glad you're interested! And thank you for your review, it gives me a lot to think about and improve on. And, yeah, reading at nearly five in the morning is not a good idea...neither is writing, for that matter. *Shudders*

Thank you so much!
 
Like author, like protagonist...yeah, like a complete IDIOT, I forgot Guyana was an actual place. In real life. In all honesty, I took "Guyana" from Bulbapedia and assumed it was a made-up place...yeah, I'm not going to go further into the story, but...yeah...
I did like what I did with that, though, so I wrote in a few other locations in my story notes.
Yeah, it's very much a real world location. I think Let's Go wrote it out though. Arguably for the worse.

Are you referring to Farla? I honestly don't know what to think of her, considering I haven't seen much of her reviews-and they for the most part seemed relatively tame-but she "kind of" complimented me...? I don't know. She started off her review by calling my fic weird and surreal by quoting the last words in my first chapter...and then ended it off with calling my story novel and saying that she was interested until the end before adding my story to her "decent" collection of stories...yeah, you can probably guess why I'm a little lost.
Yeah. She is extremely infamous for that, is a huge jerk about it despite caps being canon, and yet it's caught on anyway. Maybe because yelling enough made it stick. Fair enough if you have your own reasons for doing so independent, however. It's common enough that I don't care, but I take every opportunity to dunk on that. Including in-universe in chapter 1 of all of my own fics. :p

..."Galarish"...? Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by that.
Well English from England, and there's been a trend in making everything its Pokemon world counterpart, even though English is used in the games itself. Hence, some go Galarish, raising many questions as to what one would do if dealing with German, Spanish, Chinese, Swedish, Russian, etc.

When you say "written before that was a thing" that means chronologically, Galar did not exist before Ash went to Alola, correct? Well, since this story is trying to make this world come to life in a way, I'm not cutting Galar out of the picture: especially since I've included all these spin-off regions. Plus, pretending Galar doesn't exist just because in canon the characters did too is a bit silly. :LOL:
No, that's just because I make point form comments as I read through the fic. I was under the impression at that point that you wrote the fic before Gen 8, which wasn't the case later.

The second one, actually. XD I used to have a low opinion of him, but a few well-thought out social media posts changed my mind completely. Plus, actually analyzing his character myself made me dislike how fanon portrays him, so I went a different route.
Definitely liking it. I haven't read much myself since, you know, generally avoiding Ash fics. But I do know they tend to idealize him to the point of near perfection at times, even if it's early Ash. Which makes little sense.

Did I really make them smart? I assume you're referring to the whole complicated plan of "high frequencies to get Pikachu unconscious" thing, right?
Yeah, the complicated plan thing. On second thought, it seems more they're actually very book smart, but not street smart in any way.

Hm...didn't really intend to do that, honestly. But was the confrontation scene with Team Rocket funny, at least? I put those other jokes in because I was worried the chapter would be deemed boring if I didn't make it entertaining somewhat-though, I hear many praises about my exposition being well done, so I guess I was worrying for no reason...-but the confrontation scene was basically a taste of what most of the humor would be like in this story.
Mmm, not really funny. The other passengers actually confronting them and their subsequent reactions was amusing though. So it still accomplished your goal of making it entertaining.

I'm glad you're interested! And thank you for your review, it gives me a lot to think about and improve on. And, yeah, reading at nearly five in the morning is not a good idea...neither is writing, for that matter. *Shudders*

Thank you so much!
You're welcome! Although that said, I actually have done some of my best reading (and writing) late at night. Sometimes, being tired helps you focus, because as long as you're alert enough to actually function, mild tiredness can get rid of all of your distractions.

Speaking of, continuing on because I couldn't sleep due to incessent snoring, sat down on a chair, couldn't get into the groove of writing not at a table, and didn't want to get up from the chair.

- Classic idiot hero with zero sense of direction.
- What kind of crappy belt does this kid have that balls can just fall off
- The body glowing and suddenly not glowing skit reads a bit awkwardly.
- How does Ash know the island wasn't on any maps?
- OH MY GOD A TALKING POKEMON
- Do like as how you don't interpret Pokemon as super murderous to humans just from glancing at them. Even this. Also, rude Pokemon.
- Ash 'finally recognizing' Fearow comes across as a bit strange wording. Maybe change that to something else, as the bird just tells him who it is.
- Well, last thing I was expecting was this guy to show up out of nowhere and be an antagonist.
- Also does this guy not know type effectiveness?
- Glowing hands, sounds like aura is being triggered.
- Is there supposed to be a consistency with capitalizing human or not?
- Noivern's still a child? Guess it makes sense. Still a bit awkward being fully evolved and still being one, but that's probably the anime's fault, not yours.
- Neat giving Pokemon talk an official name to them.
- Oh hey it's not dead after all. Which was just a myth to begin with, I believe.
- Interesting touch making Ash's Pidgeot a motherly female type. Although one random thing, I feel greeting with 'hello' instead of 'hi' would help that more.
- Shoutouts to formerly fat Pikachu?
- Well I've heard of bringing Ash's old friends back, but his Pokemon being back is unique. Shame Primeape probably won't be making an appearance, but maybe I'll be proven wrong!
- Ah, magical human proofing. Or whatever.
- This Fearow seems to have big balls and little brains. I'll roll with it though. Just seems funny that this bird's master plan to kill everyone is to form a cult of personality on a small island and expect everyone on the mainland to go along with it. Since from the seems of it, it only spread here because of the culture.
- Like you give a small explanation later, but I'd like to think that they'd be struck down out of the gates. Let alone that much stronger Pokemon would put up with it.
- I do wonder how Ash is going to do research in the inside of a jail cell.

Kickstarting the plot proper off! I was not expecting it to take this sort of turn. First chapter gave no hint about it. This was another exposition dump, but one that's probably for the better even if it hurts the chapter itself. Can see the logic in getting everything out of the way so you can get down to it instead of having to constantly pause and exposit new things along the way. That said, this bird's plan is so stupid that it's the reason the term birdbrain was invented, although you can't underestimate a sociopath no matter what. As real world and cult leaders can prove. Am interested in seeing where it's going to go given that.

(Not a criticism at your writing, by the way. I'm sure it's going to end up a threat somehow, although I do admittedly have to suspend my disbelief a bit at this point to take the birdbrain seriously. Or maybe I'll be totally right and it'll just turn out to be a dud and/or biting off more than it can chew!)
 
Thanks for reviewing chapter two!

- How does Ash know the island wasn't on any maps?
He made that assumption because otherwise the captain would've said something about there being land nearby. In the previous chapter, its mentioned that the plane was flying directly above water, and in the statement that Ash deduced he was on an uncharted island, its said that that was the reason why. Idiot hero with some level of smarts basically-just nothing related to books.

- Ash 'finally recognizing' Fearow comes across as a bit strange wording. Maybe change that to something else, as the bird just tells him who it is.
Ah. I'll make sure to fix that...re-reading it, I can see how it is strange wording...

- Also does this guy not know type effectiveness?
Lol. Flying vs Electric doesn't really make a great match-up, huh.

- Noivern's still a child? Guess it makes sense. Still a bit awkward being fully evolved and still being one, but that's probably the anime's fault, not yours.
Remember that super old treeko from the Advanced Generation series? It was older than Ash's Sceptile, yet isn't a sceptile itself. That's where I got the general conclusion that evolution doesn't really account to age. I'm planning on elaborating on it a bit more, as I'm experimenting with the pokemon systems. Like, I'm trying to come up with a logical explanation as to why certain types have advantages over other types, why pokemon can supposedly only learn four moves, and why pokemon that are caught by trainers near paths are incredibly willing to go with them despite being in battle recently(an example would be Ash's unfezant). So far, I have managed to come up with logical explanations for all three of those factors and have put them aside in my story notes to use for later.

- Neat giving Pokemon talk an official name to them.
Thank you! ;)
If you're curious, Syllabus is derived from the word "syllable" which is a slight nod as to how the pokemon language more or less revolves around syllables and sound. I got this specifically from Pikachu's language, like how "pi-pi-pi" is "to-ge-pi". And the fact that there are different versions of it comes from how there are different languages for each region-but majority of the world speaks English, which is why most pokemon can understand each other in a similar parallel-they mostly speak the same version of Syllabus, just like most of the world speaks English.

- Oh hey it's not dead after all. Which was just a myth to begin with, I believe.
I'm confused as to what you're talking about. What was a myth?

- Interesting touch making Ash's Pidgeot a motherly female type. Although one random thing, I feel greeting with 'hello' instead of 'hi' would help that more.
I'll fix that too, thank you. In hindsight, that makes a lot more sense than simply "hi".

- This Fearow seems to have big balls and little brains. I'll roll with it though. Just seems funny that this bird's master plan to kill everyone is to form a cult of personality on a small island and expect everyone on the mainland to go along with it. Since from the seems of it, it only spread here because of the culture.
That's the idea. ;)

Kickstarting the plot proper off! I was not expecting it to take this sort of turn. First chapter gave no hint about it. This was another exposition dump, but one that's probably for the better even if it hurts the chapter itself. Can see the logic in getting everything out of the way so you can get down to it instead of having to constantly pause and exposit new things along the way.
Ah, damn. I'll try to slow things down, but this is just the first part of the story and I don't want anyone to grow impatient as to when the plot will actually start-if you read the summary above...you know what, screw that. This will probably be a super long story, I'll take my time as to not exposition too much, but it's hard trying to pace it evenly since there's so much to my plot.

Anyway, thanks for reading/reviewing chapter two! I'm still trying to figure out how to start chapter three, and since the first chapter took about two weeks to get down one draft, this'll probably take quite a while...
 
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