Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’m leaving”

It were those simple words that had startled everyone in the Pokemon School. Maybe it might have just been due to the fact that they had known Ash for so long. Maybe it was because of all the battles they had done. Maybe it was because they just didn’t want him to leave. Yet here it was, the two dreaded words. It wasn’t very hard to guess that he was leaving. After all, he had placed second in the Pokemon League. They had just finished there volunteer work to repair the stadium after the Team Skull attack. There wasn’t anything else left to do for him there.

And yet, it still surprised them. The first thing that happened was a little bit of crying. After all, they had been friends for an entire year. Then the next step was the goodbyes. And there were many, many goodbyes. He said goodbye to his friends, as well as people he had met. The only other person he had left to say goodbye to was Professor Kukui. Why was it harder to say goodbye to him than his friends?

He considered Kukui to be his dad. He hadn’t had one since he was three. His biological dad had left to go on a journey, and never returned. Now that he thought of it, that was probably why his mom had cried so much when he left for his first journey. He probably reminded her of him. However, he proved he was nothing like his dad. He always came back home whenever a journey was done. He would always stay a week in his home region, and sometimes even longer. He would meet up with his friends from Kanto as well. He would meet up with his Pokemon, then drop off his new ones. Professor Oak would probably suggest a region, and he would be off. Noted, he probably should do some research into the region before going in blind, but maybe that was the fun part about it.

After waving a goodbye and a promise to meet again, he started the walk back to the lone house on the beach. The house he had called home for a year. Due to the fact that this journey was almost over, he called all his pokemon out to follow him. He wanted to enjoy this journey till the very end. Behind him was Rotom-dex, Lycanroc, Rowlet, Meltan, Incineroar, and his trusty Pikachu, whom had jumped onto his shoulder. During the Team Skull attack, his Torracat had evolved fighting Guzma’s Golisopod. They passed by some town foak as they walked, who waved at the team. Despite how much he was dreading it, he continued walking.

Eventually, they saw the pale yellow sand of the beach. It was about 3:00 pm, so they didn’t have any problem seeing there way back. As they all stepped onto the sandy beach, they noticed that Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet, who were standing next to each other, smiling, and waved to them, not seeming to care that small waves were lapping at their feet.

Seeing them, he ran towards them, his pokemon following behind. Once he got to them, he gave both a hug, trying to find a way to tell them.

What he hadn’t realized was that they already knew. Although they wouldn’t tell Ash, Rotom had actually called them to tell them about it. Apparently it had been pretty upset over Ash leaving as well. They were happy it did, in which they were given time to do their own crying while Ash had gone around the island to say his goodbyes. However, it didn’t stop them from crying still. So they enjoyed the hug the longest they could.

“Kukui… Burnet.. I have something to say… but it seems you already know what i’m going to say..” Ash said, sniffling a little. Burnet and Kukui nodded, and they stopped hugging. Kukui beckoned for the both of them, as well as the pokemon, to follow him inside.

Ash opened up the door, and went to turn on the light. It was almost pitch dark in the house, not including the light coming off of the fish tank, which had still made it hard to see. As the light had turned on, a burst of noise appeared seemingly from nowhere. It only took a single look around to understand what was happening. He saw basically everyone he had met and became acquaintances with throughout his ‘journey’. Now that he thought of it, it wasn't really a journey, more like multiple field trips. He didn’t care all that much though. What he did care about though was that so many people came to this surprise party. He felt some happy tears coming on, but he managed to suppress them as he went to go ‘party’.

He had gone down into the basement of the house to try and get away from all the noise. Trust him, he enjoyed being by friends and family. However, when your at a party that is for you, you get a headache pretty quickly from all those talking to you. Pikachu, Rotom-dex, as well as Rowlett had come down with him as well to keep him company. Where the rest of his pokemon went, he didn’t know. Meltan usually didn’t stray far from Rowlett, so he knew it was nearby, and he was pretty sure Incineroar was catching up with the old lady who worked the fruit stand. He didn’t know where Lycanroc was, so he was a little worried about that, but he trusted in Lycanroc to not completely disappear on him with no warning.

While he was deep in his thoughts, he failed to notice a certain blond haired girl come down the steps of the basement.

“Hey Ash… can I ask you something..?” Lillie asked. Nervousness could be heard on her voice if that was possible. Ever since Ash had told everyone he was leaving, she had had this question in her head all day. To be frank, she had no idea what she was going to do with her life. She could work with her mom, but she knew that wasn't her sort of thing. Trust her, it’s not that she didn’t like her mom. It was more like it wasn't her line of work. She wanted to go out and explore, not stay inside a building all day. Maybe these thoughts came with her recent determination to become more of a non shy person. Who knew.

“Sure!” Ash said. If he was going to be honest, Lillie had actually given him quite a scare, even if she hadn’t realised it. He would never admit it though.

“Well uh.. I've been thinking about a lot of things recently.. I have learned so much about myself because of you. But that's not the question, though. I was wondering if I could travel with you to whichever region you head to next..” She said, almost about to start a ramble session when she saw Ash nod, and even smile.

“Yea! The more friends the better! I would have asked if you wanted to come with, but I thought it would be rude to ask you to leave your home and whatnot..” He stated. What he had said wasn’t a lie. He really wanted at least one of his friends to come with, but he thought it would be rude to ask them to forget about their entire lives that they had known just to go pack up and head to a different region with him. So he just resorted to not asking anybody.

Not even a second later, he heard somebody else come downstairs. Looking over Lillie’s shoulder, he saw it was actually Kukui who had come down.

“There you are Ash! People have been asking where you have been. They said you just suddenly disappeared on them.” he said.

“Well I came down to escape the noise, in which it was giving me a small headache. Then Lilly came down and asked me if she could come with me to the next region I go to, which I said yes to.” Ash said, basically summarizing everything that had happened in the past five minutes into a small two sentence explanation.

“Why am I not surprised? Also Ash, I was wondering something. You are taking your pokemon with you, correct?” He asked. Once he saw Ash nod, he continued on.”Well, I was wondering if you could actually take Rotom with you. I know its alot to ask. I already have three Rotom terrorizing this basement, and it seems that Rotom liked you enough to stay throughout your entire adventure,” he said. What he said wasn't true. Whenever Lycanroc had been a Rockruff, the four Rotom enjoyed terrorizing the poor guy whenever he slept too close to there ceiling light. Why they liked that light so much, he didn’t know. The group had been sad whenever one of their own had left, but they continued on, terrorizing the local pokemon instead once Rockruff had left to join Ash. He saw Ash nod, with a small hint of a smile. Probably happy to have another friend come along beside Lillie. Speaking of Rotom, he looked over Ash’s shoulder in search of the pokemon. What he saw, if he was going to be honest, spooked him. All four Rotom where in a small circle communicating, mischievous smiles were on the faces of all four. That probably wasn’t a good thing. Noticing Kukui’s stare, Rotom waved goodbye to its friends with its plasma ‘arms’. It flew over to the group, and the other Rotom returned to their favorite ceiling light, leaving a few sparks behind. The Pokedex was also left on a bench nearby the light, in which it would be no use going to a new region.

“I'm assuming you wanted to head back to Kanto first, so I already got you a ticket. You'll have to get another ticket for Lillie now that she is going when you get to the airport.” Kukui said.

That’s exactly what they had done. One moment they were at the party, the next there at the airport, waving goodbye to those who had come with. They had found the three ‘missing’ pokemon. Meltan had been attempting to get to a frying pan that was hung up. Incineroar had been with the old lady, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Lycanroc had actually been battling Kiawe’s Marowak on its own for a parting gift. Well, parting battle.

They boarded the plane, taking two seats near the back. Lillie sat next to the window, Ash in the middle. Due to it not being a sold out flight, nobody ended up sitting in the seat closest to the walkway, aka the outer seat. Pikachu laid in Ash’s lap, and Rotom levitated in between the outer seat and Lillie’s seat. Their carry on had been put in the compartments up above.

Next thing they knew it, they were taking off, their destination being Kanto.

Chapter Text

Did he ever mention how much he hates being on airplanes? Airplanes were the ‘Lords of Sickness’ as he liked to say. Ash had only been on the plane for about 6 hours out of 10, and he was already sick. Surprisingly, Kanto wasn’t that far away from Alola, hence the ‘short’ flytime. Don’t get him wrong, it was still a long flight, but it was a lot better than he thought it would be.

Then there was the hour-long turbulence they had hit. It wasn’t just a five minute stretch of turbulence, it was an entire hour. He had no idea how the others could sleep through it. He was very tempted to relieve his stomach into the airplane toilet, but decided against it, in which he would have to get up and walk through the aisle to get there. He also realized that the flight attendants must have heads of steel to not get sick on these planes, especially since they did this every day.

His inner rambles went on longer than he thought they would in which one moment he was debating on going to the bathroom to relieve his stomach, and then he can suddenly see the Kanto region below. There suddenly flying over the region, heading towards the airport. He sees the Cinnabar Volcano as well as towns.

The plane starts descending and sadly starts going into a turn. Because of this, he immediately looks at the seat in front of him instead of the window. After they stop turning, and the runway was in sight, he turned towards Lillie and tapped on her shoulder. She started to stir, so he moved onto Rotom, who had eventually decided to sleep on the empty seat. Not knowing if it hurts to touch plasma, he decided to poke it with one of the magazines they had bought before going on the flight. Once Rotom woke up, he proceeded to tap Pikachu who was on his lap. By the time everyone had woken up, the plane had touched down onto the runway.

Once the plane slowed down, it turned to one of the paths, and eventually to one of the gates.

Once the plane made a complete stop, they stood up to get their carry on out of the upper compartments. After checking their seats to make sure they had grabbed everything, as well as checking the upper compartments, they started walking through the aisle with the other people to get out of the plane. Once they had gotten out of the plane, as well as the gate, they did a second check to make sure they had everything. Lillie sent out Snowy, so she didn’t have to worry about any left behind pokeballs. Ash checked his own pokeballs, seeing that all of his Pokemon were there, with Pikachu on his shoulder and Rotom not far behind him.

They each bought themselves a snack to eat as they left the airport. Thankfully, the airport wasn’t that far away from Pallet Town, so they didn’t have to travel so far. Noted, they had to battle a Pidgey or two who must have been having a bad day or something. However, a Thunderbolt from Pikachu and a Powder Snow from Snowy got them to leave.

Eventually, they got to the ‘entrance’ of the small town. It was more like a village, but they didn’t really question that. Seeing Ash’s house not too far away, they decided to run the rest of the distance. Ash did trip during the run, but that wasn’t very important, according to Ash. Panting as well as a little bit of sweating, Ash knocked on the door. Hearing no reply, he opened the door and entered, Lillie, Rotom, and Snowy following behind. He heard a little shuffling in the living room which worried him.

“Mom! Are you here?” He called out. Hearing no reply, he went into the living room and flipped on the light. There he saw almost all who he has traveled with throughout his journey. By the “Surprises!” he heard, he assumed this was a surprise party. If he was going to be honest, he was a little spooked in which he had assumed something had gotten into the house.

Looking around the room, he saw Misty, Brock, Tracey, Max, Iris, Cilan, Bonnie, Clemont, as well as his mother and Professor Oak. So that meant not every one of his traveling companions were there, but most of them were there.

“Hi guys! What are all of you guys doing here?” Ash asked. He had known that his mother and Professor Oak would be there, but definitely not most of his friends. After all, they would have had to fly here, and they had lives of their own. That didn’t mean he wasn’t happy they were here.

“We had heard that you had finished your journey, and you were heading home. We wanted to meet you here when you got here.” Clemont explained. Unsurprisingly, Bonnie was right next to her big brother.

“You guys really didn’t have to…” Ash trailed off. Lillie shuffled by his side. Realizing none of them knew her, and vice versa, he introduced her. “Everyone, this is Lillie. Lillie, this is Brock, Misty, Iris, Cillian, Tracey, Bonnie, Clemont, Mom, and finally Profesor Oak.” He said, pointing to each person respectfully. She nodded, a little overwhelmed, but overall alright.

They then proceeded to talk to the others, catching up with them. Turns out Dawn and May weren’t there in which they had gone on a journey of their own to compete in Contests in Kalos. He also learned that Max and Bonnie had gotten there trainer’s license and were traveling around Kalos under Clemont's supervision. Clembot is currently taking over the gym until Clemont’s return. Bonnie had her Dedenne and chose not to get one of the regional starters. She did, however, catch a red flower Flabébé. Max, however, chose a regional starter from the Kalos region. He had chosen a Froakie, and he also had May’s Munchlax who had joined his team before May left for her journey with Dawn. All four Pokemon were let out of there pokeballs to meet everyone.

After a few hours of catching up, Ash suggested they go to Professor Oak’s lab so he could see his Pokemon as well as show them his new ones. Once they got there, he sent out his Pokemon and introduced each one.
“Everyone, say hello to Meltan, Lycanroc, Rowlett, as well as Incineroar.” He said, pointing at each Pokemon as their respective name was said. Meltan had immediately gone over to Rowlet. Bonnie and Max, excited to see the new Pokemon they have never seen before, went over to say ‘Hi’.

Lillie, deciding now was a good time to introduce Snowy.

“Hey everyone, this is Snowy. She is an Alolan Vulpix from the Alola Region.” She said, putting Snowy on the ground. Snowy proceeded to walk towards Bonnie’s Dedenne. They immediately ‘talking’ to each other. Ash was about to introduce Rotom, but he didn’t see it anywhere.

“We also had a Rotom who was going to travel with us to the next region… However, I don't actually know where it went.” Professor Oak immediately stiffened. Call it a sixth sense or not, he ‘sensed’ that he might know where the Rotom had gone. His theory was confirmed when a part of the lab’s roof was blasted off with electricity following afterward. Two little orange shapes came out of the hole in the roof. He swore he could hear their laughter from here.

“Excuse me, I have a few pranksters I have to deal with.” Professor Oak then proceeded to run off, leaving a group of ‘sweat dropping’ people behind

Ash then proceed to see his Pokemon from previous regions, meeting up with them and playing with them. He then dropped off his Pokemon from the Alola region, letting them out of their pokeballs. He put their pokeballs on Professor Oak’s lab counter.

The group finished their mini party and said bye to each other. Bonnie, Max, as well as Clemont where the first to head off. Next were Iris and Cillian, and finally, Misty, Brock left. Tracey worked at the Pokemon lab, so he stayed there while Ash and Lillie left to go back to Ash’s house.

When they got there, Delila had already set up a new backpack for him. Inside the backpack was a new pair of clothes, undergarments, as well as a Water Canister and some Poke-food in the side pockets of the new backpack. Deciding now was a good time, he changed into the new clothes. Closing the door to his room, he changed into them.

Once he was done changing, he opened the door to his room to show his mother what they looked like. His top was a light blue jacket like object, with a zipper running down the middle. He also wore pitch-black jeans. When they were at the party, Oak had suggested they go to a region known as the Galar Region, which was known for being pretty cold. How his mother had known exactly what clothing he needed, he didn’t know. Lillie had also changed into warmer clothes she had brought with her from Alola. Yes, Alola could get cold from time to time, however, it was rare. Didn’t mean she didn’t have warmer clothes just in case.

When she came out of Ash’s room, she wore a white under short, probably mid arm sleeve, with a light black jacket overtop it, which was unzipped. She also had her pink backpack on her back.

After giving one final hug to his mother, the group set off to the airport, Pikachu, Rotom, and Snowy following behind, seeming to be having a conversation. Turns out Rotom and its friend had been terrorizing a local Pidgey flock until Professor Oak had gotten them to stop.

Eventually, they got to the airport and got onto their flight with no trouble. Supposedly, it was going to be a smooth flight, which made Ash happy. This time, they took the seats closest to the plane bathroom in case if Ash got flight-sick.

After a few minutes, the plane started moving. It left the gate and went near the runway. Getting the ‘ok’ to go on the runway from the Control Tower, the plane moved onto said runway. After a few seconds, it started moving, picking up speed. Pulling up, it left the ground towards its cruising altitude. Destination: The Galar Region.

Chapter Text

Real quickly, I am not discounting this story. I just wanted to apologize for such the long wait for the next chapter. I have had zero motivation recently. Of you look into my account, you'll notice my Naruto story which I got like, 7 chapters into. The reason I got so far into it was due to the fact that id always type it up at school. Obviously, though, school hasn't started yet. Once school starts again, ill probably be able to write more often. Don't worry though, I'm already 300 words into the next chapter.

This next part is very important. As you know, I will be using Fakemon for this story. However there is something I need to clarify. Lets pretend I make a Fakemon that is the preform of Corviknight. Lets say that a month from now, they release the cannon preform of Corviknight. Assuming I've added the Fakemon into the story already, I will completely ignore the cannon pre form of Corvikingiht, cause I don't want to have to re write parts of my story.

Anyways, expect an update some time this month or next month. Also, thank you for all the support you guys have provided. I have never had a bookmark on my story before, so having THREE makes me over hyped with joy! I hope y'all will continue reading my story whenever its updated :)

Chapter Text

He had really thought he would make it the entire trip. He almost did, to be honest. However, the plane ride to Galar was significantly longer than the trip to Kanto. Thankfully, they were at the back of the plane by the bathrooms, so he didn’t have very much trouble. He had also thought the ride would be quiet like the past two. Sadly, two parents and their kid had sat on the other side of the isle. Said kid happened to like to cry, and had the tendency to be curious. He had nothing against kids being curious. He did have a problem though when the kid poked at the Snowy while she slept. Pikachu, Rotom, and Snowy had decided to sleep together on the same seat, which happened to be closest to the aisle. The kid also happened to be in the seat closest to the aisle on the other side.

Now, he knew it was probably a rude thing to think, but the kid deserved what happened next. Once the kid poked Snowy, they moved onto Pickachu. And finally, it went to poke Rotom. The only difference between Rotom and the other two Pokemon was that it was literally surrounded by plasma. So when the kid had poked it, their hand got zapped, and they proceeded to cry for the rest of the trip. Thankfully, the parents hadn’t acted obnoxious like he thought they would, so besides the crying kid, the rest of the flight had been relatively peaceful.

They eventually landed (Ash felt as if he had landed a hundred times by now), and got out of the plane. The airport they were in looked like every other airport they had been in the past month. Making sure they had everything and everyone they brought with, they walked around, trying to get to the exit. By walking, it was more like Ash speed walking, excited to see all the new Pokemon, and Lillie walking at a normal pace like everyone else in the airport. Seeing the exit, Ash forgot about walking and just full on ran out of the building. What he saw was rather different than what he expected.

Normally, airports were in populated places such as cities. It surprised him when he saw rolling fields and cozy country houses. What surprised him even more was that he saw little sheep like pokemon grazing in a field nearby. They reminded him of Mareep, however, from what he could see, the rest of its body besides it wool was a dark brownish color.

Lillie, who was behind Ash, was also amazed. She had never actually left the Alola region before, so going to the Kanto and Galar region was a lot, especially since it was all in about a week, which was even more surprising. She seemed to be alright though. Snowy was in the same boat, just hanging from Lillies arms like normal.

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After exploring the small town, they decided to walk to the pond in said town. It had a few small rivers following to it, so it wasn't so hard to find. Once they got there, they noticed the amount of fishers fishing. After all, it was a rather warm day, which must be good for fishing.

However, they wanted to find a more secluded place to relax. After all, they just got off of a 14 or something hour flight. Walking around the pond to the side of the pond with a forest, they entered through the bushes to a clearing. They had expected to sit in the clearing and relax, however, they saw something quite different. A flock of crow like Pokemon with bits of armor atop themselves were swarming over something. The birds looked to be about the size of a Pidgey. It also looked like there were around twenty of them. Usually, he would just walk away and find a different spot, however, he caught a glimpse of a small blue object underneath the mass of birds. Ash also noticed that the blue thing was shaking, and the crow like pokemon were pecking at it. Seeing the sheer amount of birds, he knew a simple thundershock wouldn't be able to get them all out and away from the blue object (Pokemon?), so he did the next best thing.

“Pikachu and Rotom, use Electro Ball” Ash called out. Noted, Rotom wasn’t his Pokemon, but it listened anyways. As both Pokemon performed the move, Lillie also ordered Snowy to perform a Powdered Snow on the bird Pokemon as well. Zapped and cold, the bird Pokemon flew off, letting out loud caws as they did so.

Ash didn’t care where those birds went, however, he did care about the Pokemon they left behind. It was a small blue salamander like pokemon. Atop its head was a little yellow fin, and it had dark blue spots near its eyes. It also had a light blue underbelly. The most alarming detail, however, was the scratches and bruises it had around its body. Not even waiting a second, Ash ran forward to the salamander like Pokemon and picked it up, and started running. He could faintly hear Lillie calling after him, but he just kept running, carcassing the small Pokemon in his grip.

When Lillie and Ash had been exploring the village, they had happened upon a small rather run down looking Pokemon center. They hadn't been surprised about its condition in which it probably didn’t get a lot of visitors, considering it was in such a small village.

Now, he was definitely happy that there even was a Pokemon center here. While running, he faintly noticed the fact that this is a lot like how he had met Froakie. The only difference being that this blue salamander had gotten attacked by a flock of bird Pokemon that he should probably learn the name of.

Running into the Pokemon center, he immediately ran the small Pokemon to the Nurse Joy of the Pokemon Center. Ignoring the look of an old lady sitting down near him, he handed over the injured Pokemon to the nurse so she could heal it.

Nurse Joy took the Pokemon, and with the help of her Chansey, she took it to the back room to help it.

Sitting down, actually tired from running across and entire village, he went to sit down next to the old lady in which it was the only seat available. The old lady gave him a curious yet suspicious look at him.

“Where did you get that Sobble from, and what happened to it?” the elderly lady asked. Ash, confused, answered wearily

“Well my friend and I went by the pond near here, and decided to take a break in the forest behind it. When we got there, we saw a group of bird pokemon attacking it.” He said. At Least know he knew the name of the pokemon. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he saw a panting Lillie entering the building. She looked around, eventually seeing him, she walked over. Seconds later, he felt Pikachu jump up onto his lap, probably tired from running so far.

The old lady, realising they were not thieves like she expected, began talking again. “By the sound of it, that group of bird like pokemon you saw was a flock of Dakureivun. I'm curious as to why there wasn't a Corvinight with the flock, seeing as they lead the flocks.” She said, but then continued on. “My name is Magnolia. I am more commonly known as Profesor Magnolia, though. Why are you kids here anyways?”

Both Ash and Lillie were surprised. They had been in the region for less than a day, and they have already met the professor, as well as learning the names of three new pokemon.

“Well Lillie, myself, and our pokemon were going to start a new journey here.” Ash said. He was going to continue talking, however, Nurse Joy called out his name. He got up and sped walked towards the front desk. There he saw a much happier, yet shyer Sobble. Not knowing what to do, he picked up the Sobble and walked back towards the group. Sobble, seeing Magnolia, jumped out of Ash’s grasp and ran (Wobbled?) over to her. Magnolia picked him up, and turned to Ash.

“Considering you two are starting a new journey, you are going to need a few certain things. Please do follow me back to my house.” Magnolia said. And that's exactly what they did. Five minutes later, they entered a grey house. They hadn't expected much, but were blown away by how beautiful the inside was. As they followed Magnolia, the pokemon- including Pikachu, Rotom, Snowy, and finally Rotom- ran off to play around somewhere in the house that looked a lot bigger inside compared to the outside.

As they were walking towards the kitchen table, they noticed a young orange haired girl by said kitchen table. She looked up and noticed that there were more people than she had expected. Putting down the sandwich she must have been making, she waved towards them.

“Hey Professor Magnolia! You got here awfully early, and with friends at that!” She said. Before anything else could be said, a crash and a thump could be heard from somewhere else in the house. Magnolia and the new girl shared a knowing look, and the girl walked off to the sound of the crash and thump, leaving behind a quiet room.

“So who was that?” Lillie eventually asked. She had her hands held as if holding an imaginary item. By the looks of it, she must have gotten used to almost always holding Snowy, which made sense.

“That was my assistant, Sonia. She helps me out around here, in which ive become a lot more limited on what I can do due to my age.” Magnolia said. She held up her cane which she had been using to put emphasis on it. Before anything else could be said, Sonia entered back into the room, with a few new things, as well as their pokemon. Two of the ‘things’ being two Pokemon, as well as two rectangular devices, one red, and one blue.

The first pokemon looked similar to a rabbit on two legs, with colors ranging from white to red to yellow. It had a small little bandage on its nose. The second pokemon was a little monkey with green to brown colors. It had a little twig that it was carrying. Then there was Sobble,Pikachu,Rotom, and Snowy.

“Sorry about that. It seemed these seven thought it would be fun to play tag in a room full of breakables.” Sonia explained. When Ash and Lillie heard that they broke stuff, they immediately apologized. Magnolia and Sonia claimed it was alright, and nothing important got broken.

“These two pokemon are called Scorbunny and Grooky. You already know Sobble. These three are the starters of the region, and im guessing you can already tell which is which type by their color schemes alone.” Magnolia explained. She then proceeded to hand them the rectangular devices. She handed Ash the red one, and Lillie the blue one.

“Don't lose those two items, they are your Pokedex.” Magnolia said, pointing at the devices. “Unlike other pokedexs, those act as phones as well. You can do pretty much anything a phone can with them,” she explained. The three starters ran over to Sonia, while Pikchu, Rotom, and Snowy ran (and levitated) to Ash and Lillie.

“Ah, judging by the clothes your wearing, along with that Alolan Vulpix, I’m assuming you came from Alola, correct?” Magnolia asked. When she saw them nod back, she continued on. “You don’t need that little orange buddy of yours to power these. However, you should try attaching the phone to a bike while its inside.” Magnolia said. She actually winked, which generally spooked the two humans a bit. What they didn't realize was that she was winking at Rotom, which was apparently a ‘universal sign’ of pranking in the trickster community. It did wonder how she knew that though.

They nodded, and put the phones into their back pockets. Magnolia then told them to stand up, which they did so. They followed her outside, with Sonia and the starters following behind. The starters, releasing what was about to happen, ran up ahead to get ahead of the people. They then stopped and turned around, looking up at the trainers.

“As you may know, everyone who starts their journey has a chance to get one of these three starters. After you two saved Sobble, I decided you would be perfect. So I’ve decided to allow each of you to choose one of these Pokemon to accompany you with your journey.” Magnolia said. She then stepped out of the way so the two trainers could decide. The only problem was that a certain Sobble got out of line and ran (wobbled?) over to Ash. By the looks of it, it had already chosen Ash. Ash, understanding, nodded.

“Seems I don't have to do the choosing. Seems like Sobble has already chosen me.” Ash said. He picked up Sobble, and held it up. While he did that, Lillie slowly walked towards the remaining two Pokemon.

It took her a minute or two, but she walked towards Scorbunny.

“If it’s alright with you, Scorbunny, I’d like to choose you.” Lillie said. Snowy ran over, and made a small nod like motion, as if it approved of her choice as well. What they didn't know was that Snowy would accept any Pokemon she chose, in which she trusted her trainer.

After around a few seconds, Scorbunny nodded, and held out its paw in a fist bump like motion. Lillie returned the action and picked him up.

“Also, if it’s alright with you, I'd like to nickname you Flame.” She asked, which Scorbunny (Now Flame) nodded to.

With both trainers holding their new Pokemon (With the three remaining Pokemon of theres nearby), they turned around and faced Magnolia. She nodded, and lead them back inside for a quick lunch before they would leave.

They entered the building, but before the making of lunch could begin, two purple haired boys (boy and man, actually) slammed open the door. This would probably be a headache.

Teams
Lillie: Snowy (Alolan Vulpix) (F), Flame (Scorbunny)(M)

Ash: Pikachu (M), Sobble (M)

Traveling with: Rotom (Genderless)

Chapter Text

“Hi Magnolia! Sorry for rushing in so quickly. Hop just really wanted to get started!’ the older purple haired man said. He was rather tall, wearing a cape, and also wore a black undershirt. There were so many colors on him to the point that it was actually a headache. Sponsor stickers could be seen on the back of the cape. Next to him, there was a purple haired boy who wore a blue jacket. A green phone could be seen in his back pocket.

“What did I say about barging in like that Leon! There’s a thing called knocking!” Magnolia said in a rather loud tone, obviously annoyed. The purple haired man put his hand up to the back of his head, and scratched it nervously, yet with a nervous smile on his face.

“Sorry about that Magnolia. I heard that this was the day my little brother, Hop would be starting his journey, so I came all the way from the league in a hurry.” Leon explained. Hop was by his side, seeming to be thriming with energy and excitement. Like them, he would be starting his journey as well. What a coincidence. “Also, who are these people? Did you finally decide to make friends Mag?” Leon jokingly said. It was obvious the two new each other by his voice.

“My names Ash! And over there is Lillie, Rotom, Pikachu, Snowy, Flame, and finally Sobble.” He said in one breath, pointing to the respective person/Pokemon. Pikachu had jumped onto his shoulder, with Sobble by his feet. On Lillies side, she was holding Snowy like she normally did, with Flame hopping around nearby, messing with the Grooky. Rotom on the other hand had been looking at Hop’s phone with a mischievous look. That probably wasn’t a good thing, but Hop didn’t seem to notice.

“Nice to meet you! My names Hop, and I’m planning to start my journey today!” he said, holding out a thumbs up. He had taken notice that Lillie and Ash must’ve already chosen Scorbunny and Sobble, but he was fine with that. He hadn’t wanted any one of the starters over the other, and was just happy to get one.

“Well then, I guess it’s time for you to get your starter. Ash and Lillie already chose Scorbunny and Sobble, so I’m assuming your fine with Grooky, correct?” Magnolia said, semi pointing at Grooky, who put out a grin, while looking at Hop.

“Yes! As long as Grooky would be alright with that. . . .” Hop said, looking over to Grooky. What he hadn’t realised was that she already accepted him as her trainer. Because of that, she ran over to Hop, which he proceeded to pick her up like Ash and Lillie had done.

Before anything else could be done, Leon stepped over to Hop, and nodded at Grokey, as if he approved.

“As a sort of test, how about we do a 2v2? Myself and Hop and Lillie and Ash. One pokemon each?” he suggested. They agreed which led them to heading out towards the local battle field. Thankfully, there was no one at the battle field, so they could immediately begin. A few towns-folk did come over to watch the battle, in which there wasn’t much action in the town.
Ash and Lillie stepped up onto the field, with Rotom, Snowy, and Pikachu watching from the battle benches. They sent out Sobble and Flame, who were excited to battle. Judging by their reactions, they probably hadn’t been in many battles recently, which made sense due to the fact they were starters. Leon sent out a small corgi like Pokemon, who had colors ranging from tan to yellow to lime green. It even had a small electric bolt looking tail. Ash took out the yellow phone and opened it up to scan the pokemon.

“Yamper, the Puppy Pokemon. Yamper are commonly seen fetching sticks and other items for their trainers.” the Pokedex read it aloud. It had a deep yet high pitch voice. Once it finished talking, it pulled up information such as the fact it was an Electric Type, its height, etc. The Yamper must be a newly caught Pokémon, if Ash were to guess. Hop obviously sent out his Grookey, which was the only Pokemon he had

Deciding to take the first move, Ash told Sobble to perform an Astonish on Yamper. Lillie, understanding that it was best to get Yamper out of there as soon as possible (Due to the type weakness), told Scorbunny to use Ember. The two attacks went towards Yamper, but went in two different ways. Yamper avoided Astonish, but got grazed a bit by the Ember.

The battle went on a lot like this. Towards the end, Grooky got knocked out by an Ember, but Flame had also fainted due to a Thunder Shock. The battle went on a little longer, but eventually ended in a tie between Leon and Ash, with both of their Pokémon fainting.

Once the battle finished, everyone returned the fainted Pokémon to their pokeballs and walked towards the Pokémon center. Surprisingly, the whole village was pretty chill about there being a literal champion in the town. It was probably due to the fact that Leon came here often to see Hop and Hop’s parents. Once they got to the Pokémon center, they gave the pokeballs to the Nurse Joy, who, with the help of a Chansey and a Pokémon they later learned was called Eldegoss, began healing their Pokémon. While they waited, the group sat down on some of the chairs that were inside the center. Snowy sitting on Lillies lap, Pikachu on Ash’s shoulder, and Rotom floating nearby. They talked and got to know one another, and so on. Eventually, they were called up to collect their Pokémon.

Ash and Lillie waved goodbye to them for the night, and stayed in one of the mini apartments the Pokemon Centers usually always had. Before they realised it, they had all fallen asleep. Snowy and Flame on laying on Lillie’s bed, and Pikachu and Sobble on Ash’s. Rotom had taken refuge in the small tv in front of the bed, which had not been used.

As fast as it had come, it became day. And with day coming, there was a knock on the door. Looking through the peephole, Ash saw it was just Hop. Leon must be at the families home somewhere in the village. He opened up the door, and all of Hop’s enthusiasm ‘ran’ into the room.

“I know I came here sort of unannounced, but I was thinking last night and wanted to ask you all a question.” Hop quickly explained. He was panting and out of breath, which led them to believe he literally ran from his house all the way here. He then continued on. “So I noticed that you two were already traveling with each other, and I was wondering if I could possibly join you guys?” he asked. He was prepared to get turned down (After all, he literally just met them yesterday), but got the opposite reaction.

“Sure! We already brought a few friends along with us, so why not add another? Did you already ask Leon and your parents?” Ash asked. He quickly got a nod from Hop, who seemed really excited.

Less than a minute later of talking, another knock could be heard. Once again, Ash looked through the peephole and saw Leon. He opened the door and noticed Leon was out of breath, and his cape had a few scratch marks on it. He’d have to ask later. He also noticed that Leon also ran the entire way. What was with this family and running across an entire village?

“Sorry for barging in, but I forgot to give you three something. You see, that battle yesterday was sort of like a test, and you guys passed.” He then held out his hand, which had three silver bands on it. Each one of the kids grabbed one, and proceeded to put them on. “Now, all I'll say is that those bands are incredibly important. If you meet the gym leader in the next town over, tell him I sent you guys.” Leon explained. What was with all these adults being so secretive about things? First Magnolia with the phone attached to a bike with Rotom in it, and then this.

Seeing as it was far too late to go back to bed, the three got ready for the day, and checked out of the room (at least Ash and Lillie did), and went outside. Deciding now was a better time than ever, they headed off towards Route 1 to officialy begin their journey.

Ash: Pikachu (M), Sobble (M)
Lillie: Snowy (F)(Alolan Vulpix), Flame(M)(Scorbunny)
Hop: Grooky (F)
Others: Rotom (Genderless)

Chapter Text

Deciding now was a good time, the group stopped halfway through the forest known as Route 1 to take a break. They had decided very quickly earlier that they would go through Route 1 instead of through the mountains that bordered the town. What they hadn't realised was how long the route was. They did, however, get to see a lot of Pokemon, new and old ones. They saw a flock of pidgey, a loveliness of Ledybug, as well as a herd of those sheep like Pokemon they had seen earlier. Ash had scanned them and learned they were a herd of Wooloo.

Setting out a rather big blanket of his on the ground, the group sat atop it, and began to eat some sandwiches that Hop’s parents gave them as a ‘goodluck gift’. The problem was that no one their really knew how to cook, so they would just have to rely on things such as sandwiches until one of them learns how to.

They continued to relax, and didn't even notice a certain dark colored raven like Pokemon come by their food. Without even a sound, it grabbed one of the small plastic baggies containing a turkey sandwich. It would've been a good catch, had the bag been open. Hopping a little ways away from the area, it began to peck at the bag, attempting to open it. What it didn’t realise was that one of the Pokemon from the group heard it. Pikachu’s ears shot up, and he looked over to the noise, seeing one of the bird Pokemon from earlier that had attacked Sobble. Now, he didn’t know if this specific one attacked Sobble, but that didn't matter in which it was stealing one of sandwich bags.

Not wanting to alert the bird that he knew it was there, he slowly crawled towards Ash. With a nudge of his head, he nudged Ash’s side, causing him to look down at Pikachu. Pikachu then pointed towards the small raven like Pokemon, whom had just tripped on its own talons trying to get the sandwich out of the bag. Ash, surprised, leaned a bit towards Hop and Lillie and tapped them. All three looked over at the bird. Lillie slowly reached into her bag and grabbed her phone, and scanned it with the volume down (with subtitles instead). The phone read off as followed.

Name: Dakurevun
Type: Dark/Flying
Classification: The Small Raven Pokemon.
Info: Dakurevun are flock pokemon that are often in flocks of around 20 other Dakureivun, and around 1-2 Corvinight. It is the preform of Corvinight.

The Dakurevun quickly realized that it was being watched, so it gripped the bag with the intact sandwich inside and attempted to fly off, with rather slow speed due to the extra weight.

Normally, Ash would let it fly off with the sandwich. The difference between then and now was that they only had a limited amount of sandwiches left, and were not willing to let them go to ‘waste.’ Seeing as it were attempting to make a get away, Ash yelled out for Pikachu to perform a Thunderbolt, which would hopefully leave the hanging bag in tact. The Dakurevun, whom did have much health due to its level, fainted almost immediately, causing it to fall from the air, crushing the sandwich under its 30 pounds worth of body and small metal pieces of armor.

Ash, getting an idea, scrambled through his bag and looked for something. Despite not being the smartest of the bunch, he realised it would be a good idea to catch the lone Dakurevun. Like normal, Team Rocket would probably follow him here like they always did, and so having a flying type would be a good thing to have around. Finding a normal pokeball that he had gotten from Magnolia earlier before they had left, he took it out. Pressing the button in the middle of the ball, he threw it at the fainted Dakurevun. The bird went in, and was successfully caught a few seconds.

Less than a few seconds later, he sent her out and sprayed her with one of the few potions they had. Now that she was back to full health, Ash was able to more about her personality, all while Hop and Lillie watch from behind him. The Dakurevun was a rather clumsy one as shown with all the tripping and falling before hand. Perhaps she had a problem causing her to have bad balance? They’d have to try and remember to bring her to the Pokemon Center in the next town to find out.

The group all sent out their Pokemon so they could meet the new team member. Unsurprisingly, Dakurevun seemed to not like Rotom or Pikachu due to the type advantage they had. However, she eventually warmed up to both, and became rather quick friends with them.

After around thirty minutes, the group decided to pack up and continue to keep walking in which it would be dark by the time they got to the next town judging by their pace. Due to the crampness of the path they were walking down, they returned all their Pokemon besides Pikachu, Snowy, and Grooky. Rotom was floating around above the group, probably keeping watch for anything suspicious.

Around an hour late, which had been filled with battles from random trainers, they managed to get to the exit of the route. What they were greeted with was a town, which was a lot bigger than the village they had been in. It wasn’t close to a city on the other hand. By a simple glance around the town, they could tell that the town really enjoyed plants and nature. With the moonlight ‘highlighting’ the trees and plants, it became a rather pretty sight.

Seeing as it was borderline pitch dark out (besides the moonlight), the group decided to check into the town’s Pokemon Center. Before they could even think about what they’d do in the morning, the group fell asleep. The Pokemon were in pretty much the same area they had slept last time, with the exception of the new Dakurevun. This included Pikachu and Sobble on Ash’s bed, Snowy and Flame on Lillie’s, and Grooky on Hop’s. Rotom had decided to take refuge in the Coffee maker instead of the T.V. for some unknown reason, and Dakurevun was perched atop a shelf attached to the wall. All that could be heard from the room was the snores from the group.

Morning came quickly, with the group waking up rather early. Deciding to explore, the group went out and wandered about the town. They, like in Route 1, saw some new and old pokemon. Ash took note about the diversity of the Pokemon in the town, and most likely the region.

They eventually stopped by the local Sawsbuck Caffe for a bite to eat. The humans ate their food while the Pokemon were chasing each other, along with other trainers Pokemon, in which they finished eating a while ago. Said Pokemon included a Wooloo, a Ledyba, as well as a differently colored Yamper. The rest of the Pokemon were the group’s, with the exclusion of Rotom and Dakurevun, in which Rotom was chilling in a lamp post, with Dakurevun perched atop said lamp post, looking around. She usually stayed in the forest rather than flying into town, so everything here was a new experience for her. She was also rather good friends with Rotom, which was another reason she had perched there.

Perched rather high up, she was able to see a rather tall man dressed in different greens and whites. Said man walked towards Hop, with a rather surprised face. The two probably new each other. The suspicion turned out to be right when the man held his arms out and hugged Hop. The pokemon tensed up, in which they hadn’t seemed to notice the two were friendly. Hop hugged back, and the man let go.

“Hey guys! This is Milo! He is a friend of my big brother.” Hop said. The Pokemon, realising that the tall man wasn’t attempted to game end Hop, calmed down. Dakurevun and Rotom stayed where they were, watching everything while the other Pokemon went to check out Milo.

“It’s nice to meet you! Say, how come you’re here with Hop? He usually only comes here with Leon.” Milo asked. It was true, in which the only time Milo had ever seen Hop without Leon was the one time they were planning a surprise party for Leon. It hadn’t been much of a surprise in which Leon had come back to the house.

“I’m actually on a journey with Ash and Lillie now!” He replied in a rather excited way. He pointed to each person respectfully. “And by your feet is Pikachu, Snowy, Flame, Grooky, and Sobble. In the lamp over their is Rotom, and the bird perched atop it is Dakurevun!” He said, also pointing to each one.

“Hi ‘lil guys.” Milo said, waving at the group by his feet, and the two by the lamp. “So you’re starting a journey, hm?” He asked. He noticed the bracelets on each of their arms. “Well, before you head onto the next town, you’re going to need to battle my gym.” He finished. He pointed towards his gym over on a hill nearby in the town. It looked a lot different compared to other regions, in which it was in the form of a dome. The group looked over and noticed that as well.

“Well, before you begin the challenge, you must learn how to use those little bracelets of yours.” Milo said, pointing at each of the bracelets. “So if you will, may you follow me, please?” He asked. Without waiting for an answer (He already knew they would follow him out of excitement and curiosity), he began walking to the stadium like gym they had seen earlier, with the trainers and Pokemon following behind.

“So first things first, you have to obviously be wearing those bracelets.” Milo began. They had made their way inside the gym, which was empty except for themselves and some workers that were finishing there shifts. The inside of the gym looked a lot like a soccer field (Which they believed was what the designers were going for), except it was a little bit bigger, there were no goals, and a battle field was made instead of the typical soccer field lines.

“Next up, you have to have the Pokemon you dynamaxing out, and also have its pokeball next to your bracelet. You'll notice both glowing, and when that happens, return the Pokemon you sent out” Milo explained. He sent out a Wooloo he had to show. The group backed away and watched as Milo put the Wooloo’s pokeball next to the bracelet. Both Wooloo and its pokeball began glowing. Milo returned the Wooloo. The ball continued to glow.

“And once you do that . . . Well, I’ll let you guys see for yourself.” Milo then proceeded to send out his Wooloo. Instead of seeing the small sheep like Pokemon, they saw a giant version of the sheep like Pokemon (who was almost as tall as the stadium itself). The Wooloo landed, causing a small shock wave to blow across the stadium. The stadium, which was probably built to withstand said shock waves, shook a tiny bit, and then went still like normal.

The kids all had ‘O’ like facial expressions, having seen something like this before. Noted, they had run into their fair share of big Pokemon, but nothing like this. This, unlike the other times, was a situation that could seemingly be done multiple times.

“Now, as you can tell, my Wooloo got a lot bigger. She now has stronger attacks, and can withstand a lot more now. However, she will only stay like this for around three turns, and will turn back to normal afterwards,” Milo explained. “This can be a big game changer during a fight. However, use it wisely. You can only perform a Dynamax -which is what us Galarians call it- once in a battle. Plus, there is a high chance your Pokemon will faint after it turns back to normal.”

As if on cue, the Wooloo turned back to normal, and hadn’t fainted due to not taking any other attacks. However, she looked incredibly fatigued, causing Milo to return her to her Pokeball.

“Now, there is a thing called Gigantamaxing. However, the gym leader you fight to get your fourth badge will explain how that works for you.” Milo finished.

Milo then led them to the local Pokemon Center to get his Wooloo healed up. Once Wooloo was healed, the group sat down at a table inside the Pokemon Center.

“I'm assuming you’re going to challenge my gym, correct?” Milo asked. When both Ash, Lillie, as well as Hop nodded, he continued on. “I’d suggest you wait a week and train. A part of the stadium has become a little to run down for my liking, so we were planning to spend the week fixing it. You can spend that time training if you wish.”

Deciding that was the best, the group waved goodbye to Milo, in which they were planning to do just that. Only a few days into their journey, and they are already so close to fighting there first gym battle. Thankfully triple battles were allowed in gyms, or it would take forever.

Ignoring that part, they began their training in hopes of beating there first gym.

Meanwhile . . .

“Are you sure we are even going the right way?!” a certain red haired female asked (almost yelled). “We have only been in this region, and I’ve only seen hills, sheep, and dog pokemon!”

“First things first, those are Wooloo and Yamper according to my pamphlet. And second of all, I’m sure we are going the right way! It says we are heading in the right direction!” a purple haired man replied. The both of them were wearing white jacket, and underneath said jackets a red ‘R’ could be seen.

Seconds later, the blue haired man almost fell when a sudden weight fell onto his left shoulder. Said weight happened to be a cat like Pokemon who reached for the map. The cat managed to grab the map and looked at it for a second.

“Of course we feel lost! This dumbwit had the map upside down!” The cat exclaimed, frustrated at the amount of time they wasted. Normally, people would question why this certain cat could talk, but the duo had sadly gotten used to it. Could he ever say something nice instead of insulting them?

“James!” The red head exclaimed, obviously upset. James on the other hand nervously scratched his head.

“Sorry Jes and Meowth, I thought I had it the right way. . . “

“Obviously not!” both Meowth and Jessie replied.

Suddenly, James stopped walking with a yelp, causing Meowth to almost fall off of his shoulder. Looking down, they noticed a certain dog Pokemon, whom was known as a Yamper according to what James had said earlier, biting at James’s leg, seemingly in an attempt to climb up it.

James obviously freaked out, like most would, which caused Meowth to fall off. Long story short, a game of ‘dog chasing cat’ began, and was only stopped by a pokeball hitting the Yamper’s head, which barely managed to not hit Meowth instead. Surprisingly, the Yamper didn’t come out, and was caught, which caused Meowth to let out a sigh of relief.

“You better keep that thing away from me!” Meowth all but yelled. Funny how things work. The cat chases the mouse (electric rat in this case), and the dog chases the cat. We will just have to see how this rivalry turns out. . . .

Ash: Pikachu (M), Dakurevun (F), Sobble (M)
Lillie: Snowy (Alola Vulpix) (F), Flame (Scorbunny) (M)
Hop: Grooky (F)
Traveling with: Rotom (Genderless)

Jessie: Yamper (M)
James: None
Traveling with: Meowth (M)

Chapter Text

“Ok Pikachu, Thunderbolt Dakurevun!” Ash yelled out. A mock battle had been set up on the village (Town?) battlefield. The mock battle was between Dakurevun and Pikachu. Although Dakurevun had the type weakness, she was able to take a few Thundershocks. Noted, Pikachu held back from going all out with his electricity, but it was the thought that counted.

They had been training for about a week now and had made considerable progress. Due to each person only being able to use one Pokemon during the fight (In which it would be a 3 v 3 fight), all three of them focused on training one of there Pokemon in particular. Lillie was focusing on Flame, Hop with his Grooky, and Ash with Dakurevun. The plan was to use Dakurevun for her flying type advantage, Flame for his fire type advantage, and Grooky in which Hop didn’t have any other Pokemon. They constantly fought each others ‘main’ Pokemon to learn about them so they’d have the ‘teamwork’ advantage.

Through their training, Dakurevun had managed to learn her first flying move which was the move Gust. Beforehand, she had only known Tackle and Feint.

Obviously, Pikachu was able to win through his battle experience and type advantage, but it was a pretty decent fight anyways.

This was what led Dakurevun being matched against a rather bored Rotom. Yes, it was happy that its traveling companions were training and getting stronger. However, due to its mischievous/hyper behavior, it got bored quickly. The match up made sense in which both Pokemon had an equal advantage (Electricity was strong against flying, but Dark was strong against Ghost, as well as both Pokemon only having a little bit of experience).

“Ok Dakurevun, hit him with a Feint!” Ash called out. Dakurevun proceeded to fly at Rotom, and flew next to it, but then turned at the last moment to hit it. However, Rotom flickered from the spot it had been at over to the side of Dakurevun. Before she could turn around, over even understand what had happened, Rotom shot out a Thundershock that hit on her side, near her wing. Thankfully Dakurevun was able to get up due to her training against Pikachu’s Thunderbolts, which was a much stronger attack.

Rotom, acknowledging this was a training round and not an actual battle, decided against not using its Thunderwave on Dakurevun. It then proceeded to stick with zipping around at speeds that only a Rotom would be able to go at and continuously do.

The semi injured Dakurevun watched as Rotom zipped around, waiting for Ash to call out the next move. Before Rotom could make its next move, Ash stepped forward.

“Ok guys, I think that's enough for now,” he called out. The two pokemon who had been battling flew/levitated over to Ash, and they went over to where the others had been sitting.

All the Pokemon were out, and had been watching the mini-battle, and went their own ways once it had finished. It seemed they all were playing tag by the looks of it. Once Ash had applied a potion he had bought to Dakurevun, Dakurevun and Rotom flew/levitated over to join. It was a very peaceful day.

They had been following that routine for the week and continued to do so until the gym was ready. They even practiced Dynamaxing, which had been an experience. To say that people of the town had come over to watch was an understatement. The three walked over to the gym and entered inside. Due to the gym leader personally inviting them over once the gym finished remodeling, they didn't have to set up a date for the battle. They were able to walk right in.

When they entered the gym field, they immediately noticed the fact that there were people in the stand seats, which was odd to Ash. In every gym he fought in, there was never a crowd in the stands. That is what had led him to believe the gym’s stands were for show. Judging by the number of people there, he assumed it might be a Galarian traditional. Pokemon and people of all shapes and sizes could be seen, making the crowd look like a blur of rainbow. They also noticed a certain grass type Gym Leader coming towards them.

“You guys like it? Hop, you already know this, but I should explain this to your buds. You see, it's a rather popular tradition in Galar to come and watch battles. It's especially popular among trainers, in which you can learn a lot just by watching.” Milo explained.

“Wow, that is amazing! In every gym I've fought in, no one ever shows up, unless a League member is fighting the Gym Leader.” Ash said.

And just like that, the two groups split up, Milo on the side closest to a rather big replay screen, and Hop, Ash, and Lillie on the other side. Besides the three Pokemon that were being used, the Pokemon watched from the sidelines by the field benches. Perhaps the gym is also a soccer stadium? It wouldn’t be very surprising.

Sobble, Snowy, and Pikachu were sitting on the actual bench with Rotom levitating a foot or so above them.

Milo then sent out the three Pokemon he would be using. The first Pokemon he sent out was an Eldegoss. The second pokemon that was sent out was unknown to them. The unknown Pokemon was an anthro sheep that looked very similar to the Wooloo the group had seen earlier last week while traveling. It had brown skin with bits of wool in different places. Small horns could be seen on its head. The last Pokemon that was sent out was a Roselia, which confused the group in which it was a non-Galar Pokemon. Of course non-Galar Pokemon could be used, it just confused them a bit.

Before anything started, the group pulled out there Pokedexes and scanned the sheep. They read the information the dexes gave them.

Species Name: Hitsuji
Species Classification: The Wooly Sheep Pokemon
Type: Normal/Grass-type

Hitsuji is the pre-evolution of Keunyang, and the evolved form of Wooloo. They are often seen in bigger Wooloo herds and are usually the second in command of said herds.

As they finished reading off the dex report, they watched as a referee walked over to the middle of the playfield and held there arm up, attempting to explain the rules. Once the crowd quieted down, he spoke into the microphone attached to his ref hat.

“This will be a 3 v 3 fight between the opposing team which is made up of the group’s Scorbunny, Grooky, and Dakurevun, and the defending team, which includes Milo’s Eldegoss, Hitsuji, and Roselia. The fight will end when all three Pokemon on one team is fainted or unable to fight,” the ref called. When both sides nodded, agreeing to the terms, the ref stepped back, signaling the battle can begin.

And just like that, it began. Milo immediately ordered his Roselia to send a leech seed over to the groups Pokemon while his Hitsuji formed a protect over both to protect them from Flame’s Ember. The Eldegoss, due to it not being the fastest, as well as not having the protect over itself, was unable to dodge a Gust sent its way by Dakurevun. Before the two out of the three kids could order the next move, Dakurevun and Scorbunny took Leech Seed damage.

Hop, seeing an opportunity considering Grooky couldn’t be affected by Leech Seed, ordered Grooky to Headbutt Roselia head-on. The attack landed in which the other two Pokemon of Milos were focused on attacking the temporarily downed opponents. Surprisingly, the Roselia seemed almost fainted. However, the Leech Seed health came to the grass type, healing some of the damage, but not all of it.

The fight continued like this for a while. All-out attack, Leech Seed damage, then Grooky attacking. The cycle broke when both Grooky and Roselia fainted in which Roselia attempted to trick the grass monkey by attacking last second. Although Roselia's Poison Jab hit, Grookys Headbutt hit too.

With both Pokemon fainted, the referee stepped forward onto the white line again.

“Both Roselia and Grooky are unable to continue.” He called out. Grooky and Roselia were returned to their respective trainer.

With Roselia being gone, the Leech Seed broke down on itself, causing Flame and Dakurevun to be free. Ash and Lillie called out to their respective Pokemon to preform an Ember and a Gust. However, they did not say who to aim for, causing Milo as well as his Pokemon to not known who was being attacked. The Hitsuji was unable to withstand both attacks, causing it to faint. Before it did, it sent out a Toxic aimed at Dakurevun, and it hit. The Hitsuji immediately fainted afterward. Dakurevun, who had already had a lot of damage on herself because of the Leech Seed, was somehow standing.

Milo, realizing he was close to losing, smirked. He then returned Eldegoss and held its Pokeball up to his Dynamax bracelet. The Pokeball began to glow and eventually grew like the Pokemon inside it would. Using both hands, he threw the Pokeball and out came an incredibly big Eldegoss. The Eldegoss landed, causing a small shockwave to appear, going in every direction. Both Flame and Dakurevun were able to dig their feet into the turf causing them to not go flying.

Lillie looked over to Ash. When she saw him nod, she returned Flame and did the same routine she saw Milo do. Next thing she knew it, Flame came out, except he was taller than the now big Eldegoss. Flame made sure to put a foot down to lessen the shockwave so that the incredibly weakened Dakurevun wouldn’t lose her footing (taloning?).

Lillie called out for Flame to send out an Ember at the Eldegoss. Due to Eldegosse’s size, it wasn't able to block the super-effective attack. The Eldegoss was also getting attacked from all sides with the help of Dakurevun. Before Lillie could call out for Flame to continue spamming Ember, Dakurevun fell from the sky, hitting the turf. The toxic she had been affected by was too much, causing her to faint. Before the ref could walk back to the white line, the Eldegoss shrunk back down, also unable to handle all the damage it had been hit with. The only Pokemon left standing on the field was the Dynamaxed Flame.

“Both Eldegoss and Dakurevun are unable to battle. The victore is the opposing side.” the ref called out. Once he called that out, Flame shrunk back down to his normal size and was just barely standing. Ash returned Dakurevun and Milo returned Eldegoss. Milo then walked over to the group who had walked over to the group of Pokemon by the benches.

“That battle was amazing! You guys deserve this.” Milo said, holding out his hand. In his palm were three grass themed badges. Each kid excitedly grabbed one, putting the badges in their bags which had been set down next to the benches. Once the kids got back over to Milo, he continued.

“I’m guessing you guys are going to be heading to good ol' Mackenna's gym, right? Her gym is about two days walk away from here, assuming you don't stop for anything. You'll know your there when you see the large buildings.” Milo said. Once they were out of the gym, leaving behind the few remaining citizens behind that were inside, the group said their goodbyes to Milo.

As they walked away from the gym, they walked towards the Pokemon Center, which would probably be the last time they'd see it, at least in this town. They handed over their injured Pokemon to the Nurse Joy, and she went into the medical room to heal the Pokemon.

The group, while waiting, planned out where to go next. Getting out a map, they decided to go through a rather large but open route called “The Wild Area”. It seemed to wrap around the big city that was home to Mackenna's gym, whatever type of gym that might be. If they were to guess though, it is probably a Steel-type gym, which meant they would have to catch some Pokemon that were strong against Steel types, which they hoped were in the Wild Area.

Eventually, the ding went off, signaling that the Pokemon who were injured were now healed. The trainers, as well as the Pokemon, went over to pick up the now healed Pokemon.

The group returned their respective Pokemon except for their partners. Snowy was picked up by Lillie, Pikachu on Ash’s shoulder, Grookey on Hop’s shoulder, and Rotom levitating nearby.

After buying supplies for the trip to the next town, the group left the Pokemon Center, waving goodbye to the Nurse Joy working.

The group walked towards the exit of the town and immediately noticed how open and big this ‘Wild Area’ was. They hadn’t gone near the area before so it was quite a surprise even though they had already seen it on a map. They also noticed the amount of in the area. All types from Grass to Dragon were roaming around, going about their daily duties.

The group knew they needed to catch a Pokemon each (except for Lillie) due to the fact they had nothing strong against the Gym Leader’s steel type Pokemon besides Lillie’s Scorbunny. Because of this, the group found themselves wandering around in a more forested area of the ‘route’.

As they were walking, they noticed a herd of Blitzle and Zebstrika walking through the forest in search of good grass. As the group was watching, they failed to notice that they had walked into a group of Pokemon’s territory. These Pokemon happened to be big and based off wasps. They were also very mad.

Less than a minute later the group found themselves being chased by a swarm of Vespiquen. Very, VERY angry Vespiquen.

Now in the open of the Wild Zone - somehow still together and not separated- the group faced the swarm, which consisted of three Vespiquen and many Combee. Ash, thinking quickly, held out his arm so Pikachu could hop off, and then called out a move.

“Pikachu, hit them with a Thund-” Ash got cut off halfway through in which one of the Vespiquen flew over and tried to sting him instead of Pikachu. The rest of the swarm did so as well, causing the group -both the swarm and the group of trainers- to go into a frenzy, adding no time for any of the Pokemon to send out a move.

Still getting chased around, the group got a breath of relief when they heard an unknown person call out a move.

“Rapidash, use Attract, and Ponyta, use Protect on their Pokemon!” the unknown person called out. The Rapidash, who looked quite different from the Kantonion version, sent out pink hearts in the direction of the Vespiqueen and not the Combee. The hearts swirled around the enraged Vespiqueen for a few seconds, and then took effect, making the Vespiqueen immobile. The extra ‘Attract Hearts’ burst into sparkles that would’ve looked rather pretty had they not just been chased by a swarm.

Not too long after that, the Combee stopped attacking once they noticed their leaders were not attacking. The Vespiqueen, in a dazed (love?) state, flew off slowly back to the forest with the Combee in tow.

The person and their two horse-like Pokemon walked over to the group who were catching their breath, making sure they were alright. The Ponyta’s Protect went down in a similar way to the Rapidash’s attract, so the group was able to get a better look at the person who probably saved them a visit to the hospital.

The boy, who looked to be a year or two older than them, had dark brown hair and milk chocolate-like skin. He also had sky blue eyes and wore a light blue and white jacket. He had a light blue phone poking out of his light blue backpack, presumably a Pokedex phone.

His horse-like Pokemon by his side were different than the Kantonion ones he knew. Apparently they had Galarian-Forms here, like the Alolan-forms in Alola.

The Ponyta, instead of having a flaming mane and tail, had a purple and blue mixed mane, and no tail at all. It had almost pure white fur as well with black hooves with more of the purple/blue fluff above said hooves.

The Rapidash had the normal form of a Kantonion Rapidash, except with more of the purple/blue fluff near its legs. It had the same mane as the Ponyta, but it had a purple/blue tail. White fur and black hooves accompanied it as well.

“Hey what’s your name?” Ash asked. After all, a random stranger had just saved them, and it would do good to know their name.

“Jan. These are my partners Cotton and Candy,” He said, pointing at the Ponyta first than the Rapidash.

“My name is Lillie, and this is Ash and Hop,” Lillie replied, pointing at the two. She then pointed at each Pokemon who was out, “That is Pikachu, Snowy, Grookey, and Rotom,” she said.

Cotton walked over to the Pokemon to greet them under the careful eye of Candy. The Pokemon greeted back as the people continued talking and greeting each other.

“So guys, what are you doing out in the Wild Zone?” Hop asked.

“I was practicing my coordinating routine with Cotton and Candy a little bit away. I heard the ruckus and came here. The rest you know.” Jan replied.

Eventually, they had to say goodbye to Jan in which they needed to continue their training/capturing for the next gym, and he had to continue practicing his performance.

Now that Jan was gone, they started to wander around the Wild Zone, more so exploring it then actually searching for Pokemon. They saw all kinds of species from Pidgey flocks to colonies of Noivern and Noibat. However, what caught their eye was a colony of Vibrava and Trapinch.

They knew that Steel Types are weak to Fire, Ground, and Fighting, which was why the colony caught their eye. Instead of just running in and attacking, they quietly ran a distance away and began to plan. Although Trapinch and Vibrava aren’t a serious threat, Flygon are and so they would have to first check and make sure there weren’t any Flygon nearby.

While Hop quietly walked over to check for any Flygon, Lillie and Ash began to plan. It wouldn’t be a good idea to use Pikachu or Rotom since both were electric types, even with Rotom’s levitate ability and Ghost typing. Instead, they decided on Ash and Lillie distracting the colony while Hop would find and battle one of the Trapnich.

Once Hop got back, reporting that there were no Flygon, they told him of the plan. With a Pokeball in hand and Grookey - as well as the Pokemon who would distract the Vibrava and the other Trapinch - the group walked over as quietly and quickly as they could.

A leaf dropped onto the ground, slowly. The dropper, who happened to be a Trapnich, sat down in an attempt to catch his breath. He, along with the other Trapinch, had been out scavenging all day to store up for the incoming cold weather, with the Vibrava staying behind to guard the nest against any enemy Pokemon.

Looking at the pile, he realized it wasn’t the best. Yes, there was a lot. However, the leaves and fruits were dull and looked as if they didn’t have many nutrients to them due to the Herbivore Herds passing through the Wild Zone. Any good leaves were usually gone by the afternoon when the herd passes through every year, which wasn’t very surprising.

The Herbivore Herd passing by was an event that most of the Pokemon in the Wild Zone attended. Every year the herds that lived near the Pokemon League would come down near Route 1 to avoid starving (They often ate up all the food in the plains they lived in). Herbivores ranging from the Zebstrika to Blistle to Venasaur would make the journey would pass through, eating up a lot of the plants in the Wild Zone, which made scavenging hard. However, the Trapinch/Vibrava colony was able to make do and were able to get back to the nest on time.

Slowly but surely, most of the colony entered into the burrow, leaving the group of guard Vibrava above ground. All was well in the colony until loud sounds and crashes could be heard above ground. The colony knew to get above ground so the Vibrava could use their Earthquake attacks, so they did just that.

In what would be an awe-inspiring sight, the colony piled out of the hill and joined the fight. Bursts of fire and wind were going out all around from the enemy Pokemon, as well as dirt flung around from the colony. Fainted Trapnich were lifted out of the way quickly by other Trapnich so they wouldn’t get stepped on during the fight. Before he could go help out, he got rammed into by a Headbutt from a Grookey, presumably one of the attackers Pokemon. Realizing he had the chance to defeat an invader, he got up and allowed his move Bide to begin. The person, oblivious to what the termite-like Pokemon was doing, continued using Headbutt and seemed to have learned a new move (Razor Blade? He wasn't versed in grass-type moves) because of it.

Once the Grookey attacked for the third time, the termite-like Pokemon rammed its glowing head into the Grookey, letting out three turns worth of damage onto the monkey. Somehow, the Grookey was still barely conscious. It had enough energy in it to let out another Razor Leaf onto the damaged Trapinch. Before he fainted, he was able to witness the amount of chaos the raid had made. He fainted and was immediately caught by the trainer’s Pokeball.

Ash: Pikachu (M), Dakurevun (F), Sobble (M)
Lillie: Snowy (Alola Vulpix) (F), Flame (Scorbunny) (M)
Hop: Grooky (F), Trapinch (M)
Traveling with: Rotom (Genderless)

Jessie: Yamper (M)
James: None
Traveling with: Meowth (M)

Chapter Text

Although it had been an hour, it felt like less than a minute when Trapinch was let out. Looking around, he noticed they were on the other side of the Wild Zone near the area the ghosts liked to call home. He also noticed how tired and out of breath the trainers looked.

What he didn’t know was one of the guard Vibrava had evolved amidst the fight, causing the trainers and Pokemon to have to run/fly/levitate as fast as they could once they found Hop and Grooky and book it anywhere that wasn’t the sandy area.

Trapinch felt rather sad. Although it's mainly the Vibrava’s job, he had essentially been tasked with defeating the Grooky without assistants due to the chaos and destruction going on. And although he was a higher level (only by around 2), he had still failed.

Before he could continue his thinking which had only been happening for around ten seconds, he felt a pair of hands wrap around himself and pull him up. Next thing he knew, he was getting hugged by the purple-haired kid. He looked over to his side and saw the Grouchy looking at him with an apologetic look, and mouthed an apology over fighting him. To the humans, it looked like Grooky was just whispering her name, but the Pokemon language was just weird like that.

He was then put down by the purple-haired human, and was introduced to their other Pokemon. There were Pokemon that were from this region as well as others. In the background, he could hear one of those phones reading something aloud with the phone pointing at him. He tuned it out and then greeted the Pokemon who came over to him.

Besides the odd-looking Vulpix (who he later learned was an ‘Alolan Vulpix’), he knew who the other Pokemon were because their species also lived in Galar. The trainers also introduced themselves, but all he could pick out from the words were their names. He probably should have joined Janet the Trapinch’s mini ‘people talk’ class, but that was in the past.

After some training in the Wild Area with some incredibly willing Machop and Tyrouges, the group packed up and went to the direction of the entrance to the city. What they didn’t account for were some snowflakes falling from the sky. Before they knew it, more and more started pouring down to the point it was no longer considered a flurry, but instead a blizzard. Lillie pointed out a cave in the side of a rather large hill, which the group immediately ran for.

Almost tripping in their running (none of them wanted to get frostbite, after all), they managed to reach the cave just in time. Looking out of the cave, they noticed hail starting to come down which would have hurt had Lillie not pointed out the cave. Taking off their soon to be soaking hats, they sat down and rested. In some way or luck, there happened to be some sticks and branches in the cave they could use to start a fire. Before they could do so, Ash felt Pikachu poke his side. Looking down at Pikachu and then in the direction the Electric Mouse was pointing, he noticed multiple pairs of eyes. Hop and Lillie noticed this as well.

While staring into the dark, their eyes eventually adjusted and saw that the eyes were Pokemon instead of monsters.

Both groups stared at each other, anticipating the other's movements in intense silence. Before anything could be done, a small sheep Pokemon started waddling towards the humans. Surprisingly, the little sheep was not a Wooloo but was, in fact, a Mareep, a young one at that. It waddled over to the group, and with the tension dying down, the Pokemon calmed down a bit.

Before anything could be done, a small white and green Pokemon with little red leaves on its neck walked out of the crowd. The standing Pokemon moved to the side, signaling that the small Pokemon was the leader of the mixed herd, or was at least a higher up. Getting a better look, the group immediately recognized the Pokemon as a Shaymin in its Sky Form.

“What are you here for?” the Shaymin asked. It had a child-like voice, but its voice was serious as well. Just by looking at the Shaymin, they could tell it was a lot older than most in which it had toned down colors and its red leaves seemed to be a bit wrinkled. They didn’t doubt its ability to fight, especially Ash, who had seen the power of Mythical Pokemon before.

“A Blizzard just came out of nowhere, and we ran here for shelter. We didn’t mean to interrupt your migration” Hop explained, being the only one who knew why all these Pokemon were cramped in the small cave.

The Mareep waddled back -barely staying on its four legs without falling- and went towards its mother, a Large Amphoros who was one of the Pokemon laying down. Whether it knew what was going on or not was a different subject.

Seeing how Hop knew more than they did, the group aloud Hop to talk for them. Although they could never hope to take on both a Mythical Pokemon and an entire herd of Pokemon, their Pokemon stayed by their sides, ready for if a battle broke out.

The Shaymin nodded to the reply and went back into the group where some fully evolved Pokemon were, and started talking to them in hushed whispers, debating on what to do with the intruders. On one hand, it and the rest of the herd could take them on. On the other hand, most of the Pokemon were still weak from the early births, both the younglings and the mothers. But then again, having a group of humans nearby for the night, or at least until the Blizzard ended could prove useful against any carnivores, especially the Bolthound pack that had been terrorizing them for fun rather than survival.

While the Pokemon debated, the trainers sat down a little bit away from the herd, while also staying away from the cold winds. Lillie handed over the firewood sticks they had found over to Ash who had a lot more experience in starting campfires. With the fire going, the cold in the cave slowly started to dissipate to the small bits of wind that came from outside the cave. The Shaymin had finished its debating with the elder Pokemon, and walked near the fire and lay down. Some of the smaller and younger Pokemon came over by the fire, laying down on and around the group. Because Shaymin trusted the people, the parents and elder Pokemon came over as well. Colors of all different kinds were there.

With the fire swirling around until it fell into a dull one, the herd fell asleep, along with the trainers. Night approached, and the trainer’s Pokemon were laying in all sorts of places. Pikachu and Sobble were laying next to Ash, and Dakuraven and Rotom had found a nook to lay in, with Rotom keeping it’s plasma low to not wake up the others, and Dakuraven laying next to it.

Next to Lillie was Snowy, along with Flame who was laying in between a group of young Tropious, keeping them warm in which they had no fur to help keep themselves warm.

And by Hop was Grookey, along with Trapinch, who had buried himself in the ground to sleep. Laying up against Hop was a young Deerling and a young Shroomish who were using Hop's body heat to warm up along with the dying fire, with their parents nearby watching. The fire slowly died away as it hit midnight.

As the morning rays hit the inside the cave, movement could be heard. As the trainers all woke up, they took notice of many things. One of the first things being the mother Pokemon and their children grazing or searching for berries. Another being Shaymin with the elder Pokemon, probably planning the next route for their journey.

Deciding to get ready for the day quickly so they can say goodbye to the herd in time. They changed (asking others to look away) and got their stuff together. At some point, Dakuraven and Rotom had come out of their sleeping spot to join them, and Trapinch unburied himself as well. Deciding now was the best time, Ash walked over to Lillie and Hop who weren’t very far away.

“So Hop, why are all these Pokemon here? I’ve seen small herds before, but this is a lot!” Ash said. The Pokemon who weren’t from Galar came over, curious as well. The Galar Pokemon came over to the group anyways.

“You haven’t heard? This is the remaining Pokemon from the Great Migration! There are usually more though . . . “ Hop trailed off. He had come to the Wild Zone once before with his family to watch once, but that was about it, besides the occasional short documentary.

Shaymin, having been eavesdropping on the strangers, floated over to them.

“That is due to the late births. The rest of the herd had to move on before the blizzard got here, leaving the mothers and their offspring behind” Shaymin explained. It pointed over at a Ribombi and her young as an example. The Cutiefly must’ve only just learned to fly, and would not have been able to keep up with the rest of the herd. Seeing that it had made its point, Shaymin waved goodbye, and went back to the herd, probably to gather them up for their departure now that the blizzard had subsided. Although it was an abrupt departure, it made sense for it to want to leave already.

The suspicion was confirmed when one of the elder Pokemon, a Gogoat, let out a loud call, and the adults of the remaining herd walked towards Shaymin and the elder Pokemon, leading the younger Pokemon with them.

In the distance, barking could be heard, meaning the Bolthound pack had heard as well. Deciding that it was not their place to defend the herd, the group packed up. Sobble, Flame, and Dakuraven returned into their Pokeballs, with Pikachu, Rotom, Snowy, and Grooky being with the group.

With their bags packed and all their Pokemon and Pokeballs in check, they continued through the Wild Zone. When they got to the gate that would lead into Hammerlocke, Pikachu looked back, and with his better eyesight, saw the remains of the hunt. Two Bolthound lay motionless on the ground, along with a Kangaskhan and Leafeon. The herd was long gone while some of the Bolthound mourned over their fallen comrades, and the rest got to eating. Mandabuz circled above, waiting for the dogs to finish so they could swoop in.

Looking ahead, on the other hand, was a giant metal building, presumably the gym. Excited for what the day would bring, they continued walking, entering Hammerlocke.

Down below the city were a group of people and Pokemon. On one of the groups, uniforms were the letter “R”, while the other had mixes of colors spanning from white to black to bright pink. You may expect the Team Rocket side to consist of Jessie, James, and Meowth. However, twelve other agents, higher leveled grunts were there as well. The other group, who call themselves “Team Yell”, consist of around thirty members, easily outnumbering the Team Rocket grunts. However, a third of the Team Yell members had lower-level Pokemon.

The teams were in the shape of a circle, with a large piece of paper in the middle, which was easily the size of the average adult human. On it was lines pointing at various places around the Hammerlocke Gym. The lines pointed at many backdoor entrances, the front entrance, and much more. After a few more minutes of planning, the strongest member of the Team Rocket group, a man whose name is Daniel, shook hands with the strongest member of Team Yell’s side, Gannett. Then the two groups left, heading off somewhere else in the city until the battle began.

Ash: Pikachu (M), Sobble (M), Dakuraven (F)
Lillie: Snowy (A. Vulpix) (F), Flame (M)
Hop: Grookey (F), Trapinch (M)
Traveling with: Rotom (Genderless)

Jessie: Yamper (M), Wobbuffet (M)
James: None
Traveling with: Meowth (M)

Chapter Text

Entering the city, they immediately noticed a large crowd in front of the most likely gym. They also noticed a certain orange-haired woman by the name of Sonia. They ran over, avoiding the members of the crowd, getting over there as quickly as they could.

Once they were there, Ash tapped Sonia on the shoulder and she turned around, jumping a bit.

“Sorry about that! I just didn’t expect to see you guys so early. How come you’re in Hammerlocke? I would’ve expected you guys too of gone to Nessa's gym next if you already beat Milo.” Sonia said. If she hadn't seen the group in a while, so she automatically assumed they had already taken down Milo.

“We were planning to take on the gym here. We spent time in the Wild Zone training, so we think we are ready. Hop even caught a Trapinch to help take down any of the gym leader’s Steel types.” Ash explained. What he hadn't realized was all that training was about to go down the drain.

“Steel types? Raihan is a half Dragon-type user. Unless you are thinking of his Duraludon? And besides, you can’t even challenge him until you have all the badges, besides the one you get from beating him.” Sonia explained.

The group was in shock, to say the least. Ash pulled out the map and checked the legend. Sure enough, they misread ‘Dragon’ as ‘Steel’.

“Well, that was a big slip up. . . but anyways, what are you doing here? Unless you are here to watch the gym battle?” Lillie asked.

“I was actually here for two things, one being the battle because Raihan rarely battles because hardly anyone makes it this far into the challenge. The other thing was that I was looking into info about Zacian and Zamazenta,” Sonia explained. Realizing the group didn’t know who those two Pokemon were, she continued, “I can explain who those two are after the battle. I have a feeling you’ll love the legend” she said.

The group nodded, excited to hear the story along with getting to see the gym battle. Sonia led them into the entrance of the building. A lot of people were in the area, attempting to get in. People of many shapes and sizes, along with different types of looks. There was a small sketchy looking group in a corner with a black and pink color scheme, but the group continued.

The line went by fast once the guards at the entrance of the stadium field started letting them. When they got to the front, the group was handed goggles and were instructed to wear them to make sure they’re eyes wouldn't get hurt for some reason. When they asked about it, Sonia simply replied, “You’ll see”.

They put them on themselves and proceeded to put goggles on the Pokemon who stayed out. Sonia put a set of goggles over her eyes as well as her Yamper's, who had appeared out of nowhere, most likely just let out. Quickly walking into the stadium’s seating section, they got into some open seats before anyone could steal the spots in which the stadium was rapidly filling up. With Snowy on Lillie’s lap (with Rotom floating above Lillie), Pikachu on Ash’s shoulder, and Grooky sitting on Hop’s lap, they wait, with Sonia sitting next to Hop reading a book about Water types, they waited.

Thankfully, the stadium’s seating area was about done filling up with people, and just in time in which both the challenger and the Gym Leader walked out. The challenger walked out, and the group was able to get a better look at them. He had pale skin, along with a red jersey shirt with dark black shorts. His jersey's number read ‘029’. He also wore a black beanie with red stripes on it. No hair could be seen, and he seemed to have bright red eyes, most likely colored contacts.

On the other side, an incredibly tall man walked out, presumably Raihan. He had a Pokeball in each hand, as well as a Rotom Phone floating around him, showing him something that couldn’t be seen. Whatever it was got a laugh out of the gym leader.

He had dark skin paired with an odd-looking orange hat, which had dark black spikes sticking out of it. He wore a dragon-themed hoodie and blue shorts with the gym's logo on them. The Rotom Phone floating around him - who’s most likely video finished - had a red phone case with bright blue eyes, almost matching Raihan's own eyes.

Both groups reached the middle, exchanging words before they reached out shaking hands. Moving out to their respective sides of the field, they turned around and watched as the referee walked out to the middle of the field and announced the terms. The ref raised his hand up once he reached the middle and spoke into the microphone.

“This is a 2 on 2 Double battle. Substitutions are allowed, items that heal are not, including Pokemon held in Heal Balls. Let this be a fair battle” the ref finished. Nodding to the two, he walked out of the middle back to a group of other referees who were there for extra help making sure there was no cheating.

Once the referee was out of the field, the two people immediately through out their Pokeballs out. The challenger, who was named Tharrow apparently, sent out a Talonflame and a Centiscorch. Raihan throughout his Pokeballs, which revealed a Gigalith and a Flygon. Gigalith’s ability triggered, which sent out a massive Sandstorm that swarmed and blew around the field. That was most likely why they were given goggles to wear. Tharrow and Raihan were fine though for some reason. They were close to each other as well, making it easier to see.

“Talonflame, charge up and Centiscorch, use Protect!” Tharrow called out. Talonflame opened its beak revealing a green light building up and growing brighter. Centiscorch quickly formed a force field in front of Talonflame which seemed to be a pointless move. On Raihan’s side, Flygon was performing a Dragon Dance, and Gigalith sent out Stealth Rocks which would prove to be deadly against a Fireteam. With Centiscorch no longer having the protect up, it gave the perfect opportunity for Flygon to rush forward with glowing claws, Dragon Claw, and slash Talonflame across the face, effectively causing its Solar Beam to dissipate into nothing. Talonflame held on but was damaged from the sandstorm along with the Centiscorch.

Any call outs the two made became only whispers as the sand storm started to grow in power. However, the battle was clear to see to those wearing the goggles.

The ground began to shake with an Earthquake forming. With Flygon and Talonflame flying, Centiscorch was left on the ground as a part of the battleground rose and slammed into it. The Earthquake subsided, leaving Centiscorch fainted. Returning it, Tharrow sent out a Houndoom as the crowd cheered and yelled from the knockout.

As the Houndoom landed, it hit some of the Stealth Rocks that were floating around, take it down to more than half of its health. The sandstorm pecked away damage from both Talonflame and Houndoom, with Houndoom having more than half of its health taken away.

Raihan, who had the obvious upper hand compared to the flabbergasted challenger who couldn't catch up with what was going on, called out an unheard moving. The Gigalith reared up as much as its large rocky body could, and slammed back down with its front legs, causing the area around Talonflame to rise and grab it, making a perfect SandTomb. As quickly as he could, Tharrow called out a move for Houndoom to make, but it was too late in which Flygon flew down to the ground on command and made its own Earthquake, damaging Gigalith to a third of its health, but most importantly fainting Houndoom and the downed Talonflame who were completely defenseless to the power Ground-type move.

Tharrow returned his Pokemon, frustrated over not even landing any damage on Raihan’s Pokemon. The only damage that had been done was the Earthquake onto the Gigalith, but his Pokemon weren’t even the ones who had done the job. The sandstorm subsided as Raihan returned both Flygon and Gigalith. Now that the sandstorm was gone, Raihan could be heard again.

“This has been a good battle so far!” Raihan called out, wiping out stray sand that was left in his eye. He reached into his side pocket, taking out a Pokeball and nodded to the Rotom Phone floating about, who had somehow not gotten blown away during the sandstorm.

Back in the stands, Hop was doing some fanboying, much to the people around him annoyance.

“You see that? That’s Raihan for you! Did you know he’s my brother’s rival? That’s how Tharrow hasn’t landed a hit on his team!” Hop exclaimed. Ash, on the other hand, was going full analyzation mode. After all, this would be the final leader they’d have to face, and they would need to train hard so they could actually land a hit when the time came. So far they knew he had a Flygon and a Gigalith, so the gym wasn’t entirely Dragon, rather than a strategic with most likely three dragons in it. Judging by how Raihan nodded at his Rotom, that meant it was the next Pokemon up along with a Dragon-type.

Before Tharrow or Raihan could send out their next Pokemon, Raihan got hit right in the neck by something, which came from behind him. Another one hit Tharrow as well before he could react. They stayed up for a moment, with them both taking the things out of their necks, and then fell over, causing a panic in the crowd. Raihan’s Rotom, realizing what would happen next with its much better reflexes and speed, exited the phone which was shattered by a, what they could now tell was a dart, less than a second later. Out in the open, it could be seen wearing goggles under its head, most likely so that it could fight without getting damaged from Sandstorm.

Ash, getting over his surprise, looked over to where the three darts were shot from. On one side of the stadium seats, the area behind Tharrow sat three members of the group they had seen earlier, still wearing the clothes of their color scheme he had seen earlier. Looking to the other side, he noticed some… Team Rocket Grunts? Why were they in Galar?

“I don't know what those people are doing here, but we need to get them out of here before they cause any real damage,” Ash said. He pointed over to the Team Rocket Grunts and Lillie and Hop ran over to deal with them, while he started to make his way over to the unknown grunts. Sonia ran out of the gym to alert the city’s police.

When he got over there, the grunts, who had still been aiming the darts at Raihan’s Rotom, turned around in surprise at someone trying to attack them. Pikachu jumped off of Ash’s shoulder, with Rotom floating nearby, and he sent out his remaining Pokemon. The grunts, in turn, put down their bloat darts and sent out their own Pokemon.

With Lillie and Hop taking on the Team Rocket Grunts, Raihan’s Rotom was given enough time to go over to the unconscious Raihan. It floated to his side, and when it saw one of his Pokeballs, it used its head spike to click the button on said Pokeball, sending out Raihan’s Dragapult. He, like Rotom, wore safety goggles on his neck. Seeing the commotion going on, he exchanged an unknown word with Rotom and then flew off to one of the entrances to the actual field where the remaining Rocket Grunts and the unknown Team Grunts were piling out of.

Seeing how well it worked, Raihan’s Rotom hit the other Pokeball button with its head spike, sending out Raihan’s Duralodon. Doing the same to the rest Raihan’s Pokeballs revealed and sent out his Flygon, Gigalith, and Sandaconda, whom all went to fight off the grunts (Which would be a very easy fight for the Pokemon). Hyper Beams, Dragon Breaths, and so on shot out from different places. A smaller Sandstorm formed over there courtesy of a certain Gigalith.

Over on Hop and Lillie’s side saw a battle. Flame and Grooky were fighting the grunts Voltorbs and Toxicroaks.

Toxicroak formed poison in its mouth, and sent it at Flame, performing a perfect Toxic. Despite the poison, Flame spat out an Ember at the Toxicroak while Grooky ran over and used his new move, Protect, and put himself in front of the rabbit-like Pokemon. As expected the Voltorb uses Self Destruct. With Grooky and Flame protected, the Toxicroak took the bulk of the explosion, as well as the Ember damage, fainting it. With the Voltorb weak, it wasn’t able to protect itself when both and Ember and a Branch Poke was sent its way.

With the two grunt’s Pokemon down, the final grunt who held to blow dart gun was unable to avoid his gun getting Embered into nothing. All three grunts ran off somewhere else in the stadium, but with their Pokemon fainted and the dart gun destroyed, they wouldn't be much of a problem. Before they could run over to Ash on the other side of the stadium seating, Flame was enveloped in a bright blue light. The rabbit Pokemon’s form could visibly be seen changing, and when the light went away. In the small rabbit’s place was a much taller one. It was still a white anthro rabbit, but now it had something that looked like a black hoodie on, and an orange scarf tucked into the neck hole peeking out. It also has a yellow stripe across its forehead.

Lillie quickly took out her phone and scanned him, seeing he was now a Raboot.

“You evolved Flame!” Lillie exclaimed, happy for him. Flame took an arm out of his hoodie and raised it with an unseen smile. They couldn’t dwell on it right now though, so they ran across the stadium seat section over to Ash.

Back on the field, Raihan’s team split up into two teams they were set up to be in. Flygon with Gigalith, Rotom with Dragapault, and Duralodon with Sandaconda.

Flygon set up Dragon Dances while Gigalith spread out Stealth Rocks across the field. With all of Raihan’s Pokemon out on the field, they didn’t have to worry about the Stealth Rocks, and with Rotom and Dragapault holding Safety Goggles, they didn’t have to worry about Gigalith’s Sandstorm which would last enough turns to finish the fight.

Over on Rotom and Dragapaults side of the fight was filled with Confuse Rays, Thunder Waves, and Shadow Sneaks. With Rotom Confusing and Paralyzing the grunt’s Pokemon, and Dragapault being hidden in a Shadow Sneak most of the time, they were unhittable.

And finally, on Duraladon and Sandaconda’s side, Sandaconda paralyzed the opponents with Glare and trapped them with Wrap, allowing Duralodon to land heavy Steel-type moves that crushes the opponent. It wasn’t as effective because Duraladon couldn’t Gigantamax without Raihan being awake. However, they still swept the grunts away.

Rotom paralyzed another Pokemon, and while waiting for Dragapault to come back up out of his Shadow Sneak, he looked around the field. Duraladon had taken down many Pokemon, someone was standing over Raihan, trainers were fighting the grunts on the stan- It took a look back over at the unconscious Raihan and saw a tall man standing over him with a piece of sharp metal in his hand. What do humans call them? Daggers? The man has pure white hair that stood up high, and he wore a black trench coat. White stripes were on the back of the coat with a white ‘R’ above the lines. When the man held up the shiny metal, it realized now was probably a good time to attack the man. It charged up a Shadow Ball and sent the packed energy at the man's back.

The energy hit, causing the man to fall over when a mini-explosion formed at the impact. Breathing heavily (after all, he just got shot in the back by a charged up Shadow Ball from a Pokemon who was apart of the Champion’s Rival’s team), he got up and a grunt who wore a white, non-trench coat version of what the man wore ran over to help him away. Probably broke some ribs, because humans weren’t as resilient to damage like Pokemon were. With the man away from unconscious the Gym Leader, Rotom levitated back over to Dragapault who had cleared their part of the fight but made sure to keep an eye on its trainer.

Back over to Ash saw fainted Pokemon with electricity sparking around them, courtesy to a certain mouse Pokemon. By the time Lillie and Hop got over there, the battle was already over.

However, it looked like Dakuraven had evolved into a Corvisquire amidst the battle. Now she was bigger and had blue and black feathers along with yellow fluff by her eyes.

“You got the grunts?” Ash asked.

“Yea, their Voltorb did the majority of the work though by Self Destructing, but guess what? Flame evolved!” Hop said, while he pointing over at the newly evolved Flame. Flame waved and then put its paw back in its hoodie.

Due to the battle, they had been too distracted to check on the field. In its wake was a sight to see. Fainted Pokemon were getting returned, and as the Sandstorm disappeared, they were able to get a better view of things. They watched as a Team Rocket grunt helped a limping Rocket member get out of there. With both team’s Pokemon fainted, as well as what they guessed was one of the leaders of the Team Rocket team, both teams made a quick getaway.

With the stadium being almost empty, the group ran over to stairs that led down to the field and ran over to the two unconscious bodies. Hop and Lillie helped carry Tharrow’s body, and Ash -with the help of Raihan’s Pokemon- dragged Raihan’s body. By the time they got the two bodies over to the benches, the police finally arrived.

The police officers got down to where they were and took the two bodies away for medical examination in case anything was wrong with them (except for the whole unconscious part).

They were ushered out of the building along with Raihan’s Pokemon so evidence could be collected, and in front of them was a mess to be seen. Burn marks and scratch marks were all along the walls and ground of the entrance as if a mini-war broke out. Perhaps that’s what took the police so long. How many grunts had been there was unknown, but it looked like a lot. How many did they have?

Out of the corner of his eye, Ash saw Sonia walking over to them. She had probably been looking for them. She spoke when she got there.

“I found you guys! What are you doing here with Raihan’s Pokemon?” she asked.

“We were waiting to see if you'd come back here instead of us searching over the entire town for nothing,” Ash explained, “Plus we didn’t want to leave them out here alone, so we just stayed here” he finished, pointing at the Pokemon. Once the two people woke up and were checked, they’d come back to the Stadium, so they would wait there.

“Ah, I see,” she said as she put the bag she had been carrying down since they would be there for a while.

And they were there for a while indeed. Around three hours later, they saw Raihan running over, and no sight of Tharrow which made sense because he hadn’t left anything in the Stadium.

“Hey guys! I’m back!” he yelled out to his Pokemon who ran/flew over to him. This wouldn’t have been a problem had he didn’t have his Gigalith who broke the tiles of the ground as it ran over. After all, 570 pounds did that to you sometimes. He got tackled to the ground by the Dragon and Ground-type Pokemon with Rotom and Gigalith stayed back as to not hurt him.

Getting up, he faced the group and immediately noticed Sonia.

“Sony! How’s it been? Who are these friends of yours?” He asked, talking about the Ash, Lillie, and Hop. He was much taller than he looked on the field and easily towered over them.

“Don’t you ‘Sony’ me Mr., you were just attacked!” Sonia said in a tone the kids hadn’t heard her use yet. Apparently, they knew each other. Perhaps they traveled when they were younger like they were, or maybe they went to school together or something.

“It’s fine! I wasn’t hurt!” Raihan said with a smile while backing away slowly from the angry Sonia.
“Only because your Rotom got your other Pokemon out of their balls! What would have happened if it hadn’t done it?” Sonia yelled. Yelling was unnecessary with most people, but with Raihan, it felt as if yelling was the only thing that worked to get a situation through his thick head. “You need to be more serious! Just-” she cut her sentence off, “Ash, Lillie, and Hop, I have to deal with a certain knucklehead. Do you see that tall tower over there? Go into it and head up the stairs and wait there, I’ll be up there in a little bit,” she finished. She dragged off the much taller man by the ear leaving the kids alone on the empty path.

Today was something all right.

Ash: Pikachu (M), Corvisquire (F), Sobble (M)
Lillie: Snowy (F)(A. Vulpix), Flame (M)(Raboot)
Hop: Grookey (F), Trapinch (M)
Traveling with: Rotom (G)

Jessie: Yamper (M), Wobbuffet (M)
James: None
Traveling with: Meowth (M)

Chapter Text

I'm super sorry, but I have decided to cancel this story.

This story started when I had been thinking of possible things for the Galar Anime. The idea kept flowing in my head, so I decided to write about it. I wrote the chapter out of fun, not expecting to get the attention the story has now (Thank you for 1500 hits!). As I kept writing, the story became more of a chore to me than for fun, and as of the last chapter, I'm just not really enjoying writing this story. Plus, there are so many mistakes in this because I had written half of this before the game came out. I took a month break, and I realized how much I enjoy not writing this story. This is why I've decided to cancel this story.

To everyone who has bookmarked, kudoed, or even just read this story till now, thank you so much. Writing this story has improved my writing so much, and I'm now able to type more compared to my last story. But all things must come to an end.

This is my decision, so please don't be mad in the comments. I'd really appreciate it.

Have a good day!